PC Gamer interviewed Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky - they still try to get better in making RPGs:

The creators of The Outer Worlds on learning to make better RPGs

Our full interview with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky about Fallout, making mistakes, and Obsidian's RPG heritage.

I recently visited Obsidian Entertainment to see the studio's new RPG The Outer Worlds, which I called a blend of Firefly and Fallout. It may look like the space cowboy version of Bethesda's recent Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, but its roots run deeper than that: lead developers Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain created Fallout together in the 90s, along with other famous PC RPGs like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

You can read a lot more about The Outer Worlds in my feature, but I also talked to Tim and Leonard about their careers making RPGs, and how that experience and working at Obsidian is affecting this new game. Here's what they had to say.

Wes Fenlon, PC Gamer: Tim, did you sort of have an inkling of what this game was going to be before Leonard came over to Obsidian from Blizzard, or did you form the idea together?

Tim Cain: I had no idea what it was going to look like. We had not picked any art style. We knew it was going to be sci-fi.

Leonard Boyarsky: Obsidian asked Tim to make a new IP and Tim reached out to me, because we complement each other really well in terms of what we're good at and what we're not good at, and just kind of went from there. We knew going in that we wanted it to be a space opera-y kind of thing. We hadn't really done that before. We'd done post-apocalyptic, we did Vampire, and Arcanum, steampunk fantasy.

Even before we had the art style, I definitely knew that it was going to be another one of these kinds of alternate history, weird things that most other people wouldn't try to tackle. I think it's more prevalent now, but back when we did Fallout, people didn't quite get the 1950s post-apocalyptic thing right out of the gate. They weren't quite sure what to what we were talking about.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Discord offers developers a a 90/10 revenue split:

TL;DR — In 2019, the Discord store will allow all developers to self-publish games with a 90/10 revenue split.

Back in 2015, we asked ourselves a few questions. Why do you still need to enter an IP address to join voice chat? Why do gamers have to pay for voice chat? Everyone was already using Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, or Mumble, and we wanted to make yet another one.

However, we believed that we could create a modern and easy-to-use app that provided more people with the amazing experience of hanging out online with friends. Nearly 4 years later, over 200 million people have used Discord to chat and play games with their friends.

Discord has also brought game developers and their fans much closer together. As a player, there is something amazing about jumping into a verified community server and talking directly to the developers who build the game you love.

Earlier this year though, we noticed a change happening in the game industry. We talked to a lot of developers, and many of them feel that current stores are not earning their 30% of the usual 70/30 revenue share. Because of this, we now see developers creating their own stores and launchers to distribute their games instead of focusing on what’s really important — making great games and cultivating amazing communities.

So, we asked ourselves a few more questions. Why does it cost 30% to distribute games? Is this the only reason developers are building their own stores and launchers to distribute games?

Turns out, it does not cost 30% to distribute games in 2018. After doing some research, we discovered that we can build amazing developer tools, run them, and give developers the majority of the revenue share.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Book of Demons has been released and is available on Steam and GOG.

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Book of Demons is a Hack & Slash Deck-building hybrid in which YOU decide the length of quests. Wield magic cards instead of weapons and slay the armies of darkness in the dungeons below the Old Cathedral. Save the terror-stricken Paperverse from the clutches of the Archdemon himself!

Procedurally Generated Dungeons
Roguelike Mode for fans of extreme challenge
70+ different types of monsters, with different traits and custom mechanics
Twitch and Mixer integration
Monthly and all-time Leaderboards, 200+ Achievements

Book of Demons is the first installment of Return 2 Games - a series of original mid-core titles, inspired by the early golden days of PC gaming.

Banner Saga 3 has some new DLC available called Eternal Arena on Steam and GOG.

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Greetings, Bannerfolk!
We have great news to warm your hearts this December - Eternal Arena is here! The team has worked long hours on this piece of Banner Saga 3, available today as DLC on Steam and GoG.com.
Eternal Arena is a new game mode which pits your best combat tactics against quick-play challenges! Sandbox-style battle options, different gameplay rules, alternate turn order mechanics, timed tournaments, leaderboards and more!

Our community has been asking about this for years. The time is NOW!

• Eternal Challenge: Come back every week to compete in a tournament with a global leaderboard.
• Arena Mode: Design your own battles, choose the enemies, and change the rules in this spellbinding sandbox mode.
• Play with all 46 characters, plus all enemies, and battleboards from the entire Banner Saga Trilogy and refine your party tactics.
• 39 new achievements (including 3 hidden ones)!
• 3 new leaderboards.

