We have two Battletech Steam keys that we want to give away. The keys are from the standard pre-order, which includes the alternate Shadowhawk skin. These keys have been made available by Darkheart.

Here are the rules for participation in this giveaway:

• You have registered an acount at RPGWatch before March 1, 2018
• You have a minimum of 10 posts
• You have added a comment to this post, of which the contents makes clear that you want to participate
• You have added your comment before this giveaway closes, which is on the 24th of April

IndieGraze interviewed the developers of Crying Suns which is described as a story-driven rogue-lite, tactical game where you explore a dying galaxy as a space fleet commander.

For lovers of innovative pixel art, tactical space combat, and adventures through sci-fi imperialism, Alt Shift flexes impressive muscle, taking influence from Dune/Foundation and FTL with its project Crying Suns, working toward a story-driven experience incorporating battleships and squadron fleets. I spoke with Frédéric Lopez (Art Director) and Julien Cotret (Game Producer and Co-writer) to get their takes on the game’s varied tools and overall aesthetic.

 

Erik Meyer: You’re creating a tactical rogue-lite in which gamers take the role of a space fleet commander traversing the galaxy, so can you speak to the challenge of combining features like starship combat and exploration with the overall narrative and molding a smooth player experience? Which parts of the project came together first, and as you progress through development, what have you held as your mantra?

Julien Cotret: Our very first idea was to add to the FTL gameplay/formula a sense of scale and a feeling of high stakes. We wanted to focus on macro rather than micro management. We wanted the player to feel that they weren’t just leading a few people on a small ship but a huge battleship with hundreds of crew members trying to save humankind no less! Our first focus was the setup. We toyed for a time with putting the player inside a pirate galleon or a huge mecha, but the scale wasn’t big enough for us. It didn’t feel right. Our first epiphany came when we told ourselves, “Let’s be honest. What we really want is the player to act like Admiral Adama in Battlestar Galactica”. That was it for the setup. Then we iterated over this gameplay idea for about 6 months.

Given the rogue-lite structure of the game, with its inherent constraints, constructing the narrative was a real challenge. We found ourselves facing a lot of questions early on like, how can you write a story that makes sense if the player is constantly dying and starting over again? How does a story like this progress? Or, even, can it progress? Should we focus on a main character? If so, how? And how should the NPCs react if they’ve already seen you, and, in many cases, if they’ve already killed you?

Very early we discovered that these constraints could actually become the story’s strengths, its focal points. We saw that they could actually drive the story as opposed to being something that we would try to avoid or cover up.. So we decided that the player would be the center of a plan to save humankind. And that he would die, often and horrifically, yes, but that he would essentially live on through other clones which would be sent out into our universe over and over trying to save humankind.. Also, regarding the NPCs, we decided, that, unlike in other rogue-lite games, they would actually remember having encountered the player (or having killed the player before). It seemed like a fun, interesting idea to play with, one that was, in a way, a more realistic experience than in other rogue-lites, where, when you run into an NPC, it’s like the first time every time. Altogether, these ideas, we believe, help create a complex yet smooth gamer experience.

[...]

FEATURES

• Space exploration in a procedural generated universe.
• Tactical fights between BattleShips and their squadrons fleets.
• A deep and dramatic storyline inspired by our favorite S-F universe (Foundation, Dune).
• A mix between pixelart style graphics, 3D and HD special effects.
• Prepare to die very often, it's a roguelite game... And it's a hard one...

Shacknews checked out Disco Elysium:

Get Familiar With Disco Elysium, An Urban Fantasy RPG

After changing the name from No Truce With The Furies, the developers are unraveling some of the details on this deep detective RPG.

No Truce With The Furies, an intriguing RPG that made my Most Anticipated Games of 2018 list, has a brand new name: Disco Elysium. As the scope of the urban fantasy detective drama expanded, the name had to change encompass more of the full tale’s purview.

Let’s set the stage. Disco Elysium blends a hardboiled cop show into an isometric RPG for an experience that allows players to shape exactly what kind of cop they are. Even in the very early build I tried at SXSW 2017, the deep RPG system felt like something that could only be rivaled by the recently released Torment: Tides of Numenera. I got a taste of the open-ended structure of the game and the internal inventory of thoughts I could unravel the pertinent details of a situation.

I didn’t get to see the skill system explicitly, but I witnessed its effects on conversation. Since then, I’ve craved details on the inner workings and the development team, ZA/UM, has started rolling out the breakdowns for the four skill trees. Psyche, Intellect, and Physique are all below with Motorics coming soon.  Just from the descriptions, I can tell that the writing for Disco Elysium is going to be incredible. Check out the official website for the lengthier breakdowns of what each skill offers.

[...]

VG24/7 reported on an interview Josh Sawyer had at Reboot Develop. In the interview Josh expressed the desire for RPGs to be more radical.

Josh Sawyer, design director at Pillars of Eternity and Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian, would like to see the RPG genre evolve radically beyond its current state.

Stats and combat systems shouldn’t define the role-playing game, said Sawyer, although he admitted he has been complicit in creating games that stick to an accepted template.

“The hardcore RPG audience is very traditional,” said Sawyer at Reboot Develop this week, discussing the evolution of genres.

[...]

Pladio spotted a new update for Ash of Gods:

UPDATE 1.1.36

In the update 1.1.36, we have fixed the problems you have reported, and also added some optimizations to the PC version, which were created for the mobile and console versions of the game.

