An intrepid IndieRPGs.com reader writes in to tell me about Another Star, an 8-bit jRPG in development by one-man army Dale Johnson (a.k.a. Vision Riders Entertainment).

The premise:

Our story begins with Tachi, the prince of Clan Minas. Sent by his father to retrieve a falling star that promises to upset the balance of the clans, the young warrior gets caught up in a sudden chain of events that will affect the entire planet. The fledgling warrior will journey across entire continents, slowly unraveling the mysteries of the world around him and encountering countless new people and places.

Another Star is deliberately minimalistic: “Inspired by the 26th Ludum Dare competition theme of Minimalism, Another Star uses but a single 128×128 tile sheet to bring you a vast world to explore. Secrets are hidden everywhere, and you never know what you might find on the next screen.”

Combat is minimalist as well, with the whole notion of targeting removed from abilities entirely. Attacks damage all enemies simultaneously, and likewise, all enemy attacks damage the entire party.  Finally, there’s an interesting mechanic that allows you to opt out of most random combats:

Random encounters are only initiated by accepting them when the yellow “!” icon appears over your head. Just watch out for sneak attacks. If you see the red “!!” icon appear, you better press the button quickly to accept or else you’ll be taken by surprise.

Another Star is planned for release quite soon on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Ian Hawley, one half of the two-man studio Bovine Software, writes to me with details of his upcoming OUYA dungeon delver Dungeon Lord. (Note that there are no proper websites for these yet, only Facebook pages.)

The premise to Dungeon Lord is straightforward:

[T]his is a tile-based dungeon crawler inspired by Dungeon Master principally, so the story is a relatively typical case of being trapped inside and having to get out. I guess it’s more of an action RPG in today’s terms, because the game is real-time, first person and there is a good degree of skill required to dodge around the various denizens of Darkwurm to avoid having to toe to toe it.

(Note: this game was called Darkwurm right up until Monday, when it was abruptly renamed “Dungeon Lord.”) Anyway! That does indeed sound quite a bit like Dungeon Master; and if anything, this trailer made from footage of the game running on an OUYA only reinforces that impression:

It looks good so far, though I do hope the finished game is a little less spoiler-y. (I have to imagine that by the time we get to “the key is in the alcove,” we’d be able to figure that out ourselves.)

Dungeon Lord is being created in Unity. According to the developers, Dungeon Lord will feature 10+ weapon types and a unified skill system with 50+ skills. They state that their skill mechanics are more modern than the ones from Dungeon Master, with rebindable hotkeys. They also state that they’re using both skill cool-downs as well as energy costs. Thus, “there’s a lot of choice about how to play and whether you want to be that toe-to-toe warrior, a long distance spell caster or something inbetween.”

Hawley tells me that he and Dan McCaul have been working on Dungeon Lord for more than two years now, and that they are now nearly feature complete with a lot of content already in the game. Dungeon Lord is planned for release later this year on the OUYA and iOS (3G S and above), with Android ports to follow.

You know what, folks? It’s been a while since we last did a movie night. Why don’t we check in on the latest videos showing the development of Soul Compass, The Dungeoning and Liege (last covered here, here and here, respectively)?

“But Craig,” you say, “you just covered Lieg–” You pause, feeling the stern glare of an usher burning a hole in the side of your head. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a card emblazoned with the phrase “No talking during the movies.” He hands it to you and walks off, the theater lights dimming around you…

(more…)

Matt Schneck of the unfortunately named indie studio “Little Killerz” writes in to tell me that Tales of Illyria was released for Android devices in mid-June.

The plot premise is akin to something that I’d expect in a spy thriller, albeit in a medieval fantasy setting: the Emperor of your country has had you framed for the murder of your family, and so you go about the task of overthrowing him.

Tales of Illyria is a unique episodic party-based RPG that simulates the experience of a traditional pen and paper role playing game. What sets Tales of Illyria apart from other games is the unique gameplay and turn based mechanics. One of our main sources of inspiration when we designed the game was Oregon Trail. Like Oregon Trail, you are on an epic journey, and you must manage all aspects of your party, right down to the supplies you carry.

