News

Triumph: Minecraft creator funding Age of Wonders 3, doesn't need a publisher
Posted: 13.02.2013 12:11 by Jamie Davey Comments: 19
UPDATE: According to a post by Notch on Reddit, £100,000 has been put into the project from him personally.

Original Story: Although we originally thought Epic Games would be publishing Age of Wonders 3 for Triumph Studios, it actually turns out that the game doesn't have a publisher at all and Minecraft creator Notch, real name Markus Persson, is funding it.

Distribution and co-publishing deals haven't been ruled out, but because Notch is such a big fan of the franchise and doesn't have much time to work on publishing it, he's agreed to help fund it anyway.

 
Lennart Sas, co-owner and managing director of Triumph, explains how the partnership was formed:

"We noticed Minecraft's random title-screen blurb mentioned Age of Wonders," said Sas speaking with Eurogamer. "so I thought what the heck and I sent Notch an email.

"We had a demo for Age of Wonders 3 and talked to various parties including traditional publishers. There was certainly interest but the prospect of having Notch help fund was a dream come true, as he's a fan of the game and didn't insist on owning it like many of the publishers do these days when they fund development.

"It certainly didn't happen overnight," he added, "and he kept a healthy business sense towards the project. His biggest concern was that it would cost him a lot of time, so it helped that we made this sort of game before and were at an advanced stage of development.

"Notch is pretty much hands off. He's a super busy man, now even more so then when we approached him."

 
Triumph decided to opt out of a Kickstarter campaign and went with the more traditional way of development, and the developers will have much more freedom now that Notch is involved and helping to fund it.

Age of Wonders III is due to be released for the PC this autumn. We'll keep you updated on any further developments when we have them.

Comments

By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Feb 13, 2013
SirRoderick
Looking forward to this game I must say, plenty of hours sunk into number 2 :)
By danfreeman (SI Core) on Feb 13, 2013
danfreeman
Same here :)
By styvan01 (SI Newbie) on Feb 13, 2013
styvan01
Not a big fan of what I heard of Notch, but he's gone up in my books.
By Kres (SI Elite) on Feb 13, 2013
Kres
Me too! Will be following the info
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 13, 2013
herodotus
A fan of the series, which for me expands greatly on the "Masters of Magic" title, I can't wait to see how this all turns out. It's almost a little bit "Indie" without a Publisher.
In case anyone's interested in the series, the "AoW" collection is available on Gamersgate at the moment at discount.
By Kres (SI Elite) on Feb 13, 2013
Kres
hmmm you say available on a discount... hmmm going to check the buy page out and see if I get an urge to get it.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Feb 13, 2013
SirRoderick
The old AoWs didn't age particularly well...but it's nostalgia galore for me...screw it, I'll spend a little time on that ^_^
By Kres (SI Elite) on Feb 13, 2013
Kres
You buying it Roderick? I didn't. If you're buying it I'll buy it too. The herding instinct. But, mhmmm wont it be like pixelated and stuff? What resolution is that on mhm...
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 14, 2013
herodotus
Already bought and installed two days ago. I'm having fun with them, as the first is very different to the sequel and some prefer it. I like all of them, and am finding it hard to split time between them and "The Majesty 2 Collection" that I picked from there last week:)
By Kres (SI Elite) on Feb 14, 2013
Kres
Uhm which do you prefer? I played it so long time ago there's no information in the brains of it.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 14, 2013
herodotus
Graphically it would be "AoW 2" and the gameplay IS good, being more recent, but you can't beat the first with it's EP for better gameplay. They're actually quite different.
If you've played the first, then you might not like the sequel.
If you've never played a "AoW" title, or it was a long while back (as with me) and had to choose, I'd go with "AoW II".
By styvan01 (SI Newbie) on Feb 14, 2013
styvan01
It depends with me. Out of the 3, I would say try Shadow Magic. Has the best tutorial and everything. Has a great random map generator, better options, and gameplay. That said, I think I like the first out of the three. Great story, gameplay and what not. I love to do the battles where I get to control in 1, but when it comes to 2, not really so much, especially when it comes to battle in cities. Cities in 1 feel like cities, while 2(and SM), they feel meh. Another thing I liked about 1 is your hero was on the field like your heroes and if he dies, well BYE! In 2(And SM) he's a wizard in a tower, and if he dies, as long as you have another tower, your fine.
By styvan01 (SI Newbie) on Feb 14, 2013
styvan01
Oh and Steam tends to have the three of them for 20 bucks last time I saw.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 14, 2013
herodotus
Thanks styvan01. Well explained. I like all of them for different reasons, but then I'm greedy:)
By styvan01 (SI Newbie) on Feb 14, 2013
styvan01
Np man, just doin my duty of passin the love of Age of Wonders. I remember playing the beta of the first one years ago (I still have the disc that had the beta) and loved it. Bought it on Ebay a few years later when I could for a Dollar (Shipping was 3) and then loved it. All in All its like my 4 fave strategy game series, after Warcraft, Starcraft, and Command and Conquer.
By Kres (SI Elite) on Feb 14, 2013
Kres
Yeah Shadow Magic is the only I recall playing. But blurry as well. But I'm sure I didn't skipped older releases. Hm. Not likely.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 14, 2013
herodotus
Well the sale is over, so I hope you guys got in yesterday. It's all "Civilisation V" today, and only with 58% off.
By styvan01 (SI Newbie) on Feb 15, 2013
styvan01
Damn, installed Age of Wonders again and now it glitches and I cant find a fix for it.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Feb 15, 2013
SirRoderick
The GoG version works likea charm for me on Win7 (this being shadow magic)