Just wanted to say a big Thank You and Happy New Year to all Knights players.
Looking back, I am amazed at how far this little game has come. I first started working on the project back in 2002, although at that point, the plan was not to make an exact remake of Amiga Knights, but instead to make my own game which was “based on” the concepts of the original. However, I wasn’t having much success with that so in about 2004 I decided to change course and just do a remake of the original Knights; I figured I could always add my own new features later if I wanted.
Coding began in earnest in 2005 and the first actual release was right at the end of 2006. About two years after that, the game was complete enough that I decided to announce it on a couple of Amiga forums. At this point it was still fairly basic, with only 2 player support and no central Knights server yet, but it still generated some interest and I was soon getting emails like “why can’t I compile this game on Linux” and “why doesn’t the network support work properly” (LOL). By mid 2009 I had the central server up and running and at the end of 2009 the Multiplayer support (i.e. more than 2 knights in the dungeon) was in place. It was at this point that we discovered that Knights is actually a lot more fun in multiplayer than the original 2 player game, and we even got the original creator (Kalle Marjola) along for a few games 🙂
2010 saw somewhat slower progress — although a couple new features (including a tutorial) were added, along with lots of bug fixing. This year (2011) the most important development was the addition of the “Knights game listing” on the Server List page. With this, I feel that the final piece of the puzzle is now in place: it is now possible to actually meet other players online (something that was surprisingly difficult beforehand) and indeed we are now regularly having 4 or 5 player games every week. (Thanks to K9 for suggesting this feature!)
So, what will the new year bring? With the basic Knights gameplay now in place, and an active (albeit small) community of players, I suppose the next logical step would be to add new gameplay features: new quest types, new room designs, new monsters and items, and so on. At this point I could use some input from players: if you have any new gameplay ideas, please throw them my way 🙂
In the meantime, best wishes to everyone for the new year and may the games continue into 2012 and beyond.
That’s a great time-line, interesting summary of events. Thank you.
I wasn’t aware of a few of the earlier details, very cool to realize how much you’ve accomplished, that you have stuck with the game and your fans through the challenges and I’m glad you posted the synopsis here.
Necessity breeds invention, so your work on the server list filled a need and is very nicely implemented. I’m happy the idea worked and was relatively little effort for the reward it brought over the past few months of 2011. Icing on the cake to go along with your many talented ideas, significant game upgrades, stability and hard work coding last year.
Happy New Year to you, too, and your family and all Knights supporters in 2012!