CHANGELIST:

SINGLEPLAYER:

• Optimized loading time of fights (battles should load up to 3 times faster than before)
• Optimized video memory consumption for video cards of Intel HD Graphics series 2500 and older (until 2012)
• Added the ability to delete the saves
• An additional confirmation question was added during the choice for Hopper - to resist the Reaping or not
• Updated English text with new editing in the last week (thanks to Reavy and K. Constantine)
• Fixed restrictions on wearing the “Emerald Amulet”
• Fixed incorrect text in English, German and Italian in chapter 4 (the text did not correspond to the dialogue)
• Fixed a possible freeze of the game during a dialogue with Ruor in Pheng's camp
• Fixed the quest logic for the 3rd and 5th quests from the line of quests "Sinvicta"
• Fixed switching of fonts in the main menu when switching from Chinese to German

• Fixed a bug that made the interface freeze if you opened the biography of the character before the video ended for the death of the character
• Fixed the incorrect behavior of the window for strixes’ distribution, when the team has both Gleda and Mact and there are not enough strixes for the travel
• Fixed an error in leveling up for "Monk" which made one of the skills improve energy instead of health
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented injuries from showing correctly on the strixes management screen
• Fixed a situation in which it was possible to kill a character with a plot armor (Gleda on a number of parts of the game and Mact on some travelling)
• Fixed a visual glitch on the combat help screen at 1024 * 768 resolution
• Multiple edits for spelling for Russian, Ukrainian (thanks @awg), Italian, German and English

MULTIPLAYER:

• Now, when one wins a multiplayer game, the winner gets the chests for his arena
• Removed the restrictions on wearing items in multiplayer
• When defeated, players receive 10 gold for each enemy unit killed
• Improved UI for the team management screen to make removing cards from the hand easier (you needed to aim at the slots)
• Fixed several holes during data synchronization, which allowed cheating when updating skills and leveling up
• Corrected the behavior of UI on authorization and entering the multiplayer mode, if you try to close it by the “Esc” button
• Fixed issue with sorting and displaying items in team management
• Fixed a problem which made the animation for passive skills freeze if the unit was killed with a card
• Fixed a problem with the false indication of new skill points on max level characters
• Fixed problem with duplicate characters in team management
• Fixed displaying of wounds in the popup-window of the results of the battle
• Fixed the persistence of wounds in the current game session
• Fixed the freezing when pressing space button during a match search
• Fixed a possible freeze when changing from multiplayer to single player

WHAT ARE WE WORKING ON NOW:

• We fix the mistakes you report
• We add clans to the multiplayer - about a third is ready
• We test the 'Iron man' mode with high difficulty
• We test the integration of GOG Galaxy (achievements, overlays, cloud storage)
• We test "postmortem" after the final video - it has already been translated into all languages and added into the game
• We test the battle log
• We do additional editing for the English language (now with the help of 4 people - two new editors from our translation company and with the help of community members - Reavy and K. Constantine)
• Preparing for the LQA for the Polish language. If you speak Polish and can help us—please, write in the comments.

IMPORTANT:

• If you having issues with launching the game on Mac, please open Properties of the game via Steam, choose Launch option and copy-paste this here: -force-glcore
• There is still a problem in Unity with detecting the list of available resolutions in some versions of Linux X64. To fix an error «Receiving unhandled exception in funlockfile», please, run the game in windowed mode, there is no full-screen solution for now, it is up to Unity.
• Games on Unity in Mint Linux, Ark Linux do not work with tiling desktop manager dwm — please use OpenBox or analogues.
• If you the game crashes on Windows 7 with Intel HD graphics cards 2500, 4xxx, GT3 - please open Properties of the game via Steam, choose Launch option and copy-paste this text here:
   -force-glcore
  Unfortunately, this is a problem with video card drivers that were not updated for these series since 2012.

This is new in build 41 of Depth of Extinction:

Build 41 - UX Improvements, Character Customization and More Loot!

Depth of Extinction First Access » Devlog

Hey everyone! We’ve gotten a ton of feedback over the last few months, and as you may (or may not) have seen, we have posted a final release roadmap for the game that hopefully clears the way to release to Steam in late May or early June. Very exciting but busy times for us as we get ready and try to finish up everything on that list!

[...]

So enough about the launch and the future - let's talk about the present and all the changes we have in Build 41.

Build 41 Release Notes

Tutorial Overhaul - shortened it significantly, added doors to the tutorial steps and hopefully made it a bit more interesting for new players. When playing the tutorial, you will also skip the objective screens to get you right into the action!

Icons Updated - almost every icon in the game was updated, including equipment, missions, map areas and the Republic icon is now a Kraken!

Movement Path and Hovering - A pretty big change was made to remove the need to click to draw a character movement path (except in some cases) and a redesign to how the path appears. Should make it a bit more satisfying to move around and eliminate that extra click.

Custom Cursor - When hovering over a targetable entity (enemy, cover, etc) the cursor will turn into a reticle. When hovering over something you can interact with (doors) it will turn into a hand or a hand with an “x” if you are out of range. Between this and the path changes, it seems much easier to tell where you are moving and what you are clicking on!

More Loot in Levels - in addition to the usual 2 items of loot (which we are going to mix up soon) there are between 1-5 extra items scattered around the facility. These are either credits or fuel.

Procedural Level Generation Improvements - the levels are less similar now and will be in numerous shapes. You’ll also see larger and smaller facilities mixed in all areas.

Music tied to alert levels - nine new tracks were added to the game and we have categorized them by “alert level” in the game. So now when enemies come in sight, the music transitions to a faster track!

Credits Editor on Objective Loadout - when you are prepping your team for loadout, you can now allocate any amount of credits stored in the base to take with you on the mission. Remember, this is risk/reward as the credits may help you but if the team gets wiped then they are lost!

Character Customization - a new pane is added to the character settings to let you change your unit’s name and permanent equipment if you want. Any name can be typed in or you can choose from our random name generator.

Dialog UI Redesign - the dialog has been redesigned in preparation for a future update where we will add avatars for the characters to match their currently equipped items. This should come in with the Build that introduces character dialog (looking like 43 right now).
Bug Fixes

Delay on Overwatch, Defend or End Turn - the delay between turns was sped up in the last build but it looks like we missed one more thing that was causing some noticeable delays when doing an interaction that immediately ended the turn.

Commands during Dialog Cutscenes - you could click around disrupting the camera during pirate cutscenes.

Wrong Loot Triggering Evac - if the same item was in both loot boxes, then the system didn’t know which was the “goal” item

Walking through Doors when both sides aren’t fogged

A lot of small stuff!

Mortmal spotted the free MMO Ultima Online: Endless Journey:

Endless Journey

Ultima Online™: Endless Journey

For over 20 years Ultima Online has given thousands the ability to live in a world born of mystic arts and ancient sorcery. Endless Journey will allow players past and present to return to Britannia and rekindle the magic of this venerable MMO!

