Reviving/Remastering Siege of Avalon...

Hi all,
I’m thinking about reviving/remastering an old isometric RPG project I worked on years ago.
The game is Siege of Avalon - http://soaos.sourceforge.net/ which was originally released back in 2000. I eventually got the owners to Open Source it. The original game was written in Delphi and was a hit in Germany(of all places) and got OK reviews elsewhere (mainly due to the tonnes of dialogue reading and you had to do. Seems non-Germans didn’t like reading that much).

The plan is to try to rewrite the game engine in C# using MonoGame and re-releasing it, with some improvements (I have a fix for the excessive dialogue reading) and with an engine that scales a bit better.
So Step 1 is to assess how big a job it would be.
Step 2 is just™ an engine port, reusing assets/levels etc.
It may need resolution tweaks, depending on platform. iOS/Android may be first released platforms due to the resolution of the original assets, But dev would happen on PC/Mac. Then see where to go from there depending on how the remaster is received.

The long term plan it to eventually work on the sequel Pillars of Avalon as I’m still in contact with the original devs and could probably get access to initial ideas, backstory and direction they planned to take it and that can be built upon.

So I’m posting here to see if there is any interest to get a few other devs involved, who aren’t working on their own projects.
As mentioned at this point no artists, sound engineers etc are required as it is purely about getting an engine in C#/MonoGame working and reusing what’s already available. Potentially if the isometric engine is flexible enough it could potentially be spun off as stand alone for people to use in their own games.
I’m also thinking that once the basics of the engine and game are working, and there is something to show we could launch a Kickstarter to see if gamers have any interest in helping fund its completion.

I’m open to discuss other possibilities too.

Dominique.

3 Likes

Move the avatar back to the center of the screen… An extremely dumb game design/programmer mistake. After that major fix, the HUD should be far less obnoxious. Two birds, one stone.

On computers, you’ll have far too much competition in that genre and style of play. Don’t expect over 2,500 - 10,000 sales. But it’s a niche players gravitate towards.

I have a Windows Phone 8, there are no games, and don’t follow Android Phones/iPhones, so, I don’t have any idea on that front. But I would imagine there are many clones of Zelda/Diablo lurking about.

If you’re writing the engine, I don’t really see why you would use the trademarks/copyrights of textures/sounds/models/names/etc from others, unless you’ve got a lot of privilege/whatever or complete control and monetization value…

Basically it boils down to the Android/iOS markets and how much fatigue players have of Diablo/DotA clones, which may happen by the time you release in another year or two, five… On the bright side, a MonoGame game engine will last at the very least five to ten more years, all platforms, a strong genre, and many ways to monetize.

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Should you need specific shaders and post processing I can help on that front

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Greetings. I played siege of avalon as a child and recently bought a copy to play bow but my computer is windows 10 and it wont work. The game loads in a small window that i cant resize and looks fine until gameplay starts. Then there is a pixalation on the game screen that affects everything except the characters. Do you know of a patch or something i could to to make it work?

I believe there are backwards compatibility options you can set on the exe.
Maybe this article will help - https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/set-compatibility-mode-windows-10

Ive done all of that. Even built a virtual windows xp vhd in virtualbox. On there the screen goes black at start up. I fear ill never get to play it again. i Would love a mobile version though. I would pay for a mobile version haha

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yes please

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I’m thinking about taking a different tack with the Siege of Avalon Remaster. Going 3D. I recently resigned from my job at Microsoft so am hoping to spend more time doing game dev. So we’ll see what I can get done in 6 months of semi-retirement. @kosmonautgames I may just have to take up your offer if I can get something 3D working.

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Is this still an Idea you are entertaining? I would love to be a part of this. I’m a 3D Artist focusing on environment aspects: props, buildings, foliage, etc.