The Iron Gate team has a new developer update.

Development Blog October: Moving Forwards After Hearth & Home

[...] Releasing Hearth & Home was a big milestone for us as it was our first big update, and it feels really nice to have finally gotten to share that with you. There are always more bug fixes and balance adjustments that can (and will) be made, but we have also begun looking at things for future updates, this time focusing more on adventure and exploration than on building.

Those of you who follow Richard on Twitter might have noticed that he’s experimenting with the terrain and textures for the Mistlands, which will be our next big biome update! However, please keep in mind that this is not a final version, and that the landscape will likely change quite a bit before we figure out just exactly what the Mistlands will look like. It’s also still too early to say what the implementation of the Mistlands will mean for your existing worlds, but we will keep you updated once we know more. [...]

RPG Fan posted an article on the characteristics that made great RPG dungeons.

Dungeon Crawlers #1: What Makes a Great RPG Dungeon?

I don’t know about you fine folks, but the RPGs I grew up with were chock full of dungeons to explore — whether they were caves filled to the brim with bats and other nasty critters or traditional elemental dungeons (think lava caves, water temples, and dark forests) filled with traps and puzzles. Dungeon navigation has always been one of my favorite aspects of any good RPG.

That said, most RPGs I’ve played over the past several years featured mediocre dungeons that left me questioning what makes a good RPG dungeon. This thought experiment led to what you are reading now, the first in what I am hoping will be a series about what goes into making great dungeons. This first feature covers the elements that one might consider when thinking of dungeon design. Subsequent entries may take a closer look at series-specific dungeons, concepts, or other aspects of dungeon design.

Without further delay, let’s get to crawlin’!

[...]

Mortismal Gaming shares his 5 top encounters in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. The video contains spoilers, obviously.

Pathfinder: WotR - Top 5 Memorable Encounters

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Taking about my personal most memorable encounters from Pathfinder: WotR

WolfheartFPS shares his thoughts on the latest update of Baldur's Gate 3.

Baldur's Gate 3 - My Thoughts On Patch 6

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In this video I am going to go over and give my thoughts on the recent Baldur's Gate 3 early access patch 6 update. This was a pretty big update so there is a lot to go over! [...]

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:26 Graphical Overhaul
• 03:45 High Ground
• 06:15 Weapon Actions
• 08:06 Grymforge
• 10:27 Mud & Blood
• 11:18 Others Improvements

Anshare Studios announces special content for Halloween, and other updates planned for later.

Patch 1.2 - Halloween Event Announcement

How do you do, fellow game detectives? You closed all the cases and now chilling on your couch with the glass of your favorite beverage? Time to get back to Warsaw City, because some new content will be soon waiting for you to discover.

It's now one month after the Gamedec release, and we spent the majority of this time fixing the issues you encountered during the playthrough. Most of the problems are solved, thanks to your not to be underestimated feedback. Now it's our time to return the favor, so sit down and listen to Gamedec's upcoming innovations plan.

[...]

Rockfish Games announced that the full release of Everspace 2 was pushed back to early 2023.

EVERSPACE 2 coming to Game Pass for PC in October, Khait Nebula: Stranger Skies update on Steam in November, Full Release 2023

Hamburg, Germany – October 19, 2021 – Independent AA studio ROCKFISH Games is excited to announce they are partnering with Microsoft to bring EVERSPACE 2 to Game Preview on the Windows 10/11 Store through Xbox Game Pass for PC and pay per download for $39.99 / €37.99 / £31.99, available on October 21, 2021. 

[...]

While the third major EVERSPACE 2 content update, Khaït Nebula, is on track to be officially released on November 3rd with an experimental release on Steam scheduled for October 22, ROCKFISH Games has decided to push back the simultaneous full release on PC (Windows, Mac, Linux), Xbox, and PlayStation to early 2023. [...]

Owlcat Games shared a talk between Raphael Colantonio, Peter Salnikov and their lead game designer Yuliya Chernenko, about game design in modern RPGs.

Don't get caught by the RPG police – with Julia Chernenko (The House of The Dev podcast S1E6)

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What defines an RPG? The dialogues, the stats, the XP system? Maybe something else? Raphael Colantonio and Peter Salnikov talk to Julia Chernenko (Owlcat Games, Pathfinder: Kingmaker & Wrath of the Righteous) about game design in modern computer role-playing games.