Thanks Couchpotato!

The rogue-like Below has been released today:

BELOW

Test your adventurer mettle against The Isle’s procedural subterranean labyrinths. Explore a large, interconnected underworld crawling with cunning wildlife, deadly traps and stalked by a shadowy presence. Survive the perils of The Depths and unearth what lies below... or die trying..

Below is a procedural terrarium filled with life, mystery and death.

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EXPLORE

Explore the vast subterranean underworld of The Isle: a dangerous, unfathomable deep. Choose your path through the randomly generated labyrinth crawling with deadly monstrosities, traps and hazardous environments. Perma-death awaits at every false step, and there are no hints to guide you…

SURVIVE

Spelunking through The Depths of BELOW is a treacherous endeavour, with death around every corner. The world is alive with flora & fauna, and there are many ways to scavenge materials and harvest ingredients to create life-saving remedies or useful survival tools…

DISCOVER

What lies below? Only the bravest wanderers will find out. The Depths are filled with secrets and danger. BELOW embraces the idea that players enjoy discovering secret areas, finding hidden passageways and unravelling the deepest mysteries hidden in the darkness…

The CRPG Book has gone to print and pre-orders are due to open 14/01/19. You can sign-up to be notified here.

OK, so over 100,000 words edited, 1,400 images optimised for print. 528 pages of epic CRPG goodness has now gone to print! @felipepepe

Pre-orders open on 14/01/19
Sign-up to be notified: https://t.co/3MK8TItWU2 pic.twitter.com/RbwgLgCWKW

— Bitmap Books (@bitmap_books) December 13, 2018

Julian Gollop answers questions about Phoenix Point from the community.

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Lead Designer of Phoenix Point, Julian Gollop, answers the first wave of questions from our Facebook comments in this first Mailbag video.

The Forgotten Sanctum DLC for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has been released on Steam and GOG.

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When a violent tremor shatters the islands of the Deadfire, the greatest wizards in Eora seek out the aid of the Watcher. The archmage Maura has vanished into the depths of a newly opened dungeon located in the Black Isles and threatens to awaken what lies forgotten there. Follow Maura's trail and determine the fate of one of the Deadfire Archipelago's most closely-held secrets.

• Traverse an expansive dungeon built into the flesh of a sleeping god.
• Encounter the highest-level challenges yet faced by the Watcher and their companions.
• Scheme with or defy the wills of Eora's most powerful wizards.

The Wildcards DLC is now available on Steam and GOG for Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

Fiend blood runs through their veins, whispering cruel truths and evil ideas. Who are they? Tieflings, the outcasts of the civilized world.

Living channels of elemental energy, tamers of wild power - who are they? Kineticists, masters of occult elemental skills.

A mysterious stranger crosses the threshold of your barony - marked with the blood of devils, gifted with the power of the elements. Who is she? Discover for yourself!

This new DLC for Pathfinder:Kingmaker includes:

• A new playable race. During the poll to decide which bonus race we were going to add to the game, one particular option was requested a lot (besides the winner - Aasimars): Tieflings, the people with a drop of demonic blood in their veins. They didn't make it into the base game, but became the natural choice for the first piece of post-release content.

• A new playable class. They master the raw power of the elements, channeling it into their wild talents to manipulate the world around them. Kineticists are living conduits of primal energy, deadly both in close and ranged combat.

• A new companion. If you combine a race with a class, you get a character. Welcome your new companion, the Tiefling Kineticist who comes, just like every other companion, with her own storyline. She could also be a romance option and may hold one of the positions in the Kingdom.

The new companion will join your party in the beginning of Chapter 2. Those who would like to add the companion to their current playthrough can do so at any point before the end of Chapter 5 ("War of the River Kings"): the companion will ask for an audience at your throne room. However, we would advise to begin your acquaintance with the character as soon as possible.

The GOG Winter sale has begun and will finish January 3rd.

Full Throttle Remastered for free ⬥ Daily Flash Deals ⬥ free game with first purchase ⬥ more than 2000 deals across 3 weeks

The stay-at-home season's festivities launch with free stuff, daily deals, personalized recommendations and more deals than ever before! All this goodness on GOG.COM – purveyors of the DRM-free spirit, curators of the best in gaming, and a friendly bunch of gamers overall.The Winter Sale will last for 3 full weeks, till January 3.Wear your helmet and respect local speed limits, but otherwise, put the pedal to the metal.

