A demo for the JRPG Sanctus Mortem is now available:

The Demo is now released!

We're very pleased to announce that the Demo for Sanctus Mortem is now available to download! Just click on the "Download Demo" button on the store page, and you're ready to go! The Demo features approximately 3 to 4 hours of gameplay depending on your playstyle.

We hope you all enjoy, and thank you very much for the support!

Stellar Tactics has a new update.

Progress Update 6/15/18
16 JUNE - STELLAR TACTICS

Hi all - It's time for another progress update. I've included a video that shows some of the work I've been doing. Details below.

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The last few months have been pretty crazy around here. Since the last major patch, I've been focused on opening the FTL gates and there is still a lot of work to do. Most of this time has been spent wrapping up all the procedural mission sets needed to make sure the universe is populated with locations to explore. This has been thousands of hours of work over the last year between me and a talented modeler/ level designer I work with. I'm happy to say that work is now done - I'm finished with the level sets for the next content patch.

Another large block of work that is finished is generating the interiors for the various stations found in the universe. That means the interiors are in the game, loading based on where you are in the universe, vendors are placed and faction mission contacts are available. You can now dock at trade stations across the universe in the development build - if you have the proper level of faction needed. In a future patch you will be able to hack station security remotely and board the stations of hostile factions. Doing that will place a station on alert and you will need to fight your way through the station to disable various systems like external station turrets and interior defense systems. Should be interesting.

All the space stations that were completed some time ago have been added to the universe. Later I'll be adding external turret systems to the stations for faction warfare.

The incursion system is now working in all systems that have stations or a faction presence. I'll expand on this in the future with faction warfare and more.

I've also added volumetric effects to all systems as well as LUT Color Grading. They add a lot to the visual appearance and diversity of star systems.

For the last week I've been focused on performance on the Star Map. The game processes tens of thousands of independent AI vessels. The Star Map uses LOD algorithms to display ships and systems that are nearby and places them into a secondary processing queue when they are out of range. Every ship has a task or set of tasks and when they are out of visual range, they switch to a secondary process that uses universe time to determine arrival, task completion and assign new tasks. It's a fairly complex system and seems to be running well. I'm going to give myself another week with this to make sure everything is performing and running as expected.

And finally, the revised animations are finished, including special attacks for all weapon types. You might notice that "stealth" will be going in the game. I'll add these animations into the game when I get through a longer list of tasks I'm working on right now.

So, what's next?

Performance on the Star Map, tying the mission generator into the rest of the universe, finishing the crew manager, adding commodities and refining the trade system and a good number of other things that need to be done like data buoy's, the mission tracker and more. These should move along pretty fast. It does take time though, so I hope you will all be patient. It's going to be a huge update when it's finished and I need to make sure everything is in and working well.

I'd like to thank all of you for supporting the game and hope you all have a great weekend!

Tobe4funas checked out Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem REVIEW - Diablo 2 on Steroids!

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Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - action rpg similar to Diablo 2. Absolutely loved how it captures the atmosphere and how it looks overall. It's currently in alpha (going into beta this September), so there's little content at the moment and obviously some bugs and stuff, but I'll be personally waiting eagerly for this one to come out.

A new video for Spy DNA shows discovering and accepting missions. Additionally the developer wrote a new blog about complexity in games and how it doesn't need to translate into complexity for the player.

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When the Commander is at the base, you can use the intelligence screen to discover and accept new missions.

The background noise is actually from the game itself, I should have muted it in retrospect. The background noise actually serves a purpose, because it stops when the time stops, so the player gets a clear cue, aside from desaturation of the colors on-screen and the highlighted icon in the HUD. You can see this in action when I long-press to select "sprint" as a movement speed for the Commander. While the time is stopped, there is complete silence.

[...]

Complexity in games

I want to talk about complexity in games. I think complexity is a very misunderstood subject. Game developers are sometimes seeking to “simplify” where there’s no need, while at the same time adding complexity without realizing it.

What is “complexity?”

When I say “complexity,” I mean specifically “perceived complexity.” In other words: Is the action considered easy or hard for a human to accomplish?