The strategy RPG Disciples: Liberation has been released:

 Disciples: Liberation

Disciples: Liberation is a mature, dark fantasy strategy RPG with turn-based combat. Liberate the land of Nevendaar and uncover the endless stories hidden within this richly detailed world where every decision has a consequence, and every wrong move could be deadly.

Explore a rich overworld and align with a variety of in-world factions: from a human empire tinged by religious extremism to the dark forces of the undead lead by a mad queen. Assemble a team to gather precious resources, sway political standing, and take on brutal beasts in intricate turn-based battles.

Choice is everything in Disciples: Liberation and it is up to you how you write your story.

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FEATURE LIST

• 80+ hour single-player campaign: experience a sprawling dark fantasy epic over three acts, with more than 270 quests and objectives, and five unique endings to unlock
• Explore a war-torn realm: journey through a sprawling world in ruin and work to unearth its endless secrets, hidden treasures, and bloody past
• Write your own story: pick from four uniquely skilled classes and define your place in the world, recruiting others to your cause from an assortment of factions
• Build a base: take on quests for precious resources and use your political savvy to build a place of planning and sanctuary
• Fight for your life: recruit 50+ units and amass an army best suited to your play style; hone both steel and spell in intricate-turned based combat.
• Challenge deadly bosses: test your mettle and pit your party against horrific monsters and beasts, each requiring a unique strategy
• Choice is everything: let your decisions guide your fate and directly influence what sort of leader you become
• Fight your friends: put forth the ultimate challenge and battle for supremacy in 2-player online skirmishes

The combat demo for Zodiac Legion is now available on Steam.

The combat demo of Zodiac Legion is out

Dear players,

I uploaded a demo of some of our dungeon missions to Steam.
There is no tutorial yet, so you need to refer to the manual if you want to know the game rules (which I recommend!).
It is located in the Steam ZodiacLegionFolder/docs/Zodiac Legion Demo Manual.pdf
The Steam folder should be somewhere like:
D:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Zodiac Legion
You can also find the online version here.

The current version is quite rough, especially when it comes to pacing and balance.
There is no geoscape yet, except for party selection. But that would give you an idea of the way combat and dungeon crawling work in the game.

We would also thank all the players who applied for our alpha test. We got more applications than keys, so we had to suspend the process for the time being.
But the preview build and demo build are identical at this stage, so if you could not apply in time, or would like to try the game while I request a few more keys, you can try the demo build.

Cheers,
Alexandre and the Zodiac Legion team

Thanks Farflame!

Midnight Protocol is now available on Steam and GOG and is described as a tactical narrative-driven RPG with unique keyboard-only controls. Hack into servers, beat security systems and discover encrypted secrets while you try to find answers to why and how you got doxxed. 

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You assume the mantle of a prominent hacktivist, ‘Data’, who recently got doxxed and has been targeted for blackmail by a shadowy branch of government.

You interact with the virtual environment through your home terminal that requires nothing more than your keyboard.

> HANG YOUR [H]AT

Will you respect others’ privacy and bank accounts, or leave no stone unturned? Midnight Protocol allows you to play as the hacker you want to be. Help the police track down a rogue hacker, or blackmail a desperate husband trying to recover… dubious pictures. Gain black, grey, and white hat reputation to change the direction of the story based on your choices.

> I[M]MERSION OVERLOAD

Midnight Protocol’s design focuses on immersing you in a world of digital warfare without complicated hacking mechanics. Your keyboard is your weapon, type commands to eliminate or evade security programs, letting your keystrokes become part of the soundtrack.

> NICE [D]ECK

Cracking a digital safe or extracting classified data requires careful planning. Pay the troll toll, use digital jackhammers, cloaks, and daggers to combat cybersecurity. Buy new programs or hardware on the black market, and customize your deck to fit your playstyle.

> DI[S]TRACTIONS ABOUND

Take on dozens of sidequests filled with easter eggs and references, gather additional intel on your targets before you start a mission, and play some hacker chess to wind down. Midnight Protocol is jam-packed with optional missions, providing hours of additional content.

GL;HF 

Thanks Farflame!

