Wizard Worm looks back at Lords of Xulima:

Lords of Xulima Review (Saga RPG)

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Lords of Xulima Review - is a challenging Role-playing game set on the mythical continent of Xulima, where Gods and humans once walked side by side. Experience a genuine RPG featuring over 100 hours of Lords of Xulima gameplay, and discover one of the most epic sagas ever told.

A lot of interesting news from Numantian Games:

New Languages: Russian, Chinese and Italian

Greetings!

New Version v.2.1: Three New Languages Available

The new version of Lords of Xulima is available now and includes three new languages: Chinese, Russian and Italian.

We would have loved to release it sooner but we have experienced several delays with the translations. Also, languages with different alphabets like Russian and especially Chinese have been a real challenge to support. Anyway, we have learnt a lot and we promise that future games will be translated into all the languages for the official launch. Everything, from the world map to the Deluxe Edition books have been translated. Hope you enjoy it!

Future Projects of Numantian Games

We are currently working on two main projects.

First, porting LoX to consoles. We have just finished the gamepad support for LoX. It has been quite complex as the game has many different mechanics, but after a lot of work the game is fully playable with a gamepad. It feels very intuitive and fast to play.

Second, we are working on a new game in a different genre. What could it be? Any guess? :) It is a secret at the moment... but we hope to start talking about it very soon.

In the meantime...

We are also sketching what Lords of Xulima II will be. We are exploring new ideas and taking all the feedback possible from the forum comments and reviews. We have created a new forum branch "Lords of Xulima II Feedback" where you can write your ideas and wishes. Here you can comment on what parts or mechanics you have enjoyed the most from LoX, and which of them you enjoyed less or would change.

We would love to hear your ideas! We will periodically update the post to collect and summarize the feedback.

Thank you very much to all the players of LoX. Thanks for sharing it and recommending it. The success of this game has only been possible with your support.

All the best!

Great news: Numantian Games announced a Steam Workshop, LoX 2.0 and three new mods:

Welcome to Lords of Xulima V.2.0!

To celebrate the first anniversary of Lords of Xulima, we have released a major update with a lot of new things.

The Workshop

Finally, the Workshop is available. With the Workshop, you can create your own mods for the game in which you can change the rule set system to create a unique experience or simply to improve the original game to your taste.

We have created a specific application, the Lox Editor[www.lordsofxulima.com]. With this tool, you can change the global parameters of the game, the encounters, monsters, skill, classes, treasures... in a very easy way. Then you can publish your mods so other users can try your version of LoX.

Players can easily manage the mods and activate them from inside the main game menu. First, subscribe to the ones you like in the Workshop page of LoX and then you can activate them directly from the game.

You now have three Mods available: "No Random Encounters Edition" (created by the Team), "The Deepest Dark" by the user Celerity and the "Streamlined Edition" by Valadurs Erbe. Hope you enjoy them!

If you still don't have Lords of Xulima then now is the time to get it at GOG:

Lords of Xulima 70% off Promo + Contest

Win an autographed, physical copy of Lords of Xulima: Collector's Edition!

Scratch your old school RPG itch with a 70% discount on Lords of Xulima - Deluxe Edition, and the edition upgrade!
If we had to say one thing about Lords of Xulima it would be that it's huge -
over 100 gameplay hours of completely original fantasy roleplay huge. With a mix of isometric exploration and first-person turn based combat - it's all the good old school gameplay you know and love to scratch that unique RPG itch. Lords of Xulima - Deluxe Edition includes exciting extra content: Talisman of Goldot DLC and the Special Digital Rewards package. The DLC includes three artifacts of epic giving power to help you on your journey, while the digital rewards are a package of impressive bonus content including an Original Soundtrack, a detailed Bestiary & Mythology of Xulima, Map of Xulima, and more!
The promo lasts until July 19, 11:59 AM GMT.

CONTEST:
If the promo wasn't a good enough reason to explore the lands of Xulima, we're also happy to announce a contest for you all!
You've shown us time and time again that you’re all other kinds of creative. If you're anything like us, than about half of every extended classic RPG session was spent rolling and adjusting every possible stat on that perfect party. That's the side of RPG gaming joy that really doesn't get enough credit - so this week we want to bring it to the forefront in the most classic style!

THE GOAL:
Design (write, draw, paint, photoshop, photograph) your very own RPG character sheet. Pen and paper style. Show us the coolest, funniest or just most creative character you can think of! Is it you? Is it your cat? Is it your grandmother, vanquisher of the empty stomach? We *need* to know.

THE GOODS:
We will pick 2 winners, who will receive their very own physical (and signed!) copy of Lords of Xulima - Collector's Edition. These editions are brand new and pretty unique collectors' items featuring a world map, and two hardcover books: Secrets of Xulima Game Guide and Bestiary & Mythology of Xulima.
We'll also throw in 4 GOG.com game codes worth $9.99 each!
Knowing how these things go, there'll be plenty of runners up as well - so don't hesitate to enter even if you don't think you'll be numero uno.

THE RULES:

• We're allowing only one entry per user, so make sure it's the one you love.
• Submit your creation as a .jpg image as a forum reply to this post. Make it an attachement, or host it on http://imgur.com/.
• We're accepting entries until Tuesday, July 21st, at 23:59 GMT.
• We’ll be posting our favorite entries on our social media profiles, so get ready to get some fame - we promise to credit you by your GOG.com user name.

Have fun with it!

The physical editions of Lords of Xulima are finally available. The team went through several issues in getting them ready as is explained in their Indiegogo update.

The Collectors Edition will have this:

• The Big Flap Box
• The DVD Box
• The printed poster: world map of Xulima
• The printed manual 
• The printed book "Secrets of Xulima"
• The hard cover book "Bestiary and Mythology of Xulima". 

Lords of Xulima is available at Steam now with a 50% discount.

Numantian Games notifed me you can now buy Lords of Xulima for 40% off on GOG. The sale will last until May 4th so everyone still has the chance to buy a copy.

Lords of Xulima just received a major patch: the 1.8 update, which includes Linux support, a Polish localisation, and many sought-after improvements. We love big patches that breathe a bit of new life into our games, so how could we not celebrate with a discount? Lords of Xulima is 40% off for one week!

Numantian Games sent information they released the 40th post-funding kickstarter update for Lords of Xulima, and briefly summarized what the new update talks about.

We are already on the dawn of a 40th crowdfunding update. What a great journey it has been! This time you will find more about:

•     The future of Xulima as a (possible) franchise
•     New localisations: Polish & Russian
•     About porting Xulima to consoles & portable game devices
•     Physical Editions coming soon
•     v1.8: Performance improvements & bug fixes

Hello everyone I'm exited to announce that thanks to Jesus Arribas of Numantian Games we have the opportunity to give away two Deluxe Digital copies of Lords of Xulima.

Lords of Xulima is an original Fantasy RPG set on the mythical continent of Xulima, where Gods and humans once walked side by side. Become the Herald of the Gods and travel to an uncharted land to fulfill your mission of restoring balance in the known world.

The Deluxe Edition includes the game, the Talisman of Golot DLC and the Special Digital Rewards DLC. All you have you have do is leave a comment you're interested.

Same rules apply as always which means no new members are eligible, and you must  have more than 50 posts on our website to qualify. Good luck everyone.

I will start the Raffle, and announce the winners on Monday April 6th. In the meantime if you haven't already read our new interview with the developer here is the link.

Update: Alright our new contest is now over, and before I forget the winners will both have to write a small review of the game. Just Kidding here are the winners.

1. henriquejr
2. dpc76

Congratulation guys as the automated number generator picked you both. I will send you the keys in a few minutes in a PM. Enjoy and don't forget to thank the developer.

