The Kickstarter for the sequel Free Stars: Children of Infinity is already a great success:

Kickstarter for Free Stars: Children of Infinity Surpasses Goals!

The sequel to The Ur-Quan Masters is live on Kickstarter.

Happy Days and Jubilation!

On April 16th, we launched our Kickstarter for Free Stars: Children of Infinity, and within just over 3 hours, it was fully funded!

Our Kickstarter still has several stretch goals to go, from adding voice acting all the way up to completely open-sourcing the entire game and engine. Along the way, there are plenty of digital and physical collectors' goodies for fans of The Ur-Quan Masters to enjoy.

If you haven't already, check out our Kickstarter and help us make the sequel to Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters the best it can be!

Thank you, and don't forget to *enjoy the sauce*.

Thanks Lucky Day!

The Strategy RPG Together in Battle is now one year in Early Access - Craig Stern informed us that he needs one more year to finish the game:

Together in Battle hits one year in Early Access! @ Craig Stern

"Well, hello there! I'm here in your inbox to drop you an Official Update about Together in Battle, the solo-developed indie gladiator management SRPG (with rave player reviews) that I've described as "a gladiator management strategy RPG with vibrant characters, emergent relationship-building, and time management mechanics. Uncover a sinister conspiracy; fight deep turn-based tactical battles; watch your characters grow together."

As you may recall, Together In Battle released into early access on April 25th, 2023, making today its one-year Early Access-iversary. To celebrate, I've just dropped the 20th update, adding a quick start option to bypass recruitment at the start of the game and amping up the game's battle variety.

There are now up to 10 different battle conditions for the arena's proc gen scraps; 22 hand-designed battles; more than 60 random events (most of which play out differently based on your choices and the characters involved); and an evolving main plot that plays a bit like a detective mystery.

The current plan is to hit version 1.0 in about a year, finishing up the main plot with thrilling twists and inventive hand-crafted battles. In the meantime, if you care to check out the game in its current version 0.6.20 state, that's always appreciated - I think you'll find that Together in Battle is already a wildly better game than it was at its Early Access launch a year ago. "

The roguelike Shadow of the Depth has been released into Early Access:

Shadow of the Depth | NOW Available on Steam Early Access!

Shadow of the Depth is a top-down action Roguelite game. Delve into a dungeon world of light and shadow to eradicate the monsters that ravage your home. Be prepared to step into the abyss before you!

Thanks Couchpotato!

The tactical RPG Tenebris: Terra Incognita will be released on September 30:

Release date and progress report

Friends, we have finally decided on the exact date of the game's early access release.
It is September 30, 2024, and there will be no more postponements!
It took us longer than we originally planned to add a lot of improvements and innovations to the game.

It's been a few months and we want to share an update on the game's development.

• New demo this summer
• Work continues on high level third rank heroes
• Expanded on ship bays upgrade system
• New weapons and equipment are introduced
• Implemented game mechanics - wave attack
• Support drones
• New special effects have been implemented
• Questionnaire

New demo this summer
This summer we will offer you to play the new demo version of the game, so you can evaluate for yourself the work we have done and the improvements we have implemented in the game.

In the demo you will be able to see:

• Improved character animation
• New Combat Effects
• Completely redesigned talent trees
• New skill description and hint system
• Improved loot system
• New types of weapons and armor
• Ship Bay upgrade system

In addition, the demo will be wider, and you will be able to advance your heroes to level 10 if you wish.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

The Hack'n'Slash RPG ZpellCatz will be released on June 5:

ZpellCatz

Magic Combat Only

No swords, no daggers, no bows. Every hero and every enemy is a spell caster type. Ready for something new?

Class and Path
Combine a hero class with a path to create a cat hero that suits your play style. Do you like being in the middle of the action as a tank? Choose an Archdruid. Do you prefer using area of ​​effect spells to defeat enemies from a distance? Dark Mage might be right up your alley.

Dungeons Full of Loot
Fight your way through procedurally generated dungeons and collect hundreds of items. There are normal, special and rare quality items with randomized affixes and over 150 different epic items waiting to be found.

Dark Campaign
Play through a dark campaign as your follow the main story line. Want to take the time to finish optional quests? The villagers are generous with their worthwhile quest rewards.

