Not much else to say. If you've never picked up the game, but are curious about it, there's no excuse now. Because it's free. Free, because you're the product.
We spend 18 months on each remaster, and we redo everything. Every location, encounter, and line of dialogue gets revised and polished. This takes a while.
There is also a ton of new material. Several new zones. Lots of new characters and quest lines. We added a whole new ability tree, Weapon Shaping abilities that augment your blade and missile attacks, that is entirely new to the series. Thus, if you were a Geneforge 2 fan, there's a whole new way to play through it.
We put in a lot of new content based on the feedback of Kickstarter backers. You will find that a lot of the emptier cracks in the game have been filled with lore and tangential stuff to do. This makes the world seem a lot more fleshed out. A lot more real. Again, I’m really happy with the result.
We put a ton of work into this game, atoning for the flaws of 20 years ago.
The Old Economics Of Our Business
We've been in business for 30 years now. We predated the indie game boom by a long time. Heck, we even predate the consumer internet and world wide web.
In the old days, to make the economics of the business work, we had to write games fast. Each all-new, full-length title got 18 months. This meant that sometimes corners were cut. Geneforge 2 was a beloved game, but it was full of threadbare dialogue and cut corners. The structure is there, but the bones were too bare.
(Other games suffered more. Before long, we will remaster Avernum 4, and that one will need and get a LOT of work.)
We have now spent 3 years total on Geneforge 2. We've come to find that this is about the right amount of time for us to put in one of our RPGs to get them about as good as we can get them (tiny company that we are).
This is the final Geneforge 2. I won’t live long enough to get around to remastering it again. And, as always, I have regrets. As I went to sleep last night, I thought about things I could have done. Motivations and dialogue I could have refined. This or that little tweak. But there comes a point where you have to say, “Enough.” I must force myself to be content.
Looking To the Future
I am probably about 12 years from looking at retirement. In that time, we have six old games that are really cool but need a full remaster treatment to bring them into the present. We also have several other games that need a quick polish treatment (like art and rebalancing) to send them into posterity.
And we have ambitions to make new stuff too.
That said, I’m sort of transitioning into the Billy Joel phase of the career. My best, most creative period is behind me, but there is still a lot that should be done. I've written 18 all-new games. Eighteen! This has already been a hugely prolific career. Now I need to wrap everything up, tie up the loose ends, and take a bow with as many people satisfied as possible.
In a few months, I'll let our fans know what the next two years of Spiderweb will look like. We have some exciting plans!
Explore the world of Nova Drakonia through five distinctive backgrounds. Delve into ancient dungeons and forgotten ruins, negotiate peace or wage war with barbarian tribes, defeat terrifying monsters, and forge new alliances as you journey through the land.
Master any weapon, or even a combination of weapons, each with its own set of unique combat abilities.
The game allows for a party of up to 5 members, where you can control each companion manually or leave the tough decisions to the computer. Engage in real-time combat with the option to pause (RTwP), or switch to turn-based mode to devise an elaborate strategy.
Gather, buy, find, or steal dozens of ingredients that allow for the creation of numerous potions, special weapons, armour, shields, and helmets.
Download Demo
Please note that this demo does not fully represent the quality of the finished game. Some art assets, both 3D and 2D, are temporary; and the balance and features may change according to feedback.
The demo is available for Windows 64bit, Mac and Linux.
Minimum system requirements: Intel Core 2 Duo / AMD Phenom II, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 / Radeon HD 6670 2GB, 16GB of free space.
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Feyd Rautha pointed me to the Scribe Kickstarter since I posted about the one yesterday. It looked fairly interesting, so I figured why not? The minimum amount to give in order to get the full game is $25, which seems reasonable. It's also an "All of Nothing" campaign, meaning that if they don't hit their goal, you get your money back. That goal is fairly lofty, though, at $54,183. Here's some of the information:
We chose a side scrolling platformer type of gameplay because we wanted to create an RPG where moving around the world is a gameplay by itself. We wanted to avoid a "walking simulator" as it is often the case in other RPGs where you just move from point A to point B. And if there is no combat in between the places, there is in essence no gameplay. With platforming, jumping puzzles and more, in Scribe, you always find yourself facing challenging environments.
Indeed, given that the art of this game is painstakingly crafted pixel art, our aim was to ensure that each location serves as a visual reward for players, while also enhancing the experience of traveling between them.
Oddly enough, these side scroller CRPGs used to be fairly common back in the late 1980s, especially on the MSX Computer. They all but vanished in the mid to late 1990s, it seems.
