Roll out, we've got another dev diary landing! This time Marvin continues to show us just how cool his new planet surfaces are by adding elements, rocks and trees to in his Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend project. Next article will cover big craters on battered worlds you can explore! :)
Sounds like the name of a rock band… Twenty-Two Elements. And yes, they are basically rocks.
This week, I’ve hunted for various rock and stone 3D models on the good old ‘net. After finding a bunch, I customized each one in an attempt to make them look like the 22 elements in the game that you can pick up using your terrain vehicle.
Of all these elements, two doesn’t exist in real life – Endurium and Rodnium. For all of the others, I looked around for reference photos and tried to base my creations somewhat in reality. Unfortunately, about 75% of the elements listed look like a silver rock. So I tried to make some variations in the silver color and shine.
Here is a video of a test scene with all 22 of the elements laid out. A few are easy to spot right away – such as gold, copper, and cobalt.
PC Gamer spoke to ROCKFISH games about open world space action RPG/Sim EVERSPACE 2, which is said to be more RPG than its predecessor.
loading...
During IGN’s Summer of Gaming presentation, Everspace 2 developer Michael Shade explained that the first Everspace was always intended to be an open-world space RPG. But the team's limited budget forced them to turn into a procedurally generated roguelike instead since crafting levels by hand was beyond what the team could realistically accomplish.
Now thanks to a two successful Kickstarter campaigns, Rockfish Games is able to make Everspace 2 the game it always wanted. Everspace 2 features a bigger galaxy to explore with handcrafted, persistent sectors of space to explore and get into some epic dog fights.
[...]
TheGG report on a press release that announces the closed Alpha roadmap for EVERSPACE 2.
Watch the Planetary Locations trailer:
loading...
Watch the Alpha Launch trailer:
loading...
The Closed Alpha gives players access to approximately 10 hours of gameplay including a story beat and free exploration, culminating in the first star system’s boss fight. In addition to new Ship Devices and Ultimate Abilities, players will be able to explore the all-new pilot and companion perk system.
While pilot perks are level-based, companion perks can be unlocked through various resources players gather along their journey.
Through main storyline content, scripted side missions, and various jobs, players will be able to reach the Closed Alpha cap of level 10. New ships, NPCs, and equipment have been added for players to discover as they explore even more regions in space, planetary locations, and cave systems in the game’s first solar system.
There are lots of handcrafted locations to discover in the first solar system; some won’t even be on the players’ radar until they stumble over them.
Chris Avellone - On Great RPGs and What the Future Holds
by Silver, 00:59
Chris Avellone was interviewed by IGN and asked - what makes a great RPG?
loading...
Chris Avellone, writer of some of the best RPGs of all time (with credits on series' like Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Divinity 2 and plenty more), discusses some of his thoughts on the hallmarks of great RPGs and what the future of the genre might bring.
@GematsuWolfstride is a turn-based mech RPG announced for PC. Screenshots at the link.
Live the life of an aspiring Mech combat pilot in a world caught between the last gasps of a simpler time and the shimmering metal of a sprawling metropolis. Use skills and weapons to defeat other mechs in turn-based tactical combat. Make your way to the top by managing repairs, upgrading weapons, and learning new skills. Get to know the locals and build relationships to earn money doing odd jobs for them. Whatever it takes to win the Ultimate Mech Tournament.
Key Features
Fight – Battle opponents in a classic turn-based combat system. Use Movement Points to outmaneuver opponents. Spend action points to deliver precision strikes and crushing blows. Hone your piloting abilities to dominate the battlefield.
Manage – Keep your mech in top fighting shape and improve its capabilities in the hanger. Get in there and manually fix battle scars between fights. Add and upgrade weapons and skills to match your fighting style. Budget carefully, upgrades cost money you must earn taking odd jobs around town.
Live – Explore Rain city, one of the last remnants of the old world. Decide where to visit and when. Meet the residents, learn their relationships, and build friendships to get job offers. As a former Yakuza, you know all about doing dirty work, like washing cats.
Horizon Forbidden West has been announced and is a direct sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn.
loading...
Horizon Forbidden West continues Aloy’s story as she moves west to a far-future America to brave a majestic, but dangerous frontier where she’ll face awe-inspiring machines and mysterious new threats. Coming to PlayStation 5.
CBR presents their list of the best Final Fantasy battle systems.
6. Charge Time Battle
Charge Time Battle was introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics. It uses a charge time meter that fills up to 100 to allow units to take action. Speed determines how quickly each unit's charge meter will refill. This system changes traditional video game battles into a virtual chess match within a 3D environment. It adds challenge and strategy to how players battle, as they need to consider the movements of the enemy and AI-controlled party members to plan their next move. You can easily miss receiving a healing spell or potion if you move out of range of a friendly AI character.
Do you enjoy deep, labyrinthine storylines and fully developed characters? You may read a lot of text in these RPGs, but they’re worth the eyestrain.
Whether you’re exploring metaphysical quandaries in Torment: Tides of Numenera or taking on societal injustices in Persona 5 Royal, there’s no shortage of intriguing plots to explore. Trails of Cold Steel weaves a complex and bonkers storyline about military politics, friendship, and the impact of war that spans multiple games.
The thought-provoking Disco Elysium eschews traditional RPG trappings for a more dialogue-heavy approach, creating a uniquely introspective and dark journey of a detective battling his inner demons. There’s a reason why Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series has earned such a sterling reputation, and that extends to the games. The Witcher 3 is CD Projekt Red’s most ambitious narrative and capitalizes on the novels’ rich lore, but stands out as a rare example of a game committed to putting the player in truly ambiguous moral situations; choices are neither celebrated nor condemned, leaving you to ponder your decisions.
TheGG reports that Hammerting will be coming to PC in 2020. The game features multi-faceted gameplay mechanics including crafting, deep base building, combat, and exploration as players manage a colony of industrious dwarves.
Players will be tasked with helping the colony as it strives to develop and craft new weapons to help aid their Overworld allies during an epic war against evil; during the course of Hammerting, they will face unique challenges, from goblin raids on their caverns to traversing the darkest corners for the most valuable ores to loot. A closer look at Hammerting is available to watch right now, with the launch of a new developer diary video series, Into The Forge.
Key features: Dwarf management: As the colony increases in size, active management of the dwarves, including the friendships they make and their morale, will be key to helping the war effort Base building: Bore and upgrade a variety of rooms, from forges and sculpting studios to taverns and auxiliary functions and help the colony craft the ultimate base Crafting: Build and upgrade a wide variety of items through a deep leveling up system Exploration: Venture into the bowels of the mountainside & face increasingly perilous situations Combat: Different dwarves for different combat situations; harness weapons from swords to two-handed hammers to overcome goblin invaders
@TheGG Dark fantasy action RPG The Unliving has been announced. The game is a blend of roguelite and real-time strategy gameplay.
In The Unliving, players wield the dark art of necromancy to command a growing army of the undead through a mystical world, wreaking havoc across humanity’s domains and turning fallen enemies into morbid servants.
While the Necromancer may control the undead even he cannot escape death; with each reincarnation, players must learn from their mistakes, forge new strategies, and overcome the living, all while trying to unravel the secrets buried deep in forgotten corners of the world of The Unliving.
The Turn Based Loverschecked out which tatical games will be released in June:
On The Radar – June 2020
[...]
I simply love to discover unknown games, try them and, sometimes, find among them the “hidden gem”! As usual this month we have some big releases (like Griftlands) but also tons of “true indie” games. Let’s give them a chance, I know for sure that, despite some flaws, behind those games there is always a lot of love!
THE DUNGEON PARADOX – 3rd June (e.a.) CARRIER BATTLE 4 GUADALCANAL – 4th June HERETIC’S LOT: PROLOGUE – 8th June DECK OF ASHES – 09th June 1971: PROJECT HELIOS – 09th June FRAG – 10th June (e.a.) WARBORN – 12th June LAST REGIMENT – 15th June TAINTED GRAIL – 25th June (e.a.) CHAOS GALAXY – June GRIFTLANDS – June
Starting as a small shark pup you are tasked with surviving the harsh world while eating your way up the ecosystem. To do this you will explore a large and varied open world encountering diverse enemies - both human and wildlife. Find the right resources and you can grow and evolve far beyond what nature intended, allowing the player to become a massive shark, an apex predator of legends. Eat. Explore. Evolve.
TheGG reports that a Zelda-like ARPG Adventure in Aellion will be available to try in Steam Early Access July 22nd.
28 APRIL 2020 – The Game Production Company announced today that their debut fantasy playground “Adventure in Aellion” will be launching into Steam Early Access on 22 July 2020, alongside a brand new trailer and free public beta.
Adventure in Aellion is an open-world fantasy epic combining the game style of classic Legend of Zelda with seamless drop-in, drop-out multiplayer to create a world ripe for exploration.
During its Early Access development, Aellion’s open world will grow to be an expansive adventure brimming with secrets. With a faithful steed of your choosing, ride through unknown landscapes and bustling towns, or head straight to the darkest dungeon you can find. Unlock tools and treasures to help you in your quest, or take on the toughest enemies with your fists alone – the choice is yours.
Designed for anyone to be able to pick up and play, Adventure in Aellion pairs simple controls with tricky puzzles – no matter your experience, anyone can be a hero of Aellion.
General News - Square-Enix RPGs that need to be remade
by Hiddenx, 19:27
Ginger Prime suggests seven Square-Enix RPGs that should be remade:
Top 7
loading...
Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Trials of Mana Remake, and now Nier remake, what other RPGs do we want to see Square-Enix remake? For me, what I thought would be a top 5 list, turned into a top 7 list of RPGs that I would love to see make a return.
Back to the Wasteland - Interview with Developers of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs
by Silver, 21:53
Wireframe interviewed the developers of isometric post-apocalyptic games like Underrail, ATOM, Wasteland 3, Broken Roads and Death Trash to talk about the influence of Fallout.
SPLITTING THE ATOM
Compared to Underrail, Atom Team’s ATOM RPG is somewhat closer to a typical Fallout experience, since it allows you to explore above ground in the ruins of a post-nuclear wasteland. But ATOM RPG nevertheless provides a unique perspective, since it takes place on the other side of the Iron Curtain in the mid-eighties. Small towns are full of tired-looking inhabitants, and the streets are lined with the once-proud relics of the Communist regime.
“We didn’t want it to be too Mad Max,” explains Anton Krasilnikov, the writer and designer on ATOM RPG. “We also thought [the setting] would be interesting. We all live in post-Soviet countries, so it’s much easier in a way to show.”
ATOM RPG began life as a high school project made by lead programmer Dmitriy Martynenko and 3D modeller Ivan Semenov. Inspired by their love of the original Fallout, the pair wanted to create a game in the same style, but ended up putting the project on hold when they realised the amount of time and resources it would require.
[...]
“Since then, the idea got a bit broader,” says Hövelbrinks. “The world of Death Trash is from my own ideas and lots of different sources for inspiration. The general gameplay/genre target I would define as halfway between old-school RPGs and modern indie action games.”
Death Trash takes place in a future where humanity has relocated to the planet Nexus, where cosmic terrors lurk in the shadows, and killer robots have risen against their makers. In this chaotic world, players assume the role of a raider living among the ruins, and will have to navigate these obstacles with care.
“Where Death Trash differs most [from Fallout] I think is in its world, which is more colourful, more alien, and more dreamlike,” says Hövelbrinks. “The setting is a wild mix of things, ranging from horrifying and grotesque to occasional light humour, and our goal is to merge all of that into an organic and atmospheric experience.”
Turnbased Lovers has an overview of upcoming turnbased games, some of which are RPGs or RPGish.
ATOM RPG Trudograd (E.A.) – 11th May
Another expansion for another very good game. I bought ATOM RPG as soon as it was released, back in 2018, because it reminded me a lot the firsts two fallout games. But at the launch, the game was a bit disappointing (mind you that we’re talking about a very indie project). Nonetheless, there was great potential in the game. I really hope that this standalone expansion can express the full potential of AtomTeam.
About its content we will have:
A large city with its own lore and dozens of varying locations to fight, trade, talk and explore in;
A hardcore turn-based experience with huge amounts of character development paths, combat styles, skills, perks and distinctions;
Unique characters each with their own personality and a robust branching dialogue;
Multiple-solution quests, which actively change the city around you;
Ability to transfer your hero from our previous game (Atom RPG);
An easy game to pick up. While Trudograd is a continuation of the first game’s plot, it is also friendly towards new players, and will quickly fill you in on the lore and major developments you might have missed;
A result of a two year long community effort, made by players for players. This game encompasses a lot of changes from our previous title, that were inspired by user feedback.
I don’t want to dwell much on this, so I’ll just use D&D’s definition from the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master Guide:
THE DUNGEON AS ADVENTURE SETTING The term "dungeon" is a loose one. A dungeon is usually underground, but an aboveground site can be a dungeon as well. Some DMs apply the term to virtually any adventure site. For this discussion, a dungeon is an enclosed, defined space made up of encounter areas connected in some fashion.
I like that, and it works well for both tabletop RPGs and computer & console RPGs (which I’ll hereby just call “CRPGs”). But what’s a good dungeon?
It may sound obvious, but a good dungeon in a CRPG must fit its game. For example, I enjoy the massive spaghetti-from-hell dungeons of Daggerfall:
The New York Times have an article on game development and game sales during the corona crisis. Amongst other Larian's Swen Vincke had something to say about the impact on game developement.
During the early days of self-quarantine at Larian Studios, the independent video game developer founded in Ghent, Belgium, morale remained high. Designers and engineers, many of whom worked remotely (the company has 300 employees across five countries), were able to continue to do so, building levels and writing code from their homes.
“The very first week, it went really well,” said Swen Vincke, the chief executive at Larian, which makes popular role-playing games like Divinity: Original Sin and the upcoming Baldur’s Gate 3. “Everyone had all the information they needed to just smoothly go work from home.”
But as the company entered the second and third weeks of social isolation amid the coronavirus pandemic, problems began to emerge. Parents have to work while caring for young children. Some employees have found themselves working limited or unusual hours, which has led to reduced productivity and communication struggles. And with Larian’s external partners closing or transitioning to remote work, everything has slowed down.
“We started seeing more stress on the leads in terms of communication,” Mr. Vincke said. “We’d spend all of our days just communicating — trying to solve problems, organize things, give direction.”
MassivelyOP compared the major action RPGs currently available meaning Wolcen, Diablo, Grim Dawn, Path of Exile.
Grim Dawn
Grim Dawn is probably the most traditional of the major ARPG titles on the market right now. If you want a spiritual successor to Diablo II, this is probably your best bet. Its most unique feature is the way it allows players to choose two classes and invest equally in both their skill trees.
As I’ve written before, Grim Dawn is an exercise in the difference between story and lore. Its lore is great. It’s built a rich and unique setting by combining elements of fantasy, steampunk, and Gothic horror. However, the best thing that could be said about the storyline is that it does, technically, exist.
It also suffers from very slow and unrewarding character progress past the early levels — a relic of its old school methodology — and the requirement that all members of a party own exactly the same expansions and DLC can make playing with friends challenging. It is however free of other micro-transactions, for those who are concerned with such things.
Overall, Grim Dawn is a solid ARPG experience, and traditionalists will love it, but for those looking for something more unique, it doesn’t have much to offer beyond a fresh setting.
1971 Project Helios is a turn-based strategy game set in a frozen post apocalypse and due to release Q2 2020.
loading...
1971 Project Helios is a turn-based strategy game which combines modern warfare military tactics and close combat. Firearms and vehicles are scarce, conflicts and hostilities have no end, and the terrible freezing cold annihilates friends and foes in its path.
Eight characters have to join forces for a common cause: find an important scientist kidnapped by a massive stratocracy. Along their way they will have to avoid raider attacks, investigate military headquarters, and infiltrate into the territory of a dangerous anti-technological religious sect.
FEATURES
Tactical Combat Fight against three different factions, each one with its unique units, strategy and advantages. Soldiers, snipers, slippery bandits, knights immune to cold… Study your enemies, plan out every move and adapt to all confrontations!
Exploration Travel through various locations, from military enclaves to medieval dungeons. There you can search for fulgor, new equipment for your characters, and pieces of information of the world you are in and the factions you face.
Skill Trees As you find equipment compatible with each character, you can unlock and upgrade new skills, and combine them to make the perfect builds for your strategy.
Resource Management Use all the fulgor you can find to defreeze your HP, decrease the cooldowns, and reanimate your fallen units.
STORY
The campaign sets in a frozen world, in which eight people – each one with its own problems and interests – join in a sort of temporary alliance, to find one particular person: Dr Margaret Blythe. On the trail of her whereabouts, they will travel and fight shoulder to shoulder, and they inevitably get to know the others. Depending on some strategic and personal decisions, you will guide this characters right to one of three possible endings.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York - Shadows of New York Expansion
by Silver, 07:33
A new expansion for Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York has been announced called Shadows of New York.
loading...
A stand-alone expansion and a companion piece to Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York. While Coteries was a general introduction to the world depicted in the 5th Edition of the hit tabletop role-playing game, Shadows presents a more personal and unique tale.
Afterburner Studios has released Dreamscaper: Prologue on the PC. Dreamscaper: Prologue is basically a free demo of the full game that will get you familiar with the game mechanics. In order to celebrate this launch, the team has also released a new trailer that you can find below.
Windbound - 3rd-Person Survival Adventure Coming to PC and Console
by Silver, 12:07
TheGG reports that 3rd-person survival adventure game Windbound is coming to PC and Console August 28th.
Reading, 3rd April 2020 | Deep Silver has announced new indie IP “Windbound” will be available digitally on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, Nintendo Switch™ and PC on 28th August.
Created by Australian developer 5 Lives Studios, Windbound is a beautiful rogue-like 3rd-person survival adventure, fuelled by hunting, exploration and crafting.
The player assumes the role of Kara who has been shipwrecked on an unknown land and must learn to adapt and survive, while solving the mysteries of a series of forgotten islands.
Windbound takes the survival genre in a new direction, focusing on nomadic hunting and exploration, together with custom boat building and an immersive tactile sailing experience. The game provides endless replayability options thanks to the procedural world, dynamic wildlife and modular boat crafting.
Regions of Ruin is an adventure/RPG game that is currently free to keep until 7 Apr @ 6:00pm. There is only a limited number available through.
loading...
Ever wonder what would happen if Kingdom met a broad, skill based open world RPG? Welcome to Regions of Ruin.
Regions of Ruin is a 2D side-scrolling RPG with town-building where you are introduced to an open world that progressively challenges your hero and settlement the further you delve into the vast continent.
You will discover a foreboding land ravaged by hundreds of years of hardship. Where, kingdoms have risen and fallen, settlements have been laid to waste and overrun by warring groups, and great mysteries lay hidden and waiting to be unearthed - assuming you can defeat their jealous guardians.
Main Features include:
• Styled combat system with stats and levelling • Skill tree to focus your fighting style • Extensive loot and rare items to discover • Forge your own equipment or smelt it for resources • Open world exploration with a hand crafted environment, no randomized maps or levels, everything you see has been made with care • Customised town building and expansion • Rescue and recruit dwarves for your township (save them from extinction!) • Send workers to harvest resources from explored regions • Hire Mercenaries to help in battle • Multitude of Quests and a main storyline
GamePressure reports on a rumour from a reliable source who states that the Witcher 4 will be a prequel starring Ciri.
Some few days ago, anonymous sources revealed to us the plans of the studio, and made it clear on the occasion that she was the team' favourite from the very beginning of work on W4. Reds are convinced that The Witcher must have a distinctive protagonist and Geralt's step daughter - in their opinion - is perfectly suited for this. Even if we remember about Cirilla's enormous powers, which made her an unstoppable killing machine in Wild Hunt, the devs have allegedly found a way to make it work. As the source reports, the action of the new game is supposed to take place before the events told in The Witcher 3, and that means that The Witcher 4 will be a prequel!
Let's be honest here, the idea itself sounds quite interesting. Given such a premise, the new game could not only focus more strongly on the events described in Sapkowski's books (we remind that recently both parties signed a new cooperation agreement), but also fill in the empty gaps left in Ciri's resume by the writer. Under no circumstances should we be concerned about the gameplay, as despite Ciri's aforementioned extraordinary powers and skills in wielding a sword, we could simply be developing them from zero up to the level known from The Witcher 3. Yet another interesting idea would be to lead the plot of The Witcher 4 to the starting point of Wild Hunt, including the development of her relationship with Avallac'h, but these are only our loose theories.
Gematsu reports that action RPG Mortal Shell will launch Q3 on Steam and other platforms.
Publisher Playstack and developer Cold Symmetry have announced Mortal Shell, an “uncompromising, authentic, and hauntingly beautiful” action RPG built upon the “ruthless traditions of the soulslike genre.” It will launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam in Q3 2020.
Love is in the air, but work, life, and spicy Ramen keep getting in the way! From 8 hours to 8 years, this time-jumping saga will change the way you feel about fate forever.
The Turn Based Lovers give us an overview which turn based games will be released in April 2020:
"Waiting for the sun" – The Doors
Whoever is interested by the quarantine for the Covid-19 can really understand what is “the sun” I’m waiting for… In the place where I’m writing, Italy, the sun is not just a star but a hope of normality, not a mirage but something to believe in. But this is serious matter and I’m aware that today we’re here to talk about our common passion: videogames! So the “question of the day” is: can a bunch of bytes cures this damned virus?
Obviously nobody can really think so, but I’m convinced that if a “cure” is something that concern, not just our body, but also our spirit, than we can believe that even a simple videogames can lessen our suffering. During the past weeks (and still now) I was forced to stay at home… ever… and I cannot even think what would have happened to my mind without a good turn-based game, or a good book in my hand, in other words, without something capable of bring me somewhere else. We are human beings and in order to maintain our mental health we have always to look forward and hope for our best, so even under these particular circumstances I think is right to talk about which videogames await us during the next month.
Despite the virus time goes fast and, with Spring, comes also another month full of indie releases. To tell you the truth, beside a plethora of “not very well-known” games, this time we have also a few major releases. It would be enough to mention Gears Tactics or Alder’s Blood to get satisfaction, but under the surface we can find also some others interesting titles like, for examples, Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond (an indie game which takes inspiration from the classic JRPGs), Dread Nautical (the new turn-based release from the talented ZenStudios) or, even, Sentinels of Freedom (which seems me a to me a turn-based version of the glorious Freedom Force!).
This month there are – really! – a lot of games so pardon me if I’ll be a bit brief 😉!
@Bluesnews The Deed is an adventure RPG game that is free to keep forever until Monday afternoon.
loading...
A keenly dark twist on the traditional murder mystery setting, The Deed is an Adventure/RPG game about getting away with murder.
Arran Bruce, the rightful heir to Dunshiel House, returns to his family home after discovering that his abusive father has decided to disinherit him from his Will in favour of his sadistic, deranged young sister. In a fit of anger and greed, Arran has decided to remove his sister from the equation in order to restore his own inheritance. Can he manage to get away with such a foul deed?
Meet the Family: Explore Dunshiel House and encounter Arran's twisted, dysfunctional family and their servants. Take care, though - everything that you say or do can have an impact on the outcome of The Deed!
Choose the Weapon: A rope, a candlestick or good old-fashioned rat poison? There are many household items that can be put to a dark and nefarious use. Choose carefully from ten possible murder weapons, bearing in mind who might become a suspect as a result of your selection.
Plant the Evidence: Father, mother, maid, butler ... any of these individuals could take the blame for your heinous act, if you can find the right evidence, plant it in the right location and manage to raise the suspicions of the Inspector.
Face the Inspector: When the deed is done, it's time to face the music and be interviewed by the wily, perceptive Inspector. Can you dodge his questions and avert his suspicions? Will you walk away a free man? Many possible endings await ...
Click4Gameplay examines the problem with levelling in RPGs:
The Problem With LEVELLING In RPGs and Different Progression Methods
loading...
It’s really hard to imagine a role playing game without character levels, because we usually associate that with getting stronger. Creating a sense of character progression by levelling up, is much more than just gaining experience and watching that number go up.
TweakTown reports that an Harry Potter RPG maybe on its way.
A new job listing for Avalanche Software seeks a lighting wizard for a "soon to be announced AAA title," and it's probably that new Harry Potter game.
According to a job listing filed just yesterday, WB Games is gearing up for a big game reveal. Since it's Avalanche's game, we expect it to be the new Wizarding World RPG. "Avalanche Software, a WB Games studio, seeks a Lighting Technical Artist to work closely with a talented group of artists and engineers on an exciting, soon to be announced AAA title," reads the listing.
GamePressure took a look at Swen Vincke's presentation of Baldur's Gate 3 and admired his honesty.
And yes: you can argue that the presentation may have taken place too early, that pre-alpha games are not suitable for live shows, that so many bugs and glitches just made it look bad. But check it out: So what? Swen boldly took a piece of unfinished code to an event addressed to gamers rather than the people of the industry. He took it knowing fully well that the game would probably crash at some point, that he would be standing alone on the stage, completely vulnerable. He showed us a substantial fragment of something that, although still stumbling, is very much alive, molding and evolving. And for that, I'm incredibly grateful – for the courage, for reaching out to us, the fans and gamers – without the boring glare of big screens, E3 conferences, and unnecessary marketing babble about what a special and amazing community we are.
DSOGaming reports on JRPG Genshin Impact which is being compared to Zelda: BOTW.
Genshin Impact promises to feature a unique combat system thanks to the impressive legacy of miHoYo’s earlier titles. The new gameplay mechanics are based on elemental properties and interactions, allowing The Traveler to utilize different element attacks and magic in varied combinations to deal devastating blows to enemies.
1428: Shadows over Silesia - Historical Adventure/RPG
by Silver, 19:54
1428: Shadows over Silesia is described as a dark action adventure game set within a background of true historical events that occurred in Medieval Europe. The game features challenging puzzles, difficult battles, and stealth passages.
loading...
Story
Europe is in the middle of religious upheaval and many preachers predict that the end of the world is near. The year is 1428 and the Hussites have just set out on their Silesian campaign. These heretics appear to be the biggest threat in the kingless country. But true evil of a completely different kind is lurking nearby and it will not engage in religious disputes.
Key characteristics
An interesting story, with true historical events in the background.
Linear gameplay based on chapters and levels.
Challenging riddles and puzzles in the style of classic adventure games.
Exploration of underground dungeons, caves, monasteries, or castles.
Isometric, stylized, slightly fairytale-like, but mostly dark low poly graphics.
Stealth passages.
A combat system where being outnumbered is a problem.
IndianNoobchecked out the roguelite World of Horror:
World of Horror Early Access Preview :: 1 Bit Macabre
Even though I was born in the early ’90s, a large part of my childhood was spent around technology from the ’80s. The state of India which I grew up in wasn’t the most technologically advanced place. We’d generally be 5-10 years behind the rest of the world when it came to electronic entertainment. Hence, I have a soft spot for all things retro in games and love me some good 1-bit art. There’s a reason The Return of the Obra Din became one of my favourite indies experiences in recent memory.
