Pascal Bestebroer of Orange Pixel writes in to tell me about Heroes of Loot, an “action roguelike” he’s been working on.

According to Pascal, he’s taken the parts of roguelikes that he likes and made something of a lightweight action RPG out of them:

I took the random level generation, the leveling and the different player classes. But I made sure to remove a lot of statistic screens and skill point stuff, cause it would have broken the action and speed of the game.

You have a choice of four character classes when the game starts, but it’s not clear if there’s any character customization beyond that.

The beta is available as pay-what-you-want from Pascal’s website. The finished version–which will contain “quests, more loot, more items, more shops,” and other niceties–will be released for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad, Playbook/BB10, and Ouya sometime in May 2013. Pascal expects the desktop versions to be pay-what-you-want (with a possible $1 minimum), and will charge €2.99 (roughly $3.84 USD) for the mobile versions.

Dani Landers of Studio Fawn writes in to announce Bloom: Memories, a new Zelda-alike starring “a broken robot” and his mechanical mother.

The game’s general theme centers around the relationship between these two robots. The wider context, though, is one of disaster: the reawakening of the clockwork war drones of a civilization long past.

For many years they had encroached on our lands, slowly driving us back as their corruption spread. Their strength was overwhelming and even I and the other guardians were helpless to stop them, though many of us died trying. At the front of the assault were their skeletal machines, abominations of hollow souls and metal….of which they had a seemingly endless supply. You see, this is a battle of attrition, and it is a battle we are losing.

Though rumors abound, what is known for certain is at the heart of the corruption are the Eternal. Men? Machines? Perversions of life.

It was there amongst the Eternal that one day a mysterious woman escaped. She too was an abomination, but I could feel she was somehow different and in frantic desperation. So I reached out and called to her, offering her refuge in our forest.

It was once she arrived that I realized why she had seemed so different. Somehow inside her grew new life, and she couldn’t stand her child being twisted into the monsters which attacked us.

We worked quickly gathering pieces of the fallen machines to house her child’s life, and in the end were successful. She gave birth. Though her child was flawed and weak, he was alive … and that is where our story begins.

Unusual premise and setting aside, there are a few things that seem to distinguish this game from your typical Zelda-alike. First: a linked heart mechanic. Hearts serve as “lives,” and can be consumed proactively to provide the hero with power-ups. Half the hearts are the hero’s and half are the mother’s. I’m not 100% clear on how this differs from just giving the hero extra hearts; I think the idea is that the hero can only voluntarily give up his own hearts, whereas the mother’s reserve is purely for extra lives.

Bloom also features a spirit world (“the Bridge”) overlaying the physical plane. One can shift into the Bridge to use certain abilities unavailable in the physical world. Says Dani: “Inside the bridge one can see the true nature of friend and foe, past the physical aspects of a being and into their hearts.” That reminds me–in a good way–of the player’s first encounter with the Dark World in Zelda: A Link to the Past. I’m particularly interested to see what Studio Fawn does with this mechanic.

Bloom has some very nice art design, as you can see from this assemblage of screenshots and concept art:

Bloom: Memories is currently on Kickstarter seeking funding. If you like what you see and you want to ensure that this game gets made as intended, head on over and give it your support. (If they don’t make their goal, Studio Fawn will seek publisher / investor money to carry on, or else cut down the scope of the project to something they can complete in their free time.)

There’s no word on the eventual price just yet, though the fact that the game’s pre-order tier is $15 should give some indication. Studio Fawn estimates that Bloom will be released in or around December 2014 for Windows and Mac, with ports to Linux, Android, Ouya, XBox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and Wii to follow.

Mobile fantasy strategy title

Battle Dungeon: Risen (previously covered here) was released on Friday by developer Hunted Cow Studios.

Battle Dungeon consists of 12 different scenarios, each with its own story, so there really isn’t any single overarching premise to discuss beyond “hire soldiers and fight bad guys.” It’s a 3D turn-based fantasy tactics game, in other words, not a tactical RPG.

The game’s features include:

• Fight epic battles against multiple types of foe.
• Stunning high definition 3D graphics.
• Increase your soldiers skills with experience earned from battles.
• Design custom parties that match your style of play.
• Battle through 12 challenging scenarios.
• Collect and improve your soldiers equipment with hundreds of items.
• 3 classes, 9 sub-classes and 18 unique abilities.
• Hire up to 30 soldiers to be ready for any challenge.
• Game Center leaderboard and achievements.

Over email, developer Andrew Mulholland told me that the game’s mechanics are actually most inspired by the original X-COM (which is definitely not the source I expected for a fantasy strategy game). Similarly to X-COM, Battle Dungeon uses an action points system that allows you to jump back and forth between characters over the course of your turn. Battles occur in full-team I-Go-You-Go format; you move your whole team, then the enemy moves its whole team.

Team size varies from battle to battle; depending on the scenario, you’ll deploy a maximum of between 4 and 6 soldiers. As the leaderboard bullet above suggests, the game will score you on how well you complete a battle; completing a mission with fewer (or weaker) soldiers will increase your score multiplier.