Here’s a practical example: If I asked you to throw a ball at a target, would you consider that a complex or difficult task? Probably not. However, hitting a target with a projectile is a task complex enough that solving the math behind it drove the creation of the first computers.

When video games were created, lobbing projectiles at things was a rich enough subject that entire games were built around the idea, such as Artillery Duel and Scorched Earth.

Let’s look at a more recent example. Is driving a car complex? Most people consider it so easy that they do all sorts of other things while driving. Yet teams of engineers are still struggling to teach a computer to do the same thing. Analyzing visual data is so challenging, that they have to use additional sensors (Lidar) that humans don’t have, or need. Objectively, driving is very complex and yet it’s still easy for humans.

And again many games are built around the idea of driving (or flying). Most of those games are considered very easy to pick up and start playing. Perfecting your technique and winning is the real challenge.

[...]

There is a mockup of some potential UI for Iron Danger on their Twitter account.

Hey there #indiedevhour ! Everyone having a good week?

We wanted to share bit of UI stuff with you.
We are lvl upping our UI and here are some initial designs for where we might be heading to.

Any opinions?#IronDanger #indiedev #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegame #UI pic.twitter.com/vlMhwT3eDf

— Iron Danger (@IronDangerWorld) June 6, 2018

The Paragons and Pajamas DLC for Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs is now available.

About This Content

Get in touch with the yet unknown parts of Rashytil! So far you've only heard about Minwe and Armelisse, but now you can get into a proper fight with them and... tell them off in a nasty letter.

Paragons and Pajamas brings two new factions to the diplomatic table. That means two new playable heroes (well, three in fact...), new personal bonds, and more voice acting!

Quinn is a royal bodyguard form Armelisse and she's not afraid to bring the pain on her enemies. As a melee specialist, she can not only dish out terrible damage but also withstand blows that would make a lesser warrior yield.

Yusuf, however, is possessed by an evil djinn - which is a perfectly ordinary thing, so please don't stare. During battle the duo changes their fighting style depending on Yusuf's state of mind, so think on your toes!

The Paragons and Pajamas DLC comes with:

• New, brave party member - Quinn
• New, sleepy and evil party members, Yusuf and Berius respectively
• Two new personal bonds to forge
• Two new factions, ready to exchange insults with your kingdom (including new missives to write and decisions to make)
• New items to be crafted

Realms Beyond shows off some screenshots from its combat alpha.

Combat Alpha – First Screenshots

While the user interface of our combat alpha is still in the final polishing process, we can already present two screenshots from the upcoming scene.

A warband of orcs (along with a troll) ambushed the player’s party in morning hours while traveling through the wilderness.

Edited:
Some more variations with customized grid settings.

Dark variant – medium opacity

Bright variant – high opacity

Gamespot reviewed the stick-figure RPG West of Loathing:

West Of Loathing Review: Wild, Wild West

Wild, wild, WILD West.

West of Loathing is not as simple as its art style might lead you to believe. Its black and white color palette, stick-figure characters, and crude hand-drawn art might appear to be devoid of personality. But in practice, its visual simplicity acts as a malleable canvas for its imagination to run away with reckless abandon. West of Loathing is an involved Western adventure game/RPG hybrid that embraces absolute absurdity with mechanical flexibility and comedic personality, making role-playing in its monochromatic old West thoroughly entertaining.

The Good

• Humorous writing that rarely falters
• Amusing jokes that persist through the game's systems
• Flexible, non-lethal, and rewarding solutions to every obstacle
• Pitch-perfect Western soundtrack

The Bad

• Inventory management grows cumbersome on Switch

Score: 8/10 - Great

In a new update for Unsung Story, some information is shared about the art direction for the game.

I have been pretty open about holding this area back, because I wasn't happy with the direction. Before locking in, I wanted the team to be able to explore a lot of different space. We're done exploring, and I'm very pleased to show off how that process is going.

Before I jump in, I want to acknowledge that this is the one place in the project where we have significantly deviated from the original direction set out by PlayDek. We couldn't get Yoshida back. 

