Christ Centered Gamer reviewed Queen's Wish: The Conqueror.

As far as the moral front, there are a few instances where pentagrams appear as areas where monsters can be summoned. There are some undead monsters that can appear, including the ability for the player to summon and control skeletons. When enemies are killed, they go flying off the screen and leave small splotches of blood. There are some subtle political messages in the game as well. For example, one of the regions – the Ahriel – is governed by wealthy elites who live in a hard-to-reach city, who enact rules with little concern for the citizens who live in the rest of their region. This seems to echo the exact problems that Washington State is going through, and I am sure that other states in the United States can also relate. Given that Spiderweb Software is based out of Seattle, this is likely not a coincidence.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

According to a tweet of Jeff Vogel, sales of Queen's Wish are strong and there is a good chance on a sequel to the game.

Queen's Wish has been out for a week!

Our first week of sales was very strong, and our refund rate is low. Plenty of debate about the changes we made, but many are having fun. There's a very good chance of Queen's Wish 2, which thrills us.

Thank you for your support!

— Jeff Vogel (@spiderwebsoft) September 18, 2019

Spiderweb's new RPG Queen's Wish: The Conqueror has been released:

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror

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You are royalty of the mighty empire of Haven! Your mother the Queen rules, while you enjoy a life of sheltered luxury. Then, one morning, you wake up to find yourself banished to your Empire’s lost colony. You mother has declared your childhood at an end. Your mission? Prove yourself by reconquering Haven’s rebellious vassals, or don’t bother to come home.

At last, you have been given wealth, magic, soldiers. The Queen thinks you will submit and join the family business. Now that you have freedom and power, you might have other ideas ...

Queen's Wish: The Conquerer is a epic, indie fantasy role-playing adventure. Wander free through an enormous world, sink into a fascinating story full of surprises and interesting decisions, and use your cunning to outwit a multitude of dungeons and foes. In this open-ended adventure, you can build an Empire or free the oppressed. Serve the Queen or rebel. Fight or use diplomacy. Build fortresses, smith enchanted blades and armor, and deal with nagging relatives!

Queen's Wish: The Conquerer features:

• Epic fantasy adventure with over 50 hours of gameplay.
• Open-ended story in a variety of mysterious lands, featuring many choices, paths and endings. Lots of replay value.
• Suspenseful tactical combat. Select from fifty different abilities. Build and rebuild your warriors to face rapidly changing foes.
• Explore (and conquer) an enormous outdoors and a huge variety of dungeons and enemy fortresses.
• Gain strength with a unique fortress system. Build and equip fortresses, making your warriors stronger in a wide variety of ways.
• Not just orcs and elves. Features the unforgettable races and characters that make Spiderweb Software adventures unique.
• Over 100 side quests and hundreds of magical artifacts to hunt for.

Enjoy a new adventure from Spiderweb Software, now celebrating 25 years of making fine indie fantasy role-playing goodness.

Jeff Vogel has written a piece on why his games look as they do.

We've been writing indie games for a living for 25 years. My wife and I run a humble little mom-and-pop business. We make retro low-budget role-playing games that have great stories and design and are a lot of fun.

Also, they look like crap.

The first game I released, in January of 1995, looked like crap. It achieved financial success (among the blind, apparently), which funded many more games that looked like crap, enabling me to build a solid reputation.

Based on this reputation, we had a successful Kickstarter for Queen's Wish: The Conqueror, an exciting upcoming RPG that will look like crap. We hope it will be a gateway to us making games that look like crap for many years to come.

We have no complaints. We are in the middle of a long, successful career, and everything is rosy. However, sometimes I like to write about the indie game business and help people understand how it works and give advice to younger developers. This article is about why our games look the way they do, whether you like them or not (probably not).

The editorial goes on by Jeff talking about why he thinks his games, and especially Queen's Wish, do not look like crap and why he does what he does.

Jeff Vogel has tweeted that Queen's Wish will launch on September 11 for PC and Mac.

