The status of Acheron's Awakening

ID:36455
 
Nov 7 2007, 11:27 am
The past, present, and future of Acheron's Awakening. It's amazing how fast time goes by... it still feels like I was about to release this game only yesterday!

The History of Acheron's Awakening

In June of 2006 I was nearing completion on what I was hoping would be the first public release of my BYOND MORPG, Acheron's Awakening.

A month-long trip backpacking around Europe during July of 2006 interrupted that process. When I got back, I started my new job, created a television show and have been planning a wedding. It's been a busy time, to say the least. Acheron's Awakening kind of fell to the wayside.

During the past year (In relation to the development of my television series down in LA), I've been in talks to have a third party developer re-create Acheron's Awakening outside of BYOND. For at least the time being, that process is stalled.

A couple months back I felt that it was a horrible shame to let all of the effort I put into AA continue to go to waste, so I held a public preview of the game... which was a great success.


Where the game stands now

Acheron's Awakening is incredibly stable, very much complete, and without a doubt the biggest project ever created for BYOND. At this point, however, I'm facing two dilemmas: 1.) Finding the required 50-100 hours of time it will take to finalize the game for release, and 2.) My concern that I may have bitten off more than BYOND can chew.

Picture Acheron's Awakening as Diablo for a moment. The initial public release will have the first six levels of the dungeon to explore, filled with monsters, treasure etc... not to mention an instanced boss battle. Now crank that up to the planned 20 levels of the dungeon that I will eventually add, a few more instanced boss fights etc. and you have a crap load of mobs, objects, maps etc. for BYOND to deal with.

Obviously I've taken steps to insure that the game runs as efficiently as possible (and it does, let me tell you!)... but the reality is that BYOND has limits. I'm *praying* that I can stick within them.


The future of Acheron's Awakening

The fact is that I'm not even going to touch the code for this game until January. With my impending wedding in mid-December on top of all the other work that I have to do, I know that I won't be able to throw myself into it like I need to.

My hope is jump back into things in January. I strongly believe that this game is way too good to let it go to waste. I've devoted an embarrassing amount of time to developing it already, and I don't want all of those hours to be in vain either.

I'm not going to give any time tables or release estimates. It will be done when it's done... the important thing is to know that yes, it will be done.
Nov 7 2007, 11:29 am
"Acheron's Awakening is incredibly stable, very much complete, and without a doubt the biggest project ever created for BYOND."

When Darke Dungeon exists on BYOND, there is quite a bit of doubt.
Nov 7 2007, 11:34 am
Popisfizzy wrote:
When Darke Dungeon exists on BYOND, there is quite a bit of doubt.

Yup... I know of it. There is still no doubt.

I don't want to get into a pissing match over which game is bigger though, because bigger certainly doesn't mean better. The bottom line is that Acheron's Awakening is massive in scale (in terms of BYOND), which is part of the reason why it's taking me so long to complete it as a solo developer.
Nov 7 2007, 11:37 am
Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you had discovered a way to outdo potential infinity in size.
Nov 7 2007, 11:47 am
Well I wish you luck silkwizard i'm looking forward to playing AA
Nov 7 2007, 11:57 am
The simply complicated solution would break it into different games with one master save file. As you progress through the game, you get shifted onto another server, which has a totally different game loaded, but the save is moved along. This is how MMOs do it, really. You have a lot of servers with a base code, but separate maps. Each taking a part of the load. But it is not nearly as simple as it sounds... and it doesn't sound that simple.
Nov 7 2007, 12:07 pm
Popisfizzy wrote:
Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you had discovered a way to outdo potential infinity in size.

I don't think that's accurate. The dungeons in Darke Dungeon don't even exist until a player uses a book to research the type of dungeon he'd like. Then a random dungeon generator puts it together and saves the map down. I believe that after a certain length of time, unused dungeons will routinely get purged from the game. To call it "infinite" in size isn't very fair because after a while, you'll begin to recognize certain room patterns and the dungeons become all (randomly) different yet feel the same.
Nov 7 2007, 1:59 pm
Danial.Beta wrote:
The simply complicated solution would break it into different games with one master save file. As you progress through the game, you get shifted onto another server, which has a totally different game loaded, but the save is moved along. This is how MMOs do it, really. You have a lot of servers with a base code, but separate maps. Each taking a part of the load. But it is not nearly as simple as it sounds... and it doesn't sound that simple.

Sounds like dot hack, even though The World isn't a real MMO.

Anyways, it's a good thing you posted. I thought AA died.
Nov 7 2007, 2:07 pm
You should let people play it for now
Nov 7 2007, 6:18 pm
Congratulations on the wedding!

Good luck with your TV series!

Hope your development process goes well!
Nov 7 2007, 7:06 pm
You had me at "Yes Dixon, there will be kittens in AA."
Nov 8 2007, 3:25 am (Edited on Nov 8 2007, 11:33 am)
The real truth is that AA isn't an MORPG. No no, secretly SilkWizard is tricking the older part of the BYOND community into attending AA meetings, and secretly brainwashing the younger community into not going near alcohol. Just so he can have it all for himself. I'm on to your tricks Ben, you can't fool me. Now if you don't mind, there's a beer in the fridge that does NOT have your name on it.
Nov 8 2007, 6:33 am
Hey everyone, remember when he first announced the very first delay on AA, I called a silkwizard month?

LOOK WHO WAS RIGHT.
Nov 8 2007, 1:25 pm
You know, with a couple people having made a decompiler, you should try and get in touch with them to get the DWO source code. I had a craving to play a good DW game today but everything on BYOND sucks.
Nov 8 2007, 3:10 pm
Silkwizard month: Anywhere between one month and 2-3 years.
Nov 8 2007, 7:05 pm
Speaking of DWO, any one here know of the author of Dragon Warrior 101 and other DW related comics, like The Dragonlord Hour?

Because he linked to BYOND because he played DWO, which means he is around here somewhere, which means he needs to finish the damn comic!