We tried a number of different styles that were reminiscent of FFT, but we just couldn't make them work. So what you're going to see today is different.

I own 100% of the responsibility for the look. I chose this style, and I'm a big fan of how it's coming out. For some, you may like what I'm about to show off. And I'm sure there will be others who will be massively disappointed. Trust me, there are plenty of great medieval settings and character styles in the game. It just happened to turn out I don't have a lot of that to show off today. So I'm going to ask for a little patience, while we dial this in and integrate everything together for the final look.

I do also need to take a moment and give massive thanks to my tireless Art Director, Tyler James, and the team of artists working under him.

Even though I get to have all the fun writing these updates and sharing everything, he really did all the heavy lifting on what you're going to see this month. We've spent plenty of late nights comparing notes throughout each stage, but he has spent many hours working with the artists, giving feedback, painting guides, and generally bringing this game to life.

...

The article continues with describing the direction that is planned for the art, for which readers gave feedback, which prompted Little Orbit to come with an additional update.

Kickstarter is sometimes an imperfect medium to have a two-way conversation, but in this case I feel the need to at least follow up to the many comments on yesterday's post.

I want to start with a little extra context for how we arrived where we are with the style.

1. We cannot copy Yoshida's style

PlayDek engaged Yoshida, he did work, he was never paid for it, and there was a dispute. I have already spent months going back and forth with Cygames about bringing him back or even paying for the work he did, but we couldn't make that happen. So it's important to bear in mind that legally we need to stay clear of his style and anything he did previously for the project. I don't want to step into dicey territory that will jeopardize the project. 

For the record, I absolutely love Yoshida's work. I wish this situation were different. As you saw in early updates, we tried playing with some hybrid styles. At best they were passable. At worst they felt like cheap Western knockoffs of Japanese art. So we abandoned that approach.

2. We are limited by what the studio can do

It is possible that PlayDek would have been able to deliver on the thousands of art assets it takes to make this game - all within the style they showed. But it's important for me to acknowledge what my studio can and can't do well. We are not a 2D pixel art studio. We aren't a Japanese-based art studio with lots of that style of talent.

In fact I saw mention of Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment in the comments, and I think that's a very good example. My studio (Hijinx/Game Machine) worked on Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment. It was our first tactics game, and being forced to deliver on that art was awful. Konami had their hearts (pun intended) in the right place, but they also pushed us into a box where we weren't going to be successful. I don't want to repeat that situation.

Side note: I wont take the bullet for the VH:FoJ cutscenes. Those were completed by another team that we had no control over.

3. We are already significantly behind

Many backers have graciously told us to take all the time we need - despite having already waited more than 4 years for the game they paid for. And in a perfect world, we could iterate forever. Sadly that is not the case. We are a small studio, we took on a lot of extra cost for the eventual Kickstarter rewards, and eventually we need to ship this game.

So where do we go from here?

...

Robothorium, a Rogue-Like RPG in which you play as an artificial intelligence designed to lead a robotic revolution, is now available on Steam in Early Access for 14.99€/$, but has a 10% discount at the moment.

Robothorium, the Roguelike RPG with turn-based fights reaches early access on 7th June 2018.

Goblinz Studio, the creators of Dungeon Rushers, are presenting their new Roguelike RPG title in a new video.
Metz, 22th May 2018. Goblinz studio has announced the release in Early Access of Robothorium for the 7th June 2018, his new Roguelike RPG that puts you in the circuits of Skynet. Gather your team of robots, choose your allies and lead your troops to the next robotic era.
Robothorium will be available on PC/Mac/Linux, on Steam, for 14.99€/$. 

Robothorium is a futuristic turn-based, Rogue-like RPG, where all your choices will have a direct impact on your revolution against Humankind.

Features:

• Lead your own robotic revolution:

Your uprising will be unique! Each of your choices will impact random generation and the next missions! They will also change your relations with the 5 different factions present in the game.