Ultima Online: Endless Journey is a way for players to experience the core features of Ultima Online without a paid subscription. Endless Journey accounts will have access to all pre-existing and newly created characters on all shards.

To create a new Endless Journey account visit the account center.

To recover an existing account check out the UO Account Recovery Video Tutorial if you having issues.  If you are continuing to have issues recovering your account contact support.

Please be sure to take a look at the Customer Support page for answers to some common issues and concerns..

The Ultima Store is full of helpful and vanity items to enhance your Endless Journey into the world of Britannia!

If these are your first steps in Britannia, or you are returning home from an extended absence the UO Player Wiki is an excellent resource to acquaint yourself with the realm!

Once in game, the Town Cryer News Network will keep you up to date with the latest goings on in the realm!

Vendor search will help you find other vendors who are selling useful items to assist in your adventures!

The Community in Ultima Online is its greatest resource, and there exist a variety of ways to interact including in game and Global Chat.

You can check out more information on Endless Journey here.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

What is Endless Journey?

Ultima Online: Endless Journey is a way for players to experience the core features of Ultima Online without a paid subscription. Endless Journey accounts will have access to all pre-existing and newly created characters on all shards.

Who is eligible for Endless Journey?

New accounts and previously paid subscription (veteran) accounts that have been closed for at least 120 days are eligible for Endless Journey.

What do I get with Endless Journey?

Endless Journey accounts receive complimentary access to all Ultima Online expansions through Stygian Abyss. Other expansions can be purchased and applied to an Endless Journey account. Endless Journey accounts have access to the Ultima Online core features and can enjoy exploring Britannia, training character skills, making friendships that will last a lifetime,  and much more!

What types of gameplay can I experience on an Endless Journey account?

Endless Journey  accounts can access Quests, Community Collections, The Virtue System (except Justice), City Loyalty (except elections), Bulk Order Deeds (except bribing), Cleanup Britannia, Zoo Donations, The Void Pool and much more! Most importantly, Endless Journey accounts can be a part of the
community that has allowed Ultima Online to endure for more than two decades!

What does Endless Journey cost?

Endless Journey accounts are free to access.

If I’m playing an Endless Journey account can I upgrade to a veteran account at any time?

Yes! You may upgrade your Endless Journey account to a full veteran subscription at any time.

Can an Endless Journey access the Ultima Store?

Yes! The Ultima Store can be used to purchase a variety of helpful and vanity items for use in game with sovereigns purchased from the Origin Store.

Character

What are the restrictions on building my character’s skills and stats?

None. Characters on an Endless Journey account are eligible for up to the total of 720 skill points and follow the same stat restrictions of a veteran account. Endless Journey accounts may use Scrolls of Alacrity, Power, Stat, and Transcendence.

Can I use a character transfer with an Endless Journey account?

Yes, character transfer tokens can be used to transfer to all shards where character transfers are eligible. Endless Journey accounts may not character copy but can access TC1.

Storage

What kind of access to storage does an Endless Journey account have?

Endless Journey accounts have access to a standard player backpack and a bank box limited to 20 items ( storage expansions can increase the max item count to 28).

What happens to my bank if I am a veteran account and decide to close my account?

Nothing. Your bank will remain waiting for you until you decide to re-subscribe.

Housing & Vendors

Can Endless Journey accounts own a house?

Endless Journey accounts may not place, own, be traded, or co-own a house and may only enter public housing. Endless Journey accounts can be friended to a house for access to wall safes.

Are there other housing related restrictions to Endless Journey?

Endless Journey accounts cannot access mailboxes, locked down or secure containers, drop stackable items onto a locked down stack, or place auction safes. Endless Journey accounts cannot safe logout in housing and must use a city inn or tavern.

Can Endless Journey accounts access Vendor Search and interact with player vendors and auction safes?

Yes, Endless Journey accounts can access Vendor Search and freely purchase items from vendors and auction safes. However they may not place regular and rental vendors or auction safes.

Can Endless Journey accounts collect IDOC loot?

Endless Journey accounts are not able to pickup IDOC loot until a 30-minute cooldown period has passed.

Chat

Can Endless Journey accounts access chat?

Yes, Endless Journey accounts have access to General Chat and Global Direct Messaging.

Dungeons, Combat, and PvP

Can Endless Journey accounts participate in Champ Spawns?

Endless Journey can use Valor to start champion spawns and acquire valor while doing spawns but may not receive rewards or scrolls from Champions.

Can Endless Journey accounts participate in Vice vs Virtue and Player vs Player combat?

Yes, Endless Journey accounts may join guilds to participate in VvV, however are not eligible to create their own guild. While in VvVEndless Journey accounts do not gain town occupation points . Endless Journey accounts may freely participate in PvP however may not use or gain the Justice Virtue and cannot protect or be protected by another player via the Justice Virtue.

Expansions, Boosters, and Theme Packs

Can Endless Journey accounts access dungeons, the Stygian Abyss, and the Valley of Eodon?

Endless Journey accounts have full access to all Trammel and Felucca dungeons, The Second Age, and the Stygian Abyss. Endless Journey accounts may access the Valley of Eodon if they have purchased the Time of Legends expansion.

Are there restrictions on accessing expansions, boosters, and theme packs?

Endless Journey accounts include access to all content up to Mondain’s Legacy and Stygian Abyss. Access to High Seas, The Gothic & Rustic Theme Packs, The King’s Collection, and Time of Legends is available if purchased.

Miscellaneous

Are Endless Journey accounts eligible for veteran, promotional, holiday and Event Moderator rewards?

Endless Journey accounts may not claim veteran rewards and will not gain time towards veteran status, however they may use otherwise claimed and obtained veteran rewards. Endless Journey accounts may not claim promotional, holiday, or Event Moderator rewards and cannot attack Event Moderator creatures.

Can an Endless Journey account harvest resources from the world?

