It was early August 2021 when former Elder Scrolls Arena and Elder Scrolls Daggerfall developers Ted Peterson and Julian LeFay announced they had partnered to create The Wayward Realms at their new studio, OnceLost Games.
Nearly three years later, the developers have just opened a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for their 'Grand RPG', which aims to hearken back to the old-school of games like Daggerfall, which featured massive open worlds and a strong emphasis on choices and consequences.
At the time of writing, the campaign has already earned nearly half the minimum funding goal of $500K. With 29 days left, The Wayward Realms will likely be funded, and there may even be space for some stretch goals, which are currently set for $800K, $1 million, $1.5 million, and $2 million, with the last one including multiplayer support.
Ahead of the Kickstarter campaign, we sent a few questions to OnceLost Games to discuss their approach to the project and the main features you can expect to see when it lands in early access next year.
As far as I can see, Julian hasn't worked in the industry for a long time. Why did he choose to come back now?
After Julian did an interview about The Elder Scrolls with Indigo Gaming, Ted Peterson reached out to Indigo and did an interview as well. Through him, Julian and Ted got back in touch with each other and began talking about what they would have done had they continued working more hands on with the series. Eventually, they decided to give it a try, and thus, OnceLost Games was born.
OnceLost Games was founded in 2019. Were you affected by the COVID pandemic, leading to a delay in the development process?
The biggest effects were on team members' personal lives which did lead to a rough start for the company. It was early on enough that there wasn’t any delay, per se, but things did take a little longer to get going.
What's the project's status, and how many developers do you have currently?
We are currently a team of around 40 members. We are still in early production with the aim of the Kickstarter campaign allowing us to work full time for a year to get an early access version of the game out to supporters.
You're now looking to create an early access build of The Wayward Realms with the funds from the Kickstarter. How long do you expect it to take before this build can go live in early access following the end of the campaign?
Our aim is for an early access release sometime in 2025, but it is hard to nail down a more specific date at this time as some of that will be affected by how much we manage to raise.
Moreover, do you have an estimate for how long the game will stay in early access before the full launch?
That will depend on how easily we are able to find additional funding after the early access launch.
The Wayward Realms is being billed as a spiritual successor to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. That game's biggest achievement was arguably its procedural generation, which, in some ways, may still be unmatched by modern games. Why do you think that is the case, and how will you advance it with this new game?
Daggerfall’s open world is often cited as wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle, which is something that can certainly happen when procedural generation is implemented in a simple form. This probably scares off most developers who would rather have a smaller, more detailed world for their players to engage with. However, we feel that there are plenty of ways to advance the procedural generation and integrate more memorable interactions and encounters within it.
We are also taking advantage of procedural generation in order to be able to change things within the world, such as a town being burned down to the ground as a result of the political struggle.
Are you using Unreal Engine 5.3's Procedural Content Generation feature? In general, how can a cutting-edge game-making tool like UE5 empower your work?
We have not upgraded to 5.3 yet, but we do plan to. In the end we will take advantage of some of that systems features, but will primarily be sticking with our own, as we are needing the proc gen to work at runtime and we are also creating a curvature to the world, so that as you sail or climb a high location, then you can see distant landmarks come into view properly.
Can you talk about the virtual Game Master?
The VGM is meant to work like a real life tabletop game master would, tailoring the game around the player, who/what they are playing as, and what they enjoy doing. For instance, a player who collects books may be offered more quests with books as a reward to entice them. Meanwhile, a melee-focused player may be offered more challenges based on their melee skills. The idea is to track what the player is doing and avoid offering more of what the player is not doing.
The VGM is also in charge of creating new quests for players, taking into account recent events, NPCs that the player has interacted with, and what factions the player is allied with and against in order to fill in the variables in potential quests. This helps make the game more relevant to the player in each playthrough.
You've stated that, in a way, there is no main quest in your game. Given that, is it fair to say the game has no specific end, and events will continue to unfold without limit?
There is no main quest, but we do have major World Events that occur throughout a playthrough. They act as sort of an overarching narrative. There are also questlines for each of the major factions. With both of these there will be a sort of finality to a narrative for players, but they can continue to play one beyond them, and the VGMs will continue to create new adventures for the player to experience.
Will the game feature Radiant AI-like proc-gen quests, and if so, how do you plan to make them more interesting?