Gamingbolt have interviewed the co-founder of Red Hook Studios and creative director Chris Bourassa and asked about Darkest Dungeon 2's combat, atmosphere, length, and more.

Something that you’ve hinted at before in terms of improvements the sequel is looking to make is the combat system- are those improvements that you’re ready to shed more light on?

Returning players will absolutely feel at home in DD2’s combat. However, we wanted to move away from small/incremental buffs and status effects, towards something chunkier, and ultimately more strategic. Many of DD1 effects have been converted to ‘Tokens’ which have larger, more predictable results and counters in combat.

Visually, the characters have varied idle and anticipation animations, and the resulting experience is more fluid and exciting!

Darkest Dungeon’s palpable atmosphere was one of its biggest strengths- how much emphasis are you placing on ensuring that the sequel doesn’t stray from that, and that any new locations players visit maintain that same strong sense of place and identity?

Atmosphere is a harmonious synthesis of art, audio, music. We’re preserving the art style, working with the same audio production team (Power Up Audio), same composer (Stuart Chatwood), and same narrator (Wayne June). This gives us the same creative DNA. From a content perspective, we’re visiting locations that are aligned with the thematic pillars of the first game,

What are the most important bits of feedback from audiences and critics for the first game that you’ve focused on for Darkest Dungeon 2’s development?

Two main things: First, we wanted to shave down some of the grind that afflicted the middle hours of a Darkest Dungeon campaign, and secondly, make the combat buffs and effects chunkier and more impactful.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

IGN France has some concept art from Dragon Age 4.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Prometheus Wept from Timeslip Softworks is available to back on Kickstarter and has a goal of €7443 with 29 days remaining.

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Story

Prometheus Wept is a turn based RPG set on a near-future earth where the majority of our digital technology and digitally stored information has been destroyed. The game offers hardcore squad-level combat, with simultaneous battles between cyberspace and the physical world, meaningful choices, deep character progression and an advanced crafting system. 

It also has the distinction of likely being the only game where you can incapacitate an enemy by dropping a shark on them! Prometheus Wept is the third game by Timeslip Softworks and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

DEMO from Indie DB

The goal is to create a relatively short, 10-16 hour experience, with an emphasis on design, variety, story-telling and quality over quantity.

€7443 likely seems a small amount to ask for a project of this scope. 

A key factor is that Prometheus Wept uses the code from Vigilantes as a foundation to build upon. There's one full time developer, working with artists on a part time basis. Further, multiple funding sources have been used in the creation of Prometheus Wept, including a grant from Creative Europe, sales from two previous games, and personal savings. This campaign will provide enough funding to complete the game. 

The reason I settled on exactly €7443 is that it's the amount raised in the Vigilantes Kickstarter, 5 years ago. The successful completion of the campaign, though it may not seem a big deal, was a huge turning point. After 4 years of long hours and dealing with uncertainty, it was the first time it felt like the adventure in game development might just work out. 

[...]

Noclip released a new documentary on Death's Door.

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We talk to Acid Nerve about the design and philosophy of Death's Door. [...]

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:41 - Titan Souls
• 6:00 - Inspirations
• 8:10 - Combat & Difficulty
• 14:05 - Scoping Death's Door
• 19:02 - Bosses & Collaboration
• 26:48 - SPOILERS
• 33:22 - Launch
• 32:20 - Thanks for the Memes
• 39:00 - CREDITS

Steam's Digital Tabletop Fest RPG Edition starts today. Here is the broadcast schedule, and the announcement of the Obligatory (and Wonderful) Dungeons & Dragons Panel Discussion streaming tomorrow Friday October 22nd at 20:00 CEST with Trent Oster among others.

The Obligatory (and Wonderful) Dungeons & Dragons Panel Discussion

We had to do it! Because when we think of an RPG, we tend to think of D&D, such is the influence of the title. So what does D&D mean to RPGs today? Why is it still the most popular Tabletop RPG? Why do people want a digital game that connects to D&D? A discussion on what D&D means to RPG creators & players today and what interesting things they are doing with it!