Grab a copy of Full Throttle Remastered for free in the first 48h of the sale (till December 15, 2:00 PM UTC)! Your destination is a giveaway banner parked on the GOG.COM front page – click on it to redeem the game for free.And since we're on the subject of FREE – unlock free games while you shop in the sale: get Fantasy General free with your first purchase, and EVERSPACE once all your Winter Sale spendings add up to $15.DRM-free your Steam games – GOG Connect is back! Connect your Steam account and add eligible games to your DRM-free library. Some titles you can Connect include: Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Age of Wonders 3 and Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut. And there's a new batch of eligible titles each week, so check back regularly!

The Winter Sale kicks off with +1900 offers, and you can expect nearly every game on sale this Holiday Season.Daily Deals, an old favorite returns – these are particularly high discounts available for 24 hours only. So check back at 2:00 PM UTC every day for eight new games you won't otherwise find in the Winter Sale.The amount of deals in Winter Sale might make you feel a bit overwhelmed. We have your back! With our curated approach, we ensure that every GOG.COM release is worth it – and between 400-something new games added this year, you'll find our fresh favorites on sale like Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (-20%), Frostpunk (-33%), Divinity: Original Sin II - Definitive Edition (-35%), Stellaris (-60%), BATTLETECH (-30%), Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (-34%).Other extremely good deals you should not miss include The Witcher: Wild Hunt GOTY (-60%), SWAT 4 (-50%), Homeworld: Remastered Collection (-80%), XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack (-80%), Heroes of Might & Magic 3: Complete (-66%), ELEX (-50%), The Witness (-75%) and more.

The Winter Sale ends on January 3, 11 PM UTC.

A gameplay video for Void Bastards from IGN.

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The developers of the comic book-looking shooter/strategy game Void Bastards take you through a meaty 18-minute chunk of gameplay.

The creative director of Below played the first 13 minutes of the game and spoke to IGN.

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Yes, Below is FINALLY here! Creative Director Kris Piotrowski walks us through the opening minutes of the loooooong-awaited Zelda-ish roguelike and discusses what the end of the development journey has been like for him.

Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest was previewed by Rock Paper Shotgun.

The last thing I was expecting Druidstone: The Secret Of The Menhir Forest to remind me of was a deck-builder. Not least because it doesn’t feature any decks. And yet, there’s something about this deeply tactical isometric RPG, from Legend Of Grimrock’s creators, that contains the same spirit of gradually gaining a deeper and more refined understanding of a limited set of tools, through repeated failure, and incremental improvement.

This is at first glance a very traditional turned-based RPG – much as Grimrock recalled the glory days of the first-person dungeon crawler, this visually suggested memories of late-90s BioWare-ish battling. But playing it, it quickly becomes apparent this isn’t going to be a game that lets you spam your most powerful attacks at repeated mobs, but rather something that’s going to demand a lot more planning, a lot more forethought. This is going to be tough.

[...]

A new update for Element: Space introduces Captain Christopher.

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*Early Concept Art

The latest newsletter for Praey for the Gods announces that closed beta is underway and the plans for early access and beyond. Screenshots at the link.

Hello to all of our backers and newsletter readers!
Progress on PFTG has been going great! PAX West feels like it happened ages ago, but I think it's important to let you know that it went very well for us. We expected a couple of people to show up to the booth, maybe 100 people max, but were shocked to find that our our booth was PACKED.
It was amazing to meet face to face with our backers and show them the game they made possible with their pledges. It was also awesome introducing the game to people that had never heard of it before. Coming back from PAX, we were incredibly pumped up to dive back into development and get Closed Beta out to our backers.
Yup, you heard me Closed Beta is OUT;)

Seriously, Closed Beta is out!?
Yes! We've been in Closed Beta now for about a month, so those that have backed us at "Legion Edition" or higher have had their Closed Beta keys sent out. If you backed those tiers but haven't seen your key arrive, be sure to contact us.

Awesome! How's it going?
Closed Beta is going very well with much of the feedback being overwhelmingly positive. Of course, there have been critiques and suggestions too, with many of them aligning with our to-do list. We're also fixing a number of bugs and making positive gains with performance as we lead up to our initial PC launch.
To better manage feedback, we broke the Closed Beta into 2 phases. We are calling them CB1 and CB2. Each consists of a subset of content that will lead up to our initial PC launch which will contain all the digital content we set out to do during our Kickstarter. We're currently in CB1 and will be in CB2 before years end.

[...]