Here’s a trailer:

You can nab Tales of Illyria on Google Play for $4.95. The game remains Android-only for now, although the developer states that iOS and Windows ports are coming soon.

You may recall me posting about UnEpic a couple of weeks back. Developer Francisco Tellez de Meneses was good enough to send me a copy of UnEpic to check out–and so naturally, I recorded myself doing just that.

I was rather surprised to discover that UnEpic is not just a side-scrolling action RPG–it’s actually a fairly traditional Metroidvania as well. The lighting–or more precisely, the lack thereof–forces slow and careful play, which is a mechanic I haven’t seen used this extensively in a side-scrolling title.

I do have a few things I could critique–the frequent use of low ceilings, the complete inability to exercise air control during jumps, or the lack of any way to quickly cycle through weapons using a controller–but all in all, I quite enjoyed my time playing UnEpic. If you haven’t played it yet, I advise you grab the demo and try it for yourself.

John Rhee of Coda Games writes in to announce a new indie RPG called Liege. He states: “The game aims to take the classic JRPG formula, and layer in a mature story, elegant, tactical gameplay and unique, hand-drawn visuals.”

Frankly, I think this description sells it a little short. From where I’m standing, Liege is a proper strategy RPG; after all, it features battles inspired by “FF Tactics, Fire Emblem, and chess.” Liege is the second game I’ve covered this week explicitly focused on spatial positioning, elegant design, and deterministic mechanics in its combat. (These are all Things That I Like.)

A bit more on the mechanics:

At the core of the gameplay is a system of unit classes and banners. Each class has special perks and characteristics, which are designed to interact in interesting ways; for example, you can arrange your pikemen into a phalanx with strong directional defense to defend rear archers, but certain Knight classes are well suited to break this formation. Banners add further depth by granting stat bonuses to favored classes.

…

Unused actions during your turn will determine your unit’s defensive ability during enemy turns. As a result, you will always need to balance evasion and defense, with well-timed, coordinated offense to survive.

I’m not just excited about the mechanics, though; Liege springs from the fertile narrative soil of noble houses struggling for supremacy in the midst of a sudden monarchical power vacuum. (The aforementioned banners belong to each of the noble houses.)

The plot premise is decidedly Game of Thrones-y, in other words; here is the official summary:

One late autumn eve in the Kingdom of Liege, a King, his queen, and their royal heirs fall into a deep slumber from which they never wake.

…and so our story begins. Following their mysterious deaths, a power struggle in the royal court ensues, and as the conflict quickly escalates, the Kingdom plunges into a bloody civil war. As war erupts across the land, we track the converging paths of characters aligned across various factions, from the noble houses vying for the throne, to the orphaned Royal Army, to an underground movement of outlaws with plans to incite revolution amidst the chaos.

So basically, we’ve got some really promising combat mechanics and a narrative setup that may or may not be causing me to salivate all over my keyboard. And then there’s the art. Oh man. Just look at this:

Rhee has Liege up on Kickstarter right now–if this game looks good to you (and for the love of God, why wouldn’t it?), you should go throw some money its way. Rhee states that development on Liege will still continue if the Kickstarter fails, but that a failed campaign would mean a much smaller scope for the game (boo!) as well as a mobile-only initial release. So, you know: back it.

Coda Games are angling for a July 2014 release for Liege on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.

I’ve received an email from Greek developer Traptics about a new fantasy strategy title they’re developing called Ten Aces.

The premise:

“Ten Aces” is about 10 siblings that happen to be demigods. Each of them is unique in many ways but all of them are extremely agile, intelligent and powerfull. Initially they were all friends, and loved and respected each other, but destiny had other plans for them. Inside the game you get play any of them, discover their story and choose who will prevail.