Welcome back for another interview on RPGWatch. This time we got in contact with Jesús Arribas of Numantian Games. Let's call it a 'retrospective interview' for Lords of Xulima.

Couchpotato: Seems most professional reviews have mostly been positive, but most talk about Lords of Xulima being too hard. Some of our members have even started threads on our forums saying the same thing. Do you agree with them, and how would you respond to them?

Jesús: We sell Lords of Xulima as a "challenging RPG inspired by the classics". So yes, it is challenging and we love that, otherwise it would be a different game.

With that said, LoX has four difficulty modes which change the level of challenge dramatically. That way, players can choose the one that best fits their play style.

In contrast with the old-school classics, Lords of Xulima is not a difficult game to manage. The interface is really intuitive to use and the gameplay mechanics are very easy to learn.

The difficulty comes from [the fact that] the game does not hold your hand. You have the freedom to do what you want and go everywhere from the beginning. Because of that, you can easily find yourself in trouble. Modern players are more used to thinking that they can do everything without consequences because the game is designed and balanced to prevent any wrong decision they can make.

With Lords of Xulma, we did not try to please millions of players. Instead we made it for those that enjoy this different philosophy of gameplay.

I remember the first time I played one of the those modern RPGs with auto-level monsters and treasures, a quest compass, and thousands of repetitive quests / tasks. I thought, "What? Is the RPG genre ruined forever?" Fortunately now, we have many options thanks to the indie studios. Now we have games for all tastes, and that's awesome.

About the press, we are actually very happy with their reviews. We really thought that they would be much [harsher] with us. Really our main concern is the players' response and comparing the data on Metacritic:

- Lords of Xulima, press score 72, users score 87.

- Dragon Age Inquistion, press score 85, users score 58.

How can the opinion of the press be so different than the players?

Digitally Downloaded published a new review about Lords of Xulima this week.

Lords of Xulima is strictly for the more masochistic of gamers. Its merciless difficulty that only exponentially spikes the further you play should come as a dream come true for fans who like the ultimate in ball-kicking. If you identify yourself as one of them, this game is totally for you. And I would also recommend that people who are not gung-ho on the hard games do themselves a favour and just this once take the punch in the gut, because Lords of Xulima is a gorgeous, resplendent title that will incur your wrath often enough, but will equally never disappoint.

Numantian Games next update for Lords of Xulima has news about the Physical Editions. Looks like their might be some trouble with them. Read on for the details.

Let's talk a bit about the Physical Editions!

Before starting our crowdfunding campaign we were learning a lot from other projects and their authors. One of the most common advice was, "Avoid the physical rewards, their production and manufacture can be a nightmare!”

And despite following all of the other advice which was very useful for us, we thought that physical editions for an old-school RPG with a wonderful map, bestiary book, and guide, was simply something mandatory. Even the team members dreamed of having a beautiful Lords of Xulima boxed edition in our hands. So yes, we included those rewards while we said, "Okay, no worries, we will deal with it in the future!"

And the future is now...

So... I don't have words to explain how difficult it has been dealing with all of this stuff. We have a big problem because of the number of units which is less than 400. Because of this we cannot contract a company to produce everything in mass, as the fixed costs are really big. Also 400 is too much for handling them on our own. And of course we want something really cool, not a cheap plastic box or a low quality printed bestiary book. We wanted something exclusive and unique for the backers.  

We had to search for other solutions. We spent lots of days searching for the best way to handle this. Finally, we made an agreement with another company that specializes in this stuff for producing and shipping the physical editions.

So everything is OK now?

No, it isn't. The problem with working with an external company is that everything gets delayed a lot with meetings, design tests, discussions.... and start again. We had prepared all the books for December but the production was delayed two months. After that, we have had to reformat the two books again with more than 200 pages...

Numantian Games notified of a new update for Lords of Xulima that has information the Linux version is now available, and talks about mod support for the game.

Lords of Xulima is now available for Linux! 

To celebrate this new launch we have set a special discount of 25% off. The game should run well in all official distributions that launch the Steam Client. The GOG version will be available a bi later. Also, we have created a new section on the forum to give support to the Linux users.

What's next? The Workshop

We are working on some modding options for Lords of Xulima. The first one will be the ability to modify rule sets in the game (classes, skills, enemies, encounters, zones...). Players will be able to create their own rule set and share it with the community.

Would you like to try a super fast LoX without random encounters, but you can only cure the party with potions? Or where Wyverns are roaming Velegarn and Gaulen is now a Pyromancer? There are endless possibilities!

Physical Editions

Yes we know we are very delayed, apologies again for the delay! This week we will post a new specific update to talk about the physical editions.

New version 1.6 available

We have fixed some minor bugs/crashes and made some optimizations to improve speed and smoothness, especially when using OpenGL. You can see the full list of changes here.

Here are two more reviews for Lords of Xulima that I found on the weekend.

Gamebanshee - No Score

I don't want to make this sound like an insult, but LOX is an okay game.  It's a budget title that isn't trying to do anything too out of the box, and it mostly hits its marks.  LOX is definitely a grindy game, but as long as you enjoy building up a party and fighting monsters -- and you don't require much in the way of quests or story to encourage you along -- then it can give you dozens of hours of entertainment.  LOX is worth a flier at its price.

Hey Poor Player - 3/5

Ultimately, Lords of Xulima leans perhaps too hard into emulating classic cRPGs. Most of it is well-designed, but at a $20 price point, it’s obviously going to lack the polish of a game like Divinity: Original Sin. It’s not an unenjoyable game by any stretch; it is, however, an incredible niche experience.

The latest Matt Chat video is a one hour video review of Lords of Xulima.

This week, I review Lords of Xulima, the new Kickstarter-funded project from Numantium Games.

Numantian Games sent information about a new update for Lords of Xulima about the developer finally getting the game on GOG for those who want a DRM-Free version.

 Lords of Xulima - Available on GOG.com

Finally, the DRM-free version of Lords of Xulima is available on GOG.com. You can visit the GOG store here. Please share it with your friends!

All the backers that prefer the GOG version over the Steam one, please send us an email to info@numantiangames.com from your Kickstarter email address. We will send you a GOG key in a few days.

Linux Version

We are starting the testing of the Linux version of Lords of Xulima. All that want to participate in the test process, please send us an email to info@numantiangames.com. We will use the Steam platform for the testing. And when finished, we will launch it on Steam and GOG at the same time.

Physical Rewards

Apologies to all the backer because of the long delay of the physical rewards. We have waited to have the GOG DRM-free version to include the same standalone installer in the DVDs. As all backers who purchased the physical editions already have a Steam Key, those backers will get both versions. We expect to start the production next week, and start the shipments in about 10 days. We will inform you with the progress.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's john Walker posted his thoughts on playing Lords of Xulima. He isn't  ready to post a full review so here is just his early impression.

I’m still very early on in the game, but I wanted to alert RPG fans to it in time for their Christmas holidays. They say it’s over 60 hours long, and it’s all rather nicely put together, reminiscent of classic RPGs while cutting out a lot of the faffy bad interface stuff that plagued them. From my first few hours, I’d certainly recommend a look. It’ll set you back a not inconsiderable £15 on Steam. Or it’s the same price via the dev’s Humble Widget, which will see them get 25% more of your money, and get you a Steam key anyway.

Numantian Games announces the game guide for Lords of Xulima is now available for all buyers of the Deluxe Edition and in the Digital Rewards DLC.

The game guide book, called "The Secrets of Xulima" is now included for free in the Deluxe Edition and in the Digital Rewards DLC. In the 200+ pages of this book you will find the Walkthrough, and the glossary of classes, skills and weapons.

