General News - Niche games from Eastern Europe

Gamasutra has an article on the phenomenon of 'hardcore realism' games from Eastern Europe and what drives it.

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Others stumbled into the hardcore survival subgenre more by accident. Alexander Dergay, CEO of Belarusian studio Aterdux Entertainment and one of the minds behind fantasy RPG Legends of Eisenwald fell into the industry after playing a game that changed his life”

“In 2007 I played a game called Discord Times. After I finished the game, I felt like something important had left my life and I tried to look up who the developers were," says Dergay. "And I found they were in my home city in Minsk, and then I just wanted to meet them and talk to them. To kind of add some more value to my worth, I decided to pretend to be an investor who was interested in making a sequel to that game.”

Certainly an unconventional approach, but Dergay was welcomed by the team, even after they found out he wasn’t an investor in the traditional sense. Dergay threw all of his money into creating Legends of Eisenwald, eventually turning to Kickstarter when the team found themselves strapped for cash.

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Aterdux Entertainment's tactical RPG has a very deep combat system

“We kind of struggled in the beginning financially, but then as we went on to early access and then we released the game, it didn't become an instant bestseller that we had hoped, but I think it would have been much more financially successful if we were more experienced and were able to shorten our development time,” Dergay says.

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More information.

I loved Legends of Eisenwald (my favorite game that year). I like this quote…

Dergay says the Legends of Eisenwald audience is men between the ages of 30 and 35 with an affinity for old-school RPGs like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, King's Bounty, and Disciples. The game has also seen a huge influx of Chinese players following the release of the game’s recent Mandarin translation, now taking second place behind the U.S. in overall sales. Dergay expects China to become the top demographic for Legends of Eisenwald in the future.

Perhaps they'll make Legends of Wu Tang Zang next based in China

Pitch in a few dollars to the kickstarter but another game I haven't had time to play. I do like games of this type and I like a lot of russian games (king bounty and space rangers come to mind) but they sometime have a few lumps.

I really liked Legends of Eisenwald, but if I remember correctly they were saying they won't work on a sequel due to lack of funds. Which is a shame…

Legends of Eisenwald was simply awesome. That is a game I look forward to replaying at some point, what a joy that entire game was.

Yes, I've only really heard good things about Legends of Eisenwald, but this did catch my eye:

old-school RPGs like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, King's Bounty, and Disciples.

And made me do a double-take. Are these really considered RPGs in the east?

I'm a fan of Eastern European developers. They seem to focus more of gameplay and are more willing to take risks, i.e. not being so derivative. And, yes, they often do put out games that are a bit buggier, but I'll take a few extra bugs in my larger serving of gameplay any day. The icing on top of the Eastern European cake is more of an inclination toward turn-based games

After the Eastern Europeans, I also like the Germans.

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Yes, I've only really heard good things about Legends of Eisenwald, but this did catch my eye:



And made me do a double-take. Are these really considered RPGs in the east?

What they mean is that people who like the tactical RPGs should like it, not the explorer or action type RPGs.

Originally Posted by wolfing
What they mean is that people who like the tactical RPGs should like it, not the explorer or action type RPGs.

Hmm…

But all those games are strategy games… (with KB being an RPG-Strategy hybrid).

Tactical games would be things like x-com, hard west, commandos etc.

Maybe its a lost in translation thing :shrug:

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Hmm…

But all those games are strategy games… (with KB being an RPG-Strategy hybrid).

Tactical games would be things like x-com, hard west, commandos etc.

Maybe its a lost in translation thing :shrug:

From what I've seen people tend to use TRPG and SRPG interchangeably which causes further confusion.

A lot of E. European games are pretty solid overall, but then have a huge glaring fault staring you in the face when you play the game. Silent Storm's Panzerkleins for instance.