Now developer panstasz has brought us World of Horror, a bizarre mix of ’80s RPGs and roguelite adventures. The soon-to-be-released Early Access game is marketed as a 1-bit love letter to the works of Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft. People who have been following my writings knows me to be a huge Lovecraft buff but mangas (and JRPGs) are something I’m just not a big fan of. However, I whole-heartedly appreciate Junji Ito’s trypophobia-inducing illustrations and his contributions to the horror manga industry. Setting my prejudices aside, here’s me telling you what works and what doesn’t work in World of Horror.
GamePressure share their list of the most anticipated RPGs of 2020.
Dark Envoy
Genre: RPG
Release date: 2020
Platforms: PC, PS4, XONE
Developer: Event Horizon
I have a feeling that Dark Envoymay turn out to be one of the biggest surprises of this year. Or maybe I'm just being seduced by every trailer with Blues Saraceno music?
Dark Envoy was announced as an ambitious, complex video game, which draws inspiration from Mass Effect, and above all from the Divinity: Original Sin series. This means that we'll get a powerful tactical RPG with turn-based combat, a great world to explore, and complex relationships between heroes. The main protagonists are two siblings who are repairing their parents' ship to embark on a great expedition.
The world itself also looks promising as it mixes the arcane-punk style (a combination of magic and technology) with a spaghetti western. The world is dominated by people who have brought old races to the brink of extinction due to their new technology. The reality presented in such a way creates a great opportunity for good scriptwriters to show off. We will visit vast lands, cities and dungeons (the latter are randomly generated), discover their secrets and take part in battles with powerful opponents. Our tactical skills and abilities will decide whether we end up victorious. We'll embark on this journey alone or, like in Divinity, in cooperation mode.
The Event Horizon has developed quite a successful Tower of Time, so we can remain calm about the quality of this Dark Envoy.
Bandai Namco has released a brand new trailer for its upcoming PC action RPG, Blue Protocol. Blue Protocol will be using Unreal Engine 4, will feature a third-person perspective and anime-like visuals.
Furthermore, the game will feature real-time combat mechanics and a new beta phase will begin soon. This closed beta phase will begin in March, and registrations will open on February 12th.
Chained Echoes - Deck 13 to Publish for PC, Switch and PS4
by Silver, 06:57
Gematsu reports on Kickstarter funded JRPG Chained Echoes new publisher Deck 13. The game will be available for Switch, PC and PS4.
Deck13 Spotlight, the publishing label of Deck13 Interactive, will publish Chained Echoes, the 16-bit Japanese-style RPG developed by independent studio Ark Heiral funded on Kickstarter back in February 2019. It will launch for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam in late 2021.
There are a lot of good RPGs, aren’t there? This list of the best RPGs was compiled by the collected minds of Adam Smith, Brendan Caldwell, Katharine Castle, Sin Vega, Matthew Castle and Graham Smith.
In the most recent update to this list, we removed 12 games: Dark Souls 3, Divinity: Original Sin, Diablo 2, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, UnReal World, ADOM, Wasteland 2, Wizardry VIII, Recettear: An Item’s Shop Tale, Torchlight 2, Risen and Hand Of Fate. They all remain great games, and the reasons for dismissal vary. With Dark Souls 3 and Original Sin, we decided we’d rather just recommend one game from their respective series. With Hand Of Fate and Diablo 2, we did a straight swap with their sequels. For some of the others, we felt that age had finally caught up with them, or at least that there were newer games we’d recommend first.
Here’s the full list as it currently stands, with the new additions noted.
The best RPGs on PC
1. Divinity: Original Sin 2 2. Dark Souls 3. The Witcher 3 4. Mass Effect 2 5. Dragon Age: Origins 6. Deus Ex 7. Baldur’s Gate 2 8. Disco Elysium [new entry] 9. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 10. System Shock 2 11. Undertale 12. Nier: Automata 13. Yakuza 0 [new entry] 14. Stardew Valley 15. Planescape: Torment 16. Path Of Exile [new entry] 17. Pillars Of Eternity 18. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided 19. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster [new entry] 20. NEO Scavenger 21. Monster Hunter World 22. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 23. Sunless Skies 24. Fallout: New Vegas 25. Mount & Blade: Warband 26. Legend Of Grimrock II 27. Darkest Dungeon 28. Fallout 29. Ultima VII 30. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 31. Final Fantasy XII [new entry] 32. Anachronox 33. Shadowrun Dragonfall Director’s Cut 34. Star Traders: Frontiers [new entry] 35. Dragon Quest 11 [new entry] 36. Titan Quest 37. Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura 38. Brogue 39. Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind [new entry] 40. The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings [new entry] 41. Avernum: Escape From The Pit 42. Kenshi 43. Din’s Curse 44. Vampire: Bloodlines 45. Chrono Trigger [new entry] 46. Diablo 3 [new entry] 47. Dwarf Fortress 48. Hand Of Fate 2 [new entry] 49. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask Of The Betrayer 50. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom [new entry]
TurnBasedLovers share their list of upcoming notable turn-based games releasing in February.
For sure in February there will be two important Early Access releases, one is Urtuk and the other one is Stoneshard. The first one is a tactical turn-based RPG with open-world features, set in a dark fantasy universe. About Stoneshard we wrote a lot in the past and in my humble opinion it will be one of the most outstanding Open World RPG of this year.
For games who goes in E.A. other ones leaves this shores, like Conglomerate 451, a grid-based dungeon crawler set in a cool cyberpunk world!
Other than that February will also bring us a couple of interesting oriental games finally translated in English (we’re talking about Banner of the maid and Labyrinth of the Witch) and a lot of other indie games of which I’ve never heard about…
A gameplay trailer for Elderborn which is described as a Metal AF* Slasher with brutal FPP melee combat and souls-like/RPG character progression.
loading...
ELDERBORN - a Metal Action Fantasy Slasher with brutal FPP melee combat and souls-like/RPG character progression. Steam.
The game is full of fantasy violence and gore - just the way you like your FPP games.
The problem is - Google and Facebook won't allow promoting our main trailer: https://youtu.be/kR0Qg6Pcrqs So... we had to put something together. How's that, GoogBook? Everything in order now, mr. AI thought policeman?
Platforms: PC (available now), Xbox, PS4, Switch (later in 2020) Release dates: 30 January 2020 (full steam release), 11 October 2018 (Steam Early Access), Q2-Q3 2020 (console version)
WitchBrook is a Stardew Valley type game crossed with Harry Potter.
loading...
WitchBrook is A Game currently being devloped by ChuckleFish! The people who Published Stardew valley! Witchbrook is inspired by stardew valley and Harry Potter where you play as a student learning magic at Witchbrooks ( HOGWARTS) You get to go to potions class and live out your dream of going to hogwarts, there is plenty to do but not too much has been released about the game. I go over everything we know ! If your a fan of Harry Potter, Stardew Valley, Or Graveyard Keeper your probably going to love this Next Big hit From Chucklefish !
OnlySP reports on Shadows of Larth which is described as a fast-paced RPG lite game.
Shadows of Larth is a third-person, fast-paced, action-adventure title that showcases stunning, visceral combat from independent developer Zine FALOUTI.
Independent game developer Zine E Falouti‘s Shadows of Larth is an epic fantasy set in a Medieval and Bronze era inspired by Mediterranean culture. The Marked Guild sends players as one of five champions to “heal the wounds of the Land or ignore it and walk your path learn new abilities and forge powerful blades to fight strong, legendary and famous enemies, carve your own path to become one of The Heroes of Larth.”
Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend - Dev Diary 17
by Silver, 07:11
Dev Diary 17 for the Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend project shows a new video tour of the docking bay and starmap. Also there is a new forum.
Greetings! Time for another dev diary! This time Marvin gives us a cool new tour video of the game and shows off his new starmap and docking sequence in his Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend project. We've now got a forum too! Next article will cover LANDING ON PLANETS!!!!! :)
Greetings! Time for another dev diary! This time Marvin gives us a cool new tour video of the game and shows off his new starmap and docking sequence in his Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend project. We've now got a forum too! Next article will cover LANDING ON PLANETS!!!!! :)
It’s time for another “State of the Remake” video! This one is about 30 minutes long. In this one, I visit all of the races that you can encounter in the game. The comm system isn’t 100% done yet, but it is mostly working. The orange/green “pill” thingy that you will see is just a temporary placeholder for ship models that I have not built yet.
Next up – while the rest of the team are doing research for me to help me get the comm system 100% complete, I will be working on all of the ship models.
Note: apparently there is no sound in the YouTube video… which means the video was recorded without sound. I do not know how that happened. :-\
Hades is described as a god-like, rogue-like, dungeon crawler from the creators of Bastion and Transistor. The game recently received a large update.
loading...
Hades is in Early Access, which means we're actively working on it based on our plans and your feedback. We expect to keep adding features, characters, weapons, foes, powers, environments, and more, while expanding the story and fine-tuning all aspects of the experience. Here are our latest patch note!
Early Access Patch 036: The LONG WINTER Update - January 21, 2020
We wanted to start the year off with a bang with this Major Update! It features a new Olympian, a new weapon variant, new activities, more story, and many other improvements. We plan to follow up with a couple of smaller patches while keeping a close eye on your feedback. Thank you very much for playing!
Highlights
• Demeter: the Goddess of Seasons brings winter to the Underworld! Seek out her powerful Boons • Rod of Fishing: capture (& sell!!) Underworld river denizens with this new House Contractor item • Aspect of Guan Yu: earn this unique new Aspect of the Eternal Spear, and vanquish your foes! • Underworld Decor Galore: scores of new items are available at the newly renovated House Contractor! • New Legendary Keepsake: forge an unbreakable bond with Dusa, and summon her to petrify your foes • Boon Info & Victory Screen Update: pin multiple Boons onscreen for easy reference and sharing • New Daedalus Hammer Upgrades: look for multiple new upgrades for each weapon • New Story Events: uncover new secrets in hours of added narrative (with more than 1,000 new voice lines)
A Long Way Down is a roguelike deck-building RPG game released into Early Access recently by Goblinz Studio.
loading...
The game draws inspiration from hits like Darkest Dungeon, Slay the Spire and Hand of Fate.
A Long way down is a mash-up between an RPG and a deck-building game. Embody Sam and try escaping this maze where a sneaky and evil mastermind reigns. Let your memories and your choices guide you... but don't fall into darkness.
Craft a deck
The cards you choose will determine how you explore the dungeon and how you defend yourself from the horrors it contains.
Fight your way through the unforgiving monster maze
Great challenges await you as you go deeper into the dungeon. Use your cards and cunning, adapt your playstyle and overcome all enemies.
Gather your party
You’ll meet many fellow adventurers down in the dark - will you gain allies or make enemies?
Traverse the maze
Use your cards to bridge gaps and defy dead ends as you travel through the maze. Rush to escape or take time to explore, the choice is yours.
Upgrade your items and equipment
Collect rewards and use them to grow your power to take on what lies in the depths.
Confront the evil overlord
Every choice you made will affect the final battle - can you defeat the mastermind in its lair?
Hoyfjell is the story of a goofy action game that became a turn-based, open-world RPG - a crowdfunding campaign has just started:
Key Features:
Industrial-Fantasy. Explore abandoned military bases along with haunted castles.
Non-Epic. You are not saving the world from the ultimate evil, but your quest is not evil either.
Open-World. No quest markers, no level scaling. Most of the world is available for exploration right at the start.
Hand-Crafted Experience. The world that's built with passion and love.
Turn-Based RPG. Take your time - no need to hurry. And top-down camera allows you have a better view of the situation.
Build Your Character. With classless role-playing system that allows flexibility and great degree of customization. Want to be a wizard-sniper? Or a rogue with telepathic abilities?
Explore-and-Discover. Because exploration is the heart of adventure. And adventure is the heart of RPG.
General News - Modders Build Harry Potter RPG in Minecraft
by Silver, 20:49
PC Gamer reports that modders have build a fully fledged Harry Potter RPG in Minecraft.
Would you like a free Harry Potter-themed RPG built entirely inside Minecraft? Of course you would want that. You—at the very least—would not not want that. Well, a team of “poor students” called The Floo Network have spent the last four or so years making a sprawling Minecraft map that runs as a complete Harry Potter RPG inside vanilla Minecraft. What first started as a the team’s decision to spend a couple years making detailed models of various Harry Potter locations inside Minecraft—something you might remember from 2017—has become a massive undertaking that gives us… Minecraft School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Here’s the trailer:
General News - New Sci-Fi Game Based on Stanislaw Lem
by Silver, 20:09
GamePressure reports on the development of a new science fiction game based on the literature of Stanislaw Lem.
Retrofuturism and Atom Punk
"Lem never entered the era of digitization in his books. We still have giant computing machines that download information using punch cards. No flat screens – just heavy, cathode-ray tubes and oscilloscopes. We're closely following the same trail. People explore space, but no one’s ever heard of mobile phones," says Michal Galek.
Piotr Mierzwa (hardsurface artist) is designing one of the robots we'll meet in the game.
Indeed, all the displays I saw in the game were old, convex CRTs, and the gadgets I used resembled devices used in the 50s or 60s. Lem imagined the future that derived directly from the present. That's why today, his approach is defined as retrofuturism. Consequently, all the devices in the game are analog. The creators emphasize they devote a lot of time to properly designing the machines – "We wonder how the device should look in order to evoke the analog era. A touch-screen, wireless tablet would be a show-stopper for us."
You can imagine the problems such an approach creates. Just take the map, for instance – Lem had no interactive maps, nor modern UIs that would display points of interest. Things ought to be quite similar in Project I – about the only aid we will get during exploration will be an absolutely regular map, and we'll have to mark navigational points manually. Let's remember – you are a scientists on an alien planet. Your main job is exploration, and that just can't be easy without digital systems. Doesn't such a concept curb creativity? "These limitations create the impression of integrity of the entire game. It requires some effort, but once we finally implement, we get massive satisfaction from creating something that challenges the regular approach; something original,” explains Marek Markuszewski.
Starsector is described as an open-world single player game featuring space combat alongside roleplaying, exploration, and economic aspects.
loading...
Though it is in-development, you can purchase Starsector now at a discount to gain access to ongoing builds. Starsector supports custom content & mods and is available now for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
Current Features
Pilot your ship in top-down 2D combat
Command your fleet in tactical battles
Gain experience to level up your skills
Detailed space combat mechanics
Customize your ship’s loadout before battle
Hire officers to give skill bonuses, pilot auxiliary ships, and oversee your operations
PC Gamer reports that an ambitious Chinese RPG called Sands of Salzaar will be getting an English translation.
loading...
Sands of Salzaar of which the Chinese title translates more directly to Tribe and Machete) only released on January 2, but in that time has rocketed to into Steam's global top seller list with an estimated 50,000 sales in its first week. That number is expected to reach 200,000 by the end of January. Though it's only available in Simplified Chinese, Sands of Salzaar has amassed over 2,600 "mostly positive" reviews and is currently the 31st most-played game on Steam by concurrents, with peak concurrent players reaching 21,000—in the neighborhood of games like Stardew Valley and Skyrim.
And, by the looks of it, Sands of Salzaar absolutely deserves its success. From reading reviews and watching some gameplay, Salzaar is an ambitious, Early Access open world RPG in the vein of indie darling Kenshi. Set in a mystical desert, you recruit characters and explore a dynamically-generated world, making friends (or enemies) with various factions. I particularly enjoy the look of the enormous battles, which evokes Dynasty Warriors mixed with Diablo.
TurnBasedLovers share their list of upcoming turn based games in January 2020.
NECRO WARS – 3rd January
The Elves have broken the pact and attacked without reason or warning. You must gather your army and push the enemy back before they pillage and burn your kingdom. You must use the terrain, fog and enemy weaknesses to your advantage in this turn-based 3D strategy game.
Key Features:
Strategize & defeat your foe: Using the terrain, fog of war and enemy unit weaknesses to your advantage you must defeat all the enemies or capture their headquarters to win the battle.
Build your army: Capture barracks’, docks and skyports to create ally units and strengthen your army.
Command your forces: As you progress you’ll unlock unique commanding officers each of which have their own unique unit abilities and passive powers. Utilizing each of them and their unique talents is vital to victory.
ReversiQuest2 is a single-player tactical JRPG with a battle system based on Reversi. Those good ole days of pixel art, characters, and sounds reminiscent of video games of the mid 90’s. No need to know the previous ReversiQuest to enjoy ReversiQuest2!
●Sharpen Your Tactics!● Stay alert! Every move drastically turns the tide of the battle! Never give up, even on a verge of death – a victorious reversal awaits! The strategies are infinite! Triumph over enemies with Reversi skills, various characters, gears, or spells…the choice is yours!
●Story and Gameplay● A young man who grew up in a remote village in Othellia Island, Nym, saves a girl named Imogen from a monster…but how will their fate turn out? Advance through board game-like fields full of gimmicks in a sandbox world drawn all in quarter view and pixel art!
Orangeblood is a JRPG, with a fantastic pixel art style, set in the ’90 on a historic timeline different from that which we know. You will guide four “kawaii” soldiers which couldn’t care less about little photo stickers… They’d rather play with some 7.62x39mm rifles and filthy, filthy cash!
After a short delay it seems to be finally ready for the store! On Steam.
THE ALLIANCE ALIVE “HD Remastered” – 16th January
The Alliance Alive HD Remastered marks the glorious rebirth of the acclaimed RPG brought to you by FURYU Corporation. Uniting the talents of writer Yoshitaka Murayama, designer Kyouji Koizumi, art director Masayo Asano, and composer Masashi Hamauzu, this epic adventure comes to life with innovative gameplay on a backdrop of vibrant visuals and a classic tale. Players can develop their party’s skills through combat-based character progression, immerse themselves in the game’s lush world via dynamic vehicle-centric exploration, and form alliances with various guilds and factions. Venture further into the world to discover new vehicles to traverse in, magic to wield, places to visit, and more to experience!
The Year in Review 2019: Best PC Games of the Year
Picking one game from any year and calling it the Game of the Year is rarely an easy task. With such broad genres, release schedules, team sizes, and budgets, it almost feels unfair to throw a full year’s worth of games into a big pile and sort through it to name one of them the best.
This is true for most years, but not this year. This year the decision was easy.
[...]
Honorable Mentions: Apex Legends Slay The Spire The Outer Worlds
F Game Killer put together a list of upcoming RPG titles:
TOP 20 AMAZING Upcoming RPG Games 2020 & 2021 ( PS4, Xbox One, PC )
loading...
1: Final Fantasy VII Remake 2: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot 3: Elden Ring 4: Gothic Playable Teaser 5: Nioh 2 6: Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance 7: Diablo IV 8: New World 9: Persona 5 Royal 10: Godfall 11: Cyberpunk 2077 12: Chivalry 2 13: Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood 14: Magic: Legends 15: Project Sakura Wars 16: The Elder Scrolls VI 17: Tales of Arise 18: Babylon's Fall 19: Trials of Mana 20: Masquerade - Bloodlines 2
00:12 - Auto Fire 02:25 - Broken Lines 03:30 - Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game 04:42 - Dark Drive 06:45 - Get in the Car, Loser ! 08:42 - Graywalkers: Purgatory 10:39 - Griftlands 12:06 - King's Bounty II 13:28 - Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk : L'Amulette du Désordre 14:24 - Veil of Entropy: Norfolk Warriors 16:09 - Ragtag Crew 17:12 - Songs of Conquest 18:36 - Tenderfoot Tactics
General News - 15 most underrated RPGs of all Time
by Hiddenx, 18:59
Gaming Bolt made a video about the 15 most underrated RPGs of all time:
15 Most UNDERRATED RPGs of All Time
loading...
Amid all the big-budget RPGs, loot shooters and free to play titles of our time, there are a number of role-playing games which have faded into history. Many are still excellent to this day or enjoy a small but passionate group of fans. Let's take at 15 of those underrated RPGs here and what makes them worth playing.
Shadow of the Road has been announced and is described as a turn-based RPG set during the dusk of the Japanese feudal era.
The boshin war is tearing Japan apart. Followers of the Emperor constantly face the forces of the shogunate in brutal battles. No side wants to surrender, both fighting not only for power, but also for something greater and much more important - for a place in history. The stakes have never been this high. You can feel the tension in the air; the restlessness, the weight of the entire conflict, the resolve of both sides to see things through to the very end. But not everything is as it seems and it's not just humans that want to secure their place on this land.
During the commotion, a ronin known by the name of Satoru is left hopeless and disgraced by the fall of his master, Mochitsugu. Without a master and no reason to fight, it seems like he no longer has a place in this world. However, it all changes when a certain young boy crosses his path, suddenly surprising him with a crossroad he never assumed he would have to face.
Join Satoru and a few other outcasts during the battle for peace, for power; decide what road they should take. But be warned - selecting one does not mean that the shadows of another won’t try to follow you.
This turn-based RPG will bring you to the world of Japan right at the downfall of the feudal era and will let you test your skills against enemies that are clearly human, but also those that somehow escape such an easy classification. What’s more, the Emperor is supported by East Nippon Company, a British trade conglomerate with unclear intentions, equipped with powerful steam-powered machines wreaking havoc among the forces of the shogunate. Will you be able to overcome all the obstacles thrown your way? Or will you give in and choose the easy way out?
Create your own path by making multiple decisions that will eventually influence the outcome of this immersive story - stay true to yourself and your principles or choose a darker path of sacrifice for your own gains. Haunt or be haunted. Overcome the shadows or let them consume you. The choice is yours, as it has always been - even if you can’t comprehend it yet.
Ori and the Blind Forest Devs - Working on an Action RPG
by Silver, 10:53
GamePressure reports that Moon Studios, makers of platformer Ori and the Blind Forest, are seeking people to develop a 'revolutionary' action RPG.
A job offer on Gamasutra suggests that Moon Studios, the creators of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps (the latter will debut in March), are working on a new title. Their next work will be an action RPG. Developers have an ambitious goal to revolutionize this species.
In the dark cyberpunk future of 2019, everything is an RPG. Leveling systems and inventory management are a part of every game from NeoCab to Call of Duty. Devs attempt to weave powerful narratives into almost every single player experience. No game genre is harder to define than the RPG, so this list was particularly tough to compile.
The games below were chosen because their combination of story, setting, mechanics, and meaningful choice created memorable experience and pushed the genre forward as a whole. Some are spiritual successors while others are entirely new, borrowing mechanics from other genres - a reversal of the slow bleed of RPG leveling mechanics into everything. All of them are exciting additions to the most immersive genre in gaming.
OnlySP reports on The Soulkeeper Chronicles which is a new RPG for PC and VR. The game itself is fully playable without VR as it boasts two separate designs. OnlySP interviewed the devs about the game also.
loading...
HELM Systems has announced a new outing in its dark fantasy RPG universe with The SoulKeeper Chronicles, a new game built from the ground up for both PC and VR platforms.
The scale of this new project is enormous, with the developer promising three single-player campaigns. One will follow a magic-wielding monk named Isoropos, a second will feature a ranger called Edwyn, and the third will follow Ulvar, a raider.
Across these separate campaigns, players will have the freedom to pilot boats, ride horses, and fly dragons in both exploration and combat.
PCGamesN talked to the developer behind Where Are We? and asked about the application that adds a UI to many 90s RPGs like Might and Magic.
Unlike clumsy auto-mapping programs that stumble into the dark, Van Heest’s system is based on an exhaustive knowledge base and only shows you as much information as you want to know. Its FAQ-like walkthrough mode reveals all, and another fog-of-war one forces you to make your own discoveries. The automap, which incorporates scans of some of the old fold-out versions, isn’t the only feature: There are tidy, if not glamorous, windows detailing the party’s inventory, spells, stats, combat encounters, various worldwide variables, and quests.
The supported early first-person classics ranging from 1980 to 1993 – Might and Magic 1-5, Wizardry 1-5, and Bard’s Tale 1-3 – are difficult to revisit and have always necessitated some kind of paper mapping, with a few exceptions. And besides, comparing two fantasy weapons without the aid of a UI full of tooltips is a forgotten skill, like editing a config.sys file. The world graphics can be repetitive, stacking up 2D images in a way that makes Wolfenstein 3D look like Unreal. You can easily get lost, yet the games never take themselves too seriously and have remained fun and surprising on their own terms.
Godfall is a third-person fantasy looter-slasher focused on melee combat, coming to PlayStation 5 & Epic Games Store Holiday 2020. Developed by Counterplay Games & published by Gearbox Publishing.
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story - Announced
by Silver, 19:30
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is a story-driven, turn based RPG being developed by Airship Syndicate and published by Riot Forge.
loading...
Set after the events of Burning Tides, players will take control of LoL champions and explore the bustling city of Bilgewater and the mysterious Shadow Isles in a game for the first time.
Featuring fan favorite champions, innovative turn-based combat, and beautiful art direction along with brand new surprises and plenty of poros, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story advances the stories of many champions in the LoL Universe and offers an exciting new way to experience the World of Runeterra.
To learn more, please visit www.ruinedking.com or join the #ruinedking conversation:
Twitter (@riotforge)
Official Riot Forge Website: https://www.riotforgegames.com
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York - Review @PC Gamer
by Silver, 21:44
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York has been reviewed by PC Gamer.
...
There are, sadly, some technical issues at time of writing which dispel the carefully crafted atmosphere whenever I encounter them. Sometimes, a page of dialogue is attributed to the wrong character, or is presented as narration when it isn’t (or as character speech when it is). The story already suffers slightly during second and third playthroughs, due to some events and dialogue being unavoidable regardless of your character or in-game choices. There’s no way of skipping dialogue without constantly hitting a button, either, which risks accidentally hitting a choice you didn’t want. These are problems the game didn’t need.
Then there’s the bizarre save system. The only way to save is to exit the game through the menu. So, if the game crashes (which happens to me twice), I lose all progress since my last save. Odder still, each time the credits roll, the game deletes my save, which is painful when I test out whether making an obviously stupid choice at a fairly early stage results in death (it does). Nonetheless, this game holds me in its power, and I happily submit to its charms.
General News - Seven or Eight D&D Games in the Works
by Silver, 21:40
PC Gamer reports that there are seven or eight D&D games in the works.
The announcements of new Baldur's Gate and Dark Alliance games suggest a change, and that's backed up by Wizards of the Coast. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Wizards of the Coast president Chris Cocks explained that this is only the beginning and there are "seven or eight" videogames based on D&D coming out in the next few years.
"We want each game to have a point of view, and to really keep on just a couple of things and do it really, really well," he said. "What you don't want to do is have every game in the franchise try to do the same thing, and try to do everything all at once."
@VentureBeatDark Alliance is a D&D action RPG announced at the Game Awards.
loading...
It’s curious why Tuque and Wizards picked Icewind Dale for the setting of this action-RPG. In Salvatore’s latest novel, Boundless, Drizzt found himself in a desperate flight against demons and abyssal constructs as his friends once again faced danger at the hands of those seeking power and the death of the renegade drow to appease the evil god Lloth.