They also give an update on  the game.

Manual

Finally, Lords of Xulima has a manual that cover all the basic aspects of the gameplay and a reference to all the shortcut keys.You will have it in the game installation folder and also can download it directly from Steam here.

New languages in the works: Russian and Polish

Good news! One of our dreams is that players in all countries can experience this epic story in their native language, so we are proud to announce that two more languages are coming to Xulima: Russian and Polish. And... we expect to add Italian too some time later.

Mac OSX Players

In the name of the team, we would like to apologize to the players who suffered issues of the initial release version of Mac. We didn't realize that there were so many different computer configurations as in Windows. We have worked and continue working on addressing all the incompatibilities. The game now plays smoothly on our Mac Book Air, Pro and iMAC. We can even say that the best platform for playing LoX is a Mac Book Pro with retina display. The images are so beautiful that even the developers are amazed.

Take a look at this 4K screenshot.

Linux Version

The Linux port is progressing well, and we expect to have it before Christmas.

A game guide for Lords of Xulima is now available in the Steam Deluxe Edition. In addition there is also news on the OSX and Linux versions, additional languages nd a physical edition coming our way.

The game guide book, called "The Secrets of Xulima" is now included in the Steam Deluxe Edition. In the 200+ pages of this book you will find the Walkthrough, and the glossary of classes, skills and weapons. Backers who pledged for the Digital Guide will receive the guide by email.

We are now working on the production of the Physical Editions and if all goes well, we expect to have them ready in time before Christmas. Wait until you see the World Map Poster printed in A2 size!

The CRPG Addict, known for his chronological journey through CRPG history, has posted his first impressions of recent indie RPG Lords of Xulima:

Overall, I had a lot of fun in the 4 hours I was able to devote to Lords of Xulima. I'll take Sr. Arribas's compliments about my blog in the spirit that they were intended, but the true inspirations of Xulima are the classic RPGs that I've written about, and like Might & Magic X did with its franchise, Xulima does a great job paying homage to the past while offering plenty of 2014 innovations. I recommend it....

Numantian Games has announced Lords of Xulima is now officially released on Steam. They also offer a 10% discount until November 21st for new buyers.

Official Launch!

Finally here you have the full game with great new features!
Don't think that we have finished here, as we will continue to support all the players, solving bugs, and even implementing new features as we have done during the Early Access phase.

The End of the Epic Journey of Gaulen

The final boss and the End is now unlocked. The dreadful and most powerful being in Xulima is waiting for you in the Temple of Valvet. Good luck guys!

We have carefully crafted a 10 minute cinematic to show you the end of this odyssey. We really hope you like it, as we have put all our heart and passion into it. A deserved reward for all that have won this epic adventure of more than 100 hours.

Please, don't spoil the end to the new players, if you talk about it make clear that there is a spoiler inside. Thanks!

The final score will be uploaded to the Global Leaderboard, let's see who ranks the highest!

Talisman of Golot

Our promised special artifact to reward our backers in Kickstarter is available now. It is available as an upgrade, or as a pack: The Talisman of Golot edition that includes the Game and the Talisman of Golot DLC.
If you purchase it you can enjoy the artifact at any time. It is not necessary to start a new game, although it is highly recommended, as there is a new quest and achievement for getting the 50 spheres of energy that now are located in different hidden places of Xulima.

For more information visit the Talisman of Golot store page.

Deluxe Edition

The Deluxe Edition DLC of Lords of Xulima includes the Bestiary & Mythology Book with more than 200 pages, the soundtrack with 15 original themes, the HD World map and exclusive wallpapers.
The Mythology contains two parts, the pre-game and post-game parts. So if you haven't finished the game, don't read the second part!
As for the artifact, it is available as an upgrade or sold as a the Deluxe Edition than includes Lords of Xulima, Special Digital Rewards and the Talisman of Golot.

For more information visit the Deluxe Edition store page.

The Lords of Xulima speak in German too

It has taken us much more time than we expected. Two translators have worked hard to get this great translation as good as the original one. Hope you like it!

Available for Macintosh

The Lords of Xulima has arrived in Apple computers. Although there are some issues, we expect to solve this very soon, but the game is now fully playable. The first launch of the game after the installation can take one or two minutes so be patient. We have created a special Forum for Mac OSX users.

Coming Soon...

- Linux version, which is our priority now.
- Full Game Guide that will be included in the Deluxe Edition for free.

Have you enjoyed Lords of Xulima?

If so, and you would like to help us a bit, please share it with your friends, write reviews, and recommend it on social media. All help for promoting the game is more than welcome.

... and a big thank you!

Thanks to all the backers, preorders, beta players, and Early Access players for all of your fantastic support. Thank you very much in the name of the team of Numantian Games.

Well the wait is over as Numantian Games has announced Lords of Xulima will be released this Friday on November 14th. Here is the update with more information. 

Official Launch

Finally Lords of Xulima will be released officially this Friday, on the 14th of November. On Friday it will be available with the game, the Talisman of Golot, the Deluxe Edition, German language and MAC OSX version. The Linux one will be ready in two weeks.

We have been in Early Access stage for about three months now and have made many improvements to the game. Now it is much better than ever thanks to the awesome feedback of our community. Thank you very much to all that have collaborated in the final development stage of LoX.  

New Features!

To give you thanks, we have added some new cool features to the game in version 0.18 that perhaps were the most wanted by the community.

Quick Bar buttons in Combat

Every character has now a quick-bar with 8 slots where you can place skills, items for use and items to equip. You can use the quick bar by clicking in the buttons or more easily by pressing their corresponding number.

Custom Portraits

Now you can add custom portraits to be available when creating new characters. Also you can now change the portrait of a character by clicking on their portrait in the character screen. As soon as you run the 0.18 version you will have a new folder "Portraits" in "Documents\My Games\Lords of Xulima" with a text file with the instructions about how to add them (the format, size, naming...).

Steam Cloud

Yes, now you can continue your game from any computer you wish. Even the custom portraits are now synchronized in the cloud.

Two new music themes

Our awesome composer Nicolas de Ferran has created two new memorable themes that can be listened to now in the beginning of the adventure: "The Lost Continent" for the Tranquil Coast and Varas-Talak, and "Mist on the Swamps" in Rasmura. Now the Soundtrack has 15 beautiful themes that will be included in the Deluxe Edition with the best quality.

Displaying Encumbrance Values in the Shop

Now, when you examine armor pieces in the inventory or in the shops, it displays the values of the max weight the character can carry, and how it is affected if they equipped that armor piece. A very helpful information for those that want to make the most of your party.

Numantian Games posted a new screenshot for Lords of Xulima on Twitter.

Numantian Games posted a new update a few minutes ago for Lords of Xulima that has information on a new interface design, the french version, and the release date.

The Lords of Xulima speak French

We are very happy to announce that the French version is ready. You can select it in the options screen. For the new users, that language will be chosen as default if your OS version is in French too.  

New Interface Design!

As we are so close to the official launch, we have decided to improve and modernize some of the interface of Lords of Xulima. There were parts that we were not very happy with, that was done in the beginning. The functionality was very good and user-friendly for sure, but the overall look needed some more polishing. Don't worry though, because only the appearance has changed, not the usability.

So now, you have a new Lords of Xulima, which is much more polished, sharper and beautiful. And these improvements would have never been possible without your support during this Early Access phase. 

 New Voices for the NPCs

They were available since v.016.5 but we had no time to announce them properly. Now the Titans, Witches, Impious Princes and the dark and the inscrutable Yûl heralds now have really awesome voices. Ten different actors have participated in the process. Even the charismatic Guardian of the Arena, The Great Romegor has new voices for special moments.

