Indie RPG Driftmoon: Give us your input, please!

We just revealed this on our website a few minutes ago: From the next build onward, Driftmoon will include the much requested feature to tilt the camera angle of the game a bit - so you can choose yourself if you want to play Driftmoon top-down, or with a tilted camera angle.

Here's a brand new screenshot (although the difference is clearly more noticeable in-game):


And a more traditional one, without the tilt:


Which one do you like better?

The tilt looks great! Want to see it in action…

When you update the other demo/beta will you be updating the Groupees build too?

I MUCH prefer the tilt.

Originally Posted by darkling
The tilt looks great! Want to see it in action…

When you update the other demo/beta will you be updating the Groupees build too?

That is definitely on our list of things to get done! …But it'll have to be a little bit later than the first regular build, because we want to take some time to fix any possible bugs first.

Originally Posted by Corwin
I MUCH prefer the tilt.

Glad to hear our tilting efforts haven't been in vain. And while we've been implementing them, we've also made some other graphical enhancements.

But I know some of our players really do like to play straight top down, so that option will always be there as well.

That little bit of tilt helps prevent a definite feeling of vertigo as well. I think it will add to your sales potential which has to be a good thing.

I also prefer the tilt, I guess; looking forward to this.

WEre you able to avoid redoing the character art? I gathered from previous comments that saving resources on that was a main reason for the top down view?

Originally Posted by yllaettaevaet
I also prefer the tilt, I guess; looking forward to this.

Happy to hear that!

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
Were you able to avoid redoing the character art? I gathered from previous comments that saving resources on that was a main reason for the top down view?

We have redone something for each and every character, but we've been able to use a lot of our previous art as a basis to start working from. Quite a lot of work - but not nearly as time-consuming as full 3D characters.

Our tilted angle beta has finally been opened to all our players! You can try it very easily by downloading and starting up our demo (and if you already have the game installed, just let it update automatically)! We've been thrilled to hear how much our players have liked the new beta so far.

The official release date of Driftmoon is now also set. It is the 26th of February 2013, and starting from release, Driftmoon will also be available through GOG.com!

A new trailer is still on our to-do list, but we've finally had time to take new screenshots, so here's a taste of what the new Driftmoon, with a tilted camera angle looks like in action:














What do you think? I like the tilted ones better myself, but do some of you prefer top-down? If you do want to play top-down, you can easily use the Page Up button to tilt the view back up. Any trailer ideas and tips are also more than welcome!

Ps. Remember that our never-expiring discount code is available through the demo (the menu screen) up until the end of this month.

Anne, you'll be pleased to know I've submitted my first draft for my review to Dhruin for feedback, so hopefully it will be published around the release date. Thanks for all your updates.

Originally Posted by Corwin
Anne, you'll be pleased to know I've submitted my first draft for my review to Dhruin for feedback, so hopefully it will be published around the release date. Thanks for all your updates.

Thanks for letting us know, Corwin! We're anxiously awaiting to hear how you've liked playing Driftmoon…

Originally Posted by Corwin
Anne, you'll be pleased to know I've submitted my first draft for my review to Dhruin for feedback, so hopefully it will be published around the release date. Thanks for all your updates.

How long is the game, Corwin? I'm not much into short games, so if it's 60 hours or so, I'm interested.

Sorry, but it's nowhere near 60 hours. At a stretch, perhaps half that, but this is an Indie game made on a limited budget and sold at a budget price. Bang for the buck makes it very worthwhile.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
How long is the game, Corwin? I'm not much into short games, so if it's 60 hours or so, I'm interested.

Originally Posted by Corwin
Sorry, but it's nowhere near 60 hours. At a stretch, perhaps half that, but this is an Indie game made on a limited budget and sold at a budget price. Bang for the buck makes it very worthwhile.

Thanks for the question crpgnut, and for the reply Corwin!

It's a bit hard to estimate a thing like this because of how much playing styles vary, but I'd say the main adventure in Driftmoon (excluding all mods, and other games made with the editor) could be up to about 30 hours, if you don't rush through it. But you can play it through considerably faster than that, if you skip most of the dialogues / stories, don't explore around much, and generally play as fast as you can. Of course, if you should do that, I think you'd miss out on a lot of fun.

Besides the main game, you are of course free to play the mods / games made with our editor, if you want to (they're one-click away, through the main menu of the game). The game is not quite released yet, but there are already 10 mods available, and many more are on the way. Most of the current mods are total conversion mods (=complete games / adventures in themselves).

Well, Corwin said it was at a budget price. If it's short but also inexpensive, that is acceptable to me. I hate when an indie dev wants big bucks for small playtime. I generally don't care for mods that aren/t integrated into the main game, but I'll at least take a look. I haven't even glanced at the demo, just asking questions.

Knowing where everything is I've been able to complete the game in approx. 8 hours but there are still a few hidden items i've missed that were added in the last few betas. As soon as I get my desktop back online I'll be able to finish another playthrough. (currently moving and relying on a loaned Netbook and McD's Internet for access until my Home Internet in installed.)

Originally Posted by shaf
Knowing where everything is I've been able to complete the game in approx. 8 hours but there are still a few hidden items i've missed that were added in the last few betas. As soon as I get my desktop back online I'll be able to finish another playthrough…

I must add that shaf is one of our awesome beta testers, who's played through the game so many times that he knows Driftmoon inside out. In fact, I want to thank our beta team for all the feedback they've given us so far - the work of our beta testers has been extremely important to us in testing the game. With our limited time for testing, if it had been just the two of us, we wouldn't have noticed half of the things our beta team has pointed out!

By the way shaf: We're planning on providing one last closed beta version before release, so when you get your desktop working again, you might want to wait for that upcoming closed beta - If it's possible for you to test it, I'm sure it would benefit from your attention.

In the latest download, the new camera angle is not included, right?

Originally Posted by yllaettaevaet
In the latest download, the new camera angle is not included, right?

If you download from our site (or Desura), the new viewing angle is already included.

Here's a link to our official launch trailer!

Only a few more days left until Driftmoon's official release, Feb 26th! It feels almost unbelievable after all these years of development…