John Mabbott of Cloud Nine Games writes in to announce Subterranea, a turn-based, party-based wRPG.

According to Mabbott, the goal is to approximate something like the old Gold Box games of yore, but in 3D and with the addition of destructible environments and physics-based interactions. To that end, Subterranea will employ the Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5 ruleset.

An abbreviation of the rather wordy plot premise:

Many decades ago, a fishing village called Gimlet grew on the side of the swamp like a small barnacle. The villagers of Gimlet scraped out a living, catching and selling the odd looking fish they hauled in from the swamp with their homemade nets.

…

Recently, a threat to Gimlet’s prosperity has emerged. Two survivors of a six-strong harvesting party returned from the swamp with a fevered table of a temple entrance found sunken near the centre of the swamp. The most brave (or foolhardy) of the harvesters broke through the entrance. When their screams rang out across the swamp from within the dark interior, the survivors fled for their lives, never once looking back.

…

Your party has answered the call and are gathered in the entry room of Gimlet Hall. You and the other adventuring parties eye each other nervously – will you help or hinder each other? A staff strikes the marble floor, the two massive doors swing open and a guard summons you to be addressed by the cabal…

Among the game’s planned features:

• Tactical combat with cover and elevation effects
• Create a party of up to 6 custom characters
• Heavy use of physics in destructible environments

About those physics and destructible environments–check out what happens roughly 30 seconds into this video:

The game’s presentation is obviously still a bit rough at this point, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little rush of glee when that bridge collapsed and the enemies fell to their deaths. Besides, the game’s in pre-alpha–there is plenty of time to polish things up!

Subterranea is on Kickstarter, where it is about 1/5th of the way to its modest $12,500 goal. It is also on Steam Greenlight, where it awaits your upvote.

Subterranea is planned for a simultaneous Windows and Linux release in March 2015.

Utah indie studio Wasatch Games writes in to announce Saga Heroes, an action RPG with a title apparently custom-made to draw the litigious eye of world-class scumbags King.com.

…where was I? (sorry, I got a bit distracted by my loathing of King.com there.) Oh, right! Saga Heroes. Yes. So, here’s the premise:

save the world from evil by uncovering the cause of the corruption of the land by a cult called The Shadow, whose sole purpose is to release the Elder God of Death, Goth-Azul. You start in the small village of Aria, with the clothes on your back and nothing more. Gain the trust of the townsfolk by helping them out and they will reveal more of the story.

“Goth-Azul,” huh? You know, if I had $300 to blow, I might actually throw it at this game’s Kickstarter just so I could create an NPC with this as his dialog: “Man–Azul used to be so much cooler back before he went all Goth, you know? Now he’s got this cuuuult, and he listens to The Cure all the tiiiiime, and he’s just super into death. It’s totally lame.”

“Craig,” you might say, “what are you talking about?: You can’t just throw $300 at a game and create a character!” Ordinarily, dear reader, you would be correct–but this game has a Kickstarter. Feel free to throw money at it if it strikes your fancy! (Also: a Greenlight page for upvoting and such.)

Here’s the trailer:

According to Wasatch’s Kickstarter reward estimates, they’re planning to release the game in August–a very aggressive schedule, but certainly not impossible if they’re far enough along. (Developer Eric Wiggins tells me that the release date might slip if they don’t hit their goal, and the game’s scope will likely be affected.)

Saga Heroes is planned for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and Ouya.

Today, we have an interview with Indinera Falls, founder of Aldorlea Games and creator of the Laxius Force and Millennium series. I sat down to chat with him about his reliance on RPG Maker, about his plans for the future, about his business model, and about whether direct sales are going to remain viable going forward in the face of Steam’s ever-expanding grip on PC game distribution:

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Jan Taaks of Overhype Studios writes in to announce the development of Battle Brothers, which he describes as a turn-based strategy game with RPG and management elements. A better way to describe this game, however, would probably be to just call it “fantasy X-COM.”

