Game News Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord remake now available on Early Access

[luj1]

Would not have expected a remake of the very first Wizardry. Interesting...

the japanese did a Wiz 1 remake in the 90s

its called Lylgamyn Saga

and its 10x better than this shovelware

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

As to dos are you using dosbox-x? I believe it has a save-state feature on it. I know all the emulators do so, one could test if the randomness of it changes each time you load your save-state thrn level up. Record the stat gain/loss and hp gained.



2? I swore I managed 3 one time.

 

[Rincewind]

As to dos are you using dosbox-x? I believe it has a save-state feature on it.

It does, but it's flaky as fuck. But should be enough for testing this, it's a simple game (in terms of how it uses the hardware).

 

[luj1]

Soulless. What's the deal with indies/small devs and semi-cartoony graphics?

"so much soul wow"

at least you could use your imagination

something bums like you dont have, so they made you cheap chinese mobile graphics

 

[Jrpgfan]

Soulless. What's the deal with indies/small devs and semi-cartoony graphics?

"so much soul wow"

at least you could use your imagination

something bums like you dont have, so they made you cheap chinese mobile graphics

I'm sure you use your imagination a lot.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

A remake of Wizardry and also Jaesun posts again! Gives me a little hope for the incline.

 

[Viata]

Oh look, it's another dev taking something I love and introducing Cancer into it.

Soulless. What's the deal with indies/small devs and semi-cartoony graphics?

"so much soul wow"

Yes, a lot of soul. Pure nostalgia.

 

[Viata]

Cool, I've always wanted to play the first Wizardry game.

Is your computer so old it can't run Wizardry 1? Not even all those ports, both for computer and consoles? That is sad.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Cool, I've always wanted to play the first Wizardry game.

Is your computer so old it can't run Wizardry 1? Not even all those ports, both for computer and consoles? That is sad.

I'm working with sticks and lemons on copper wires, sir.

 

[Mortmal]

$29.99?!?! Look, I know nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but this is insane.

Not insane, this will sell 500 copies at the very best. Even if its low effort there's a team to pay.

 

[Daemongar]

$29.99?!?! Look, I know nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but this is insane.

Not insane, this will sell 500 copies at the very best. Even if its low effort there's a team to pay.

No. Pricing anything is a fine art. You are saying they'll make $15,000 (at most.) How much were the legal rights to Wiz 1 to begin with?
I doubt they entered into this with a vision to lose money.

Charge $10-15 to get people to try it out, help with the Alpha/Beta versions. Once the engine is solid, then add on Wiz 2, Wiz 3, Wiz 5, etc - all for around $15-20 each. People already invested 50 hours in Wiz 1 and want to move the same party on. They can use the same engine, only add refinements.

Yes, I'm saying they should follow The Bard's Tale Trilogy example. Move as many units as they can at a lower price - get everyone who played WIz 1 to try it, and pull in others familiar with the franchise/legacy. Then ultimately, you'll get more from each player and have the potential to work through the rest of the games in the series. If this game doesn't do well because of that price point, well, you killed future growth.

 

[JBro]

Someone should just remaster the PC version of Lyllgamyn Saga.

 

[Sacibengala]

Should I get this one or Five Ordeals?

 

[Mortmal]

$29.99?!?! Look, I know nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but this is insane.

Not insane, this will sell 500 copies at the very best. Even if its low effort there's a team to pay.

No. Pricing anything is a fine art. You are saying they'll make $15,000 (at most.) How much were the legal rights to Wiz 1 to begin with?
I doubt they entered into this with a vision to lose money.

Charge $10-15 to get people to try it out, help with the Alpha/Beta versions. Once the engine is solid, then add on Wiz 2, Wiz 3, Wiz 5, etc - all for around $15-20 each. People already invested 50 hours in Wiz 1 and want to move the same party on. They can use the same engine, only add refinements.

Yes, I'm saying they should follow The Bard's Tale Trilogy example. Move as many units as they can at a lower price - get everyone who played WIz 1 to try it, and pull in others familiar with the franchise/legacy. Then ultimately, you'll get more from each player and have the potential to work through the rest of the games in the series. If this game doesn't do well because of that price point, well, you killed future growth.

Probably not much for the Wizardry license. As for losing money, maybe they didn't have it in mind to lose some, but I can already tell it will fail. Superior titles like Elminage have very low sales, and that type of game interests very few people, perhaps around 10 Codexers here, and most of them might even torrent it. It will only target old nerds, assuming they're still around, who have fond memories of that era and absolutely don't care about money. In reality, it's not even guaranteed that such customers still exist. It will undoubtedly fail hard.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Superior titles like Elminage have very low sales, and that type of game interests very few people, perhaps around 10 Codexers here, and most of them might even torrent it. It will only target old nerds, assuming they're still around, who have fond memories of that era and absolutely don't care about money.

Yeah, as someone in this category, the trailer didn't really do it for me. There aren't a ton of these games, but there are enough (and they take long enough to play) that I can be picky about which ones I'll invest time in. Frankly I'd rather play an older remake without 'cinematic' animations in combat that will certainly get old really fast. Having a bear roar at me is cool in a game where I encounter 1 to 10 bears before I'm done. Not so much in a game where I'll encounter dozens or hundreds. And while that isn't a dealbreaker in and of itself, it speaks to a particular mindset, one that isn't suited to remaking this kind of game. If they didn't consider how anoying giving every enemy a little intro animation would be and what a waste of time and money that is to implement, how much effort did they spend on making the UI comfortable? On testing for bugs? On cleaning up their AI generated artwork in the places you'll see hundreds of times? Probably not much is my guess.

