New Beginnings for Eternium

[LiamRedbeard]

Gone are the days when gaming's pace was likened to a snail race. Humans these days are an impatient lot. With instant communication as a driving force, people expect and want instant gratification. It used to be, "Good things come to those who wait", but now it is, "Good things happen to those who hustle". Some games I play now have weekly updates, not just fixes. There are so many games out there to choose from it boggles the mind. Once you find one you like, you stick with it. I stuck with Eternium for quite a while, not like some though, and enjoyed every repetitive minute. But it got old, at least for me. I still log in once in a while and watch the forums. Good luck with Unity.

[WarriorSeven]

Nah ... It's alive and kicking, especially since the enhanced MF team has grabbed the bull by the horns for Unity development and existing Eternium maintenance, allowing DP free to focus on developing the new game.

I'd say the entire Eternium team is quite active and engaged in existing game fixes concurrently with new game development. PLUS many of us are going to have the opportunity to beta test new gameplay in the coming weeks.

Certainly doesn't seem to me that Eternium is dead at all!

[techizhong]

Eternium is dead

[Travis | Support Mgr.]

is that still the plan?

Stuff like that is on their radar to improve in the Unity version.

do you know what direction they were wanting to take?

Not yet.

[Arawn]

Travis I have a question, at one time it was said that the jewelry crafting system was going to be given a complete overhaul. With MF taking over the development of Eternium is that still the plan? Did DP ever begin that process? If not then do you know what direction they were wanting to take? Thanks

[John Welch | CEO]

Definitely Google. Most likely YES in a PC/Mac build we distribute from EterniumGame.com. However, iOS is tricky / limiting and not sure if it would be possible on Steam or Windows.

[Bali_Lenni]

Cheers for the wishlist and Tally Ho for the battles fought outside maps and trials .....TBD The broken dragon to be deciding....?!

I know it's probably too early to say but....will beta continue to be restricted to Android / Google Playstore, or can that be opened up to other platforms too?

[John Welch | CEO]

Please read Adrian’s post and the ensuing conversations, then continue here…

The Making Fun team now has the main responsibility for managing Eternium’s Marmalade code base. We have been working over the past several weeks to make builds and take over the live operations tasks that we weren’t already doing. Given the holidays, the World Cup (much of our team is in Argentina & Uruguay), and that just about everyone got sick at one point or another, I’d say it is going very well. We now have builds in test for all platforms except Steam, which has some unique requirements and hence a separate code branch and build process. We will push new builds live in the next few weeks that will include a few bug fixes Adrian made.

We will keep Eternium working in harmony with the various app stores through their evolving requirements and operating system updates. We will fix bugs and exploits and explore making improvements. It is TBD how much we will be able to improve this version. We will let you know more about what to expect as we get further along. In the meantime, I asked Travis to start a new community wish list, so please send your thoughts his way (Forum, Discord, etc.).

Adrian hinted at some other big news... As additional members of the Making Fun team finish their work on an upcoming Runestrike release, they will roll onto a remake of Eternium in Unity. We expect this to blaze along, given access to the source code and source art from the Marmalade version, guidance from Dream Primer, and a good sized development team deeply experienced with Unity on the project.

The point of remaking Eternium isn’t just to get rid of Marmalade; it is to reproduce as faithfully as possible the magic and soul of Eternium on a foundation supportive of delivering more of everything you love. If we can’t get you into battle with Ragadam in the Marmalade build, we will do that in the Unity version. More levels, more story, more playable characters, new event types. We will release alpha and beta versions this year. We are targeting a production (live) release in early 2024. It is too soon to say much more about the exact features and roadmap, but we will share more as we build.

In summary, we have in active development:

1. Live Eternium, managed by Making Fun with Dream Primer guidance
2. A Unity-based remake of Eternium as the main focus of Making Fun
3. A new Unreal-based ARPG code-named Artemis as the main focus of Dream Primer

Thank you for all the comments and questions. Keep them coming, and we’ll keep the updates coming.

John

[rifLeR]

Once the Making Fun team can build, test, and release on all platforms we will turn to migrating event management (start, stop, issuing medals, and cheater banning) from Dream Primer. We will add automation to process event results faster and issue medals in a more timely manner.

Moving a big chunk of the workload doesn’t mean Dream Primer is leaving Eternium behind. On the contrary, it means they can focus their time on the things that most require their very deep, specific experience. With engine and release management and event ops off their plate, Dream Primer can use their “Eternium time” to advance on the bug and feature backlog.

Hi everyone

John, I have a question. I've asked it in the Discord channel to Adrian and Travis answered me that I should ask you here, cause you're likely to respond he said.

I see DP and MF point of "Eternium 2", but I really don't understand what DP and MF are going to do with the Eternium (present version). Could you tell me about it please?

Truly, I don’t understand plans about Eternium after reading your thread. I hope it just seems to me, but your post looks like sort of preparing to “close the project”, when “Eternium 2” will released. I just wanna know that it’s not true and about plans sounded before, like a splitting lb, porting from marmalade to unity or ue, adding Act V, at least some supporting and progressing of the Eternium in future?

[papa jim]

I like the update with the exception of one item in this section "Once the Making Fun team can build, test, and release on all platforms we will turn to migrating event management (start, stop, issuing medals, and cheater banning) from Dream Primer. We will add automation to process event results faster and issue medals in a more timely manner."

Are you going to continue the farce of giving the same ANB medals to three different groups in each class? With the change from being an award for excelling to a participation award medals became no longer special and a huge show of disrespect for those who played/supported this game for years and earned them. Sounds like kindergarten or a world cup in which Argentina wins the cup but they also award the same to the food truck driver and the beer vendor.

The solution, I don't know but, if continued medals should return to being an award for achievement,

[Agus1994]

really eternium entertained me for a long time but it came to an end. I would love an eternium 2!

Happy new year!!!

[Skyla]

Hmmm....
let's hope they leave Eternium (aside from maybe fixing a few of the existing bugs) alone and just put their new fangled ideas into a second version. Would hate to see them jack up the original, for which I've(we've) loved for so long and continue to love to this day. With that said, I'm slightly excited to see what they have in store for a second version, despite never really dawning hopes of seeing said second version. I expect it to be something laggy and unplayable for some of us who are pure mobile, considering the idea of unreal engine, but that comes with the territory of mobile gameplay I guess. Considering the quotes and ideas that this is a dedicated and "for the player" team, I hope it's not just gonna be some "money grab pos second version that has nothing to do with the first" that disappoints the fan base. However to reiterate, I mostly just hope they don't destroy the original and interrupt what has been for years, a fantastic game that I continue to play and love to this day. Good luck and godspeed with your plans!

[Shintara]

Thank you for giving us some insight in what has been going on behind the screens.

It's clear that it all has been a real feat. And for a long time too!
A lot of things going on HR wise, with technical difficulties, making choices, the (almost) unreachable code,etc, etc., and it seems like there were a lot of 'fall down, get back up again' things happening.
It sounds like now you've found the right people to work on the different aspects of the game(s), and I'm really happy and optimistic about that.

I can't wait to hear about the next big breakthrough!

Good luck to all of you and don't forget to have some fun in the process too!

[WarriorSeven]

So, let me get this straight ...

At the end of all of this, it appears we'll all be presented with:

1) an in-house updated and modifiable Marmalade engine GAME retaining the "Eternium" tag, configurable for continued use, but with plans to port the code to yet another engine, Unity, PLUS,

2) a brand new unnamed Unreal 5 engine GAME that we were teased with NY @Adrian awhile ago with a new UI and immersive graphics (and dare I ASS-UME with completely new gameplay?).