Endless Journey accounts may only harvest basic resources such as iron ore and regular lumbar and are not eligible for double resource bonuses in Felucca. Endless Journey accounts may use pack animals to assist in their harvesting efforts and can receive Mondain’s Legacy resource rewards. Endless Journey accounts may not use commodity deeds.

Can an Endless Journey account use the Pet Summoning Ball, Bracelet of Binding, and Bag or Chest of Sending?

Endless Journey accounts may use the Pet Summoning Ball and Bracelet of Binding, but may not use the Bag or Chest of Sending.

Can Endless Journey accounts board and place ships?

Endless Journey accounts may board regular and if purchased, High Seas ships. Endless Journey accounts may not place a ship.

Stygian Abyss

What is Stygian Abyss?

Ultima Online Stygian Abyss features a new playable race, the Gargoyles, a new realm known as Ter Mur, and a new dungeon named Stygian Abyss. This dungeon is the largest in Ultima Online to date, with new monsters, tricks, and treasures. Ultima Online Stygian Abyss includes three new skills, pets, craftables, items and housing design tiles.

IndieGames reviewed Castle Agony which released on Steam late March.

Supernatural pest control isn't a glamorous job, but at least your dog gets to come along!

In Castle Agony, players will guide their character through the halls by clicking around, moving through haunted corridors filled with challenging puzzle mechanisms and irate hauntings. As they explore, players can find an array of odd parts and tools, which they can then combine into stuff that might be useful like molotovs and healing potions. Although the fact that you've come to the castle to steal anything that isn't nailed down might be part of why the vampire doesn't much care for your village and its inhabitants. Food for thought.

[...]

Yellow Brick Road asked about Funcom's Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden in a podcast.

In episode #16 we dive into the world of the classic game “Mutant” and Funcom’s upcoming game “Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden”. And how did ducks in popular culture go from silly to cool? Guests: Game expert, film geek and author Orvar Säfström and Goodbye Kansas stalwarts Tom Olsson and Jonas Skoog.

Satellite Reign is free to own forever until Saturday on Humble Bundle.

Satellite Reign is provided via Steam key for Windows, Mac, and Linux. For key redemption, a free Steam account is required.

Description

Get Satellite Reign, cross-platform on Steam and DRM-free!

Co-Op Multiplayer
Play the entirety of Satellite Reign with your friends in co-op multiplayer. Up to four players can each control their own agent, opening up a whole new level of strategic and co-ordinated play.
With full drop-in/drop-out support, LAN and Internet play, and customisable agent assignment, get ready to experience Satellite Reign like never before.

Strategic Cyberpunk Action
Satellite Reign is a real-time, class-based strategy game, set in an open-world cyberpunk city. You command a group of 4 agents through rain-soaked, neon-lit streets, where the law is the will of mega-corporations. Use your agents to sneak, shoot, steal, and sabotage your way up the corporate ladder, and take control of the most powerful monopoly of all time.

Each of your agents can be tailored toward your favoured play-style, while still maintaining their own unique specialisations. Shape your team into an offensive war machine, or an elite covert spec-ops outfit, and take the open-world city as your own.

Open World
The city of Satellite Reign is one big, open playground. No individual levels to pick between, the whole world can be explored seamlessly. Uncover new missions while you explore, and pick and choose which objectives you want to tackle.

Customise your Team
Each of your four agents can be tailored to suit your play style. Choose their skills, weapons, gear, augmentations, and even their genetic base by cloning exceptional individuals from the general population.

Multiple Strategies
There's no 'right-way' to complete your objectives. The world has been designed to facilitate emergent gameplay, allowing you to choose from and combine a wide range of strategic options. Sneak in through ventilation shafts, hack doors, take out power generators, hijack the minds of guards, or just blow the front door down. Countless opportunities await.

The latest update for Warhammer 40,0000: Inquisitor - Martyr declares the game has been delayed until June 5th.

Martyr Release - Final Dates - A letter from our Producer

19 April - ✪ megapull

Dear All,

first of all, I’d like to skip the excuses, so let’s get straight to the point and start with the bad news.

We had to delay the release date of Warhammer 40,0000: Inquisitor – Martyr to 5 June (2018).

The reason is simple, really. Some technical issues were solved a bit late on one of the console platforms, therefore the release candidate version couldn’t be sent to manufacturing in time. We’d like to release the game - in agreement with our console publisher Bigben Interactive and our licensor Games Workshop - on all three platforms at the same time.

In a nutshell: we have somewhat overestimated our capacity for releasing the game simultaneously on three platforms.

And now that we’ve got the bad news out of the way, I’d like to tell you why this could be a good thing after all:

On one hand, the usual, but always very true statement: this means that the PC version gets three extra weeks of polishing, which is never a bad thing. This also means that the game will be in a much better shape at release.

On the other hand, now that we’ve messed up the big date of the original announcement anyway, we decided to still do one big Beta build update for Steam.

With the three extra weeks, we’ll now have the time to do this and trust me, all the harsh criticism, I mean the extra feedback will help us immensely to balance and fine-tune the game.

Therefore, the dates now set in stone:

• Fresh Steam Build – 21 May
• Release – 5th June

Again, sorry for this as we kindly ask for your further patience and hopefully it won’t be a deal breaker for any of you.

In return, we promise we’ll push this three weeks hard so it’ll be very-very useful for Martyr.

Zoltán Pozsonyi
Producer

Eador: Masters of the Broken World is free to own forever until this Sunday.

5 Years — MotBW is free to keep forever!

20 April - Snowbird Games

Hi everyone,

It's a big day today. Our first game Eador. Masters of the Broken World, came out exactly 5 years ago. It was and it is a bit rough around the edges, but still, to this day we're proud of what we've managed to achieve with such a small team.

Naturally, this anniversary calls for proper celebration. So starting today and until Sunday, the game is completely free and yours forever, if you just click 'Install Game' on Eador's Steam page in time. Tell your friends, share the news! Nothing beats free, right? Be warned though, Eador is notorious for eating your time like no other game — in a good way!

Some info for newcoming players. When you launch the game, you can see a banner to the left of the menu, that's a newer game in the series, Eador. Imperium, which is currently on sale with a 50% discount. What are the differences between the two?