About a week ago, I ran across this video about a Kickstarter from a small indie developer looking to push his own Kickstarter for an indie JRPG called Breath of Thunder which he will be releasing on the PC and a bunch of other things. In order to show he's serious about developing the game for multiple platforms and that he can do it, he released his own version of Mighty No. 9 for the 3DS and PSP. Here's some info:
Breath of Thunder is a turn based JRPG created specifically for people who long for a classic RPG experience free of modern complications. There is no obtuse, convoluted storyline, no buttonmashy battle system, and no boring, pointless filler content. Breath of Thunder will remind us all what made us fall in love with this genre in the first place; interesting characters we care about, engaging storylines, vibrant worlds full of fascinating lore, and beautiful music.
There is a world of magic out there, beyond sight and time, that we all explored when we were growing up playing games on our favorite old consoles. It was a world of wonder, where anything was possible and the universe was boundless. Modern AAA game studios have lost sight of that world and seem to have entirely lost interest in that magic, but us gamers have not forgotten. Let Breath of Thunder be your bridge back to that world of wonder and adventure.
There's a demo for Breath of Thunder you can snag right here. As said above, he's developing it for PC, Switch, AtariVCS, and several other platforms.
Here's that bonus freebie he made for PS Vita and 3DS. Pretty damned unique method of campaigning there.
Steam has your first chance to snag The Darkness Below for those interested in partaking in a bit of the old blobber style CRPG. It'll set you back around $13 for this fine looking pixel dungeon crawl. Here's a bit of the description:
Embark on an epic journey into The Darkness Below, a cRPG that pays homage to the golden era of 90's cRPGs. With grid-based movement, turn-based combat, and 2.5D perspective, the game transports you to a vast and colorful fantasy world filled with puzzles, exotic creatures, forgotten dungeons and ancient guardians.
Drawing inspiration from Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, and Might and Magic 3-5, this retro adventure seamlessly blends classic cRPG elements with D&D mechanics, where your choices truly shape your destiny. Dive into a rich and immersive world filled with monsters, npcs, skill trainers, intricate dialogues and meaningful interactions.[/media]
I'm really digging that UI with the little mini-map in the corner. I remember playing Dungeon Master as a kid and having to use graph paper because my sense of direction in that game was absolutely not up to the task. That's when I discovered my map making also wasn't up to the task. Now we have mini-maps.
Oh yeah, and there's a discussion right here about the game with lots of eye candy.
After creating quite a few strategy games as an indie (and mostly solo) developer, I decided to create an cRPG instead. This is the genre that I find myself playing and enjoying the most, from classics such as Baldur’s Gate 2, Fallout 2, Fallout New Vegas, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, to more contemporary games such as Pillars of Eternity, Outer Worlds, Colony Ship, Trudograd, Underrail, and Encased. In short, I really, really like RPGs, and especially ones that use an isometric angle of gameplay.
Sector Unknown is sort of my love letter to both the classics and the contemporaries. I think I’m better suited for telling a story than number crunching strategy games (as evidenced by my mixture of reviews in that genre).
After three years working part-time (well almost full time) on the systems, the game is close to complete on features (movement, inventory, party management, quests, dialogue, crafting, combat, itemization, space flight, etc). I’m aiming to have a demo for the game completed in a month or so. It’s close to completion now, but I’m still not happy with the tutorial level. What I do not want is for it to be a barrier to entry like the much-maligned temple tutorial level in Fallout 2 (I almost never experienced the rest of that fantastic game due to being so turned off by the temple).
The goal for this game is to launch into Early Access. I intend to have over half of the game completed by that EA launch with full launch occurring 6-9 months after that. The idea to do an EA launch was not one taken lightly, but one thing I have found with my past launches is that just when I think a game is bug-free and ready for a seamless launch, players will find new and interesting ways to break things – leading to frantic post-launch schedule of rushing out bug-fixes and patches. I think this way is better. Launch into Early Access and take player feedback over time so that I can get everything sorted for a smooth launch after that.
The other factor is budget. Right now, I do not have the armor or model system in place for player characters and NPCs. These are assets. This will change before Early Access as I have the models done (with no armor or clothing yet), but even after that, I suspect I will need some of the additional revenue from EA launch to finish the last 2-3 planets (as mentioned I aim to have 3-4 story planets complete for EA launch, with the first one ready for the demo in the coming month or so).