We've announced the release date for Queen's Wish: The Conqueror, our next all-new, indie, retro RPG! It's coming to Windows and Mac on Sept. 11, 2019, with the iOS version out in late 2019.

store.steampowered.com/app/1058130

RTs and wishlists are greatly appreciated!

— Jeff Vogel (@spiderwebsoft) August 8, 2019

Queen’s Wish: The Conqueror will be released in September:

Queen’s Wish June 2019 Update!

Queen’s Wish: The Conqueror is done!

The Macintosh version is done, 99% tested, and works and is fun. The Windows port is done and in the hands of the first group of testers. A release in September is nearly guaranteed.

The next couple months are for finishing things up. Lots of testing. Writing documentation. The hint book. Figuring out what platforms we can be available on and setting things up with them (which is a huge job).

We are really excited about this game, and there’s not much more we can say about it. Time to sort though more bug reports.

* Notes to Backers

If you backed at a level that gets your name in the credits, we have sent you a survey asking how you want to be listed. If you haven’t responded yet, please do. If you didn’t get the message, check your spam inbox. If you are sure you backed us at a level where you can be in the credits and you got no survey, contact us at support@spiderwebsoftware.com.

Soon the closed beta for eligible backers can begin. Give us a bit more time to make sure that the game functions.

Finally, here is another screenshot. It is an ambush in the Ukatish swamps. The Ukatish are swamp folk, private, touchy, and full of hatred of outsiders. Some of them can be convicted to join with Haven. Others will try to get rid of you in a very determined way.

In a tweet Jeff Vogel mentioned that Queen's Wish's world is done and he has started the process to finalize the game for a September release.

After years of planning and coding, the world of Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is done. I can now start finishing the game. Out for Win/Mac in September.

I do all of my primary design on graph paper, like an old nerd. Here is a big mound of all the towns and dungeons in the game.

— Jeff Vogel (@spiderwebsoft) 11 juni 2019

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror has a new trailer.

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The official trailer for Spiderweb Software's new indie role-playing epic, Queen's Wish: The Conqueror. We celebrated 25 years in business with a hugely successful Kickstarter for this game, and it's close to done!

At last, the Queen has given you power and freedom! The cost?

You must rebuild her Empire. Will you? In this epic, indie fantasy adventure, you are free to explore, fight for fame and power, and shape the world as you choose. Escape into an unpredictable open-ended story and cunning tactical combat.

Coming in Fall, 2019 for Windows, Mac, and iOS. Purchase Queen's Wish: The Conqueror at http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/quee...

and wishlist it on Steam at

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058130/Queens_Wish_The_Conqueror/

Thanks Couchpotato!

The February update for Queen's Wish: The Conqueror announces that development has reached the half-way point.

Queen's Wish February 2019 Update!

Posted by Spiderweb Software (Creator)

This has been a big milestone month! The world of the game is half-written. All the basics of the world and the stories have been established. We just need to finish them. We hope that the Queen’s Wish content will be done at the end of May, and then we can do the Windows port and finalize everything.

This is a really grueling phase of development. Every day, I get up and do a chunk of game. A dungeon. Three sections of outdoors. Half of a city. There’s a huge pile of things to do, and every day I chip one thing out of the pile. That’s why it’s so satisfying to get halfway. It takes a lot of doubt away. This game will be finished. My brain is pudding, and there’s a long way to go. But we’ll get there.

We’re doing a lot of internal testing to polish the thing up. We want get all of the balance right: tense without being crushing. The game system has a lot of innovative stuff (like the fort building/resource system), and we want to make sure all is clear to the player. And, of course, it’s a new engine, so we have a billion bugs to fix.

We hope to release the game to a small group of our regular beta testers very soon. Kickstarter backers who are in the closed beta will have to wait until the Windows port is done, in a couple of months.

We are also scrambling to get enough art together to announce the game official and put up the Steam page! Our goal for this is April. It’s later than it should be, but some games it takes longer to get art than others. Happily, the art is looking really good!

Kickstarter Backer Update

If you bought the ability to name something in the game or add a character, item, etc, these things need to be finalized. The game is almost done! The deadline for these is the end of March. If I hear from you after that, I’ll do what I can, but I can make no promises.