The Intermediate Realm
Campaign finished, what now? The Intermediate Realm is a place full of challenge, rewards and secrets. Enjoy dozens of hours of late game dungeon grind with more and more loot.

Cat and the Bat
Select a bat Familiar to accompany your cat hero on their adventures. Plug in a gamepad for local multiplayer or have the Familiar be CPU controlled if you prefer to play alone.

Clear Aesthetics
The minimalist art style helps to understand what is going on in combat. You won't lose track, even when things get heated and dozens of magical orbs fly across the screen.

Up for a Challenge?
For those of us looking for a challenge, ZpellCatz offers a variety of options. When creating your cat hero you can choose the 'Challenging' difficulty and / or pick one of the perma-death modes 'Hardcore' or 'Cat-core' (7 lives). Your hero has the strongest items possible and you don't know what else to do? There are Uber Bosses waiting for you in the Intermediate Realm... Good luck!

Guitar Soundtrack
What's more fun than dungeon crawling? Dungeon crawling while listening to a lovingly composed guitar soundtrack!

Couchpotato spotted a new Sector Unknown devlog:

Devlog: Space Travel

Sector Unknown is host to a variety of different planets that can be travelled to.
In Sector Unknown you find yourself stranded on the desert planet Maku. From there, once you find a ship of your own, the stars open up to you with six story planets available to explore and bring under your control, either through diplomacy or by force.

From your base, you choose your ship and pilot - combat success hinges on their piloting skills.

Launch into space to investigate your local system, which includes planets ripe for mining. Initially, Maku is the sole story planet, serving as your home base. However, advancing the story unlocks a jump gate to a new system featuring planets like Nabi, a harsh desert world, and Sjo, a shimmering aquatic planet, each with their own settlements.

Each system has their own jump gates, guarded by the oppressive Star Frontier, and must be conquered and claimed for use. The star combat system is still being worked on, so I don't have a lot to show there yet, but you will occasionally be able to interdict both Star Frontier and pilot vessels through combat, pacifying your systems and controlling traffic in and out of each.

Sector Unknown, once removed from star charts by the resource-greedy Star Frontier, is a critical battleground. These planets and stations, once under your control, are crucial in your mission to expel Star Frontier from the sector.

More to come!

Sector Unknown - Prologue

Sector Unknown - Prologue is a free demo version of the full game, coming out soon.
Don't forget to wishlist and follow for release dates and information!

The DLC The Tavern Opens for Wartales has been released:

Wartales - The Tavern Opens! | RELEASE TRAILER

Thanks Couchpotato!

Couchpotato spotted a trailer for the roguelike Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade:

Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade - Official Trailer

The deckbuilder Slay the Spire 2 has been announced for 2025:

Slay the Spire 2

The Spire Awakens
Civilization has waited 1,000 years for the Spire to reopen its doors...
Return to the Spire and face friends and foes in this sequel to the quintessential roguelike deckbuilder. How high will you ascend... and what truths lie at the top?

Deckbuilding Galore
New slayers join the fray with their own sets of cards, mechanics, and personalities. Try out more archetypes and master them at your own pace. The Spire forever awaits those who dare challenge it...

An Ever-Changing Spire
The Spire isn't what it used to be. New enemies, events, and treasures await as the rooms and items you discover change each time you play... Try risky builds or play it safe as you explore countless different strategies, find yourself in peculiar scenarios, and confront the Bosses of each Act.

New Ways to Play!
That aren't yet announced...

Rebuilt from the Ground Up
Slay the Spire 2 was completely rewritten from the ground up in a new game engine! We're bringing in modern features, incorporating all-new visuals, and expanding moddability.

Coming to Early Access. Again!
Slay the Spire's success comes from our community! It sounds corny, but the extra mile many of you went to report issues, translate content/announcements, create long video essays, make excellent (lol) tier lists, and draw goofy or gorgeous fan art is the reason we're doing it all again. We love our job!

The strategy RPG Age of Fear 5: The Day of the Rat has been released:

Age of Fear 5: The Day of the Rat

The adventure begins as the Undead King meets his end by Sir Edward's blade. Indulf Blackheart, mercenary leader in the Undead Legion, must balance his need for bloody revenge with his thirst for wealth and power. Together with the young witch Lexa, the dashing Black Knight Indulf sets out on a quest of infamy to plunder the realm's riches and build a criminal empire to call his own. With allies in short supply, a previously unseen faction lurking in the sewers may prove to be the key to the Black Knight's dark dream... sneak and backstab your way!