The panel line-up features:

• Jennifer Kretchmer, Game Designer/Author/Disability Consultant/Performer/Producer (She/They, Your DM for this panel!)
• BeamDog CEO Trent Oster (He/Him)
• Violet Fermin - D&D Adventurers League Consultant at Fantasy Grounds
• Kieron Kelly, Product Manager at Larian (He/Him)
• Sara Thompson, Tabletop game designer, writer, disability consultant (They/Them/She/Her)

Other premiere events:

• Disco Elysium - A chat with Robert Kurvitz, lead writer and designer (Friday 19:00 CEST)
• Presentation of Greedfall (Friday 21:00)
• A Game of Thrones: The Board Game
• From Chess to Dragons - The Evolution of Gameplay
• The RPG Discovery Club
• Baldur's Gate 3 & Divinity: Original Sin 2 Developer Larian Studios
• ...

Note that most of these streams are retransmitted multiple times for people of different timezones.

Might & Magic X is back on Steam with a fix for the issue that prevented players completing the game. Ubisoft have made the DLC free if you own the base game.

Might & Magic X - Legacy Announcement

On June 1st, we made the decision to remove Might & Magic X – Legacy from sale following an unexpected issue that occurred after we shut down various services for security reasons, which prevented players to access some parts of the game and its DLCs. Our teams have spent the last few months investigating and testing the different solutions to make sure players’ experience lives up to our standards in terms of quality of service.

Today, we’re happy to announce that all conditions are met to bring the game back to the Ubisoft Store and to Steam, and that new and returning players can now venture into the wide and mysterious world of Ashan again. In addition to the base game, we also took this opportunity to give all fans of Might & Magic X – Legacy the freedom to extend their adventure by accessing the DLC “The Falcon & the Unicorn”, entirely for free.

Action RPG God of War has been announced for PC and lists a release date of January 15th 2022 for Steam.

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Enter the Norse realm
His vengeance against the Gods of Olympus years behind him, Kratos now lives as a man in the realm of Norse Gods and monsters. It is in this harsh, unforgiving world that he must fight to survive… and teach his son to do the same.

Grasp a second chance
Kratos is a father again. As mentor and protector to Atreus, a son determined to earn his respect, he is forced to deal with and control the rage that has long defined him while out in a very dangerous world with his son.

Journey to a dark, elemental world of fearsome creatures
From the marble and columns of ornate Olympus to the gritty forests, mountains and caves of pre-Viking Norse lore, this is a distinctly new realm with its own pantheon of creatures, monsters and gods.

Engage in visceral, physical combat
With an over the shoulder camera that brings the player closer to the action than ever before, fights in God of War™ mirror the pantheon of Norse creatures Kratos will face: grand, gritty and grueling. A new main weapon and new abilities retain the defining spirit of the God of War series while presenting a vision of conflict that forges new ground in the genre.

PC FEATURES

High Fidelity Graphics
Striking visuals enhanced on PC. Enjoy true 4K resolution, on supported devices, [MU1] with unlocked framerates for peak performance. Dial in your settings via a wide range of graphical presets and options including higher resolution shadows, improved screen space reflections, the addition of GTAO and SSDO, and much more.

NVIDIA® DLSS and Reflex Support
Quality meets performance. Harness the AI power of NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) to boost frame rates and generate beautiful, sharp images on select Nvidia GPUs. Utilize NVIDIA Reflex low latency technology allowing you to react quicker and hit harder combos with the responsive gameplay you crave on GeForce GPUs.

Controls Customization
Play your way. With support for the DUALSHOCK®4 and DUALSENSE® wireless controllers, a wide range of other gamepads, and fully customizable bindings for mouse and keyboard, you have the power to fine-tune every action to match your playstyle.

Ultra-wide Support
Immerse yourself like never before. Journey through the Norse realms taking in breathtaking vistas in panoramic widescreen. With 21:9 ultra-widescreen support, God of War™ presents a cinema quality experience that further expands the original seamless theatrical vision. 

 

The dungeon crawler Gloomhaven has been released:

Gloomhaven

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Whether you are drawn to Gloomhaven by the call of adventure or by an avid desire for gold glimmering in the dark, your fate will surely be the same. Gloomhaven, the digital adaptation of the acclaimed board game, mixes Tactical-RPG and dungeon-crawling. 

The starship action RPG Drox Operative 2 has left Early Access:

Drox Operative 2

Drox Operative 2 is a starship action RPG with warring alien races, fierce space battles, a dynamic, evolving galaxy, and co-op multiplayer for Windows and Linux.