And thanks again to the backers for their ideas. I have been really surprised and pleased by how clever and innovative you were. It’s been some really good stuff, and I’ve enjoyed working it in.

A Screenshot!

Finally, I am immensely pleased to be able to show off a screenshot for the game. It shows off a lot more of the art, interface, and big scary monsters hiding in the dungeons. I’ll have a lot more to show soon. Enjoy!

- Jeff Vogel

Fending off a rush of mire boars in one of the many dungeons. Each dungeon has its own unique tactical situation, and you will have to carefully manage your abilities and items to be victorious.

The December update for Queen's Wish: The Conqueror.

Queen's Wish December 2018 Update!

Posted by Spiderweb Software (Creator)

This will be a short update. A lot of the updates will be short. We’re a couple of months into primary design: Sketching out, scripting, populating, and testing the towns, dungeons, and outdoor sections. It’s a big game, and there will be a lot of that. We’re around a third of the way through.

Primary design is hardest near the beginning. This is when I have to write most of the dialogue for the main characters, make the quest hubs (which frames out the entire story of the game), and make the towns that introduce the cultures of the game. It’s a lot of slow, painstaking work, but we’re making good progress.

We are also playing the game as we write it. It’s still fine. The balance has turned out to be really nice. You end a lot of dungeons in tense battles, just on the edge of disaster. But you make it. It’s suspenseful and fun. We’re going to keep playing and fine tuning to try to keep that going through the whole game.

Backer Rewards

We have mailed out all but four of the Scrolls of Absolution. We ran out of sealing wax, so a few of them are still not done. We’ll get them out as soon as we can get more wax. (It’s in the mail!)

If you paid to get your ideas into the game but haven’t sent them in yet, please check your Kickstarter account for the survey we sent out.

Anyway, everyone have some great holidays! I’ll leave you with the map of the world of Queen’s Wish, which I hope you find intriguing and pretty.

- Jeff Vogel

The continent of Sacramentum. It signed treaties with Haven. Then it stopped paying what it agreed to. Your mother has sent you to bring them to heel. What will you do?

The November update for Queen's Wish.

Queen's Wish November 2018 Update!

As promised, we have completed the main body of Queen's Wish: The Conqueror engine work. There's still a fair amount that needs doing. We need to finalize the interface and add a lot of frills, like weather effects. However, the game is fully playable.

The new graphical engine works great and has enabled us to add a lot of things that are overdue. For example, we finally have a game with mouse wheel support. We're also adding a lot of stuff our games have never had before, like a full fast travel system.

The Game Seems Fun

I took a couple of days off to actually play the game. This, of course, let to a million bug fixes and balance tweaks.

After a bit of poking and polishing, I found Queen's Wish: The Conqueror to be quite fun. The missions are smaller, leading themselves to quicker play sessions. However, they are balanced so that you are constantly getting weaker as they advance, so there's a lot of suspense. (Of course, if you don't want the tension, there is a Casual game setting, as always.)

I really like the feel of it. A lot of our audience is older and doesn't have as much time, so I want them to be able to make some progress without investing so many ours. At the same time, there is enough optional stuff to give a lot of gameplay for your money.

Primary Design

I'm now deep into primary design. That means that, for the next month, the Updates are pretty much going to be, "Still writing content." I make one small town or dungeon per day. A big town takes two days. Three outdoor sections makes a day.

This means the main world should be dome by the end of May, leaving a couple months to polish the thing, do the Windows port, and get it out the door August, 2019.

Reward Update

We just made the first few Scrolls of Absolution. We're sending them out tomorrow, to make sure they survive the mail system well. They look really cool and are each personally hand-signed and hand-singed.

We're about to send out official Kickstarter surveys to all backers. Most people who paid to put content into the game have responded, but we want to take this last step to get the information from everybody.

Anyway, we have a game now! And it's bigger every day!