AGE OF FEAR is a long-running series of fantasy turn-based strategy games loved by fans for its tabletop wargame battle system and in-depth RPG customization (scroll down for a list of features).

STRATEGY GUIDE (200MB PDF) 
MODDING GUIDE (15MB PDF) 

FEATURE LIST
- NON-LINEAR CRIMINALITY - pick your assignments and loot King William's lands for all they're worth. Forge your way through a twisted plot into the realm's seedy underbelly!

- CRAFTING - collect ingredients from enemies and environment, and craft all the most powerful artifacts!

- INVISIBILITY - are you tired of enemies seeing all your moves? Cast a spell and whoop... you disappeared. However, the AI can do it too.

- HEX-FREE BATTLES - test your tactics with a novel movement system where size matters and units aren't constrained by artificial grids!

- OPEN WORLD - are you bored with the main storyline? No worries, you can always take a side-quest or play procedurally-generated battles. Play this game as you want!

- GLOBAL EVENTS that occur while exploring the World Map, à la Battle Brothers. This feature is still being developed and could serve to provide more lore and fun unit interactions conditional on the player's party!

- FACTION BASES which can be upgraded as you explore the Age of Fear world. Investing in base upgrades will unlock additional recruitable units, skills and locations to explore!

- MERCENARIES - recruit your troops from multiple races and factions! Will a Dwarven Warrior work with a bloodthirsty Orc?

- ALIGNMENTS such as Evil and Holy. Units from opposite sides won’t like each other and may desert. A bit of diplomacy (or charisma!) is needed to manage such relationships.

- EXTENDED STORY including many sub-quests, optional events, alternative endings, more detailed lore, etc.

- FREQUENTLY UPDATED - we take our work seriously and patch our games often with new features and content. Also, whenever possible, those updates are back-ported to all our previous games!

- COMMUNITY-DRIVEN - we listen to our players and continuously improve! Go and check our forums, everyone has their say and we implement those suggestions.

- FULL OF JOKES - who said strategy games have to be serious? All the best fantasy jokes have a home here!

- PARTY CUSTOMIZATION - build and upgrade a custom army from more than two hundred unique units, skills and spells (but be aware of racial animosities!).

- DEEP BATTLE MECHANICS - learn the basics in a hurry, then develop new strategies around a huge variety of skills, spells and battle hazards like neutral factions and environmental effects (yes, you can anger bystanders!).

- EASY TO MOD - create your own missions, or even full-fledged campaigns, to be shared with the Steam community!

- FANTASY STORYTELLING - get wrapped up in a spectacular storyline featuring a motley crew of characters, globetrotting adventures and fantasy shenanigans galore. All hand-illustrated!

- PERMANENT DEATH - accept the grim realities of death where all units that fall in battle stay dead... unless an evil Necromancer raises them as Zombies.

- ARTEFACTS AND RELICS - discover numerous unique weapons, armours, potions and treasures, with the rarest granting powerful OP skills and stat bonuses.

- ADVANCED AI - our AI is built upon a self-organizing network of agents and meta-heuristics algorithms (yes, we are PhD-smart!). Discover one of the most sophisticated AI systems you've ever played against!

- LOW HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS - run the game even on that old potato laptop of yours. Your stone-age computer is good enough!

- COLOR-BLIND MODE - a special mode with higher contrast and outlined fonts.

- ...everything else we come up with! Purchase only if you want access to the latest features in the Age of Fear series, and please keep in mind that this is an evolving product.

If you're hungry for a no-nonsense, old school turn-based strategy game, you've met your match in the Age of Fear series. Enter the fantasy world of Age of Fear today!

Vagrus: The Riven Realms gets a new DLC called Old Acquaintances:

Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Old Acquaintances

Two savants from largely disparate backgrounds: one born a slave, the other into Imperial nobility. Fate saw their paths inextricably intertwined, and neither escaped unscarred. Both of their journeys are long – roads filled with trials and tribulations – but while the aristocrat has taken a path that may shake their belief in the very Gods they so passionately worship, the former slave’s quest is a discovery of the past; an inward journey, possibly taking players to the ends of their wits.