I hope people will wishlist and follow this game. It’s always been a dream of mine to create a sci-fi cRPG, and there doesn’t seem to be many on the market except for Colony Ship (which I completed three times). So I hope there’s a market for something like this, a game taking inspiration from early Bioware and some of the great current game developers on the market today.
I will continue to provide updates in the next while, including game systems, story, ideas, and more. I really look forward to people's feedback and thoughts as well.
We've been busy working on Infusion and we have some stuff to show you.
Firstly, we implemented basic crafting for two melee weapons types - sledgehammers and combat knives.
Currently, for both of these weapons, we only have basic metal variations - steel, tichrome and tungsten. We have the model done for a special "flame sledgehammer", but the mechanics are not there yet.
Sledgehammers are crafted from two components - the head and the handle. The type, material and quality of the head is what has the most influence on the resulting sledgehammer. Handle can affect ergonomics which is a special stat that affects various other stats, but we're going to leave that one for a later dev log.
My idea with sledgehammers is that, outside of energy weapons and explosives, they are probably going to be the most powerful damage-wise, but the trade-off is going to be clunkiness, which makes the weapon impractical in many cases compared to more traditional melee weapons, such as knives, swords and mace-like weapons. Sledgehammers are going to be easier to dodge because of slow swing speed and due to their heaviness they will require you to spend a lot of stamina, especially if you're going to use the powerful overhead slam attack. However, if you are Chad who invests in strength, you'll probably be able to pull some crazy damage numbers, especially with the larger heads.
This brings me to the concept of innate weapon-specific attacks - that is, each weapon will have a number of different attack types, these are available by just having the weapon, without requiring a feat. If they have no cooldown or special condition, which will usually be the case, they can be toggled to be used as an auto-attack when you click an enemy. Well, actually, there is no such thing as an auto-attack anymore, every attack is some specific attack type of your current weapon.
For example, in case of Sledgehammers these would be: swing, overhead slam and pummel. You can imaging how these different attacks work and their different properties. I will not go into it right now, except to say that the pummel takes advantage of a new engine mechanics which allows weapon items to have sub-weapons nested in them. That is, when you attack with the handle of the sledgehammer, it's a completely different weapon with its own stats. This feature is going to come handy when we start implementing all sorts of unique, makeshift and hybrid weapons that can be used in different ways.
Next, we implemented the basic combat knife variations. Here, crafting is a bit more interesting because of the number of different handles, guards and pommels.
Knives have two basic attacks: swing and stab. The former being an easier, faster attack, while the latter being a bit slower and more stamina draining but having bonus armor penetration. Depending on the type of knife blade, these attacks can have wildly different effectiveness, especially when it comes to the amount of armor penetration the stab attack will grant.
All these numbers are just my initial estimates of how these blades should work. They will be adjusted through testing and spreadsheet number crunching.
We've also implemented assault rifle crafting. We only have a single frame type, but a lot of different attachments. I'm going to showcase it in a separate dev log at a later time, because there's a lot to be said. We've went quite deep when it comes to firearm customization as you might have seen from my past activity on Twitter/X.
We continue to work towards our next immediate milestone, which is, as I mentioned before, getting the game into a state where we can produce a short video demonstrating some exploration and combat.
That's it for now. In the next dev log, I'm probably going to be showcasing leather armor, which is in the works right now.
Follow me on Twitter, where I post smaller tidbits occasionally.
Allow us to introduce another Vampire clan in Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. world of So definitely different from Brujah!
We hope you enjoy this collection of testimonies from a few of our departments and how they have approached crafting the formidable, legendary Tremere.
Designing modern Tremere for Tabletop
“While the vampire-as-sorcerer is rare outside of Hammer Horror films, the hubristic magician is an archetype strong enough to sit comfortably alongside the scheming undead of Vampire: The Masquerade. But for the game’s fifth edition we wanted to look beyond their signature powers, exploring the driving characteristics beneath.
Given that their concept implies — even necessitates — the practice of mystical arts, the Tremere are almost synonymous with Blood Sorcery. However, this is only one aspect of the Warlocks. Digging deeper we find that their defining trait, regardless of supernatural abilities, is raw, irreverent ambition. Their history is a tableau of temerity. Unwilling to settle for mortality, they clawed their way into undeath. Chafing at the limits of their condition, they turned a primordial curse into their instrument. And, once despised as pretenders, they now count themselves as pillars of the Camarilla.