- Jeff Vogel

We've been writing of lot of the Ukatish areas. They are fierce, tribal, ever-resentful swamp-dwellers. Don't get them too angry. They hold grudges for a long time.

These adventurers have stumbled into a truly unpleasant ambush.

The October update for Queen's Wish: The Conqueror announces that the engine is 'pretty much done'.

Queen's Wish October 2018 Update!

This is a pretty exciting update. The Queen’s Wish: The Conqueror engine is pretty much done. The base interface is in. The system is done. All the stuff in the game is scripted.

Of course, it’s not completely done. The final interface needs to be drawn, put in, and made pretty. There are a lot of minor things (like weather) that I tend to do late in the process. There are a million bugs. However, we have a full, playable game, and we’ve made several towns, dungeons, and outdoors sections. To take a break from interface stuff, I’ve also written over 40000 words of dialogue for the spine of the storyline.

Over the next few days, we’re going to do our first intense playing. Now that the base engine is done, we’re going to play it, find what is broken and imbalanced, fix it, and make sure the game is fun. Then we will go on to primary world design, the longest phase in the project.

In the Next Month

We’ll finish a couple more dungeons and then do some really intense testing. We’re trying to get everything solid enough that we can make dungeons and outdoors sections on a schedule. This is when everything we’ve been putting off and everything that didn’t work become visible and have to be dealt with. It’s a long, grueling process, but it does end eventually.

Reward Update

We’ve gotten a ton of ideas from people who bought the ability to put things into the game, if you heard back from us, assume your input has been placed. If you haven’t written us yet or you never got feedback, this is really the time to get that done. The more of the world we write, the fewer the options for good places to put your characters, items, etc.

As for the Scrolls of Absolution, the design of the scroll is done and we’ll start making and sending them out soon. If you haven’t responded to the survey yet, please do so.

Things are going well. The prospect of playing the game for real, after years of thought and preparation, is both scary and exciting. Before we go, I put a couple of screen clips below. We have a game!

- Jeff Vogel

[...]

The August update for Queen's Wish details progress so far.

Queen's Wish August 2017 Update!

Here is the first monthly update for Queen’s Wish development! We’ve been hard at work on the new game, and it is moving along.

Spiderweb games are developed in three phases. First, we work on the game engine and system. This takes 3-5 months, depending on how much of the game is new. In Queen’s Wish, almost everything is new.

Then we write the game world, which is about six months. Then 2-3 months of porting to Windows and testing. Then we ship! (And then move on to the ports to mobile.)

What We Did Last Month

We are still grinding our way through the first phase: the main engine.

On the technical side, we spent a while porting our code to a new, powerful game engine called SDL. In this case, the engine is the layer between my game and the computer itself. The game engine we used before was way out of date. This engine is completely current and should support lots of cool stuff, like 64-bit Windows and mouse wheel input.

Then we worked on making the game playable. This involves a million things. Training window. Inventory window. Fully fleshed out combat code. We are trying to get a basically playable game, so that I can see how much of the stuff I’ve been assembling in my brain for the last two years actually works.

Finally, I scripted the statistics for all of the creatures, abilities, and items. This is tons of painstaking work and takes forever, but the game is now full of critters to fight and treasures to look for.

Rewards

We have sent out messages to the design assistants, and we’re getting some great stuff back from them. There are some terrific ideas in there, and I’m really excited.

If you got a signed, singed Certificate of Absolution, watch out for the survey asking for your name, address, and other info. We’ll be sending it out soon.

What Is Next

The game isn’t fully playable in a near-final sense yet, but it’s getting there. By the time the next update is out, we should be able to have full combats, and a lot of the world system stuff (like dressing up your fort, mining resources, and wandering the outdoors) should be in.

It’s a good start, but we have a long way to go. It can be demoralizing when I sit down in the morning and look at the To Do list. Then I pick the quickest job to do, do that, and move on to the next job. We’ll get there eventually.

And that’s where we’re at. See you next month!

- Jeff Vogel

Queen's Wish has a couple of days to go for crowdfunding and is currently pursuing the 100K stretch goal, which would unlock a professional for sound design.

