- Dev Update Sep 1: Working Through Playtest Requested Changes - 1 September 2026
Players submitted an excellent list of deficiencies in the beta of the new update called The Threat System. I’ve been working through them but it is taking a while.See, there are two problems with this game.A) It isn’t finished. B) Parts of it aren’t right.Every time I try to address A. Unfinished by adding a feature, I have to spend time on B. Not Right to correct stuff that isn’t right, or at least not inline with the revised vision of the game.An excellent concrete example of this just happened while I was typing this:I previously added some new entertainment, comfort, and social options to the Inn. Addressing the A problem.I better aligned the tooltips and text display for these options.I posted a screenshot on the real-time dev blogEddie looked at the screenshot and pointed out “5% increase to any of those services’ wellness values would be unnoticeable” He’s totally right!So now I…
- Dev Update Aug 3: Playtest Results and Work on Threat Feature Release Candidate - 3 August 2026
The Threat System went out in public beta on Jun 22. The following days saw bug fixes.I then asked the most involved and vocal players on discord this question:“What needs to change for this to be released to everyone?Each person gave me their list of what they felt was missing or needed attention.The good news: No bugs or stability issues! The game runs well. All of the problems are Game Design issues, which is exactly what I need help seeing.I then collated each person’s list into this master list:CombatReduce the starting difficulty of undead encounters.Clearly explain that running away causes HP loss.Reduce the HP penalty for running away, possibly by half.Combat victories should also provide resources or equipment.Ice spell damage did not increase while levelling.Town BuildingsEnsure the starting region has an outfitter, healer, armorer, and blacksmith without requiring water trave…
- Threat System: The World Fights Back - 5 June 2026
I haven’t written in a while because I want to share what is already built, not what I intend.For almost six months, I’ve been working on one major feature. But to support it I had to touch almost every aspect of the game.Now that it’s in testing, I look back and am proud how it forced me to shape the game more into what I’ve always envisioned.Here’s the journey, and what changed.The Big Feature: Systems Based Threats & VillainsSimilar to other RPGs we all enjoy, I could script a multi-step quest line: NPCs tell the player about a monster’s activities, put in some set piece battles, a story turn or two, all leading up to a boss battle. The player’s progress is measured by ticking off the todo boxes in a list. I’ve already built this. It’s fine, it works, I enjoy it in other games. But that’s not what we’re here for. I want a fantasy world that feels alive: That pushes back, does things…
- Dev Update Mar 7: Towns, Regions, and the First Threats - 7 March 2026
In the previous update I wrote my goal to introduce systemic global threats to challenge the player. To achieve this, I need to carve up the map into regions and have a better more detailed map.Jan was laying the tech foundation.Feb was expanding on it to make a more full medieval world…. in which monsters will crush, pillage, and destroy. (Being a GM, I have a soft spot for the monsters!)1. Map Now Has Geographic LandmarksScenery is now detected and named. This will feed the new directional system for NPCs telling you where to go.2. Towns Span Multiple HexesIt was driving me nutz the current build only had one village icon and it was used for every town size.In fixing it, and discussing with wonderful people like Odynn, KafkaExMachina, Dagy in the Discord channel, I decided to go all the way with Towns spreading across multiple hexes.While doing that, I might as well put feeder village…
- Dev Update Feb 8 - Regions and Map Generation - 8 February 2026
Before I get into today’s topic of what I’ve been working on, I want to address the issue of bugs and patch releases.Some 20 common and serious bugs have been reported since the influx of new players last month. I’m not ignoring you! Bugs matter to me and I will address them.Right now I’m focused and building momentum on making major structural improvements to the core game that are hard to do but long overdue. It’s challenging and thorny work and a few days away from it at this critical time will set it back. This is the stage where the cement is still wet, and stepping away now risks letting it harden in the wrong shape.As soon as I get Regions and Threats into a good place (not finished, but well formed), I’ll do a patch release.I hope you understand. We all have the same goal: a great playing, sandbox, simulation RPG. I think I’m doing the right things to get there. Now, onto today’…
- Dev Update Jan 17 - Villains, Threats, & Regions - 17 January 2026
Good writing has one central focused topic. But, a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks, so this is a triple-topic blog post.These past two weeks mark my first stretch back working full-time on Archmage Rises in quite a while. First, I put out a significant bug fix patch with a lot more fixes than that short list conveys.Then I focused on the most foundational work the game needs.Turning Down Contract WorkOver the Christmas holidays, a studio reached out to hire me as a consultant. At first I said yes. Certain income is nice! But the more I thought about it, the parameters of the deal just didn’t feel right.One consideration was it would steal energy and attention from Archmage Rises, mainly around mental context switching. The kind of background drain that does not show up on a timesheet. In the end, I passed on the offer.It was a risky choice, but my wife and I feel it was the right o…
- Patch 0.4.3 - Jan 13 - 13 January 2026
Hi everyone! I fixed the two most reported bugs over Christmas/New Years. There were a lot of code changes, likely fixing other bugs too, but I'm releasing it on the Beta branch first so we can see how well it performs.FixedKnowledge Picker crashing - Fixed the Subject/Knowledge Picker when talking with NPCs. It was blowing up if there was a quest giver without a Job. I also got rid of the dummy text "hyrule castle" and "ninroot" so it is more clear it blew up, it now just says "error".NPCs giving bad directions to Monsters - it now spawns a tracks Event on the map from which you can find monsters.Not a very long list, but hopefully this will make your game play much more enjoyable!