Is the game coming out Dec 2018 still?
Short answer? No.
We looked at our schedule and while we could kill ourselves to get it out by year's end, it made more sense to stay in Closed Beta longer to make sure the game is solid and ready for our backers. That may disappoint some but the good news is the in-game Kickstarter content is finished. We only have a couple of things left that we want to tweak prior to launch, but there's still a lot more stuff we hope to work on post launch.

Yes, we want to add MORE content.
Remember those stretch goals we had? There were a couple goals we were unable to hit in our Kickstarter campaign and we still really want to do those. Also, we created some new content like Champions, and puzzles during development which we want to expand on. We went back and forth on how exactly to do this, considered a number of options, and the one that made the most sense to us as a small team was going to Early Access to add the extra content while we worked on consoles.

Before you roll your eyes we'd like to explain our reasoning.

Initial PC Release
Our plan is to release into Early Access with all the game content we achieved in our Kickstarter campaign. This means the 5 bosses are done and fully playable, along with cutscenes, open world exploration, minions, puzzles, and all the additional Kickstarter Backer Content. It's a fully playable game that is exactly what you backed us for when we started on this journey. However, we love working on this game and our engine and tools have come leaps and bounds since we started development. This is allowing us to develop faster and better and it feels silly to stop development on the game when we've just hit our stride. While Chien is working on getting the game further optimized and certified for PS4/Xbox One, Tim and I will add what additional stretch goal content we can prior to a final launch on consoles. We found this to be a win/win for both PC backers and console backers as PC backers will get the game as well as additional content over time and console backers will have some fresh content and a somewhat spoiler free conclusion to the game.

What additional stretch goal content would we be planning?
To be clear, additional content would depend on the sales we get when we launch on PC. However, we'd like at least one more boss, flesh out crafting, add more puzzles, have a perma-death mode as an option, and a bit bigger final conclusion to the game. Honestly, I like to think of it like an epilogue at the end of a book.

We want to reiterate the stuff you backed will be available at launch. We're simply initially releasing into Early Access to see if we can add more content before we launch on consoles. Yes, we could do a big ol' super duper day one launch but let's be honest we're 3 people and that kind of stuff terrifies us. We'd rather release newer content in waves, continue to expand our community and listen to your feedback along the way. We felt Early Access fits this approach and we watched our friends on Grim Dawn and Subnautica create fantastic games using this development method. We like the consistent development we've been doing since Closed Alpha and going this route feels like the proper next step.

OK soooo when?
Obviously, we want to give a firm date and based on our current feedback from Closed Beta and Closed Beta 2 we're hoping mid/end of January. However, looking at our track record let's stick with Q1 2019 just to be safe.

Its time for the top 100 mods of 2018 at moddb.

Back for a 17th time, welcome to the 2018 Mod of the Year Awards. You will find no loot boxes, microtransactions, unlockables or DLC here - just amazing free mods made by dedicated creators for your enjoyment. For the next 4 weeks it is up to you to vote for your favorite mods so that they may make the top 100 which will be announced on the 11th of December.

There was plenty of blood & gore to go around last year, with the fan favourite Brutal Doom claiming top spot on the podium. Coming in second was the galactic spectacle Starwars II: Thrawn's Revenge II: Ascendancy followed by an alternative C&C timeline in the Twisted Insurrection modification. If you need a refresh of how last year's awards went down head on over to the top 10 countdown's for both players and editors to see who stood out among the pack.

Show your support and start smashing those vote buttons for your favorite mods (and if your favorite mod isn't listed encourage the team to add it). Developers need to feel the overwhelming power and groundswell of support for mods, which drive so much creativity and goodwill in games of all shapes and sizes. There's been some huge releases this year, make your vote count and we look forward to seeing who will climb to the top, and be crowned the 2018 Mod of the Year.

Thanks rjshae!

@Bluesnews Jon Shafer's At The Gates is a 4x strategy game from the designer of Civilization V. The release date has been announced as the 23rd of January and a Steam page is now available.

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At the Gates is a 4X grand strategy game from Jon Shafer, designer of Civilization 5.

You are a Dark Age lord. Your destiny is to build a kingdom in the shadow of the crumbling Roman Empire. Explore the dangerous landscape around you, harvest its resources, and build a mighty economic and military machine. Your clans have their own personalities and desires, so carefully consider how you use them.

It won't be easy. Your path is unsure. Overcome your immensely strong neighbors. Outlast the frigid winters of the far north to discover a source of gold and vast riches.