Vagrus – The Riven Realms: Old Acquaintances, introduces two new Companions with new abilities, individual and specific loyalty quests that explore their own stories, new enemies and rewards, as well as newfound additions to hirelings that can join owners of the DLC.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

The free DLC Dwarves of Runenberg for The Last Spell will be released on April 24:

The Last Spell First DLC Dwarves of Runenberg to release on April 24th

New map, new race, new features + Free update.

Greetings Heroes!

Prepare your Haven, gather the dwarves and wait for the Night, as our first DLC Dwarves of Runenberg will release on April 24th!

Summary:
- New map: Runenberg
- New race: Dwarves
- New weapons
- New items: Stone Medals
- Free update

Thanks Couchpotato!

The DLC The Tavern Opens for Wartales will be released on April 18:

The Tavern Opens: Release Date

Greetings Mercenaries!

We are excited to share with you that our second DLC The Tavern Opens! will be released on April 18th.

You will be able to manage and expand your own tavern in this management and simulation expansion for Wartales. Secure wealth and prestige for your troop during your adventures. Purchase your initial establishment, select the finest decor for your tavern, hire employees, and craft the optimal menu to satisfy your daily customers.

Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming content, in the meantime you can add The Tavern Opens! to your wishlist now.

Don’t forget to let us know what you think of the upcoming content by joining our awesome (and passionate) Wartales community on our Discord server, Reddit page as well as Twitter.

- Shiro Games

Thanks Couchpotato!

A demo for the tactical RPG Lost In The Open has been released:

Lost In The Open

Fantasy meets reality in Shibuya, Tokyo, where magic is something to be feared. In this action RPG, a young wizard seeks freedom through strength, and an officer seeks to control magic and restore order. When their paths cross, a darkness that will transform the world descends.

Thanks Couchpotato!

A new update for Monomyth:

Monomyth - March Update

State of the Game: Video Devlog 12.0 | Open Backer Beta

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

It's time for another update! Monomyth is finally entering its Open Backer Beta phase. You can hear all about it in the new devlog. As always you can find the transcript below!

Kickstarter backers of the 15-dollar tier and above will soon receive an e-mail with their Open Backer Beta key. Please remember that these keys are not final. They will be locked shortly before the game enters Early Access.

I am looking forward to your feedback!

Best Wishes,

Michael

Couchpotato spotted a devlog for Sector Unknown:

Devlog: Crafting & Resources In Sector Unknown

After claiming the abandoned mining facility on Maku as your base, you will unlock crafting in the game.
Greetings!

This is the first of several devlogs talking about the various systems in Sector Unknown.

After claiming the abandoned mining facility on Maku as your base, you will unlock crafting in the game. Crafting is broken down into the various schematic classes:

• Weapons
• Armor
• Energy Shields
• Injectors
• Narcotics
• Ships

From there, schematic are organized further into sub-tiers. For example, weapons are further classed into pistol, carbine, rifle, and vibrosword tiers.

[...]

Summary

Crafting is an optional part of the game, but one that can provide amazing equipment and items if the player chooses to engage in the mechanic. All of these features will also be available in the free Prologue version of the game.

Don't forget to wishlist and follow for release dates and information!

Couchpotato spotted a new roadmap for Wartales:

Wartales Roadmap Update! 

Attention mercenaries!

We are excited to share our plans for Q2 2024 in the form of an updated roadmap.

The Tavern Opens! our second DLC, will be released next month. The current roadmap provides a general overview of the theme; we will reveal more information about the depth of its content in the coming weeks.
In June, Community Update 3 will address some community feedback and requests as well as balancing and bug fixes. The Pugilist class will be available in a new starting backstory, new battle maps & traps are on the way to freshen up your combat experience and a new toggle will be added giving you the option to hide your companions’ backpacks if you wish to do so!

We’re aware that you’ve waited a while for some information about what’s to come this year, thank you for your patience and let us know what you think!

- Shiro Games

A Witchmarsh adventure called Tea Party of the Damned has been announced - the main game is still in development since 2014:

Witchmarsh: Tea Party of the Damned Official Trailer 1

Thanks Couchpotato!

