Spiderweb Games - Geneforge 5 Update

Jeff Vogel has kicked up an update on Geneforge 5 and as a Spidwerweb fan, it's got me excited:

It's been a long, exhausting run on Geneforge 5 lately. I have completed 13 zones, 2 major cities, 2 game-long plot threads, and all of the demo.

I am finally taking an overdue moment to say where I am at. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but Rock Band, Smash Brothers Brawl, and GTA4 don't play themselves.

It's tough work. It has been a real challenge to find a way to end the series in a plausible and satisfying way and to give the player a real role in it. It is really important to me for the game to reflect that this is a large world, full of a lot of powerful people. The player gets to have a small but pivotal role in ending the war. There are heroes and generals running around. You are the agent acting behind to scenes to help one faction be triumphant. I really like this aspect of it. It feels like the right balance between making the player significant and part of a larger world.

As I said before, there are five game-winning factions. You can play through much of the game, meeting people and finding out who the factions are, and then decide which one to join. Some are reasonable. Some are pretty crazy. All provide satisfying endings to the saga.

I have done a lot of work on the interface. Geneforge 5 now supports OpenGL and will tap some of the power of your graphics card.

In Geneforge 5, you can play the game on any size of monitor and you can play the game in a window. If you have a huge monitor, you can see a huge chunk of the terrain around you. It really makes a big difference.

There are a lot of new graphical frills that make things look quite a bit nicer. Of course, these can be turned off on older machines. I fully intend for old machines to be able to run Geneforge 5, though you might need to shrink the play area a bit.

There is now customization for the keyboard shortcuts. You can also customize the game area somewhat by moving around or minimizing the party roster and automap.

You will not be surprised to learn that many major characters from earlier in the series are returning for a final hurrah (or destruction). You will also get to meet and deal with the mysterious Shaper Council. The chaos of the previous years have caused the leaders of the Shapers to become ... erratic. Perhaps this can be exploited for your gain.

You can also learn a lot about the history and ways of the Shapers. Writing these parts are the most fun for me.

Still hope to have it out for Mac in November. Seems plausible.

- Jeff Vogel