- Patch 0.4.3 - Jan 9 - 9 January 2026
Hi everyone! I fixed the two most reported bugs over Christmas/New Years. There were a lot of code changes, likely fixing other bugs too, but I'm releasing it on the Beta branch first so we can see how well it performs.FixedKnowledge Picker crashing - Fixed the Subject/Knowledge Picker when talking with NPCs. It was blowing up if there was a quest giver without a Job. I also got rid of the dummy text "hyrule castle" and "ninroot" so it is more clear it blew up, it now just says "error".NPCs giving bad directions to Monsters - it now spawns a tracks Event on the map from which you can find monsters.Not a very long list, but hopefully this will make your game play much more enjoyable!(Remember - to play this latest build switch to the Beta branch on Steam by going to the games Properties)
- Patch 0.4.2 - Dec 31 - 31 December 2025
Jan 1: Some players are reporting save game incompatibility between Dec 6 build and this Dec 31 build.For now, I have made the Beta Branch the Dec 6 Build so you can load your saves.I carved out some time today to look into a few recently reported bugs.Fixed Glassmaker not selling any glass. What was she doing with her time?! ːlaughing_yetiː Well I got them back to work!Fixed casting Haste on plants makes the plant yield on the FIRST day of the season instead of some date within the season.Expanded the text display area for Random EventsAdded Console command: HexEvents.Reload to allow Events writers to reload their JSON without having to restart the game. This coincides with the documentation I provided few days ago.Fixed Dead Body random event where you find a body with a note and no options. Now it has options and rewards.Organic ResourcesThere were a few bugs reported on plants not y…
- How to Make Your Own Random Events - Documentation Page - 30 December 2025
As a final post this year, here is the documentation page on how to use the Events system to create your own Events (User Generated Content). https://www.archmagerises.com/news/2025/12/29/how-to-write-random-events-ugcThank you for your interesting in the game this year, looking forward to a very bright and exciting 2026!Before you ask: I don't know how to get it to work with SteamWorkshop if you want to share events. It took me a long while to write all that documentation. It's accurate as of today!
- Dev Update Dec 15: Back in Shape - 15 December 2025
This is my second last post of 2025. As the year winds down, I’ve been reflecting on 2025 and making some plans for 2026 which may be of interest to players.I’ll cut to the most exciting news: I’ll be working on Archmage Rises full time January and February. I had a small bit of good fortune wrapping up a client project end of the year and it should see me through the next two months.Unity From the StartWhen I first started the project I came from building my own game engine in C++ and releasing two titles to the app store. I needed to decide to continue building out my game engine or switch to one of the popular ones. While I could keep building my engine, I could never keep up with dozens of dedicated engine developers in Denmark or North Carolina. In the end I decided to go with Unity because of the vast asset store, community, and C# - my preferred programming language.But I needed…
- Major Update: Map Events and Resources Are Live - 6 December 2025
I'm happy to release a significant new feature update to Archmage Rises.This Build IS NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE - Saves and Worlds have to be created again.For many of us, it's been a while since the last update. If you just started playing, I'm sorry to wreck your game, but it was necessary.This Update contains two significant new Feature updates: Hex Events and ResourcesMap Event FeaturesWhile traveling the world, you’ll now encounter dynamic narrative Events. These are unexpected situations that offer choices, skill tests, opportunities to roleplay, rewards, and consequences.You’ll see events appear directly on the world map as you exploreWe’re starting with 30 events, more will be added as we develop other featuresReplaces the old Tracks system - you now spot tracks from afar and choose to engage with them or notAdded a new Item type - a “giftable” which you can get out of certain ev…
- New Beta Build - 25 November 2025
I’m happy to report I really focused the last 10 days and built the new Resources feature. Hopefully this will fix the experience people had with the Hex Events feature.I want to thank everyone on the "real time dev blog" Discord channel who helped with responses, advice, and general encouragement as I built the feature.The build is available for play on the BETA steam branch.This Build IS NOT BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE - Saves and Worlds have to be created again.What it includes:Resources are now available from Sources on the map. They are either Organic or Mineral.Sources have a level, starting at the wild untamed version at level 0. Levelling up will come when I have time to build it out. All the structure is in place.Mineral sources have a surface deposit at level 0 which you can mine with the right tool. Once they are empty, that’s it. Levelling up is what allows larger harvesting operat…
- Dev Update Nov 15: Resources Interaction - 16 November 2025
I’m working on the new resource interaction, so I can fix it, so the quests will be completable again, so I can get the Events update out. I took out the “Hex view” in doing the Events update but that kinda broke the game, and now I need to put in the replacement sooner than i expected.The solution is to create interaction ‘tiles’ for stuff you can do in a map location.I’m not trying to solve it for everything, but I do need a solution that scales for all the game interactions, not just resources.Trouble is, I don’t have a team anymore, so I don’t have anyone to talk to in the middle of the day with questions like “A or B?” Posting to Steam once a week and waiting several days for responses is too slow for the kind of micro-design decisions I’m speaking of.I decided to do an experiment: I created a new channel on the Archmage Rises Discord server called real-time-dev-blog where I just s…