• Turn-based fights:

Develop your strategy with 10 classes of robots, each one having its own synergies. Face plenty of enemies designed with unique mechanics and defeat the BreakTech enterprise!

• Manage your troop of robots:

Choose your allies and manage your reserve of robots. Craft and gather powerful items, upgrade your talents and give your support to demonstrations all around the world!

• Online multiplayer:

Face other players and prepare your response by customizing your AI!
 

Why are we doing an Early Access? 

In its current state, the concept and mechanics are definitely far enough along to give the community a good idea about what we want to do with this Robothorium. However it's still early enough for us to catch any mistakes that we might have made, or to take on board new concepts and propositions. This is why we think now is the right time to be part of Early Access.

In this way the community can be involved the sooner. The game employs an original concept mixing RPG and Rogue-like styles.This mix will require a lot of balancing because of the procedural generation. 

Fresh perspectives from what we hope will be a bunch of qualified and implicated players. That's how we take a step back and improve our game, beyond what we could have done all alone in our studio.

Version 27 of Vigilantes has been released.

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Vigilantes V27 adds a new ally, Caia Winters, 6 new weapons, 5 perks a new map, and much more! Vigilantes can be found here on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/545600/Vigilantes/

A supernatural comedy western RPG with stick animated figures, might not be what everybody is waiting for. Yet West of Loathing did manage to enter the top 10 of the RPG of the Year for 2017, so forgottenlor started the game up and penned down his opinion about the game.

I tend to be sceptical of games which advertise humour as a feature. I also am turned off by cartoon graphics. I nevertheless decided to buy West of Loathing when it was on sale for three reasons. First, the reviews were excellent, and it got a number of RPG of the year votes from people on this site. Second, it is a very reasonably priced game, even if its not on sale. And lastly and most importantly I was looking for a game that would run smoothly on my slowly dying and soon to be replaced 5+ year old computer. West of Loathing is a supernatural comedy western. So its not your typical RPG, let alone your typical computer game. Therefore, I've decided West of Loathing deserves a somewhat atypical review. So here it goes.

...

Everything these days is considered an RPG if it has an inventory and some character developement. But, yes, I'd say West of Loathing really in an RPG, and not just superficially. The game starts in your house, where you say farewell to your family before heading out west, and continues in the town of Boring Springs. This makes up the prologue chapter. You are given a number of choices as you progress through this chapter. First you can choose from one of three classes that are typical RPG fare, namely a ranged fighter (the snake oiler), a magician (the bean slinger) and a melee fighter (the cow puncher). Each of these classes offer some nice twists, though. The snake oiler, for example, cannot only poison enemies with his snake lasso, but can also summon snakes to fight for him. You are also given a choice of one of three non-combat skills (lockpicking, foraging, or haggling).

OKLABSOFT let us know that Lurking II: A Madness is available now from icht.io for $5. A free demo is also available.

Lurking II: A Madness from OKLABSOFT

Classic Fantasy Role-Playing Game for Windows

FEATURES:

• Character creation with modifiable skills and attributes.
• 'Paper Doll' style character representation.
• Hundreds of items including  clothing, musical instruments, custom forged weapons and armor and various other loot.
• Dozens of magical spells and songs.
• Party of up to 5 interchangeable characters.
• Drop off or pick up PCs during quest at adventurer guilds in towns.
• Tactical turn-based combat.
• Vast 900 x 900 tile over-world map.
• Expansive multi-layer underworld and structure interiors maps.
• Over 500 individually hand-drawn tiles create a diverse and stunning world.
• Beautiful and unique retro pixel art style.
• Nonlinear story progression with completely open world exploration.
• Hundreds of NPCs with extensive keyword-parsed conversations.
• 50+ monsters with unique skills, attacks, and behaviors.
• Plenty of noncritical secrets and hidden areas to find and explore.
• Engaging original musical score.
• In-game mapping function.

PLOT: After a short time of peace, the lands are threatened anew by a magical prion known simply as "The Madness" which has been spreading among the people and turning them to evil. Your party of adventurers sets out to discover the source of the infection and to find a remedy if they are able.

