Avernum

Avernum is a series of demoware role-playing video games by Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software available for Macintosh and Windows-based computers. Several are available for iPad and Android tablet. There are six canonical games in the series. The first three games in the series and the non-canon Blades of Avernum are remakes of the Exile series by Jeff Vogel, who owns the company, collectively entitled Avernum: First Trilogy. The next three games (Avernum: Second Trilogy), also by Vogel, were released in 2005, 2007 and 2009 respectively. The latter games are entirely original built on a newer game engine and not a remake of any previous game. The Avernum games, like other Spiderweb Software games, are designed with gameplay and storytelling before graphical elements. As of December 2011, a newer version of Avernum has been released, Avernum: Escape from the Pit, followed by the sequel Avernum 2: Crystal Souls in 2015.

Improvements over Exile

The original Exile games used a top-down perspective tile-based graphical system, effectively displayed as an X-Y axis wherein each tile in the grid was filled by a base graphic and perhaps an item or character icon. Avernum features a 45-degree axonometric display that appears three-dimensional. The game also adds varying terrain height, allowing for more interesting map layouts.