The Eulogy of the Ramlord news

It’s been a while since we last talked. Almost a year? A lot has been going on in my life; a lot has changed, both kind and horrifying, as life tends to be. Ramlord released in February of 2019, and while I am not prepared to go into a development autopsy, I will say that in some ways I’m still reeling from that project.

I previously hung up my coat on video game design, and retired to focus on my writing as a principle hobby. That hasn’t quite remained the case. I’m here to talk about the status of Ramlord, my views on the current Moddb yearly contest, and the announcement of a future project. Thank you, for all of you who have supported my works thus far.

And I would like to ask those same people to consider voting for The Shadow of the Ramlord in the Moddb Yearly contest. While it isn’t a coveted prize to attain for me, I still feel that it stands as the most complete and articulate vision of what I tried to achieve with my ten years at Dark Craft Studios, and bringing it that level of recognition would be a fun pursuit to undertake. And to see if there are enough who agree?

Thematically, and from a maturity of development and writing talent I’ve been sharpening, I still feel Ramlord to be the proper curtain call that ten years of mod designing should deserve. Even if only through my lens. Everything clicked, I found the right people for the right jobs who put up with the inexorable challenge of me learning a new engine only to immediately release a project with the ambition of Ramlord. While it is a contentious subject on whether or not it succeeded, since to this day it remains our least well reviewed title, to me it was an emphatic victory.

I should lead with the obvious. There will be no returning to Caecea Manor for Dark Craft Studios. Since February I have accumulated a list of six minor bugs, and zero game breaking instances that couldn’t be resolved with a quick PM to troubleshoot which was usually in regards to the users having conflicting mods, or Linux, both of which I cannot fix.

I originally had lofty goals for returning to the helm of another development pass and actually did quite a lot of work on the levels, ranging from lighting, particles, geometry and overall pacing. In general, the last two levels got a big face lift. But then I started to play-test, and ran into the usual HPL2 woes… and realized I didn’t have the energy or passion to run it alone. The soundtrack I hoped to receive never came to fruition. That was supposed to headline the 1.1 patch, and without it the whole thing felt like me just tinkering and not pressing goals necessitated by a community that was interested. So let this declaration stand final in that, Ramlord joins Triptych and Worry of Newport as completed, finished projects.

However, it’s not all grim on the horizon. Dark Craft Studios is currently in production of another project. What banner it will take place under, what time it will appear, or when I will feel comfortable enough to share more is still up for debate. However, it will be a retail release, and we’re striving to achieve as professional – or more – of a development pipeline than was in Ramlord. I’d like to tell you more about it tonight, but there’s a few more details we need to iron out before a media campaign really begins. I’d give us another six months at most before the grand reveal. But I wanted to share that with those of you who expressed disappointment at my retirement from games design. After a year break, I’m back in the saddle, surrounded by a supportive and incredible team once again. I’ve reunited with my writing team from Triptych, and honing in on my style, I’m hoping to bring a newly unique narrative for you to play in the future – one that could actually support us.

There will be more news in the future, and while perhaps not on this site, elsewhere. Stay tuned for the reveal of the project by Spring of next year, at the latest.