In a recent update for Gamedec the story of how a great pandemic hit the world some 80 years before the game takes place, is being told.

This part of the story takes place around 80 years before the game’s storyline, It was (probably) 2120 when TRID – a Time Recognition Impairment Disease caused by a virus RAC-5 attacked the whole Earth population. The disease symptoms were bizarre, as the virus attacked only particular brain centers - those responsible for time orientation. People affected by the virus ceased to understand what year it was, what was „before,” what will be „after” they stopped understanding those concepts. They lost track of time. The death rate was extremely high in the population of people over 65. 

Most historians say the whole fuss was started by Temporist - terrorists, who wanted to destroy the system that ran the world those days. It was they who constructed RAC-5 and spread it around the world. To make things worse, they infected the world wide web with viruses that cracked the computers and destroyed their time measuring programs. They also created a lot of fake monuments, pictures, and souvenirs „from the future.” They put them on the city squares, in workplaces, even in private houses. There were over ten million of them, and they were highly active.

During the pandemic, chaos engulfed the world. Everybody got sick. Even the astronauts on space stations and scientists in oceanic complexes, no one could resist the virus. Factories ceased working, banks got shut, stock exchanges stopped their operations, people got out on the streets, riots started, and blood was shed.

Luckily, after several weeks after the apocalypse, it occurred that the illness is self-limiting. Most of the infected recovered and started to understand the time flow again, although the memory of the past was confused and irreversibly twisted. After the pandemic passed, another problem emerged: nobody knew what year it was. There was no material evidence to state it. Since Temporists produced many fake objects with bizarre dates, there was no way to solve this puzzle, especially that computers were also hacked.

[...]

StarCrawlers Chimera will be going to Kickstarter May 25th.

The StarCrawlers Chimera Kickstarter is on it's way!

Juggernaut GamesCreator

Well, this escalated quickly - the Kickstarter for StarCrawlers Chimera is launching on 25 May!

As backers for StarCrawlers, we wanted to let you know that you can follow the campaign now and get an alert when it launches. Here's a preview of what's coming :

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Your support can help us to build momentum in the first few crucial days after launch - which means more dev time and more stretch goals unlocked! Click "Notify me on launch" and consider backing during the first 24 hours of the campaign to make the most impact - and grab those early bird backer rewards!

Thank you again for your support,

- Juggernaut Games

DSOGaming reports on another announcement from Slitherine which trumpets a classic game remake; Master of Magic. Screenshots at the link.

In Master of Magic, you take up the role of one of 14 unique and diverse great wizards who compete with each other to dominate the worlds of Arcanus and Myrror. Players can choose from different schools of magic and fantasy races to command, then lead their minions and expand their influence and power across the land.

[...]

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Stargate: Timekeepers has been announced by Slitherine with a teaser trailer.

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In collaboration with leading entertainment company Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Slitherine, a world leading producer and publisher of digital strategy games, is proud to announce that it will develop and publish Stargate: Timekeepers, the first-ever strategy PC game based on the fan favorite series, Stargate SG-1. Stargate: Timekeepers departs from the end of season 7 of the Stargate SG-1 main plot to create a wholly original story starting during the Battle of Antarctica, where Command Eva McCain and her team are tasked with supporting the SG-1 against Anubis’s fleet. The aftermath of the battle sees Commander McCain and her squad face an epic adventure that spans multiple original locations.

In Stargate: Timekeepers, players will travel through time and space, save civilians from the threats of their system lords, rescue their friends and allies from danger, and much more.

Experiment 101 studio head Stefan Ljungqvist spoke with GamingBolt about Biomutant and talked about combat, traversal, the world, and more.

Given the mixture of martial arts melee combat, shooting, and magical abilities in Biomutant’s combat, it seems like there’s a lot of focus on variety. Does that lend itself to build variety as well? How freely can players mix and match, or conversely focus entirely on one style?

There absolutely is a lot of focus on variety! You can mix and match just as you like. You can use all weapons, all skills and any equipment with every character and combine their use as you wish.