Yet, for all the Tremere’s accomplishments, their triumphs are also their tragedies. Seeking eternal life, they found only an eternity of death. They are masters of the Blood, yet their own vitae is lacking, bereft of fundamental qualities. And even as they roam the halls of power, they are assailed by whispers: Blood-Thieves. Pretenders. Usurpers. A Tremere vampire walks an ill-fated path — challenged by their peers, haunted by suspicion, and doomed to risk every prize crumbling to ash in their hands.”
– Karim Muammar, Designer of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition and Brand Editor for the World of Darkness
Combat Discipline Design
“Tremere's Gameplay was designed to befit a more careful, scheming, and perhaps for a sadistic kind of player. Their combat abilities are all centred around Blood sorcery, and allow them to manipulate with pain, kill quietly from afar, and set up a cascade of gory death at a time and place of their choosing!
Tremere are at their strongest when they are patient and have a plan. This makes the clan ideal for players who want to take things at a slower pace, avoid direct (or fair) conflict and make use of vampiric abilities on a regular basis.
Cautious players should find appeal in the ability to dissolve dead bodies with acidic touch, keeping enemies unaware, while their recall ability (which allows you to quickly transfer and reassemble yourself at a previously marked location) gives you a great way to escape when your schemes don’t work out as planned...
Sooner or later though, the Tremere lust for knowledge will push you beyond caution. What happens to somebody standing where I'm going to recall to? What tactical uses might boiling blood torture have? Exploring and developing on these “what-ifs” has been the best part of building the Tremere’s combat toolset for me.”
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When we started our journey 15 years ago, one of our most important goals was to do our best to preserve games and make them last forever. Allowing video games history, once-loved gems, to be lost in time, is something we cannot just stand and watch – we fight, for current and future generations to be able to enjoy games; all games, not just the newest, popular releases. Today, we stand proudly by our mission, and we’re extremely happy to announce the re-release of a cherished classic that, thanks to our efforts, has been successfully archived in the GOG catalog, to enjoy anew.
Alpha Protocol is back – better than ever, with a -10% launch discount until April 3rd, 2 PM UTC!
That’s right, this Alpha Protocol, the Espionage RPG, is making a grand return 14 years after its initial premiere. With conjoined forces of GOG, Obsidian Entertainment and SEGA, we’ve made sure to make it better than ever; compatible with modern PCs, with licensed soundtrack and performance improvements that are sure to make this timeless classic, yet again, your favorite spy story.
But that’s not all we have up our sleeves, of course! For this incredibly special occasion, we’ve prepared a one-of-a-kind documentary video, where the process of bringing back Alpha Protocol is extensively explained – including interviews with its creators, as well as our own team members. You can watch it below!
Good, old adventures of agent Michael Thorton come back with:
Licensed soundtrack;
Achievements support;
Full controller support (Dualsense, DualShock 4, Nintendo Switch Pro, Xbox Series or Xbox One controller);
Localization support;
Compatibility with modern operating systems;
Cloud saves support.
Now, buckle up, and jump right into this timeless gem – now preserved forever!
Of all of Beamdog's Enhanced Edition rereleases before they switched to making DOA multiplayer games, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition was probably the most poorly budgeted and least hyped. Ironically, it might be the Enhanced Edition that ended up providing the most value to the game's legacy. In part, thanks to its belated recognition of Ossian Studios' cancelled premium modules from the 2000s. One of these was Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea, an adventure set in the Forgotten Realms' Moonsea region which was finally completed by its creator Luke "Alazander" Scull in 2019 as an official DLC for the Enhanced Edition. In the years since then, Luke has continued to remaster his other classic modules for free while working on his upcoming Blades of Netheril sequel campaign and appears to have earned a good reputation on our forums. Yet it's not clear how many Codexers actually played Tyrants of the Moonsea. As I recall, many users were unhappy about having to buy Beamdog's version of Neverwinter Nights in order to play it. One of our resident Neverwinter Nights connoisseurs, the esteemed Gargaune, feels the module never got the attention it deserved. I suspect his outstanding review might persuade some of you to give it a second look. Here's an excerpt:
Structurally, the module can be split into three main segments. The sequence that takes you from Voonlar through Hillsfar and two major locations after that is a fairly linear progression despite already presenting you with a beautiful world map, a feature that Ossian first brought to NWN with the original release of DoD. You’ll have a good supply of optional side content to engage with but, by and large, you’re on a straight path taking you from one place to the next, Icewind Dale-style. Once you’re through with that, however, and have experienced a couple of plot twists to boot, you get access to a ship that puts you within striking distance of the four other major destinations you get in the Moonsea – Mulmaster, Thentia, Melvaunt and Zhentil Keep. At this point you’re told to tackle them in whichever order you like, digging up leads on your quarry, picking up side quests and, naturally, hitting the shops. Each one of the Moonsea’s urban centres will have a couple of quests to be started in them, some resolved locally, others requiring travelling to other places, and an optional dungeon of some manner. Aside from this, there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of serendipitous exploration, as the odd unmarked location can turn up questless combat encounters and, naturally, loot! The format here is similar to Baldur’s Gate 2’s non-Athkatlan locales (think Trademeet or the Umar Hills), each city has one or two main areas and a tidy amount of content but none of them are massive mainstays to explore nor does TotM ever set you loose on a contiguous countryside, like Darkness over Daggerford or the original Baldur’s Gate. Once you’ve had your fill of the open world and turned up some key leads for your main plot, you can chase up those directions and get nudged (albeit not exactly shoved) into the adventure’s climax, and I can honestly say it’s a pretty epic affair!