Mulholland tells me that character advancement is more traditional. Each successful action (such as attacking or healing) gains a character experience points, which can then be allocated as you see fit to boost character stats. Characters gain levels as they earn experience, which determines what sort of equipment they can use.

Touchgameplay has a video up showing Battle Dungeon gameplay; you can check it out below:

You can nab Battle Dungeon: Risen over on the Apple App Store for an early bird price of $1.99; that price will be rising to $2.99 at some (as yet undetermined) point in the future. The game is currently exclusive to iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Ben McGraw (a.k.a. “Ben Grue”) writes in to announce Sully: A Very Serious RPG, a jRPG in development by Breadbros Games. The premise is decidedly on the light-hearted side:

Sully: A Very Serious RPG is the 80’s summer romcom of RPGs.  I’m not saying I have John Cusack in my game, but if John Cusack were going to be in any RPG, it’d be mine.

It’s mainly focused around two teenagers, Crystal and Darin, and what happens the last summer they have together before Crystal goes to college at the prestigious Magi Tech.

Ha! Magi Tech! Get it? ‘Cuz it’s like magitech, from FF6? …yeah, okay, that’s actually pretty clever. Also amusing: the antagonist is apparently Lord Stan, Prince of Heck, and “not that other guy from that other place.” (Per McGraw: “it’s a sore subject, he has better PR, Stan doesn’t want to talk about it.”)

This is the kind of RPG where you wrestle with the trials of growing up in a jRPG world. Where you save orphanages from being forclosed upon by winning prize money in a regatta. The kind of RPG where there’ll be a dance-off between rival gangs of crabs and sharks. A game where you’ll fly around in Sky Trains and Deep-Sea Hot-Air Balloons…

…both of which are way cooler than Airships.

So that’s a lot about the game’s tone and setting; how about a bit about the game’s mechanics?

The battle system features lush Valkyrie-Profile-inspired full frame animations for the characters.  The gameplay is more of a turn-based menu-driven Final Fantasy-esque type affair, but it also includes a bit of Super Mario RPG-style real-time interaction.

Which reminds me: here’s a trailer showing off a bit of how this game actually looks (i.e. really, really good):

Sully: A Very Serious RPG is planned for release in Summer 2013 for PC, Mac, Linux, and Playstation Vita. The game will be $14.99 on release, but you can pre-order it now via Paypal for $9.99.

You may recall my post last year about the release of Muteki Corporation‘s Dragon Fantasy, a jRPG with a distinctly FF4-ish look about it, broken up episodically into chapters.

Recently, I’ve seen mention of both Dragon Fantasy Book II and Dragon Fantasy 2. “Which is it,” I asked myself, “a new episode or a full-fledged sequel?” Having reviewed the terminology, I’ve decided that it must be the latter–the earlier episodes were chapters, which I guess means “Book” refers to a full sequel. Right? Sure. Let’s just roll with that assumption for now, anyway.

Supporting my “this is a full-bore sequel” theory is the fact that Dragon Fantasy Book II has shed its FF4-like appearance and emerged from its chrysalis looking decidedly more Chrono Trigger-ish–which is to say, the game’s graphics have gotten a major upgrade since the first installment. See for yourself:

Dragon Fantasy Book II is a bit unusual in that it’s an indie RPG exclusive to the PS3 and Playstation Vita. I might be mistaken, but I think that’s actually a first for this website, and evidence of the great lengths that Sony has been going to to court indie developers over the past year or so.

Muteki hasn’t posted anything on their website, but I actually got a chance to meet developer Adam Rippon and play a build of this game briefly at PAX East, so based on what I learned, I’m telling you now that this game is (a) heavily influenced by Dragon Quest, FF6 and Chrono Trigger; and (b) is coming out for Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita this summer (i.e. in a few months). No word yet on the price.

It’s a slow news day today; you know what that means! It’s time for another edition of Back to Back, where we look at indie RPGs currently up for funding on Kickstarter. (Besides, it’s been a few weeks since we ran one of these.)

From our last list, Cryamore, Terra Incognita and Delver’s Drop succeeded with flying colors; Heroes of Steel made its goal and then some; and Days of Dawn squeaked over the finish line with some room to spare. I didn’t get a chance to post The Dark Triad here, sadly, and it appears its funding campaign has already been canceled in the interim.

