Posts from ‘RPG’ Category

Ao Oni

By: Derek Yu

On: March 17th, 2012

Ao Oni, by noprops

A group of teenagers enter an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of town to see if it’s haunted… an unimaginative set up for a horror tale, but thankfully it’s not indicative of the rest of the game. Released in 2009 by the Japanese developer noprops, Ao Oni has since gained a cult reputation for its inventive scares and challenging puzzles. Given that it’s made in RPGMaker XP, the game’s not Amnesia-levels of scary, but it squeezes a lot out of the aging engine to provide a suitably creepy backdrop for the puzzle-solving.

Everything you need to play Ao Oni is available at its homepage, including the RPGMaker XP runtime. There are Japanese, English, and Italian language editions of the game – just download your preferred translation, unzip, and run (after installing the runtime, of course). Keep in mind that different versions of Ao Oni vary greatly in terms of plot and design… older versions are available from other websites if you’re interested (but beware of spoilers).

TIGdb: Entry for Ao Oni

Pre-Alpha Video: Grim Dawn

By: Derek Yu

On: March 16th, 2012

Grim Dawn is an upcoming action RPG from Crate Entertainment, a small studio founded by ex-members of Iron Lore Entertainment. The game is being built on Iron Lore’s Titan Quest engine.

In this August 2011 interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Crate’s Arthur Bruno spoke quite candidly about the demise of Iron Lore and how the Grim Dawn team is planning to please “the hardcore gaming audience” on a smaller budget.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup v0.10: “Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus”

By: Paul Eres

On: March 5th, 2012

TIGSource hasn’t covered Crawl since 2007, back with Linley’s Dungeon Crawl, and it’s changed a lot since then. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is the living branch of Linley’s Dungeon Crawl (the original branch hasn’t been updated since 2003). Most fans of roguelikes have played it or at least know about it, but for those seeking to get into roguelikes this is a good place to start. Ortoslon got me into this particular game, and it became the first roguelike I ever finished (albeit as a Minotaur berserker, one of the easiest combinations to beat the game with).

The new update added (among many new features) a new species, octopodes, which can wear eight rings, but can’t wear armor except hats. In Crawl, species matters a lot more than starting class, class just determines which skills and items you start with, but is non-binding because you can always learn other skills and find other items: so you can begin as an elven fighter but then find a spellbook and decide to focus on magic anyway. Your species determines how fast you can increase different skills (varying from -5 to +5 learning rates), your movement speed, body size, metabolism, whether you have horns or claws or other features, and so on. If you get into the game you’ll probably try out all the species at least once, but then stick with a few favorites.

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Alientrap Announces Next Game: Apotheon

By: Alehkhs

On: February 23rd, 2012

Apotheon 1

Alientrap, the two-man team behind last year’s Capsized, has just announced its next project: Apotheon. As an “an open world, action/stealth, 2D sci-fi sidescoller game,” Apotheon sports a unique art style that mimics classical Greek pottery and promises to “have both a sprawling, open-world singleplayer campaign where you climb your way to the top of Mount Olympus, gaining divine power and deadly enemies along the way,  and online multiplayer battles with tactical bronze-age combat (spears and arrows!).”

Apotheon 2

Alientrap has only revealed two screenshots at this point as well as the game’s synopsis:

“Apotheon is a 2D platform action-rpg set on the rich stage of ancient Greek mythology. Hera, the queen of Olympus, has overthrown her husband Zeus, and taken his throne as ruler of the Gods. Bitter and scornful towards the race of mortals, she launches a murderous campaign to scour them from the earth. As humanity’s last champion, you must pass through the land of the dead, infiltrate Mount Olympus, and end the wrath of the Gods. With sword, spear, and shield in hand, you will sneak, conspire, loot, and battle your way through majestic palaces and chthonic depths as you climb towards godhood. Only by stripping the old gods of their powers, and taking control of the elements as your own, can humanity hope to survive the coming oblivion.”

Coming to Steam: Realm of the Mad God

By: Alehkhs

On: February 18th, 2012

Realm of the Mad God, the free-to-play, bullet-hell MMORPG will soon arrive on Steam.

Realm of the Mad God

Originally an entry in the TIGSource Assemblee Competition, Realm of the Mad God has continued to gain popularity for the past two years, and was announced as a Main Competition finalist for the 2012 Independent Games Festival. The game’s move to Steam, early next week, shows just how popular it has become and will introduce achievements to the game as well as a stand-alone client (though players will still be able to play in their browsers, if they so wish). The game will continue to be free to play, and it’s almost certain that the team intends to add new content throughout the foreseeable future as the player base continues to grow.

Congratulations, Wild Shadow Studios!

 

TIGdb: Entry for Realm of the Mad God

Starfarer 0.5a

By: Derek Yu

On: February 14th, 2012

Starfarer, by Fractal Softworks

Starfarer is a promising real-time tactics RPG that’s currently in development. The latest pre-order build, 0.5a, was released today, bringing the game one step closer to the open-world space opera that its developers have planned. Previous iterations of Starfarer have let you choose from a number of scripted missions, but in 0.5a you can finally tackle a basic campaign map that lets you expand your fleet (through purchase or capture) and level up your crew. No matter how large your fleet is, though, you’ll always control a single character and ship, directing your allies through a detailed tactical map.

The game already offers quite a bit in the way of customization to your fleet, from types of ships (large capital ships to tiny fighters) to weapons and armor, down to even the personality and experience of the crew. The final release, though, sounds like it will be a dream for fans of space combat and trading games like Escape Velocity Nova – whether you want to be an ace pilot, the admiral of a large fleet, or something in-between, there will be plenty of ways to make your (permanent, meaningful) mark on the galaxy. On top of that, Starfarer’s devs seem committed to making the game friendly for modders, with fans already creating their own ships and missions.

The final price of the game is set at $20, but you can pre-order it right now for $10 and receive the current build as well as all future updates.

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Driftmoon Demo Released

By: Derek Yu

On: February 10th, 2012

Anne and Ville Mönkkönen have released a demo for their upcoming RPG Driftmoon, which is nearing completion (a “few months”, according to the website). Previously, the game was only playable as a preorder.

The demo of Driftmoon comes with a full-featured editor and all of the currently available mods. If you enjoy it, you can still preorder for access to the alpha.

Gameplay Video: Cube World

By: Derek Yu

On: January 2nd, 2012

Here’s a video showing off some of the early quests in wollay’s Cube World, a voxel-based action RPG that’s currently in development. There’s also a feedback thread for the game on TIGForums.

Legend of Grimrock Beta Trailer

By: Derek Yu

On: November 28th, 2011

Legend of Grimrock developer Almost Human has announced that their upcoming dungeon crawl is now in beta, meaning “that every feature, all enemies and all levels that are going to be in the final game are now in place, and we can now fully concentrate on polishing and balancing the game and fixing bugs until everything is perfect”. The release date has been pushed to some time next year, however.

To the Moon

By: Derek Yu

On: November 24th, 2011

To the Moon, by Freebird Games

To the Moon has been out for a while now, and has drawn some extremely positive reviews for its touching story and music (with a few reviewers saying that they were brought to tears!). The game revolves around Johnny, an old man looking to have his memories altered so that his dying wish may be fulfilled. As the player works their way backward through Johnny’s life, they’ll eventually discover why his wish is what it is.

I haven’t tried To the Moon myself, but I wanted to give fans of good storytelling a chance to try out a game that seems to be superb in that regard. Just don’t expect much in terms of interaction.

TIGdb: Entry for To the Moon