Being set so far in the past, I wondered if this signified Wizards of the Coast’s newfound interest in telling stories set in any period of the Forgotten Realms, not just the current timeline.
“Dark Alliance is intended to appeal to existing D&D fans who already know and love Drizzt and the companions, but it’s also meant to attract new D&D fans through a different platform and style of gameplay. It made more sense to start earlier in the Legend of Drizzt as an entry point for the newer fans,” said Nathan Steward, the vice president for Dungeons & Dragons for Wizards of the Coast, over email. “For people who know and love R.A. Salvatore’s work, it gives a new adventure for the companions set in between his novels.
Immersive sim Weird West has been announced by WolfEye Studios.
loading...
Survive and unveil the mysteries of the Weird West through the intertwined destinies of its unusual heroes in an immersive sim from the co-creators of Dishonored and Prey.
Discover a dark fantasy reimagining of the Wild West where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures. Journey through the origin stories of a group of atypical heroes, written into legend by the decisions you make in an unforgiving land. Each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken - a series of high stakes stories where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make. Form a posse or venture forth alone into an otherworldly confines of the Weird West and make each legend your own.
The 2D JRPG The Disguiser of Fate will be coming to Steam on the 19th of December.
China –December 11, 2019– For lovers of traditional 2D top down fantasy JRPG’s, independent games developer XNZONE will be releasing The Disguiser Of Fate on Steam on December 19.
The Disguiser Of Fate is a 16-bit like role playing game starred by a black knight and a slave maid who embark themselves in a dangerous adventure with more than 20 monsters to fight against.
“The Disguiser of Fate captures the spirit of classic JRPG’s”, says Winward_Birds, developer at the studio XNZONE. “Fans of the genre will find dungeons, puzzles, dialogues, and a vast world to explore”.
Just as true classics, The Disguiser of Fate features anime-drawn characters, huge world maps and ATB combats. Equip your characters with weapons and armours as you discover the secret of the magical masks.
Features
Traditional 2D top down fantasy JRPG 16-bit like role playing game starred by a dark knight and a slave maid. Over 20 monsters to fight against, each with their own strengths. Dungeons, puzzles, dialogues, and a vast world to explore. Anime-drawn characters and ATB combats. Equip your characters with weapons and armours.
loading...
The press release also stated that the game will be fully translated to English.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York - All Companions Trailer
by Silver, 20:55
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York has a trailer for all companions.
loading...
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York coming December 11th 2019 to PC. Game presents the conflict between two vampiric factions: the traditionalist Camarilla and the fiercely independent Anarchs. It's a unique, atmospheric, single-player narrative experience, set in a rich, fully licensed, globally recognized universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. Coming December 11th 2019 to PC and Q1 2020 to Ps4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
A tactical turn-based steampunk game, Shardpunk: Verminfall drops players into a capital swarming with invaders. Survivors make hay while the sun shines, emerging from an airship to scavenge limited resources, and I chatted with Slawomir Bryk, lead designer and developer, on the nuances of his pixel art, speculative fiction journey.
[...]
EM: You reference Darkest Dungeon and XCOM as influences; when it comes to turn-based tactical combat, what mechanics do you see as key to keeping play interesting, and where do you see older titles coming up a bit short? As devs, how do you balance the need to have parity and challenging fights with the need to keep larger battles from slowing down and losing excitement?
SB: Yeah, I spent a lot of time playing Darkest Dungeon and the latest XCOM games, and I liked different aspects of both.
I fancy the approach XCOM has to combat. The cover/flanking mechanics are somewhat simple but generate a lot of gameplay options and plenty of cool moments.
Darkest Dungeon, on the other hand, has a great atmosphere of hopelessness. This, combined with the stress/quirks mechanism creates a very deep experience. I mean, XCOM has negative traits, as well, but I believe it is not using them to their full potential.
I wanted to combine these two pieces together – that’s how the idea for Shardpunk started.
The problem I had with the late game of XCOM is that the player becomes very overpowered, and the thrill of always being under pressure is gone. I really wanted the “hopeless” vibe to be present in the game. The best example of this is the board game “Pandemic”, which I played a lot. In most of the playthroughs, I was never entirely sure (all the way to the end of the game) whether I would be able to pull off the strategy I was aiming to achieve. Such thrilling and tense gameplay is something that got me going.
That being said, this does not mean that the game should be unfair or prevent the player from creating any kind of plan. I don’t like frantic gameplay – I just want the game to mess my plan up a little from time to time so that I don’t feel too confident that I will be able to make it.
What is more, there are moments in Shardpunk when the player can feel overpowered – for example, when they manage to kill off a large chunk of attacking rats by some good positioning of characters and/or using some AOE attacks. These moments are necessary but will not appear too often. I definitely do not want the players to feel like everything is going according to their plans.
Roadwarden is an RPG announced for next year and described as illustrated text-based RPG that uses isometric pixel art and combines mechanics borrowed from RPGs, Visual Novels, adventure games and interactive fiction.
loading...
Who or what is a Roadwarden?
You are a Roadwarden, a brave stranger putting his life in danger to make a difference in this grim world. While most people would never risk a solitary journey through the wilder parts of the land, you – as a Roadwarden – willingly accept the struggle to live up to your promise to guard travellers, connect isolated villages, support merchants and repel attacking creatures, bandits or even undead.
What's the story about?
A powerful merchant guild has called on your services, sending you on a journey into the unknown planes of a mysterious peninsula in the hopes to expand the guild’s influence even further. You are meant to explore this place and gather as much information as possible to reveal the secrets surrounding the area. It’s a dangerous task, but an equally respectable one. Do you have the courage to meet all the requirements that define a Roadwarden?
How to play?
Roadwarden is an illustrated text-based RPG that uses isometric pixel art and combines mechanics borrowed from RPGs, Visual Novels, adventure games and interactive fiction such as inventory puzzles, dialogue choices, character abilities and development, hit points and other resources, simple survival mechanics as well as quests restricted by in-game time.
FEATURES
Explore and change the world!
Discover the secrets and face the vast challenges of a hostile fantasy world – inevitably unveiling its uniquely fierce lore.
Grow with the challenge!
Create your own background, abilities, beliefs and personality to shape your very own future as a Roadwarden.
Classical attitude!
Prepare yourself for an adventurous journey, either as a warrior, mage or scholar and define your character‘s traits, like friendly, playful or intimidating, during interactions with NPCs.
Get lost in conversation!
Immerse yourself in profound dialogues and sidequests with dozens of NPCs to gain their trust and support.
Mysteries unfold!
Use your savvy and be witty when investigating and drawing your conclusions to understand the true nature of this world.
Overcome your weaknesses!
The world is full of dangers and nobody can be trusted. Be the Roadwarden you want to be and find your path to success against all odds!
CGMagOnline reviewed Kingdom Under Fire 2 and found it wanting.
The Kingdom Under Fire series has mostly been comprised of real-time and active strategy wargames, however, the latest installment puts a twist on the basic formula by functioning as an MMO with various RPG elements alongside the traditional strategy gameplay. The MMORPG-RTS hybrid style of Kingdom Under Fire 2is an interesting direction for the series after 2007’s Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom.
However, despite the 12 years between Circle of Doom and KUF 2, there really isn’t much to recommend the new game. It isn’t a bad game, as it mostly functions as needed, but there’s very little about the gameplay, characters, or world to really recommend it. Add on a by-the-numbers RPG plot and bizarre visual animations, and the player is left with a flawed but functional product.
TheGG reports that the fantasy ARPG Crumbling World has released its Alpha Demo.
NOVEMBER 21ST 2019, MALIBU –Crumbling World developer Dume Arts is delighted to announce that a brand new free alpha demo for the game is now available, giving players their very first chance to dive into a rich fantasy location and explore some early levels.
Players can gain instant free access to the alpha via the game’s website. A brand new trailer is also available, setting the scene for this dark fantasy action-RPG, due to release next year for PC and Mac.
Set in a sinister, slowly decomposing land. In a world where humanity has been driven to corruption, aligning with dark forces for survival, the players’ task will be to traverse gorgeous diorama-like levels in an attempt to bring back the age of light – before the world crumbles away entirely beneath their feet.
The Thrynn have been born. They were pretty easy to create since there were already a few pretty decent gecko and lizard models out there on the Internet. I found one that I could use, but it was in Maya format. So I installed Maya for the sole purpose of exporting the model out into the FBX format. I imported the model into 3D Studio Max and then started my work on it. The only thing I really did to the model was to elongate the snout a bit and to bend the body so it looks like he is standing upright. I also rigged and skinned the model so it could be animated in Unity. This is what the Thrynn looked like in the original game:
I also built the eyeballs and created the cat eye texture maps for them. I used the body texture maps that came with the model nearly as-is – the only change being the general color tint. The original color was brown/tan, and I tinted it to green since that is the color the Thrynn appeared in the original game. For the background, I found some interesting looking sci-fi wall and used that.
Click4Gameplay shares his thoughts about believable open worlds in RPGs:
Believable Open Worlds in RPGs
loading...
Creating believable worlds in RPGs, or games in general is not an easy task. It’s also hard to define what this actually means, and it can be really subjective.
General News - Upcoming PC turn-based Strategy RPGs 2020 - Part 2
by Hiddenx, 17:18
The Turn Based Lovers show us part 2 of their upcoming turn based RPGs list:
Here's the list:
loading...
00:12 - 1971 Project Helios 1971 Project Helios is a turn-based strategy game that combines modern warfare military tactics and close combat. Firearms and vehicles are scarce, conflicts and hostilities have no end, and the terrible freezing cold annihilates friends and foes in its path.
02:14 - End State A turn-based tactical game inspired by games such as Xcom and Jagged Alliance. But it is from the latter that he takes more inspiration and that from the first screenshots reminds me a lot of Jagged Alliance 2. Could it be the real successor of the Jagged Alliance that we are all waiting for? Let start with my End State overview.
03:22 - Ikenfell A turn-based tactical RPG about a group of troublesome magic students. Use timing mechanics to power your spells and block attacks, explore the twisted halls of a vast magic school, fight challenging monsters and bosses, and uncover dark secrets never meant to be found.
06:15 - Iron Danger Iron Danger is a tactical combat game with a unique time manipulation mechanic. A never before seen combination that combines the tactical depth of turnbased games with the exciting action of real-time games.
07:25 - Land of Arxox Explore the 8-Biomes of Arxox. Live the life of a Dwarf, Elf, or Human folk hero. Hunt. Fish. Master spell runes of the ancients and defeat a powerful Arch Villain.
07:43 - Sacred Fire A highly original turn-based RPG by indie Poetic Studio where the feelings of the characters will influence the course of the story and even the combat phase.
10:12 - Small Saga Venture below the streets of London, and you will find the bustling kingdom of Rodentia, home to creatures great and small.
11:37 - Space Wreck A passenger shuttle is damaged after pirate attack and you must find replacement parts on nearby derelict space ship. -- Intentionally short hardcore role playing game that borrows as much as possible from best isometric RPGs (Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum).
12:50 - Sentinels of Freedom Prepare for a story-driven campaign within the Sentinel Comics universe as you join forces with an ever-growing team of heroes to face a wide variety of villains.
14:32 - Wizards of Unica When turn-based combats are combined with roguelike elements, puzzles, and spells, Wizards of Unica comes out.
15:15 - The Last Spell The Last Spell is a turn-based tactical RPG immersed in roguelite mechanics in which you lead a team of hardened heroes to defend the last bastion of humanity against hordes of monsters.
GamerZakh presented his list of 30 upcoming PC RPGs.
loading...
RPGs offer many things to many people! Now, there are many great games in this list and a myriad of styles, so I'm sure you'll find something to fall in love with. Not to mention another 30 bonus games mentioned after the main list for a total of 60, so be sure to watch all the way through to find your true calling.
"Shardpunk: Verminfall" is an upcoming indie tactical squad-based survival strategy game, based in a steampunk setting. Gameplay-wise, it is a mix of XCOM and Darkest Dungeon games, mixing all the best features from both. All of this is presented using great pixel art graphics.
The game is currently being developed as a side project.
Backstory: there has been an unexpected breakthrough during long and exhausting siege of The Empire's Capitol. Rat Swarm managed to breach the walls and flooded the city with vermin. Group of survived city dwellers are trying to escape - and possibly rescue some additional people, if necessary. They will need to scavenge the destroyed city for resources, fight off rat vermin and make their way through the Capitol - all of this to finally get safely out of the city.
Similar to new XCOM games, there will be a combat layer and a strategy layer.
Turn-based tactical combat (which is present in the tech demo) makes use of cover and flanking mechanics. Due to the characters having to cope with stress and having their own quirks there is a fair chance that something will go wrong during the playthrough. Additionally, characters need to scavenge for resources during combat in order to survive.
The strategy layer will allow the player to plan their next missions, handle upgrades etc. Characters will be navigating through the destroyed the Capitol in a prototype airship that requires repairs and maintenance. Character themselves need to be taken care of as well, as they require basic resources (e.g. food) to survive.
Features
Lead the group of Survivors in the search for sparse resources necessary to survive
Use cover and flanking mechanism to defeat the Rat Vermin in turn-based combat
Customize the appearance of your characters
Make your way through the remains of the Capitol and uncover its hidden secrets
Pay close attention to the sanity of your survivors, or face dire consequences.
Rescue more team members and don't allow existing ones perish
Upgrade your character's equipment and weapons
Experience a different run every time, thanks to the randomized nature of the game
From the creators of the award-winning sci-fi game Out There... In the near future, a paradigm-shifting scientific discovery looms over the world, promising radical new technologies. The world’s superpowers realize they could have the power to destroy the global financial system, wipe out entire countries or even gain access to immortality.
However, this discovery — called “The Sigma Theory” — can only be harnessed by a handful of scientists. You are placed at the head of your country’s Sigma division. Your objective is to ensure that it is your nation that reaps the benefits of Sigma Theory before anyone else.
To achieve this you will have powerful resources at your disposal: a cadre of the world’s most elite covert agents, advanced tactical drones and, of course, your own skills in diplomacy and subterfuge.
It’s a cold war out there, one in which mankind must face up to its future.
THE ULTIMATE ESPIONAGE SIMULATION
Turn-based espionage: Use your special agents to dominate the world. Seduction, blackmail, manipulation, industrial espionage… Every low blow is both permitted and encouraged. Dynamic narrative: Develop and manage your relations with over 100 NPCs: lobbies, armed groups, politicians… Alliance, deception or assassination, you choose. Field operations: Direct the kidnapping of your targets during gripping pursuits through the world’s greatest cities. Discretion or direct confrontation, your agent’s life is in your hands.
Recruitment First, recruit a team of four special agents from 50 unique unlockable characters to support your missions. Each comes with their own story, motivations and traits that define their behavior during missions. Access the investigator, soldier, hacker, seducer and other archetypes to complete your Sigma division and execute your strategy.
Espionage When your team is ready, assign them missions around the world to gather scientists, discover compromising documents on local politicians, and more. Exploit your agents’ abilities to seduce, manipulate and bribe your targets over to your side or have them neutralized.
Counter-espionage Other nations will also use their agents to infiltrate your country and seize your scientists. Track, capture and interrogate them to gain information on your enemies, then exchange them for ransom when they are no longer useful.
Exfiltration Order your agents to exfiltrate scientists recruited to your cause during gripping turn-based exfiltration phases through the world’s greatest capitals. Choose the position your drones wisely to support these delicate missions.
Diplomacy In Sigma Theory, diplomacy is the key to achieving your goals. Meet your foreign counterparts and further your objectives using flattery, threats or blackmail. You can also recover your captured agents, advance your research, and much more. Develop your relations with powerful lobbies and armed and influential groups to obtain their favor. But be careful, they may turn on you.
Tech Tree Sigma Theory is the cause of this cold war. Rally scientists from around the world to your cause to discover new technologies to gain the edge and change the world. Mind control, destabilization of the world economy, robot soldiers, immortality… Will you keep these discoveries for yourself or share them with the world?
Dungeon Defenders: Awakened has entered Closed Beta. The game itself is a tower defense, action RPG game with co-op.
loading...
DEFENDERS,
It’s time. It’s FINALLY time. Oh good golly gosh, it’s finally time… BETA IS HERE! Today we launched the Beta, getting Dungeon Defenders: Awakened into the hands of Etheria’s brave Defenders. There’s so much to cover, that we’re not going to cover it all. We want you to discover all the beta has to offer on your own. Let’s get into it!
Beta Release The current Beta is available to our Kickstarter Backers first. This is a promise that we made during our Kickstarter, and are going to make sure to uphold. Kickstarter Backers currently have advanced Beta access. On Friday, November 22nd, we are going to open up the Beta to everyone who has purchased the $40+ preorder packages.
Beta is currently scheduled to run for roughly three weeks! Starting on November 22nd and ending on 13th, this gives us a great window to gather feedback and be able to make necessary changes before launching in February.
Progress and data from the Beta does NOT carry over to the release of the game. Beta is used as a testing ground to make sure that the game is in the best possible state. Keeping data from Beta (ha, it rhymes) can cause major issues when updating to the release version.
If you did not receive a Beta key, and are a Kickstarter Backer, make sure you have filled out the surveys that were sent to your registered Kickstarter E-mails from "Backerkit". If that survey is not filled out, then the Beta key is not sent.
If you preordered at the $34 and $100 tiers, your additional beta keys will come on Friday (Nov. 22nd) with the rest of the preorder keys.
Streaming and Content Creation During the Beta, you are free to stream, make videos, or whatever content you want. We want Defenders to enjoy and share as much as they want when it comes to Dungeon Defenders: Awakened!
What’s Missing? There’s a lot to cover what’s in a game. Patch notes usually say what’s new, but with so much of the game being new, we’re going to let you explore the game. Instead, we're going to outline what may not be in the Beta that we are currently polishing and iterating on to get in for release (we may be missing some things from this list as well):
Tactical Map This is currently in a functional state. We’re going to be updating the map images, and make sure it’s a lot prettier come release.
Challenge Maps We’re currently wanting to make sure that balance feels good across the map in general. Challenge Maps are coming your way on release!
Maps There are a total of 15 maps in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened. Not included in the Beta is Act II, Act III, and the Bonus Maps. Act I is the big focus for our beta test, helping us set the foundation so the rest of the maps bring the right amount of challenge.
Difficulty Nightmare and Massacre are not going to be included in the Beta. We don’t want people beating all the hardest content during testing. Gotta have something scary hard for you to master on release!
Enemies With Nightmare not in the beta, Sharken, Djinn, Spiders, and Goblin Copter will not be spawning in a lane near you.
Weapons All of our weapons are not in the game. We have a pool of roughly 5 different weapons per hero to simulate the amount of weapons you would see during your playthrough of Act I on release. Weapon random colorization is also not reflected in the beta build, but will be implemented for release.
HUD We’re going to be adding various improvements to the HUD. Currently we have it setup for beta to be functional. There’s a ton of work that we’ve done not in the Beta, but expect improvements on launch.
Armor Currently we have placeholder armor models in. The final models are currently getting a last pass and will be sparkling and shining on release.
Set Bonuses Set bonuses are working but may not currently be showing up correctly.
Split Screen We’re testing base functionality currently, so split screen is not available during the Beta.
Social We’re wanting to make sure that getting your friends into a match is as easy as possible, give hosts control over their sessions, and showing who’s in your party. These are currently not in the beta, and can be expected on release.
Hardcore Currently not in Beta, coming on release.
Twitch Integration Currently being developed, it will not be in the Beta.
Game Modes In the Beta we have Campaign and Survival. Other game modes are coming on release.
Pets There are a total of four pets that are available during the Beta. On release, there will be much more!
Elemental Weapons Some weapon elemental affinity visuals may be disabled, as we’re making sure performance comes first. Your weapons will be shooting flames and electricity during release.
GamesIndustry reports that Raphael Colantonio and Julien Roby, formerly of Arkane Studios, are launching a small studio called WolfEye.
"I notice both as a developer and a gamer, I think it's been two or three generations of games now, I've been playing the same game," Colantonio says. "The only difference is that it's more beautiful, higher resolution, more shaders, but really the game is the same.
"I remember this funny moment where we were doing Dishonored, and I asked my lead programmer how many characters I could have in combat. And he answered something between five and six. I thought well, okay. It makes sense. The AI is what it is, and we had characters with 10,000 polys or whatever they were. Fast forward four or five years, we're doing Prey. It's a new engine, new technology, new hardware. I'm back with my lead programmer, same question. How many characters can we have? Maybe five or six. The only difference between one generation to the next was that the budget had doubled, and because the budget was doubled, it goes into more people, instead of taking three months to make a character it takes six months now, there's more optimization that is required, more of everything, every detail, making sure the eyes are perfect and the sun shines the right way.
[...]
For now, Colantonio and Roby are understandably tight-lipped on any information surrounding the studio's first game. What they will say is that while no one should expect a new Dishonored game from them, fans of Arkane games will probably like what they make in the same way a Quentin Tarantino fan will probably like whatever his next movie is regardless of particulars.
Gematsu reports that action RPG Gujian 3 is now available in English on Steam. The game was previously only available in Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Publisher Wangyuan Shengtang and developer Aurogon Info & Tech Shanghai have released an update for the December 2018-released action RPG Gujian 3 that adds an English language option to the previously Chinese-only title. It is available via Steam for $29.99.
Gujian 3 is the first entry in the Gujian series to be released in English. Both the June 2010-released Gujian and August 2013-released Gujian 2 only support Simplified Chinese.
Terminator: Resistance is a shooter RPG set during the future war scenario of Terminator 1 and 2. The game is now available on Steam.
loading...
Purple plasma! John Connor! Post-apocalyptic romance! After examining every video, trailer, screenshot & press release, here's EVERY bit of info you should know about Terminator: Resistance, the upcoming game set during the Future War. This isn't my usual sort of content, but it seems like I'm the only person on the internet to have noticed half of this stuff, so I thought it was worth getting the word out!
About this Game
There is no fate but what you make.
Experience the events leading up to the decisive final battle for the fate of mankind in the war against the machines. Terminator: Resistance, is a first-person shooter set during the 'Future War' scenario that was only glimpsed at in the iconic films, 'THE TERMINATOR' and 'T2: JUDGMENT DAY'. The machines are destined to lose, but at what cost?
Run and gun or sneak and hack through Skynet’s defences!
Level up your skills and explore a post-apocalyptic world for scraps to trade and craft!
Interact with a motley group of survivors and change their fates!
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York - New Gameplay Trailer
by Silver, 20:52
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York has a new gameplay trailer.
loading...
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York presents the conflict between two vampiric factions: the traditionalist Camarilla and the fiercely independent Anarchs. It's a unique, atmospheric, single-player narrative experience, set in a rich, fully licensed, globally recognized universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. Coming December 4th 2019 to PC and Q1 2020 to Nintendo Switch.
Opinion - The Outer Worlds is RPG's Past, Disco Elysium is Its Future
by Silver, 09:36
USGamer believes that The Outer Worlds represents RPG's of the past while Disco Elysium represents its future.
Disco Elysium covers more than a single block, but it feels dense, with every interaction impacting the story in some manner, even if that's not entirely apparent in a single run. It's a vast Jenga tower, and every piece is important. That smug, clearly-high child you meet in the early hours may be the lynchpin to the case, or a punk you had to shut up with your fist. You determine the direction you go, and the game is very responsive to even your smallest actions.
It's this depth that makes Disco Elysium such a revelation, and it's changing the conversation around another recent RPG: Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds. Like a few other reviewers, I played Disco Elysium and The Outer Worlds back-to-back. The Outer World is a throwback to Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas, which itself was a throwback to the original Fallout. The quests offer a number of choices, but the outcome is fairly localized. Skills allow you to navigate through conversations, but it's a rigid binary: either you have the skill level to pass a persuasion or intimidation check, or you don't. If you do, it works every time. The Outer Worlds is an older, standard style of RPG, executed to a high degree.
General News - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III Review
by Hiddenx, 21:24
VGU checked outThe Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - which is still NOT available for PCs:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III Review
Following the release of the PS4 remasters of Trails of Cold Steel I and II earlier this year, the long awaited third instalment of the long running saga has arrived in English. On a side note, fans of the series will be pleased to know that Trails of Cold Steel IV is already out in Japan, so the wait for an English translation will hopefully be significantly shorter than with the previous instalments. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III has once again been developed by series creators Nihon Falcom, with NIS America to perform translation and publishing duties instead of XSeed Games. The third game in the Trails of Cold Steel series promises to be a strong JRPG like its predecessors, but does it live up to the legacy that it hopes to continue?
[...]
Overall, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is the strongest entry in the series to date. This third entry refines the various gameplay mechanics such as the Fast Travel and Bonding Events, whilst incorporating new elements such as the teammate involvement during the mech battle sections to make the game more enticing for returning players. If you have been looking for an RPG to fill your time until the arrival of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Persona 5 Royal next year, Trails of Cold Steel III could be exactly the experience that you have been waiting for.
Wildermyth is an RPG that will arrive in Steam Early Access November 13th.
loading...
Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG, designed to help you tell your wildest stories. Like the best tabletop roleplaying experiences, Wildermyth gives you choices and answers your every decision with consequences that drive your characters forward.
Lead a band of heroes as they grow from reluctant farmers into unique, legendary fighters. Combat unexpected threats and strange monsters across interactive battlefields. Unravel mysteries and share pensive moments in an ever-new fantasy setting that blends hard truths and sacrifice with humor and personal storytelling.
Where does your myth lead? Come help us uncover it!
Reminiscent of tabletop roleplaying, unique heroes are born in unique settings every game. They age, transform, fall in love, disagree, and make harrowing sacrifices.
Each hero brings their own organic history and personality with them, but your choices and combat skills are what decide their paths and outcomes.
All heroes die someday… but you get to hold on to your favorites. Reintroduce them in the next adventure, and over many lifetimes the myths you make will form your own legendary pantheon.
An Imaginative Papercraft World The Yondering Lands, where the game is set, is a richly layered world populated with hand-painted 2D characters and scenery. We’ve paid loving attention to breaking molds and exploring new ideas: no orcs, elves, or goblins here—but watch out for the telepathic insect-dragons and the clockwork undead.
Extreme Character Depth Each of your heroes has their own unique generated history, personality, and appearance, and will form relationships with your other heroes. All of these elements change and develop over the course of a playthrough, as characters age, encounter mysteries, and overcome challenges.
Choices That Matter Your hero may choose to trust the enigmatic wolf god, leading to a hair-raising change in their appearance and combat abilities. Or they may pursue a romance with a fellow hero, giving each of them a shared buff and more story opportunities. Encounters and events have permanent, character-defining effects, letting you craft the arc of each character.
A New Approach to Death Did your favorite character get one-shotted by a tentacled horror-bear? Choose to let a hero "fall back" with a maiming that will lead to some transformative new paths in their legend, or let them go out in a blaze of glory to be remembered for generations to come.