Eons ago the Drox crushed and enslaved the ancient races and ruled the galaxy through their mighty Operatives. These elite starship captains were trained to accomplish the impossible at whatever cost. Whether employing stealth or brute force, they were always deadly. Using these Operatives, the Drox ruled the galaxy with an iron grip for over 100,000 years. Eventually realizing their Operatives were a threat, they attempted to assassinate all of them. They failed. The following Galactic Civil War was so devastating that the Drox are now extinct. The Drox Operative guild, now fully independent, survived.

Newer races emerged and thrived in the power void ... for a while. Then the ancients returned. The wars were devastating, but with the Drox Operatives on their side, the ancients were beaten back and a truce was established.

Since the devastation, a 4th wave of sentient races are emerging in the galaxy. Unlike previous waves, there are thousands in this one and no one knows anything about them. In the new space race, the ancient, mature, and young races are all scouting, colonizing, and expanding, trying to take over the galaxy through diplomacy, technology, war, and any other means necessary.

As a Drox Operative it's NOT your job to manage an empire, you are after all the captain of a single starship. It IS your job to pick the winning side and maybe even help them conquer the galaxy if you're being nice, more importantly though is to rake in as many credits as possible, well that and build the deadliest ship in the known universe. Who will you back as an Operative? The ancient, mature, or young races? The pacifist or militaristic races? The xenophile or xenophobe races? The races that value freedom or the races that use slave labor? The strong or the weak? Your actions and inactions will impact trillions of alien lives!

Features

• Explore a dynamic and evolving galaxy
• Explore a unique sector of the galaxy in every game, with different "monsters", ship components, quests, and even races
• Fight in the galactic war between the various alien races
• Battle hundreds of different enemy starships
• Build the coolest and deadliest starship in the galaxy
• Outfit your ship with thousands of components and crew
• Adventure with your friends with co-op multiplayer
• Essentially play an action RPG inside a universe of alien races playing a 4X game

New Features (compared to Drox Operative 1)

• Build a unique ship with a new skill/command system
• Enjoy better graphics (normal maps, better specular maps, and higher resolution textures)
• Enjoy new combat sound effects
• Deal with more treaty types (vassals, tributaries, protectorates, and federations)
• Find more component types (plasma cannons, ramming components, probes, ballistic bursts, plasma blasts, manual beams, chaining beams, plasma waves, etc)
• Experience faster movement and combat
• Interact with randomly generated races (just the young races)
• Discover way more interesting things while exploring
• Protect or exploit primitive races
• Find crew with skills
• Place spies on planets for better info and spying activities
• Access much more information on the 4X aspects
• Play as the rebels of each of the races (42 total known playable races, rebels, and subraces)
• Play as any of the unlocked young races (essentially infinite number of random playable races)
• Win sectors with the new Guild Win
• Survive Cataclysms, massive sector wide events that can greatly change the balance of power
• Play with better controller support
• Use new tools to deal with the various races in your sector (sponsor diplomatic and colony ships, vouch for races, and adventure with races)

Neocore Games announces the release date of King Arthur: Knight's Tale and shows an overview of the classes.

RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCEMENT (AND MORE)!

Knights,

it's about time we sit down at the Round Table again, we have important matters to discuss! Without further ado, let's get to it, shall we?

FULL RELEASE DATE

The most important thing first: we're happy to share with you that Knight's Tale is leaving Early Access and going into full release on February 15, 2022. As you already know, we have 4 Acts lined up, with over 30 heroes from 6 classes for you, and we can't wait for you to continue your journey in Avalon!

Until then of course, we will be releasing one more update: the PvP mode, unlocked as a Kickstarter stretch goal last year, is coming alongside a few other things this December.

NEW DEV DIARY ENTRY - CLASSES IN KNIGHT'S TALE

We're continuing our video series about the intricacies of Knight's Tale, this time around with an in-depth overview of the game's classes! If you want to know more about what we had in mind when designing our heroes, check out the video below!

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Tactical Adventures revealed the date and more information on the incoming DLC for Solasta.

Primal Calling DLC coming November 4th! Barbarians & Druids rejoice!

[...]