The premise:

In the game you take on the role of a leader of a band of mercenaries and adventurers on the hunt for treasure, fame and legendary artifacts. As you journey onwards, an epic scale invasion unfolds that leaves nothing but burning rubble in its wake. You and your Battle Brothers emerge as the people’s last hope to unravel the source of the invasion and strike at its heart.

This “fantasy X-COM” thing seems to be a new trend, with BB joining Knights-Errant as part of a wave of indie fantasy strategy games with a team management overworld layer and turn-based tactical battles in between. (If we view the trend as slapping a strategy layer onto traditional RPG gameplay, then I think we have to include Heroes of a Broken Land here as well.)

BB doesn’t have a trailer yet, but it does have a pretty huge pre-alpha gameplay video with developer commentary:

Here is the list of planned features for when the game is completed:

Hell–that sounds pretty good to me.

The developers estimate that they’ll have this one out by mid-2014 (though that seems a little overly optimistic to me, given that they don’t yet have the overworld strategy layer running). Battle Brothers will be for Windows, Mac and Linux. No word yet on whether there’ll be any Battle Sisters involved.

Three-man Bulgarian studio iosoftware Ltd. has reached out to me with news of an upcoming fantasy strategy title by the name of Palm Kingdoms 3 (the game does not have its own web page at the moment–just the Facebook page).

I’m not sure that there is actually a narrative premise at work here, but the basic gist of the game is as follows:

You control brave heroes to explore land, fight your opponents, and capture their castles. To achieve ultimate victory, you need to collect resources, fortify defenses, make allies, and go through many fights with aggressive inhabitants of these lands. During the journey your heroes will gain experience, learn new spells and skills, recruit and upgrade their armies. The more Castles you own, the richer your kingdom is. But you need protection from your foes, as they will come and siege you sooner or later.

Here is a trailer:

Palm Kingdoms 3 is planned for release in Fall 2014 for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Windows Phone and Android. In the meantime, it is on Steam Greenlight, awaiting your upvote.

A bit of browsing on Kickstarter has revealed to me the existence of Darkest Dungeon, a top-down dungeon crawler with some really intriguing mechanics relating to the psychological state of your party. Now in development by Red Hook Studio, Darkest Dungeon “was conceived as an antidote to the loot-piñata RPG experience which focuses solely on a character’s numerical capabilities. Squad leaders and sports team managers have to contend with the human factors as they strive to maximize effectiveness–why not in RPGs?”

The premise:

Darkest Dungeon is a gothic roguelike RPG dungeon crawler about the psychological stresses of adventuring. You will lead a band of four heroes on a perilous side-scrolling descent, dealing with a prodigious number of threats to their bodily health, and worse, a relentless assault on their mental fortitude! Five hundred feet below the earth you will not only fight unimaginable foes, but famine, disease, and the stress of the ever-encroaching dark. Darkest Dungeon focuses on the humanity and psychological vulnerability of the heroes and asks: What emotional toll does a life of adventure take?

“Wait a minute,” you might say. “Side-scrolling descent? I though this game was top-down?” Well, according to Red Hook developer Tyler Sigman, DD has something of a dual-nature Famaze thing going on:

You choose your path on the top-down roguelike map. You basically direct the party from room to room, choosing which passage way to take. But the movement is displayed in the sidescrolling panel.

There are not one, but two trailers out for this game right now. Sigman says that the first trailer uses mocked-up footage, while everything in the second trailer comes from in-game:

Darkest Dungeon has been successfully Kickstarted and then some. As of the time of writing, it is more than 200% funded only a few days into the campaign!

Darkest Dungeon is planned for release in January 2015, with early access due sometime late this year; for Windows, Mac and Linux.

After an unexpectedly long development cycle, Basilisk Games has now released Eschalon: Book III, the third and final chapter in the Eschalon series!