In short, Masters of the Broken World has this huge, non-linear and sandboxy single-player campaign, that will occupy you for the longest time.

We tried to experiment with this in Imperium, where we created five handcrafted story campaigns, and also added new heroes and units (keeping all the original ones), changed and introduced some new mechanics. A good chunk of the code was rewritten, and as a result, the game is much more stable. In both games you can create custom shards (maps) with different settings, where you can play however you like. So if you find yourself enjoying MotBW, we see no reason not to give Imperium a try. Just saying.

Thanks for sticking (and bearing) with us!

TechRaptor looks back at Origin:

35 Years Of Influence - A Look Back at Origin Systems, Creators of Ultima and More

There was a whole lot going on in the world of computers and games in the years leading up to the founding of Origin Systems in 1983. It was the golden age of the arcades, and Dungeons & Dragons was probably more popular than ever with the release of the accessible Basic Sets. As the Apple II approached obsolescence and the Apple III was touted as purely a business computer, the IBM PC was launched in 1981 and the Commodore 64 in 1982. With these computers available to a wider audience, homebrew games became a more tangible cottage industry. It was in this environment that Richard Garriott self-published Akalabeth: World of Doom in 1979, famously using Ziploc bags as packaging for the floppy disks.

[...]

The strategic RPG For the King has been released:

For the King

Full Release is here!

Yes that’s right, Adventurers: Full Release is here!

"Is it everything we’ve dreamed?!"

We sure hope so, Joe Player. We’re so excited and thankful for our wonderful helpful community throughout Early Access.

We’ve experienced the trials and tribulations of all that Early Access had to offer. From great feedback, amazing stories of victory, to terrible bugs that had to be quashed and everything between.

"It was an adventure all on its own"

It sure was. And we’re happy say that we’re not done yet. Of course, we’re going to be in full on support mode for the next while. But once things level off, we will start scheming internally on the next best way to make you all party wipe.

For now, enjoy our three adventures!

Again, thank you so much to our Kickstarter Backers, Early Access Community, and to all you newcomers joining the quest. We wouldn’t be here without you.

Sincerely IronOak Games

p.s. - Keep those discussions coming in on the Discussion forums, and Discord!

A major update for the ATOM RPG has been released:

0.7 Krasnoznamenny!

Dear friends!

It is time for another update of ATOM RPG! And we're not talking about bugfixes... Our April update is quite huge as it touches most aspects of the game. As soon as you update ATOM, you will be getting new quests, new characters, new stories, and new gameplay mechanics from all around. According to your wishes - part of Krasnoznamenny is now open, and many other locations are now filled with interactive content. You will also get to play the first of many backer quests we promised during our Kickstarter campaign. This time we made our good friend Rojson's ( youtube.com/user/ROJOV13 ) creation come to life in a long and arduous journey through the Wastes.
Working on this update took most of the last two months and we really hope that you guys will like it. Please, share your opinions and caught bugs on our Steam page. But speaking of bugs - this time we won't be able to fix them before next week, since on April 21st, our whole team (plus a very special Backer) is moving out to Chernobyl! As you can remember, this was one of the top-tier rewards on our Kickstarter page. We're also doing it to catch some glimpses of a true post-nuclear landscape. This will surely help us make the game better in the long run, and once we're back those bugs won't stand a chance! As for the time while we're gone - check on the progress of our adventure using the social media of your choice:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atomrpg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/atomrpg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atomrpg

• 15+ new characters with unique dialogue;
• 28 new and renewed portraits;
• 15+ quests;
• up to 2000+ lines of new dialogue and system text;
• new weapons, such as the APS pistol;
• new headgear;
• new clothes;
• new loot;
• new books;
• new maps for both quests and random encounters;
• new use for the Amanita mushrooms...
• some empty maps are now settled;
• new crafting recipes;
• new traders;
• new Easter eggs;
• new interaction with an in-game fraction;
• previously incomplete quest is now finishable!
• new companion screen, to help manage your fellowship better;
• advanced tactics for the Follower NPCs
• updated combat and AI;
• a possibility of becoming a slaver;
• many long-term problems, including the one with the intro movie are now solved;

...and many, many more new things await!

A new blog post for Fallen Gods explains all about them.

Before you stands a man warped by time and wrath, crook-backed and bitter, barely able to heft the sword in his hand. Others crowd about, like and yet unlike the first, each twisted in his own way, smeared on stones so smooth and bright that they are like looking glasses. It is a maze made of you, and staring into it, you seem to see into your self.

The titular hero (or anti-hero) of our game may be fallen, but he is still a god. And even when cut off from Orm's great soul-hoard in Skyhold, a son of the Cloudlands has many gifts that set him apart from mortal men.

The first is that he is very hard to kill for good. Only a few things are strong enough to make his soul abandon his flesh and bones. Most deaths merely mangle his body, and a few days and a bit of soul-strength are enough to heal even the ghastliest wounds. (Of course, every day is precious to a fallen god who must make it home within three months.)

Indeed, Ormfolk are very hard to kill at all, for even the most bumbling of them has a strength and skill with the sword that outstrips most hardened earthly fighters. And a god can grow even greater in might and wits by drawing on his soul-strength-"leveling up" in RPG parlance, though here at the cost of the same hard-won "mana" (i.e., soul) pool that feeds his greatest skills.

For a god, even a fallen god, has skills beyond swordplay. The player's god has two out of the following five such skills: Soulfire (by which he can kindle souls into a holy blaze that can burn away curses or burn up foes); Healing Hands (by which he can heal wounds and cure sickness in himself and others); Death Lore (by which he can speak to the dead, calling on their wisdom or driving off restless undead draugar); Wild Heart (by which he can bend beasts to his will or cause the woods themselves to hasten him on his way); and Foresight (by which he can see what lies in distant lands or times to come). These too draw on soul-strength.

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Iratus: Lord of the Dead is an upcoming tactical roguelike RPG.