In the next update we will include the Talisman of Golot. We estimate the official launch of Lords of Xulima for 13th or 14th of November if all goes well. So in two weeks you will finally discover the end of the game. By the way, we are preparing the Talisman of Golot Edition and Deluxe Edition that includes the Talisman, the digital Bestiary, the Mythology, the soundtrack and some more digital rewards.

The next post-funding update for Lords of Xulima has information about some new content that has been unlocked for the game. It seems to be about Titans.

The Titans Chapter

Greetings! 

The four colossal Titans known as the Sons of the Elemental Xulnari, have their lair in the most remote places of Xulima. Finding them is just impossible for the mortals, unless you can count on some divine help... For those lucky players that find them, enjoy interacting with those powerful Demigods that have not met a mortal ever.

Now all the world is accessible for the player, including the Glacier of Geldra, the Desolation Desert of Pernitia and the Lake of Fire in Vilak. Also, the four temples of the Elementals Xulnari can be played now. In some of them, you will find new monsters as "The Nightmare" which is one of the most powerful enemies you will find.

Game already Finished?

We have unlocked about 15-20 hours more of gameplay. Indeed, 99.9% of the full game is now playable. Everything except the very end, that includes the Final Boss and the awesome End Cinematic that lasts 8 minutes, at which only a dozen lucky people have had the chance to watch it. We will reserve the climax of this epic story for the official release of Lords of Xulima in November. While you can speculate about the end, what will happen with Xulima and the rest of the world?...    

The New Ironman difficulty mode

Many fans of LoX have requested this new difficulty mode. The Ironman mode has the same rules as the Hardcore mode, but you can only save the game when you are safe in the towns. So yes, this mode can be a real nightmare, such a challenge that perhaps nobody can ever finish it. For those heroics players we have created a new special achievement and the final score is now re-scaled as the Ironman mode grants a score, 300% more than in normal mode. We have added new monsters for the final rank, which now has 100 different positions.  

Which will be yours?  

• Normal Mode: Ranks from 1-50.
• Old-School Veteran: Ranks from 50-70.
• Hardcore: Ranks from 70-90  
• Ironman Mode: Up to rank ~100.  

New Feature: Write your own notes on the Maps!

Another feature requested by the fans is writing their own notes on the maps. Finally, it has been implemented. It was a little hard to add, but we love that feature too. Also, these custom notes can be consulted directly in the Journal with the rest of auto-notes that the game records for you. Hope you enjoy it!   

Next Update: The next update will have finally the Talisman of Golot we promised in Kickstarter, the French translation and perhaps the German one too. See you soon!

Aries100 had the the chance to play the Beta version of Lords of Xulima provided by the game's developer, Numantian Games. Here are some impressions.

Imagine an old-school rpg that features exploring, questing, turn-based combat and strategic decisions, and combines it all with the need to explore in order for the story to move forward. Lords of Xulima works this way, but it also has some of those old-school drawbacks.

Mathieu Simard from Numantian Games has been quite helpful in answering my questions about some of the design decions in the game, such as the steep toll the party has to pay in order to get into the first town, Velegarn.

"This is a 'tax' (toll) imposed by Prince Nengorth on the Village of Velegarn," Mathieu comments. "From a design perspective, this is meant to motivate the player into advancing the story and making the party stronger."

Numantian Games updated the Development Schedule of Lords of Xulima. While the update was posted a week ago I somehow missed it.

23-24 September

Next big update, Version 0.14. It will include a New Class: Divine Summoner, as well as some cool new skills for current classes (including the Thief and Barbarian).

October, 1st week

The next major content update will be Version 0.16. It will open up to 80% of the game, which means everything other than the Titans Chapter and the Temples of the Elemental Gods will be playable.

October, 3rd week

Version 0.18: All content available except for the ending (which means the final challenges the players will face, as well as the 8 minute-long epilogue cutscene). Also included with this update will be new voices for important NPCs such as the Princes, Heralds, Titans and Witches, so as to give them a bit more 'personality'. Last but not least, we hope to enable the French and German localizations of Lords of Xulima around that time.

Official Launch (Tentative November)

It will include the ending and will be fully compatible with MAC and Linux.
Editions for the game will be made available, including the Artifact of Golot edition and Deluxe editions.

Several new regions have been added to Lords of Xulima, increasing the playing time with an extra 30 hours.

We are very happy to announce that we have unlocked a new portion of the game with about 30 hours of gameplay. Now the game is playable up to 80% of the full content. Everything but the Titans chapter is now playable. The two chapters, "The Divine Artifacts" and "The Impious Princes" can be completed now.

New Regions to explore: Rasmura, Devonia, Vilak & Varas Talak.We recommend you to start exploring the Northwest part of Vilak, entering from Sorrentia, and then continue your adventure in Rasmura. The new content is more open and non linear than ever; you have to choose carefully where to go and what to explore and which enemies to fight. Don't try to clean a whole region, instead travel and explore the different regions. You can explore a part of the Ancient Ruins of Devonia, then travel to Tailkendil island in Varas Talak, then return to the Tower of Rage, explore the West of Vilak... More than ever, your destiny is in your hands.

By the way,the entire region of Nagira is now unlocked, although you will have to find a way to reach the Ovengel's castle without ending with your bones burned to the ground.

In addition they also added some higher level skills for Mages and Clerics and you can also buy the game from the Humble Bundle Store, in case you want to buy it anyway and in the process donate a bit to charity.

The 30th update for Lords of Xulima has information from Numantian Games about the Divine Summon, and talks about the German text translation.  

German Translation 

We are proud to announce that the German translation of LoX is in progress and already about 30% done. Very soon you will be able to play LoX in French and German, even during the Early Access phase. 

New Class Available: The Divine Summoner

As we promised in our crowdfunding campaign, we have created a new advanced class for an original play style. The Divine Summoner is a special class we want to include, because we feel it will add even more depth and fun to your adventure, if you can master it. As a Divine Realm class, he summons and commands the heralds of the Gods. There are 8 different Heralds, one per every Lord of Xulima except Yûl because as you know, his Heralds only serve to the will of the Guardian of Souls.

Every Herald has its corresponding skill to be developed with 30 different levels. Furthermore, the Divine Summoner has 5 more skills to improve different aspects of the summonings. The Divine Summoner can summon up to two Heralds at the same time in combat. These Heralds take the two empty positions in the character position grid, creating interesting tactical scenarios. The Heralds only remain in combat during a short period of time. If you summon a Herald who is already in battle, it will be restored to their original state (summoning time, life, power...). 

The Heralds have their own IA and personality. You decide which of them you summon in the battle, but what they do in combat depends on their own will. Which of them will you choose to assist you during combat? Take a look at what they can offer you...  

The next update in scheduled for the end of the next week in which a lot of new content will be unlocked, about 30 hours more of gameplay!

Chalgyr's Game Room has a new preview for the beta version of Lords of Xulima.

With Lords of Xulima still in Early Access, it has time to round out a few sharp corners and add further polish to the game. The overall engine is good, but further explanation (in-game or via some sort of manual) would be quite helpful. Even on easy, there is some questionable balance as well as some groups of enemies can really unload on your party very quickly and everything in the game just feels expensive. A few bad trips out into the wilderness can spell disaster, and the reliance of food makes simply grinding a slightly more precarious option than most other RPGs as well.

Still, for the handful of warts to be found, Lords of Xulima feels like it has the potential to be an outstanding RPG with a pleasant mix of old and new before things are said and done.

Marcus Estrada of Cliqist has a new preview of the beta version of Lords of Xulima.