Based on all that has been shown so far, it seems like traversal is another area where the game is encouraging variety, and from various vehicles to things such as jetpacks and gliders, it looks like they’re going to be plenty of options available to players. That said, do players have total freedom over choosing their preferred method of traversal, or are there sections of the world or within the story where specific traversal methods are necessary?

Yes, certain parts of the game – for example the big archipelago area, some of it is even polluted, so you will need your skiff boat to travel. But in most parts of the world, you can use a large variety of mounts, jetpacks, flying creatures and such to travel. However, you can’t use certain traversal options in all parts of the game – the Mek is for example only available in the Dead Zone.

How much of an impact do players’ choices have on the story and how it plays out? Can you tell us how many endings the game has?

Yes. Biomutant has 2 major endings in terms of the main storyline around the Tree of Life. Additionally, the Tribe War has his own possible outcomes, depending on which tribe you allied with and how you acted towards other tribes. And many of other choices you made during your playthrough will be reflected on when the game comes to an end.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

@DSOGaming A newly released mod for Skyrim Special Edition lets you explore the entire province of Valenwood. There are more screenshots at the link.

Modder ‘theblackfist’ released a pretty cool mod for Skyrim Special Edition. Assault on Valenwood is 2.6GB in size, adds a new quest, and lets you explore the entire province of Valenwood.

In this mod, players will team up with the Imperial assault forces as they and their allies travel within Valenwood, taking the province back city by city. The native Bosmer and Khajiit populations will also join your cause.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

The developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 were interviewed by Gamingbolt about the open world, branching story, atmosphere, and more.

Atmosphere and horror are clearly a big emphasis in this game, which is something that series fans will undoubtedly be glad about. Both of those can be very subjective things though, so how do you as developers ensure that you’re hitting the mark in those areas on a consistent level?

With three games in the series, we think we have a strong vision of what players like and expect.

Also, the core team is located in Kyiv, Ukraine, and we visit the Exclusion Zone every couple of months — for the purpose of both work (photogrammetry) and inspiration.

So we can say it’s a mix of existing experience and translating the cultural code. The whole thing is so powerful yet so subtle it’s really hard to describe in words. You can be sure it’s different for pretty much everyone. But probably it is the “atmosphere” people are talking about.

You’re promising a massive open world with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2– just what should players expect in this area where things such as size, design, and variety are concerned? Do you think it becomes harder to maintain a consistent level of horror and atmosphere when a game is set in a large open world environment?

Yes, maintaining the interest of the player is a challenge for every open-world game.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is mostly about the new story, and we can’t tell it without the open world. The player needs to feel the scale and the outcomes of his decisions. It is a long way so it can land an impact. A big journey with its own pace and outcomes.

Also, it’s about seeing the Zone in her renewed beauty. The seamless open world is a thing the series always aimed for. Hopefully, the players will enjoy both the story and the world we’re crafting. They are highly special for us.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

The Action RPG Beyond Mankind: The Awakening will be released on Steam on August 31:

Beyond Mankind: The Awakening - Release Date Trailer

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Beyond Mankind: The Awakening is an Action RPG taking place in a post-apocalyptic world. The game sports a mature and deep narrative, rich exploration, tense combat, and immersive RPG mechanics

Thanks Couchpotato!

Niche Gamer reviewed the action RPG NieR Replicant:

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… Review

When Nier was released in 2010, it defied traditional RPG conventions in a big way. It deconstructed the idea of a typical JRPG protagonist, who believed he was doing the right thing and had a noble goal. Most heroes have their own set of just principles, and they are usually morally black/white. Nier‘s themes challenges the player on what justice is, and wraps it in a bleak and cold existential blanket.

Imaginative, though it may be, Nier was a bit on the unpolished and rough side for a 2010 Square Enix production. The incongruity of the quality was made more apparent when PlatinumGames’ NieR: Automata showed everyone how great the Nier franchise could be. Automata was such a hit, that the boys at Square Enix green lit a remake of the first game, immediately.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… wouldn’t just be a remake, but would also be like a director’s cut. Content that got cut would be restored, and the protagonist would be redesigned to match Yoko Taro’s original intent. “Father” Nier would be reverted back to “Brother,” and fans of Automata can experience where it all began.

