Erik Kain, Forbes’s resident games blogger, has posted a nicely written interview with Iron Tower Studio‘s Vince Weller (lead developer on the upcoming wRPG Age of Decadence). A snippet:

Forbes: Tell me a little bit about Age of Decadence. What’s the setting and why did you choose that setting? Where did the name come from?

Weller: It’s a fantasy role-playing game set in a world inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire. Nowadays, ‘fantasy role-playing game’ tells you absolutely nothing, so let me elaborate to give your readers an accurate picture.

It’s a hardcore game. What does it mean? Well, if accessible means ‘a game that can be enjoyed by everyone, including your grandma and the neighbors’ cat’, then hardcore would be the exact opposite of that. It’s a game made for a very specific market, a market abandoned long ago simply because it’s a niche within a niche. Even been in the middle of nowhere? Endless empty land stretching out in every direction, an antique gas station, and a diner that says, “I bet you a silver dollar you ain’t man enough to eat the special and live to tell the tale”. Well, that’s our niche. We’ve moving in and setting up shop there.

Traditionally, many fantasy RPGs are about killing things, clearing up dungeons, and being a hero. Now, there is nothing wrong with mindless fun and wish fulfillment, but we serve a different meal here.

…

The focus of the game is not on killing monsters, but rather on dealing with fellow humans and factions, trying to survive – easier said than done – and making a name for yourself. Naturally, to accommodate all that scheming, plotting, and backstabbing, we give the player plenty of choices, from multiple solutions to quests to different paths you can take through the game. You (and your actions) will determine who your friends and enemies are. There are no default good and bad guys.

Click here for the full interview.

It’s been quite a while since we last heard from Double Bear, developers of Dead State. I was started to worry that their game might be in sort of a dead…state.

Well! Banish the thought. DB have put out a nearly 10-minute long video showing the game’s combat system. Kick back, toss off your shoes, and settle in for another exciting movie night!

Sword of the Stars: The Pit is a sci-fi roguelike set (appropriately enough) in the Sword of the Stars universe. Developed by a small team from Kerberos Productions, The Pit was funded via just shy of $24,000 in contributions on IndieGoGo back in November and (apparently) released about three weeks ago.

The premise:

A deadly plague ravages your world. Your last hope: a legendary alien facility dug deep into the Feldspar Mountains…a massive Pit, built by the ancient Suul’ka.

If ‘The Pit’ really exists, there might be something left. Something that will give your doctors a fighting chance at the cure.  All you know for sure is that every expedition into those mountains has failed to return…

And nothing sows death like the Suul’ka.

One thing that sets Sword of the Stars apart from other roguelikes, besides the setting and use of firearms with limited ammunition, is the very wRPGish way in which characters have numerous different skill proficiencies in varying percentages–all in all, it reminds me quite a lot of Fallout 1-2.

Here’s the trailer:

You can download a free demo of Sword of the Stars: The Pit from GamersGate, GamersHell or AtomicGamer. The full version of the game costs $9.99 from GamersGate or on Steam. The Pit is Windows-only.

I don’t normally post general interest news stories about games like this, but I think this is legitimately interesting. Level Up Labs has created a method to crowd source the localization of its game, Defender’s Quest, setting up a dedicated webpage devoted to that task. I can’t think of any other occasion where I’ve seen a developer do this, and I have mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, it’s awfully clever as a business maneuver, and functionally speaking, it isn’t all that different from offering mod support that users are free to take advantage of. On the other hand, translators are professionals providing a valuable service, and this seems rather narrowly targeted to specifically cut them out of the loop; it reminds me a bit of the Wasteland 2 asset design contest, or Amanda Palmer’s request for people to play instruments for free at her concerts. On the other hand: wouldn’t it be better if gamers of all languages and nationalities from all over the world could play every game without huge cost barriers getting in the way? As a developer myself, I can say that I find the thought of people voluntarily translating my games into dozens of languages awfully appealing.

I contacted Lars Doucet, the main force behind LevelUp Labs, to see what he had to say about it. He wrote:

I just got an email from a professional translator asking me about the ethics of crowd-sourcing translations from amateurs, in light of our recent success. That was an interesting discussion and I’m thinking of turning our exchange into a full article (with his permission).

I used to work as an (amateur) translator myself, and so I’m definitely sensitive to undermining the work of professionals by soliciting amateurs.

As for what would happen if he didn’t use crowd sourced translations, Lars had this to say:

We’re hiring one professional right now (german), which is the largest market. If that turns out well, I can get my business partners to agree to risk some money/time on the next largest markets, French/Spanish, etc. For all the little countries, though, we either open them up to fans or they don’t ever get translated at all.

What do you think, folks? Voice your opinions in the comments below!

