Hear hear, tales from a decade ago! When the monks could merely grow hair on their face, and the internet was still younger place... Our tale begins in Utrecht, where a small group of 4 monks decided to make games in the basement of the university. As was tradition in game development at that time, no sun was allowed to disturb the monks in their creative process. Other students were allowed to take a peek, though!
Abbey is in the right corner, with "concept art" on the wall. Their dream? Make a god game where humans develop based on the nature you create! To do that, they used their student loan to start up the Abbey. Would this gamble pay off? In any case, they had a plan:
Our first pitch, which we showed to Valve! Was it hard work? Definitely, but within 18 months Reus was created! It has all sorts of small things no one knows about... For example, sometimes, one of the mountains in the back is replaced by a rocket. It used to be replaced with .... something else, but that was not PG13. Also, to test the game, the monk had to summon a baby on a rocket! It would grant you powers previously unknown...
The rocket baby and another dude. There also used to be a small chamber in the middle of the planet. One could raise baby giants there for the next generation! That idea never made it to Reus, but it also never left the center of our minds. Later on, Godhood would be a game about raising stuff for the next generation! It's all connected...
The inner chamber, waiting to become a game by itself! Reus was an absolute success! It went on to sell over a million copies. It heavily influenced us, and still does for the future... The monks hope to revisit the themes of nature, human and the fantastic in the near future! But the Abbey then progressed through to the era of Renowned Explorers! A game different in scope, but similar in soul. Are you curious what happened next? Friday our next chapter arrives on the Renowned Explorers news! Who knows what the past might tell about our future... See you there! P.S. If you want to chat with us, feel free to join our Discord or follow the Abbey Games Developer!