- The Grand Design Sphere III: Realm - 1 November 2025
Quick Dev UpdateI’m working on location resource sources. I got it so a location can have multiple resource sources. When the player moves into the hex a new UI pops up asking how to interact with it. This new contextual UI is part of the new way of interacting with map locations - a replacement for the old context switch “hex view” screen. This is when I needed to spend time thinking through the UI.I use a tool called Balsamiq to do quick mockups to figure out placement and size of things relative to each other. I’m sharing this Work in Progress (WIP) because it is where I left off before needing to deal with the kids and Halloween. Some of it I like but some of it isn’t right.Which reminds me of this great indie game dev video from Jake Birkett “11 years without a hit”.Jake is a Britt, and there is a moment where he confesses his shock at what a big deal Halloween is in American (and…
- The Grand Design Sphere II: Magecraft - 25 October 2025
Quick Dev UpdateYesterday I got a world spell casting and a resource “source” location of a Rose Bush to appear on the map and save and load. These are the fundamentals necessary to fix the resources feature of Hex Events.But while we wait for that, let’s continue with the second part of the Core Loop refinementWhat is Archmage Rises? Managing the three spheres of life: Self, Magecraft, and Realm. You could think of it as Self, Work, and Society.MagecraftThe Art. The Craft. The Power. What is it really like to be a mage in a medieval fantasy world? That’s what this game is about and what differentiates it from other games like Dwarf Fortress, Rim World, Guild 2.I’ve thought for a long time about this and I’ve boiled down the ‘mage fantasy’ to these three areas to manage: Experience, Spells, and TowerExperience (XP)This represents the biggest departure from how the game plays now because…
- The Grand Design Sphere I: Self - 18 October 2025
I’m currently working on the spell casting in the World for Resource finding. There isn’t anything thrilling to announce about that, it’s just work to get it working.While we wait for that, I want to share the Core Loop completion and refinement work I’ve done so there is ample time to discuss it together. This is the culmination of all the forum posts, discord discussion, design docs, and years of experience: written as succinctly as I can in one place describing the whole game.I’ve never done this before.What is Archmage Rises? The three spheres of Self, Magecraft, and Realm answers it.(Note: I’ve renamed Craft to Magecraft so people don’t think 1/3 of the game is crafting)Today we dive into Self. Some of it will be familiar, some of it new. Remember, the core of gameloop design is managing resources, trade offs, and creating interesting choices.SelfThe most basic level of being a hum…
- Dev Update Oct 12: The Grand Design: Intro - 13 October 2025
There once was a Hobbit…I’m trapped in my hotel room in Las Vegas right now. My wife and kids are here for a dance conference. This laptop and hotel desk isn’t well suited to heavy game dev, so this week I switched tasks from programming the Resource spells to what I can do well from a hotel: Work on the core game loops of the game.Eric Barone spent about 4 years making Stardew Valley. Most of us will agree: he did a good job.One of the challenges he faced was becoming a better pixel artist by the end of year four than he was day one. That meant having to go back and re-art things he had already finished.Over the years I have been working on Archmage Rises, I’d like to think I have grown as a developer and designer. I’ve been able to work on several titles, each very different from this one. I’ve worked with full time AAA designers, trained new designers, and put together a university c…
- Dev Update Oct 6: Solo Dev - 3 October 2025
\This week I worked on adding the resource/event detection spells as previously discussed. Specifically, the heat detection spell.It is hard.Why so hard?First, I had 4 programmers working on the codebase, so it’s been years since I had to touch these parts of the game myself.Second, the last major feature we did was an overhaul of combat. That ended up overhauling how spells are defined: instead of being code centric, they are now data driven by JSON to the Nth degree. Two programmers over engineered the solution by miles to allow game designers to do really complex things without “needing programmers”. But the system is so complicated, even at the time we were making it, no one really wanted to touch it. It was hard to tell if this was just being unfamiliar with a new system, or if it just needed a GUI tool to allow creating data in a human friendly way.Example: These 600 lines of JSON…
- Dev Update Sep 26: Results of Resources Feedback - 26 September 2025
Last week I identified what I think went wrong with the new resource system and how that resulted in diminished Agency. I purposed two ideas: A to have a search action to reveal points of interest, and B that resources should be permanently placed in the world and extracted through tools/spells/effort. I asked for feedback and feedback I got!The majority of feedback was positive, basically saying “Yes to A and B”. Now we have a design direction that seems good to a variety of tastes.This is the best part of Early Access.Right now, I’m working a side gig on a RPG match 3 game. The designer is revising features and adding new ones. A few days ago, he requested we copy a feature from a similar match 3 game and put it into ours.I pushed back and told him it isn’t going to work. The reason is that while that feature might be great in that game. It won’t be good in ours. But why not? Isn’t th…