Deep and Creative Tactical Combat Combat in Wildermyth emphasizes teamwork and careful positioning, as well as imaginative use of your evolving capabilities and surroundings. Walling and Flanking mechanics provide clear but conflicting incentives, while mystical interfusion lets you remake the battlefield with explosive magic. Multiple difficulty levels mean you can get as intense as you want to.
Endless Replayability Pick and choose from a huge bank of combat abilities as your heroes level up in each playthrough, and decide whether you prefer offensive or defensive tactics, brute strength, stealth, or magically flinging fire from a nearby lamp into your enemies' faces. Procedural generation gives you new heroes, new enemies, new story events, and new maps every time you play.
A Custom Pantheon of Legends You’ll have the freedom to customize hero appearances, names, histories, and more. As time passes, heroes grow old and may retire, or else might fall in combat—and yes, some will survive all the way to the end. You can add your favorite heroes to a roster of legends and call on them again in later playthroughs. Build your own mythologies and share the awe-inspiring might of your heroes with others.
GameRevolution asks for more variety in action games and says the Dark Souls formula is overdone.
It’s not as if these games are all hitting it out of the park either. Recent release Code Vein saw praise from many reviewers (including our own) about how it strips the frustration out of the experience, but frustration is also noted as a definitive quality of the Souls-like game. Games should be accessible to all, but it seems like lowering the difficulty of purposefully difficult games is the backwards solution to the issue. If you want to make a game of this type for a wider audience, there are plenty of ways to do it and sanding off the edges this much shouldn’t be it. Just doing that and not much else is not how to push a genre forward and doesn’t allow for as much healthy variety that a genre needs to evolve. Genres and subgenres exist for a reason, and developers would do well to remember that rather than copying what’s already there. There’s probably room for a less difficult Souls game but it’s a bit creatively disappointing if that’s one of the few aspects it offers to the genre. [...]
Check out the new Gameplay Trailer #2 including epic fight scenes and lots of ingame footage. Publisher Gameforge is working with Korean developer Blueside to release Kingdom Under Fire 2 for the first time in North America and Europe this November on Windows PC! Kingdom Under Fire 2 combines the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) and real-time strategy (RTS) genres for a hybrid title unrivaled in its epic scale.
GOG and Steam are tempting us with Halloween deals:
GOG.COM's Halloween Sale Scares Your Wallet with High Discounts
Horror, mystery, and action games on sale • DRM-free releases of Blair Witch, Layers of Fear 2, Call of Cthulhu, and more • 300+ deals up to -90%
OCTOBER 28, 2019 - This Halloween, GOG.COM invites you to visit the quiet town of Gogsville. A magical portal has appeared above it, sending down dozens of shape-shifting googs that spook children and play tricks on the adults. Their best ruse yet? Lowering the prices on DRM-free horror, mystery, and action games up to -90%!
Start your visit to Gogsville by meeting the new residents. Take a hike in the woods with Blair Witch (-25%), face your worst nightmares with Layers of Fear 2 (-33%), uncover the ancient mysteries with Call of Cthulhu (-50%), beat the deadly outbreak with Daymare: 1998 (-20%), and experience some scares with DreadOut (-80%) and Visage (-20%).
Become the town's new supernatural detective and master your skills with game series like Sherlock Holmes (-80%), Tex Murphy (up to -80%), and the Broken Sword (up to -80%). Other mystery titles on sale include Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers - 20th Anniversary Edition (-75%), The Last Express (-70%), Virginia (-90%), Blackwell Bundle (-70%), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (-80%), and Thimbleweed Park (-50%).
Visit the infamous haunted house full of classic scares with the original Diablo + Hellfire (-15%), Sanitarium (-50%), Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice (-50%), Blood 2: The Blood Group (-75%), Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh (-35%), Gorky 17 (-60%), Clive Barker's Undying (-75%), The Suffering (-50%), F.E.A.R. Platinum (-75%), and many more.
Finally, treat yourself with all the recent releases you might want to catch up on, including the gruesome Blasphemous (-15%), Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (-10%), Blood: Fresh Supply (-33%), DARQ (-20%), Night Call (-10%), Pathologic 2 (-34%), and The 7th Guest: 25th Anniversary Edition (-25%). There are also bargains on some of the best selling titles like Vampyr (-60%), Grim Dawn (-70%), Hollow Knight (-50%), Unavowed (-30%), Apsulov: End of Gods (-20%), Remothered: Tormented Fathers (-60%), We Happy Few (-50%), and many more.
Enter the portal to Gogsville on GOG.COM and enjoy the spooky Halloween Sale deals until November 4th, 2 PM UTC.
For more information, please visit GOG.COM.
The Steam Halloween Sale is On Now!
What unearthly deals will you discover beneath the floating mansion? Find out during the Steam Halloween Sale, on now until November 1st at 10am Pacific.
Get discounts on horror and Halloween-themed games across the Steam catalog. The sale also features other great games that have special Halloween-themed updates or activities that are happening during the Halloween Sale!
Everreach: Project Eden - Trailer and Release Date
by Myrthos, 11:40
The Sci-fi RPG Everreach: Project Eden, which brings you to a planet that is being prepared for colonization, is coming to Steam in December and has a new video.
loading...
Everreach: Project Eden is a fast-paced, story-driven action-RPG set on the visually stunning planet Eden. In Everreach, you play as Nora Harwood, a member of the Everreach Corporation's Security Division who is on a mission to clear the planet for colonization and investigate recent unusual happenings on the planet's surface.
Explore a vast alien world and descend into its depths to discover the ancient secrets of a long-forgotten civilization. Packed with engaging ground combat, high-speed vehicular warfare, and a compelling level and skill system, Everreach immerses you in its intriguing story and diversified gameplay.
Features of Everreach: Project Eden include:
Over 80 upgrades available to let you customize your skills and gear
Engage in fierce battles, deploy forcefields or use the environment against your foes
Hop onto your hoverbike to engage in high-speed vehicular warfare
Immerse yourself in eight hours of story — crafted by Michelle Clough, writer and former narrative QA for the Mass Effect trilogy
Explore Eden's beautiful vistas designed by Mai-Anh Tran, a film artist who worked on movies such as Warcraft and Star Trek Beyond
The Turn Based Lovers have collected turn based RPGs coming out in 2020:
Upcoming PC Turn Based Strategy RPG 2020 - Part 1
loading...
Here is a list of some of the most interesting PC turn-based strategic tactical and/or RPG games coming out for 2020. Unfortunately, almost all titles still don't have a precise release date.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York - Release Dates
by Silver, 19:45
Gematsu reports on the release dates for Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York.
Narrative adventure game Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York will launch for PC via Steam on December 4 and for Switch in Q1 2020, developer Draw Distance announced. The company also said it is currently in talks with World of Darkness property holder Paradox Interactive about PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions.
Within the Cosmos - Update on Skills, Perks, and RPG mechanics
by Silver, 19:47
OnlySP reports on an update for Within the Cosmos that explains skills, perks, and RPG mechanics.
Developer debdev has announced multiple gameplay mechanic updates for its first-person sci-fi RPG, Within the Cosmos.
The announcement came via the game’s Steam page and focuses on the game’s RPG mechanics.
Players will have access to five attributes: Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Perception, and Charm. Each of these five attributes will directly influence the player’s starting skills. “Putting points into Intelligence will increase what your Medical, Engineer, and Science skills will begin at,” debdev wrote.
Broken Lines is an alternative history WW2 tactical strategy game due Q4 2019.
loading...
The squad has crash-landed behind enemy lines, in the heart of Eastern Europe. With no officers, no leaders, and no intel, they must find an unbreakable resolve if they are to survive. But with only their training and instincts to guide them, survival becomes a difficult goal. First of all, they need to learn to work together to have any hope of coping with the challenges ahead. Each survivor has their own views on what to do, and their own principles on what is acceptable. Some want to investigate what caused their crash, others want to stay low and avoid detection by the enemy. There are even whispers of desertion. It is your task to be the unseeing hand that will guide this ragtag group of soldiers through their struggles. Make your decisions wisely, for they will have real consequences on the fates of the survivors.
Tactical RPG with diverse characters. Experience the story through the eyes of each soldier as they fight for survival in an alternative WW2 setting.
Turn-based planning with simultaneous execution (WeGo turn-based gameplay)
Authentic tactical choices: suppression, destructible cover, realistic ballistics, and camouflage are at your disposal.
Rogue-like campaign structured with different narrative paths, resources, and permadeath.
A challenge for even the most experienced gamer. A far-reaching moral system means that the soldiers may desert at any moment if you prove to be incompetent.
An emotional story, tense atmosphere, and multiple endings based on the decisions that you make.
We are the Plague is a turn-based fantasy RPG due 2020 which has a demo available now.
loading...
"I am the voice of the Plague, not your silly imagination. I am the only thing, that can save you from a long and painful process that inevitably leads to, let’s say, dead for good. Without any chance to come back."
THE PLAGUE SPREADS...
The Plague is generous and bountiful. It will give you tools, it will give you a weapon. You will be changed, transformed into something else. Just submit...
You have chosen to serve the Plague. Driven by hatred traverse the scorched and devastated lands in search of a revenge. Be the part of a legion, devouring cities and all living creatures, play against humanity to achieve your own goal.
Creatures you meet during your journey are a living proof of an inevitable change the Plague will bring upon the Earth. Crooked, in constant pain, blind followers. Your body and mind turn too. You are a part of a disease, your bones grow into a weapon, mysterious objects give you a strange power....
Tenderfoot Tactics is an upcoming turn-based fantasy RPG due 2020.
loading...
MODERN TACTICAL RPG, INSPIRED BY THE CLASSICS
A novel, deterministic combat system, with easy to grasp rules and astonishing depth. No random miss chances. No damage ranges.
Manipulate the elements to turn the battlefield to your advantage, but beware the consequences, as nature is complex and fickle. Open chasms, raise mountains, boil lakes, drain rivers. Start fires you later regret.
Unlock dozens of distinct evolutions: shamans, druids, warlocks, wights, lavamancers, bog witches, knights, and more.
VAST OPEN-WORLD EXPLORATION
Unearth ancient ruins, discover strange artefacts, and meet new friends, in a lush, painterly world. Add a weatherworker to your party to move faster at sea. Take to the skies as a bird to survey the landscape and plan the best route forward.
For a generation, the terrible Fog - one vast, voiceless, and cruel spirit - has been eating the once-thick forests of the mainland. Now, with nowhere left to call home, and granted magic by the friendly spirits of the archipelago, one small party of would-be adventurers sets out. Find a way to save the many goblin towns of the rocky coast, discover the truth of the Fog, and, if possible, put an end to it.
If you missed it, previous media introduced the Spellsword class.
loading...
Publisher Gameforge and developer Blueside have released a new set of trailers for Kingdom Under Fire II introducing the Gunslinger, one of five character classes featured in the game.
Gematsu reports that action RPG Unsouled has been announced for PC.
Publisher PQube and developer MeGusta Game have announced Unsouled, an atmospheric action RPG featuring stylized, fast-paced combat. It will launch for PC via Steam in spring 2020.
RPG Division discusses which is better - Surge 2 or Code Vein.
loading...
Surge 2 versus Code Vein. Which game is the better one? There is no simple answer here so I have tried to put all of my thoughts about these two games in this video to give you a proper answer.
RPS has made a list of the 50 best RPGs, in their opinion, that are still playable today.
Look! A ranking of the 50 best RPGs on PC. I know, you never asked for this, but here it is. It is 100 percent correct, we double-checked. The RPG is a broad and deep sea and fishing out the best games from its characterful waters is no easy task. But we are capable fishers on the good ship RPS, and know when to humanely throw back a tiddler or fight to heave up a monster. Enough of this salty metaphor. Here are the 50 best RPGs you can play on PC today.
Last time we did this we tried to cover the entire history of computer roleplaying games. A daunting task. This time we’ve given more space to games you can feasibly play today without howling in disgust at low resolutions. In short: we sent a bunch of older games floating away on a slab of ice. Sorry, dad. That’s not to say you won’t find classics. Some of these RPGs are still more than 20 years old.
As with all of our Best Of features, the scope of the genre is broad rather than narrow. For RPGs, character development is important, as is a world in which you can do more than simply kill. Inventory management is nice, as is a setting that establishes a solid sense of place in which to play the role you inhabit, whether that’s wanderer, bandit, farmer, or pyromancer.
There are notes below the write-up for each game, telling you where you can buy it (or download it for free in some cases), as well as links to other articles about each game, and where to look next if you’re hankering for something similar.
[...]
1. Dark Souls 2. Divinity: Original Sin 2 (new entry) 3. Baldur’s Gate 2 4. Mass Effect 2 5. Dragon Age: Origins 6. Deus Ex 7. The Witcher 3 8. Undertale (new entry) 9. System Shock 2 10. Planescape: Torment 11. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 12. Dark Souls 3 (new entry) 13. Divinity: Original Sin 14. Stardew Valley (new entry) 15. Dwarf Fortress 16. Nier: Automata (new entry) 17. Pillars of Eternity 18. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (new entry) 19. Vampire: Bloodlines 20. NEO Scavenger 21. Skyrim 22. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 23. Sunless Skies (new entry) 24. Fallout: New Vegas 25. Mount & Blade: Warband (new entry) 26. Legend of Grimrock II 27. Darkest Dungeon 28. Fallout 29. Ultima VII 30. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall 31. Banner Saga 32. Anachranox 33. Shadowrun Dragonfall Director’s Cut 34. UnReal World 35. Din’s Curse 36. ADOM 37. Titan Quest 38. Neverwinter Nights 2 39. Brogue 40. King Of Dragon Pass (new entry) 41. Wasteland 2 42. Avernum: Escape From The Pit 43. Wizardry VIII 44. Kenshi (new entry) 45. Recettear: An Item’s Shop Tale 46. Torchlight 2 47. Diablo II 48. Risen 49. Monster Hunter World (new entry) 50. Hand of Fate 51. The game you love.
What happened to the phrase "RPG"? When did we suddenly start attributing the phrase to what feels like 50% of modern games? What even is an RPG anymore? Should I let the robot in Fallout: New Vegas fist me? The answer to all these questions and more await you. (I swear this video is not meant to be a Kingdom Hearts hit piece please don't hate me KH fans k thanks bye)
The Turn Based Lovers have interviewed the devs of the tactical game Alder's Blood:
10 Turns Inteview with Alder’s Blood Developers
Sympathy for the…evil
Few weeks ago I decided to take a walk on the grim land of Alder’s Blood. Among werewolf, vampire and many others nice friends, the travel eventually was really fascinating and I resolved to have a chat with the demonic developers of the game, Shockwork Games, but not before taking a long rifle with me 😉
I don’t’ like to hunt animals, but I really like to hunt demons…
1st Turn) What can you tell us about the world of Alder’s Blood? What were your inspirations?
Hi! First of all thank you for the opportunity for this interview. Alder’s Blood was inspired by a lot of things. Mostly my and Alex’s (illustrator and concept artist on the project) love for dark, Victorian setting. There are not many games where you can play as a vampire/werewolf hunter, so we decided to create one. Advertisement
Ideas for a world like that were floating around for years before the development even started. Dualism was something I find very attractive and so I incorporated that into the game’s world building. We have this conflicts of extremes: nature, emotions, desires against civilization, reason and logic.
PC Gamer reports on some gameplay video for Minecraft Dungeons which is an action RPG.
loading...
Last year at Minecon Mojang announced an action-RPG spin-off called Minecraft Dungeons, a Diablo-like with voxels. This year's Minecon gave us a closer look at it, with just over four minutes of gameplay footage.
TheGG reports that the AI driven RPG Wheel of Fate has funded on Kickstarter.
TORONTO, CANADA – September 17, 2019- UDX Interactive’s debut artificial intelligence RPG “Wheel of Fate” completed its Kickstarter goal of $25,000 CAD in less than 24 hours, the game studio announced today.
“We believe that because we introduced a gaming concept so unique and robust that our backers were fully on board with us from the start,”said Daniel Vivona, CEO and co-founder of UDX Interactive.
“With this funding, we intend to expand on what already exists and bring and endless amount of possibilities to Wheel of Fate. We won’t let our fans down.”
Wheel of Fate’s Kickstarter campaign will run until October 17, 2019 for additional funding, with the title slated to launch Early Access in Q1 2020.
A list of rewards for backers can be found on the page’s “Rewards” section, which range from a copy of the game at launch to merchandised products to a studio visit with the team.
Designed by Mass Effect 2 veteran Miles Holmes, experience the journey of a lone adventurer who reawakens the mythical Wheel of Fate in the world of Providence, which in turn, brings the army of Fateless back from with it.
While billed as an RPG, it's very far from an action-oriented affair: it's more a game of hopelessly complex moral decisions, sanity management and, of course, supplying "a dark economy" buoyed by the exchange of dead flesh. Feeling cheered? Well, it's up to the player to decide whether the character should become wholly desensitised to the misery he doles out, and there's a bigger story at hand, too.
General News - Elder Scrolls Creators founded OnceLost Games
by Hiddenx, 22:44
Videogamer reports that some Elder Scrolls creators have founded the new studio OnceLost Games:
OnceLost Games is a new studio formed of The Elder Scrolls creators
Will announce its new project before the end of the year
A team of former The Elder Scrolls developers have come together to form a new studio called OnceLost Games, and it is working on its own open-world fantasy RPG title.
Focusing on a spiritual successor to Daggerfall, OnceLost Games’ ambition is ‘to meet the gap between the deep, complex design pillars of games from the 1990's, with the production values, improved controls and quality of life features in games today.’ Julian LeFay, considered to be the ‘Father of The Elder Scrolls’, is acting as the studio’s technical director, and stated in a Reddit AMA that he would be interested in creating a Daggerfall sequel of some sort.
‘It would have to be done in such a way that I wouldn't have business-related issues. Those are things that I've decided that I never want to deal with. With proper funding and someone trustworthy to manage the business side of things, it could definitely be a thing,’ he said. ‘I can't realistically see this coming to pass since it's not something I would initiate; it's not my thing. If someone could bring this about and then offered me an opportunity to join, that'd be a much more likely way that something along these lines could happen.’
The Albatross space liner is overrun by lizard-like aliens that can turn people into monsters like them. Find out how the monsters got on board as you battle the hostile creatures.
Features:
Over 30 different missions
8 unique heroes
Control multiple heroes at the same time
Save passengers and discover the secret of the monsters' sudden appearance
Multiplayer mode
Monsters vs Heroes tactical turn-based battles with randomly-assigned roles.
Up to 6 players take part in a battle where each is randomly given the role of hero or monster (minimum two monsters per game).
If you are a hero
Trust no one: analyze other players' actions and figure out who the monsters are.
Save passengers and destroy the aliens.
Combine various weapons to get unique abilities and turn the tide of the battle.
If a monster infects you, you only have a couple of turns to heal. Otherwise, you'll become a monster too!
For monsters
Disguise yourself to move around safely.
Earn the trust of other players and avoid their suspicions.
Infect passengers to be reborn in their bodies if they kill you.
Infect your opponents to turn them into monsters.
Use the aliens' psychic connection to see what other monsters see.
For everyone
Play ranked seasons
Unlock unique skins and sprays
Complete tasks and get Creator's Balls: each Ball contains a random item - or even a game key!
Dying Light 2 has been previewed by Wccftech at Gamescom who called it the most exciting upcoming open world game.
...
At the end of the demo, we see the protagonist in a climactic battle against a Colonel. You’ve been informed he has access to water pumps required for the supply of all the people at your base, he informs you they do not have access to those pumps, and says you’ve been tricked. You can decide which way this plays out, but here the protagonist follows his original instructions, fights the Colonel and his goons, and activates water pumps. Excitingly, this drains the flooded city, uncovering much more land to explore, but isn’t the water pumps you were looking for, and who knows what monsters lurk below now that the water level has been lowered. Your decisions having such a dramatic change in the landscape of the open world is incredibly exciting, but time will tell if the options change the outcome much, or if draining the water was an inevitable step.
Right now, Dying Light 2 looks like one of the most exciting upcoming open-world games, full stop. It uses zombies in fun ways, has varied and dynamic combat options, and traversing the world looks exhilarating. The only question is whether or not the game is as open and dynamic as it seems from demo reels. We’ll find out when the full game launches early next year, but as of right now, you should be tentatively excited.
@PC Gamer David Gaider has set up a new studio in Australia called Summerfield Studios'. The studio will launch alongside a Kickstarter for an, as yet, unannounced new game.
The new studio will have its official launch at PAX Australia, alongside the launch of a Kickstarter to fund its first game. Details are pretty sparse on the ground at the moment, but Summerfall Studios' website promises "an illustrated character-driven adventure", before going on to say that "Summerfall Studios will crush your dreams and tear out your heart… in the very best way." Kotaku Australia broke the news, and you can stay in touch with future Summerfall news on the developer's Facebook page.
KnowTechie reports on Epic Tavern which they describe as a reverse RPG game. The game is currently available on Steam Early Access.
I found that I actually had surprising control over the characters that I ostensibly wasn’t in control of. The game sends you on a tutorial quest that is guaranteed to fail eventually, as it’s the story catalyst of why things in the world are as bad as they are when the game begins. You do control heroes in combat by telling them what kind of roll to make (e.x. Aggressive or Cautious, among several options).
From there it’s all about hedging probabilities. The best way that I can describe the level of control you have is one that goes well with the “sports management meets fantasy” pitch: You’re more of a coach on the sidelines making broad suggestions and less of a player making micro choices.
Hello, everyone! How has summer been treating you so far?
Here at Draw Distance, we’re longingly staring at the blue skies outside our windows as we’re entering the final phases of development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, our upcoming narrative-focused, fully licensed game set in the globally renowned universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.
As time passes, we unveil more and more information about Coteries of New York. In our last press release, published by many media outlets around the world, we shared tons of data regarding the gameplay, mechanics and story.
Here’s the tl;dr list of key information we shared about Coteries of New York:
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York presents the conflict between two vampiric factions: the traditionalist Camarilla and the fiercely independent Anarchs in New York
It's a unique, atmospheric, single-player narrative experience, set in the rich, fully-licensed, globally-recognized universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.
Coteries of New York present players with choices that matter, aiming to deliver a dark, atmospheric, and emotional narration mixed with morally challenging dilemmas, and many potential paths leading to the story’s finale.
We plan to include significant branching and reactivity, so that the players feel their decisions influence the world around them and encourage multiple playthroughs for those invested in the world and story of Coteries of New York.
You are a newly-fledged vampire in New York. You must learn what it means to be one of the Kindred in a huge, vibrant, contemporary metropolis.
You will make choices for your character, including which storylines to pursue and how to approach the different situations presented. You will be presented with branching dialogue choices, memorable characters - all among iconic locales of New York City. You’ll be able to use Disciplines appropriate to your clan to charm, sneak, intimidate or kill, and your choices will determine your path.
You’ll build your Coterie and learn your undead companions’ deepest secrets… or see them abandon you.
Although you start off as part of the authoritarian vampire sect called the Camarilla, you soon learn that other factions exist - chief among them, the independent Anarchs. Your paths will inevitably cross theirs, but whether you choose to shun them, or try to learn more about what they represent, will be your decision.
While the game is primarily text-driven and story oriented, several mechanics reflect the dark truths of being one of the Kindred.
Hunger is used to indicate the constant need for blood that vampires must deal with nightly. Characters have the opportunity to hunt for blood during quests. Ignoring this need leads to warnings in the game’s fiction, and if disregarded for too long, to consequences that include succumbing to the Beast
Humanity is a measure of how moral and rooted in humanistic principles the character is. This rating is used by the game to modify the results of choices in quests, offer additional story choices, or even lock certain choices out.
Finally, the Masquerade rating tracks how well the character blends in with mortal society. Staying inconspicuous and hidden from prying eyes is even more important for vampires than ever, due to the existence of the so-called Second Inquisition, a clandestine hunt for vampires concealed within global government agencies. Secrecy and not flaunting your supernatural powers in the sight of mortals is of utmost importance.
That’s all the information we’ve prepared for today. In the upcoming updates we will unveil more about the characters, Clans, Disciplines and different types of quests!
Oh, and by the way, check out the game's main page on Steam - you'll find four brand new pre-alpha screenshots there!
We're hope you're pleased with the amount and weight of the information we provided. Stay tuned, as we're preparing to share our first gameplay trailer with you soon!
Twinfinite reports on Wheel of Fate which is described as being an "AI" RPG capable of thousands of story possibilities.
Developer UDX Interactive has today announced a new project called Wheel of Fate. The game’s genre is described as an artificial intelligence RPG, in which player decisions shape the world around them using unique technology.
“With Wheel of Fate, we took a massive leap that RPG’s never do and that’s to incorporate machine learning to continuously explore thousands of possibilities and create new story arcs,” says former Mass Effect 2 developer and Wheels of Fate designer Miles Holmes.
Some gameplay video of post apocalyptic RPG Chernobylite.
loading...
Hey stalkers!
Thanks to the Kickstarter campaign supported by so many of you, we spent the last few months working very hard to bring you into the Heart of Darkness - The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The beginning of our game takes place there - this is where it all started, and this is where it all ends. Even if there's still a few months ahead to the release of Early Access version of the game on Steam, we wanted to share a small part of the experience with you. Leave us your comments and help us polish the game to become an ultimate Chernobyl experience for all of us.
And anyway, to visit Chernobyl without leaving your home, add Chernobylite to your wishlist on Steam and stay tuned for more news about autumn's release of our game.
Within the Cosmos is a single-player first-person sci-fi RPG.
As you explore the Adallio System to try to find answers, your choices and actions will determine how the story unfolds.
-------
The year is 2278, and humanity is on the verge of extinction. Your mission is to preserve the human race, as they are fighting a war they will not win. You are one of 500 people who work for UESA (United Earth Space Agency). You were put in cryogenic sleep and sent to the planet 'Berith II'. A planet that is tucked away in the Adallio star system, hidden, and far from the war. However, once you arrive, you and your crew come under attack by an unknown enemy, and it is up to you to figure out who is behind the attack, and why.
Farflame spotted a dev diary for a Starflight remake:
Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend
Welcome to the IndieDB page for Marvin's 'Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend' project. This project is a fan remake of the original 1987 PC game loved by many back in the day. Marvin is a veteran professional software and game developer who has worked for multiple well known companies such as Bethesda Softworks and Rainbow Studios, on popular games such as 'Elder Scrolls Redguard' and 'Cars: The Video Game'. As a fun side project, Marvin has decided to use his years of experience to remake his favorite childhood game with modern graphics via Unity. This game is open-source and freely available on GitHub, should anyone wish to help. Playable builds are being released on the project website and occasionally here too.