But if the plot demands you visit all city hubs, is it a TRÜE open world? Sort of... Per the old BioWare formula, you'll find yourself strung along to all the major locations at some point or other, but the game won't force your nose into every nook and cranny and some significant things can change depending on how you prioritise certain steps. In other words, there is a point of no return which can lock off an amount of side content, a point which may be intuited but isn't necessarily signposted. I'm being coy because I don't want to spoil stuff for you, and if you want to experience TotM completely blind, you should stop reading this paragraph right here and move on to the one below (seriously, right here!). If, however, you want to be sure you maximise content on your first playthrough, I'll give you the slightest hint - make sure you wrap up all your sightseeing before you go galloping across any wilderness, you'll know when you get to it.
I’ve mentioned dungeons and TotM has a healthy supply of them. Ossian’s other NWN entry, DoD, was quite lacklustre in this department, so it’s a relief that this module alternates open wilderness and proper dungeon areas regularly, with the usual variety of traps and bespoke encounters. The biggest criticism I can level at them is that they don’t tend to be particularly labyrinthine – some are large enough to accommodate a couple of forks and traversal loops, though quite a few come down on the smaller and more linear side. But while none of them could make a claim to being branching “mega-dungeons” filled to the brim with secrets and puzzles, and you’ll find much more impressive constructions in other modules, TotM’s spelunking sessions aren’t five-minute affairs either, they’re well-paced and well-stocked and should be able to hold your interest for the duration. Puzzles aren't all that plentiful or memorable, either the dungeon or quest sorts, but they are present and range from rote "find the four thingamajigs to slot in here" to more organic affairs, e.g. some players will know what's up when told they're to fight a Magic Golem, the rest had better explore available dialogue or they're in for a nasty surprise.
Difficulty-wise, TotM is pretty much along the lines of vanilla NWN content like Hordes of the Underdark, which is to say it isn’t especially hard while also not a walk in the park. Grizzled Swordflight veterans are unlikely to find anything particularly challenging, but regular gamers can be well served by playing on D&D Hardcore Rules, meaning the steady string of trashmobs will be effective as a source of progressive attrition, softening you up for some boss encounters which can genuinely put you through your paces, and controlling for disabling factors like Fear or save-or-die abilities is meaningful. The game swaps enemy palettes regularly and with wide variety, you'll fight undead in one place, cultists and demons in another, goblinoids over there or even hostile adventuring parties and so on. There's enough variety that you could make good use of all the different specific enhancement bonuses offered by the Altar of Blessings if you cared to, but most trashmobs aren't difficult enough to warrant it. This is common for Epic-range 3E D&D, as the power curve past level 15 tends to favour the player and it becomes challenging for designers to guard against all moving parts while also not making the game impenetrable to the average consumer, and I probably wouldn’t advise playing on low difficulty levels unless you’re new or really struggling for some reason. The module’s generous with special utility loot, trinkets like Gems of Seeing, Ioun Stones or magical rods, which will expand a given character’s abilities beyond their natural competencies and provide that additional versatility in tackling various battlefield situations. Personally, this is more up my alley and I found TotM to be gratifying in terms of general challenge, but hardcore min-maxers aren’t likely to break a sweat.
