I found out about Tales of Maj’Eyal by virtue of DIY Gamer featuring it as roguelike of the year, eking out a win over the much better-known Dungeons of Dredmor. Tales of Maj’Eyal is a bit like Dredmor in that it eschews ASCII graphics in favor of representational ones, and it tacks on a nice, mouse-driven interface and a really splendid soundtrack. DIY Gamer seems to think that ToME is even more accessible than Dredmor, however; and what’s more, the game evidently features a legit story with multiple dungeons and an overworld to boot.

The devs describe it as “an open-source, single-player, tactical role-playing roguelike and action game set in the world of Eyal.” Check out this gameplay video to get a taste for how it works:

Here’s the best part: the game is free, and in the best traditions of the roguelike genre, its development is open source. Which means that it technically isn’t “done,” and never will be, so long as people want to go in and add more stuff. But it’s currently at version 1.00 Beta 37, which I gather means you can play through the game and have a very complete experience doing so. Nab the game here.

Sensou writes in to inform me that he has created an homage to the original Septerra Core in RPG Maker. It’s a free fan game, essentially, which you can nab here. There is a video showing some gameplay footage, which should probably give you some idea if you’ll be interested or not.

Carpe Fulgur, localizers of the delightful Recettear, have announced the release of a demo for Fortune Summoners. Fortune Summoners is reputed to be a side-scrolling RPG in the vein of Zelda 2 or Wanderers from Ys, but with multiple playable characters. You can read more about the gameplay here.

Fortune Summoners is due for release on Steam and GamersGate on January 17, 2012 at a price point of $25.00. Until then, get the demo and see how you like it.

Now this is interesting: Pete King of Third Impression writes in to announce the development of Blood Rune, a game intentionally modeled on the old SSI Gold Box series. Blood Rune seems to be fairly early in development, but it’s hard not to get a little excited reading what Mr. King has planned for it:

Blood Rune is a new roleplaying game. It uses a first person style of gaming unlike most computer roleplaying games of the day, harking back to older classics such as the SSI Gold Box series. Just like those, the game switches out to an isometric battle engine to resolve fights, but unlike them, this battle engine is much more fully resolved as a tactical simulation. There are movement points to worry about; you can be attacked back if an opponent has movement points remaining, your units can tire

In Blood Rune, you play a single character in a realistic fantasy setting who is soon joined by additional companions to form a party. There are many character classes to choose from including five different types of magic users. There are over 400 items in the game so far. The game begins just before the land of Dragonia is about to be plunged into war… what will your role in the unfolding story be?

Okay, so the not-particularly-creative name “Dragonia” suggests that maybe this game isn’t going to have the world’s greatest writing. However, if it plays like Pool of Radiance, I suspect I may be able to overcome my feelings about that. I’ll be watching this one.

Basilisk Games has written a post to explain why Eschalon Book III is taking so long, and to reassure everyone that it is coming out sometime in 2012…maybe. I quote from the post:

What this all means is: YES, Book III is coming!! We really blew our development schedule in 2011, missing almost every deadline we set for ourselves. But 2012 will be a productive year for us, and we are working hard right now to get everything together to make the formal announcement. This requires a press release, logos and artwork, screenshots, and we need to be able to answer questions when requests for info and interviews come our way. We certainly think that a 2012 release for Book III is possible, but we can’t make any promises to anyone right now.

For more about the Eschalon series, check out my review of Book II here.

Jeff Vogel has released his remake of the original Avernum for Mac. If you’re a Mac user, the game can be yours for $20; if you’re a Windows user, you’ll have to wait for “Q1, 2012.” Either way, here is a trailer showing off the game in its new engine.

Sinister Design has just posted an official release date for the up-and-coming Middle-Eastern-steampunk strategy RPG Telepath RPG: Servants of God. It appears that you’ll be able to get your hands on the finished game starting on February 14, 2012. (Valentine’s Day! Awwww.)

Windows users, Mac users and Linux users alike will be able to purchase the game for a handsome $24.95 (though you can also pre-order to start playing it now if you’re impatient).

• Title: Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon
• Developer: Rampant Games (Jay Barnson)
• Platforms: Windows (a Mac port is promised in the future)
• Price: $22.95

 Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon is a first-person dungeon delver by Rampant Games with an unusual focus on comedy and characterization. It lacks polish in a few areas, but FK:TSoSD is such an enjoyable (and unique) game that it’s impossible not to recommend it.

More than anything, Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon reminds me of the old Might and Magic games. You spend your time wandering around, exploring, accepting (and completing) quests, fighting things in turn-based battles and gathering loot.

As in classics such as Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen, you start the game with a pre-generated party of characters. And just like in those games, combat is a turn-based affair where you issue commands on a character-by-character basis. You don’t get the option to roll up new characters, unfortunately, but you can effectively convert your existing characters to different classes through careful point allocation upon leveling up.

(more…)

Last night, I watched the fourth and final part of Matt Barton’s interview with Jay Barnson, developer of Frayed Knights. In the interview, I was disturbed to hear that someone had gone to the trouble of cracking the (incredibly minimal and non-invasive) copy protection on the game, then distributing it to a variety of warez sites as a torrent. Even worse was the depressing revelation that Jay’s sales immediately plummeted.

(more…)

Here’s another one for the “New to Me” file. Team Wanderlust writes in to inform me of the existence of their four-player co-op action RPG, Wanderlust: Rebirth. This one was evidently released in mid-June of this year, if you believe the reviewer over at TIGSource (personally, I believe him).

Here is how the developers describe the game:

Wanderlust (the game) is an online, fantasy, 4 player party-based arcade-action rpg game made with Game Maker. Wanderlust: Rebirth officially began on December 24th, 2006. Our hope is to make Wanderlust a strong community-oriented game, where our players will make new friends and experience a great novel-esque story with one another!

So this is the second indie, Secret-of-Mana-style game I’ve reported on in the past couple of months. Pretty cool. I’m not sure what “novel-esque” means, much less in the context of a 4 player party-based arcade-action RPG. Maybe the story is like that of a novel about characters who run around and whack things a lot and level up? One way or another, though, the game does look like fun. Check out the trailer:

Also worth mentioning: the game is currently on sale for 50% of its normal price from now until December 25th, meaning that you can pick it up for a measly $5 (or $15 if you want to snag four copies, one for you and three for friends to play co-op with you.)