It was no secret that Logic Factory was working on a sequel to their highly popular space 4X game Ascendancy. On an interview with did with Mr. Todd Templeman, Logic Factory’s CEO, entitled “Interview with Logic Factory on Ascendancy and Beyond“, we could already extract a few hints that Ascendancy 2 was on the works. However, no details were given at the time of when such sequel could be released.
In that (great) interview run by Kyle, Todd talks about the Logic Factory Team, the original Ascendancy game, the iOS port, why has there been no PC sequel in 16 years, a great deal about developing for the Apple iOS market and about science fiction in general. You really don’t want to miss this one!
In 2011 Logic Factory ported their original MS-DOS Ascendancy game to iOS, namely to the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices. Since then they have been updating that iOS version, but revealed in our interview that a sequel could be the right next move. “Okay, there may still be twenty things we’d love to do, but we also have taken it so far that those twenty things are better held for the real sequel.” ~Todd Templeman
However, Todd made no assurances about Ascendancy 2 and added that such sequel would be dependent on how well the iOS version would do. “The better this version of Ascendancy does in the market, the more quickly we can provide updates and put Ascendancy II into the completion and art phase of the pipeline.”.
Asked about for more details Todd was evasive, justifying that with the need to have a more solid project to show before announcing its development. So, we knew Ascendancy 2 was a long-term goal for LF, but assumed that it could take a long time before hearing from them again.
Yesterday, LF teased the fans with a facebook announcement saying a sample of Ascendancy II’s music was up in their website (right at the bottom), and that more were expected to come soon. I contacted Todd for any more details he could give me on this.
Unfortunately there is not much to add at this point. Asked about a release date, a list of features and supported platforms, Todd said: “We absolutely are not close to announcing a release date. But when we do, we will present a list of key features. I can say it’s likely to be an iOS release, although there’s a chance, and only a chance, it could be simultaneous for at least one other platform. ;-) I wish I could say more now, but we’re working hard and having fun”.~Todd Templeman (Logic Factory’s CEO).
And that’s it folks, all there is at the moment about Ascendancy 2. We have now definite confirmation that they’re working on it, and this music sample is proof of that, but we may be far from having the details. Todd confirmed that the release will likely be an iOS one, but he left open the possibility for supporting an additional platform. He didn’t say which but we can imagine which will be :)
We’ll follow this story closely and publish when there are new developments.
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I never got into Ascendancy but I hear it’s a classic so this must be really good!
I’m curious about the tablet game market (4xG in particular), as to answer the question why choose to focus on them and not the PC (apart from the dev cost savings).
Man, did I want to like Ascendancy. But the AI was painfully dumb.
It was a beautiful creation but dumb like a rock.
That’s my exact thoughts on Endless Space. =)
I really hope this turns out to not be exclusively iOS. what a betrayal to their fans that have been hopeful for all these years of a sequel to Ascendancy this would be to no support Windows, or if they want to stay mobile Android.
Well, you have to go where the money is……
If the money is on iOS, then that’s where they have to go to stay in business. It’s a tough world out there.
I hope they get enough funding to do an Ascendancy 2 for us Windows and Android users out there. Hmm, KickStarter……
@David Carron, If you can find (and get the game running) there is a patch for the AI, its not perfect but it really does bring the game to a new level. If remember correctly I got it running on DOSbox from homeoftheunderdogs.
The so-called ‘Antagoniser” patch?
It made little difference, in my opinion. It was pretty much impossible to lose a game of Ascendancy, with or without the patch. By far the worst AI of any 4X game. Possibly the best atmosphere of any 4X space game though…
When i hear of bad AI in game i wish games would have open APIs for writing AI players like C-Evo so everybody can have a shot at it. Okay, as most AIs cheat, this would be more of a cheat interface ;)
I really hope so. I got really hooked up on it back in the day… Loved to play with the Chamachies and their special gift, wich was one research was finished instantly, regardless of how far up the tree it was.
Nowadays i think Ascendancy was i mixed bag. On the one hand it was very interesting, lots of interesting micromanagement but also a lot of time consuming micromanagement and somehow it was boring, too static. little happened, even for a TBS.
Would i buy the original game if it was ported 1:1 to Windows? Probably not.
Would i buy a conversion of an iS**t Game to PC? even less likely.
Sorry Guys, grand strategy works only on PC, parts due to better hardware and parts due to different and in my eyes better UI.
This is a non-event. There isn’t enough here to justify even this meager write up.
The sample music release is the first piece of evidence that shows that Logic Factory is working on Ascendancy 2 at the moment. Before, we had hints that lead to think they were, or at least thinking about it, but now there’s finally some proof that they are really serious about this.
Moreover the devs confirmed that it would be likely an iOS release but that another platform, they didn’t say which, will be supported. They also said to be working hard on this.
In my opinion this was enough for a meager write up.
no need to justify. IMHO it’s better to write little than to write nothing. And it’s some kind of annoucent so it might be of interest for people.
What concerns me is this “buy ascendancy on iOS now or Ascendancy 2 won’t get finished” threat.
“The better this version of Ascendancy does in the market, the more quickly we can provide updates and put Ascendancy II into the completion and art phase of the pipeline.”.
That was said in the interview some time ago yes. I didn’t read it by then as a threat though. They don’t seem to have much on their hands at the moment really, only Ascendancy in the App store and a sci-fi book they’re selling for kindle, so maybe they lack the funds. A Kickstarter possibility is probably not to be excluded, but this is just me saying.
I played Ascendancy back in the day, and found it boring. The AI would keeping sending ships against you by the shortest path as soon as they were produced; no tactical intelligence, no grouping of units. Games inevitably boiled down to attrition.
As I recall, the AI was so bad it actually ruined the reputation of a game reviewer, William Trotter: he declared the game to be the best of the year, touting it’s sophisticated AI. Readers called him on this observation, and he later admitted that he had only cursorily played the game, relying on publisher advertising for his review. I don’t think he ever wrote a review for a major game magazine again.
My memory was faulty: Trotter was the writing the gameplay guide for Ascendancy, and this conflict of interest caused the uproar when he published his glowing review.
Unless Ascendency 2 is coming out on PC, I have no interested. And even if it does, I’ll wait until it’s released and read the reviews.
Same here. If Ascendancy 2 is only coming out for the iOS, I couldn’t care less.
hmm its nice.. but I would wish a more complex version for PC…
Some of DW Legends some of MoO2.. and a nice engine like Sins..
I wouldn’t get to excited. The last game Logic Factory announced was Seeker back in 1998. They posted updates on their website claiming to be working on it for years – then it was quietly forgotten.
Anyway. once you got past the beautiful atmosphere of Ascendancy, it was a seriously flawed game. Tedious micro-management and appalling AI.
GAAAHH! this is tempting me to by an I-pad and I dont’t want to…. please don’t make me buy one of those things :-(
I don’t have one and it’s ok :) For the time being at least … Fortunately Kyle has one, so he’s on top of anything iOS related.
Well for the fact they been working on sequal now for the pc since 98 i would hope they would come out with it on the pc. It was talked about for years, this and seekers were both being pushed heavy at one point and the company droped off the face of the earth untill the phone app came out. Kinda sad really that they have not redone a pc version in all the years since it came out. When it was listed as one of the best pc games of its time and a top seller in the market is just sad……
Bleh, hope it’s not yet another shitty port of an iOS game. Galaxy on Fire 2 seems amazing, but the “mobile-oriented” menus are a big drawback for us PC gamers.
I really hope this to be done well since Ascendancy was one of the top games for me at that time.