Our Kickstarter for Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is entering its final week, and we are enormously grateful for the support everyone has given. It is succeeding beyond anything we expected.

We are very close to getting to our next Stretch Goal: Hiring a professional for sound design. I really hope we get there. It's something we've always wanted to try.

As for the final Stretch Goal, Android support, I sort of doubt we will make it there. That doesn't mean an Android port is impossible. We're doing some research to figure out a way we could do it responsibly. No promises, but even if we don't make that goal, it might be possible. If there is ever an Android port, all backers will get it.

And what are we doing? Honestly, for the last few weeks, we've been working on Queen's Wish. We've never been good at PR and marketing. We just love to write games. That's what we're doing, to make sure you don't have to wait too long for the game you backed.

Finally, we just got in some more art, portraits for Queen's Wish. Enjoy, thank you, and you'll be hearing from us again in a week.

- Jeff Vogel

Jeff Vogel's Queen's Wish: The Conqueror has already funded:

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror has funded!

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror funded on its very first day. It is well on the way to its stretch goals. We are very surprised, humbled, and grateful. We were optimistic about our Kickstarter, but the generosity of our fans has stunned us. Thank you!

We are aiming for Queen's Wish to be out May, 2019. Anyone who has watched us over the years knows we are very good at hitting ship dates. If something slows us down, we will let you know in a prompt and clear update. Your trust in us deserves no less.

Some have asked us about new Stretch Goals. To be honest, we are skeptical about this. I have a very clear picture of a game in my head. I genuinely think it will be a cool game, and I want to make it. I don't want to start changing things around now just for a bigger bucket of money, especially now that you have been so generous.

However, if you have a good idea for another goal or thing to add, please post it in the Kickstarter comments. I will try to respond with what I think.

Thank you again, so much. Now I'm going to get back to work on Queen's Wish. It's a long road, making a new series, but it helps a lot to know that people believe in us.

- Jeff Vogel

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is the new Kickstarter game from Jeff Vogel.

About

We are Spiderweb Software! Since 1994, our tiny little mom and pop operation has created fine, indie fantasy role-playing adventures for the gamer masses. We specialize in retro games with enormous worlds, open-ended game systems, and intricate stories.

We don't write games with good or bad guys. We create worlds in which you have the freedom to wander, choose a path, pick a side to join, and fight with them to victory.

We're really excited by this new project, and we're looking forward to sharing it with the world. However, we're very small, and art is expensive. That is why we are coming to you for help making Queen's Wish live up to its potential.

What is Queen's Wish?

We invite you to escape into the all-new world of Queen's Wish. This will hopefully be an all-new trilogy in a a unique and fascinating setting, which you will be free to remake to your liking.

You are the youngest child of Queen Sharyn, the absolute leader of the Empire of Haven. While your older siblings have grabbed fame and power, you have slid by in a life of quiet luxury. Until now.

Your mother has decided to force power upon you and send you out into the world. Your new home: The wild, war-torn land of Sacramentum. There was once a successful Haven colony there. It then fell apart, for reasons not entirely clear.

To win the Queen's favor, you must go to Sacramentum and rebuild Haven's colony. But will you? Will you crush the nations of Sacramentum and expand Haven? Make peace with them and earn a place in their lands? Or just try to escape from your mother and homeland?

It will be up to you.

Features

Queen's Wish will be a huge fantasy role-playing game for Windows, Macintosh, iPad, and possibly iPhone. It will feature an enormous world, sharp dialogue, cunning quests, and fascinating characters. It will be old-school 80's-style gaming, with a low budget but tons of clever design and charm.

Explore an enormous outdoors and search for towns and dungeons. Fight clever, carefully designed turn-based battles. Meet three different fierce nations, and deal with them with cunning, diplomacy, or (if you choose) violence.

Build new forts and customize them. Install your own smithies, shops, and furniture, giving each fortress your own unique spin. Choose how to expand your towns. The sorts of shops you specialize in will give your character different bonuses.

Thanks Vidder!

Check out our forum thread here