OnceLost Games, a dev team formed by former Elder Scrolls developers, is working on their new RPG, The Wayward Realms. The team has shared a major update on Steam. After listening to player feedback, the studio has decided to stop using Unreal Engine and build its own proprietary engine. It’s a bold move, but the developers say it will give them far more control and help them deliver the deep, systems-driven game fans want. On top of that, performance statistics already look positive.

The new engine allows us to:

• Achieve 30+ FPS on decade-old laptops without dedicated GPUs, giving us excellent performance even on very low-end hardware.
• Run the game at nearly 30 FPS on a first-generation Nintendo Switch, ensuring smooth performance on all major consoles, with full Linux support included.
• Load Eyjar, a static map four times the size of Manhattan, in under one second, providing an almost instant start.
• Load the entire engine in roughly 300 milliseconds, which allows extremely fast iteration and has already more than doubled our development speed.
• Offer full community modding support for everything outside the core systems, using a public scripting language inspired by C# as a tribute to the Daggerfall Unity community.

Source: Steam

The team will also be hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) tomorrow, December 3rd, at 8 PM EST – so tune into that if you have any burning questions about the development.

OnceLost Games on why they switched to their own engine

In their update, the team explained that the community made one thing very clear. Players care about complex systems, meaningful choices, and gameplay that isn’t watered down. Because of that, the developers felt they needed an engine that they fully understand and can customize without limits. Unreal Engine is powerful, but it can also be restrictive when a studio wants very specific features for a very specific type of RPG.

According to the update, the switch is already paying off. The team says their new engine is showing “smooth performance,” even on very old hardware. Their new tech can run the game at 30+ FPS on decade-old laptops that don’t even have dedicated graphics cards. It even reaches almost 30 FPS on the first-generation Nintendo Switch. That means the final game should work well across all major platforms, including Linux.

They also revealed some impressive loading speeds. The new engine can load Eyjar, a static map four times bigger than Manhattan, in under a second. Even more surprisingly, the engine itself loads in about 300 milliseconds. These improvements allow the team to test changes much faster, and they claimed the development speed has already more than doubled.

The team also confirmed that full community modding support is planned. Players will be able to mod everything outside the core systems using a public scripting language inspired by C#. This is meant as a tribute to the Daggerfall Unity modding community.

However, it’s important to note that because of the switch, the game will not meet its original end-of-year goal. Instead, the new plan is to release the game to Kickstarter backers in June next year, followed by an Early Access launch a few months later. The team will also host a live AMA on December 3rd to talk about the new engine and answer any questions that fans may have.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

Abdul is a tech writer and Editor for PC Guide, specializing in all things tech, gaming, and hardware.