[...]

NieR Replicant is still an imperfect cult game like it was in 2010; but now it’s much smoother, a little nicer looking, and has a few extra features. A lot of what hurt the original game is still present and accounted for, like the new game plus that does not ever let the player go back to being the boy version of the hero, and the low budget presentation.

It would have been preferable if the dialogue sequences had a bit more cinematic flair to them instead of characters talking in flat wide shots, or if there was an option for the original soundtrack. While still deeply flawed, NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… is still highly recommended for its depressing existential scenario that makes players look at RPGs in a different way.

Score: 7/10

TSA checked out Legend of Keepers:

Legend of Keepers Review

Being the hero is overrated. We’ve been there, done that and bought the mythril armour; for those of us who frequent fantasy video games, it can all begin to get a touch generic after a while. Then comes along a game like Legend of Keepers.

Upon reading the title, you’d be forgiven for believing this is going to be a hardy quest for adventurers seeking treasures untold, and in truth, there is treasure. However, unlike other RPGs, you’re guarding that treasure from would-be heroes. That’s right, you’re the bad guy in this scenario.

More specifically, you’re the dungeon master, in charge of ensuring that the monsters in your care (we use that term loosely) are up to the task at hand. You can crack the whip, quite literally, as much as you like within this game, but you still need to keep the monsters you’re in charge of happy.

[...]

Summary
Legend of Keepers is a delight to play. It has such character, both in its looks and humour, that it feels unique when compared to other games out there. For those who want to work hard to create undefeatable monsters and dungeons, there’s plenty of scope to carve out your success. It's definitely a title to try out for yourself, even if you’re not usually one for this type of turn-based indie RPG. 

Score: 8/10

The action RPG Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards will be released on May 26:

Aluna Sentinel of the Shards release date trailer

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Enter a world of Inca mythology when action-RPG Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards comes to PC and Switch on May 26th. 

Embody the role of Incan demigod Aluna, the warrior daughter of a Spanish conquistador and Latin American nature goddess Pachamama. Starring comic book creator and actress Paula Garces (Harold & Kumar series, On My Block, The Shield), Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards is a rip-roaring romp through Inca lore featuring mythological gods, beasts, and tales that formed the backbone of 16th century Colombian culture.

Raised in Spain, Aluna escaped to the New World only to realize it was her true homeland. Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards sets our heroine on a quest through Inca mythology as she strives to restore the amulet her goddess mother entrusted to her... and fulfill her true destiny. Venture from the Sanctuary seaside cliffs through the massive jungles of the New World, all the way to Nagaric’s Temple in the Volcanic Canyons in this pulpy period adventure based on the comic book series The World of Aluna.

Thanks Yemeth!

The first dev diary for Expeditions: Rome explains the games vision.

DevDiary 1 - Game & Vision

Expeditions: Rome is a single player Turn-Based Tactical Role Playing Game set during the Roman Republic era roughly between 100BC and 40 BC, around the time when Rome was slowly starting to turn into an empire. At its core, Rome is an RPG, where you play the role of either the son or daughter of a patrician family, leading your Praetorians and Legions in battle across multiple regions while navigating the intricacies of Roman politics.

This leads us to our first vision statement. With Rome, we want to create an immersive, story-rich RPG with player driven choices. Right out the gate, you can choose to play either a male or female hero, and that choice has a major impact on how the story unfolds. That is just the first of many decisions you’ll make, many of which can alter how your missions unfold, what types of quests you can take, and much much more. For anyone who’s played previous games in the Expeditions franchise, you’ll have some taste of what we’re talking about here, but for Rome, we’ve really aimed to take the impact of choices to the next level. Expect to hear much more about this in upcoming DevDiaries.

We also wanted to bring an even more immersive experience when it comes to how we tell our story, and a big part of that was going for a fully voiced experience this time around. We can’t even tell you how much time and care went into casting each character and making sure we can get the best performances we can, but we think you’ll be excited about the outcome.