Lords of Xulima should really appeal to players who love a good, difficult RPG. There are definitely some aspects that could see furthered tweaking, such as adding more to the day/night cycle, but as is there’s already a fully featured game waiting for players. The development team is also constantly turning to players for feedback, which is just what you’d hope to find from an Early Access title. If you jump into Lords of Xulima now you can expect a massive game, regular updates, and a developer who is more than happy to read feedback. If you’re a big Early Access gamer then you know these traits are rarer than they should be!

Numantian Games has a new post for Lords of Xulima on the Steam forums with news about a few translations, new patch, and the special & limited box editions.

We know that we have as big of an audience in France as in Canada, so we are very happy to announce that the official launch of Lords of Xulima will have French among the available languages. As you can see, the main store page is available now in French.

And German?

We are now looking for a good German translator. We will hold both translations in parallel to have them ready for the final release. Any recommendation? If you wish to help us in this task you will be more than welcome. Please write us to info@numantiangames.com.

The rest of languages

Anyway, after the official launch we will release a tool to add more languages to support fan translations. As LoX is UNICODE, it supports any language from Russian to Japanese. Finally, if someone wants to help us to include a new language for the official launch please write to us and we will talk about it.

Special & Limited Box Edition of Lords of Xulima

We have available on our store page on our website two special physical editions of Lords of Xulima that correspond to the ones offered in our Kickstarter campaign. They are limited edition, as once we order the production no more will ever be produced. Those collectors edition lovers and all the people that wish to support us even more can now order those special editions.

Between the rewards, you will have the boxed edition, the 200 pages hard-cover book, "Bestiary & Mythology of Xulima", the Game Guide Book and the printed color poster of the World map of Xulima.

Numantian Games released a quick update on Steam for Lords of Xulima.

This is a quick update for the new Version 0.13. In this version we have fixed some of the bugs reported in the discussion forum and added some improvements that were suggested by the players.

The only big change is related to the balancing and gameplay rules. It seems insignificant, but it was the cause of a hot debate between the Numantian developers.

"What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"

This quote from the legendary movie Conan the Barbarian is perfect to introduce this question. Which is more important, the power of the weapon or the power (strength) of the character that wields it?

We are trying to make the rules and mechanisms behind LoX as realistic as possible. In the case of weapons, the damage depends on the type (axe, dagger,...) and its quality (iron, steel,..). But when a character wields it, its damage is scaled by their strength as every point in strength increases damage by a 3%. With this, it keeps the difference in damage between weapons proportionally.

Although this approach is more realistic than giving a fixed bonus, it happens that combatants are a bit weak in the beginning but very powerful in the end. So finally we have decided that strength will give a fixed bonus independently of the weapon. We have worked in the best values for the bonus to follow these rules:
- One damage point per every 2 Strength Points (above 10).
- One damage point extra per every 5 Strength Points (above 10).

With these simple rules, now combatants are better in the beginning, and the difference in damage from a Barbarian and a Thief for example, are now more evident. In the last part of the game, the bonus would be lower than with the other method, but we will try to balance that part very carefully.

IndieRPGs.com Craig Stern plays Lords of Xulima in a new video preview.

My first impression was almost entirely positive. The game’s art style is lovely, its musical score is great, and it just comes across as very polished in almost every respect. The mixture of Baldur’s Gate-like isometric exploration and Might and Magic-y first person combat works much better than I expected, making for a legitimately compelling experience. I particularly enjoyed the game’s tendency to scatter hidden goodies all over the world map, rewarding careful exploration.

Well if any of you want to watch someone play Lords of Xulima for twenty minutes then head on over to the TwoDashStash YouTube channel.

Let's Play Lords of Xulima. Today Blane and Cris are playing the indie game Lords of Xulima from Numantian Games.

RPG Codex has a new preview of of Lords of Xulima based on the recent release beta version from two of its members felipepepe, and Crooked Bee.

CB: So, to conclude this preview, what are your final thoughts on Xulima – the aftertaste, so to speak?

F: As you can tell, I really enjoyed my time with Lords of Xulima. It's a breath of fresh air, while also being a testament to classic RPGs. However, creating such a huge game with a small studio and even smaller budget led to some cut corners, especially in the art department. The formulaic main quest may have helped ends meet, but also cheapens the experience a little.

CB: Do you think it will sell?

F: I do worry that Xulima will be horribly overlooked. Not only are there the presentation issues I mentioned, but the year of incline, between Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2, and Pillars of Eternity, isn’t a good time to release a low-profile budget title. Still, those that decide to give it a chance will certainly be surprised.

CB: Yeah, to sum up everything we’ve been saying up to this point, once you’ve gotten used to the game’s quirks and as long as you enjoy this kind of non-story focused RPG, Xulima offers a unique and fascinating experience.

Of course, just to get this straight, Lords of Xulima is a fairly niche game. It isn’t a “full-fledged” RPG like Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2 or Baldur’s Gate. Nor is it a tactical RPG like Blackguards, Jagged Alliance 2 or Final Fantasy Tactics. The things it does, however, it does well, and as a fan of first-person RPGs, I can’t wait for the final release.

F: I hope it sells well. I would really like to see what Numantian Games could do with a bigger budget.

CB: As would I. Well, fingers crossed.

Thank you HiddenX for the the link.

IncGamers is the next site I found this week with a  preview of the beta version of Lords of Xulima on Steam Early Access. This ones better than the last one at least.

Like I said, Lords of Xulima is Early Access so there’s a good chance a lot of this stuff will be ironed out. If its systems are made a bit more transparent, if some of the randomness is toned down a little, and if combat is made just a teensy bit less arse-bleedingly lethal, it’ll be a decent throwback to the older, more erratic days of unexpected shareware gems. This needs too much fine-tuning for me to recommend the Early Access build to most, but it’s certainly one to keep an eye on.

Twinfinite posted a new preview of the Beta version of Lords of Xulima.

Lords of Xulima isn’t a bad enough game that it’s unplayable, and that’s actually the problem. Worse is that it advertises over 50 hours of gameplay. 50+ hours of colorless text, trite combat, and nary a “No one is faster than Chiktikka Fastpaws!” to spice up the “fun.” It’s still in beta, but the good money’s on none of these things changing for the better. If a good RPG is what ye seek, better get some wind in yer sails and search for greener pastures.

Let me say I hate the writer after reading it.

Numantian Games has a new update for Lords of Xulima with news the game is now available on Steam Early Access. Here is all the information about the release.!

Greetings

This is a quick update to announce that finally Lords of Xulima is available on Steam as Early Access. The price is $16.99, as it is not yet the full game, which will eventually increase. You are invited to visit our Steam Store Page, as well as write reviews and leave comments in the discussion forum. Thank you to all that have already written awesome comments and reviews praising Lords of Xulima. You are the best!!

Added Steam Features!  

We have implemented some of the Steam features such as Trading Cards. There is one card for every one of the Nine Xulnari, cool Badges and emoticons, and some backgrounds. There are also 13 new achievements and we will eventually be adding some more. By the way, there is one called, "The Lord of Xulima" which you get when you finish the game in Hardcore mode, (good luck guys...)

Next Goals!  

Here is what we have in our list of tasks for the next big update:

• Unlock the rest of regions: Rasmura, Devonia, Vilak, Varas Talak and the western part of Nagira.
• Include the awesome talking artifact, "The Talisman of Golot". But be careful because it was created by the same God as the one who created the Talking Skulls in the Towers of Sorcery. If you have entered in one of those towers, you will know what I am speaking about...
• MAC and Linux port, installer and Steam integration.

If you like Lords of Xulima please share it with your friends, and mention it in forums or in your social networks. Anything you can do to spread the word counts, we really appreciate your help.