The game's predecessor, Lurking I, can be downloaded for free.

Low Magic Age will increase its price after the Summer Sale has concluded. Low Magic Age is currently 40% Off.

Notice for Price Increase

3 June - Low Magic Studios

Hello Adventurers,

First of all, thank you for your long-term support and help! Thank you for your feedback and suggestions that help us to improve LMA!

The adventure mode that has been developed for nearly a year has finally been released, and we will continue to improve it to make it more playable. Of course, the updates of other game features will also be followed up simultaneously.

As we said in the Early Access statement, we started the EA stage of LMA at a low price to thank players who have been supporting and caring about us since the prototype stage. As the game develops, the price will be gradually increased until the full release. Therefore, after the current discount event and the Summer Sale (same discount), we intend to increase the game price from 6 US dollars to 10 US dollars.

Thanks again for your continuous support!

- AM
Low Magic Studios

There is a new update for Atom RPG available, in which the player now has a base of operation.

It's May 31st, which means we need to commemorate the last day of Spring by unleashing a new update of our game world for all of you to enjoy! This time around, we livened up KRZ, by putting in some new NPCs and quests. For example, you can now visit the city hospital, which offers cure-alls to fix your radiation poisoning and help you get rid of nasty addictions. Each cure has it's price, though...

Also, as we promised on Kickstarter, the player character will finally get his own piece of the Wasteland in the form of a private house and bunker. But even though it's there, don't think you won't have to fight for it!.. The bunker's functions will broaden with each version. It will have many new features each time you update the game.

A not-so-exciting bit of new information is that due to some technical difficulties this build will have only 75% of it's new content translated properly. We will fix this with the next patch in a few days. And now, the traditional changelog:

• Added two new locations filled with quests;

• Updated already existing locations;

• Continued the Mushroom society main quest line;

• Re-balanced random encounters;

• Added two new weapons - AKMS and the HK33;

• Added new icons of armor and headgear;

• Another companion for the player! Be careful with that guy... He has an explosive temper!

• Minimaps for new locations;

• You can now test your luck at the Lottery Shack!

• New enemies;

• Did you forget about Gulchatay? She didn't forget you!..

• New (not final) battle mechanics;

• New NPC portraits;

• No more crashing during video playback!

• Added save file deletion option;

• Death in Survival is now permanent;

• Fixed pathfinding while following the player character;

• New weapon perks for SVD, SKS-S, R-700, PTRD;

• A huge new dungeon, the Death Tunnel, crawling with new monsters and lined with intricate puzzles and memos;

• New weather effects (Fog, rain);

• A chance to launch a real live nuke... Into a place we all know from childhood!

• New minimap zoom;

• Endurance now helps you endure staggering attacks;

• New sounds;

• New music;

• New books in the KRZ library!

• Many, many bugs fixed;

Not an RPG, but it is a cyberpunk game. In this case a cyberpunk horror game named Sense. Farflame figured it might still be interesting for a number of our readers, so he conducted an interview with the developer of the game.
Sense is currently on Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter campaign for Black Geyser: Courier of Darkness is over, reaching 217% of it's goal and also unlocking the Valley of Singing Trees and the Convoker class.

As we know how much people like to discuss the Black Geyser kickstarter, here is news about another stretch goal that was reached. I didn't know it existed, but there are also stretch goals based on the number of backers. Having more than 3000 backers opens up a new area named The Barracks.

We have exceeded 3,000 backers!  

This is not only wonderful but also means a brand-new area has been unlocked for Amanuel's Hoard: Barracks!

Which means now we have: Servants' Quarters, Gardens, Herbary, Fortress and Armory, and Barracks. You can read more about Amanuel's Hoard in the main Kickstarter page.

Next goal: unlock the 6th area with 3,750 backers!

And there is this bit of info about Amanuel's Hoard:

Lord Amanuel was known as the greediest man in all of Isilmerald, even before the period of chaos and greed began. When avarice infested Isilmerald, he mysteriously disappeared. No one knows what happened to him, but his castle, lands and entire hoard of wealth are rumored to remain. Hundreds of adventurers, infested by greed, have entered his lands seduced at the thought of claiming Amanuel's riches... So far, none have returned.