I suppose this would also be the appropriate time to remind people of Beamdog’s upgraded Party Control feature – this isn’t a TotM system, it’s an (unfortunately hidden) engine-level option that was added to NWN:EE, but it can make a big impact on the quality of your gameplay. Basically, these new controls allow you to manually select one or more party members (including your own PC) and issue precise instructions to “move there” or “attack that.” To enable it, go into \Documents\Neverwinter Nights\settings.tml and change the value of player-party-control to true. Then, in-game, you can select one or more party members by holding down Ctrl while left-clicking them or their portraits (or you can even hold down Ctrl and click-drag a marquee selection) for a blue circle highlight, then hold down Shift while left-clicking a target location or enemy. Note that a single click is “walk to” while double-clicking is “run to”, and you may want to issue a Stand Your Ground order beforehand if you don’t want henchmen to come right back. Restricting it to movement and combat might seem short of modded solutions (e.g. Balkoth’s Minion Control) but it also means it’s applicable to all NWN content, limiting the potential to break properly-scripted modules, and while it’s not a panacea for the game’s obstinate AI, it’s more than enough to make a huge difference in play. All classes will benefit tactically, but especially ranged and mage types (also endowed with spellcasting AoE indicators in the EE), who can now enjoy more build variety safe behind a leading warrior.
[...] Looking back to the Infinity Engine and even many of its contemporary peers, Baldur’s Gate 2 is king (no matter how much that might make some of the local fauna seethe), but why? Icewind Dale had better combat, the first Baldur’s Gate had better exploration, Planescape: Torment had better writing etc. – all of that is true, but Baldur’s Gate 2 was pretty darn good at all of it. That's what gets it top billing and the same qualities apply to Tyrants of the Moonsea for NWN – you should easily find other modules, official or fan-made, that do better in various individual respects, but Ossian's title scores high on all counts and if you enjoy NWN at all (if you don't, you should never admit it!), passing on TotM would be a big mistake.
Now, if the byzantine brandings and histories have left you confused, allow me to make it simple – Tyrants of the Moonsea is for sale on GOG, Steam and the Beamdog Client. If you also want to check out its prior episodes in the Alazander series, they're free on the Neverwinter Vault as Siege of Shadowdale Enhanced Editionand Crimson Tides of Tethyr Enhanced Edition or in NWN:EE's integrated content browser. For historic purposes, links to the Diamond Edition distributions of those two modules are on their respective Vault pages under Related Projects.
So there you have it, I've led you to the water, I've even forced your snout in, the rest is up to you. Drink and you'll get the full flavour of competent writing and design, solid production values and artistic direction, fun combat and exploration… To put it simply, Tyrants of the Moonsea is, at this time, the definitive single-player NWN experience.
Auburn, New Hampshire – March 12, 2024 – Coin Operated Games is pleased to announce that its final entry in their Neo-Victorian RPG series: Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth, has come to Steam. Developed by a team of industry veterans from such influential companies as Crytek, Codemasters, Gameloft and Creative Assembly, Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earthis a top-down isometric RPG that takes place in a Neo-Victorian Orient in 1899.
…embark on a journey into a Neo-Victorian era version of the Orient…
The Story So Far
Struck with complete memory loss and wandering through a shadowy and mysteriously unfamiliar place; you find yourself on the hunt for the enigmatic Elias, a villainous rogue who is seemingly responsible for your amnesia. In Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earth, players are invited to explore the secrets of an exotic land, bathed in an ominous and seemingly perpetual darkness. Will you be able to discover a way to restore light to an endangered empire?
Featuring a top-down isometric presentation, Empyre: Earls of the Deep Earthwill rekindle the flames of nostalgia in old-school PC RPG fans with gameplay that harkens back to the classic story driven RPGs of the 90s. While the combat should feel familiar to veteran players of the Empyre series, there have been new twists added with a hybrid real time/turn-based combat system.
Players can enter a “Planning Mode” where they choose actions for each character in their party while combat is paused, and when entering into the “Action Mode” all characters will perform simultaneously, giving players complete control over their party while presenting a streamlined combat system that eliminates waiting for each character to act in sequence.
“One of the things we strove for when designing Empyre was to project a believable vision of the future in the past,” said John Randall, Creative Director of Empyre. “But not just any future. An Utopian vision of the future across cultures. A future based on steam-powered contraptions and all manner of mechanical marvels. People and society exist and act as they did in the early 20th Century but live in an amazing Age of wondrous machines. We feel this will give the players a one-of-a-kind experience that they haven’t seen anywhere before.”
Katowice, Poland – March 7, 2024 – Anshar Publishing and Tiny Trinket Games have launched their isometric turn-based RPG, Zoria: Age of Shattering worldwide for the PC on Steam, GOG and in the Epic Games Store for $24.99.