Numantian Games released a new trailer for Lords of Xulimain preparation for the Steam Early Access launch this Friday on August 8th.

In Lords of Xulima, we do not hold your hand through the journey. We have created a world of diverse regions that are as vibrant with life as they are fraught with danger; from the alluring Golden Woods, through the Great Desert of Pernitia, to the daunting icy peaks of Karraga. You are free to explore and choose which path to follow, but be careful about where the adventure takes you. Your success or failure in Lords of Xulima all depends on your strategies and ability lead your customized party. Immerse yourself in the playability and depth of old school classics, presented through modern visuals and a user-friendly interface.

We will also have a new preview of the game hopefully posted this month.

The developers for this game have announced that the game will be availble for Steam Early Access next week.

The Steam Early Access version will be launched at the end of the next week. At that point, we will make another update to announce it.

All backers and pre-orders will

receive their own Steam key to activate the game next week! The early version included about 50-60% of the game (about 50 hours of gameplay time). In the next weeks we will unlock the rest of the content, and as promised, the new class "Divine Summoner" and the special artifact, the Talisman of Golot

Game Skinny interviewed Game Director Jesus Arribas, and asked a few questions about Lords of Xulima. Here is a short sample of the lengthy interview.

[GameSkinny] Jesús, thank you for joining me for this interview. You are now in beta, so I am sure you may be very busy! Can you tell the readers a little about Lords of Xulima, and how they can get to play the beta and help shape the continent of Xulima?

[Jesús] Thank you John. Lords of Xulima is a RPG inspired in the old great classics like Wizardry and Might and Magic, but with modern graphics and interface. It is a very challenging and epic adventure in which the player will explore a huge and mystic continent called Xulima where the Gods had their home in ancient times. The player can create their own party of six characters. The exploration is in isometric view, with beautiful hand drawn landscapes, and the combat is turn-based in first person view.

About the beta, we have it now available from our own website, and very soon it will be available in Steam Early Access. The Special Beta Edition from our website also includes some digital rewards like the book Bestiary & Mythology, the game guide and the high-definition world map. Also players can get access to the private development forums and share their opinions and feedback.

[GameSkinny] Sounds good, you are certainly setting up for a deep experience. How has the beta test been so far? You held an exclusive test for your Kickstarter backers, did that give you some solid data?

[Jesús] Yes, the feedback from our backers has been amazing. We have implemented lots of new features and tweaked lots of things to improve the balance and of course lots of small bugs fixed. We are very happy with the response from our community. Sharing the beta with backers was a great idea. Some of the backers has replayed the game several times, which is awesome, because the beta lasts about 50 hours (it is only the first half part of the game)

Numantian Games sent us a press release today with information on the games Beta, and announce the full game will be released in September.

Numantian Games Announces Lords of Xulima Beta

BETA VERSION AVAILABLE

Madrid, Spain - June 19th, 2014 -

Numantian Games, independent game developer based in Spain, announces the beta launch of their first release, Lords of Xulima. The beta is now available for those who purchase the Beta Player Edition from the website. Players who purchase this edition will have special access to the Development Forum, where they can get in touch with the team and share opinions, feedback, and impressions.

This Beta Player Edition also includes the digital editions of the Xulima Bestiary and Mythology, game guide, a high definition map of Xulima, and unique desktop backgrounds.

The Lords of Xulima beta covers 50% of the game, in which the player can enjoy more than 50 hours of exploration, game lore, and addictive combat. Regions such as Velegarn, Hadiros, Sorrentia, the frozen lands of Cunavarn and Karraga, and the desert of Varaskel will all be available within the beta. In the upcoming weeks, the remaining content barriers will be lifted with Steam Early Access, and all of Xulima will be accessible. This will unlock over 100 hours of adventure and strategic role-playing.

For a limited time, gamers can pre-order Lords of Xulima, which will also include a copy of the Steam Early Access version once available. Access to this private beta version is also currently done through Steam, but all saved games will carry over to the final release.

The final version of Lords of Xulima will launch in September 2014 for all platforms and sales portals, including DRM-free versions. It will initially be in both English and Spanish, and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux during its official release.

A new update for Lords of Xulima is available on Indiegogo covering the state of the beta.

As you can imagine, we have been quite busy lately; there are already dozens of backers playing the beta of Lords of Xulima.

These dedicated players have been kind enough to let us know, through our development forum, about various bits of the game which required our attention. Fortunately, most of these corrections were related to in-game text: English localization, spelling errors, missing tooltip descriptions, and other similar things. Naturally, we continue to address issues as they come up, whether they are minor or part of the bigger family of compatibility errors.  

With additional feedback from our backers to consider, we have tweaked lots of rules and game parameters so as to improve the game's balance and difficulty. Now, we think Lords of Xulima is much more polished and ready to welcome new beta players!

The New Beta

The latest Beta version includes voice-overs which were missing, Steam achievements as well as a fully implemented Hall of Heroes in the region of Varaskel. Just like the previous Beta phase, we will send out invitation e-mails to ask if you would like to participate in the Beta program. As always, we would like to recommend that players wait until the final version for the best experience possible, but if you wish to play, you can do it now!

Since the process of sending invitations and keys is a task we have to do manually, we will need several days to contact everyone, so we appreciate your patience. This upcoming Monday is when the take-off happens, and if all goes well it might even start sooner!  

As a reminder, this Beta version will be available for all those who pledged for the Beta Player Edition in Kickstarter/IndieGoGo (or those who pre-ordered from our website). Of course, it is also available for all those who pledged for higher rewards.

Just got 2 wallpapers for Lords of Xulima. They can be looked at in our gallery or by clicking on the below images.

Numantian Games has posted the next update for Lords of Xulima with news the Beta will be released soon for backers, and shares some impressions of the Beta.

The Steam Beta version for Backers

Greetings to our backers!

First of all, we would like to apologize for the delays. Some aspects of the development such as the Steam integration and things like the localization and voice creation has delayed us much more that we expected.

That said, we would like to announce that the Lords of Xulima private beta for backers will be available at the end of the next week through Steam.

We are going to set three different phases:

PHASE 1 - SPECIAL BETA EDITION

All the backers who purchased the Special Beta access and above (the ones who have the Silver Medal in credits) will be the first to receive their Steam Keys. And also, they can join our Private Development Forum to help us to improve LoX with their feedback (improvements, bugs, balancing, new ideas, etc.)

PHASE 2 - BETA PLAYER EDITION

All the backers who purchased the Beta Player edition or above (>=45$) will have their key one to two weeks later, unless we find some very awful bugs or problems that we have to fix urgently (an installation problem, configuration issues with some PCs... things like that). These beta players will have access to the Private Beta Forum in which they can write their thoughts, opinion, bug reports, improvements, etc.

PHASE 3 - PUBLIC STEAM EARLY ACCESS

Some weeks later, we will activate Steam Early Access for the general public and of course, for the rest of our backers and pre-orders. We will keep it in that state for as long as we need, so that LoX can be as perfect as possible.

We recommend you to wait to the final release which will be 100% polished. If not, we recommend to wait to later versions which will be more polished, but if you are eager to try Lords of Xulima, you are of course welcome and your feedback will be very helpful for us. We will send you an email to ask you if you are interested in participating in the beta process.

WHAT DOES THE BETA INCLUDE?

• About 50% of the full game, which can be about 50+ hours of gameplay.
• It is the real game, all the save games will be always compatible between the beta and the final release.  

WHAT DOES THE BETA NOT INCLUDE?