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Please Enjoy our story trailer into the lore of Iratus! Allow Iratus himself (voiced by the fantastic S. Weyte) to tell you of the events that led to his imprisonment and eventual liberation! Iratus: Lord of the Dead is upcoming tactical roguelike RPG greatly inspired by Darkest Dungeon, Dungeon Keeper, and Disciples.

http://www.iratus.org

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/807...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Iratus_Game

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iratusgamers/

VK: https://vk.com/iratus_game

Gamespot had a early look at Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus. Video is at the link.

Warhammer 40000: Mechanicus Brings XCOM To 40K

Our resident Warhammer: 40,000 nerd Dave got a very early look at the new squad-based Warhammer game, Mechanicus.

by Dave Jewitt and Patrick Faller on April 18, 2018 at 1:00PM

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus delves deep into the lore of the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, melding the story with Xcom gameplay mechanics into a turn-based strategy experience that fans of either series will find familiar. The game is coming some time this year, and not much is known about it, but GameSpot did get an early look at Mechanicus. Check out the latest gameplay in the video above, wherein Dave and Tam talk about how the game is very XCOM on the surface, but filled with deep, nerdy, Warhammer lore within.

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Gamespot took a look at how espionage plays out in Phantom Doctrine.

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Phantom Doctrine is like X-COM, but with the "spy thriller" meter cranked up to 11. Pulling off your secret missions in this tactical game won't be easy.

Today is the release day of Knight Bewitched:

Knight Bewitched

After slaying a dragon, fearless knight Ruth and her companions are tasked with hunting the witch Gwendolyn. In an unfortunate turn of events, Ruth collapses from illness and is nursed back to health by no other than the witch she was tasked to kill. Unable to slay the woman who saved her life, Ruth is jailed on suspicion of bewitchment and later saved by her comrades.

As a new threat looms over the horizon, Ruth and Gwen, together with young orphaned companion Stray and mysterious rogue Uno, rise to the occasion. As they journey, a flame slowly ignites between the hearts of Ruth and Gwen.

But is this true love, or is Ruth truly bewitched?

Features

• An LGBT-positive story-driven adventure
• Four difficulty modes: Play on Casual for a story-focused experience or Heroic for RPG veterans
• Crisp, vibrant graphics
• Gameplay reminiscent of classic RPGs
• Steam Achievements

Today is the release day of Healer's Quest:

Healer's Quest

When evil forces awaken in the darkness, the world needs a team of heroes… But when these heroes are a ragtag bunch of unskilled jerks, only the healer can save the day.

Healer’s Quest is a lighthearted Comedy RPG where you take on the role of the most underappreciated party member in any fantasy realm: the Healer. Joining a band of inept misfits - a bossy tank, a handsome archer, a depraved mage, and a raging barbarian - you must keep your party’s health topped up whilst simultaneously managing dwindling mana reserves.

Not only can your party be taken down when their health ebbs away, they can also be hit with a range of debilitating status effects. It’s like juggling with magic, and the crowd hates you. If you let party members die, they may well go into a sulk in subsequent encounters. Manage moods with magical curatives, death prevention, and witty dialogue choices.

Features:

• Master 22 different spells to successfully buff your party to victory
• Use in-depth skill trees and upgrades to carve out your own playstyle
• Choose your karma alignment, each with its own dialogue options (Good, Evil, or Victim)
• Secure legendary loot for your allies
• Heal, buff, and cure ailments
• Keep everyone alive to avoid moody party members

Soldak Entertainment announced Din's Legacy for Q4 2018:

Din's Legacy

Din's Legacy is an action RPG with mutating characters, set in a dynamic, evolving, fantasy world for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

During the Orc Schism, the entire Orc race was violently split into Dark Orcs, Zombielords, and the Mutated. The Mutated are tainted with Orc blood, a zombie parasite, and necromancer magic. This makes people seriously mistrust and even fear them. The fact that they slowly mutate over time makes it even worse. Who is going to trust you when you grow horns overnight?

Despite all of this, the Mutated are actually more closely related to the Elves, both their behavior and physically. They want to prove this to the world, but they are facing a tremendous uphill battle.

The trickster god Din was intrigued by their chaotic mutations and burning desire to prove themselves to the world. Always in need of champions, he made a pact with the Mutated. Each volunteer would become one of his champions trying to save the world wherever Din sends them. In return, each time they die in his service he resurrects them to continue their service.

Din's Legacy, as well as the Mutated's and yours, are all in your hands! Can you be the Champion that is needed?
 
Features

• Experience your character mutating over time for good and bad
• Guide your character's evolution (choosing/improving skills, suppressing unwanted mutations, etc)
• Use mutation points to mutate your character towards another character or sub-class
• Uniquely created worlds for every game, with different scenario, win/lose conditions, areas, monsters, items, and quests, give the player a new experience every time
• Explore a dynamic, evolving, living world
• Your choices truly impact the game
• Co-op multiplayer to adventure with friends

COG has reviewed the RPG Tower of Time:

Tower of Time Review

I don’t have any experience with traditional CRPGs. To that end, I was pretty sure this game was gonna be a murderous slog, one that I would have to endure rather than enjoy. Turns out I was only half-right. Tower of Time is still a savage journey, but it’s one that compels me to keep coming back for more.

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Great RPGs make every battle feel necessary. At no point in my journey did I ever feel like I was grinding away or wasting time. Instead, my victories were hard-fought and properly savored. Although I’ve little experience with CRPGs in general, I did my level best to keep the difficulty at normal. My only concession was the portal battles. More so than even the boss fights, these stages felt like a brick wall against my forehead. After hours of suffering, I gave up and lowered it to the easy difficulty. Just for that battle, though! Afterward, I notched it right back up to normal. Even this felt like a personal failing, rather than some issue with the game’s design. In spite of these stages, the loot and the leveling system, I was never discouraged or bored. Between the pitched battles and the beautiful level layouts, I was always itching to get just a little further. If you’re a fan of CRPGs or just RPGs in general, you can’t go wrong with Tower of Time.

Last Epoch is on Kickstarter seeking US 210K and is described as a loot-based action RPG featuring time travel. There is a free demo of the game available to download.

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What is Last Epoch?

Last Epoch is a loot-based Action RPG that combines time travel, deep character customization, crafting, and an engrossing item system that guarantees endless replayability.