For those of you who've not been around Solasta for the last few weeks, here is what you can expect from the Primal Calling DLC:

• The Barbarian Class, with its 3 subclasses: Path of the Berzerker (SRD), Path of the Magebane (Solasta), Path of Stone (Community)
• The Druid Class, with its 3 subclasses: Circle of the Land (SRD), Circle of Kindred Spirit (Solasta), Circle of Winds (Community)
• The Half-Orc Ancestry
• The Wanderer Background, with its brand new background quest located in Copparan

[...]

Free Content Update Incoming!

Adventuring hasn't been kind to you lately and you don't got no gold to buy them goods? Worry not, we've got you covered. With the Primal Calling DLC also comes a fat content update - and everyone gets it for free! Aside from the usual bug fixes, here are some of the large changes or additions you can look forward to:

• You can finally skip the tutorial. Dry your tears of joy, serial rerollers, it's time to jump straight into the adventure.
  Max level 10? How about max level 12, how does that sound? With them level 6 spells and all.
• Our characters' faces may not be the prettiest around, but you'll now be able to add scars and face paints. Some more customization can't hurt!
  Was the final encounter of the campaign a little too easy? We made it harder for you.
• The Campaign Creator is here. What is the Campaign Creator? A new feature that allows you to bundle custom dungeons together, create custom monsters, items, NPCs and merchants. It's still in development though, so not every parameter can be tweaked yet.
• The Dungeon Maker now has a Town Interior & Exterior environment! Custom campaigns can now have main hubs where your party can safely rest, trade, and chat with NPCs in-between dungeons!

Mortismal Gaming takes a quick look at Empire of Ember.

Check Out: Empire of Ember

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A new trailer showcases the investigation system of Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One | Detective Gameplay Trailer

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is coming to Xbox Series X|S and on November 16th! Preorder now for bonus content! More info on the Xbox One releases are expected at a later date.

In this story-driven detective thriller, a young Sherlock Holmes struggles to prove himself as he navigates an exotic, dangerous island of Cordona in the Mediterranean to investigate the mystery of his mother’s death.

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Christopher Dring (Head of Games B2B) had an interview with Feargus Urquhart (CEO at Obsidian) for GameIndustry.biz. We had already covered the video interview, here is the transcribed version.

Obsidian CEO on acquisitions: "Find a partner who's going to be all-in"

Feargus Urquhart offers advice on successful mergers and acquisitions, and why Obsidian joined Microsoft

The key to good game development acquisitions -- from the perspective of the acquired studio -- is finding a partner who is "all-in" on your studio and your game, says Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart.

The co-founder of the Californian studio behind The Outer Worlds spoke openly about some of his experiences with publishers and why Obsidian ultimately decided to join Microsoft's in-house studio group at GI Live: London earlier this month. [...]

Kalypso Media hosted a Q&A live stream yesterday with Florian, producer for Disciples: Liberation. The game releases tomorrow, and a launch stream is planned to cover the event (October 21st, 6 pm CEST / 5 pm BST / 9 am PDT / 12 am EDT).

The Journey through Nevendaar continues

The journey through Nevendaar continues in our next live stream.

Patrick teams up with our producer Florian to explore the secrets of Nevendaar, facing the embodiment of evil in battle on their quest to liberate the land. Find out if they succeed?

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WolfheartFPS gave an overview for Action RPG Arise of Awakener which he likened to Dragon's Dogma.

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In this video I will go over an upcoming rpg called Arise of Awakener. This rpg is heavily inspired by the rpg dragon's dogma.

Story Mode spoke to Studio Design Director Josh Sawyer and Lead Creative Designer John Gonzalez to explain why Fallout: New Vegas is famous for it's freedom.

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In this video we talk to Studio Design Director Josh Sawyer and Lead Creative Designer John Gonzalez to explore why Fallout: New Vegas is famous for its freedom. In New Vegas you can go anywhere and be anything, yet the game still manages to tell a cohesive story. It accomplishes this by offering the player meaning choices and through the clever design of the reputation system.

Henriquejr spotted an update for Tangledeep!

Patch 1.50 Now Available!

By popular demand, share items and pets between save slots (and much more!)