• The MAC and Linux versions are not available. 
• 50% the game's content (which includes the endgame). It is actually done and will be unlocked very soon, but we have to finish and polish the translations. 
• The Talisman of Golot is not yet available. This special reward will be added towards the end of the beta process.
• The new class, Divine Summoner, is not yet available. It will be very soon!
• Some voices for certain NPCs are not yet available.
• Some sound effects, especially the ones from certain monsters, are missing or will be improved.
• Some Statue descriptions in the Hall of Heroes have not yet been implemented. They will be available very soon.
• Some graphic improvements, like item icons, will be improved. 

Numatian Games shows the digital high resolution map that is one of the perks of the Indiegogo campaign in their latest update of Lords of Xulima.

We’ve dedicated a lot of time and effort into perfecting it because, for us, it is a really inspiring view of the world we have envisioned. We hope it will be for you, too!

From within the game you’ll be able to consult this map whenever you'd like. Additionally, all of those who supported our campaign will receive a high definition digital version. For those fortunate few who chose the special boxed edition of the game, we're also preparing a full color poster of the map! The original image has 16 megapixels.

We have to admit that we were inspired by the maps of classic games like Might & Magic and Wizardry. Those maps were full of vibrant colors, with mysterious locations and intriguing creatures. At the same time, they were accurate and creative representations of the actual game world. For us, they were authentic works of art. I remember one of the most memorable moments of my childhood, opening the box of my first RPG: "Might and Magic II" for the Super NES (what times!). As I unfolded the map of the World of Cron for the first time, I was totally blown away. I can't remember whether I fainted or not, but either way it remains an incredible source of inspiration to this day.

Sometimes, it seems like the art of making these imaginative and beautiful maps has been lost... like so many other great aspects of old-school RPGs. In my opinion, the maps for some of today’s games are… well, I think an image here is worth more than a thousand words. Here you have the maps for Oblivion, Dragon Age and Skyrim. These games seem to lack a captivating, global view of the world; a certain identity or personality which makes you want to explore it and discover its secrets.

I hope you enjoy viewing this piece as much as we did creating it. The map of Xulima is sure to be an invaluable companion as you explore its mysterious regions!

Numantian Games is looking for a few lucky people to help with translating Lords of Xulima. If you are interested here is the information from the games website.

Do you love RPGs?

The Numantian Games team is always looking for enthusiastic individuals who can help us reach out to as many players around the world as possible. We remember much of what made the cRPG classics so great, and this is what we seek to bring to the gaming audience of today.

If this sounds interesting, we want to hear from you!

Lords of Xulima is our current project, and we’re definitely interested in the following talents:

• Spanish to English translation for game script. Must be fluent in both languages; a background in creative writing preferred.  
• Fluent in the following languages: Spanish, and either French or German. Passion for RPGs is a must!
• Game testing & balancing – Lords of Xulima is an epic game, and we really want it to be engaging & rewarding from start to finish. 
• Graphic artists – we think there is a lot of talent in the world, and we’re always interested in seeing more visual styles.
• Spreading the word! If you have a following (Twitch, YouTube, blog, etc.), or know of a local gamer establishment in your city, let us know!

If you think you can contribute in any way possible, please send us an email to: info@numantiangames.com.

Tell us about yourself, and if need be your skills, experience and knowledge. All those who help us will be included in the game credits, at the very least, and we always strive to be fair with all of our contributors in terms of rewards.

Numantian Games has posted the next update for Lords of Xulima. The update shares information on how they are polishing the game, and it's titled Chaos calls for Order.

Chaos calls for Order

With the overall content of Lords of Xulima finished, we continue to work hard on two main fronts: Polish and Balance.

Not shiny enough? Keep polishing, then...

Polishing means improving various game aspects as we go, and fixing all the bugs and hiccups which spring up as a natural part of game development. For example, we wanted enemies to have better, more convincing hand-drawn portraits... so we had all 115 of them undergo a makeover. We owe you, our backers, a sincere thanks for helping us make Lords of Xulima a more immersive game. Here are some examples.

On the practical side, we've added a feature which we believe to be a must-have for RPGs with turn-based combat: an option to modify the speed of battle animations. There are going to be 3 different settings: Normal, High and Very High. This way, players will be able to enjoy the tactical combat however they like, choosing the difficulty at the start of the game and then altering the pace of combat on-the-fly. 

 Finding the perfect balance, or Order vs Chaos 

Lords of Xulima depends on many parameters, variables and rules to achieve the right balance and keep the gameplay interesting. From how much damage a short sword can deal, to the specific Divine Resistance of a Gulfrin... all of it is contained within a single Excel document. This document is separated into roughly 20 tabs. Each of those tabs has up to 20 columns and up to 100 rows of data. In total there are about 5,000 parameters to tweak... if even one of those values happen to be slightly off, it is enough to ruin the entire game's balance. This is what we refer to as "chaos". However, we're 100% dedicated to creating a memorable RPG experience, so rest easy! We take pride in our work, and slowly but surely we progress towards this sweet spot of balance that we feel LoX deserves. 

Lastly, thanks to the extra content made possible by your contributions during this campaign, we estimate that the game should now offer around 100 hours of RPG goodness, for completionists. The characters will end the game around Level 50, so we've added even more devious enemies to keep you on your toes. That makes a total of 115 enemies, 33 of which are bosses with special mechanics. 

I managed to get an interview with Jesús Arribas the Director, and Lead Designer of Lords of Xulima. We talked about crowd-funding, and the upcoming Beta in March.

RPGWatch: Can you go into detail about what you learned during both campaigns? I always like to get an inside look from the developers point of view.

NG: Well, I'd like to say that organising a crowdfunding campaign can be very demanding! It takes about a month of preparation, then you have to actually run it, which means being available 24 hours a day to supervise everything.  Whenever I could afford a small break from managing the campaign, it was usually time to provide our backers with what they would like to see, such as a particular Update or piece of art.

About our choice of platform, we started on IndieGoGo because, for a studio based in Spain, it was much easier to set things up over there. Near the end of our first campaign, we found out a great way to launch on Kickstarter, so we decided to make the jump and continue from the point where IndieGogo ended.

Looking back, I must admit we made several mistakes in both campaigns. The worst of them was to not realise that the final days would land right around Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  Fortunately we still succeeded, and we are very happy with the results and the response of our backers.

Numantian Games has posted another update with a progress report on the games development, and talks about who are the Lords of Xulima.

Greetings All!

It’s high time for an update to let you know that we are still hard at work on Lords of Xulima. Although we are behind schedule, development continues at a good pace and we are making a lot of advances and additions to the game.

We expect to have the beta complete and ready by the end of March. One month after that, provided there are no major problems, we will release Lords of Xulima to the world.

The development

The four main story arcs are finished and we even have the final cut-scenes of the game wrapped up. All of the maps are complete. Xulima ended up with 15 distinct regions, 5 villages and 30 dungeons. We are now working on balancing all the different game mechanics including combat, abilities, classes, etc… We have also included new types of traps, enemies and puzzles. We’ve also completed development on the Cursed Hounds which are terrorizing the forests and roads of Xulima. 

Also stalking the lands of Xulima, the Four Sisters, witches whose names are Arwinzel, Yoranwa, Wendofel and Vilowia. Maybe you’ll be able to avoid them entirely and continue on your mission, but we’re sure you’ll be curious to find out what they are hiding in their dark lairs.

The Hall of Heroes is already finished and we are anxious to see how many of you will be able to solve the mystery of the 20 statues. 

It’s also now possible to sail to Varas Talak, provided, of course, you know the exact course to use to reach those enchanted isles.

The Lords of Xulima

And now, we are pleased to present, the Lords of Xulima: These are the nine gods; the creators of the world and all that exists. They are each very different and as such are unable to truly understand each other.