At this moment there are 37 hours to go in the campaign and they have reached 92.5 KEuro.

Inspired by Xenosaga and Xenogears, comes an epic 2D Sci-fi JRPG in Q4 2018: Sanctus Mortem

Sanctus Mortem

Millennia in the future, an interstellar war between the Zinethian Confederation and the Thrasik Empire has erupted leaving entire sectors a spaceship graveyard. Equipped with more advanced weaponry, the Zinethian Confederation is on the verge of winning the war, but all is not as it seems.

The fate of billions rests in the balance as ambitious scientists race to unlock a powerful secret, one that sets Captain Hector of the Thrasik warship Rhoube and his determined crew on a collision course with military governments, the empress, and his own reality.

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Features

• An epic sci-fi story that unfolds as you travel through the stars visiting various planets and beautifully-rendered regions of space
• Battle with futuristic weapons using an evolved Active-Time-Battle system
• Devastate your enemies with the new Chain Command system!
• Upgrade your ship and have full control as you navigate through asteroids and nebulae while fighting your way through entire fleets in destructive ship combat!
• Experience a powerful and haunting soundtrack composed by various independent artists
• Mini-games, optional areas, and much more!

With an update a day, there are 3 new updates for Black Geyser. The first is about the new social stretch goal Ay'eda.

For our next social stretch goal we will be introducing a new NPC to the game. Her origins are shrouded in mist, her wares are powerful, and her secrets are expensive. She may guide you towards a brighter future for Isilmerald, or show you the dark road to forbidden knowledge.

What mysteries might she hide in her caravan? What dangers await those willing to listen to her advice? What riches and power might come to those who seek it? Players will be confronted by these questions when they pull back the silken curtain to meet Ay'eda, the Mystic.

The second is about the $100K stretch goal, the convoker class.

Our next stretch goal at 100k offers a brand-new spellcaster class, Convoker.

The convoker eschews most other magical pursuits in favor of the Summoning spell class. Convokers are versatile masters of adaptation; instead of focusing on the icy grasp of a Wintermage or the dark energies of a Necromancer, Convokers call upon a wide range of creatures to suit any needed task. But don't mistake their versatility as pacificity: the summoning abilities they bring to bear can rain destruction on their enemies through claw, flame or steel.

You can visit the links, but there isn't that much more relevant information beyond what is quoted.

And then there is this video:

Below is another video from our ongoing walkthrough, focusing on a short subquest that involves much dialogue and persuasion of greedy NPCs.

Another social and a funding stretch goal have been unlocked for Black Geyser.

Great news! We have reached the 75k goal (Rillow is now a playable race!) as well as our social stretch goal of 500 shares (Kendall the Blacksmith).

The next social stretch goal is Ay'eda the Mystic, located in Isilbright, with 750 facebook shares. We will soon reveal more about her!

The next financial stretch goal is finally 100k: a brand-new wilderness area with its own dwellers, secrets, and subquests: Valley of Singing Trees. And a brand-new spellcaster class! More information coming soon on this class.

In a new Kickstarter update for Black Geyser more info is provided on gree and envy.

Fear is the obvious path into darkness, greed is the hidden path

In the Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness backstory, spreading greed is a new plot by dark gods to infiltrate, turn, and eventually wipe the world of mortals. Mortals have learned to cope with fear and evil, but have not learned to face their own weaknesses such as envy or greed. While fear from an external force makes people stick together, envy and greed silently divide and turn them against each other. 

Greed is deeply rooted in the game lore, and is very special because it has a dual nature: it has a divine origin, but relies and feasts on the very nature of mortal beings. It exploits something that every mortal has had since their creation. It confronts us with our own dark side that has always existed, turning it against us. Mortals turned by greed become connected to the divine source (divine nature) of the curse, increasing its global strength. This corrupts even more mortals, resulting in a cycle of feedback to the evil divine source.

Greed does not mean you are evil

Being greedy does not mean you are evil, and you can be evil without being greedy. 

