In fifteen years, there has never been another game like it. King of Dragon Pass had its own influences, and has influenced other games. But nothing else interwove stories of politics, culture, and individuals, and tied them together with a living world of magic.
We are now working on a successor, with the working title Six Ages.
Over the years, lots of people asked for a sequel of some sort. The obvious follow-up would be a game that was just King of Dragon Pass with new scenes. I know that some players would be pleased with that, but that never felt like enough. If I’m going to work on something for over a year, the project needs to have at least some novel twist. (It doesn’t have to be as groundbreaking as King of Dragon Pass, which I believe was the first storytelling strategy game!) Over the years I toyed with some ideas, but nothing seemed like it would work. Finally, a few months ago, I had an inspiration.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much. Partly that’s because development is still in the early stages. Mostly it’s because Six Ages is an ambitious project, and won’t be released for well over a year. A lot can change in development. And right now, there’s nothing interesting to show anyway.But I can say that the game will consist of meaningful story choices tied together by the economic challenges facing a small community. It will be set in Glorantha and draw from its rich cultures and mythology. And it’s intended to be highly replayable.
And I’m excited that I will again be working with writer and game designer Robin D. Laws, and artists Jan Pospíšil (who did illustrations for King of Dragon Pass) and Pat Ward (who I worked with at Shenandoah Studio). And when the game is further along, Liana Kerr will again be doing QA.
Over the coming months, we will be posting more, both here and on Twitter @SixAges. Anything of a more permanent nature will be on the game’s web site.
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ReplyDeleteI have no words to express how happy I am at this moment.
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful news!! Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThat's great! I've been waiting a long time for this. I bought the original sometime in either late 99 or 2000, and played the heck out of, and recommended it to people for years. It's wonderful that it's finally gotten the popularity it deserves.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing I really loved about it was the characters and people described really didn't feel like 20th century Americans repackaged in fantasy get-up, like every other game. It was really foreign, primitive, with a deep background. It was the same thrill I got reading Joseph Campbell when I was a kid. Plus, this game led me to Glorantha, which I had heard of but never role-played before.
Just yesterday I was asking my self why nobody made something at least similar to KoDP.
ReplyDeleteAnd now this...
YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!! I am so stoked for this!!!
ReplyDeleteWe (my spouse & I) own both PC & iOS versions of KODP (and I still have my KODP CD-ROM from back in the day), and are looking forward to the new game.
ReplyDeleteBig fan of KODP! I know the game and Glorantha in general seem to have gotten a resurgence lately, with the phone ports and new material coming out respectively. I hope that Six Ages will likewise be a successful project. Considering there's been a lot of word of mouth on the Internet through forums like SA, I hope the development team will leverage that to bring a large playerbase to Six Ages and more people to Glorantha in general!
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful news! I love KODP and I played countless hours of it. Eventually it gets repetitive because you are just playing the same scenes over and over. The idea of a new game of the sort rather than just adding more scenes (This would go old pretty quickly) is very exciting! Can't wait to hear more about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news.
ReplyDeleteWOW! This is AMAZING news!
ReplyDeleteDavid, is Greg Stafford going to be involved in the development of Six Ages?
ReplyDeleteI’ve had some discussions with Greg, but he is now retired, and I don’t expect him to have the same involvement he did with King of Dragon Pass.
DeleteThis is just great! When do you think you will be able to tell the public what particular culture is going to be the protagonist?
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I recently found KoDP to play on android, honestly I have not played any video games for about 5 years but thought I might just find something that can interest me in the way of startegy games for an Android tablet. King of Dragon's Pass is probably the best game I have ever played. I will be looking forward to this enormously. I have been thinking as I play it, as I used to think about a lot of RPG's and strategy games, that if you just kept adding to the game mechanics and the story you would end up with a game that is more in depth and interesting than any other. I will love to see how a sequel to this game will turn out.
ReplyDeleteSorry if this post doubles, seems to have eaten my 1st post.
ReplyDeleteDavid, any interest at this point in Kickstarting? (Do they take a bite of the projects they host?) The only reason I raise it is because KoDP really remains such a groundbreaking, inimitable product, I think with a little higher profile* you'd get a lot of buzz from the gaming press. I know I'd pre-buy the game if it would help development.
*if you're ready to really announce it, that is.
-Steve
Kickstarter is a possibility, though it can be a two-edged sword.
DeleteThank you very much. can I have one request? *
ReplyDeleteCan we have a setting option to increase the fit size so that we can play on mobile without squinting or eyes? Thank you
Like King of Dragon Pass (on iOS, I can’t remember if that’s on other platforms)?
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