Our next major vision statement is about our turn-based combat. We feel we’ve learned a lot from our previous games. With Rome, we really focused on bringing exciting turn-based combat with a wide range of tactical options, driven by loot and character growth. There’s way more variety in the weapon and class based skills this time around, not to mention a wider selection of items to use. We’ve also gone through countless iterations on the core combat system and encounter design with a focus on keeping combat fresh as the game progresses. And wait till you hear about our epic Siege missions, which we’ll talk about later! There are almost limitless options for you to explore as you level up and equip your party to fit various playstyles.

[...]

In the fan question section of their current video Piranha Bytes' devs Jennifer & Björn Pankratz said that their "current game in development" (=ELEX 2) is already completely playable and they are fine tuning it. There's still a lot of work to do, but QA is already testing it and errors get eliminated all the time.

Sounds like the end-phase of development for me!

Some Quality of Life changes have been devoloped for Vagrus: The Riven Realms:

Devlog #46 + Project Update | QoL Improvements and Vagrus in the Finals!

There has been a number of Quality of Life changes to the game in the last couple of months and we wanted to collect them in one post.

Comitatus UI
The comitatus UI on the top left over the campaign map is one of the most frequently used interfaces in the game and we wanted to add several stats to make it more informative. To save space, we changed text to icons and now it also displays Nutrition and Obedience, as well as Combat Strength and Defense for Crew Combat.

Traverse
Another addition to the comitatus
UI is the button to use the Traverse Leadership Perk - the last one missing from that category. Activating it converts 3 March Movement Points to regular Movement Points, which can be done every 3 days for 4 Resourcefulness.

Deployment Autofill
When deploying your companions in Companion Combat, now you have the option to autofill the positions using the new button. The order in which they are deployed depends on their health (Wounded entities come later).

Formations
Similar to Autofill, this improvement helps with Companion Combat deployment. You can save and load three different formations. Especially since you can enter Companion Combat from Crew Combat, players have come up with their preferred setups so using Formations, they can access them very easily.

Chart Node Cards
These cards unify settlement and POI cards with quest and Task markers. Button mechanics are the same now and there is a significant visual tune-up, too. For settlements, Codex, Price History, and Mark buttons are available, while quest and Task markers have buttons opening the relevant Journal entry as well as Mark options.

Chart Markers
These were improved to show how many nodes fall into the area designated by the marker. They are color-coded to be easier to differentiate even at a cursory glance. Better yet, preview versions of these same markers are available for Tasks and Passengers (if the destination is unknown for your character), so you can better calculate travel times and risks.

We hope you'll enjoy these changes - we have put a lot of work into them.

Also great news
Vagrus has made it into the finalists in the Digital Dragons Indie Celebration competition!

Besides the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places awarded based on the votes of the jury, there is also a Community Vote you can participate in here. The list is in alphabetical order, so Vagrus is the last one. ;)

By the way, the voting for Untold Games Awards' community award is still on, so if you haven't, head over there, too, and have your voice heard.

Words can not express how much we appreciate your continued support. Stay tuned, stay safe, and conquer the wasteland!

-The Lost Pilgrims Team

Noclip interviewed Arkane Studios about Dishonored:

The Making of Dishonored | Noclip Documentary

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We fly to France and Texas to talk to the developers at Arkane Studios about the design of their most beloved franchise; Dishonored.

Thanks Redglyph!

Pladio had the opportunity to ask Vince of Iron Tower Studio a few questions about their Colony Ship game.

RPGWatch: Hello Vince, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. Now that your new game, Colony Ship RPG is out for Early Access, can you start by introducing the game? What type of game is it and can you introduce the setting?

Vince: Like our first game, it's a turn-based isometric RPG with plenty of dialogues, skill-checks, branching storyline, and multiple solutions. It takes place on a generation ship – a giant colony ship traveling at sub-light speed, so the journey will take centuries. Many generations will be born on the ship and will die on the ship before she reaches her destination. Your character is one of the Shipborn, chained to a fate chosen by one of your distant ancestors.