You can choose any one of the ten “aces” in the single player story mode; each has its own campaign, and according to the developers, each “represents a playing style, is which he is expert (magic, ambush, traps).”

Ten Aces uses deterministic mechanics (no missing or critical hits), and focuses around customizing characters with different abilities. As characters level, they get access to more abilities and can equip more of them.

Here’s a trailer:

Ten Aces is planned for release sometime this year on Windows, Mac and Linux. The price has not yet been determined, but the developers are considering free multiplayer with campaigns / champions sold a la carte.

As was foretold, the sidescrolling genealogical action roguelike-like Rogue Legacy has now been released into the world.

There’s a special release trailer up, quoting John Walker’s preview of the game from RockPaperShotgun (though there’s also a full review from the ever-eloquent Adam Smith up):

You can buy Rogue Legacy for $15 direct from the developer (which I encourage), or else via GOG.com, Desura, GamersGate or Steam. The free demo remains available right here. Windows-only for now.

Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games has written to me to announce a new sci-fi jRPG by the name of Cosmic Star Heroine. (If “Zeboyd Games” sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the two-man team that brought us the quite successful  indie jRPGs Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World.)

The premise of this latest title:

Alyssa L’Salle is one of the galactic government’s top agents and always manages to save the day! But when she accidentally uncovers a dark conspiracy, her own government outs her as a legendary spy and the people’s champion! Sure, now she has hordes of adoring fans but every villainous organization she’s ever crossed in her career knows who she is and is out for her blood! Can she save the day once more while she faces her greatest challenge… Everyone!?

Cosmic Star Heroine is being created in Unity, with 2D pixel art visuals, visible enemy patrols, battles that take place on the exploration screen, and multi-character combo abilities. Zeboyd is clearly drawing some inspiration from Chrono Trigger here in terms of the mechanics, but Robert Boyd assures me that there won’t be any time travel–they don’t want to draw too close a comparison, after all.

Another intriguing detail: “Players will be able to customize their own spy headquarters by recruiting more agents (think the Suikoden series).”

There isn’t too much to show yet beyond the main character concept art in the top-right, but Zeboyd have a good track record and I expect this one will be worth keeping an eye on.

According to Boyd, they’ll be running a Kickstarter campaign later this year to help float development costs (which include building a new engine as they transition from XNA to Unity, as well as producing larger, higher quality sprites than they used in prior titles). Boyd informs me that their titles generally take 8-10 months to develop; Cosmic Star Heroine is tentatively planned for release in the second half of 2014.

Following up on yesterday’s interview with developer Keith Burgun of Dinofarm Games, here’s my official announcement post about Auro, a turn-based single-character dungeon crawler with permadeath and randomly generated dungeons. (You might be tempted to say that Auro ticks all the boxes to qualify as a roguelike, but Burgun insists that this isn’t one.)

Putting aside the question of its genre designation, here’s the premise:

The story of our game starts with a spoiled young prince named Auro. He’s tasked with a simple quest: go down into the sewers and unclog one of the drainage pipes that he clogged earlier in one of his childish pranks. On his journey, Auro carelessly unleashes an ancient evil on the kingdom, and now he’s the only one who can save the world…which is bad, because Auro’s a real jerk and has no idea what he’s doing!

Auro strips out a lot of the elements commonly found in roguelikes (items and most character stats don’t make the cut), replaces the grid with hexes, and focuses obsessively on spatial positioning and tactics. In lieu of conventional character leveling or class selection, you’ll advance through a skill tree with abilities from three schools: ice (specializing in terrain transformation), wind (specializing in mobility and traps) and fire (specializing in blowing stuff the hell up).

Here is the most recent trailer, showing bits and pieces of the game in its beta state:

In addition to single player story mode, the game will feature a multiplayer mode where folks can compete to beat a level with the highest score.

Burgun mentioned in our interview that he plans on an August 2013 release. “Initially it will be iOS and Android, and soon after, PC, OSX, Linux, OUYA, and more.”