Return Of The King Of Dragon Pass: Six Ages
Original team working on spiritual successor
We recently published our first ever article about King of Dragon Pass, a feature in praise of the cult favourite tribal management game. If you haven't read it, you should and if you haven't played the game, you should probably do that as well. Originally released in 1999, it's one of the strongest examples of emergent storytelling built around a strategic framework. Now, fifteen years later, members of the original team are getting back together to make a spiritual successor, which makes me think we should start writing about more games that deserve a sequel to see if we can control the fates again.
Little is known about the game, which will be called Six Ages, but the initial announcement suggests it'll be similar enough to King of Dragon Pass to deserve more than a passing comparison. Here's David Dunham, one of the designers of the strategic storytelling masterpiece.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much. Partly that’s because development is still in the early stages. Mostly it’s because Six Ages is an ambitious project, and won’t be released for well over a year. A lot can change in development. And right now, there’s nothing interesting to show anyway.
But I can say that the game will consist of meaningful story choices tied together by the economic challenges facing a small community. It will be set in Glorantha and draw from its rich cultures and mythology. And it’s intended to be highly replayable.
Glorantha is the world of Dragon Pass, which is one of tribal folklore and hard living. There are gods and magic, but the latter is more likely to take the form of a harvest or hunting ritual than a fireball.
Although the game is over a year away, returning members of the original team seem to be confirmed.
I’m excited that I will again be working with writer and game designer Robin D. Laws, and artists Jan Pospíšil (who did illustrations for King of Dragon Pass) and Pat Ward (who I worked with at Shenandoah Studio). And when the game is further along, Liana Kerr will again be doing QA.
We'll be watching the development blog very closely.