NPCs affected by greed are not necessarily evil. If they hire you for a quest to retrieve an item because of their obsession and you complete the quest, you were good but contributed to the divine curse of greed, eventually making the kingdom even more chaotic. If you complete the quest but keep the item for yourself and even kill the innocent NPCs who hired you, you were evil and greedy. If you persuade them to change their mind about the quest in a branching dialogue, you were good and also fought against greed. And so on and so forth.

When you choose to be more generous and convince other NPCs (influencers) to do the same, then you attempt to break the feedback cycle to the evil divine source. While there is no way to break it completely, you can slow down the process, resulting in a "better", different state of the world by the time you reach the last chapter of the game. And different state means different challenges and adventures.

Build 42 of Depth of Extinction features two new character classes:

Build 42: The Wrecker and Warden are here! Plus the HUD got a facelift.

Depth of Extinction First Access » Devlog

Hey all! I know a lot of you have been waiting eagerly to try out Build 42 and it's finally here. So much new and updated stuff that I'll just dive right in.

Well, first I'll mention that we will be appearing at MomoCon in Atlanta again this year (May 24-27)! We're part of an amazing lineup of games at the Unity Atlanta User Group booths (yes, there are 2). It's an honor to be alongside some great games like TwinCop (GA Award Finalist 2018), Neon the Ninja (early access masocore platformer), Voiceball (alt.ctrl.GDC finalist) and Arbiter (co-op VR game). If you are going to the con, please stop by and say hey!

Now on the Build 42 details... but one note first... we had to reset the save data for this update so you will be forced to start a new game. So much changed that it's worth it to start over anyway!
Character Class Update

Wrecker

We covered the Wrecker in the Build 42 preview post last week but we should mention that their preferred weapon class (Heavy) has had some improvements since then to it’s effects. Updated GIF with the Shadowfury (tier 3 ballistic minigun)

Warden

Protector of the weak. The Warden is a defensive focused class whose skills are focused on providing protection and taking fire for other allies. They are a kind of variation on the tank that is probably best built with high health to be able to take a lot of punishment while others dish it out. When fully leveled, the Warden can be very dangerous by laying down covering fire to any enemy who fires on an ally.

Skills:

• Distraction - Draw enemy fire for a few turns
• Hunker Down - Automatically defend if moving on both actions
• Covering Fire - Fire on enemy that attacks an ally if in range

Remove Saboteur
We love the Saboteur class in principle but unfortunately, in game development, sometimes you have to make hard choices. The Saboteur really needed the Stealth system to be more fully realized in order to be an effective class and there is unfortunately just not time to do so before our launch. We could possibly bring them back in a post launch content update !

Rebalancing

We touched on this topic in the Build 42 preview but there are a few areas to cover in more detail.

Walls As Cover
We’ve heard the feedback: some of the interior level rooms are just not fun as there is sometimes a lack of cover. One idea we’ve been toying with for a while is to make the corners of walls function as high cover. We’ve added it into this build with the ability to “lean” around walls and fire. If this seems to play well, we’ll consider adding an additional firing animation (or something) for the lean.

Fog of war also clears around walls when you are on a corner, allowing you to safely get a look down hallways. I think this is the really interesting change and the one that has most affected my play style.

Overwatch
I also reworked overwatch as the previous implementation would take some bad shots most of the time. Now I calculate the hit chance at every waypoint (tile) on the moving character's path. I exclude the start and end and any location that is lower than a base percentage. The I choose a random value from the remaining locations. This ensures that the shot is always reasonable but sometimes really good. We will see how it plays but it seems solid so far in testing.

Trapped Containers
Another interesting change is that we now will spawn different amounts of enemies depending on the situation. One such situation is that the loot containers are sometimes booby trapped, which makes an alarm go off alerting enemies to your presence. We will continue to work on these types of situations and refining them to match with situational dialog in the encounters as well. This will be a focus for the next few builds.

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An update for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem is available, providing more information about the multiplayer support, the beta roadmap, some office stuff and pets!