Dev Diary 14 - Creating More Alien Comms (Part 1) in Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend
Time for another post! This time Marvin brings to life the Spemin and the Gazurtoid via their communications screens and dialogue in his Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend project. Next article will cover more strange encounters! :)
Ashes of Oahu is a post-apocalyptic shooter-RPG set in Hawaii and it has been reviewed by IndianNoob, who felt it was lackiong as it only scored a 5.5 out of 10.
Ashes of Oahu is a clear cut example of high ambition restricted by budget constraints and lack of manpower. Amidst the technical mess, there are moments of brilliance and pure fun but they are too far and few between. I genuinely hope that the developers keep updating the game like they have the past few weeks and may it end up closer to their original vision sooner than later. But for now, Ashes of Oahu is a hard pass.
The Guardian has an editorial on RPGs becoming too predictable and that a breath of fresh wind is needed.
But every now and again, a game comes along which shows that innovation can happen without putting people off and revives a genre in the process. The Ubisoft model was once to open-world games what the Fallout model is to first-person RPGs. The blueprint: climb towers to unlock new areas, sprinkle a map with icons representing mini goals to reach, make progress at your leisure. It underpinned Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed, Far Cry and Watch Dogs series, Warner Bros’ Batman and Middle Earth franchises, and many others.
Then came The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in 2017. It’s got the towers, the open-world, and the plethora of smaller activities to distract you from the main noble quest. But it quietly revolutionised that stale old structure. Nothing in Breath of the Wild is gated. If you wanted (and you were extremely skilled) you could simply walk to the final boss and finish the game, though you would be far more likely to be lasered to death by guardian robots on the way up to the castle. The icon-filled map is almost entirely gone: only fast-travel points and the occasional quest-line show up. The rest is there for you to discover with your eyes and ears, rather than following objective markers like an orienteering enthusiast.
ABOUT THIS GAME Remnant: From the Ashes is a third-person survival action shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by monstrous creatures. As one of the last remnants of humanity, you’ll set out alone or alongside up to two other players to face down hordes of deadly enemies and epic bosses, and try to carve a foothold, rebuild, and then retake what was lost.
A REMNANT OF MANKIND The world has been thrown into chaos by an ancient evil from another dimension. Humanity is struggling to survive, but they possess the technology to open portals to other realms and alternate realities. They must travel through these portals to uncover the mystery of where the evil came from, scavenge resources to stay alive, and fight back to carve out a foothold for mankind to rebuild...
ENDLESS FANTASTIC REALMS AWAIT Explore dynamically-generated worlds that change each time you play through them, creating new maps, enemy encounters, quest opportunities, and in-world events. Each of the game’s four unique worlds is filled with monstrous denizens and environments that will provide fresh challenges with each playthrough. Adapt and explore… or die trying.
SCAVENGE. UPGRADE. SPECIALIZE. Overcome tough-as-nails enemies and epic bosses throughout hostile environments to earn experience, valuable loot and upgrade materials you can use to build a wicked arsenal of weapons, armor, and modifications to approach each encounter dozens of unique ways.
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS. Invading other worlds to seek an end to the Root is dangerous and survival is far from guaranteed. Team up with up to two other players to increase your chances of survival. Teamwork is necessary to make it through the game’s toughest challenges… and unlock its greatest rewards.
We never did a book review before, but here is our first one. Corwin went through Bitmap Books' CRPG book and remembered a lot of things from the past and learned some things as well. It is not a very long review, but it describes very well why Corwin liked the book.
Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing and I've been around long enough for it to really take hold. I remember when there were only mainframes and punch cards; I remember seeing Pong when it first took the world by storm; I remember buying an Intellivision and playing two simplistic DnD games for hours; I remember being excited when I bought a Commodore 64 and played 'Bard's Tale', 'Phantasie', 'Might and Magic' and 'Ultima'. I remember buying my first IBM clone PC and being extremely annoyed when it wouldn't play the first PC game I'd ever bought 'Quest For Glory' because it needed a '286' to run. (Who reads the fine print on the back of a box?) I remember having to upgrade to a '386' a '486' and a Pentium (complete with assorted memory managers) just so I could play the latest game in the Ultima series. Ah, the joys of nostalgia.
Looking for a Fire Emblem PC game? Here are seven alternatives to try
All the squares you could hope for
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a unique union of Persona and grid-based warfare. It manages to make building an army fun as well as a megalomaniacal necessity. Unfortunately, the fantastical TRPG (that’s tactical role-playing game) series is exclusive to Nintendo platforms. Bummer. But don’t despair; there are a ton of similar games available right now on PC.
Indeed, from tiny mech battles to post-apocalyptic road trips, you might argue that there has never been a better time to dive into classic grid-based tactics games. They may not let you share tea with your students-turned-soldiers, but the format has been applied to a huge range of settings with a number of twists thrown in, offering more depth and diversity in turn-based combat than we’ve enough free time to enjoy.
The Last Spell is described as a turn-based tactical RPG with roguelite mechanics in which you lead a team of hardened heroes to defend the last bastion of humanity against hordes of monsters.
loading...
What if Final Fantasy Tactics & Dynasty Warriors had an illegitimate daughter?
The Last Spell is a turn-based tactical RPG immersed in roguelite mechanics in which you lead a team of hardened heroes to defend the last bastion of humanity against hordes of monsters.
A Dark Fantasy Tactical RPG with Rogue lite elements
This is the end. War and a bunch of crazy mages provoked The Cataclysm. A mysterious mist filled with hellish monsters enveloped most of the world. They said that those who entered the mist were killed, driven mad, or even turned into monstrous abonimations themselves. Only a few Havens keep up the fight against the Hordes of bloodthirsty monsters that come out at night from this strange purple mist.
Days were quiet and peaceful: they could take time to organize themselves, heal their wounds and search the surroundings for anything useful. But the nights… The mist thickened and from their bowels unleashes hordes of mutated monsters, craving for blood and magic.
In this glorious mix of pixel art and dark fantasy setting, you lead a group of hardened warriors whose only purpose in life is to desperately defend the last of the mages while they try to cast The Last Spell, and banish all magic from this world. And maybe save us all. Maybe.
Features
Turn-Based Tactics:
Manage your squad of hardened heroes
Scarce resources: use Mana wisely to survive
Class-less skill trees and bonus perks
Hordes of Evil:
Tons of enemies to slay, burn, shock and slice!
Dozens of enemy types with different behaviors
Impressive skills to help you slaughter ’em all
Protect the City:
Rebuild a safe Haven from the remains of civilization
Build walls, traps and watchtowers
Protect the circle of magic at all costs!
Roguelite Elements:
You will fail… but everytime you do, you’ll grow stronger
Procedurally generated Enemy waves, Maps, Characters and Weapons
Yesterday, Bitmap books has made the CRPG book available. The book that would not have been if it wasn't for Filipepepe.
We're very proud to announce that The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games is now available to purchase. After a very successful pre-order period, we decided to reprint the Standard Edition to give more people the chance to own this amazing book.
Spread over more than 500 pages, The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games reviews over 400 seminal games from 1975 to 2015, covering the role-playing classics we all know and love such as Ultima, Wizardry, Fallout and Mass Effect – all brought to life with vibrant and engaging in-game images. Each entry also shares articles on the genre, mod suggestions and hints on how to run the games on modern hardware. The book is completely by written by fans, AAA developers, indies, journalists, modders and industry personalities such as Chris Avellone, Ian Frazier, Scorpia, Ferhegón, Richard Cobbett, Brian 'Psychochild' Green, Durante, George Weidman and Tim Cain, to name but a few.
We also have a small amount of the sought after Collector's Edition available. These are priced at £49.99, which includes the A4 Dungeon Map Pad, Postcard Pack, A2 Poster and Pencil. We also have a small amount of the Collector's Edition which don't include any goodies, which are priced at £39.99.
General News - Interview with Witcher 3 & Assassin's Writer
by Silver, 09:16
GameSavvy interviewed Stephen Rhodes who has worked on the Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey as a writer.
Tyler: You’re clearly passionate about games, so what came first? Was it that you wanted to be a writer and got into video games or was it that you wanted to get into video games and eventually became a writer?
Stephen: It’s definitely the second one. I went to university to study military history. I was really into history. I could tell very early on that it wasn’t really doing it for me and I just didn’t see a future career in it. So, I transferred courses internally because they had a good games course and I did a game design degree which covered a broad range of things including design, a bit of audio, programming, a bit of art and did a bit of narrative as well. I was always quite good at design and interested in the design and the mechanics of things because I like systems. But looking back, (narrative) resonated with me because when I did the narrative module I got like a 98% in it or something ridiculous. I loved doing it but I sort of put it aside afterwards and carried on pursuing other disciplines.
I got into the actual industry by doing QA and testing. There was a studio, Travelers Tales, the guys who do the Lego games, and they were quite close to where I went to university and a lot of the graduates ended up there. There were a few (graduates) in high positions at that point and they were always looking for students who were about to graduate. So, I went and did QA but they put up some internal positions in design roles not long after I started. I applied and got a design role where I did level design, camera stuff, working on cut scenes and working on missions so it was quite a broad job role but it was a great entry into the industry. Doing that I realized I had a passion for narrative and storytelling. It was always something that came very naturally to me. Growing up, me and my friends used to play DnD and other Roleplay Games like Star Wars, and Warhammer Fantasy. I was always liked to DM (Dungeon Master) as I was always coming up with the stories and campaigns and characters. It was always something I harbored a passion for so I kind of bridged the gap and after three years at Travellers Tales I realized that the Lego games weren’t satisfying my creative needs. So I applied to a couple of places and ended up getting a job at CD Projekt Red in Poland as a quest designer, which for me it was a great merge of my experience and also my passion for narrative.
PC Gamer reports on the first trailer for Haven, which is an RPG about lovers on a lost planet.
loading...
Earlier this year, Furi developer The Game Bakers announced Haven, an RPG about lovers on a lost planet. The description at the time was pretty vague: It's playable alone or in two-player coop, and "the only thing that matters is to stay together." Today the studio revealed a little more about what's coming, including the first-ever gameplay trailer and a rundown of basic gameplay.
What do we do against the summer slump? We present you another top RPG list - this time henriquejr spotted one on PC Gamer:
The best RPGs on PC
The best RPGs on PC guarantee hundreds of hours of adventure in one of the PC's essential genres.
The best RPGs on PC can deliver hundreds of hours of adventure. Since tabletop RPGs first started getting the digital treatment, the genre has grown into an intimidating, massive beast. Many of the best RPGs you can play on PC are of the action variety, hailing from the explosive years of 3D RPGs like Oblivion. More recently, classic style RPGs like Pillars of Eternity with closer ties to their tabletop roots have seen a resurgence in popularity. Our list of the best RPGs on PC have something to scratch your roleplay itch whether you prefer fast-paced swordplay or more methodical turn-based games.
The RPG genre is tough to boil down: by the most literal definition, every game is a role-playing game. This list represents our best definition of the canonical RPG—games that likely emphasize story; that let you inhabit a customizable character through skill points, inventory, and dialogue decisions; that include complex, controllable relationships with companions or non-playable characters. Drawing these kinds of lines helps us provide a better service to you, we hope—though we've made some exceptions where we think it's worth it.
Or as I suggested to Jaskula “renaissance Mad Max?”.
“Yeah, yeah! Of course that was our goal,” he says almost jumping out of his seat at the phrasing. “Humanity lost it's war to the infected. So we knew that [the game-world] had to be multicultural; it's somewhere in Europe because we wanted it to be a mix of cities we know, and for us it was a perfect setting for the game with the architecture; the medieval buildings correspond [with] what we call ‘Modern Dark Ages’.”
The reason this is poignant, in mentioning multiculturalism with the idea of a ‘Modern Dark Ages’, is that one of the voices I heard in the demo was definitely Aussie (hence the Mad Max reference), but that all of this rolls into why, and how, The City has descended into an archaic level of society. Freedom means different things to different groups within Dying Light 2, and the ideology of positive ‘multiculturalism’ is flipped on its head. This is not a nice place to be, let alone live in, and we haven’t even gotten to the Infected who still populate its daytime interiors and nighttime streets. A Mardi Gras of dread, fear and vertical requirement, from a gameplay perspective.
[...]
As Aiden’s parkouring from location to location, his clothes look fluid and well detailed. For some reason, Aiden has a very weird looking bracelet on. There’s no indication of what this means, but it looks very important.
I have a question related to the bracelets they wear —
TS: Yes. The bracelets are called biomarkers. This is something that was built 15 years before the events of the game by an organization called GRE. This basically shows you how close you’re getting to the point of no return. Because when you are infected, the infection accumulates in your body. When you cross a certain threshold then you basically turn into a zombie. So this tells you, “I’m really in bad shape. I really need to find some [drugs].” Most of this is important in terms of narrative, how people react to you. Because when you’re close to turning, they will react to you. That’s the rule of this world. That’s a safety measure for everyone in the city.
Within the Cosmos - Gameplay, Lore, and the Future
by Silver, 09:21
OnlySP asked the developers of Within the Cosmos about gameplay, lore, and the future.
OnlySP: The game also has a stat system, which sounds a little like S.P.E.C.I.A.L. from Fallout. Is that an apt comparison? Will players be able to improve and modify those stats through gameplay and, if so, how?
Debois: Yeah, it's a similar idea to how S.P.E.C.I.A.L. works in Fallout or similar games. When the player starts the game, they will be given a fixed amount of points that they can assign to their attributes. So, if you decide to max out your Constitution and Agility, you'll have a character who's agile, sneaky, and strong, but that would come at the cost of not having much Intelligence, Charisma, or Perception. So, you're really gonna have to think about what attributes you favour, or you could put a roughly equal amount into all of them and have a character that can do a little bit of everything but not a master of everything. It's up to you. I feel like that system will really create the desire for players to have multiple playthroughs of the game, and still have each playthrough feel like a different experience.
As far as improving and modifying those stats... I'm still trying to get the balance right. There might be one or two instances where you can upgrade them, or get temporary boosts to them, but whether you can improve or modify them beyond that is still being determined.
OnlySP: While upgrading, will players be able to respec their character's abilities at all or are they locked into the upgrades they use?
Debois: No, they won't be able to respec. Once you select an upgrade/perk, that's what you're locked into.
Warlocks 2: God Slayers is a humorous action RPG game with online and local co-op. Challenge the vile gods and dethrone them in this action-packed hack’n' slash experience with wizards and meteor showers.
God Slayers is a brand new story. Take the role of one of the Warlocks and face the gods themselves, as slashing hordes of shadow monsters in the past have angered them, to say the least. The Order of Warlocks has been called to challenge and dethrone arrogant gods from the thrones - make them pay for their betrayal.
Core features:
Hilarious pixel art with hand-drawn animations.
Dynamic hack 'n slash experience in solo, local and online co-op (up to 4 players).
More than 40 types of challenging enemies that work together to take you down, using their unique skill sets.
5 different types of Warlocks to choose, each with their own abilities to unlock throughout the game.
Special familiar slot for your character (with evolutions!).
8-10 hours of gameplay to complete the solo adventure with one Warlock.
Giant, powerful bosses waiting to get slayed.
Extensive maps with tons of randomly generated loot to be picked up.
Colorful narration with plenty of jokes and humour.
In our previous developer blog, we covered the importance of outposts and touched on enemy A.I. You can catch up on that blog here. This week we are covering the depth of the branching narrative that you’ll uncover as you play though Ashes of Oahu and the impacts of your choices.
When Kai embarks upon his journey through Ashes of Oahu the factions exist in a loose tension with each other. They have motivations that place them in conflict, but they do not live in a state of all-out war. Depending on your choices, they can stay neutral towards each other, become allies, or devolve into open hostilities. This is done to increase player agency and show Kai’s influence on the world around him.
What Kai learns as he interacts with different characters will affect the story as well. What you learn throughout the game can become relevant in later conversations with other NPCs. If you have met one particular character and that meeting is connected to another person elsewhere in the world, you could find new branching dialogue available to you. You’ll also find that some NPCs will be willing to help you along your journey and venture out to support Kai’s efforts if you make the correct dialogue choices.
Ultimately the choices Kai makes and the way he aligns himself with the factions will impact who will help you defeat the Pua’a. Kai can turn missions down directly and risk gating any future rewards from that character, or he can choose to work with all the factions and try to bring them into harmony at the likely cost of never reaching the ultimate in skill rewards from any of the factions.
One early example of how Kai’s choices can have severe consequences is how he chooses to interact with a man named Tacitus. A first glance Tacitus appears to be a member of the Islanders that has been evicted from the Farm. He insists that he was helping the Farm fight off an invading band of Raiders, but the Farm didn’t like his tactics and asked him to go. He appears gravely injured and requests you seek aid on his behalf.
Once Kai arrives at the Farm, doubts are raised about Tacitus’ motivations. Apparently, the Raider invasions didn’t really start until he showed up. Needless to say, the Farm isn’t inclined to give you medical items to aid Tacitus. At this point, you can either steal the supplies and suffer reputational damage with the Islanders (if you get caught), or you can do a quest for the medical staff, and then they will reward you with the items you wanted.
If you choose to help Tacitus, he will reward you with grenades, promise you more in the future, but eventually betray you and attack alongside the Raiders at a later point in the game. If you choose to turn him down, he will become openly hostile towards you. You’ll learn early on that helping everyone you meet isn’t always in your own best interest, nor is everyone always going to tell you the truth, but it is your choice to make. However, regardless of the decision you arrive at, you are guaranteed to have some fun and exciting gameplay moments out of it.
Alder's Blood is described as a grim and dark stealth tactical game with the turn-based combat focused on avoiding enemy ambushes and setting up your own.
loading...
Become a member of an elite cast known as the Hunters. Take on the quest to kill the corrupt god that abandoned the human race and left it to perish. Embark on a dangerous journey and explore the remnants of a world in search of a means for mankind’s survival. Alder’s Blood – a debut title from Shockwork Games, will hunt you down on PC and Switch later this year.
Feature List
Stealth, ambush-based combat. Try to outsmart and outwit all the horrifying creatures you’ll be facing, as they are way stronger and you don’t stand a chance in a direct assault;
Diverse, challenging opponents. From werewolves to vampires, all monsters have their unique attacks and skills and can easily see, hear or smell you from the distance. So be careful not to reveal your position too early;
Stamina-based characters. Cautiously manage your energy level between attacking, moving and casting spells. In the end, you’re only a human and running out of energy will seriously fatigue you;
A grim world plunged in half-darkness. In this world, our god has finally turned his back on us and his corrupt presence can change the intensity of the battlefield. From summoning monsters, through changing the weather, to transforming one of the creatures into a powerful avatar of his will;
A vagabond’s exploration system.Travel the world bringing your mobile base along with you. Take shelter in and manage your camp, but be wary of enemy ambushes;
A unique fusion of dark Victorian fantasy and wild west. Immerse yourself in a world so different from the one you know. The universe shaped by struggle, where mankind has not had the freedom to develop or advance any of its technology
Best RPGs of the last 40 Years - Infographic of 500+
by Silver, 11:24
UnleashtheGamer has a large infographic of the best 500 RPGs from the last 40 years.
You might’ve forgotten, but a few months ago, on a cold February afternoon, we released a humongous infographic on the internet containing (what we then thought) a definitive list of the best RPGs.
How It All Began
We won’t lie to you – it took a lot of work. Like, a lot. Gathering the data, centralizing the titles, neatly categorizing each game in the appropriate place, and not to mention designing the infographic itself, took a lot of grind and sweat.
3 weeks to gather the initial data, researching, and talking to friends
1 week of proofreading and arguing with said friends about the differences between real-time with pause and turn-based games
Several hours making research on the difference between high fantasy and low fantasy only to understand that there is no consensus in the media on either definition, and we’re free to accept whichever option we wish
2 days for our designer to come up with a structure that makes sense
Hours upon hours to find all the information required
2 weeks of gathering your feedback and doubling the number of games
Hours of our designer adding all them and alphabetizing all 500+ games per your request
1836 layers in the Photoshop file
A full month of being proven wrong each day when I thought I knew a lot of RPG games
@Gamingbolt The developers of Chernobylite have been interviewed.
From what we’ve read of Chernobylite so far, it seems the story is a pretty big focus in the game- is that an accurate assertion?
Exactly! In our previous game, Get Even, we put a lot of emphasis on narration and the bar has been set up pretty high. Nevertheless, with Chernobylite, we have an ambition to push it even higher.
How much are player decisions going to affect the game and its story? How divergent can we expect the branching paths to be?
It’s very difficult to answer this question without going into too many details. In our branching system we don’t allow the player to make choices only in specific places planned in the script. In our game each character may die, each task may be a success or a failure. Everything will have their consequences both in the story and in the gameplay.
How does collaborating or competing with other characters in the Exclusion Zone work in the game as a mechanic?
Very often in RPGs we encounter different fractions which we can ally with in various ways and antagonize the other ones at the same time. In Chernobylite each stalker is like a fraction. It’s mostly visible in members of your crew – everyone has a different agenda, goals or sympathies. It’s bread and butter.
But Aiden has more pressing concerns. As I said, people are about to get thirsty – and he’s just been told a chap called the colonel is hoarding all the water. Before he can set off to have words, though, a mob of humans starts battering at the base’s gates. Aiden jumps down into the fray, and three people very, very quickly lose their limbs and heads. The slicing is much the same as the last game, where a single well aimed slash can end a fight immediately.
The renegades are dead, but Aiden’s friend is in dire straits. It’s here I see the first decision in the demo, and the first hint that our presenter’s promises of meaningful choices might actually have… meaning. Does Aiden stay with his pal Frank as he bleeds out, or chase after a van that could get him into the colonel’s place? It doesn’t feel like much of a decision, because somebody else is looking after Frank anyway.
So he’s off, leaping between rooftops, wallrunning and sliding as he goes. Now though, Aiden can also whip out a paraglider. The city reminds me much more of the later half of Dying Light, the half with towers and grappling hooks. The first game took over ten hours to give you a grappling hook, and it’s unclear how long it will take to earn it here – when I asked, I was told you get it in the second of the games seven regions. “You can also do more with those tools later on,” creative director Adrian Ciszewsk told me. The grappling hook, for example, can be upgraded so you can chuck it at people to bring them in for a kicking, a la Scorpion in Mortal Kombat.
Stardock & Star Control Creators - Settled with Mead and Honey
by Silver, 23:00
ArsTechnica has the details on how the Stardock and Star Control creators settled their differences with mead and honey.
The settlement's details are public, and Ford & Reiche have a blog post on their site explaining things. In summary, though, the terms are simple and straightforward:
All existing lawsuits between Stardock and Ford & Reiche are dismissed with prejudice (this simply means the suits cannot be re-litigated).
All parties are responsible for their own attorney's fees.
Stardock gets to use the Star Control name for its Star Control Origins game and can develop sequels and DLCs as it likes.
Ford & Reiche get to continue to develop their own direct Ur-Quan Masters sequel (which was previously called Ghosts of the Precursors but will be renamed).
The Star Control Origins universe (now known as "the Star Control franchise") will continue in a disconnected bubble from the Ur-Quan Masters/Ghosts of the Precursors universe (now known as "the Ur-Quan Masters franchise").
Reiche will contribute some writing to the Origins universe in a volunteer role.
All of the complicated arguments about who owns which copyrights and trademarks and who they bought them from and when and what's copyrightable and what's not are mooted. (Which is great because it means I don't have to re-summarize the mountain of IP arguments that both sides were making!)
The original three Star Control games can continue to be sold on other storefronts, including Stardock's, and Stardock will split revenue from those games' sales with Ford & Reiche.
No licensing money changed hands.
Brad Wardell of Stardock must furnish Paul Reiche with a specific amount of honey from Wardell's apiary.
In turn, Paul Reiche must furnish Brad Wardell with a specific amount of mead brewed from Wardell's bees' honey.
Editorial - Chris Avellone: "Leave the Answer to the Player"
by Silver, 09:59
OneAngryGamer wrote an article defending Chris Avellone's opinion on politics in games.
The interview was published on May 31st, 2019, and when asked about whether stories can be apolitical, Avellone stated…
“They may become political as societal norms change, but I believe it’s possible to do apolitical games. I also don’t condone developers who want to do political games or make a statement – I think a game is served better by asking a question, provide a range of perspectives on the question, but then leaving the answer to the player. I try to frame any politics in the parameters of the world, the lore, and the franchise.
“The reason I take this approach is because I view games as entertainment. If you’re purposely pushing an agenda or point of view in your game – especially a real-world one that’s clearly divorced from the game world – and you’re dictating that perspective as correct vs. asking a question or examining the perspective more broadly, then it’s left the gaming realm and the ‘game’ has become a pulpit.”
General News - An Unexpected Message from Deep Space!
by Silver, 08:58
@DogarandKazon Stardock and Frungy Games have settled their lawsuit amicably and in a positive way for fans of Star Control. More will be announced at E3.
An Unexpected Message From Deep Space
June 08, 2019
Stardock® and Frungy Games™ (Fred and Paul) are happy and relieved to announce that all parties have settled their disputes amicably and in a way where the fans of Star Control® and The Ur-Quan Masters™ are the biggest winners. Stay tuned to Channel 44 for more details next week from the E3 floor!
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Coming to PC?
by Silver, 12:21
Gamingbolt reports on a rumour that Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch will come to PC and PS4.
Bandai Namco Entertainment’s string of leaks continues. After FromSoftware’s Elden Ring and Tales of Arise leaking, it’s Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered. The remaster is coming to PS4 and PC this Fall with a resolution upscale and improved performance but will also released on the Nintendo Switch without these enhancements.
Opinion - What Piranha Bytes Purchase Means for Gothic 4
by Silver, 10:29
LastKnownMeal asks what the Piranha Bytes purchase by THQ Nordic means for a potential Gothic 4.
loading...
A couple of days ago, German game developer Piranha Bytes has been bought by their ELEX publisher THQ Nordic. It does seem that the publisher believes in the studio and suddenly there was one question in the air, what about Gothic 4?
Wccftech interviewed the lead designer behind Dying Light 2 about the setting and its RPG elements.
Can you talk about the Modern Dark Ages setting, how it came to be and what makes it unique?
Dying Light 2 started a long time ago, but we typically spend a lot in the concept phase, trying to make sure that whatever we decide to move forward with is well thought-out. We had defined the meaning of the game, the design foundations, the dominant emotions we want to evoke, the lore and world setting, but we still felt that we needed something unique that would make the game really stand out. Modern Dark Ages was a concept that came to us during that stage - we discovered that juxtaposing medieval behaviors, rules and laws with a modern setting really serves as a wake-up call for us as humans. As humanity, we've been there (during the real Dark Ages), we've lost our minds for some time, we started the most cruel wars, we stopped believing in reason. When you see all of those things in the context of a modern city it makes you go "ah, so if we're not careful with what we have we can really revert to the worst version of us". But this is not only a narrative tool, it's also a north star we're using in a lot of other areas of the project.When we design locations, we take modern buildings and add post-apocalyptic elements to them so they start looking like medieval fortresses. When you look at our weapons they're medieval by definition - but they're made from modern materials.
