BlueFlower
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 156
Registered: 10-27-2013
IP: Logged

I know that DROD:RPG isn't the favoured child of Caravel, but I do wonder what comes next for it. Will the styles and certain elements from Gunthro & TSS be added? Will there be another story following the gallant Tendry?

I for one, would like to see a sequel or other story continuing and upgrading RPG. It's one of my most favourite games, after all.

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xpym
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 87
Registered: 03-28-2010
IP: Logged

From how it appears on the outside, Mike Rimer is the main driving force behind Caravel, and currently he doesn't seem interested in making another DROD game of any kind. However he is still making games, and it just so happens that Twisty Little Passages is pretty mechanically similar to DROD RPG, so you might be interested in that.

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I don't speak for Mike, but one approach that might be possible is fan-built updates to engine and game. For it to work, you need one person to lead the effort to completion. This is the role Mike took on nearly all of the Caravel products. It's exhausting and not everybody can do it.

If you have a good project lead, a lot of things are possible.

-Erik

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The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I appreciate the feedback and interest in DROD RPG!

As you can see, I'm a big fan of this game and playstyle too.

I got involved in DROD development as one of the game's biggest fans myself.

I worked on TLP this past year-plus because it seemed a novel and doable creative project in this vein. To be clear, I am actually interested in making more DROD and RPG games, but I no longer have the thousands of hours required to produce a complete video game at a respectable level of quality. I was able to spend a couple hundred hours on TLP over an 18-month span, and that's the limit of what I can contribute these days.

Interestingly, TLP has garnered a higher relative level of interest, based on total backer count, than I've seen for an electronic Caravel game release, so I don't think that direction was a misstep. At this point, I am more likely to attempt to bite off another small-ish project like TLP in the future than attempt another gargantuan project that I'd likely not finish.

I am totally behind anyone who would like to take the reins in developing and leading another project, like is happening with Treacle Stew right now, as one good example. And I really like the story in this upcoming SmS.

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Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

kieranmillar
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2670
Registered: 07-11-2014
IP: Logged

Having spent some time with Mike on TLP, I feel like I've gained a big appreciation for exactly how much the DROD games have gone above and beyond and how much I had taken for granted.

Mike has some serious organisational skills, project management skills and motivation at a level that I've never seen in anyone else, at least not in this amount of combination. I definitely do not have any of these skills myself, I had high hopes for my level of contribution to TLP at the start of the project and I was not able to produce even close to what I had hoped. My effort was a complete drop in the ocean compared to what Mike did just considering the puzzles alone. Mike's puzzles kept coming and continuously surprised me with how good and creative they were an honestly completely blew my puzzles out of the water. And that's before considering everything else that went into producing the book, and you have to bear in mind that this isn't Mike's day job, and he has a load of kids which is usually the death of your free time! I don't know how he does it.

Obviously Mike is not the only one involved, lots of people have put in a load of effort on all things Caravel related, the artists, the musicians, the level designers, the testers, and so on. Especially Schik and the wonderful web stuff he's done that holds this community together. But it's only recently occurred to me that the level of effort that has surrounded the DROD games is not the norm. These games being developed and supported for over 20 years is incredible. I think it's easy to assume that it must be easier or less effort than it is because of just how far beyond the norm DROD has gone.

Like everyone else, I would love for the work on DROD to continue at the pace it historically has, and would especially love DROD RPG to get more love, but I just don't know how that's ever going to be possible again. Caravel has had this extraordinarily rare combination of effort and talent poured into it and it was inevitable that it would slow down at some point.

Thanks to everyone involved in Caravel past and present and congratulations on what you've achieved.

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[Last edited by kieranmillar at 06-18-2020 11:17 PM]

JamesBond007
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 43
Registered: 07-26-2014
IP: Logged

In my opinion, adding DROD 4 and 5 room styles might be a good thing.