That said, I still think they should have priced the game more cheaply. There's no point trying to bring the incline with a prestigious remake if you're only targetted a tiny number of users. So, just like KotC 2 it's not going to introduce anyone new to this classic style of gameplay, because only desperate grognards will even give it a shot, and we'll probably be disappointed anyways. Better off trying to hook in the thrifty crowd that more freely spends money on cheap titles.

 

[Casual Hero]

Should I get this one or Five Ordeals?

At this point, Five Ordeals would be a much better purchase. It is a lot prettier, and more complete. I don't really love any of the scenarios that it comes with, but you have access to one of the best scenarios in the form of the Prisoners of the Battles DLC. Pricey for sure, but still better value than this remaster.

It looks like the Proving Grounds remaster is still dangerously unplayable due to some bugs that people are encountering on the lower floors.

I have been having an absolute blast with Prisoners of the Battles, which is a full game that is released as DLC under the Five Ordeals game engine on Steam.
I think the dungeon design is at least on-par with Proving Grounds, but what really makes it addicting is the loot system. It adds a Diablo-esque system that lets you find gear with modifiers like "+1 attack" or "Double against Undead". A small addition, but it makes every dungeon delve exciting. This creates a near constant progression system, and that compliments the "one more floor" flow of the game so well.

 

[Daemongar]

Probably not much for the Wizardry license. As for losing money, maybe they didn't have it in mind to lose some, but I can already tell it will fail. Superior titles like Elminage have very low sales, and that type of game interests very few people, perhaps around 10 Codexers here, and most of them might even torrent it. It will only target old nerds, assuming they're still around, who have fond memories of that era and absolutely don't care about money. In reality, it's not even guaranteed that such customers still exist. It will undoubtedly fail hard.

I don't know - it would *appear* the recent Bard's Tale Trilogy did well. I honestly want this to succeed - as if it fails... we'll never see the Might and Magic 1 & 2 updates I really want!!

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I am not intrinsically opposed to a graphic+audio facelift for Wizardry. My complaint is why bother with Proving Grounds for the Nth time, let's make some new content. Same old dungeon, same old classes. Yawn.

 

[JBro]

I have been having an absolute blast with Prisoners of the Battles, which is a full game that is released as DLC under the Five Ordeals game engine on Steam.
I think the dungeon design is at least on-par with Proving Grounds, but what really makes it addicting is the loot system. It adds a Diablo-esque system that lets you find gear with modifiers like "+1 attack" or "Double against Undead". A small addition, but it makes every dungeon delve exciting. This creates a near constant progression system, and that compliments the "one more floor" flow of the game so well.

Does the whole game have that inventory system or is it just the DLC? I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

 

[Casual Hero]

I have been having an absolute blast with Prisoners of the Battles, which is a full game that is released as DLC under the Five Ordeals game engine on Steam.
I think the dungeon design is at least on-par with Proving Grounds, but what really makes it addicting is the loot system. It adds a Diablo-esque system that lets you find gear with modifiers like "+1 attack" or "Double against Undead". A small addition, but it makes every dungeon delve exciting. This creates a near constant progression system, and that compliments the "one more floor" flow of the game so well.

Does the whole game have that inventory system or is it just the DLC? I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

The DLC is a full-length game that is bigger than any of the scenarios included in the base Five Ordeals package, so you'll get some good mileage out of that. It originally came out before Five Ordeals, and is considered to be Wizardry Gaiden 6 in all but name.

As for the rest of the scenarios you can play in the game engine, it depends on which one you choose. None of the Five Ordeals have randomized loot like that, but some user scenarios do.

 

[Viata]

Elminage have very low sales, and that type of game interests very few people, perhaps around 10 Codexers here, and most of them might even torrent it

Funny enough, it was the first game I bought on steam. I created an account just to buy that game. And yeah, I did torrent it first.
Edit: had to remember what my steam login/password/email was:

 

[Grunker]

I played Elminage and hated it. I liked much of the core gameplay, but I detested the control scheme and general UI manipulation. It was awful to the point of unplayability.

 

[Mortmal]

Probably not much for the Wizardry license. As for losing money, maybe they didn't have it in mind to lose some, but I can already tell it will fail. Superior titles like Elminage have very low sales, and that type of game interests very few people, perhaps around 10 Codexers here, and most of them might even torrent it. It will only target old nerds, assuming they're still around, who have fond memories of that era and absolutely don't care about money. In reality, it's not even guaranteed that such customers still exist. It will undoubtedly fail hard.

I don't know - it would *appear* the recent Bard's Tale Trilogy did well. I honestly want this to succeed - as if it fails... we'll never see the Might and Magic 1 & 2 updates I really want!!

Every Kickstarter backer for BT4 got the trilogy as well. The whole trilogy itself is only 12.49 euros, barely 4.1 euros per title compared to the 29.99 euros Wizardry is asking for. When you look at playing that trilogy, it's 100% faithful and just looks good, extremely well ported with lots of quality-of-life improvements. InXile Entertainment was definitely underappreciated. BT4 with that trilogy was an extremely good deal. There are 900 reviews, so let's say 36,000 copies were sold. BT4 itself only has 543 reviews. So, it's possible that 13,600 copies of the trilogy were sold separately, and that's the maximum a blobber can expect today.

 

[Sacibengala]

InXile Entertainment was definitely underappreciated.

This was an outsourced game, lol. The ones that they did themselves were shit.

At this point, Five Ordeals would be a much better purchase.

I bought it, thanks for the recommend. It realy looks faithful and seems to have a very clean UI.

 

[Serus]

really doesn't add anything for the average Codexer

Average codexer probably never played anything pre Wiz 7 Wiz 8

Sounds much more plausible to me. You must be an optimist.