@OnlySP A new teaser trailer for Action RPG Dreamscaper.
Indie developer Afterburner Studios has released a teaser trailer for its debut game Dreamscaper.
Whilst the game is yet to receive a release date, Afterburner Studios has credited fan input throughout pre-alpha play tests.
The team claims that it was inspired by some of its members' favorite games and describes Dreamscaper as "[a] fluid, action-packed, RPG Rogue-lite-every slumber is a different dungeon and you must unlock the powers of your dreams to fend off nightmares and see a new day."
Turnbasedlovers have an overview of We are the Plague, which is described as a tactical, turn-based game, set in a hand-drawn dark fantasy world. The game is set for a Q4 2019 release and has a free demo available.
loading...
"I am the voice of the Plague, not your silly imagination. I am the only thing, that can save you from a long and painful process that inevitably leads to, let’s say, dead for good. Without any chance to come back."
The Plague is generous and bountiful. It will give you tools, it will give you a weapon. You will be changed, transformed into something else. Just submit...
You have chosen to serve the Plague. Driven by hatred traverse the scorched and devastated lands in search of a revenge. Be the part of a legion, devouring cities and all living creatures, play against humanity to achieve your own goal.
Creatures you meet during your journey are a living proof of an inevitable change the Plague will bring upon the Earth. Crooked, in constant pain, blind followers. Your body and mind turn too. You are a part of a disease, your bones grow into a weapon, mysterious objects give you a strange power....
Fantasy Hero Manager has released on Steam and is described as a turn-based game where you recruit and manage a party of self-aware heroes.
loading...
THE PREMISE
Fantasy Hero Manager places you in command of a magical airship, on a quest to find the legendary land of Vrool and its Fountain of Eternal Youth.
Fly across the world recruiting heroes for your adventure. Negotiate their salaries, manage their personalities, keep them sober, and never forget to pay them. Watch as they make friends, get married, grieve the loss of comrades, and die in glorious battle… all before searching out new heroes to fill your empty bunks!
Fantasy Hero Manager has been designed to be highly accessible, with a simple and clear UI, yet broadly complicated in its mechanics. Created with a nostalgic look-back to the age of Nethack, Zork, and the golden age of gaming.
THE WORLD
An infinite world with randomly generated maps: with eight biomes, and hundreds of individual locations, there is plenty of variety in each map.
Visit taverns to recruit heroes, trade, and rest.
Enter into dangerous henges, caves, dungeons, and castles to fight monsters and search for treasure.
Go to cities, towns, elven lodges and dwarf fortresses to receive quests.
Fight gods, dragons, fallen heroes, and legendary creatures in castles, forts and towers.
Go fishing in the seas and lakes, foraging and hunting on the plains, and mining in the mountains.
Train up in castles or woodsman’s huts.
Improve armour and weaponry in forges.
Visit temples for healing services.
And explore the many unique tiles which can offer boons or death to the heroes.
Beyond what there is to explore the world has other unique features:
A system of star-signs which cast luck onto those born beneath them.
A moon phase system.
Purchasing and selling tax unique to each location.
The ability to store and revisit past maps to finish quests or take advantage of good prices.
THE HEROES
Each hero generated in completely unique with a large number of stats, abilities, and traits. Choosing a hero can be difficult: do you take the fantastic fisherman with abominable attack power?
Eight races to recruit from: humans, orcs, elves, dwarves, undead, and angels.
Thirteen magic types a hero can have: some offensive, some passive, some for crafting and foraging.
Ascendancy system with six classes to which any hero can ascend: lich, titan, phoenix, dark angel, nature wielder, and abomination.
Six crafting skills, six abilities, many health and magic statistics.
Each is born under one of ten starsigns which offer bonuses when the time of year is right.
Their own healing and recovery rates.
Beyond their stats heroes have personalities and a mood system:
Watch as the make friends with those they fight alongside.
Fall in love and get married, or help nudge them in that direction.
Renegotiate their salary as they gain levels and earn you treasure.
Grieve the loss of friends, celebrate weddings and successful quests, get bored if you neglect them.
Leave your party if you fail to treat them as they would wish.
Learn skills from each other based on a teaching skill.
ENEMIES
With nearly two hundred unique enemy types to battle your heroes will always have something to kill!
Biome specific monsters.
Eight humanoid races to fight: elves, kobolds, undead, etc.
Twelve different monster families each containing six monster types: from clockwork monsters, through bubbling slimes, to filthy goblins.
Over sixty incredible bosses which include gods, dragons, fallen heroes and abominations!
CRAFTING:
Having a wide-ranging party will allow you to take advantage of the six crafting options.
Cook meals to restore stamina while in dungeons, and make fishing bait.
Mix herbs to make magic and healing potions.
Create alchemical potions to increase mining ability.
Forge armoury hammers to repair armour and improve it.
Tool picks, to help lockpick chests.
And scribe maps to new and more dangerous locations.
SIMPLE UI
A major goal in creating this game was to have a single interface screen from which all action takes place. You can click through all your heroes and their abilities without ever leaving the map or battle area.
A SIMPLY COMPLICATED BATTLE SYSTEM
A battle system designed to have a lot going on but be simple to play. Includes, an auto-battle option that can be applied to all, or to select, heroes, with aggression settings.
MUSIC
Thirty beautiful and relaxing piano tracks to listen to while adventuring.
Cogconnected writes that players are weary of open world games and outlines some reasons why.
How Much is Too Much?
One issue might be that open worlds in games have gotten to be bigger and bigger in recent years. The size of the map has come to be almost equated with depth of content, and new games often seek to make their maps as large as possible to impress players. But does there come a point at which there is too much land to explore, leaving a lot of it untouched? Certainly, we saw with the recent Red Dead Redemption 2 that the sheer size and level of (sometimes mundane) detail could wear players down and kill the fun.
Titan shield has been released on Steam and is described as a turn-based combat tactical game where you lead your party into the depths of the Titan's hold to deal with its owner.
loading...
Titan Shield is the game about bashing, slashing, shooting and casting powerfull spells – solo or as a party group. There is no place for gossip or long dialogs here. You have to rely on combat skills and tactic management to fight your way throught for the Titan`s head.
The way to your goal is not that easy as it seems. About 16 h of gameplay to make it.
8 playable classes to choose from, each with its unique set of skills.
Character customisation for each member of your party with different attributes, weapon styles and skills builds.
Uncommon system of gear upgrade – allows to create powerfull weapons with a choosen effect.
Choice of difficulty level for each run – that includes size of tyour party and starting resourses.
TheGG reports that The Executioner is coming to Steam July 17th. The game is described as a dark RPG about a torturer.
Press release: 13 MAY 2019 – Lesser Evil Games today announce that the first chapter of their dark RPG “The Executioner“, which thrusts players into the shoes of a torturer, will be released via Steam on July 17th.
Fusing a unique blend of medieval storytelling, sanity management, and the brutal moral conundrums only an executioner could face — this harrowing tale of a man who tortures people for a living will challenge you to face the monster that lives inside of all of us. The decisions are yours, and so are the consequences.
As shown in the new teaser trailer, the predominantly text-based adventure promises a dark and unsettling atmosphere in a world filled with moral ambiguity.
The Executioner will be a multipart epic adventure into the cruel and unforgiving political sphere of medieval times. Starting with Chapter One, this brutal tale will follow the newly appointed Royal Executioner on a journey to retain his sanity in the darkest of times.
Shane Plays interviewed Matt Barton about RPGs and talked about their new book release Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games 2nd Edition.
loading...
Shane and Matt Barton of Matt Chat celebrate the release of their book Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games 2nd Edition by, what else, talking CRPGs as they break down their favorite CRPGs, their biggest disappointments in the genre and their most anticipated upcoming game! Plus: when did Bioware first disappoint Shane, trolleys vs. buggies, how do you say renaissance, and Survivor: Westeros update. (Podcast version has extra content not included in radio broadcast)
Kingslayer Tactics is a unique low fantasy game set in the chambers of European castles at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. You play as the Kingslayer called "The Raven".
In this interesting and mysterious renaissance world you will learn the tactics, strategy and adventure of a person dedicated to his goal. Sneaking through castle corridors and fighting with hordes of royal guards is not the only thing you need to do. Planning your next step and upgrading your weapons is equally as important.
Interesting and mysterious world
The game world is inspired by the European kingdoms and principalities, but the realities of the game are far from historical facts. The game takes the player on a journey through mysterious lands, set in an alternative version of the Renaissance Europe
The story
Enter a dark and mysterious story about “The Raven” and discover his secrets. Since the story about the Kingslayer was told for the first time in tavern, it is still floating around among european sorcerers.
Tactics, strategy and adventure
Kingslayer is a unique combination of tactics, strategy and adventure in one game. Top-down shooter mechanics mixed up with stealth gameplay elements and RPG features creates an interesting and addictive gameplay.
Unique gameplay features
1. Upgrade your weapon by replacing steel parts with unique elements made of precious metals.
2. Turn into a raven in order to avoid a deadly threat and get into hidden and protected chambers.
3. Explore the refined locations, wander around the world of the 12 Kingdoms in the form of a "Raven".
4. Collect important informations about your goals, learn about the game universe and obtain rare artefacts by completing artfully designed quests.
5. Learn the story about complicated character that combines the characteristics of a villain and a noble knight, but gives no pretext for clearly define his moral choice.
PC Gamer reports that the Frostpunk setting could be used as the basis for an RPG.
GamesIndustry.biz spoke with Patryk Grzeszczuk, 11 bit’s director of marketing, about his company’s future plans for Frostpunk. Part of those plans is bringing Frostpunk to consoles, which the studio is working on now.
But further on down the road, Grzeszczuk says 11 bit is looking into exploring new genres, including RPGs. The studio has been gradually adding to Frostpunk’s backstory and lore as they’ve produced more DLC, and that process has resulted in a world rich enough to support a more narrative-leaning game.
General News - Another Vampire: The Masquerade RPG in Development
by Hiddenx, 17:19
PC Gamer reports that The Council developer Big Bad Wolf is developing a Vampire: The Masquerade RPG, too:
Another Vampire: The Masquerade RPG is in development
A new Vampire: The Masquerade game is in the works, publisher Bigben revealed today. It accompanies the recent acquisition of the Werewolf adaptation, originally announced in 2017.
The new game doesn't have a name yet, but it will be a narrative RPG inspired by the rules of the tabletop version. The Council developer Big Bad Wolf is behind the adaptation, which seems like an excellent fit. The Council is an episodic narrative adventure full of occult plots, conspiracies, secret organisations and murder. It's Vampire: The Masquerade but without the fangs. [...]
Worthplaying has some new screenshots for action RPG Ashes of Oahu.
Built using the Unreal 4 Engine, Ashes of Oahucombines innovative action with faction-based gameplay, inviting players to discover the secrets of Hawaii’s mystical past while uncovering and exploring a full-scale authentic representation of 500 square miles of game world terrain – from discovering special powers and abilities of the Hawaiian gods, to choosing skills and weapons, and remaking the island in their own way, all while watching out for the powerful Nightmarchers who protect the island.
In Ashes of Oahu, players must fight for survival and learn to tap into the power of the spirit world to become a demigod and help liberate Oahu from the army that has taken its control.
As you explore the apocalyptic paradise of Oahu, you will come upon various areas of settlement. Some will be overrun by Kamapua'a raiders, while others will be run by the various factions that have taken footing. But it's the Pig God's raiders that can be the most dangerous, and it's Kai's job to clear them out.
Gamingbolt asks the question 'What Happened To Deus Ex?'
While the critical reception for Mankind Divided was on average positive, it could still be fairly characterized as slightly less favorable than the previous three mainline titles. The sales for the game, compared to previous iterations and accounting for all its platforms, have generally been seen as underwhelming compared to past titles, a sentiment in part reinforced by Square Enix’s limited commentary on the game’s commercial performance. Though it should be said that this title was the Deus Ex series’s debut on the current generation of consoles, and the limited install base at the time of release likely impacted commercial performance and momentum. Mankind Divided’s story is accompanied by three pieces of DLC, collectively referred to as “Jensen’s Stories.” Mankind Divided’s ending leaves a massive opening for a sequel that explores the tension between Adam Jensen and the Illuminati, the latter of which are portrayed as corrupt and evil and have infiltrated TF29, and Adam Jensen and the Juggernaut Collective.
HitC writes why they believe a Game of Thrones RPG would never work.
Unlike The Witcher 3 which had politics you could ignore, a Game Of Thrones RPG would have to constantly be in-your-face about politics because the property is about ideologies, backstabbing, and the iron throne. Back when the show was good, it was about people playing the game of thrones and the dastardly deeds and sacrifices they would make to end up on top of the series’ now non-existent ladder. Even more so for a video game than the TV show, it would be very difficult for a studio to balance the core politics with the anti-fantasy setting and subplot.
And would gamers want to sit and watch a dozen politically heavy cutscenes? Most would just rather storm off into battle against armies and the White Walkers so they could mindlessly hack-and-slash and overcome overwhelming forces. This would also be untrue to the source material as – at least before season 6 – Game Of Thrones was never heavy on heroics, and characters were always punished or died for the mistakes they made.
Wccftech reviewed Dark Devotion and couldn't keep up.
Another problem highlighted by bosses is the fact that despite spending a long time with the game, I had no idea what I was doing most of the time. Your first mission, given to you by a large scribbling bug-like man in the hub, is to go and kill some grey monsters in the Abandoned Dungeon. But after finding and slaying them, after several attempts, I couldn’t find a way of returning to the hub. So I kept going. I wound up killing the boss and moving on to a completely new area before eventually dying and coming back to the hub to turn in my quest. I thought perhaps my progression would help me for the next mission, but it didn’t. The next mission was in a new, unconnected area to where I explored, and I had to kill lantern carrying enemies this time. Unfortunately, I didn’t find all of them as I explored this area, but did encounter, and slay, the boss. Once again I had progressed to a new area, although I still hadn’t completed my mission. I love exploring in games, but with the chance to backtrack, Dark Devotion made it all too easy to get ahead of yourself and make it feel like wasted time instead.
Wccftech reports that Assassin's Creed: Ragnorak is the next game, according to 4chan. This is unconfirmed at this stage but the leak does include screenshots.
The next entry in the Assassin’s Creed series is apparently going to be named Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok, and it will be set in the Viking Age.
A recent leak has surfaced on 4chan complete with some off-screen screenshots. The game will be set in the Viking Age, and the main character will be an ally of Ragnar Lodbrok, a legendary Viking who fans of the History TV Show Vikings should know well, who will aid in the formation of the Great Heathen Army which invaded England in 865.
OnlySP talks about the retro dungeon revival and cites Vaporum and Operencia: The Stolen Sun to argue the genre's possibilities.
The old-school dungeon-RPG genre never really went away, but, like a miracle, bigger names than ever are now paying attention to its crunchy allure. The industry saw, of course, the triumphant return of polished real time RPGs with Legend of Grimrock and its imitators, the constantly expanding Etrian franchise on DS and 3DS, Severed by Drink Box (developer of Guacamelee), and, arguably, the growing popularity of Shin Megami Tensei and its spinoffs.
Last month saw the console release of Vaporum: Steampunk Dungeon Crawler, which OnlySP reviewed, as well as Zen Studios’s Operencia: The Stolen Sun on Xbox One and the Epic Store.
Both hearken back to the first-person dungeon-RPGs of early 3D—though with a beautiful layer of modern graphics and accessibility on top—but also approach the genre in very different ways. In the interest of exploring what is possible in grid-based retro games, here are some of the biggest ways that the two titles differ.
Techitout writes a short opinion piece about open world games needing more content.
But you see, that’s the problem… Open-world games need to keep the player entertained and offer them an incentive to keep on pushing on. And to be honest, bland and empty worlds are not the answer. This is where developers need to take charge, and instead of seeing the player as a cash cow, rather see them as what they truly are… People who just want to be entertained and not robbed of their hard earned money.
@TheGGDark Devotion is a 2D side scrolling RPG which has recently been released.
Hibernian Workshop’s brooding 2D side-scrolling action RPG, “Dark Devotion“, is available now on PC via Steam, GOG, and Humble Bundle for €19.99 from publisher The Arcade Crew.
Featuring dynamic and heavy combat, Dark Devotion tests the faith of its most devout players and grants them several paths to atonement via a variety of game mechanics.
Starflight is being remade by a veteran ex-Bethesda developer.
Welcome to the IndieDB page for Marvin's 'Starflight: The Remaking of a Legend' project. This project is a fan remake of the original 1987 PC game loved by many back in the day. Marvin is a veteran professional software and game developer who has worked for multiple well known companies such as Bethesda Softworks and Rainbow Studios, on popular games such as 'Elder Scrolls Redguard' and 'Cars: The Video Game'. As a fun side project, Marvin has decided to use his years of experience to remake his favorite childhood game with modern graphics via Unity. This game is open-source and freely available on GitHub, should anyone wish to help. Playable builds are being released on the project website and occasionally here too.
TurnBasedLovers took a look at an upcoming turn-based strategy game called Tactical Deception. There are screenshots at the link.
Background Story
You lead a group of ex-soldiers who will have to deal with civil wars that have led the country to bow to corrupt politicians and criminality. We will face the angry population and the various factions that have been created. (Military, Bankers, Industrialists, Doctors, and others). We will have to make our choices and decide which path to follow.
Key features
Turn-based strategy mechanic
Character development: Each character has their own story and skills that you learn on the way, so it’s important to assemble the right team for each mission.
Decision-making mechanic: Experience a non-linear story full of intrigue, lies and important decisions on who to trust. The choices will affect the path of adventure throughout the game and missions.
Replay value: Try spotting the truth behind every story by choosing another side and fighting different enemies
Tactical planning: Learn the importance of strategic thinking, make high-level tactical decisions and accomplish missions.
Field of view: The visual field of each character is 90 degrees, which leaves room for stealth sneaking.
Increasing action points: Action points can increase when a character is hit or sees a teammate being hit, when an alarm sounds and in some other special occasions.
100% hit chance if you are near the enemy (no RNG).
Xenomarine is a science fiction roguelike, with turn-based combat, which recently released on Steam.
loading...
XENOMARINE is a dark, atmospheric, sci-fi/horror themed roguelike in which you play a space marine exploring an alien-infested space station. Starting out with little more than a crowbar, you will fight to survive against over 120 increasingly powerful alien species, as you progress as far as you can through infinite randomly generated levels.
With no starting classes, develop your character into the ultimate fighting machine by means of in-game choices: create a unique build each time you play by finding and choosing between a large and distinctive range of unique usable items and individually upgradable weapons and armor. And although the focus in Xenomarine is on items rather than skills, there are also 70 skill levels to be learned you gain experience from combat and from randomly generated missions.
WARNING: This game is unforgivingly hard: expect to die soon and often when first starting out! Also, in the default 'roguelike' game mode, death is permanent - meaning you will have to start again from level 1. But don’t worry: each playthrough will be different because so many parts of the game are randomly generated (in a way that’s carefully fine-tuned for balance).
*This game contains flashing images and may not be suitable to all users*
Setting
You are a Xenomarine, stranded in a dark alien-infested space station. Your squad are all dead, and you have nothing but a crowbar, a torch running low on power and some battered armor. Death is certain, but you're sure as hell going to take as many Xenos as possible down with you before you go! And you've not forgotten the rumours that there's powerful ancient alien tech to be found...
Features Of Xenomarine Early Access
Rich, Tactical Turn-based Combat
infinite, randomly Generated Levels
Atmospheric lighting and procedurally generated sound effects
Unique useable items such as scanners, forcefields and night-vision goggles
10 alien types with 12 variants each, making 120 enemies: all with unique behaviours
No starting class: develop your class on the fly with over 70 skill upgrades
Multiple damage types and status effects
Crafting (craft items from scrap and upgrade weapons and armor)
Hack drones and turrets; deploy traps; find and use mysterious alien tech
Random mini-quests
Intuitive user interface, with mouse-only and keyboard-only support
OneAngryGamer reports that a Daggerfall spiritual successor is in the works from some of the original developers.
Ian from Indigo Gaming is heading up a project along with Julian Jensen and Ted Peterson — developers who worked on Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion — to make a spiritual successor to the original The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. They’re currently laying out the design roadmap and engine-agnostic systems for a prototype, along with recruiting artists (specifically modelers, riggers, and animators) to help build the prototype.
The news was made available via a forum thread over on the Daggerfall Workshop, where Ian pitched the recruitment drive to the community, writing…
Project Dagger is a classic style dungeon crawler under development for Android, Nintendo Switch, and iOS platforms.
PROJECT DAGGER DEVLOGS #1 : HELLO WORLD !
Hello, and welcome to Project Dagger.
Today, we are excited to show our progress in the development of this brand-new game that is planned to be released on Android, Nintendo Switch, and iOS platforms.
FIRST, WHAT IS PROJECT DAGGER ?
Project Dagger, previously known as Project Tartarus before its redoing from the ground up, is a reimagination of an old school first person Role-Playing game, Dungeon Crawling and classic Sandbox Exploration oriented, similar to classics including Dungeons and Dragons:Eye of the Beholder, The Elder Scrolls: Arena, The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, and newer ones like The Legend of Grimrock and the cancelled project by Techland- Hellraid. It also takes inspiration from the Elder Scrolls Travels, which are unknown to most and predate the modern Elder Scrolls: Blades. The aim is to deliver the classic Dungeon Crawler experience to mobile, utilizing the robust Unity Engine, and will be published without any paywall or pay to win elements that ruin most modern mobile games.
The gameplay will concentrate on offering absolutely pure dungeon crawling, while giving the player the ability to navigate between dungeons and the overworld. The loot-based nature of the game, taking hints from the Borderlands’ formula, will be the main hook to the Player, combined with an engaging and attractive story.
Synopsis :
“As the Civil War rises in Adenfel, a new threat has been summoned under the shadow. The long-lost Elven Warlord of the House Amuril, Amn' Refer, kept inside the Ghost Prison, has broken free from his eternal sleep. A new war of shadow and magic has begun. Unnoticed by the warring Kings and Queens, Amn' Refer unleashed disease and corruption. The Divine Curse is was called for none could uncover its hidden origin.
But, it’s just the beginning. You are one of the Royal Archblade’s Apprentice, sent by Lord Thranerth to investigate these events. Travel to the crater of Hakun. And uncover the infernal scheme, involving the sinister shadow cult calling themselves as The Order of the Serpent, and determine the fate .... of Adenfel”
WHATS BEING WORKED ON ?
Currently, we are opening opportunities to join the development team, if you are interested to join the development, visit the link below and apply to available jobs. Teamups.net We will be in touch with you.
Now onto our first bi-weekly update.
1. Modelling
We have finished our first impression of our Gothic-styled tile-set and have optimized the meshes for use. At the moment we are in starting phase of completing Dwarven-styled dungeons, taking references from Tolkien’s Moria, and emphasizing on the geometric style of the architecture.
Our character modeler has currently begun working on some mobs and reoptimizing skeleton meshes, as well as fashioning variations. Skeletons will take a very important role because of the disease. Thus, it is important to develop variations to avoid over-repetition.
2. Programming
The basic programming has been completed. We are presently expecting an accepted programmer to join the team and start operating. However there still a lot to be done.
3. Public Relations
We are preparing to launch a public Discord sever soon as a platform to deliver exciting progress. It would also be used to create a community which the public would be able to join and participate in, see what's behind the development, and have a talk with the team to discuss about your ideas !
That is all for this Devlog, guys . Hope to see you again in two weeks, with more informations and updates, as well as an exciting announcement. Stay tuned !
SideQuesting previewed Star Renegades and found it more than the sum of its parts.
loading...
Star Renegades, at its most basic explanation, is a turn-based game in which we explore an overworld map to halt the advancement of an enemy force. But this is really just the top layer of the onion. Underneath, it draws inspiration from a lot of games and genres, and pushes us to approach it much differently than we would a typical RPG experience. As we travel across the overworld from point to point with our squad, we can come across battles or mini-missions, alternate paths or bosses. How we pass these obstacles affects our play experience down the line, as our actions have very quick consequences.
If we go one way on the map, for instance, we get caught up in a battle that may be slightly overpowered but gets us along further. If we opt to take a side path, we have to shut down a giant cannon that blocks our way, affecting our available actions on the map. This continues in a loop that could last for as little as 2 hours or as long as… well, as long as it takes to get to the other side. We can even form relationships along the way, building up our camaraderie with our squadron and even having progeny of our own that will join our battles in later loops. And while this 2-hour loop might seem fast, just 15 minutes in a demo had me advance far on the map, and feels like it packs a lot into a small space. It’s much more flushed out than I could have imagined.
Twinfinite shares their list of the top 20 JRPGs on Steam.
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition
There are a handful of Tales games available on Steam, but if you haven't played the series before, Tales of Vesperia is the best place to start. Vesperia tells the story of Yuri Lowell, an ex-knight who, in a twist of fate, ends up helping a princess escape the castle he's imprisoned in.
Like most Tales games, Vesperia features a phenomenal cast of characters who all build up interesting relationships with one another. Much like Dragon Quest XI, each party member in Vesperia has their own story arc and moment to shine. Vesperia's fast-paced action combat is also a nice break from turn-based RPGs, and you can directly control any of the game's nine party members, allowing for a ton of variation. The good news is that if you like Vesperia you can jump right into Tales of Symphonia, Zestiria, and Berseria, all of which are on Steam.
TheGG reports that shooter RPG Beyond the Veil will release on Steam April 19th.
Incorporating RPG mechanics, players will have to be resourceful and crafty when navigating the post-apocalyptic world. They will be required to gather resources and choose which powerful attributes and stat increases to give their character.
For those players looking for a challenge, Beyond the Veil features timed trials that will give players the opportunity to earn weapons, accessories, and inscriptions to give them the edge in combat against the hordes of enemies they will face.
Featuring top-down combat movement and awareness are key to survival in Beyond the Veil’s real-time bloody battles.
The 20th Anniversary of Summoner brings with it an Anniversary OST from the original composer Scott Lee.
loading...
Summoner 20th Anniversary is a magical and nostalgic journey into a moment in gaming history for PlayStation 2 and PC. Over a four year period, Scott Lee, the original composer has modernized the entire production by meticulously and delicately rebuilding every song from scratch. Hear elements and sounds you couldn’t hear before, truly experience how the soundtrack was intended to be. Unreleased songs that were written for Summoner from 1999 to 2001 era complete the musical storyline. This album is a must-have for any Summoner fan!
* Reused original keyboard hardware from 1999 adding the perfect color accuracy faithful to the source material from Summoner.
* Recorded using industry top of the line DSP gear @ 96K 24 bit sample rate masters. Every sound was re-recorded for superb quality.
* Evaluated development notes, audio, midi, and design choices for Summoner from legacy media to maintain accuracy.
* Completed the musical storytelling with Summoner songs written from 1999 that were intended to be in the game.
* An enormous amount of time, love and effort was put into the final product, for the fans!