Hello adventurers, and welcome to Tangledeep Patch 1.50! This major update combines the Nintendo Switch and PC versions of the codebase & engine, allowing us to more easily maintain and update the game for multiple platforms. It also changes some core features - by popular demand - and should overall present a smoother gameplay experience. Let's jump in and explore the notes!

[...]

Owlcat Games revealed what the big surprise was: a very big patch for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. It is actually so big that they released it in the beta branch first!

Update 1.1.0 (beta)

Crusaders!

We’ve prepared a huge update for you! But because it’s so huge, and because of various issues you may encounter with it, particularly with mods, we are releasing it in the beta branch first. Please switch to it in the properties of the game in Steam to download the update.

Because the list of changes is HUGE, we couldn't fit it here, so we put a link with the full patch notes instead.

Let us know what you think!

Wccf Tech reports that Monster Hunter: World has sold more than 20 million units.

Monster Hunter World Has Shipped Over 20 Million Units

CAPCOM announced today that Monster Hunter World has now shipped over 20 million units globally (including Iceborne Master Edition) across all platforms. The Japanese publisher highlighted the successful long-tail sales of the game.

In recent years, Capcom's promotion of digital sales has enabled it to realize long-term, global sales for its major titles. With the January 2018 release of Monster Hunter World in particular, Capcom was able to propel the Monster Hunter series to global-brand status with a series-first worldwide simultaneous launch coupled with international promotional activities, establishing the game as Capcom's best-selling title of all time within a month of its release and being honored with awards the world over. In the more than three years since the game's release, in addition to promoting digital sales, Capcom also launched Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, a massive premium expansion for the game, as well as a bundle containing both titles, capitalizing on synergies with Iceborne and resulting in prolonged sales that led Monster Hunter World to achieve a Capcom all-time record of 20 million units shipped.

[...]

Star Dynasties receives a major update of the intrigue mechanics, along with fixes and beta German localization. Thanks @henriquejr! :)

Star Dynasties MAJOR Update - Intrigue

Fellow Dukes,

We're very excited to release our first major post-launch update! This one focuses mainly on reworking the intrigue mechanics, such as secret discoveries, spy networks, and blackmail. It also fixes some issues with the Honor system, and adds beta German localization. More details below.

There may or may not also be an important update surrounding your canine companions.

Intrigue

In the last update, we spoke about some of the changes that this patch has in the area of intrigue. To recap;

• We’ve reworked secret discovery so that it is more intuitive
• We’ve associated secrets with a location, so that you can investigate suspicious events directly
• Spy Network now reveals more of the petty secrets of the characters in a location
• Spy Network can now be carried out on your home system and provides a defensive bonus against enemy spy networks
• Spy Network now gradually reveals the residents of the target location

[...]

Henriquejr spotted that the Early Access of Sacred Fire had just been released.

Sacred Fire Early Access -- OUT NOW!

Hello everyone!

It has been a long time coming, but we are thrilled to announce that Sacred Fire is now available in Early Access! The journey is of course far from over, but we are so happy to have reached this milestone.

We set out not just to create a game, but an immersive story that you truly play. This Early Access release, containing the first act of the story, should already give you the deep, immersive experience we aimed to build.

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Here is what you can expect from Sacred Fire in its current state:

• Act 1 of a highly branching, immersive narrative.
• Every choice counts, making the story highly replayable as you uncover all the different outcomes.
• Real role-playing reminiscent of TTRPGs. Consider your character's emotional state when making decisions.
• A cast of intriguing and living characters, each with their own wants, needs, and ambitions.
• A beautiful soundtrack that takes you on a journey to ancient Caledonia.

Thanks @henriquejr!

Gamespew checked out Dungeon Encounters:

Dungeon Encounters Review

Dungeon Encounters proves that you don’t need a grand story and fancy visuals to create a compelling RPG.

Released to very little fanfare from Square Enix last week, Dungeon Encounters is a dungeon-crawling RPG that sees players explore a labyrinthine map that feels a little like a board game. You’ll move from tile to tile, occasionally coming across events and combat encounters. Ultimately your goal is to get as far as possible, which you’ll do by equipping your party with the best weapons and equipment you can find. But it’s not easy; even when you think you’re unbeatable, it won’t be long until you encounter an enemy much stronger than you.

