#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
If you have ANY interest in games, you’ll want to tune into UATV tonight for a rare DEVSTREAM!
PSA: SocialGalactic is back online We just completed a major server upgrade. SG was down for about an hour while we worked through some post-upgrade smoke tests. Everything should be working normally now.
Thanks for your patience.
As, obviously, is VP.
These are revolutionary times in game development. Alpha testers already know the gameplay is operational. Now we’re adding the art and AI, while going 3D.
The size of the generative maps for the 50-on-50 battles are sizable. And no one has ever played this kind of multiplayer gameplay before. It’s based on a multiplayer battleground environment I designed for Age of Conan, which could have revolutionized the MMO, but the new producer at FunCom instead decided that the best way to keep the game’s one million subscribers who had run out of new content engaged and subscribing was to fix the bugs in the content that all of them had already played.
Meanwhile, their battlegrounds were empty. And I mean quite literally empty. In six months of working with them, I never once saw anyone else in one.
It doesn’t look like much. But at this stage, it never does.
Meanwhile, the financially propped-up game companies are collapsing. Beginning, apparently, with Bioware. And yes, I do mean propped-up and I would know. The company I worked for funded Neverwinter Nights.
If you know, then you know. It doesn’t look like much, but the image above represents the AI-assisted transformation of a functional 2D game engine into a full-3D Unreal environment completed in a single evening. What will be coming soon is going to blow everyone’s minds, with a new style of blended gameplay that has never been explored or permitted before. And it’s possible because what we’ve witnessed in the last two weeks is the biggest development in game development since the release of Akalabeth and the ability to write computer games in BASIC.
Friday 31 July 2026
2000 hrs EDT
Client files and Instructions at the Discord.
Server stress test: I need as many of you as possible to join, even if all you do is enter the match and walk away from their computer. Let’s get 40 or more players in!
A new version of VALRHOLL is now available. Really need many users to test as we near an Alpha state. Instructions at the discord. discord.gg/YTnUwDEh9
PVP_GAME update: Will push out a new build for weekend test. Huge list of additions and changes. Look for details later this evening or tomorrow. Please come help me test!All, server is live for the weekend. Ton of changes and additions. Bots still need work. Join the discord for instructions and access to the game files:
Gamers, need your help with network test of the PvP Game. Would like to see 10+ connected.
This Friday, 2100 EDT, and possibly Saturday night.
Discord server with game files and instructions.
They destroy what they cannot control to their liking:
For the last 12 years, my company Autarch has published my game Adventurer Conqueror King System under the terms of the Open Game License (OGL) 1.0. For the last 5 years, ACKS has been my full-time job.
Now, Wizards of the Coast, in what I can only describe as an act of perfidious treachery, has decided to retroactively deauthorize the OGL 1.0 and offer up a new Open Game License 1.1 to replace it.
What does this new license mean? Where do we go from here? Before we go further, please note that while I am a trained attorney (Harvard Law magna cum laude, in fact), I’m not a practicing intellectual property specialist. My thoughts should not be construed as legal advice about what you should do. These are just my thoughts about the situation Autarch has now found itself in, and what we need to do.
Can They Really Do That?!
When people learn that WOTC is deauthorizing the OGL, the first question they ask is “can they really do that?” It’s a fair question. After all, for more than 20 years we’ve all relied on the OGL to be irrevocable.But the question isn’t whether they can do. They are doing it. Right now, on our watch. No, the question is “who is going to stop them from doing it?”
And the answer might be “no one.”
If you’re under the illusion that we live in a country with a court system that rewards the righteous, allow me to disabuse you of that notion. The American justice system is pay-to-play, and the amount you have to pay is unfathomable to those who haven’t gone through it. I consulted with one of New York’s top IP litigators last week to find out how much money I’d have to raise via GoFundMe to fight Wizards. When I asked him if $100,000 would be enough, he laughed. He said I’d need $500,000 to even have a chance of summary judgment, and $4 million for a trial. Wizards has a war chest measured in millions and will fight this out for 4-6 years.
Imagine if WOTC sued Autarch claiming that my game Ascendant was violating their copyright. Ascendant is a d100 superhero game that has nothing in common with D&D and uses no language from the SRD. WOTC would have legitimate claim whatsoever. If we had $4,000,000 to fight, we’d certainly win. But… we don’t have the money. So, we’d lose.
In real life courtroom dramas, the good guys don’t win. The rich guys win.
He’s not wrong. Even if you win, you’re probably not getting your legal fees paid by the losing side. This is a devastating blow to RPG game developers and marks the end of a golden age of game development.