Polish indie developers MoaCube have announced Bonfire, which they describe as

a battle roguelike with a puzzle element. The puzzle is: ‘How the hell am I supposed to survive this!?

It seems pretty stripped-down for an RPG, and that seems to be the general intent:

Bonfire is what happens when you take a battle system out of an RPG, boil it down to what really matters strategically, and make it super-hard.

…

The basics are simple. You form a party of three out of many possible characters, each with distinct abilities forming interesting combos, then use that to progress through several randomized quests consisting of combat encounters, random events, and finding powerful single-use items. Progression unlocks more characters, allows to develop their stats, initial equipment, etc.

The game is set up so that every encounter and party combination requires improvisation and custom approach. All monsters are designed to break or counter different strategies, and your characters are pretty fragile, so trying to do the same thing over and over results in a quick defeat. Every turn you must consider what’s the best action to take, depending on the encounter’s composition, your characters’ status, and what items are available. Each battle is a puzzle of its own.

So perhaps we’re better off calling it fantasy strategy, even if it does seem to eschew the spatial mechanics we come to expect in such a game.

Bonfire is being developed for Mac OS and Windows, and should be out “pretty soon.”

It’s been a while since we featured a new jRPG here on IndieRPGs.com–let’s fix that! A few minutes of digging around the internets reveals to me the existence of Vengeance Road, a new title from Warfare Studios. The premise:

Gallagar used to be a fragile country, weak and without respect. That was until Queen Lilliana took the throne for herself. Slowly things started to change, the country became stronger, it now inspires fear into enemies. However, that was not without cost, in that long path the people were forgotten, Gallagar became a place of terror both for enemies and for those who call it home.

Sura, is a young woman, leader of an infamous group of mercenaries called The Night Sword, her only objective is to provide a good life for her brother while keeping him safe, they have both suffered by the hands of the Kingdom not unlike everyone else. What she doesn’t know is that a Rebellion is coming upon the country, and she is to play a role of great importance…

Will you travel down Vengence Road, or will you instead opt for Saveyourmoney Avenue? Only you can decide! You can nab a free demo here to help with that decision. The game is available from both Aldorlea Games and Amaranth Games for $19.99; Windows only.

Hosted Games, the not-Choice-of-Games-but-owned-by-the-same-people company that distributes user-made games created with the Choice of Games engine, has written in to let me know about a new release in that vein called Life of a Wizard.

Created by Mike Walter, Life of a Wizard is an RPG / Choose Your Own Adventure hybrid with variable stats and multiple endings. The premise:

Write an archmage’s autobiography in this 80-year 130,000-word interactive fiction! Play good or evil, man or woman, as you bring peace to the kingdom or take over the world with your sorcery. Brew potions, raise the dead, summon mythical beasts, control men’s minds, and blast away your enemies.

…

Will you find romance, get married, or have children? Will you become the arch-mage, grand bishop, nature-loving druid, hardened battle-mage or even an undead lich? The choice is yours!

Can I become an undead lich, then get married and have children? Because that sounds…well, kind of gross, actually. And yet, intriguing!

Life of a Wizard has a free browser demo. The full version is available for $1.99 on iOS and Android, and for PC via the Chrome web store.

Hello, folks! We have two movies on the agenda for tonight: one of Underrail, the other of Shadowrun Returns.

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Last month, I posted about Delver’s Drop and interviewed developers Pixelscopic on certain aspects of how the game will work. Yesterday, I actually got my hands on a pre-alpha build and took it for a test drive. What you see here is not a finished game, but I can confirm that what they have done is already quite fun. Take a gander:

The Delver’s Drop Kickstarter is wrapping up in the next 36 hours; if you want to buy in, now’s the time!

Ah, sigh. I love so much of what roguelikes represent, and yet I remain a neophyte in the actual roguelike community. This, for instance. How did I not know about the 7-Day Roguelike Challenge? But wait–maybe you don’t know about the 7-Day Roguelike Challenge either! Let’s learn together:

A Seven-​​Day Rogue­like (7DRL) is a rogue­like cre­ated in seven days. That is, the author stopped writ­ing code 168 hours after they started writ­ing code. A 7DRL can be cre­ated at any time dur­ing the year. How­ever, gen­eral agree­ment was reached that it would be fun to sched­ule a spe­cific week for a 7DRL Chal­lenge.

Last year’s challenge began on Sat­ur­day, March 10th and ended Sun­day, March 18th; this year’s begins tomorrow, on March 9th, and ends on the 17th.

I’m almost tempted to join myself, but due to the confluence of forces beyond my control, there’s absolutely no way I’ll have the time. That shouldn’t stop you, though!

Last year’s 7DRL Challenge produced several dozen finished entries; hit the jump for a list of games with links!

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