Beta Roadmap

The global Roadmap is nice, but it doesn’t give you many details about what’s currently happening for the Beta. Therefore, we’ve decided to open a new Beta Roadmap, more detailed about the Beta content. Each week, we will add images of the work in progress based on your votes on Trello.

To vote, you have to own a Trello account(free) and vote for what you wish to see.
The section with the highest votes each week will be granted with an image added on the Beta Roadmap.

Be careful, though, spoilers are to be expected, do not visit the Beta Roadmap if you wish to discover the content by yourself when it’s in the game

The second developer blog for Unsung Story is about the UI design.

This is Rowan Ryder again from Torus Games, here with Tyson Hollitt, who’s in charge of the User Interface design for Unsung Story. Today, we’re going to talk about UI design; where it’s currently at, how we got there and how we plan to proceed.

UI Pre-Production

At the beginning of any project, it’s important for the UI Designer to collect reference material; trends from games in the same or similar genres, trends from the industry at large and even examples of UI from software outside of games. We look at what’s working and what isn’t, then combine that knowledge with what we understand to be unique about our game.

In this case, we need to break down and understand what players expect from the UI; each units vital stats, their equipment, the turn order, where each unit can move, etc. It’s also important to lean on what the player already understands — players are constantly learning while they play a game (any game), and it’s important that the interface doesn’t ignore this fact.

Finally, pre-production involves listing out what information will need to be exposed to the player through the interface. It’s extremely helpful for the dev team to have access to this information in an easily digestible form so we don’t overlook anything as we move forward.

It’s very common for developers take information for granted when they live and breathe a game for months, but as soon as a new player gets their hands on the game they’ll find it bafflingly vague and obscure. As such, we rely on an itemized list of information to make sure we’re on track (as well as regular play testing!).

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Several stretch goals for Black Geyser have been achieved in the last couple of days, such as: Language pack and modability support and the social stretch goals: Party romance and pets.

This means that the next stretch goal is, with about 10K to go, a new playable race and as a social stretch goal there is a blacksmith, who can forge weapons for you.

After 7 years of development The Great Gaias will be released on June 22:

The Great Gaias

Having evolved from the Dungeons and Dragons table and refined for over a decade, The Great Gaias is a story-driven RPG that tells a compelling tale adapted from an original campaign setting and reimagined as the beloved classic genre.

Story:

A mysterious contract from the royal family sparks the interest of an organized band of sellswords. What seems like a normal job quickly spirals into a whirlwind of betrayal and tragedy, thrusting a young rogue and his unlikely companions into the middle of an ancient prophecy.

Rumors of long forgotten creatures, lost magic and a cult devoted to a dark god signify the coming of a new age. With petty feuds and corrupted politicians dividing the unity of the great nations, a blind eye is turned to the true evil about to descend upon the land.

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Features:

• 60+ Hour Main Storyline
• 17 Playable Characters
• 200 abilities to learn
• Hundreds of unique enemies
• In Depth Crafting System
• Build Your Own City
• A Multitude of Hidden Bosses
• Challenging Dungeons
• Multiple Endings

In the latest update for Black Geyser, a music mix from the game is made available.

Here is a music mix from the OST of Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness. (Don't forget we have a soundtrack Add-On for €7!) The mix includes clips from the following songs:

 • A Peaceful and Prosperous Land / The Vineyard (full song from 0:00)
 • In the Wilderness at Night / Night Wandering (clip from 3:00)
 • The Red Damsel / Tavern (clip from 3:16)
 • Temple of Alnarius (clip from 3:36)
 • Knights of Isilbright / Carnival (full song from 3:49)

Forbidden Cults has been released for Tales of Maj'Eyal.

My dear minions,

I am very happy to tell you that Forbidden Cults expansion is now officially released!

What started as an idea inspired by a bug in a joke online event turned into a set of races, classes, lore, zones... that makes me very happy!
So without further ado, I give you Forbidden Cults !

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Forbidden Cults is available from Te4.org, Steam and GOG, go grab it now before a tentacle grabs YOU!

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