Ari Rae-Silver writes in to announce the release of Antharion, a new isometric wRPG from Florida indie studio Orphic Software.

There’s no official narrative summary anywhere, but I can tell you based on the time I’ve spent with it so far that the setup is pretty familiar to anyone who’s played wRPGs: the world is at peace, suddenly an evil threatens it, and you and your ragtag team escape prison and are tasked with finding and stopping the source of the evil.

Here’s a release trailer which shows a bit of what the game plays like:

And here’s the feature list:

• Create and fully customize your party of four, choosing from 7 races, 9 classes and 15 skills.
• Journey through five huge provinces, each with its own environment, history and culture.
• Experience an open-ended epic storyline where you determine what happens.
• Turn-based tactical combat makes dungeon crawling endlessly satisfying.
• Explore a huge living-breathing and fully interactive open world.
• Make choices that matter and affect the world around you.
• Enjoy total freedom to play however you want.
• Create and customize a party of four.

As implied above, I’ve had my hands on a build of the game for a couple of weeks now, and I intend to do an IndieRPGs.com Checks Out of it very soon. (I’d have had one up already, frankly, but for the fact that FRAPS decided not to record it the last time I tried.)

Until I get that up, however, you can always try the game for yourself! Antharion is now available for $17.99 on Steam, The Humble Store, and direct from the developer; Windows and Mac.

It’s that special time again–that time when we whip out our Internet Binoculars and peer off into the horizon at the games that might yet come to be, if only they can get the monetary support they need.

Of those we examined last time, The Bard’s Tale IV, Regalia, and We Happy Few suceeded; less happily, the Auro Quest Expansion failed, as did Crisential and Reikon Dungeon.

So–what’s new?

(more…)

Greetings, indie RPG fans! I’m a bit behind, but slowly clawing my way through the eternal backlog. Today’s post comes courtesy of Sam Coster from Butterscotch Shenanigans (creators of Quadropus Rampage, previously covered here), who has written in to announce Crashlands, an action RPG with crafting, base-building, creature-taming, and big procedurally generated biomes to explore.

The narrative premise is pretty silly:

Play as Flux Dabes, a galactic delivery truck driver whose latest shipment gets interrupted by a megalomaniacal alien named “Q” who tears her ship to pieces looking for useful tech. Crashlanded on Woanope, you must fight, tame, craft, quest, bossfight, and adventure your way to domination of all the things so that you and JuiceBox, your trusty sidekick/supervisor/robotic cargo palette, can send a message to the Bureau of Shipping and get those damn packages delivered!

The trailer should give you the idea of what you’re in for:

It bears mentioning that there’s a human interest angle to this game–Butterscotch Shenanigans evidently dumped whatever it was they were working on in October 2013 when Sam Coster was diagnosed with cancer. The team began working on Crashlands instead, because–in Coster’s words–he was “[i]n need of something more meaningful to work on through all the chemo and tests.” If nothing else, it’s served to help him keep going through some serious adversity, though one must hope that the game will prove excellent in its own right as well.

Crashlands’s planned feature list reads as follows:

1. Infinite, self-managing inventory

2. Pleasurable base-building that feels like painting

3. A huge, absurd narrative that gives purpose and direction to crafting

4. Diverse combat with tameable creatures

5. Platform-agnosticism: The game plays just as well on mobile and desktop (Steam, Android, iOS), will launch at the same time on all of them, and has cross-platform save syncing

Crashlands is planned for release in the fall; Windows and Mac ($15), iOS and Android ($5).

Word reaches me that there’s a new indie jRPG on the scene called The Amber Throne. Created by three-person team The Biggest Missile Ever, The Amber Throne features lovely painted visuals that almost completely disguise its RPG Maker origins.

The premise:

After awakening from her coffin, Arra recalls little but the last words spoken by her father, “Destroy the Amber Throne.” Looking into the sky, she finds that what was once his magnificent castle is now floating in the sky, far above the world below. Arra must find a way to reach the castle before the other forces catch wind of it, to both prevent them from reaching the Throne within and to bring an end to it.

You can scope out the game’s visual style in this trailer:

The game features five party members, a crafting system, enemies with multiple stances and behaviors, and a length of 12-15 hours. This gif seems to show initiative-based, turn-based combat, so you can go in expecting that as well.

The Amber Throne is $14.99 on Steam. Windows only. The developers have provided a very short demo, which you can nab here.

