Corwin reached out to the Corven: Path of Redemption folks to ask them some questions and as their new Kickstarter went live today, this provides you with an opportunity to learn a bit more about the game.

RPGWatch : Why were you keen to make a game in the style of the old Ultima series?

Florian: Because I absolutely love Ultima and we still to this day did not get a new game like it. Some came close, but in my opinion none of them managed to capture the soul of those games.

In my opinion, Ultima, especially my favorites V, VI, VII, SI and in parts VIII, were all about interesting storylines and NPCs in a beautiful, interactive world. While Ultima never had long dialogues rivalling books in length like for example Planescape Torment, it managed to tell fascinating stories through interesting NPCs. In many newer games NPCs seem like robotic story machines and even newest technology with fancy facial animations cannot make them feel alive. Those pixel people from the aforementioned Ultimas had way more soul. In part it's because Garriott and his team gave them background stories the player could find out if he or she wanted to. There were relationships, rivalries, drama, friendships, ... and most of the time it was told through just a few lines of text and it had nothing to do with the main quest-line. It made you feel like you are part of a living breathing world.

The interactive world with its many secrets to discover did the rest. Secrets which again, mostly had nothing to do with the main quest-line and so made them feel truly special.

 

RPGWatch : How did you manage to get Richard Garriott (Lord British) involved with the game development and how has he helped you?

Florian: Richard and I were in contact for years off and on because I was active in the Ultima community. When I asked him if he would let us use Lord British in Corven he agreed quickly after reading the story outline. It's important to him that the character is portrayed in a way that makes sense overall and so he was very interested in the part he plays in Corven. Richard even ended up coming up with story ideas and details for Corven which were really great. After a brainstorming session we integrated his ideas in the Corven script and I think it all turned out great.

Richard offered to work more on the story with me once the Kickstarter campaign is over.

A new kickstarter for the spiritual Ultima successor, Corven has started today, after the previous one was canceled. They are now asking for 25,000 dollar less, which results in a goal of $20,000 and they are already halfway there.

Corven is a story-driven, open world, single player RPG inspired by our  favorite old-school RPGs, especially Richard Garriott's  Ultima series.

We miss Ultima and its design philosophy and so we set out to create something very similar.

Corven will let you explore an interactive open world full of secrets and surprises. Maybe even more important than that, Corven will deliver an engaging story with many interesting NPCs.

Our goal is to make you want to know "what happens next?" in the main quest.  Or in side quests for example"why is the, married, mayor of  this town sneaking over to this other woman's house almost every night?"  :)

This is a shift from many modern RPG's in which character progression  and combat are very clearly the main focus. Don't get us wrong, we love  those games too, but we want to focus on what made games like Ultima V,  VI and VII so great.

We are also very proud to announce that none other than Richard "Lord  British" Garriott, creator of the Ultima series, likes Corven and even  helped with parts of the storyline. His alter ego, Lord British, will  appear in the game and make Corven feel even more like its great  inspiration, Ultima.

Don't worry, Corven will also feature a fun real-time combat system  which is entertaining, but won't take up most of your play time. You  will learn many exciting spells and some of them will even interact.  Like a fireball which does 100% critical damage on targets afflicted by  your freeze spell. You get the idea.

Gamebanshee reports that Corven - Path of Redemption has a new gameplay trailer and made a Kickstarter announcement.

The Lycantic team will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for their Ultima-inspired RPG Corven: Path of Redemption on June 9, 2020, along with the game's playable demo. In the meantime, you should check out Corven's new trailer that over the course of nearly four minutes showcases some exploration, combat, character building, and dialogues.

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Lord British will be apart of the storyline for  Corven - Path of Redemption.

Lord British, the King of Britannia from the Ultima series and the alter ego of Ultima creator Richard Garriott, will officially be in Corven!

After reading my story outline for Lord British in Corven, Richard Garriott was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to have a brainstorming session with me to further refine this part of the Corven storyline. Once we were happy with the result, he officially agreed to have the Lord British character in Corven!

Lord British will not just be a gimmick in Corven, but will play an essential role in the main storyline.

