Over the last week, gamers from the Indie Patron Discord Server have taken a strong liking to Nevergrind Online. We have seen as many as 18 players online at the same time! That may not sound like much, but for a closed beta for an indie game it’s quite a lot! Not only are a lot of people finding us and asking for keys, but they’re also investing a large chunk of time into the game! In 2022 alone, gamers have played for a total of 27 days of playtime!
Check out Indie Patron‘s coverage in the video below:
I can’t believe it’s really happening! We will be launching the Nevergrind Online Kickstarter soon! After the first day, Nevergrind Online seems to be doing quite well! It is currently ranked #3 out of 106 video game projects in the United States by “Popularity”! Not bad!
How is Nevergrind Online going to compete with epic anime dating games?
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Okay, one of my claims to fame is that, at least for a significant period of time, I had the fastest known naturally aspirated 7th generation Toyota Celica GT quarter mile times in the world. In one particularly good run, I drove a 14.78 @ 93.42 mph. Not bad for a four-banger rated for 140 hp from the factory!
My Celica was a 5-speed with a an Injen air intake, header replacements, a fuel computer with some minor adjustments (which maybe did nothing), and a lot of weight reduction. I removed the entire exhaust system. Removed all of the interior except the driver’s seat. I removed the tow hooks. I removed the fog lights. I deflated the front tires to about 22 psi. All of that allowed me to break into the 14s and record a 14.78 quarter mile!
I was balancing time between Nevergrind Online and other projects, but I would like to announce that I am completely focusing all of my spare time to the completion of Nevergrind Online! As with all game and software development ever, I am hesitant to point to a release date, but I will say that I am hopeful for a 2021 release.
Note that the version that previews Nevergrind Online on this website is an extremely early version that only included character creation, old artwork, and showed off the multiplayer chat room environment in town. That was all developed before deciding to target the release for Steam instead. After enjoying modest success with our first title, Firmament Wars, we decided that Nevergrind Online would be perfect as a distributed app on Steam.
Nevergrind Online will be a co-operative multiplayer dungeon crawler with up to six party members. It will draw inspiration from a variety of games including EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Phantasy Star, Diablo, and even Darkest Dungeon. The goal is to design a socially-oriented, challenging, multi-player cooperative experience for a group of friends. This is the kind of game you and your friends can play all night on a weekend while eating pizza and chugging Mountain Dew! If you don’t want to pull an all-nighter on a weekday while playing this game, then we did something wrong.
Nevergrind Online will be quite a bit different from our first installment. First of all, Nevergrind Online will not be a browser game. This time it is being developed with distribution on Steam in mind. So every nook and cranny of this game will be engineered for the best possible experience for gamers on Steam. The original Nevergrind only made money from micro-payments on bank slots. Perhaps that made sense for a browser game, but it’s a business model that is often leaves a door open to allow greed to taint the integrity of the game.
Frankly, we don’t think all forms of micro-payments are bad. For example, original Nevergrind made revenue by allowing players to expand the number of bank slots that were available. This is a great example of a feature that optionally expanded upon the game without tainting the game. This was a feature that I wish existed in Diablo 2! The bank space was so tiny and I wanted to save so many items!
We also have many more exciting surprises that we cannot announce quite yet, but we’re eager to make an announcement when the time is right! Until then you can join our Neverworks Discord for more updates!
I acquired a copy of the WarWizard 2 demo developed by Brad McQuaid and his crew at MicroGenesis. In the interest of posterity, and with Brad’s permission, I am distributing a copy of the demo on my blog:
This is the demo that gave birth to EverQuest. John Smedley came across it and made a proposition to Brad to help create EverQuest. Just a few years later, EverQuest hit the shelves in March 16th, 1999.
At last, gamers can play the real-time Risk-like strategy game that the world has been waiting for! Firmament Wars was released via Steam’s Early Access on June 23rd. Throughout Early Access, several new maps and features have appeared. There will be about 12 maps upon the official full release on August 8th, 2018.
Several key new maps have appeared such as a larger world map, China, Germany, and a map called Europe Mena, which includes Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Firmament Wars also more than double the number of flags in the game, including every existing nation, US state flags, and several more historic flags.
Two new leaderboards also show off the top ranking nations, by actual player nation, and the top ranking nations by player flag choice. So you’re not only playing for your own state, but for your nation and flag as well!
No other Risk-like game on Steam compares. I checked out the reviews for other Risk-like games on the platform and they all seem to lack proper network multiplayer and other features that one would expect from a Risk-like game. Add in the fact that games only take 15-20 minutes and you have a unique and refreshing way to enjoy the gameplay of Risk without waiting for your turn and exorbitant time commitments. Most of the other Risk games had moderate or unfavorable ratings, but, at this time, Firmament Wars is maintaining its perfect 100% rating. We’ll see how long that lasts… !
Firmament Wars is a great party game to play with friends with a lot of potential for future content. I could easily add more content and features such as custom flags, more maps, scenario modes, and perhaps a bigger tech tree! Check it out and let me know what you think!
Neverworks Games is a veteran-owned independent game development company founded by Joe Leonard. It was founded in 2015 with the vision of creating exciting gaming experiences with enduring value.
Their first game was Nevergrind, a single-player browser RPG which received widespread praise after a successful Kickstarter in 2015. Its development started in 2012 and was a labor of love for many years. Thousands of people have played Nevergrind and it continues to be enjoyed, today.
Neverworks moved on to its next game, Firmament Wars, which was originally developed for browsers, but was ultimately released on Steam in August, 2018. Early Access started on June 23rd, 2018. Firmament Wars is a multiplayer real-time strategy game featuring tile-based warfare on a multitude of maps.
Firmament Wars – Earth Omega
They are also working on Nevergrind 2, the follow-up to its popular initial offering, Nevergrind. And this time it will be multiplayer! Parties of up to six players can team up to explore Vandamor’s most daunting dungeons! Nevergrind 2 will feature more rogue-like elements including traps, scouting, and a grid-based dungeon crawl system.
Nevergrind battle scene – Currently in development!
I didn’t see a good explanation on the web on the general workflow for deploying an nw.js app to Steam, so I made this video. I also mention how to use Greenworks to make it easy to talk to Steam’s API to do authentication and achievements.
Firmament is scheduled for a full release on August 8th, 2018 (8/8/18)! I plan to do bug fixes, optimizations, and add more maps to the game up until that time. If you want to give feedback, join the Neverworks Games Discord Server and give us some feedback in the #firmament-wars channel!
Also, if anyone would like to help improve the translations, I am accepting help! I’d be happy to accept help from anyone that is an expert in the languages shown above.
Valve has approved our build and Firmament Wars is now playable via Steam! If you’re interested in joining the beta, join the Neverworks Games Discord Server and request a key. Go to the Firmament Wars channel and feel free to give feedback, make suggestions, and report any bugs you find.
Firmament Wars is scheduled for release on July 6th, 2018 for the Windows operating system.