Anshar is launching Zoria: Age of Shattering on International Stop Playing Baldur's Gate 3 Day* because they realize there may be millions of hardcore RPG fans out there that will wake up today and have no idea what to do with their life after they finish breakfast.
Zoria is a single player tactical RPG with faster paced combat than traditional turn-based RPGs, an emphasis on class synergy and outpost and follower management, all set in an expansive fantasy world. In Zoria, you’ll be tasked with gathering the best warriors and mages to form a team of four that will liberate the Kingdom of Zoria which has fallen prey to the hellspawn that roam its land. Once lush forests, majestic buildings and thriving towns have been transformed into dark, dangerous locales. And this time we added new words to this description paragraph so you wouldn't complain about reading the same exact thing for three press releases in a row. So make sure to send your thank you notes to the email at the bottom of this media release to encourage us to do more of this in the future.
Zoria: Age of Shattering Key Features:
- Dynamic turn-based combat in an ever-changing environment - Build and develop your base. Manage your squad and send them on autonomous missions - Craft, rest and survive-a bonfire provides a safe spot to restock your resources and prepare for the coming battle - Specific party member skills can open new areas and quests
STORY
Rome, 4th Century AD. Over the last few decades the Senate has become corrupt and has progressively lost power and influence, while the Emperor Diocletian and his army ruled unchallenged outside the eternal city.
Seeking to return to a dominant position, the members of the Roman Senate decide to use necromancy to increase their power, creating an army of undead and demons to fight against imperial soldiers.
By waging war on its own emperor, the Senate has caused a rift in the Roman population, which slowly began to live in fear.
Year after year the armies of undead summoned by the Senate have taken over, imposing themselves on the senators and enslaving the Roman population.
In this climate of chaos, an ancient gladiatorial school continued to train soldiers for the games. But the purpose of these gladiators is now different: to rid the city of the undead and invaders...to allow Rome to return to its former glory.
GAMEPLAY
Ludus Mortis is a Grid-Based First Person Dungeon Crawler inspired by classic cRPG from the 80s and 90s.
It's a party-based RPG ("blobber") with turn-based combat.
KEY FEATURES
Create your characters choosing from 14 classes
Manage and develop you Ludus (Gladiator School) by improving facilities, acquiring gladiators, crafting new equipment.
Explore catacombs and dungeons.
Manage your party changing formation, equipment and skills: you can try different combinations for every different dungeon.
Turn-based combat: think carefully and use your Action Points wisely.
Randomly-generated loot with thousands and thousands of different combinations
ABOUT THE DEVELOPER
68k Studio is based in Rome, Italy. We have been developing games for more than 10 years drawing inspiration from classic old-school cRPGs.
The Brujah are known for their impetuous tempers and defiant natures, and the clan contains some of the most violent vampires. Visionaries and brutes both, the Brujah have fallen from their stature as the Learned Clan to a motley lineage of radicals, troublemakers, and firebrands — all as much at odds with each other as with the systems they claim to oppose.
Playing a Brujah in Bloodlines 2
If you’re a player who leaves the shadows to the cowards, knows the frontline is where the fun is, and rebels against the establishment, Brujah is your clan.
In Bloodlines 2, Clan Brujah will offer a brutal brawling playstyle with its abilities (in Vampire: The Masquerade, known as Disciplines), getting you into the fray and rewarding you for staying there. The Brujah control the dance of combat by making enemies drop their defenses, knock them around on the battlefield and increase their damage by feeding for powerful finishing strikes.
In social environments, the Brujah are often expected to have a short temper. In Bloodlines 2, certain characters you meet may treat you differently depending on your clan, and while clans have access to angry, violent or threatening dialogue options, throughout Bloodlines 2 you will find unique dialogue sequences for the Brujah. And if you play against the archetypes, characters in-the-know will react.
As a predator of the night, hunting for blood is always a challenge, but the Brujah can often rely on their ability to influence pedestrians’ rage to make them chase you into an empty alley and have a midnight snack.
Abilities
When you choose your clan, you will start out with a passive ability unique to each clan. You are then able to unlock abilities from the Ability Tree, starting with your chosen clan. Each ability requires spending Ability Points to unlock, which are earned from completing missions, combat and exploration. At the peak of the Ability Tree, you can unlock the clan Perk, a reward to those dedicated enough to unlock all of the abilities for a clan, giving a permanent passive upgrade.
Brutality - Clan Passive - After feeding, become flushed with vampiric strength, temporarily increasing the power of all your melee attacks.
Taunt - Use your supernatural Presence to enrage an opponent or civilian prey, compelling them to attack you. While enraged, the target takes increased damage.