RPGWatch: Will the ship ever reach its destination?

Vince: In the tentative sequel.

RPGWatch: For people who know Iron Tower Studio, your previous games, the Age of Decadence and Dungeon Rats, had a vastly different setting to this one. What made you depart from the post-apocalyptic Roman world to a space faring setting?

Vince: We want to tell different stories and I'm sure our audience wants to 'visit' different worlds. Hopefully they'll enjoy visiting this one.

The Hand of Merlin will release into Steam Early Access May 11th.

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Hi folks!

Some people have noticed that our updated store page now has a release date!
It’s May 11th!

Last week we had a news site announce our release date. I wanted to make a proper blog post announcement the next day, but some important programming stuff came up, and it slipped my mind. Indie teams and wearing lots of hats does that, unfortunately, so sometimes my “lead programmer” role comes ahead of my “community person” role. So, I decided to dedicate an entire blog post to talk about our early access release.

The game will release to early access next week, May 11th, 6 days from the time of this blog post.
Our efforts in the days before it goes live are mostly on ironing out the UX stuff we know about and fixing any obvious issues. Funny thing about obvious: when the QA team affiliated with Versus Evil started going over the game, they found a bunch of obvious issues that we just didn’t see. :)
We’re making sure that all unlocks work. We’re adding missing illustrations to the encounters. We’re playtesting the whole game from start to end to see if there are any wild balancing issues. We’re fixing up bugs, adding QoL features, updating UI where needed, etc.

The state of the game is, in our opinion, good. That said, there might be obvious issues (see the note above about QA) that we’ve become completely blind to. If you find anything you have issues with, please tell us about it because we can’t fix it unless we know about it. Our current plan is to do weekly patches, most probably on Fridays. The patches would contain any fixes done during that week by our 3 programmers, any balance changes our designers Mat and Mia decide on, and any visual polish and alternate maps and general art improvements our 4 artists do.

Please keep in mind that we are not a large team. As you can count above, we’re 9 full-time people who are trying their best to bring this game to life. We can’t do everything under the sun (like, for example, custom party character creation), but we try our best and prioritize things based on impact, importance, and reality. The more people tell us something is broken or something should change, the more likely those things do get prioritized and done, assuming they're even possible.

Some changes might be easy, some not. I’ll try to communicate these things via blog posts where possible, and we’re always present on our Discord server and Steam forums. If you want/like immediate communication, Discord is your best bet. If you’re on the other side of the world from Europe or we’re asleep, Steam forums are good enough as well. I usually make it a point to myself to respond to most questions and topics that benefit from an answer or at least an acknowledgment.

Redglyph spotted an update for ATOM RPG: Trudograd:

April Update ver. 0.8.1

Greetings, friends!

Today we would like to introduce you to ATOM RPG: Trudograd's 4th content update!

We have added unique missions for both factions, the police and the revolutionaries; we have added new side quests and characters to already existing locations; as well as new maps and even secrets.

Based on your feedback, we are also continuing to work on combat mechanics. For example, depending on the type of encounter, your opponents will now coordinate their actions more often, creating problems for the player character not only using their overwhelming numbers or high skills and stats, but also through the ability to work in teams.

In addition, we have revised the difficulty of some story-related battles and we hope that this will have a positive impact on the gaming experience of our community.

Also, we want to show you the ballistics mechanics which are currently under development and were announced earlier. The main idea of ​​this mechanic is that bullets and projectiles fired from firearms and crossbows can now pierce through not only the first target, but also the one behind it.

For us, this mechanic is a big step forward, so we really want to get your opinion on this innovation. And don't forget that your opponents can do everything you can! ;)

In general there are a number of additions to improve the gaming experience:

1. Now you can safely move from point to point on the Global Map, because to enter any location you will now need to confirm your choice with the "Enter" button.
2. Some temporary locations like the Cult Lair, etc. will receive an approximate difficulty level marker, ranging from 1 to 5 stars. The more stars, the more difficult the location and the battle on it will be. At the moment this system is static, but in the future it will hopefully be directly tied to the level of your character.
3. We have moved the shortcut keys for the actions "Information", "Steal", "Lockpick", "Repair" and so on, following the example of the original ATOM. These actions are available on the numeric keypad using keys 1 through 4.