Featuring

• Offline and online multiplayer action
• Time travel and high fantasy world 
• 5 base classes that advance into 10 powerful mastery classes
• A deep skill system with augment trees for each skill 
• Engrossing loot and crafting system 
• Massive end-game content and replayability, trading, PvP, Cycles(seasons), Ladders, and Achievements 
• Epic storytelling, memorable characters and environments, voice acting, journals, and hidden secrets

Story

Last Epoch has a rich world and an engrossing story that is woven into every aspect of the game from environments to items and more. Throughout the story, you will travel to four distinct eras in time and see how each zone changes throughout the ages, each change bearing lore implications that will keep you invested in the setting.

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Thanks Rhawka!

Copper Dreams has a new update that illustrates the effects of different tiles on the combat simulation.

Detonating the room with tile effects

  In the distant future, the year 2000, pills and computers are wicked cool.

We wanted to follow up the last update to show off something else we've been finishing up on: the framework for the tile effects for environmental hazards.

Tiles in Copper Dreams are part of the active simulation in and out of combat, and one of the last big systems we needed for the alpha to add to the sandbox of rules and systems for the player to abuse.

All the tiles on a map can have quite a few variables that change during gameplay:

• Occupied/Unoccupied
• Lit / unlit / shadow
• Sound emission
• Light color
• Line-of-sight hidden or visible
• Projectile or Damage range traveling through

And now featuring state effects like:

• fire
• blood
• water
• smoke
• electricity

There was a lot of reactive parts to these effects to work into the wide variety of other sensory systems, not just medical ailments but sound emission and enemy AI paths so they can track effects like dripping water or unusual noises.

Stunning an entire room with smoke or fire works as you'd expect it to with our ailment system, so players should make as good of use of that as enemies will on them. A smart tactic for fire-fights is luring opponent(s) around the corner until out of sight, where they will last-known-position you, and then track you blindly — allowing you to get the upper hand pretty easily. To counter that, if they have grenades of some sort, an AI path for certain enemies for the alpha will be to just flush you out. The tick-tile movement coordinates well with that. If you see a grenade coming toward you and can ready your turn, you can get a chance to run from it. And you'll want to. This guard survived the initial blast and courageously ran through fire to hunt our agent down. He'd later go on to regret this.
  Bravery.

Trackable and Ailment Tiles

Should you (or an NPC) walk over water or blood tiles, the character will get a 'wet' or 'bloody' ailment, and track that liquid for ~10 tiles. If these footsteps are seen by an NPC faction who is hostile against another NPC (Guards at a compound see thug patrolling), they'll initiate an AI path similar to last-known-position, and track those footprints until the last one, and then do a wary-state check of the area. They obviously also do this to you, so watch where you step! You can also use this to your advantage, toy with NPCs by luring them away from an area, out of sight and hearing of others.

  Water Tracking

  Blood Tile

Running over smoke causes your character to take on a coughing ailment, which interrupts them for a ~tick (more if you have other chest ailments) and causes them to cough, making noise. Not great for being sneaky or on-the-run. This ailment re-rolls every 10 ticks.

  Smoke Tile

Electrical tiles on the ground stun your character for 3 ticks, and re-rolls that every 6. There are low and high-voltage electrical tiles, the former just stuns you, and higher ones can drain batteries on equipment, short-out cybernetics temporarily, or on higher rolls cause burn damage. That kind of electrical damage is caused by weapons, while environmental ones are less lethal.

  Electrical Tile

Fire damage takes its ailments from the FIRE damage spreadsheet, and that's not a table you want associated with your character's health. For fire-grenades you'll take an initial blast-damage ailment, and that could cause a burning wound which procs every 4 ticks for a duration.

  Fire Grenade

This was also the first ailment to cause more ailments we've readied for the alpha, and it's a pretty slick system. Another one for alpha is impact weapon damage causing bones to break and getting bone-splinters which proc a bleeding damage.

Causality 

Tile effects are automatically caused by some weapons. Like displayed in the previous update, shooting a gun causes tiles around you to light up for a light mod, as well as cause the sound of the gun, and lastly firing some bullet. Adding to those systems, weapons like flamethrowers can pour fire down hallways and leave fire tiles on the ground, and smoke grenades fill a room with smoke tiles.

Since the Burning Candle ruleset leans simulationist, there's no balance needed for things like this, but there are some odd ways we can allow to deter it. For the alpha we'll have fire extinguishers for clearing fire tiles or dousing yourself. For tactical drying action, keep a one-time-use hanky or towel on hand to pat your butt dry.

If you've caught on fire, you can use your roll action (if you have the Grace for it) or our very own implementation of stop-drop-and-roll to extinguish flames by crawling/crouch and standing in sequence. Each of those stance changes take a tick, and burning damage procs frequently, so you'll want to exclusively and quickly do a dance like that or extinguish yourself other ways if you want to keep yourself from getting too well-done.

Stacking Tile Effects

At the moment tiles are tiered to only have one per tile, like you can't have fire tiles on water. After the alpha is released we'll work on the final step for them which is just augmenting them together — fire on water tiles converts the two to vapor (which will just dissipate), an electrical attack on a water tile can travel to all other touching water tiles, and so on. It isn't a design focus nor are we trying to make this into chemistry class, but there is room for some puzzles and fun gameplay for that, so we'll be getting to it later.

BACKPACK

We also added the backpack into the main HUD on the right side. This allows the player to instantly swap active items without needing to go into the backpack first and equip them into quickslots. You've also got all the tools your character does at your disposal up front and center now in a full, glorious frame.

More updates to come soon!

Cheers

IndieGraze interviewed studio producer Mark Parker about Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden.

As a child of the ’80s, the notion that a team of anthropomorphic animals must work together to vanquish evil feels like second nature, and in The Bearded Ladies’ Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, players guide an unlikely trio through post-apocalyptic terrain in the search for answers. With FUNCOM on board as the publisher, I chatted with studio producer Mark Parker.

 

Erik Meyer: MYZRTE guides players through XCOM-inspired turn-based tactical combat, with mutations, specialized equipment, and unique character abilities leading the way through a post-apocalyptic setting, so from a mechanics and an experience POV, what aspects of the project set it apart from games with a similar perspective, and as designers, how do you go from solid assets to a well-oiled machine?