As sometimes happens here on IndieRPGs.com, indie developer Dustin Auxier was good enough to provide me with a build of his recently released game, The Enchanted Cave 2. I’ve played it a bit here and there over the past few weeks, then finally sat down to play and record the results. You can follow along right here:

So, what’d I think?

(more…)

Word has it that Legends of Eisenwald, a strategy RPG in the same general oeuvre as the King’s Bounty series, has now been released into the world. Developed by Belarusian indie studio Aterdux Entertainment, Legends of Eisenwald has you recruit soldiers, collect gold, garrison castles, and go on adventures that involve frequent, small-scale, turn-based fights on hex-filled battlefields.

The premise:

The mysterious lands of old Germany are waiting for you – it’s a land where the superstitions of the time have come to life. This isn’t a fantasy game. There are no elves or dragons here. There are only people – and their passions, sins and fears that often take a tangible form. Which path will you choose? Live according to your conscience? Or live by power and might? Or will you live by justice? And what is your justice, really?

Okay. There may not be elves or dragons, but there definitely appear to be some ghosts in the screenshots. Anyway, here’s the game’s release trailer:

I spent some time with a beta version of the game two and a half years ago, and I’m looking forward to checking out the final release to see how things have improved. You needn’t wait for me, though–you can get Legends of Eisenwald right now on Steam or direct from developer via the Humble widget. Windows only; full price is $29.99, though there is the customary launch discount in effect to lessen that a bit.

I have received word of a new jRPG released on June 1 called Ruin. Created by MOCBJ Software in OHRRPGCE, Ruin is apparently based on a 2008 title called The Omega.

The premise:

An earthquake of cataclysmic proportions annihilates the world and ushers in what many address as “the end of times”. But is it really the end?

Join one man as he travels the world in order to unravel the cause behind these catastrophic events.

Here’s a trailer:

And here’s a list of features:

–​ A refreshing take on the random battle system that rewards grinding, or allows you to skip fighting altogether.
–​ 16 side quests, many of which utilize a “fast travel” turn-in system.
–​ Over 40 in-game achievements.
–​ A tiered crafting system with over 100 craftable items.
–​ Semi-randomized loot system that encourages exploration. Over 500 lootable objects.
– Two difficulty levels.

Ruin is free; you can nab it here for Windows (or in a zip version), Mac, or Linux. It also comes in an Android flavor, which you can grab on Google Play or Amazon.

Today is the day we boot up the old “Back to Back” program here at IndieRPGs.com and see what it spits out! Here we go:

Status: updating records on recently completed crowdfunding projects.

Succeeded: Umbra.

Failed: Planet Centauri, Spinal Blast, Venture Forth.

Status: observing ongoing crowdfunding projects.

Click to continue…

(more…)

Harry Mulder writes in to announce Alnory, an RPG being developed by Dutch developers Team Avavi.

The premise:

Welcome to Alnory, a broken land ready to be scavenged by your band of heroes! Take on quests for gold and jewelry in this turn-based strategy RPG — growing your group as you see fit, and making it strong enough to face the ultimate evil.

Although he categorizes the game as a strategy RPG, your characters are not actually present on the battlefield in Alnory–combat is more akin to the row-and-column style found in Monster’s Den or Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf, making the “strategy RPG” designation a bit misleading.

Mulder describes Alnory as a casual RPG, complete with colorful graphics and quick battles, complemented by deep character development.

Alnory is planned for release on Windows at the end of the year. Until then, however, there’s a free browser demo you can play online right here.

Martin Cao writes in to announce Fallen A2P Protocol. Not to be confused with the recently-covered graphical roguelike Fallen, Fallen A2P Protocol is a post-apocalyptic strategy RPG inspired by X-COM and Jagged Alliance 2 in which you lead a caravan on a quest for revenge.

The premise:

In a World saved and destroyed by a new energy source, a quest for revenge will unveil the deepest secret on how it all began to fall apart.

There’s a teaser trailer up:

The developers have a list of features planned for the finished release:

• Deep turn based tactical combat
• Limited ammo and resources
• Destroyable environment
• Rich story and dialogues
• RPG character progression and skills
• Adapt to changing events and weather conditions

Fallen A2P Protocol is in development by Argentinian indie developers Red Katana, who’ve recently released an alpha build on Steam Early Access for $14.99. Cao states that they hope to have a full release out by the end of July. Windows, Mac, and Linux.