A complete list of changes included in the update is available below:

• Continued storylines for the Revolutionaries and the Police;
• Added 5 new locations;
• Added characters and quests for existing locations (Police, Docks, Factory, Grey Corner, Mikhalych's Tavern);
• Added several new weapon modifications;
• Added ballistics mechanics for firearms and crossbows;
• Fixed a number of errors that caused the console to pop out;
• Fixed behavior of special armor in cases when it runs out of fuel;
• Fixed a bug with transferring Hexogen’s characteristics when transferring progress from ATOM;
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to interact with the radio on leaving the location;
• Fixed a bug where the player could kill Francis Liao without consequence;
• Fixed a logic error when companions healed spiders during battle at the "Underground testing area" location;
• Fixed a bug where companions changed their location after reloading a save;
• Opening videos now play correctly on Windows 7;
• Fixed a number of minor bugs.

[...]

ATOM RPG - Devtalk #2 (Eng)

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MrMattyPlays looks back at Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen:

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - RPG Time Machine

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Let's travel back to the past in the RPG Time Machine. This episode hones in on Dragon's Dogma, a CapCom RPG that has gradually developed a devout following. While the game has continuously been re-released for a total for 7 years, it has yet to reach mass popularity. Melding mechanics from Dark Souls and Monster Hunter in one, it serves to be one of the most unique experiences you can have with a modern RPG. With that, let's go back in time to Dragon's Dogma.

Wizard Worm checked out the dungeon crawler Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle:

Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle Review (New Old School Dungeon Crawler)

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Come see my Inferno - Beyond the 7th Circle Review. It`s a new dungeon crawler made in old school style. It's inspired by classic cRPG from the 90s. An old-school game for hardcore players. If you've enjoyed classic CRPG from the 90s, you will like this game.You will see inferno beyond the 7th circle gameplay and my first look.

The open world action game Days Gone with light RPG elements will be released on May 18:

 Days Gone

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Ride and fight into a deadly, post pandemic America. Play as Deacon St. John, a drifter and bounty hunter who rides the broken road, fighting to survive while searching for a reason to live in this open-world action-adventure game.

Caedo Genesis listed ten games for Fallout fans:

10 GAMES FOR FALLOUT FANS (That Aren't Fallout) - Caedo's Countdowns

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Games listed: Paradise Lost, Atom RPG, Bastion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, Far Cry: New Dawn, Metro 2033 Redux, Endzone: A World Apart, Wasteland 3, Death Stranding, and Mad Max.

A classic fantasy roguelike - Soulash - is now on Kickstarter:

Soulash: Classic Fantasy Roguelike

Play as a fallen god seeking revenge for your imprisonment. Enjoy turn-based gameplay, old-school pixel-art and advanced modding tools.

 

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You were once the god-king of the Dreamworld, but a new pantheon of gods dethroned you. Mortals have forgotten about you. The divines drained your soul of its incredible power. As you diminished, your chains were no longer able to hold you. You escaped into the mortal realm seeking revenge and destruction. No deity has set foot here for eons, but you changed everything.

Soon new gods will come for you, and the world will burn.  

[...]

IGN reports that SEGA plans to keep Yakuza a turn-based RPG series and make Judgment the action series.

Ryu ga Gotoku Studios has officially announced Lost Judgment today, a sequel to its action-mystery 2018 title. For fans who miss Ryu ga Gotoku’s action-style, Judgment will be the franchise that carries that torch as Yakuza transitions into a turn-based RPG.

In an interview with IGN ahead of today’s reveal Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi and producer Kazuki Hosokawa confirmed that Judgment will be Ryu ga Gotoku’s action series pillar, while Yakuza evolves into a turn-based RPG after the success of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

[...]

