The Past (ADOM)

ADOM II: Legends of Ancardia is the successor to ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery), one of the most successful roguelike games ever. The name has replaced JADE, under which my efforts concerning ADOM II where known for many years. JADE (Java-based Ancient Domains Engine) is the technical engine behind the game and the (powered by JADE) moniker is there to stay. But from now on I will be talking about ADOM II and not JADE when I refer to the game.

ADOM was actively developed by myself (Thomas Biskup) between 1994 and about 2002 and gained an unbelievable number of fans during the early days of the Internet. Among other things it was rated as the best downloadable free game in 1997, got its own Usenet newsgroup (which was quite a feat in those days ;-) ), appeared in dozens of magazines all over the world and managed to thrive by leaps and bounds. In huge parts this has been possible due to the incredible fan support out there, the creative input of thousands and the fantastic community upon which the world of Ancardia was built.

Sadly in 2002 work finally caught up with me and ADOM went into hibernation as far as active development was concerned. At the same time, JADE - the successor envisioned since 1998 - didn't manage to get a decent start, again due to lack of time. But it never hibernated completely but cooked on a small flame.

Over the years to come I fiddled with design concepts, the game architecture and various implementation details until finally during a fateful day during our 2011 holiday in Thailand I had to decide between "now or never". And I went for "now" as both the ADOM legacy as well as the JADE promise mean so much to me and I very strongly feel that there is the better part of the story behind the world of Ancardia and the struggle against (or for?) Chaos depicted in ADOM still is to be told. Finally in the end of 2011 I decided to rebrand JADE as ADOM II: Legends of Ancardia.

And that's what ADOM II is all about: To tell an epic story of rivaling factions, fighting for very distinct goals, with very little black and white and lots of gray abounding... a story in which one hero(ine) will make a difference... and that can be you.

JADE 0.1.0 was released on my 2011 birthday as a present to myself and since then I have been extremely actively working on the game. I want it to surpass the level of detail of ADOM within 12 months and it's up to you to help in this effort. Feedback on the blog, discussions in the forums and bug reports and requests for enhancement in the project management tool are great ways to help in this fantastic adventure.

See ya all in Ancardia - Axes high!