Back at the end of March, you may recall me covering the 2011 Elder Scrolls-style open world RPG Realms of Fortune. Developer Clayton Lilly was kind enough to provide me with a Windows copy of the game; as I often do, I chose to document my first 30 minutes with it for your amusement / edification:

Basically: not too shabby! I have a few things I could critique: it starts off slowly, there’s little to no exposition at the start of the game, and the stamina mechanic desperately needs a good blocking mechanic to complement it. But on the whole, the game struck me as pretty solid–especially so given the price (less than three dollars on Windows, and 99 cents on Android).

You can nab Realms of Fortune here for Windows, and here for Android. There’s also a free demo available (Windows, Android) in case you want to test drive it for yourself.

Happy Monday, and welcome to another glorious week of exploring the exciting and ever-expanding world of indie RPGs! While I do some digging into some new and obscure projects, why don’t we catch up on some games we’ve previously covered, complete with videos? (Or, as I like to call it: Movie Night!)

First up, we have graphical roguelike Tales of Maj’Eyal. Word has it that ToME received a big update on Friday. Among the improvements:

• Rebalancing of many races and classes
• Addons will stay active if the game’s patch version is over the required one. So addons for 1.0.1 will work on 1.0.2 (but would not on 1.1.0)
• Most tier1/2 zones can now have alternate layout/stories/… brings some fresh air
• Rak’Shor pride looks more .. necromancy, and is more interresting
• More direct melee-range talent UI
• Many bugfixes and improvements

Second, it looks like work is continuing on Hartacon Tactics; some basic AI for single player has now made it into the game, as demonstrated in this video:

Space Hulk-style roguelike Steam Marines has reportedly been updated to alpha version 0.75a, with “a bunch of small stability and bug issues, as well as improving enemy AI and polishing up some of the UI.” In addition: “Map generation is sped up, special wall tiles were added, player and enemy turns are more clearly separated,” and more. This video doesn’t actually show version 0.75s, but it’s much more recent than the last one I posted, so I’m going to run with it:

The premise:

A group of disparate companions are about to find themselves subject to the machinations of the mysterious House of Correction.

Faced with increasingly fiendish trials, seemingly designed to teach that the meaning of life is to die, and inmates whose derangement is matched only by the staff, you’ll need to utilize all your wits to help them overcome where countless others have failed.

But just who is setting the agenda in this insane bureaucracy? Have lunatics really taken over the asylum, is some more sinister force at work behind the scenes, or is this simply the correct level of therapy required for a return to civilised society?

The developers describe the game world as “unique” and “surreal,” and although I have little context to interpret its significance, I will say that I am definitely intrigued by the presence of unusual character stats like Ego.

According to the developers, The House of Correction features real-time combat, combat abilities that synergize well together, lots of weapons to discover, teleporters, illusionary walls, secret rooms, and other dungeon niceties.

Want to see more? Here’s a trailer for you:

You can also see a bunch of screenshots below (some of which mention an “insult skull”–that sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it?)

There is a free playable prototype of The House of Correction currently out for Windows; you can download that here if you want to get a taste for what they’re aiming at. (They also have an alternate version with AZERTY keyboard support.) The game has been in development since June of 2011, but the developers are quick to note that this prototype is mostly just a proof of concept.

If you like what you see / play, do feel free to head on over to their Greenlight page and give The House of Correction your upvote.

Word has it that there is a “roguelike RPG brawler” in progress by developers Butterscotch Shenanigans. Quadropus Rampage began life as a 7DRL entry; the developers apparently liked it enough that they chose to expand it into a full game.

QR is a roguelike-like: it has levels, equipment, procedural generation and permadeath, but it’s also a fast-paced action game. You play as an angry, four-tentacled octopus. (I’m not sure why you’re angry, exactly, but I imagine that having one-half the regulation number of tentacles might have something to do with it.)

Here is a trailer giving you a sense of the how and why:

Word has it that Quadropus Rampage is coming “soon” to iOS and Android.

Princess Aerin Goldheart suspects that her prince is sharing the bed with another woman. After once again becoming intoxicated and making a scene, the King and Queen send her away to a forest cottage. Aerin sneaks off to sign a contract with the Demon of Desire to make the prince love her again, but things go awry and she must travel the world to break the deal!

I have to admit, this is a pretty novel premise for an RPG; and I confess, I rather like the idea of playing as a recovering alcoholic princess (who is apparently possessed by a demon, if the cover art is any indication).