I would love to tell you more details about the story, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. I might be biased, but I have to say, the story is amazing and it will translate into an amazing game.

I can also honestly say that Richard Garriott’s keen sense for an exciting CRPG plot is incredible and it was a pleasure to have this brainstorming session with him.

Now it is up to us to turn this plot into a compelling game.

Richard Garriott agreed to have additional brainstorming sessions in the future, so you can be sure that Corven will have a storyline worthy of an Ultima.

So all you classic CRPG fans out there, and especially all you dear Ultima fans, Corven is now the closest thing to a new single player Ultima game that you can get in the near future. Stay tuned and please support us in the upcoming Kickstarter so we can make all this a reality.

Development is on track for the release of the fully playable demo in spring 2020 and the Kickstarter will begin at the same time!

Please spread the word about Corven! It’s difficult to get the word out as small indie team and we rely on you for word of mouth support.

THANK YOU!

Thanks Farflame!

The latest update for Corven - Path of Redemption shares some music and landscape art.

Music, landscape art, new team member and new domain

Music:

Music was always a major part of almost all my favorite games. That's why I thought a LOT about what kind of music we should have in our game.

I knew from the start that I wanted a strong melody in most of the tracks, but the style of music was not clear right away. After a lot of testing and deliberation I decided to go with a style heavily influenced by 80s synth. Standard medieval music is expected and maybe often ignored in medieval RPGs, unless it is truly exceptional quality. For example Icewind Dale had some truly amazing tunes. I however want to give this game another feel than your usual medieval fantasy game and, while trying not to spoil anything, I can tell you that the game won't be purely medieval anyway. Patrig, our musician, was on board immediately and already created some great tracks. You can listen to one of them right here:

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@Gamebanshee Corven: Path of Redemption had a development update back in January showing off a lot of screenshots.

Beside having had pneumonia the month was productive. We worked on several parts of the world; here you can see screenshots of the entrance to the lair of a witch and first screenshots of the Isle of Iredia. The inventory system AND the item combination system are almost done. Below you can see a screenshot of the inventory and the hotbar. The GUI graphics are placeholders of course.

The Titans of Ether team is working on an Adventure-RPG in the tradition of Ultima called Corven - Path of Redemption:

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Story-driven

The emphasis of Corven is on it’s story. You will not just fight monsters to get more loot, but delve into a deep and rich story. It will be the gaming equivalent of a page-turner with many mysteries to solve and secrets to uncover.

Open World

Explore a beautiful, hand-crafted, open world. Different biomes, dungeons, magical places, … Can you find all the hidden secrets?

Characters with character

Our NPCs will have a story to tell. We will try to keep the “filler” NPC count as low as possible and create a world filled with characters that have their own problems and opinions. They will also follow a schedule (work, bar,…). In addition there will be a day/night cycle.

Real-time combat

Unlike in many other RPGs, especially the action kind, combat is not the main gamplay feature in Corven, but it will be an important one none the less. You can fight monsters in real time similar to the way you know it from several action RPGs, but you can also pause the action to give commands to your 3 party members. Be a powerful mage,  archer or swordsman, … or all at the same time.

Interactive world / crafting

The world will be highly interactive. You can pick up most things and drag them around. This way you can discover secrets like a cave behind some rocks. Also crafting will be without menus! For example, if you want to forge a sword you have to put the iron on an anvil, use a hammer, cool it off in water… Remember the Black Sword? You will also have to solve puzzles like you know them form Adventure games.

Minimal UI for maximal immersion

We keep the UI to a minimum. No minimap, no quest marker, no UI icons within the game world (question marks above heads…). We want you to be able to fully immerse yourself into this world. You will however have a map, an automatic log book and a compass.

Choose your view!

Corven delivers the isometric few so many of us love in Ultima, but what if you are a fan of first person or third person view and can’t stand ISO/top down? No problem, we created the world in such high detail that we can let you play in 3rd or 1st person view. However, you won’t just switch views but also get the appropriate control scheme with it! We will also support VR (strech goal)!