Are you the leader who will usher in a new era of European history? Or will you be forgotten?

--- Features ---

An Evolving Map

Seasons and weather dramatically transform the landscape around you. The river that once served as a barrier in the summer might become a highway in the winter - for both you and your enemies!

Character Management

Each of your clans has unique traits and desires, so choose carefully how you use them.

Survival & Roguelike Elements

Keep your clans fed through the harsh winter. Resources run out so always be hunting for more. Your neighbors can be immensely strong. Every game poses new challenges and opportunities.

Watercolor Art Style

A beautiful watercolor landscape serves as the canvas for your clever economic and military strategies.

Tooltips-in-Tooltips!

AtG features a revolutionary user interface which utilizes "tooltips-in-tooltips" for the very first time, making it far easier to learn without sacrificing any gameplay depth.

Sector interviewed Viktor Bocan about Kingdom Come: Deliverance and ask where it succeeded and where it failed.

Since the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance has been running for some time, you've had a lot of repairs and some DLCs. When you look back at the game, what do you think is your greatest success, and what, on the other hand, is the area where you have somehow failed?

I think the best thing is that the game is successful in the sense that we managed to give people a message. We knew we were doing a game that was not entirely for everyone, and we hoped we'd like people to love because we like it. This is a matter we often talk about. We are trying to make games, even if there is only one and in the future we will hopefully be the ones that will be good for us and which we want to play. Which we think are somewhat interesting. It's not about trying to find a hole in the market, trying to get some money, then counting incoming dollars. We did a game where we were not sure that a lot of people would like to be, but we knew they would like us and we were waiting for what people would say. Our success has inspired us to understand that they like it and that they want more.

If I say negatively, of course, I'm not happy with a lot of bugs, but rather the things we could not do. For me personally, it is the biggest disappointment that we failed to make those big battles. I was very happy to bring something up, but it just could not. On the one hand, the engine is not entirely up to date, and a whole new technology has to be developed, and we have failed. So we made the battles the way they can be. I think that if we develop this further, they may be a little better, but the huge and wonderful ones we originally planned with hundreds of soldiers, it is not that technology.

[...]

A Dragon Named Coal has run into some production problems as explained in the latest update.

ADNC On Hold

After a lot of thought and consideration, our team has decided to put A Dragon Named Coal (ADNC) on temporary hold for the time being. We’ve been actively developing the game for almost five years with a lot of success, but we’ve hit some roadblocks we can’t easily overcome. On the other hand we’re changing gears to work on a less ambitious title that should allow us to come back to ADNC when the time is right.

Is A Dragon Named Coal dead?

No, the project is still very much alive. We’re still actively revising the gameplay and tweaking story in our spare time. We just don’t have the necessary resources to complete the project as it exists now. So it’s going into hibernation as we work on a connected title. A project that should help us reimagine ADNC’s IP in a more affordable and time effective manner. As the story has never been meant to be exclusively about Coal, but a much larger world with a lot going on in it.

What happened?

At this point you’re probably wondering “What happened? I’ve been seeing progress updates and new artwork over the years.” We’ll try to explain that below. As we’ve run into a couple huge blockers preventing us from producing content in a timely manner.

Animation

One of the biggest problems our team has faced since the projects conception has been animating characters. It’s one of our highest production costs. Because of the game’s action oriented nature, animations are complex and require a lot of tuning. 2D sprite sheets require a large number of time consuming hand crafted assets. We’ve worked with multiple pixel art animators to try and fix this, but we’ve had trouble keeping consistent quality and style. 3D provides a lot of tools to make animating much easier, and we’ll probably be headed in that direction for future animating. As 3D’s skeletal rigging systems provide much more cost effective tools to animating an action oriented game.

2D tooling code became too large

Custom tile systems, combo trees, and many other libraries have had to be written for this 2D project. Over the years our code base has become too large for our team to support. 3D provides many of the tools we’ve had to hand craft. The complexity level may be higher, but the amount of code we’d have to maintain would be far smaller. Allowing our team to focus on more gameplay related coding and less tooling (which makes a big difference for a two person team).

Also the live action combat system of ADNC has become quite complex and beyond what a single programmer can handle. The system was supposed to be a 2D re-interpretation of Devil May Cry 4, but recreating something like that was much more difficult than expected. Mostly we had a chicken egg problem with going from prototyped combat to fully animated character. What we ended up with internally was a sub-par and rather buggy experience. Endless edge cases were killing us. For example there were a lot of issues with AI being able to navigate around correctly. Some games like Dust Elysian Tale have solved this issue, but we found because of some of our more complex AI systems, things just weren’t meshing like we’d hoped.