Mark Parker: Whilst of course there are comparable elements to XCOM and other tactical games, we wanted to stand out from the crowd somewhat by incorporating a solid feeling of adventure, not just a succession of tactical encounters. Therefore, we have a real-time element that allows the player to employ stealth and a certain degree of pre-planning before entering combat, and the transition between real-time and tactical gameplay is smooth and dynamic. It’s about giving the player a choice of how they tackle each situation (something we know about from working on Hitman) and also allowing them to explore the rich world we have created. Regarding the process of making it a slick-feeling and satisfying experience, it’s mainly down to playing, tweaking and playing some more. In addition, Rui (CEO of FUNCOM) is a hardcore player of tactical games, and he regularly gives us feedback regarding difficulty, timings, visual cues, etc.

EM: Long before the announcement of MYZ as a videogame, the pen-and-paper RPG already had a devoted following, so can you speak to the bridge between what you’re doing and the traditions it comes out of? Additionally, what expectations come with a universe that people already know and love?

MP: Well firstly, it’s impossible to please everyone, and whilst the temptation was there to add a lot more of the RPG elements from the books into our game, we knew that attempting to replicate a pen and paper experience in a videogame is never really going to satisfy everybody; by its very nature, a pen and paper game is a very free-form social experience where (besides the core ruleset) the players’ imaginations are literally the limit. So we decided to make a tactical adventure game set within the rich world from the books, and we felt that this genre fit the universe nicely and that there is a certain degree of ‘dice rolling’ in this type of game. As for the universe, we try to make sure everything we include fits well with the books; there are obviously some things we wanted to explore or add that the books don’t cover entirely, so there is a small amount of ‘artistic license’, and many of the team members have been long-time players of the Mutant games, so they also keep to canon.

EM: In the gameplay footage that has been released, devs spoke to characters misunderstanding history, so a statue of a high school mascot might be mistaken for a demon, for example. As the game’s narrative has developed, how do you see the setting informing the storyline, and what other things have come from this process that either surprised you or provided depth to the culture of the PCs?

MP: The idea of everyday items or locations from our ‘current’ age being misconstrued by peoples living far in the future is very appealing. We tried to avoid ‘obvious’ humor in the dialogue in favor of more ironic moments that would entertain the player but be deadly serious from the characters’ perspective. A good example of this irony is early on in the game where Dux and Bormin discover a functioning ‘Boom Box’ radio and naturally misinterpret it as a bomb. The ghouls are also supposed to talk and act quite a bit differently than the mutants; there is a good reason for this which we won’t go into at this time.

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PC Invasion reports that the first screenshots for the Forgotten Gods expansion to Grim Dawn have been revealed, as well as some backstory.

Crate Entertainment’s second expansion for their ARPG Grim Dawn is called Forgotten Gods and today the revealed the first shots for the Korvan Plateau.

This new desert area looks great and Crate has shared some backstory along with the first shots as seen below.

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Pathfinder: Kingmaker has a new update which announces a new race has been unlocked. A forum poll will determine which race is added.

New Race Unlocked - Join The Forum Poll!

Dear Pathfinders,

When our Kickstarter campaign ended, we promised that all funds generated by pre-orders and pledge upgrades on https://owlcatgames.com/preorder would go towards unlocking new stretchgoals. And we are happy to announce that the next milestone, a crowdfunding sum of over $1 million, has been reached thanks to your generous help and support! Thank you so much for believing in us!

Our exact crowdfunding sum is now at $1.026.681

This means that we now have the resources to add one more playable race to Pathfinder: Kingmaker. And you get to help us decide which race it's going to be! We have opened a poll on our forums, where all backers get to vote for one of three possible new races. The three options are as follows:

1. Aasimar
2. Dhampir
3. Elemental*

*Humans, whose family trees include elemental beings. If elementals win the vote, we will add playable Sylphs, Undines, Ifrits and Oreads.

You can vote right now by visiting this thread on our dev forums:

https://owlcatgames.com/forums/showthread.php?4221-The-Extra-Race-Poll

Please note - you can only see this thread if you have transferred your Kickstarter pledge to our backer portal or if you are a preorder backer. If you need help transferring your pledge, send a message to [email protected]

Thank you once again for making this possible! And who knows - perhaps we can even reach the next milestone of $1.1 million and unlock a new playable class - Hellknights.  

They are intimidation, relentlessness, and unwavering conviction. They are the black-gauntleted fist of absolute order. They are the Hellknights! Provide your character with even more options to choose from, including unique abilities and items for the Hellknights, as well as the quest line dedicated to the their presence in the Stolen Lands. Face them on the field of battle or fight by their side - the choice is yours to make. 

The Mac Beta is here!

Our first beta build went live a few days ago for everyone who pledged at the $95 level or higher and everyone who pre-ordered the $110 Early Access tier. Unfortunately, there was a technical issue, which delayed the start of the beta version for Mac users. We are happy to announce that the issue has been found and is now fixed. The Mac beta is now live! Sorry for the extra wait, dear Mac users.

Hail to the Kings!

Owlcats

Greenman Gaming previewed Disco Elysium at EGX Rezzed and think it is going to shake up the RPG genre.

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Think it Over

You have an inventory in Disco Elysium where you can manage the items you pick up. It doesn’t end there though, you can also pick up ideas as you proceed through your case. For example, at the start of the game you are asked to investigate a corpse, swinging softly in the breeze from a nearby tree. As part of its narrative structure you can attempt actions or attempt to succeed at challenges through the dialogue options, and it’s possible to fail this particular challenge a few times simply because the body has been hanging there several days, and you’re quite hungover.

So even after using something to take the smell away, you might find yourself needing a new option. In comes an idea your partner gives you, to get your shit together. You see, in Disco Elysium you have a second inventory related to ideas and concepts that you come across. Slotting this idea about getting your shit together in there, you are given a small in-world timer which passes as you talk to people. After thirty in-game minutes, the idea ripens and bursts into…the shit singularity, meaning that you do indeed have your shit together.

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