Founded Spiderweb Software in 1994. Has written many games, including the Exile, Geneforge, Avadon, and Avernum series. Avernum 4: Greed and Glory out now!
Seattle
Joined October 2013
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Jeff Vogel retweeted
New Blog Post! We go back to popular 20th century game series Ultima. Ultima Online was one of the first massively multiplayer games, a crazy experiment in a whole new field. We link to a great video on it and remember the Before Time.
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/pu…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
new, incredible, free-to-watch Don Hertzfeldt alert 🚨
vimeo.com/1234190827?fl=pl&f…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
Vogel's Law Of Video Game Innovation - "Most innovation sucks."
A YouTuber called Majuular has been doing a series of videos on the history of the Ultima series. It's a masterful work, combining game history, design deep dives, a lot of humor, and an appropriate tribute to some of the most influential of all series.
He did an almost 5 hour video on Ultima Online, and it is a CLASSIC. Ultima Online was a truly fascinating title, one of the first serious attempts at an MMO.
It was simultaneously a disaster and a triumph. It made every possible mistake an online game could make, lighting the way for future publishers to make all the same mistakes. It has a beautiful vision for how humans could game with other humans online, resulting in a multitude of bold, innovative choices that generally never worked. It was a mess, but it was first, and it lit the way for others. As a bonus, when it didn't work, it didn't work in the most hilarious ways.
I never played Ultima Online. I read the dire reviews and went, "Yikes. Not for me." Then its blood competitor, Everquest, came out and ate the world. I played that one like a FIEND.
Ultima Online showed that MMO's were a real deal, but Everquest was the first one that really worked well. The trick? Take out all the glorious freedom Ultima Online provided and replace it with lots of juicy bloodsport and looting. It was a hugely structured environment. If you give humans freedom, they'll create chaos with it, and player's don't like too much chaos.
By the way, now that World of Warcraft Forever is out, let's remember that so much of World of Warcraft v1.0 was taking Everquest and giving it popular polish, UI, and newbie friendliness. A lot of the cool innovations in World of Warcraft were actually in Everquest, but nobody saw them because Everquest was mercilessly hard and looked like ass. Everquest walked so WoW could run.
But back to the video. Yeah, it's long, but it digs deep into so much about what people love about this hobby. Worth it!
All that weirdness is still out there. The crazy diamonds who role-played as fishermen in Ultima Online? They never went anywhere! They're all RP'ing as traffic cops in Grand Theft Auto 5 now.
youtube.com/watch?v=35SKawn2…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
Hayao Miyazaki on modern anime, via Roland Kelts the author of 'Japanamerica'
"Hayao Miyazaki said to me at one point: 'The problem with young anime artists today is that the only thing they study is anime. When we were young, we studied French literature, we studied impressionism, we read Dostoevsky. We swallowed everything. And then we went and created original anime. But if you grow up and all you watch is anime, you're just regurgitating spinning wheels.'"
He also spoke about his work on the upcoming documentary 'Tezuka! God of Manga'
Jeff Vogel retweeted
I gave a very long, fun interview to Retro-Replay.com about surviving in the indie game business for a very long time. Plenty of humor and cynicism from a bitter old mercenary. Thank you for the great questions!
LINK: retro-replay.com/jeff-vogel-…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
New Blog Post! I review Splatoon Raiders, Schedule 1, Big Walk, Sir, We Have An Orc Problem, and Nubby's Number Factory. Turns out that Indie games are good. I also snark about Grand Theft Auto 6, an activity that never makes people super mad.
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
Dear frontier AI employees,
when leaving audio logs around the office, please remember to intermix:
1) reports of what happened
2) tragic personal anecdotes
3) creepy forebodings
4) the locations of useful access keycards and passwords
This will greatly help the protagonist.
Jeff Vogel retweeted
New blog post about AI! Explains why you should make up your mind about AI now and never think about it again. Until it takes your job, or kills you and nobody takes responsibility.
Just because it's not alive doesn't mean things won't go craaazy!
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
Robert Carlock pointed towards the Homonym game show as his favorite cut-away gag in 30 Rock and yeah it's one of the best.
Jeff Vogel retweeted
New Blog Post: Another long post of musings and mockery about AI, which is more and less important than everyone says, will and won't kill us all, and is an ensouled intelligence that has never done anything a human couldn't do. It's fun!
LINK: bottomfeeder.substack.com/pu…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
Three days left in the Steam Autumn sale! Turn-based RPGs with cool stories from our 32 (!) years in the biz are all real cheap. Good starting points: Avernum: Escape From the Pit. Geneforge 1 - Mutagen. Avernum 4: Greed and Glory.
Games are at:
store.steampowered.com/publi…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
This person was obviously named by a video game designer who needed a fiirefighter character in a hurry.
Jeff Vogel retweeted
Another season, another Steam sale! Avernum 4: Greed and Glory is a full third off. Geneforge 1 and 2 and the now-complete Queen’s Wish are deeply discounted. Makes a nice gift for an RPG-loving friend with tons of free time!
Link: store.steampowered.com/publi…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
A few more days of Steam throwing cheap RPGs at everybody! Our newest, Avernum 4: Greed and Glory, is fun, has a great story, and is delivered with a nice, authentic retro sheen. Enjoy this cult-classic series running since 1994. (!)
Very cheap at ...
store.steampowered.com/app/3…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
noteworthy illustration concepts: how richard scarry’s lowly worm grabs items and does things, despite being a worm - just a bendable line:
Jeff Vogel retweeted
New Blog Post! I write some brisk, fully, hopefully slightly fresh takes on the new AI that is going to save/murder us in our bright/nonexistent future. You can trust me! I write video games!
Be enlightened/disgusted here:
bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
A bunch of our games are on sale for the Steam Party-Based RPG Fest! Our newest game, Avernum 4: Greed and Glory, has its biggest sale yet. It's a great game and done really well for us! Geneforge 1 - Mutagen is also extra cheap.
Avernum 4 here ...
store.steampowered.com/app/3…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
Screenshot Saturday for Geneforge 3 - Detonation. Kickstarter ends in 4 days! The third remake in our epic, cult-classic, intensely open-ended series. A mutant mix of fantasy, science fiction, and mad science. Fun, weird, and totally open-ended.
Link:
kickstarter.com/projects/spi…
Jeff Vogel retweeted
New Blog Post! More fun ancient tech I found when deep cleaning the house. Learn about crazy 20th century nonsense like Zip disks, fax machines, and Everquest! Once amazing. Now fodder for cheap jokes. Like all of history.
bottomfeeder.substack.com/p/…