[...]

Dungeon Kingdom: Sign of the Moon has an updated schedule for its release plan.

Schedule Update

25 November - kanda of Normandy

Hello happy adventurers!

A little update on our schedule: we are planning to release the three last chapters progressively for the Christmas holidays. Then, during one or two months we will work on a global balancing and improving ergonomy and feedbacks and then we’ll exit the early access (we expect it to happen during this winter).

Long Gone Days will release on Steam April 2019.

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Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/510...
Itchio: https://laburatory.itch.io/lgd
Game Jolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/long-gone-...
Humble: https://www.humblebundle.com/g/lgd
More info at: http://longgonedays.com/

Long Gone Days is a 2D modern-day military RPG set in our current times, with a focus on language and cultural barriers, inspired by classic dystopian literature and visual novels.

ABOUT LONG GONE DAYS After being deployed to his first mission, Rourke leaves The Core's base for the very first time, only to discover the dark truth about the operation he's part of and the consequences of deserting an inescapable war.

A new update for Legends of Ellaria introduces the Warrior Spirit class and a new interface.

The Warrior Spirit class and a new Interface!

10 December - Larkon Studio

Fixed getting stuck after dying while aiming(Version was updated on December 11)
Dear Legends of Ellaria players,We're excited to announce a NEW closed-beta version with the following features: Version 0.5.45.01 BETA 1 includes the following features

• Completely remade the User Interface for the First Person mode. More to come
• The new Warrior Spirit skill tree
• You can now perform Focus Attacks by pressing Z
• Added the option to rebind the "Q" key, thus fixing the AZERTY keyboard issues
• Changed the Bow accuracy by skill to non-linear
• Fixed Multiple Jumping and Falling Glitches
• Fixed climbing stairs in the city
• Fixed Unarmed damage amount
• Fixed Blocking Calculations
• Fixed NPCs dying in one hit in some instances
• Fixed Multiple issues with NPCs not dying
• Fixed issues with the inventory quick slots
• Fixed Bow Damage
• Fixed Tutorial quest won't update when taking gear

If you own a copy of Legends of Ellaria but still haven't joined the closed Beta please join us on our Discord server[discordapp.com], PM us with @Admin and we will set you up! In case you don't have a Discord, then just contact us here.

Please share your Feedbacks thought the in-game F8 report system and leave your comments in the Beta Section.
Share your gameplay via the Game Review as well

Thank you for the support, and we hope to build a great game alongside you.

See you in Ellaria,

The Larkon Studio Team

BETA 2 - 0.5.45.02 Changes:

• Fixed Blacksmith door was blocked in older saves
• Fixed unable to shoot when entering a dungeon
• Fixed missing Inventory Experience bar
• Fixed missing quick bar item amounts

ATLAS is a high seas open world pirate survival MMO that is set to launch on Steam December 20th.

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From the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved comes ATLAS - a massively multiplayer first-and-third-person fantasy pirate adventure. ATLAS will host up to 40,000 players exploring the same Globe simultaneously, with an unprecedented scale of cooperation and conflict! Stake your claim in this endless open world as you conquer territory, construct ships, search for buried treasure, assemble forts, plunder settlements and hire crew to join your powerful growing armada. Start small then expand your spheres of influence from a small island, up to an unstoppable pirate empire that spans across the oceans. Wage battle against enemy fleets as you singlehandedly command large ships of war using the captaining system (or divide up to the responsibilities among your trusted lieutenants), or take control of any weapon directly with your own character. Dive deep into the briny water to explore permanent sunken wrecks and recover salvage, unearth the loot from procedurally-generated Treasure Maps and challenge zones, or complete challenging main questlines. Team up with other aspiring adventurers and sail into the vast ocean to discover new lands rich with region-specific elements, tame exotic natural and mythical creatures, raid forgotten tombs, confront powerful ancient gods and even build and administer your own colonies, cities, and civilizations to dominate the ATLAS in this ultimate quest for fortune and glory!

MMO On the Grandest Scale

Physically sail in real-time across the vast oceans with the proprietary server network technology. Explorers will voyage to over 700 unique landmasses across 45,000 square kilometers, with thousands of Discovery Zones, and ten distinct world regions each having their own unique resources, creatures, secrets, and environment hazards! There is a separate PvE ATLAS for players who don't wish to play any PVP.