Kotaku reports that some fan-made mods are likely to be included in The Witcher 3:

The Witcher 3's Next-Gen Update Might Be Using Some Fan-Made Mods

The Witcher 3 is getting a next-gen re-release later this year, and when it does, some of the “visual and technical improvements” it introduces might actually be thanks to the work of fans in the modding community.

Earlier this week Halk Hogan, the creator of the The Witcher 3 HD Reworked project (which swaps out many of the game’s original textures with much sharper ones), announced that he had been in talks with CD Projekt Red over the upcoming next-gen release, writing:

Hello my dear friends! It’s been a long time since the last video. I know I announced a new HDRP preview in early March but I was silent the whole time. Sorry for that. But in return, I have some good news, and the reasons why I was quiet and why I don’t have too much to show. I think the most important news is that I got an official message from CDPR about cooperation. While it’s not certain yet, it’s very likely that HDRP will be included in the official next generation update. I will inform you what’s next. As always, I would like to thank you for all your support and kind words. 

[...]

Thanks Henriquejr!

[...]

UberDanger has reviewed Fallout New Vegas:

The Birth of a Legend | Fallout New Vegas

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Nerd Problems Gaming checked out the J-RPG I Am Setsuna:

 I Am Setsuna Review - An RPG Worth Playing?

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The Black Geyser devs team up with V publishing for the furhter development and release of the game.

Thank you for being patient with us. We are very excited to announce that we have partnered with indie game publisher V Publishing. We're excited to work with a publishing team that has years of experience promoting and developing games. 

As a team we felt we needed a partner to help us deliver a great experience and provide valuable insights into the marketing and final gameplay experience, but did not want a traditional publisher to come and take away the creative control of the game. That is why we have teamed up with V Publishing. It is a true partnership, and we are working to see the original vision of the game come to life as intended. The team at V will be helping us improve many aspects of the final game and they have already started putting multiple plans in place, including regular development updates, more community engagement and activities, and of course announcing plans regarding launching the game.

Michael Brown, the CEO of V Publishing, wanted to pass on a quick message to all our community members: “As huge fans of games like Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate, the whole team at V are looking forward to helping improve and deliver a great indie CRPG with depth, and a narrative experience that will be memorable. We hope to add huge value to GrapeOcean’s team and start getting the game in the hands of you all later this year. We are excited to also become members of the community and having fun with you all in the coming months.”   

As for our team here, we hope this announcement gets you excited for what we have coming up. We’ll be launching the Steam page and releasing new content details in the coming weeks so stay tuned for that!

Thanks MAHak

Gematsu reports that Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is coming to PC later in the year. For other platforms it releases May 7th.

Publisher Interplay Entertainment and developer Black Isle Studios will release Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on May 7 for $29.99 / £29.99 / €29.99, followed by PC and mobile later in 2021, the companies announced. It features enhanced graphics and up to 4K resolution on supported platforms, as well as local cooperative play.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance first launched for PlayStation 2 in December 2001, followed by Xbox in October 2002, GameCube in November 2002, and Game Boy Advance in February 2004.

[...]

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ItsYoji checked out the dungeon management game Legend of Keepers:

Be an Evil Dungeon Master! - Legend of Keepers - Full Release PC Review

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Legend of Keepers is a dungeon defense management roguelite with RPG elements. With goofy humor, beatiful pixelart, a banger soundtrack and a large variety of monster units and traps to choose from as well as a decent amount of events, I had a really good time playing this game and would very much recommend it to you guys as well :)

Noah Caldwell-Gervais looks back at the KotOR series:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 Vs. Joseph Campbell

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This is a focused retrospective and critique of both of the older Knights of the Old Republic CRPGs from Bioware and Obsidian. It looks to how they interface with the Monomyth template as originally laid down in 1949 by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, one game conforming exactly to it and the next game violently rejecting the entire premise. It also discusses how Campbell's monomyth influenced the philosophies of the Jedi and Sith more than George Lucas might care to admit. Spoilers throughout.

Thanks Redglyph!

The latest community update for Kenshi has some new screenshots/concept art for Kenshi 2.

