Lead Developer Introducing Dawn of Andromeda

[MikeGreyWolf]

Hello everyone!

My name is Mike Domingues, and I'm the lead designer for Dawn of Andromeda, and CEO of Grey Wolf Entertainment. I'd like to give you a little background on how I got started and where I am today.

I first started making games when I was around 12 years old, releasing my first game online, a freeware platformer called Skud, when I was 14. After that, I kept on making freeware games. My first big project was 4x space strategy title ‘Lords of the Black Sun’, with my first company, Arkavi Studios where I was one in a team of six. After that, I left Arkavi, to pursue new projects.

Dawn of Andromeda is being created by a whole new team, with me as the only 'old' Arkavi Studios member. It's a brand new game, created by Grey Wolf Entertainment, a team of 3 dedicated developers hailing from the sunny city of Leiria.

Dawn of Andromeda is the culmination of the many lessons I learned, and ideas I had over the years, iterating through each one, until they all matured and felt solid enough for me to take the dive and start what is essentially the project I've always wanted to make.

After a while on QA to make sure it is a technically solid as it can possibly be before we put in your hands, we are finally ready to release on Early Access to gather feedback and suggestions before finally fully releasing this beast!

I'm really looking forward to hearing your feedback, the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly - this way, I will know what we are getting right - and wrong!

It's been quite a wild journey so far, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I still have the same drive and passion as ever, and I'm confident it will show through when we release this game.

See you all in Andromeda!

[Darcion]

i really hope this will be a good game, it can only be better then Lords of the Black Sun ;)

[Anguille]

I guess this means that the patch in progress for Lords of the Black Sun will never be released?

[WollieG]

Watch out guys, same guys from Lord Of the Sun, they left the game full of bugs and abandoned the game. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FROM THEM, especially not in Early Access, wait for finished game and see what others say first. Watch out.

They run away and open new business with new name and then going to milk everyone by bringing out another half finished game with lots of bugs and run away and do it again and again.

Do not TRUST them.

Warn everyone you can about this.

[Marfig]

Steam Greenlight community will tear this project apart if you don't come up with a reasonable explanation of what happened with Lords of the Black Sun and what your plans are to make it work.

And no, changing the company name, claiming you are the only one from the previous team and that you had web hosts problems is not enough. Your explanation on your LotBS forums is an insult to the reader intelligence. It won't help either if you keep locking threads in here.

I know, it's tough. Being an indie and all, and you just want to get your own game up and such. Poor you. But either you do this right, or consumers will not let you scam them again. We have enough of this BS already with AAA titles. We don't need you to also tarnish the image of indie developers.

[BobbyBullets]

I have some serious concerns with how horrible LoTBS was and how you basically just left it in development limbo/hell.

Serious concerns.

[harley9699]

No EA for us on this one! Lords of the Black Sun was crap, then left in it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ state, burning all of us that paid money for it. Felt like a cash-grab only.
We'll wait for the people willing to gamble their hard cash, THEN, this game better be getting 90%+ or we'll pass. We don't like, or forget, being outright burned.

Oh, and locking threads eight hours in does Not promote any kind of trust or integrity either. People Will be leery and gunshy about a dev seemingly screwing them over before---then wanting to take their money again. Hoping the debacle of LotBS will simply disappear is not the right approach to earn people back.

[Dozer]

Ich denke nur weil Lords of the Sun so ein schlechtes Game geworden ist sollte man das neue Game nicht auf die selbe Schiene schicken!
Die Ansätze sehen schon mal sehr geil aus! Und ich freue mich das Spiel erstmal auszuprobieren bevor ich mir ein Urteil bilde ;)
Wieviel wird es ca. kosten?

[harley9699]

Originally posted by Dozer:

Ich denke nur weil Lords of the Sun so ein schlechtes Game geworden ist sollte man das neue Game nicht auf die selbe Schiene schicken!
Die Ansätze sehen schon mal sehr geil aus! Und ich freue mich das Spiel erstmal auszuprobieren bevor ich mir ein Urteil bilde ;)
Wieviel wird es ca. kosten?

Yeah, but there's also Horizon and Ceres in there as well.
No idea on price. Better not be much or the masses will crucify them.

[Anguille]

Originally posted by harley9699:

Yeah, but there's also Horizon and Ceres in there as well.
No idea on price. Better not be much or the masses will crucify them.

Horizon is an excellent game and is bug free. As far as i can see Iceberg does the less possible and it really depends on what they get from the Dev. They have published excellent games like Endless Space, Armada 2526, Endless Legends, Horizon and Oriental Empires and they have published very weak games like Lords of the Black Sun or Stardrive. I can't say that i am very optimistic about this new game based on the history but will keep an eye on it.

I have to say that it makes me sad that the discussion about a newly announced 4x game starts like this because i so much like the genre.

[Dozer]

Schaut Euch mal The Mandate an! http://www.mandategame.com/
Ist noch nicht auf Steam .. aber das Game hab ich gesponsort... sieht Hammer geil aus

[WollieG]

What are you saying Dozer, i would really like to know what you said in both your posts. :)

[MikeGreyWolf]

I completely understand your concerns, but like I said above, I was just one of the guys from Arkavi, this is a whole new company with completely different people, except for me.

As for LOTBS Arkavi ran out of money, and had to give up patching and start a new project to get funding or close doors. Most issues still present in the game were caused by the engine and were basically unfixeable. We were working on a new patch, but it turned out to cause more issues than solve, so we never released it.

Again, I completely understand your concerns and why you would hold out before buying DOA during Early Access. I would advise you to do that anyway, not just with DOA but with any other EA title, unless you really want to contribute with the development and are willing to face the risk that’s involved.

Also I've unlocked the thread I locked previously as I agree that doing so may have looked a little dictatorial. We just wanted to move the conversation to this topic but feel free to post in either.
thanks :)

[Azirahael]

Originally posted by MikeGreyWolf:

Also I've unlocked the thread I locked previously as I agree that doing so may have looked a little dictatorial. We just wanted to move the conversation to this topic but feel free to post in either.
thanks :)

Not dictatorial: shady.

[MikeGreyWolf]

Yeah I agree, I should have thought twice before locking it.

[ASAD]

So is this the new Sins Of a Solar Empire?
if yes then i am in!