Construct the Ship of Your Dreams, Plank by Plank!

Build drydocks and start with a dinghy rowboat, basic raft, tiny sloop or nimble schooner, moving on up to your own versatile brigantine or titanic galleon capable of transporting hundreds of crew and extensive cargo. Name your ship in big bold letters, paint and copy your own pirate flag and custom-place all the pieces of your ship -- which sails and where, planks and gunports, every single structure piece has a physical Weight and Material -- to function exactly how you want.

Captain your Crew!

Recruit real players and AI crew from freeports or rescue seasoned crew from destroyed “Army of the Damned” shipwrecks to man distinct stations on your boat! Set sail and explore the ATLAS with them to gain experience and level up their stats or gear, as well as levelling your Ship. Your crew are versatile! Whether on land, or ship, or even riding behind your animal companions on emplacements, they can man weapons of all kinds-- cannons, swivel guns, siege engines, turrets, and even gigantic mortars, many with dynamically swappable ammo types including grapeshot, chainshot, spikeshot, liquid fire, and more! Instruct them to board enemy ships and help you conquer the seas! Keep their stomachs full and their pockets full of gold lest you want a mutiny in your hands! Take on the Captain’s Wheel or divide up the command responsibilities via Lieutenant Podiums to direct the Ship’s assignable weapon systems, sails, and stations, including standing-orders or manual grouped fire. Or, walk up to any station and take control of it yourself!

Pirate PVP to the Limit

Everything is up for grabs including player’s ships, their crew, their pets, their forts, their land, and their booty. If you can get your hands on it, you can take it. A ship’s permanent logbook tells the tale of their legendary travel, exploits and ownership.

Be the Hero or Villain you were meant to be

MMO-scale character progression systems include, at launch, over 15 Disciplines with over 300 Skills, in a vast unlockable tree. New "Feat" system allows for active and passive bindable character abilities, while new stat-buff system allows innumerable abstract statistics to be modified by Skills, Items, and Armor. And now, everything has scalable stats, including structures, and can be progressively Upgraded!

This is Who You Are

Extensive character visual customization enables an endless range of realistic (and not-so-realistic) characters, with a vast array of sliders, morphs, muscle tones, and tweakable values. You can even per-pixel design your own permanent tattoos (and then draw warpaint on top of that too!). If someone exists in the real world, they should be creatable in ATLAS! Best-in-class dynamic hair growth and real-time aging systems allow you to get old and... pass on your legacy? (Or find a fountain of youth!).

Endless Adventure

Full Quest and Waypoint systems, with sub-quests and rewards, for major goals -- while procedural treasure maps and challenge zones also ensure there's always something new to find out over the horizon.

Intense Action

Tactical melee combat systems with blocks, parries, dodges, character motion, optional shields, stunning and strength-varying strikes, directional attacks, and more for use in either first or third person perspectives. Fists, swords, maces, blackjacks, daggers, and much more give you tremendous options to pick the right weapon for the job. Meanwhile, period-appropriate-weaponry with skill-based active reload systems include flintlock pistols, muskets, blunderbuss, and more -- just be sure to keep your powder dry!

Claim What's Yours

Form a company, claim territory and apply taxation and behavior rules to that which you own: be a benevolent governor, a feudal lord, or a ruthless dictator. Territory ownership is visualized on your dynamic zoomable World Map, with Fog of War obscuring uncharted regions and Shroud of War hiding enemy territories out of sight range. Contest other government's ownership of land, structures, or ships to expand your empire! The top large-scale Spheres of Influence on the Official ATLAS' are visualized in real-time on the PlayATLAS homepage. Design your own custom flag per-pixel to apply to your claims, to be famous (or infamous)!

[...]

Zen Studios was interviewed by USGamer about Operencia: The Stolen Sun.

"We want to make sure [Operencia] is accessible to a wide audience and that they understand the story we want to tell," Zen Studios producer Akos Szabo tells me in a Skype call from Budapest. "You don't need any social-historical knowledge of Hungary, these are tales and legends." 

We've seen with franchises like The Witcher and local traditions and local folklore can be used to tell epic and adventures understood universally. Chris Baker agrees. "You know I'm in the same boat. I didn't know a lot of this [Hungarian] mythology coming in and it was kind of one of the more interesting challenges," says Baker in the same Skype call.  

The origins of Operencia are obscure for sure. Probably because there's no readily available English-language resources on the subject. The best I could find was a Hungarian Wikipedia page I translated using Google which told me that Operencia is literally an unknowable fairytale land. 