Here’s the new list:

• Bloom: Memories — an unusual-looking Zelda-alike. I’ll be digging up more info on this one soon.
• Caravaneer 2 — this isometric post-apocalyptic survival wRPG / economic sim (previously covered here) is still fundraising, and is now down to 25 days in its Indiegogo campaign.
• Hartacon Tactics — this rather nice-looking 2D isometric tactical fantasy RPG (previously covered here) is limping along with only $40 in funding despite months on Indiegogo. I can only assume the author hasn’t been marketing the campaign properly, which would be unfortunate given that the game looks pretty nice. This one has 28 days left to go.
• King Voxel — a 3D voxel-based Zelda-alike (previously covered here) with a new procedurally generated world / quest each time you start a new game.
• Lords of New York — a 2.5D adventure/RPG hybrid set in Prohibition-era New York City with a poker-based combat system. It looks like a legitimately interesting game, but it could use a boost, as it’s currently stuck at less than 4% funding with 20 days remaining.
• Paradigm Shift — a 2D jRPG with $46 in funding and 36 days left to go on Indiegogo.
• Pixelry Champions — a 2D jousting simulator that bills itself as an RPG (I’m not fully convinced that it actually is one, but whatever; jousting with RPG elements is close enough for purposes of this list).
• Telepath Tactics — a 2D tactical fantasy RPG with mod support.

There are also some projects with big teams behind them raising large sums of money right now (inXile with Torment: Tides of Numenera, Portalarium, Inc. with Lord British’s Shroud of the Avatar, and Larian Studios with Divinity: Original Sin). Rather than go on another lecture about what it means to be indie, I’ll just say that these games look excellent, I have tons of respect for the teams behind these projects, and I’m glad these guys are all telling publishers to buzz off, even if their studios are probably too large to technically warrant the “indie” designation.

Clayton Lilly of Gamaray Ltd. writes in to tell me about Realms of Fortune, an Elder Scrolls-style open world action RPG released back in 2011. Not technically a new release, then, but it’s new to me!

The premise:

Realms of Fortune is a first person open world RPG set in an era similar to our own age of discovery. However, instead of sailing in ships across the ocean, adventurers use gatestones to explore a distant land full of magic, treasure, and ancient secrets.

That’s certainly an unusual choice of setting, one which neatly justifies the appearance of flintlock pistols throughout the game’s media.

Something left out of the official premise, but which I find quite interesting, is that the world is apparently procedurally generated with each new game. Here, read about it in convenient bullet point form!

• A very large, randomly generated world full of lakes, hills, dungeons and more. Each game you play is a whole new adventure.
• Dozens of unique creatures.
• Real-time, first person combat and exploration.
• A huge variety of upgradeable weapons and armor.
• Firearms, including scoped weapons.
• The ability to create potions from plants that you find.
• Seamless world, even when going in and out of dungeons.
• Swimming, diving, and underwater dungeons
• Fishing and hunting.
• An exciting main quest.

The graphics of Realms of Fortune remind me a bit of the Morrowind era of gaming, which I find perfectly agreeable. (That said, I could definitely do without that enormous targeting reticle taking up the center of the screen.) Here’s a video showing the game in action on Android. In my opinion, it looks a lot better in motion than it does in screenshots:

Realms of Fortune comes in both Android and Windows flavors; per the developer, the Windows one has a few graphical niceties that don’t appear in the Android version. Both versions have free demos (Android, Windows); the full game costs $0.99 for Android on Google Play, and $2.95 for Windows direct from the developer.

Hey folks! I’m in Boston for PAX East. I totally had a post planned for today, but it took literally until just now to get internet access and actually post it. (Long story.)

I’ll be returning to Chicago Monday, and resuming regular posting the day after. Until then, why not have a look at some of these lovely pieces from the archives? In keeping with the theme of me doing things late, I’ll somewhat arbitrarily suggest taking a look at all the games tagged Well, It’s New to Me.

Phillip Meyer of indie studio Lecker Klecker writes in to announce King Voxel, a Zelda-alike where the world and quests are procedurally generated and the graphics consist entirely of cel-shaded (what else?) voxels.

The premise:

Lord Hellion has conqured and transformed the kingdom of Voxelot and kidnapped the queen.  You must gather 8 orbs to gain entrance to Hellion’s castle for the final battle.

At first glance, it looks an awful lot like 3D Dot Game Heroes, but the cel shading helps distinguish it visually. Gameplay-wise, the author states that it is “basically a ‘reimagined Zelda 1′” taking place in a procedurally generated world. You can definitely see the influence in the game’s trailer:

Meyer is currently seeking $25,000 in funding for King Voxel on Indiegogo. King Voxel will be Windows-only, and is tentatively planned for release in Fall 2013.

I’ve just received an email from Abel Bascunana of Autoloot Games, Ltd. (a Spanish studio reportedly formed by former employees of Ubisoft, Gameloft and Funcom), announcing their new RPG The Dark Triad.

Per the developers, The Dark Triad will be turn-based, isometric, and fully 3D. The game is set to feature 8 character classes, with a skills and specialty system that lets you customize your characters’…well, skills and abilities.

According to Bascunana, the game will feature turn-based combat, dialog trees, traps and lock-picking; the developers are aiming to balance dialog and combat roughly 50 / 50.

The Dark Triad’s presentation thus far is very Baldur’s Gate-y, as you can see in the video below:

Per the developers, this game still has about 10 months of development left to go; they are seeking £80,000 (read: about $121,320) on Kickstarter to finance that remaining development time.

The Dark Triad is currently planned for release on PC and XBox 360 in December 2013.