The premise:

Eschalon: Book III brings the trilogy to a climactic end as you seek to uncover the mystery of your past, the secrets of the Crux stones, and who the Orakur really are. You’ll traverse miles of virtual wilderness and dungeons, filled with secrets and danger, in an unparalleled role-playing experience designed to feel like a true pen-and-paper RPG.

Although this game caps off a trilogy, Basilisk Games state that Book III “can be fully enjoyed even if you’ve never played the previous games.” I found that to be true for Book II, so I’m sure they can make it happen with the third installment as well. However, as we discovered during that last IndieRPGs.com episode, there are definitely some plot spoilers in the intro cinematic; if you’re someone who is playing the Eschalon series for its plot (not the best reason to play them, IMO, but whatever), then I’d consider playing them in order.

Anyway! Here’s the release trailer:

Among the game’s features, as described by Basilisk Games:

• Dozens of fan-requested features and updates to the engine and rule set.

• Hundreds of graphic updates including re-rendered tiles, new spell effects, and enhanced environment effects. New sound effects and music in crystal-clear HD audio via an updated sound engine.

• Expanded stats for creatures give them new abilities, defenses and vulnerabilities. Combat will require new levels of strategy.

• New spells and hundreds of new items for you to discover. A huge world filled with secrets, riddles, traps, treasure, and glory awaits you!

• Book III is not a dumbed-down “RPG for the masses”. Rapid button clicking won’t save you here. Eschalon pays honor to the greatest RPGs of the past, with unlimited character development options and freedom to explore the world as you wish. The difficulty of the game does not scale to your character.

• Developer tools to be released shortly after the availability of the game. Build your own maps and make your own adventures!

• Single player only, like a great RPG should be.

The fact that they’re releasing the game’s map editor shortly after release is particularly appealing; mod support adds a lot of value here.

You can snag Eschalon Book III on GOG.com and on Steam for $17.99 (10% off the regular price of $19.99). For Windows, Mac and Linux.

It has just come to my attention that ever-prolific jRPG developer Aldorlea Games has released a new title by the name of Undefeated.

The premise:

Can you stop the Wastelands from spreading and overtaking the world?
Play as Marcus, Bastien and Fela, three army conscripts with little liking for what is supposed to be their next two years, yet who find themselves engulfed in a mystery that could very well cause the demise of their nation.

Personally, I’d like it if it turned out that it was all just a misunderstanding: that it was, in fact, the Wasted Lands that wanted to take over the world,  and only so they could spread their love of drinking and hard partying. Then everyone played beer pong together (a game at which the inhabitants of the Wasted Lands stood “Undefeated”), did shots, and lived happily ever after! I’m telling you: jRPG of the year, 6 out of 5 stars.

In support of my theory, I direct you to the screenshots at the bottom of this post. Look how many mushrooms there are! (Also: those are some really nice-looking enemy sprites, I must say.)

The feature list:

• Innovative and Strategic Battles
• Stunning Artworks from the Team Behind Moonchild and Opaline
• Front-view Battles with Incredible, Colorful Monsters
• 4 Modes of Difficulty (including Legendary)
• Visible or Invisible Encounters – You Decide
• 25 Secret Rooms to Discover
• 16 Side Quests to Complete

 

You can snag Undefeated for $16.99 direct from the developer right here. Windows only. There’s also a free demo if you want to try before you buy.

Hey guys! Did you know that after years of development, Basilisk Games is releasing the third and final chapter (er, sorry, “Book”) in the Eschalon series? It’s true! What’s more, they gave me a build to check out for the website! So when Book III hits in four short days, you will know exactly what you’re in for. Without further ado, I present to you Eschalon: Book III:

So, you’re probably wondering: what’d I think?

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After I posted about the recent release of Reflection of  Fallen Feather, developer Forepaw Software provided me a copy of the game to check out. As per usual, I recorded video of my first impressions playing the game:

My thoughts?

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