@TurnBasedLoversCrystal Companies is a tactical card game with turn-based strategy.
loading...
To become an expert at Crystal Companies, one must not only master the craft of deck building but also understand the advantages of different build orders and strategies depending on the environmental conditions (which can even include weather that changes over the course of a skirmish). Elevation and obstacles can aid or hinder units depending on their positioning, attributes (like mobility), etc.
Key features
Cards that instantiate 3D characters, structures, and spells in dynamic procedurally generated environments.
300+ cards and several factions in the debut set that can be mixed and matched to customize unique decks for near-limitless strategies.
Variable terrain that includes weather events, natural disasters, different elevations, impassable and semi-navigable terrain conditions, and themed ecoregions.
One-versus-one AI and multiplayer online game modes, with additional modes to come.
GamesInsiders reports on a new action RPG being developed by Shift Up called Project Eve.
Based in Seoul, South Korea, developer Shift Up has announced recently a brand new action RPG developed with Unreal Engine 4 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game is called Project Eve.
Gamingbolt reports that Octopath Traveler has been rated for PC by the Korean Board.
The rating also mentions Bandai Namco as the game’s publisher, which also checks out- the company has often acted as distributor for Square Enix’s titles in Korea. Given how successful Octopath Traveler was when it launched, and how Square Enix obviously wants to keep making games in its mould, it wouldn’t be too surprising if they did indeed decide to expand the game’s audiences to appeal to a larger number of people in order to see more sales.
Tactical turn-based RPG Othercide was previewed by Monster Vine.
The gameplay of Othercide is complex but easy to understand. Each unit on the map has action points, which are used up when you have them move, attack, or execute any other commands. You can preserve points for the next turn by acting conservatively, or you can blow them all with a more offensive strategy. You should definitely choose your playstyle wisely though, as Othercide features good old-fashioned permadeath. If a unit dies, they’re gone for good, so you’ve got to be careful. This kind of punishment really keeps you on your toes, as I was for the entire demo. I had to consider whether it was worth risking a unit to try to hasten things along, but then I realized this was a GDC demo, so it didn’t really matter since I’d be gone in 15 minutes. Still, the full game’s stakes will be quite heavy.
PC Gamer reports that Darkborn has a new gameplay video. Darkborn was previously known as Project Wight and features a monster killing Vikings.
loading...
Darkborn, formally known as Project Wight, has finally been shown off in grisly detail. The Outsiders' sneaky first-person tale of vengeance puts us in the shoes of a monster, rather than one of the burly vikings that populate the land. It's pretty grim, but also just pretty. Enjoy a murderous stroll in the woods by watching the gameplay reveal (cheers, IGN) above.
I’ve read some African science fiction, and it can be compelling stuff. After the enormous commercial and critical success that was Black Panther, I can see there’s definitely a market for it. So if you’re looking for a game in that vein, We Are The Caretakers has just been announced with a teaser. It’s an Afrofuturistic sci-fi squad management RPG with a distinct visual flair, and possibly some solid worldbuilding behind it. The teaser features a monologue by a figure clad in some peculiar body armor, and a tall helmet, like a totem mask. He seems to be standing over some kind of rhino-like creature as he talks about his role as a caretaker. At the end of the monologue, what seems like a large spaceship appears behind him. Then there are some glimpses of the gameplay, such as movement from a top-down perspective. The game’s art direction is helmed by former Activision-Blizzard artist, Anthony Jones.
In Darkness is an action RPG that recently released on Steam.
loading...
Origin
In Darkness is a fantasy game inspired by mythological, and epic legendary stories; it also was inspired by classic games like Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link; and Ghost'n Goblins.
Story
Adventurous travellers in search of riches and treasures discovered a mysterious island with abundance of gems, but without knowledge it was a forbidden land, they were punished and doomed by the guardians of the island for seeing so much greed, no matter there were also innocents ones among them. However, the gems not only provide wealth, but also provide powers to those who own them. For that reason the favoured doomed travellers took advantage of the weakest ones, and divided themselves into clans. And so... more adventurers continue arriving on the mysterious island, but the struggle for absolute power keep them in a tireless quest to recruit more punished travellers and the searching for gems.
Travel to the mysterious island, find out where the power of the gems comes from, and become the champion supreme.
An announcement trailer for Overland which is a tactical strategy game set in the post-apocalypse.
loading...
Overland is squad-based survival strategy game with procedurally generated levels set in post-apocalyptic North America. Every random level is full of close calls and hard choices, even though the interface is approachable and easy to learn. Manage fuel supplies, weapons, and other items by making the right choices on the procedural roadmaps. A road trip straight into the heart of the cataclysmic event that changed the Earth forever.
The reveal trailer for turn-based roguelike RPG Eidolons.
loading...
On wings of darkness, through mist and snow, an indie turn-based roguelike RPG is coming to PC this year. Yet journey to Light is made through twilight. Support Eidolons in our crowdfunding campaign this April!
GamesRadar talked with Dying Light 2 producer Kornel Jaskula; who expanded on the game's open world design philosophy.
To make this dream a reality, Techland has poured resources into constructing new proprietary technology, a necessary expense (and headache) to engineer something as ambitious as Dying Light 2. “You could say that it has been quite the challenge,” Jaskula laughs. “All of this has forced us to change the technology behind our games. We created a brand new engine – the C-Engine – to support the focus on choice and consequence that runs through the story and the gameplay.”
But all of this will be for nought if Techland can’t sell the concept of its ‘narrative sandbox’ to prospective players. The truth is, it’s incredibly difficult to demonstrate something so inherently systemic. The entire game is layered in such a way that even the smallest interactions, decisions and actions can feed back into the simulated world at large. If every one of your actions feeds into the wider scope of the story, as well as the gameplay opportunities that pervade the experience, simultaneously, how do you possibly convey that idea to the players?
The best way to think about the structure, Jaskula suggests, is if you cast it in the context of going rogue with a LEGO set. “The player does have an overall goal in Dying Light 2, but it’s up to you to decide how you get to it,” he tells me of the overarching narrative, one which sees you charged with trying to locate an object that can potentially turn the tide of the zombie apocalypse in your favour. “It’s like having LEGO bricks and being given the goal of building a house. We give you the bricks but not the original set – you don’t have the instructions that can take you through it step-by-step. You only have the goal and it’s up to you to decide how that house will look by the very end – but it is going to be a house. It’s up to the player to figure out how the bricks can connect, how they influence one another, and how the building and its interior takes shape…”
A new trailer for The Forgotten City shows off a change in art direction.
loading...
The Forgotten City is a time loop murder mystery set in a mythological city.
Deep underground in an ancient Roman city, twenty-six trapped explorers lay dead because one of them broke a mysterious law. Reliving that fateful day over and over again, you'll need to cleverly exploit the time loop, Groundhog Day-style, to avert disaster! Face tough moral choices while interrogating diverse characters, gathering their secrets, and putting together the pieces of a giant interpersonal puzzle.
The Forgotten City offers incredible freedom and respects players' time and intelligence, rewarding lateral thinking with the best of all possible endings.
The Forgotten City is a re-imagining of the critically acclaimed mod with more than 2 million downloads, and the first mod in history to win a national Writers' Guild award.
Key features:
Investigate a dark, gripping mystery full of twists and intrigue
Solve problems your own way, with reason, charm, bribery, stealth, threats, violence - or cleverly exploit the time-loop
Explore a stunning and intricate city rendered with Unreal Engine
Interrogate richly detailed characters with interwoven lives
Grapple with moral dilemmas which have life-and-death consequences
Choose your own gender, race, and backstory
Listen to an achingly beautiful orchestral score and first class voice acting
Enjoyed the mod?
The Forgotten City retains all the elements you know and love while improving every aspect and adding plenty of surprises. Walk the streets of a brand new city. Get to know re-imagined characters. Sink into original lore with fresh twists and endings. Enjoy added combat mechanics, an all-new orchestral score, professional voice acting, and motion capture animations.
General News - New Exclusives for The Epic Games Store
by Silver, 05:17
RockPaperShotgun reports that The Outer Worlds will be exclusive to Epic Games Store, as well as The Sinking City,Control and others.
Epic Games are getting serious about going head-to-head with Valve with their store, and have the war-chest to prove it. They’ve just announced a slew of exclusives, including Obsidian’s highly anticipated The Outer Worlds, and Remedy’s upcoming horror shooter Control. Frogwares’s cthulhoid detective mystery The Sinking City will be making its debut on the upstart storefront too. This is on top of Epic’s surprise announcement that Quantic Dream’s formerly PlayStation-exclusive library is coming to PC via their store. See the list of announced exclusives below.
I’ll bet, if you have read this far, there is one game that is in the forefront of your mind. So I am going to mention it. The Witcher 3. If there is a better example of what I am talking about I am yet to play it. In fact, I think it is fair to say that The Witcher 3 has changed what it means to have a living, breathing, meaningful world in a game. Just mention the Bloody Baron and anyone who has played the game instantly reacts. But the thing is, to complete that quest you did things players had been doing in games for years. You went to point A, looked for an object, killed some baddies, returned to base, went to point b, discovered a truth, killed some baddies, returned home. Questing 101 right? But what made that quest so impactful was how the story intertwined with the gameplay. There were repercussions and consequences to your actions, your choices had an impact in the world, changing it in ways that would remain consistent for your remaining time spent with Geralt. For the rest of the game, every time you visited that area of the world you were reminded of your actions and what became as a result. The Witcher 3 changed the way we look at story, at purpose, in an open world and nothing has even come close since.
OnlySP reports that Ashes of Oahu is the redesigned Nightmarchers RPG that was previously on Fig but failed to fund.
One of the key changes to the game is the shrinking of the playspace. Previously, Wyrmbyte had endeavoured to create a 1:1 representation of Oahu, though the new version reduces the island’s area to 25km2.
The move away from recreation extends to the gods in the game, which no longer take their names from those used by Hawaiian natives.
Another major change comes to the art style, which has been adapted from realism to one inspired by comic books. The developer claims that this alteration came from a desire to reflect the fictional nature of the story.
“Hello, Imagine if Dragon Quest and Zelda were on one single game. What you’ll get is Knights of Tartarus, an RPG where you go to the underworld to fight against four colossal monster knights.
Knights of Tartarus is a challenging open world game where you will need monsters to teach you their spells, craft items, solve puzzles.
Each monster holds special and unique abilities which can be learned. Monsters also give you crafting materials for making equipment. Additionally, there are skill upgrades that can be gained by leveling up.
These give you special perks like performing combo moves or becoming immune to paralysis, and much more.
I plan to release Knights of Tartarus on April 19, 2019. The game will be available on Steam and Itchio for PC, Mac and Linux.” – Stello Hexis
[...]
Knights of Tartarus is a role-playing game where you enter the underworld to fight off a legendary order of knights and save the world. To have a chance, you will need monsters to teach you their spells, craft items, solve puzzles and even compete against your rival.
FEATURES
Explore an open world and travel into the magical monster dimension called Tartarus. You'll find many friends and not so friendly characters along the way. There are many regions each containing unique puzzles, treasures, and enemies.
Fight against magic beasts to gain spells, crafting materials and gold. Each monster holds special and unique abilities which can be learned. Monsters also give you crafting materials for making equipment. Additionally, there are skill upgrades that can be gained by leveling up. These give you special perks like performing combo moves or becoming immune to paralysis, and much more.
Great and varied soundtrack. Huge bosses that are difficult but fair. A cute dog.
Unleash the Gamer shares their list of the best 16 science fiction RPGs.
loading...
HOW WE CHOSE THE BEST Sci-Fi RPGs
Before getting down to listing our favorite sci-fi RPGs , we’ll explain the criteria that we considered when deciding whether or not a game fits into the Sci-Fi RPG category.
What an RPG Is (in our opinion)
For the purposes of the article, we consider an RPG a game that has:
Story
Character building and progression
Choices that affect the game world
An emphasis on exploration
Combat that is directly influenced by player stat choice
What We Consider to Be Sci-Fi
As for deciding if a game can be included in the Sci-Fi genre, we took into consideration the following factors:
Set in a near or distant future
Setting and universe based on imagined future scientific or technological advances
Science and technology are at the center or the basis of the plot, having either benefited or harmed the societies portrayed
PC Gamer reports that the roguelike building sim Dwarf Fortress is coming to Steam:
Dwarf Fortress is coming to Steam with graphics and mod support
The classic version will still be free and updated, same as always.
I'm telling you, with a straight face, that this is the biggest PC gaming news of 2019: Dwarf Fortress is coming to Steam, with graphics and Workshop mod support. Dwarf Fortress is as famous for its ASCII graphics as it is for its unparalleled depth as a procedurally generated simulation of existence. And while it's always been moddable, the new Steam (and Itch.io) release, coming this year, will make an infamously complex game just a little bit easier to get into.
loading...
Kitfox Games, makers of Moon Hunters and the upcoming Boyfriend Dungeon, are handling publishing and working with artists and a composer for the new release. The new 32x32 pixel graphics tileset is being created as a collaboration between two long-time Dwarf Fortress modders. Under the surface, Dwarf Fortress will otherwise be the same game. The free version will remain available and be updated same as the version available on Steam, which will cost $20. [...]
Deadsiege is an action RPG currently in Early Access on Steam. There is also a free demo available to try out on the Steam page.
loading...
Heavily inspired by old classic genres, Deadsiege is a top-down Action RPG game set in an ancient fantasy world with a massive selection of weapons, items and outfit. Explore the world and battle vicious enemies, collect unique equipment, level up your character, grow your talent tree and unleash powerful skills to wipe out your foes. Deadsiege features straightforward character development and dynamic combat system.
Deadsiege’s loot system is completely randomized and gives you the opportunity to build your character the way you want. Deadsisege contains a wide arsenal of different enemies and bosses, higher level enemies give more experience and better loot, but are dangerous and harder to kill.
FEATURES: - Combat: Dynamic swap between melee and ranged weapons. Dive down on enemies, dodge attacks and stand against hordes of monsters.
- Loot System: Randomly generated items with common, rare, epic and legendary classes of loot, give you the opportunity to build your character the way you want
- Spell System: A diverse spell system includes AoE, damage over time, disable and Stats modifier effects.
- Talent Tree: Grow your Talent Tree and unleash powerful skills. Become more powerful as you advance through the game.
- Character Stats: Level up your character and adjust Vitality, Strength, Defense, and Intelligence stats. You can choose physical and magical builds or mix of both.
- Inventory: Real time character preview, choose your weapons, equipment, create your ultimate monster-slaying build. Take all the weapons and tools you need, choose from plenty of new powerful items for this adventure.
Wildermyth is a fantasy tactical game currently in beta on itch.io.
loading...
Wildermyth Beta—starting March 1st, 2019
You'll live a hundred lives in the Yondering Lands. You'll untangle human stories and fight mustering forces who threaten peaceful folks. You'll gather threads of beauty, magic, and strife to weave your own ever-growing legend, called Wildermyth.
This is a beta. We think it's pretty fun, but it's not the full, complete game yet. We have a lot more content and features to add, and we'd love for your voice to help steer us as we go.
* * *
An Imaginative Papercraft World
The Yondering Lands weaves hand-painted 2D characters and scenery into a 3D world to create a luscious, layered landscape, full of detail and surprises. No orcs, elves, or goblins here—but watch out for the telepathic insect-dragons and the clockwork undead.
Character Depth
Each of your heroes has their own unique generated history, personality, appearance, and relationships with the other heroes—all of which can change over the course of the game as they encounter mysteries and overcome challenges.
Choices That Matter
A hero may choose to trust the enigmatic wolf god, leading to a particularly hair-raising change in their appearance and combat abilities. Or they may choose whether to pursue a romance with a fellow hero, giving each of them new advantages from fighting side by side. Encounters and events have permanent, character-defining effects, letting you craft the arc of each character.
A New Approach to Death
Got one-shotted by that tentacled horror-bear? Choose to let a hero "fall back" with a maiming that can open up opportunities for transformation later, or let them go down in a blaze of glory to be remembered for generations to come.
Fresh Tactical Combat
Combat in Wildermyth emphasizes teamwork and careful positioning. Walling and flanking provide conflicting incentives, and interfusion lets you remake the battlefield with explosive magic. Multiple difficulty levels mean you can get as intense as you want to.
Endless Replayability
Procedural generation gives you new heroes, new enemies, new story events, and new maps every time you play. Pick and choose from a huge bank of combat abilities as your heroes level up in each playthrough, and decide whether you prefer offensive or defensive tactics, brute strength, stealth, or magically flinging fire from a nearby lamp into your enemies' faces.
Build a Legacy
As time passes, heroes grow old and may retire, or may fall in combat. Adding them to a roster of legends allows you to call on them in later playthroughs, creating a metagame as you build their mythology and increase the renown of your pantheon.
Your Game
We built Wildermyth for you. We want to empower you to tell your best stories. Let us know what we can do to make it better.
PC Gamer reports on Star Renegades, which is a 'tactical strategy rogue-lite RPG' about an endless rebellion.
And I mean literally won't quit, as each run through the game represents an attempted rebellion: When you blow it (and I guess the assumption is that you will), the rebel flame flickers until the next generation comes along to pick up the torch. That's the "rogue-lite" element of the multi-genre Star Renegades; the RPG side comes into play via the special skills, tactics, combos, synergies and other "meta-unlocks," plus weapons, loot, and gear, that characters can gain and pass down to future fighters.
TheSixthAxis reports on a new RPG in development called Haven that focuses on love. Screenshots at the link.
loading...
Sure, this couple have escaped to another planet, but it’s about staying together as they rebel against the rules and ponder how many breakfasts you can have in a day. There’s some interesting design apparent in the bundle of screenshots, from the gorgeous open world and JRPG-style conversations to the twin character controls in combat. You’ll be able to play it solo or in co-op with, you know, someone special.
Bluesnews reports that Vambrace: Cold Soul has been announced. The game is described as a Roguelike fantasy/adventure and is due April 25th.
loading...
Vambrace: Cold Soul is a roguelike fantasy-adventure set amidst a frozen landscape. Plan your expeditions underground, then journey to the cursed city surface with your team of heroes. Wield unique powers, avoid dangerous traps, brave strange encounters, and survive deadly combat!
Hazardous Space is a Roguelike 2D turn-based action game with RPG elements and has recently reached version 1.0.
loading...
A dangerous survival adventure in space station labirynths. Turn-based combat, character progression, the atmosphere of impending threat. Collect and modify weapons, stock up on ammunition and first-aid kits, use your brain and think two steps ahead. Between you and the exit from the station - a horde of enemies who know nothing about fear or mercy.
Features
Unravel Mystery of the Wanderer Station
The "Wanderer" station is full of secrets for you to uncover. Perhaps, that's how we will find out what happened there and how the arrival of Max is connected with that. Or maybe not only that. The main thing to survive!
Whole Station of Labyrinths and Traps
If you think that the layout of the premises in the future will cease to be the fruit of the maniacal misanthrope's sick mind - you are deeply mistaken. Max will have to wade through the mazes, crowded with traps, enemies and other surprises. A simple straight path is for wimps!
Craft System and Resource Management
From rusty knuckles to super-mega-blaster - feel like a master gunsmith! And do not forget about your battlesuit: it makes you strong, dexterous, skillful - demanding energy instead. Lots of energy. Tons of energy!
Wide Selection of Weapons
If the enemy is unresting - provide him with the eternal rest! For this, there's a whole arsenal of various weapons at the "Wanderer" station. Grenades, machine guns, brass knuckles, pistols... Not enough? Each weapon can have an elemental damage module!
Hordes of Diverse Enemies
Zombies, mutants, mutant zombies, monsters from laboratories, zombie monsters from laboratories ... Max and you are not going to get bored!
High Replayability
Have you explored the station, remembered the compartments' layout, taken notes of the traps and stashes? Here's a new walkthrough for you! Each new attempt feels like the first time, cause the levels are generated procedurally.
Story:
It's 2115. Something terrible has happened on board the research space station Wanderer, and the former space marine Max Carnage becomes an unwilling participant in these events. To survive, he will need to remember his military past.
Mad Princess: The Great Gladiators - Now Available
by Silver, 08:37
TheGG reports that Mad Princess: The Great Gladiators is now available on DLSite. The game is described as a gladiator role-playing game.
January 11th, 2019, Tokyo – The English translated version of independent developer Atorasoft’s gladiator role-playing game “Mad Princess: The Great Gladiators” is now available for sale on DLsite and is planned to be released on Steam.
Developer Comment: “YOU, the player, will not be restricted by a single story. In this RPG you can enjoy a ‘free-scenario’ where you are at liberty to adventure and play as you please.
The battle and exploration controls are straightforward, allowing the player to enjoy the content many times in a smooth and hassle-free manner. We sincerely hope you enjoy our game!”
Wccftech reports on a beta giveaway for Conqueror's Blade.
Conqueror’s Blade is starting its first fully featured Closed Beta test today. There were others some time ago, as you might recall, but none featured the game’s distinctive open world elements that are going to be available in this test.
Grab one of the five hundred beta codes we got from My.com to join the frantic battles between Warlords. They’ll be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. For more on this free-to-play MMO medieval warfare game, check our previous hands-on preview and our interview with Xi Wang, CEO of the Chinese studio Booming Games.
Genesis Alpha One bears the distinction of being part fps, part ship-builder, part management sim, and part roguelite. If that seems like an awful lot of different things to juggle, well, it is. But the game pulls it off extremely well. It’s fairly complicated and doesn’t like to hold your hand, but it lets you take it at your own pace. There’s a brief tutorial at the beginning that teaches you the basics of shipbuilding, but you’ll mostly have to learn by doing. Moving around the galaxy is also fairly simple, as you initially just hop from square to square with hyperdrive via the bridge.
The truth is, Genesis Alpha One feels like an Early Access game, far from the polished status one would expect from a full release – even an indie one. While the concept is intriguing and very promising, the lack of immersion and design decisions make everything exhausting. If you’re interested in a roguelike sci-fi game, you could give Genesis a shot, but don’t expect much from what is clearly an unfinished title.
The visual and sound designs are also mixed bags. Gun models in particular don’t look very good and the overall interface can be really untidy to dig around. Alien creatures look laughably bad and there is a distinct lack of variety among human character models, with your crew members looking almost identical to each other. I do like some of the game’s design choices, though: the monitors and UI are clearly inspired by the original Alien franchise, which all look great. The sound design can be best described as just being there, not really adding anything to the experience or taking anything away from it either.
Genesis Alpha One is a collection of really good ideas, but its execution ended up being very messy. I really hope the developers don’t abandon this game as it is, as there is some serious untapped potential to be a great game in here as long as they fix its many issues.
Like all great sci-fi there are surprises around every corner in Genesis Alpha One. From that first time you delve into the ventilation system of your ship to discover a truly horrific alien infestation, to landing on a strange planet only to find some strange DNA that will let you splice alien abilities into your crew’s genetic make-up - leading to humans that can visibly sense hidden threats. Then there’s running into a nasty group of space pirates that proceed to warp in and around your ship, decimating your facilities and crew. Each voyage presents a new galaxy to explore, new planets, new challenges, with the ability to carry over select bonuses and technology; with total play time varying from short and sweet if you’re unable to overcome a nasty infestation to somewhere in the ten-hour range.
Genesis Alpha One still offers alot to like. There’s glimpses of something surprisingly unique and genuinely interesting under the weak combat and often repetitive gameplay loop. The game is priced cheaper than most, and many folks won’t struggle to get their money’s worth. As a base it feels like a title that could evolve into something great given enough time and resources with future updates. As it stands though it’s hard to recommend the game wholeheartedly right now.
In Warhammer Quest 2: The End Times, you will lead your warriors across a war torn land and into dungeons for wealth and glory! Swing swords, fire arrows and cast spells as you fight through the denizens of Chaos that threaten the Warhammer world. Success in battle is rewarded with new weapons, armours, skills and treasure. Explore a war-torn fantasy world! Be on your guard as you travel through a world in turmoil. The road holds danger for the heedless traveller, but rich rewards for the wary hero.
Explore three regions, each with their own enemy sets, objectives and multi-part campaign quests.
Visit towns to barter in markets, discover new quests, and level up your warriors to gain new skills and gameplay possibilities.
Paths between dungeons are littered with events and opportunities to improve your chance of victory in the next turn based battle!
Battle through deadly dungeons! Experience all the peril and danger of the Warhammer world as you battle your enemies through Chaos ridden dungeons.
Encounters come to life as your warriors enter the fray with a vast array of weapons and skills.
Hold your enemies back with fire, use ice to freeze them to the spot, or poison them with lethal toxins.
Attack with magic staffs, explosive pistols and flaming hammers. If all else fails use legendary armour or mystical robes to deflect attacks.
Heroes and Enemies! A variety of different heroes and enemies bring huge tactical variety to the dungeons. From Sorceresses and Mages, to Witch Hunters and Knights. Find which characters best suit your playstyle.
Choose from 12 different Hero classes. All with unique weapons, armours, skills and items!
Battle over 40 types of enemies, ranging from simple minded Beastmen to devious Skaven Seers and monstrous Trolls!
Collect and equip over 200 different weapons, items and armours. Figure out which combination is most effective for bashing the enemy!
Easy to learn, hard to master. Engage in deep tactical gameplay as you encounter new enemies with new devious abilities that will test your strategic ability to its limits.
Can you defeat the Chaos invasion? Only the mightiest will survive in Warhammer Quest 2: The End Times!
@DSOGaming DRAGON BALL GAME – PROJECT Z is an action RPG coming 2019.
This action RPG is called DRAGON BALL GAME – PROJECT Z and will allow players to assume the role of Goku (also known as Kakarot). What’s also really interesting here is that this new DBZ game is currently scheduled for a 2019 release.
Culture of Gaming looks deeper at the art of video game swordplay and how games have gone about it through different eras.
Flipping the Perspective
Outside of combat itself, perspective can be a key component to how you strategize your attack plan. Even something as seemingly simple as camera placement can greatly influence your perspective of any sword fight. Many Souls-likes and Zeldas have adopted Ocarina of Time’s lock-on-camera, but some do it differently than others. Dark Souls’ camera stays at a nice, comfy distance from the player, while Wind Waker zooms in nice and close. Then there’s For Honor, where the camera stays on roughly the same altitude as the player’s head.
Lock-on camera isn’t essential for a great fighting system, however. Chivalry Medieval Warfare is played entirely from a first-person perspective, using position-based commands instead of various kinds of attacks. Then there’s the Soulcalibur series, which is a beautiful blend of fighting game combat and swordplay, all viewed from a semi-2D perspective. Of course, if 3D isn’t your thing, there are plenty of 2D sword simulators that are just as mechanically deep. Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and Symphony of The Night are all gorgeous examples of 2D combat done right.
The latest update for Code of the Savage announces an Alpha Demo Version.
Alpha Demo version 0.296
There isn't a lot visually to show, as most of the work I've been doing has been under the hood. I was struggling with some niggling issues in the magic system for a while, which was driving me insane... That's all fixed now, though.