The Official Kenshi Discord is here

We have launched an official Kenshi Discord server.We’re not looking to replace the community Discord in the slightest, and we have the utmost respect for its moderators and participants, thank you for being part of something very special! Instead, we’d like to create something complimentary: a place for mini updates from us and somewhere where you can quickly and easily have a direct line to Lo-Fi Games (though we do have a sequel to a certain game to make so forgive us if we’re not always too quick to respond).

We’re very keen to hear from you about what you’d like to see the Official Kenshi Discord look like, so do please jump in and let us know.

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A smidgin of Kenshi 2 content

Environmentalism

From Environment Artist Oliver Hatton: "At the moment we're putting together two adjoining biomes so we can get to see all the amazing buildings and characters in situ, doing their thing. This biome blending will also help us identify any problems that are bound to arise, things like town sizes, over-budget texture limits and so on.

The voxel terrain can be fun to work on, with overhangs and caves being possible and re-editing areas much more hands-on than with elevation maps."

And now towns and settlements are beginning to emerge on the map, we should begin to get a much clearer view of the world. It'll be like our own little working death valley where we can test out a lot of the pain and suffering to come."

Gates

Look, it's a gate! Here's a few words from Concept Artist Christopher Schlesag on how the design of the gate came to be:

"The design of the gate was mostly influenced by the architecture of the main faction, which was already established. It is visually very sturdy and has simple geometry. For these defensive walls I wanted to incorporate more metal in comparison to the civilian buildings, which gives an even more militaristic feel.

These are the highest and thickest walls you will encounter in the game. We wanted the walls to be customizable to an extent, so they will consist of optional place-able modules like bastions, towers, and anti-climb extensions that will give advantages in several areas. For example, placing a tower on your wall will not only provide cover from ranged attacks and protect from environmental effects, but also increase the number of turrets you can place on this part of the wall. How much extensions the walls and bastions of a town have will also be a great indicator for how dangerous the surrounding lands are. We are also working on resolving placement-issues the walls in Kenshi 1 had."

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Some, er, mishaps along the way

We also thought you might like to see this happy little accident tentatively titled "I'm just going to spin my arms in the air as I run and if you get hit, it's your own fault!" (thanks Craig):

From Technical Artist Victor Goossens: "What was meant to be happening was literally that the guy was just supposed to be running somewhere, but some animations broke in a bind pose. To explain a bind pose: it’s the thing that an animation is relative to. So if, for instance, an animation was animated with an A-pose as bind-pose, but then the bind-pose in engine is a T-pose (arms are higher), the arms will tilt up when playing that animation in-engine.

I think at that point in time half of our various reference poses (we use a cool blending system under the hood) were borked, so animations ended up being... Magical.

We also had people growing and shrinking vertically as they breathed because of this…"

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The Event user interface in Vagrus: The Riven Realms has been reworked to improve the reading and playing experience.

In this short article we've collected the recent changes to the Event UI in a more detailed format. This is something that's been a long time coming and we believe that it improves the playing- and reading-experience considerably.

Dependencies

What you have and what you need to make choices are called dependencies (a fancier name for 'requirements' really) and from now on, these are much better differentiated. Each category has its own icon and detailed tooltips. Optional dependencies are now signified as such, and many hidden, story-related dependencies at least show up to inform players that they are lacking something for that choice.

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The latest progress report for Long Gone Days announces a new OST and shows off the new UI.

It’s time for a new progress report! These last couple of months we’ve been working on the very last dungeon of the game and some sidequests for chapter 4.

We've been asked a couple of times if there are going to be significant changes to the game. The plot will remain exactly the same, but if you replay it, the most noticeable changes will be that the UI has been completely revamped:

In addition to this, we have added a wider range of facial expressions to some of the portraits, and most importantly, the soundtrack will be updated with original music composed by Sebastian Marin. Here are two of the new tracks:

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Another thing we’ve been asked a couple of times is whether or not we’ll be adding Steam Achievements, and yes, it’s always been in our plans to add them on the full release version.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lgdays

Discord: http://discord.gg/longgonedays