There will be a lot of procedurally generated quests. Part of the goal for the VGM is to make sure they are interesting to the player by including recent events and NPC & Faction interactions in order to keep them relevant. We are also building quests in a 5 act structure, thus making sure that they have a proper narrative beat and can be more interesting.
Speaking of AI, what do you think about generative AI NPCs? Could they make RPGs more interesting, especially for side content?
It is something we are exploring, but in order to ensure that they would fit the world, they would have to have some strict limitations.
Can you describe how spellcrafting will work in The Wayward Realms?
We are not ready to go into depth about it, but part of the gameplay loop of being a mage is seeking out new words to use in spell creation. Different combinations will allow for various effects and more rare words will lead to more powerful spells.
Since the game is set in an archipelago and ships have been confirmed, will there be ship combat? What about any content under the sea (e.g., explorable ruins)?
Ship combat is something we are still discussing. There is no gunpowder in our world, so cannons would not fit. We do also want undersea exploration, but that is something we have yet to touch on with our procedural systems. Both to be determined.
You mentioned traditional 'click-to-attack combat'. Is that a reference to MMO-style 'tab targeting'?
No, we mean the difference between today’s combat, where clicking the mouse button results in an attack, and Daggerfall-style combat, where the mouse is dragged in order to produce a swing.
When describing 'directional combat', you referred to mouse and keyboard. Are you also going to support gamepads? Will this mode support manual aiming of bows and spells and other action elements like dodging, blocking, et cetera?
We do already support gamepads even in this early stage. Bows and spells are aimed manually in both instances. Dodging and kicking are bound to specific keys. Blocking can be affected by the direction inputs.
For those who aren't fond of combat, is it possible to be a crafter-type character who sends companions and allies to do their dirty work?
There will be non-combat options, such as dialogue options. Companions are something we would like, but we are not sure if we will get in on time yet.
In a previous interview from 2021, you said there might be a lot of reading in the game due to budget constraints. Has that changed at all (e.g., will there be more voice acting than anticipated)?
No, we don’t really plan for voice acting besides some greetings, grunts, background noise, and battle cries. The procedural nature of some quests, as well as how much dialogue we have planned, makes having full voice acting virtually impossible. We might have text-to-speech available as more of an accessibility option.
Similarly, you mentioned romances and the like would not be a focus. Is that still the case?
It is something we are exploring, but nothing is set in stone yet.
I know you've said the main goal of The Wayward Realms is to restore the design philosophies of classic RPGs. However, I wanted to ask if there's anything you'd like to borrow from the best examples of most recent RPGs, like Baldur's Gate 3. What do you think about Larian's game and its overwhelming success?
We have many huge fans of the game and Larian themselves on the team. Ultimately, BG3 is a different type of game than what we are making, but some inspiration has undoubtedly seeped in here or there.
Will there be any mini-games in The Wayward Realms?
Yes, we do plan some different types of tavern games, such as card or board games, as well as some tourney type games like jousting or dueling, and of course the ever-requested fishing mini game will make an appearance.
What do you think about Bethesda's latest game, Starfield? Some players thought the usual sense of exploration found in a Bethesda game was kinda lost in it. Was it simply inevitable due to it being set in space (and, as such, locations had to be spread across many planets)?
The game was enjoyable but took a different approach to procedural generation from ours. We feel it would have benefited from having some Daggerfall-esque “dungeon” generation instead of reusing premade dungeons.
Bethesda is now working on The Elder Scrolls VI, and there's a chance the full version of The Wayward Realms may be released in its vicinity. How would you feel about that?
We are not really sure what the release dates for either game will ultimately be, but we don’t mind if we release alongside. There really is a big difference in the two games’ design philosophies and we think there is room for both. Some players will gravitate more towards one than the other, and we think that having the option is great.
Do you plan to bring The Wayward Realms to consoles eventually?
We would certainly love to, but right now, we are solely focused on getting this out on PC.
The Steam page currently lists very low minimum requirements, especially for the GPU. Are those meant to be placeholders, or are they accurate for the time being?
They are simply placeholders, as Steam requires something to be filled in. We will release more accurate specs as we near launch.
Will The Wayward Realms eventually be available on all major PC stores (Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store)?
We do plan on it, yes.
What do you think about the industry's current state, with countless games vying for users' attention, mass layoffs, and rising development budgets?
It is sad to see studios being shuttered and games being canceled. Hopefully things can pick back up relatively quickly. It does open up more room for indies, so that can be taken as a plus.
Thank you for your time.
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