RosePortal Games promises more than 30 hours of play time, 10 playable characters, and an “innovative battle system” in which spells have an area of effect. I’m not sure that it counts as innovation to add a feature that’s been in games for more than 20 years, but hey–at least it’s a new wrinkle in the default RPG Maker battle system.

The Princess’ Heart is out now for Windows; you can snag the full version here for $4.99, or play the free demo.

Aldorlea Games informs me that in preparation for the imminent release of Millennium 5, they’ve gone back and updated installments 1-4.

The games now contain new faces for all the Mystrock Lords as well as small gameplay additions, such as the explanation of what each promotion (and double-promotion, in the case of Millennium 4) does.

Maybe not super-newsworthy, but hey: it’s a slow news day. Sue me.

Heroine Dusk is a first-person, turn-based, step-based RPG in the Might and Magic vein. It even uses 2D sprites, just like Mom RPG developers used to make.

What distinguishes this from most of the blob-based first-person dungeon delvers of yore is its simplicity. You are a single character, not a party; fights are strictly one-on-one affairs (though that may change somewhat in the future); and the interface is highly streamlined.

You can try it for yourself, as there is a free demo currently online. Bellanger tells me that he created the demo as his April “One Game a Month” challenge, and intends to continue work on Heroine Dusk if it has a warm reception:

I have a full game planned on paper, and was waiting on how the demo was received before building out the rest of the game. I plan to sell the full game on my web site at first. I hope to make ports for iOS and Android at some point. I do at least plan to make a C++ port to make a native version for the open source handheld GCW-Zero.

Bellanger is known for championing open source development, and Heroine Dusk is no exception. Writes Bellanger: “I’ve released it all under open licences: GPL for the code and CC-BY-SA for the art.” The engine is pure HTML5 / Javascript, which will no doubt be exciting to some. (Personally, I’d be happy if I lived the rest of my life having never written another line of Javascript.)

Click here to play the demo.

Vaughn Royko of Unlok writes in to inform me that Wayward (previously covered here) has reached beta version 1.2. Among other things, line of sight and a fishing system have been added to the game (the full list of changes is available here). An updated trailer follows:

Despite the name, Lost Spirits of Kael is not about undead hippies. The premise is much artsier than that:

You play the role of a young painter who has lost his inspiration and tries to get it back in the Forest of Kael. There, he meets a mysterious harpist who covers the forest with magical mist by playing her harp. Lost in this creepy forest covered with graves, he will have to find his way out. But the forest has mystical powers that makes finding one’s way nearly impossible, and some of its inhabitants will try to stop him.

The game is about loneliness and finding one’s way into the unknown.

Here is a trailer showing off the game’s painterly aesthetic:

LSoK is planned to be nonlinear, with every part of the game world open to exploration from the moment the player leaves the introductory area. Per the developer, your character is not going to be very good at fighting, but most battles will be avoidable. Character progression is handled in a fairly unusual manner:

• While beating bosses, the player will obtain their souls, which he can equip to boost some of his abilities.
• Equipped souls gains experience and power while beating monsters and bosses.
• When the player dies, all of his equipped souls lose HP.
• When a soul’s HP gauge is empty, it is destroyed definitely.
• If no souls are equipped, all souls lose experience when the hero dies.

Lost Spirits of Kael is planned for a Windows release in 2014.

Deathfire will feature real-time, grid-based exploration of the world mixed with turn-based combat. Henkel writes:

The game uses a stepped first person perspective, but unlike “Dungeon Master” or more recently “Legends of Grimrock,” this is not a linear monster bashing dungeon crawl. We are creating a world that is richer and uses a complete role-playing engine, hearkening back a lot more at games I created in the past, particularly the “Realms of Arkania” trilogy.

Despite this general real-time approach to the environment, the combat system will be a turn-based system that, once again, dives deeper into role playing elements than any real time game possibly could. We have not revealed any details about combat at this time, but I would like you to know that it will be an engaging experience that offers plenty of options for the player.

Deathfire is planned to feature six races, eight classes, and a suite of 34 character traits that you can use when creating your four-character party.

On top of that, your party will have two slots for recruitable NPCs–Henkel promises that there will be “a lot of inter-character activity….It was one of the hallmarks when we designed ‘Planescape: Torment’ and I’ll definitely stick to that because it opens up a wealth of cool opportunities for us as game designers.” It has not yet been decided whether this will be an interactive system, or whether the game will handle characters taunting and interacting with one another automatically.

Deathfire is being developed in Unity for Windows and Mac, with a Linux version to be released either concurrently or shortly thereafter. Henkel says they’re loosely targeting Deathfire for a 2014 release.