Charge - Surge forward with preternatural speed and rage, grabbing an enemy you collide with to use as a battering ram to knock down others in your path.
Lightning Strikes - Target multiple opponents and unleash an unstoppable hail of punches, with the final strike dealing increased damage.
Earthshock - Slam the ground with explosive force, flinging surrounding enemies into the air.
Pulverise - Clan Perk - Killing enemies without feeding still activates your Clan Passive.
Customizing your playstyle
In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, you can play your character in different ways. Brujah are a more brawler type, and the abilities are focused around supporting that. We wanted to make sure that this is not an ability optimization game where you need to go through a multitude of abilities and weigh them against each other. Playing a clan should be straight forward if you want it to be.
While this is true, you can also dive deeper into the customization of your playstyle. This is done by visiting important Seattle vampires that are sworn to assist the Sheriff (you) including offering their Blood to help unlock abilities from their clan. Abilities from other clans may cost more AP depending on how well they align with your clans Disciplines. The Brujah Disciplines are Celerity (speed enhancing abilities) Potence (strength enhancing abilities) and Presence (the supernatural ability to attract, awe, or terrify)) so if another clan has a speed enhancing ability it would cost less AP to unlock than an ability for a Discipline Brujah don’t have, such as becoming stealthier which is part of the Obfuscate Discipline. Unlocking additional Clan Perks will make them stack, so you can collect them all if you wish, elevating your power much closer to elder level.
While the activated abilities and Clan Perk can be learned from the other clans, your clan passive can not. This means that you can combine features from other clans in hundreds of different ways, but your Brujah playthrough will remain unique from playing as another clan who branches into Brujah abilities.
RPGs rely on a variety of factors, some of which include combat, storytelling, exploration and simulationism, in combination or otherwise. Many of these aspects are based on design elements such as dice rolls and worldbuilding, and this is exactly what esteemed community member lukaszek decided to analyse in his latest editorial.
Or well, at least to some degree that's what he's discussing there. As the introduction puts it:
Rolling 19 feels bad – so close to critical success! This is probably the reason behind the introduction of weapons with critical ranges. Pick the right one and you’ll be graced with big numbers more often.
On the other side of the spectrum is number 2. I guess players are more relieved that they didn’t roll 1 – it’s so close after all. And while that’s true for several RNG implementations, it’s not how physical dice work: 7, 19 and 13 are where the close calls are at.
Still, it never received the treatment that 19 did, and I felt that it was time to appreciate it a bit more.
Obviously, I’m talking about functional toilets in RPGs, and through these pages we’ll be plunging into the depths of restroom interactions and hygiene.
Go ahead and dive right in to find out why RPGs aren't actually going down the toilet as much as you'd expect them to be. Satisfaction guaranteed. Just remember to flush and wash your hands once you're done.
It is with great sadness that we address you today regarding difficult decisions that we had to make concerning Unforetold: Witchstone. The past few weeks have been challenging, as the combined impact of financial prospects that did not materialize have put us in a difficult position.
Hence after careful consideration, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that we must stop further production on Unforetold:Witchstone indefinitely as of March 8th 2024, after the release of Hotfix #7.
It further saddens us that due to these financial circumstances, we have had to make the tough decision to lay off the majority of our team. These developers created worlds unseen from nothing but with sheer will and collective imagination – a testament to the heart and soul poured into this studio. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to them for their passion and hard work.
We also want to assure you that we are doing everything in our power to support everyone affected. We have hired companies to help with personalized career coaching, emotional support, networking, and job placement assistance.
We call on the games industry in Montreal and around: if you have space, give our incredibly talented people a chance and you will be amazed.
As we move forward, we ask for your understanding and patience as we navigate through this transition period and find ways to rebuild again. We will do our best to keep you updated on any developments. As such, our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts will remain as is. However, the Discord server will be shutting down as of March 8th 2024.
And finally, to our phenomenal team, our passionate players, and every single person who found a home in the universes we created in the last 12 years — a heartfelt thank you. So long, until we meet again.
Beat the drama drums, it's time for the RPG Codex best RPGs of 2023!
This is our second year going back to a Codex-only vote, on a 1-5 scale. In total, we had 430 votes (as opposed to 364 last year), voting on 162 RPGs (157 last year).
For those of you who just want the TL;DR, here are the winners:
RPG CODEX'S 2023 GOTYs:
#1 - Jagged Alliance 3
#2 - Baldur's Gate 3
#3 - Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game