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With some serious talent behind its creation, Dungeon Encounters deserves much more fanfare than it has so far received. This might not be as flashy as a typical RPG from Square Enix, but it’s clever, it’s engaging, and its simple but deceptively deep gameplay loop will keep you coming back for more. Add to that a killer soundtrack overseen by Nobuo Uematsu, and you’ve got something rather special on your hands.

Score: 8/10

Logic Artists posted their new Dev Diary about crafting in Expeditions: Rome. They're planning a dev stream on Wednesday to discuss this topic.

DevDiary 8 - Crafting

Ave! You have discovered our eighth DevDiary. Last time, we went over all the character progression systems in the game, including how the loot system works – but there was one part of that we didn’t have time to touch on: Crafting.

In roleplaying games, there are typically three ways to acquire new equipment: you can loot it off dead enemies, from treasure chests etc., or you can purchase it from a shop with your hard-earned gold, or you can roll up your sleeves and craft it yourself. Each method serves a slightly different purpose: loot drops are rewards for combat or exploration but are typically completely random. Item shops offer you some choice from a randomised menu. Crafting gives you full control over what item you’ll get, but you’ll have to invest resources, time, and effort.

We always thought there was too much overlap between these three methods – that the differences between them weren’t quite significant enough to justify their existence. When we were fleshing out the item system in Viking, we wanted to eliminate one of these ways to get items, so your items would only come from two systems. We had to keep loot of course – exploration is a core pillar of our series, and as a viking, why shouldn’t you be able to kill people and take their stuff? This left us with the choice between crafting and item shops, and crafting was clearly the more interesting system: it’s more different from loot drops than item shops are in that it gives the player much more agency with less randomness, and in terms of the fantasy, it felt more right for a viking to forge their own weaponry rather than purchase it from a travelling sword salesman.

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If you want to learn more about crafting or item progression, or about how our skill system was designed, please post your questions as comments on this post, and join us on this week’s DevStream on Wednesday October 20^th, at 1:00 PM Eastern / 5:00 PM GMT on the THQ Nordic Twitch Channel: http://twitch.tv/thqnordic. On this week’s stream, Senior Producer Brad Logston will once again host Combat Designer Hans Emil Hoppe Rauer to discuss how crafting fits into the intricate meta systems of Expeditions: Rome.

RPGamer reports that Artefacts Studio will release Splat Jaypak’s Arenas, their second DLC for The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk, on December 3rd.

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos Second DLC, Next-Gen Release Announced

Artefacts Studio and Dear Villagers announced the second DLC for The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos. Splat Jaypak’s Arenas will be released on December 3, 2021, alongside dedicated PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game. Splat Jaypak’s Arenas is the second of three planned DLC and sees the party of heroes kidnapped and forced to survive a series of combat trials devised by Splat Jaypak. The third DLC is a four-chapter sequel to the main game and is set to be released in 2022. [...]

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Ars Technica reviews The Good Life, the newly released detective / adventure / life sim game made by White Owls Inc.

The Good Life review: A messy RPG as unique as it is ridiculous

The Good Life throws you into its offbeat little tale without much preamble.

After a cute storybook introduction, New Yorker and photojournalist Naomi Hayward is dropped off in an Untitled Goose Game-caliber sleepy British hamlet called Rainy Woods, the self-proclaimed "happiest town in the world." Why is it the happiest town in the world? Nobody knows, but that's what Naomi is there to find out. The place supposedly has an earth-shattering secret that her employers at the Morning Bell want her to uncover—though because she's drowning in debt it's less of a request than a mandate.

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There are things about The Good Life I wish were fleshed out or improved. Naomi moves too slowly, for one, and controller inputs can be hit or miss. I hope to see some much-needed quality-of-life additions patched in, particularly in overhauling the UI. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to a toggle to turn off the always-on objectives that take up a sizable chunk of the screen and being able to skip inconsequential cutscenes that occur when you, say, fail a minigame segment and have to replay it.

But these issues shouldn't really be too much of a deterrent. While it won't win any awards for its moment-to-moment rhythms and its patchy execution, The Good Life's ludicrous turns and the central mysteries of Rainy Woods are reasons enough to stick with this adventure. It's a reasonably sized jaunt that doesn't wear out its welcome.

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Verdict: Though technically rough and uneven, The Good Life is memorable and anything but predictable.