Death Trash will be released late 2025:

Roadmap

Welcome.

This is the roadmap for the final phase of the Death Trash Early Access.

We have avoided communicating concrete dates in the past. Working as a small team on a complicated game has been notoriously difficult, especially in regards to timely estimations. The Early Access took longer than we initially anticipated. For that we are sorry.

But during the Early Access we have improved the game and, equally important, our tools, workflows and knowledge. We are more confident now about handling the rest of the game and what time we’ll need for that.

Note: These dates might still change. If one of the milestones takes longer than anticipated, all the later dates will be influenced by that, too, of course. And at the end of the day we won't call it final (1.0) if we are not happy with the state of the game and will instead put more work in. But the important thing here is, I hope, to see and to know that the end is actually in sight.

Milestones

Steam Input implementation
Current target: soon on the beta branch

The Perished City
Current target: mid-2024 on the beta branch
New locations and quests.

Improving item economy
Current target: fall 2024
This is about the range of items available in the game, inventory size, item balancing etc.

Northern Wasteland
Current target: end of 2024
New locations and quests.

Improving existing locations and gameplay
Current target: spring to mid 2025
This is in general about adding more depth to the game, both to the narrative parts as well as to the gameplay.

The Machine and the Watcher
Current target: mid- to late 2025
Final locations and quests.

Full release
Current target: mid- to late 2025

Post release
We will continue to support the game, of course. And as this game is very dear to us, this will probably happen for a long time. We haven’t decided yet if the next project after this will be more directly connected to Death Trash or be a different take.

Console versions
Current target: end of 2025
We have no final decision on whether we follow through with publishing these ourselves or partnering up for that. Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch versions are playable already but need more work.

Localization
Current target: unknown
We still don't know how much budget we'll have for additional languages. Production-wise it might make sense to have the localization added later than the 1.0 release so they can be done from a finished game instead of a still changing one. (If we had more experience we might try to have it all ready at once for the 1.0 release, but since our experience and resources are limited, we might rather approach this step by step.)

Level Editor
Current target: unknown
Mainly intended for users to create their own standalone adventures with the Death Trash gameplay and art assets. We might extend the functionality later on.

Extended mind item gameplay
Current target: might not happen
We have more gameplay ideas for Death Trash. But, realistically, we can’t tackle all of them and have to shelve some of them for later. Enhancing the gameplay around the mind items might be one of these cases. We will revisit these ideas in the future.

Thank you

Thank you so much for your feedback and support so far. Death Trash has already become a much better game during Early Access and we couldn’t have done that without you.

- Stephan

Thanks Couchpotato!

Daveyd spotted the historical RPG Legends of the Round Table:

Legends of the Round Table - Official Gameplay | The Most Immersive Arthurian RPG

Lead the Knights of the Round Table through King Arthur's legend in a unique RPG, full of honor, magic and romance. Plunge into a colorful world inspired by medieval art, tales and music. Undertake perilous quests and fiercely defend your kingdom to make the flower of chivalry blossom again.

The tactical RPG Sector Unknown has been announced:

Sector Unknown

Sector Unknown is a story-rich, isometric RPG set in a shadowy expanse of space. Begin on a desolate planet, establish a stronghold, explore space, ally with or dominate local factions, and ignite a rebellion against a despotic organization bent on exploiting the sector's resources and inhabitants.

Thanks Couchpotato!

Couchpotato spotted Underrail: Infusion Dev Log #8:

Dev Log 8: Weapons and Trash

Hi guys,

We've been busy working on Infusion and we have some stuff to show you.

Firstly, we implemented basic crafting for two melee weapons types - sledgehammers and combat knives.

Currently, for both of these weapons, we only have basic metal variations - steel, tichrome and tungsten. We have the model done for a special "flame sledgehammer", but the mechanics are not there yet.

Sledgehammers are crafted from two components - the head and the handle. The type, material and quality of the head is what has the most influence on the resulting sledgehammer. Handle can affect ergonomics which is a special stat that affects various other stats, but we're going to leave that one for a later dev log.