[...]

ATOM RPG is set to release by the end of December this year. Screenshots at the link.

Information about the 1.0 release

9 December - AtomTeam

Hello, friends!

A lot of people have been asking - when we will see ATOM? Will it be this year or the next one? Now, we don’t want to ignore our community so here is a small informational post about what we are up to right now.

First of all - the game will come out in the end of December, 2018, no second thoughts about it! Right now we can’t say the exact date, but we will say it in out traditional pre-update post that will come out in the next week. We will use this time to focus on all the new features and quests which there are many! Although, testing the new content, bug fixes and finalizing the new content is not everything that we still need to do.

Aside from that we are also working on adding some of the hottest features that you, the players, asked for! For example, now you can check your dialogue history in the game, use your items on the characters without starting a dialogue, zoom out the camera further and change the game options without quitting to the main menu.

There's a lot of work, but we are even more determined to finish it! :) And here are some of the screenshots of the new locations. We wouldn’t want it to be just some boring ol’ text update now do we!..

Live long and prosper!

Yours truly,
Atom Team

[...]

Rock Paper Shotgun checked out the sandbox RPG Kenshi:

Wot I Think: Kenshi

Everything and nothing

I could, I suspect, dash myself against Kenshi‘s wind-bleached rocks for a full year and still feel ill-qualified to pass judgement upon it. You might as well ask me to review atmospheric pressure, or continental drift.

Kenshi is everything. Kenshi is nothing. Kenshi just is.

Before I proceed any further into existential hand-wringing about the amorphous nature of sandbox survival/management/roleplaying maxi-game Kenshi, which just left early access after a half-decade of open development, let me make something clear. Kenshi impresses the bejeesus out of me. Given the opportunity, I’m confident I would play it for a year – more, even.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

The Sci-Fi Strategy RPG Ancient Frontier: Steel Shadows is out now:

Steel Shadows

Steel Shadows is a standalone RPG set in the epic universe of Ancient Frontier. You do NOT need to own or have played Ancient Frontier to enjoy this content. Take command of a rag tag band of pirates and outlaws as you fight your way across the Frontier for treasure and glory. Delve into our latest turn based tactical RPG.

You play as Rogan Harker, a recently freed convict. He travels to the Frontier to find old friends and start a new life. But the overpowering Federation still controls most of the Frontier, and the new and budding Alliance is no fan of outlaws. Hated and feared, the pirate life is one of constant danger. Friends and allies are hard to find and harder still to keep. Beset on all sides can Rogan find fame and fortune with his fledgling pirate fleet?

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Features:

• A full campaign with over 20 story missions
• Over 50 procedurally generated side missions
• Dynamic initiative-based turn-based combat
• Purchase, outfit and control the unique Pirate faction ships
• Hire and assign crew members that gain experience and power along with your ships
• Hidden unique mercenaries and ships to add to your fleet
• Experience over 50 random events
• Customize your play style by unlocking technologies in an extensive Tech Tree
• Large, detailed space maps to fight across
• Three different strategic resources to manage
• Dozens of different weapon systems and abilities to control
• Includes both free DLCs; Ancient Frontier - The Crew and Ancient Frontier - Quests and Events

Will you survive the frontier?

A new trailer for Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom called 'The Lair of the Lost Lord'.

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Step into the labyrinth and prepare for a new adventure! Tackle new quests and arm yourself with new weapons, Ni no Kuni II DLC #2 The Lair of the Lost Lord arrives 12/13 for PS4 & Steam. Follow the link to order your copy today! https://bandainam.co/NinoKuniII

@YouTuber Law Crytek has lost its lawsuit against Star Citizen.

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Crytek Loses. Star Citizen Wins.

In the long running lawsuit between Crytek and CIG, we finally have a resolution. Crytek's lawsuit has been dismissed by the court. Yes. It's true. Crytek can go back and amend (for the third time) the complaint, but for all purposes, this lawsuit is done. Everything has been dismissed. Let's talk.

@PC Gamer Star Control: Origins has a four-part season pass that debuts next week.

The interstellar strategy-adventure Star Control: Origins is getting a four-part season pass called Earth Rising that will add "dozens of missions, new alien races, and a variety of ships" to the game. The expansion will leave the job of starship captain essentially unchanged—advance Earth's interests in the galactic community with a deft blend of diplomacy and violence—but the state of the galaxy itself sounds a whole lot more complicated.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!