I have added classes to the magic window. The classes can be selected via the 3 new buttons at the top of the window. Not all spells have been added to the game yet. (that is low on my priority list at the moment). I plan on adding a 4th class that deals in curses and pestilence.
The stats window has been updated to include elemental resistances, and the hunger system is more or less in place. (currently the hunger drains much faster than it will in the final game, due to testing purposes). I've placed food on the ground in the starting position. When the hunger meter goes passed the halfway mark, the players stats will begin to progressively lower. There is no health loss or death caused by hunger, only temporary stat loss.
Hovering over elements in the stats window will show a hover over window explaining what that element does.
World building - I have written scripts that automate how walls and fences are placed. Previously it was quite tedious to place a building or fence, as I needed to manually place the upper and lower portion of the wall, add two different types of directional blockers, add boundaries to prevent picking up items through walls, add the correct top wall edge, and then hope that I didn't make any mistakes...Now all I need to do, is place the top part of the wall, and the code does the rest automatically. This will make world building MUCH easier in future.
added classes to the magic system
fixed magic window scrolling
new fire sprite and animation
torches can now be toggled on or off
hunger system in place
fixed issue with tree top shadows
hover over for stat page elements
spell classes added
effect icons in stat window now working
added target-self for spells
wall/fence placement automation
fixed magic window scrolling
Alpha version 0.296 has now been moved to the Dropbox folder for eligible backers. As usual, let me know via PM if you need the link again.
Just a couple of things to note:
I would like to get your specific thoughts about the grid based movement. Does it feel natural to you? Would you prefer to see free movement similar to Ultima 7? Currently it is modeled more on Ultima 6.
I have been getting the odd generic crash when I exit the game. Please let me know if you also experience this.
I hope everyone is having a good start to the year! I will be away for 2 weeks starting Feb 6th, so the next update may be delayed a bit.
Generation Zero - Robo-Survival RPG Coming in March
by Silver, 20:07
PCInvasion reports on Generation Zero, which is a robo-survival RPG due to release in March.
Swedish Robo-Survival RPG Generation Zero Coming In March
Have you ever wanted to roam the countryside of say, I don’t know, 1980s Sweden? Perhaps in an alternate timeline where said country was rampant with giant construction themed murder-bots, which you would have to fight?
Well, if you are someone who wanted that, first of all, wow, what a specific thing to desire. Secondly, you’re in luck! The company behind both Mad Max and Just Cause, Avalanche Studios, is working on a game just like that. What’s more, it’s set to release in a few months.
1995, Kamurocho... Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima, takes the fall for the murder of a crime boss to protect his sworn brother, Akira Nishikiyama, and his childhood friend, Yumi.
2005... Akira Nishikiyama has become a changed man. Yumi is nowhere to be found. Ten billion yen has gone missing from the Tojo Clan's coffers, putting the organization on the brink of civil war. And Kazuma Kiryu is released from prison to a world he no longer recognizes.
With enhanced gameplay, an expanded cinematic story, the return of the battle styles from Yakuza 0, more nightlife spots, and re-recorded audio by the series cast, Yakuza Kiwami is the ultimate and most "extreme" version of the original vision of the series, now optimised for PC with 4K resolutions, uncapped framerates, customisable controls and ultra-widescreen support.
OnlySP writes about Soulsbourne, which was a buzzword, and now is becoming a Subgenre.
For Soulsborne to be classified as a subgenre, it must maintain specific qualities that are found within its shared titles. While many characteristics can be used to describe a Soulsborne game, three stand out as primary factors: higher than average difficulty, severe death penalties, and, most importantly, stamina-based combat.
Stamina-based combat remains an important aspect of a Soulsborne title because, without it, the game loses its soul. In the absence of stamina-based combat, boss fights become less frightening at first glance, and enemy encounters lose all of the tension that is built up from the outnumbering of the player. A Soulsborne game should strive for greatness within this factor, as it is the defining feature that sets it apart from other genres.
The Turnbasedlovers made a list of upcoming turn-based RPGs :
Top upcoming tactical turn-based RPGs of 2019
2019 will be a year full of interesting turn-based games, both indie and not so I prepared a list with some of the games I’m following. In this list, you will find the most promising (for me) turn-based strategy / tactical / RPGs with a release date scheduled for 2019. As in my other lists, I will try to keep them updated adding new games that I will discover and that will be suggested by the community. In the list, you will find strategic games, tactical games, and classic RPGs as long as they have turn-based mechanics. For each game, there will be a video, links to their official website, steam page, my overviews, and their release date. Regarding the release date, it may vary over the course of time, so sometimes it may not coincide. Let’s start with my list of the top upcoming tactical turn-based strategy RPGs of 2019.
Meeple Station is a RPG simulation game set on a space station and currently in Early Access.
loading...
Have you ever wanted to build your own space station? Trade goods and care for the inhabitants? Explore distant galaxies and take on daring missions while trying to keep your meeple alive! Meeple station is an open-ended space station simulator in the vein of Rimworld that succeeds in doing just that. Live a never ending adventure whilst trying to make the best of your ramshackle station.
Build a Space Station
Want to build a sprawling, multi levelled station that caters to your Meeple's needs? Focus on trade, mining and research whilst keeping your hapless Meeple alive by generating power, life support wiring your station up. Set up a botany department in the basement, only to have a fuel line cut and set fire to it. Fix leaks caused by your fuel line not being maintained, or bits of your station lacking oxygen due to an open airlock. SCIENCE!
Survive pirates and meteors
Remember kids, failure is fun. When something goes wrong, it goes REALLY wrong in Meeple Station. Your officer could decide that the airlock isn't necessary and deconstruct it, wiping out half your station, only for a stray meteor to hit your solar array, powering down your life support while everyone is snoring away in bed. Trade any of the myriad of goods you scrounge up. Become a mining station, strip mine entire quadrants and sell the runoff to a trading faction nearby but be wary of pirates and face eating space-squids.
Explore the galaxy and research new tech
Explore the galaxy in search of new resources to sell and people to meet. Go anywhere you please so long as you have enough fuel and an engine! Do you want to focus on engineering? Defence and security? Refining? Set up a research lab and hope for the best! Officers can unlock new tech, but they can be a difficult (cantankerous) bunch to appease, and if you let them, they can and will run your station into the ground! Good luck captain.
Gamers Decide has published their list of eleven RPGs to look forward to for 2019-2020.
11 Awesome Upcoming RPGs We Can't Wait To Play
RPG games are more immersive and varied than ever before. Gamers can now choose to explore and live out radical science fiction and fantasy worlds of all types, and in some cases, explore with friends online. These twelve upcoming games promise to be on the cutting edge of RPG gaming, and are sure to delivers hours of mind-blowing game-play.
11. VALHALL
loading...
VALHALL Gameplay
The Nordic apocalypse is here. Can you stop Ragnarok? In Valhall, players battle with fifty others online to emerge as the worthy successor to Odin’s Sword.
As one of the only medieval Battle Royale games, Valhall promises to deliver the thrill of battle royale games like Fortnite and PUBG, only in a dream-world rooted deep in Norse mythology. Butcher your enemies with sword and axe, or outwit them with parkour and the stealthy deadliness of a bow and arrow.
Already available in Early Access, the full game is expected to be released by the end of 2019.
9. Rustler
loading...
Ever wonder what a medieval Grand Theft Auto game might be like? That’s Rustler. A self-described “Parody of RPG clichés”, Rustler lets players go wild in a medieval kingdom.
Take quests, work with factions, or just wreak havoc on the populace with all sorts of medieval weaponry. Let the arrows fly and the horses charge! Players can even team up online to destroy a kingdom-or each other.
Rustler is currently in Pre-Alpha, with a release date planned for sometime in the near future.
@DSOGaming A new gameplay trailer for Genesis Alpha One which is currently exclusive to Epic's store and set to release January 29th.
As the Captain of a Genesis starship, you journey into uncharted space on the ultimate mission. Build and manage a space vessel, explore the galaxy for resources and interesting new lifeforms and experiment with DNA and alien abilities as you clone new crew members. Your goal: Find new homes for humanity’s DNA and save the species from extinction.
Worthplaying reports on a new studio called Winterborn that is set to make a tactical RPG. The studio itself is made up of ex-Infinity Ward developers.
Winterborn is a passionate team working hard to bring an epic role-playing story to your fingertips as you explore a whole new world that has been built from years of tabletop play. We plan to release more information in the coming months, including interviews with the people who played the original tabletop version along with members of the development team. The goal at Winterborn is to make a game for both classic and new players that will be both rewarding and challenging as we bring the games we grew up on into the future.
General News - Life on the Grid @ The Digital Antiquarian
by Hiddenx, 18:44
The Digital Antiquarianlooks back at dungeon crawlers with real-time grid-based movement:
Life on the Grid The Digital Antiquarian
[...]
But it’s another, almost equally interesting example of this process that’s the real subject of our interest today: the case of the real-time grid-based dungeon crawler. After the release of Sir-Tech’s turn-based dungeon crawl Wizardry in 1981, it wasn’t hard to imagine what the ideal next step would be: a smooth-scrolling first-person 3D environment running in real time. Yet that was a tall order indeed for the hardware of the time — even for the next generation of 16-bit hardware that began to arrive in the mid-1980s, as exemplified by the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga. So, when a tiny developer known as FTL decided the time had come to advance the state of the art over Wizardry, they compromised by going to real time but holding onto a discrete grid of locations inside the dungeon of Dungeon Master.
Verdict: 4/5 “Between The Stars” is with no doubt a game project to follow at least, and for a demo it’s shows that there is something substantial to be had.
The fact that it’s not free-roaming may deter people, as may the speed of everything. However, if the project is successfully funded (which it was), then there is no reason these things can’t be fixed, especially as there seems to be the basis of a strong story.
Henriquejr spotted this list of 2019 games on PC Gamer (I have listed RPGs only):
The PC games of 2019
Our guide to the best games of 2019.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Anthem Biomutant Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Blue Omen Operation Code Vein Cyberpunk 2077 Disco Elysium Greedfall Minecraft: Dungeons Morning Star Ori and the Will of the Wisps Phoenix Point Praey for the Gods Shenmue 3 Starfield Stoneshard Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition The Forgotten City The Outer Worlds The Surge 2 Wasteland 3 Werewolf: The Apocalypse Witchbrook
Unlike the PS4, the PC platform doesn’t get all those big budget exclusives, but that doesn’t mean there’s a dearth of gems on the oldest gaming platform. In fact, Steam has thousands of exclusive indie titles that are made with a lot of love and attention to detail by talented developers all over the world. Since these indies form the backbone of the PC gaming industry, we’ll mainly focus on them with a few notable AAA games throw into the mix as well:
The D20 Beat: 2018’s RPGs — my critical hits and made saving throws
When I think about 2018’s role-playing games, I don’t see lots of bombast and flash. Blockbuster studios often stayed away. Square Enix’s main offerings this year weren’t triple-A releases. You didn’t see anything from BioWare, and Bethesda’s Fallout 76 sure doesn’t feel like an RPG to me.
[...]
The critical hits
These are my favorite RPGs of 2018. They tell fantastic stories, pose interesting combat situations, and have engaging character development (either through story or through stats).
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep
Book of Demons
Battletech
Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu
Making their saves
These are solid RPGs, but they don’t qualify as critical hits. They are worthy of playing.
Anomaly is a standalone S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod powered by an x64 version of Open X-Ray. Built upon Last Day, the mod continues its way on expanding and adding new features while maintaining a high level of quality and replay value.
From the Founding of Pendor - the year is 354 A King has not ruled the shattered land of Pendor for many generations. What was once a proud accomplishment of man now is steeped in the myths of folklore and told as children’s bedtime stories. Yet, the legends live on of a prophesy of hope. A tale of a champion who comes from a distant shore and unites the lords of Pendor under a single Ruler and brings peace and prosperity once again to this ravaged war-torn land. All is not as it seems as there are many powers who have their own ends in mind and an epic struggle is about to unfold. Strap on your sword, and buckle your imagination. Prepare to enter the world of Pendor and accept the challenge of the Prophesy - if you dare.
Warsword Conquest is a total conversion of warbands mount and blade 1.153 based on the Warhammer Fantasy world by Games workshop and is single player only at moment.
Fallout: New California adds an all new story around a new player character, an adopted resident of Vault 18, embarking on a journey through the wastelands of the New California Republic's Cajon Pass. An unofficial prequel to New Vegas, FPB adds hours of new gameplay and a fully voiced stand alone campaign.
You will face the New California Republic under president Wendell Peterson, the New Reno Mob's Bishop Family, the remnant Shi Clans, The Enclave Leonidas Squadron, the Super Mutant Army, and the bloodthirsty Raider Alliance that have banded together in the remote Athens-Tec Uranium Mine off the Long I-15.
Through them all you'll choose your path from SPECIAL dialog options, acquired PERKs, and travel with 8 possible companions depending on your choices. You'll enjoy two new radio stations with unique music, hours of voice acting, and professional grade presentation.
There is always another path to take in New California. But War? War never changes.
Erich Schaefer on Starblo - Blizzards Unreleased Sci-fi Action RPG
by Silver, 20:14
TechRaptor interviewed Erich Schaefer about Starblo; which is a science fiction action RPG that was never released.
As Mr. Schaefer continued to describe the game, I told him that hearing about this title was painful to say the least. The prospects of what would have gotten were simply tantalizing. Erich, too, seemed saddened and disappointed about it never having seen the light of day. “I think what it did have at the very end there – it was kind of a bummer that it died – was it had fun gameplay,” he began. “It was very ‘Diablo II-ish in space’, a little bit crazier and more science fiction. But it was crisp. It had movement and [fun skills] and good pacing. I think we were really getting that feeling down when it all crashed down for me.”
One of the points he highlighted was the notion of perhaps making the game one day. He told me that he occasionally talks with his ex-Blizzard colleague David Brevik (who we interviewed last month) about somehow getting Starblo put together. I assured Erich Schaefer that such a title would probably do quite well, especially if it were put together with the same practiced hands that had graced us with Diablo II.
Strategy Tactical game Wargroove has a new trailer and is due to release Q1 2019.
loading...
Take to the battlefield with Wargroove, a strategy game for up to 4 players! Choose your Commander and wage turn-based war on battling factions. Design and share maps, cut-scenes and campaigns with easy-to-use editors and in-depth customization tools!
GameRant reports that Halo Infinite could feature RPG mechanics.
As per the job posting, 343 is hiring a Senior Systems Designer to work on Halo Infinite. The bulk of the listing is what one might expect, indicating that the ideal candidate will have experience with high-level design on AAA games and a specific understanding of the inner-workings of shooter titles. However, one requirement stands out among the rest, as the post emphasizes that applicants should be familiar with RPG mechanics.
@TheGG Neverinth is a hack and slash action RPG coming to Steam 2019.
Play up to 5 different Valkyries, each with a unique set of abilities and history based on real historical figures. Gain the power of the fallen Gods unlocking their mythical weapons and skills. Unlock new content including levels, new characters, monsters, and abilities. Collect and wield a wide range of incredible weapons.
LostHero is a third person action RPG which has entered Early Access.
loading...
Lost Hero is a hardcore dark fantasy action RPG with a sci-fi twist. As an outcast hero, a mercenary of a secret order, you will be fighting against the dark forces of chaos and destruction in the world struggled by ethernal war between the races. Only you can decide which side will get the power. Play alone or in 2 - 4 player coop. Travel the dark world, destroy your enemies in a skill-based action combat and collect resources to craft and improve your arsenal. Level up your hero to withstand the toughest boss fights.
loading...
The first video preview of our new third person action RPG for PC called LOSTHERO. Player deside to leave his weathered town and find own self in darkness of unknown. Create your own hero, discover a new world, collect resources,learn new skills, prepare your defense towers, and fight! LOSTHERO game it's debut of indie studio GOLDKNIGHTS from Czech Republic.
Role-playing games have long since entered the mainstream and the influence of their popularity on other genres is undeniable. The most borrowed facet of the RPG experience is the idea of long-term character growth and customization, a concept now commonly found in fighting games, shooters, and sports sims. It's a universally useful way to remain engaged with a game over time and uncover depth as your skills improve.
[...]
PC Games: Dragon Quest XI: Echoes Of An Elusive Age - 9/10 Kingdom Come: Deliverance - 8/10 Monster Hunter World - 8/10 Ni No Kuni II: The Revenant Kingdom - 8/10 Pillars Of Eternity II: Deadfire - 8/10 The Banner Saga 3 - 8/10
New Editions: Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition - 10/10 Wasteland 2: Director's Cut - 8/10
I wanted to list some of the features being rolled into and out with the eventual release of Yserbius 2. Some will say its to many features. I say that some will not roll out immediately but are currently in the engine awaiting implementation.
[...]
Quests:
Our quest system will be more in depth that anything Yserbius related before. We will be able to create different types of Quests or chain of quests that can guide your players through your storyline. We will be asking our members and players to help us develop quest chains.
Dialogues:
We will create different dialogues for your NPC's. As well you can also use this system to allow multiple outcomes in the storyline depending on what a player chooses while speaking to an NPC.
Items:
This is my favorite part and how we will be bringing all the items from the original game into the new game environment. We create all the items for the game with this module, add different stats to items and functionality. We will be able to attach over 30 different effects to the item which can be a different category of weapons, armors, consumables, materials, ammo and more.
Socketing:
Taking lessons from larger mmo's we will be incorporating Socketing System allows you define types and amounts of sockets per type basis like runes, gems, etc.
Enchanting:
Another item from a big box MMO will be the Enchanting System to let you level up your players items by defining profiles and levels of enchanting.
Item Sets:
A favorite of mine. Sets of the items define the set and its bonuses, and when you will equip them, bonuses will be added to your character.
Auction House:
Huge module that will take some work buts its in the bag! Auction House, one of the biggest feature of this release, which allows you to find items by using search, filter by grade, class, race, and level, to finally purchase it from the auction.
Skills:
We are torn between a UO Style Use based Skill system (sandbox) or a level based. The original Yserbius wasnt like this, so its really what players are going to want. we may implement both systems and see which players prefer. .A skill system which allows you to open up skills when players level up with XP or level up their skill by using it like another older game.
Abilities:
Create different abilities for players that can get when they have a certain skill. They can use these abilities in a wide range of ways from combat to crafting to professions. Abilities define target type like single player or area, dead or alive, range requirements, etc.
Effects:
Build your own effects for your game to make it unique like a melee-strike effect that deals physical damage or a magic effect that heals your player. We will have more than 20 effect types are possible to name a few: damage, restore, revive, stat change, stun, sleep, immune, dispel, teleport, mount, build an object, teach ability, skill and more.
Coord Effects:
We can setup different animations, particles and more to run on events such as play an attack animation and a particle when you use a striking ability.
Stats System:
We will be able to cesign any type of stat you want for your game with this module.
Player Character Setup:
This will allow us the ability to create the diverse players like the original YS. albeit the graphics will be a little better. Here we setup what races, stats, and classes you want your players to start with as well as where you want them to spawn and how you want starter characters to look like.
Crafting System:
We will be designing crafting recipes up to 16 ingredients, set crafting skill required for specific recipe along with crafting station. Define different chance for a different result like 100% chances for a common sword, 50% chances for a magic sword, etc. Our system supports grid based crafting and crafting book with experience based option.
Arena System:
Rather than open PVP we will be setting up dedicated PvP instances for solo or groups.
Gamasutra looks at State of Decay 2, Star Citizen, and Battletech and how they design characters as UI.
...
The mech model: Battletech
The model damage in Battletech is actually a holdover from its genesis as a tabletop game. A wireframe of each mech was displayed on a record sheet with a certain number of empty circles allocated to each section (its center torso, for instance, or each leg). A dice roll indicated which area was hit and every time the mech took damage, players would fill in circles in that area, until all the circles were full and the entire piece was destroyed.
“Being able to dynamically reflect that visually in gameplay is an advantage we have in a video game over the tabletop game,” says Steve Rynders, Battletech’s principal character pipeline artist at developer Harebrained Schemes. “Fortunately, Piranha Games shared their Mechwarrior Online assets with us and the models were already built in a way that supported damaging and destroying geometry. Aside from it being awesome to see an arm blown off and its pieces rain down on the terrain along with the sparks and explosion, it helps to reinforce and communicate to the player that there has been a state change.”
To show off meaningful systems or parts damage, Rynders and the team dynamically toggle between different assets.
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.
ATLAS is a high seas open world pirate survival MMO that is set to launch on Steam December 20th.
loading...
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)!
@Gematsu Developer Endlessfluff Games has announced Fae Tactics for Steam early 2019.
loading...
In Fae Tactics, follow a young magic user named Peony on her journey across a vibrant world full of mystery and danger. Summon allies, cast spells, and befriend a motley crew of characters as you dive into the growing conflicts between man and magical beings known as fae.
Story Long ago the world of magic was separated from the natural world by Elemental Gates. One day the seal on the gates was broken, flooding the natural world with magical fae creatures once thought to be myths. The worlds merging was imperfect and much of the land was torn apart. The devastation claimed the lives of most of the population of natural and fae creatures alike. Those that survived have forged new lives in the ruins of the old worlds, but growing tension between man and fae threaten to finish what began with the opening of the gates.
Features
Unique menuless turn based tactical gameplay.
Manage the magical elements of your party to counter the enemies elements.
Befriend a colorful cast of allies! Level Up and customize their abilities.
Battle all kinds of Fae creatures and collect them into your team.
Find powerful and unique Spells to help tip the scales in your favor.
Traverse a variety of colorfully detailed environments in this isometric wonderland.
Unravel secrets as you explore the various conflicts in the world in any order you want!
@TheGGStoneshard is a turn-based roguelike RPG by Ink Stains Games.
loading...
“And why is that”? So you might wonder. The answer is very simple. It’s because “Stoneshard: Prologue” is more or less a mix of old-school “Diablo“, “The Binding of Isaac“, “Dink Smallwood”, “ADOM“, “Nethack” and “Ancient Evil”. In other words, “Stoneshard” is a mix of a lot of nice things (the old and the new). Furthermore, the game is very easy to learn, but hard to master (you will die a lot) .
Yes, that’s right. “Stoneshard: Prologue” is the kind of game that is very unforgiving (think “Dark Souls” meets “Diablo Median XL” and “Ancient Evil”). So that means that the game will punish you instantly if you mess up, and most of the time, that results in an instant death on the spot (watch out for traps!).
Hack n' slash game Darksiders 3 has been released on Steam to a mixed reception.
loading...
Return to an apocalyptic Earth in Darksiders III, a hack-n-slash Action Adventure where players assume the role of FURY in her quest to hunt down and dispose of the Seven Deadly Sins. The most unpredictable and enigmatic of the Four Horsemen, FURY must succeed where many have failed - to bring balance to the forces that now ravage Earth. Darksiders III is the long-anticipated, third chapter in the critically-acclaimed Darksiders franchise.
Play as FURY - a mage who must rely on her whip and magic to restore the balance between good and evil on Earth!
Harness FURY's magic to unleash her various forms - each granting her access to new weapons, moves and traversal abilities.
Explore an open-ended, living, free-form game world in which FURY moves back and forth between environments to uncover secrets while advancing the story.
Defeat the Seven Deadly Sins and their servants who range from mystical creatures to degenerated beings.
Sit in awe of Darksiders signature art style - expansive post-apocalyptic environments that take the player from the heights of heaven to the depths of hell, dilapidated by war and decay and overrun by nature.
DSOGaming reports that action RPG Atomic Heart has a new trailer.
Atomic Heart is an adventure first-person shooter, events of which unfolds in an alternate universe during the high noon of the Soviet Union. In this game, players assume the role of special agent P-3, who after an unsuccessful landing on enterprise “3826” is trying to figure out what went wrong and to clear up a factory from went mad robots.
VentureBeat interviewed Mathieu Girard, formerly of Amplitude Studios, who has started a new RPG company called Tactical Adventures, and asked him about his open game license Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition RPG.
Girard left Amplitude in January, and now, he’s ready to talk about his next adventure … a tactical one. Today, he’s announcing his new company, Tactical Adventures. It’s a studio in Paris that wants to make PC role-playing games that blend the rich stories of classics like Baldur’s Gate with the tactical choices you make in games like XCOM. It’s working on a yet-to-be announced game, one that will use the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition Open Game License (OGL). This means that it’ll use the base rules, but it won’t feature any of the worlds (such as the Forgotten Realms) that belong to Wizards of the Coast.
[...]
GamesBeat:Why is now the time to start making your passion project?
Girard: Because I’ve learned a lot. I’ve made lots of different games. I’ve made strategy games and even Formula One racing games. I’ve made shooter games, management games, 4X games. Lots of stuff. I guess what I was missing was an RPG. But it can be a bit scary to make an RPG. It seems very complex. You have to build lots of environments and monsters and a huge scenario. But it’s not that complex once you have experience. I want to have a more systemic approach to an RPG rather than a purely narrative approach. The idea is to bring something new to the game mechanics of an RPG on a computer.
Worshippers is a RPG/Strategy game that was released early this year on Steam.
loading...
Background
Old gods have forsaken us, but there is still hope. Mysterious sage is wandering from village to village, bringing stories about new powerful idols. Ten nights, ten stories to be told. Would it be enough to convert locals to the way of new gods? Time will tell.Sit around a fire and listen to stories about gods and theirs worshippers.
Description
Worshippers is a fast-paced strategy combined with collectible card game. Take control over small tribe and help them survive in the hostile land. With every scenario unlock new cards, that can be used in developing your own unique strategies!
Features:
Fast-paced, easy to learn (but no so easy to master) strategy game!
Single scenario could be finished in half a hour!
Combination of turn-based strategy and collectible card game.
OnlySP interviewed the developers of Eastshade, which is an open world exploration game with some RPG systems.
So what exactly is Eastshade? We’ve seen a lot of absolutely gorgeous screenshots from the game by this point, but I’m not exactly sure what you do in the game yet! I know it’s an open world exploration game with RPG elements, can you elaborate on that?
WEINBAUM: Well, its an open-world adventure game where you play as a traveling artist. You can paint pictures at any time, which operate much like a photograph or screenshot. Many of the quest objectives manifest in painting commissions which require a certain object you must find, a sight you need to notice, sometimes at certain times. So it’s not meant to be a painting program, but rather an open world to explore.
There is an inventory with some light crafting mechanics, many NPCs with quests and micro-stories, and a very clear sense of progression throughout the game. The world has impasses that the player needs to surmount in a sort of adventure game style, where you’re doing different kinds of quests (sometimes painting, sometimes object collection, and sometimes a riddle or puzzle that needs solving, often using knowledge obtained from somewhere else in the world) for folks and they reward you with items or knowledge to keep exploring new areas.
The environments are varied, as are the little stories you encounter as you talk to more people.
Piotr Mierzwa (hardsurface artist) is designing one of the robots we'll meet in the game.