My idea with sledgehammers is that, outside of energy weapons and explosives, they are probably going to be the most powerful damage-wise, but the trade-off is going to be clunkiness, which makes the weapon impractical in many cases compared to more traditional melee weapons, such as knives, swords and mace-like weapons. Sledgehammers are going to be easier to dodge because of slow swing speed and due to their heaviness they will require you to spend a lot of stamina, especially if you're going to use the powerful overhead slam attack. However, if you are Chad who invests in strength, you'll probably be able to pull some crazy damage numbers, especially with the larger heads.

This brings me to the concept of innate weapon-specific attacks - that is, each weapon will have a number of different attack types, these are available by just having the weapon, without requiring a feat. If they have no cooldown or special condition, which will usually be the case, they can be toggled to be used as an auto-attack when you click an enemy. Well, actually, there is no such thing as an auto-attack anymore, every attack is some specific attack type of your current weapon.

[...]

Farflame spotted a big update for the action RPG Trail of Ayash:

Devlog 1.2: Unleashing a New DLC-Sized Expansion - Absolutely Free!

Embark on an Unforgettable Expedition through Untamed Lands, Engage in a new quest line with multiple endings!

Embark on an Expedition to Uncharted Territories! Explore a Vast, Untamed Landscape filled with Fresh Adventures, Meet Intriguing Characters, Discover Rare Items, and Confront Formidable Foes. Your Journey is Yours to Shape - Every Decision Counts, with Side Quests in the Swamp Offering Unique Paths and Outcomes Before Tackling the Main Storyline.

[...]

Couchpotato spotted a Kickstarter update for Hibernaculum:

Hibernaculum Character Generator Update

Greetings, Hibernians!

While still firmly a work in progress - we are today extremely proud to announce our shiny new Character Generator is now working and implemented. These numbers and mechanics stay ''under the hood'' during gameplay in Hibernaculum for the most part - and while premade characters are essentially also available - there is much customization and alteration/polish that can be performed on a player character build before starting out aboard Ship in Hibernaculum. 

In fact, this is recommended for a fully complete experience in Hibernaculum, and of course also gives your character more of a fighting chance of reaching down into the farthest depths of the Ship.

The Character Generator breaks down into 3 specific sections with the more outward aspects of your character on the left panel, their belongings and physicality represented by the center panel, and skills and statistics generally listed on the right hand side panel.

Working your way across a thorough character build is also a good way to familiarize yourself (or at the very least touch upon) some of the everyday intricacies of the Ship & it's varying inhabitants via the various starting biographies & other more subtle cues.

Short biographies are provided as a starting point for understanding your character's role aboard Ship, & are also specific to both BODY and CLASS.

The main SCILD stats (Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Luckiness, Dexterity) are adjusted depending upon which BODY is chosen - a very high SCILD stat results in other aspects of a character build being altered such as higher health/hit point total for characters with a higher constitution.

[...]

WolfheartFPS checked out Stolen Realm:

Stolen Realm - You will LOVE this DnD-like Tactical RPG

The adventure RPG Evering has been released:

Evering

EVERING is an adventure RPG with a turn-based combat system and pixel art style that tells an epic story through witty and funny dialogues with charismatic characters in a completely unique and very detailed world where time loops around in circles.

This is an era of peace and the world faces no danger but if this legend turns out to be true... our days could be numbered.

EVERING is a love letter to nostalgia, a tribute to the games we grew up with, with a renewed look and feel, with no random encounters and accessibility options. You don’t want to fight? That’s okay, you can escape every combat with no punishment so you can follow the story at your pace.

The world of EVERING is full of treasures, maestros and crystals to learn new skills and alchemy ingredients. There are secrets hidden in the last place you would imagine. Can you find them all?

Features:

• ~25 hours of gameplay
• Great balance between drama and comedy
• A wide variety of towns and dungeons to explore
• Fight unique enemies and bosses in turn-based combat
• Meet a bunch of peculiar characters
• Find lots of lore books that build a detail-rich world
• Solve puzzles, side quests and more!

Story:
This is the story of Eldar, Prince of Onnya, who is obsessed with finding the origin of a legend. He has invested his life in it, often forgetting his royal duties. He will soon realize that everything around him is connected and this will lead him to discover something he never imagined.

He will be joined by Lue, a powerful and overprotective witch. On their path they will meet Jövla, a mysterious wanderer skilled with daggers, Laric, an apprentice alchemist with a lot of potential but very little self-esteem and Qibayn, an artist in constant search of inspiration.