Numantian Games provides a development update for Lords of Xulima talking about the alpha version, their forums, a stretch goal and a theme song.

We are currently working on the English Alpha version of Lords of Xulima. Once the Alpha is finished, and as soon as we can deliver a version worthy of your expectations, we will open the Numantian Games Forums! This will be a great place to ask questions related to Lords of Xulima and get to know each other. The forums will be open to everyone. We would love to have our long time supporters, along with anyone else that might be interested, to come join us as part of one big community!

The official forums will also include the Development Corner, which will be an exclusive section for Kickstarter backers who pledged for Beta Acess. We know many of you have been waiting for this, so we'll be sure to announce when they open through our newsletter!

We're also excited to share more with you about The Cursed Hounds. As some of you remember, it was a mini-stretch goal that we were able to unlock with your support at the $25,000 milestone.

And here is the new theme song:

I missed this update a few weeks back were Numantian Games posted a Kickstarter Wrap-Up. Well better late then never as they say.

The Campaign:

Many of you followed us from the very beginning, during the Indiegogo campaign.  We had almost 300 founding backers, which allowed us to create all the wonderful hand-drawn portraits of the player characters and NPCs, as well as a “hardcore” difficulty mode.

Fast forward to the Kickstarter campaign, and we ended at $35,657, with 1,313 backers. Many stretch goals were unlocked, including an exclusive soundtrack, new regions and subplots. But the end of this Kickstarter only marks the beginning of our adventure…

The Journey Continues…

We will be working very hard on Lords of Xulima and the Beta, but that doesn’t mean we’re going silent.  Another way you can follow us and stay up-to-date with the latest News is through subscription on our website (found on the left), Twitter, Facebook, Indiedb, YouTube or Steam.  Or, feel free to send an email now and then to ask us how we are doing.

We promise to keep you as up to date as often as we can on the development–without giving away any spoilers, of course!

Again–thank you all for your continued support.  It is a dream of ours to see Lords of Xulima become a reality.  It means the world to us to have you there, as we make that come true.

In the first post-funding update for Lords of Xulima Numantian Games says thanks to all the backers, and gives a link to a pre-order page.

The Lords of Xulima are with us! Funding successful!

Talk about going out with a bang! Who would’ve thought all your activity and energy could spread so wildly? That your support and cheers in the comments (and everywhere else) could accomplish so much? But it did, and now we’re looking at an amazing conclusion for this exhausting, but exciting month of November.

It has been so much work, but it’s all worth it when we get to see how so many others believe in Lords of Xulima.  As you might know, we only asked for contributions towards the end of the game’s development cycle, so we could get LoX into your hands as soon as possible. We promise to you that we will!

Also, there has been talk of Paypal donations post-campaign. You humble us, really, but there’s no way we can accept a donation without at least offering something in return!

The Pre-order page is up: There are 6 different editions and new 4 add-on packages to choose from, so plenty of fun shopping to do if you’re thrilled about the game or missed out on some cool perks! 

We’re really working hard on our website at the moment, so I hope you’ll consider visiting from time to time. The pre-order banner is also stickied on our Kickstarter front page. Now I think the Numantian Horse is getting quite restless, and needs some sleep very soon. He’s the team Mascot, so we have to take good care of him.

In the next update for Lords of Xulima we get more information on the games classes, and how you develop your character in the game.

First, THANKS!

From Numantian Games we would like to thank everyone who has contributed so far and all of those who have increased their pledges.

Every bit helps us get closer to our goal! Those of you who have contributed, those who have been commenting on the forums here and on other sites, and those who have told your friends about Lords of Xulima and helped spread the word: you are directly responsible for helping make LoX a better, more well-rounded game and for that we are eternally grateful. We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm that so many people have shown for our game.

We have always felt that this game is going to be a great way to bring back the spirit of the old school classics in a new and innovative way. We are very happy to find so many people out there who share our vision. We are in the final 24 hours of the campaign and we’re close to the next stretch goal. Please continue to spread the word about Lords of Xulima wherever you can so we can get more people interested and finish the campaign with a strong push. We want everyone to have the chance to visit the Enchanted Isles of Varas Talak.

Today we are going to talk about the character classes and their development!  

Development & Skills

In LoX there are more than 100 skills that are unlocked as you go up in level. There are skills that are shared between different classes and others that are class specific. When one of your characters achieves a new level they will receive skill points that they can use to improve their existing skills or to learn new ones. The cost to improve or learn an skills is different for each class. For example, the cost to improve the Swordplay is 1 point for the Soldier and 3 points for a Mage.

Party Creation

The process for creating a group of characters is very simple. You need to select a name, gender, class, deity (which Lord of Xulima the character follows), and the weapon that you will start the game with. The beginning skills and attributes are selected by default according to the class and gender.

Why so simple? We want to make sure that the player has the basic skills and abilities to survive in Xulima when they start the game. Once the player starts to level up they can learn and improve their abilities and attributes according to what works best for their play style. The more they advance in the game the more experience they will have as players.

By that time they will also have more options available for them to customize their characters. In many older RPGs you needed to make fundamental decisions about the game before you actually had a chance to play it. Many times when you thought you were creating a solid group, you would start to play and find out that your characters didn’t have the necessary abilities to survive and you would have to start over. Has that ever happened to you? 

The Classes

In Lords of Xulima there are 9 classes, 10 counting the Divine Summoner, but as that class has not yet been fully designed, we won’t include it here today.

Our 9 classes are, without doubt, very classic and well known. We think it’s important that the player is familiar with these in the beginning and then to give them the tools to develop the characters in new ways as they progress. This way you can end up with your own self-made classes like the “Paladin Healer”, “Pyromancer”, or “The Venomous Rogue”…

In the latest kickstarter update for Lords of Xulima Numantian Games announces the $25K stretch was reached, offers beta access, and talks about the impious princes.

New Reward : Special Beta Player Edition!

Many people have requested BETA access to the game but have said that the tier for this reward is more than they can afford to contribute at this time. We would like to clarify that the $100 tier not only gets you access to the BETA version, but also allows you to participate in the design of the game as you will be in direct contact with the developers and we will be sharing with you many in depth details regarding Lords of Xulima.

That said, we have decided to create a new level for all of those who want to play Lords of Xulima before everyone else. The new $45 reward tier includes access to the BETA version and access to the BETA forums where you will be able to share your opinions and feedback. Of course, this reward also includes all of the backer rewards from the previous tiers, including the Bronze Medal in the credits. All rewards above $45 will also now include BETA access. We hope you enjoy it!

$25K Mini-goal Reached!

We are pleased to announce that we are now half way to our fourth goal. Thank you once more for your support! Thanks to you, day after day Lords of Xulima is advancing through goal after goal.

And now… Just as is likely to happen in RPGs when you’re trying to make a long and dangerous journey through a wild and uncharted area, we’ve stumbled across a random encounter!

Often these are with dangerous enemies, sometimes they happen with friendly characters, and on rare occasions one may even encounter a special event. Now that we have reached this mini-goal, we are going to add some new elements to give more color and variety to random encounters in Lords of Xulima, including a new special enemy. We are doing this to thank you for all of your support.

The Cursed Hounds

Due to the fact that they look like common hounds from far away, some think they are animals. In reality they belong to the powerful demon race. In the beginning, they only inhabited the volcanic region of Vilak, but when the Lords of Xulima abandoned the Earth, these terrible beings spread out across the continent. There are not many of them and it is very rare to see one, but if you hear their terrible howling, you’d better stay away. It is said that these beasts can smell magical objects and that after they devour their victims they carry the objects back to their leader, Arraz Gul, who lies atop a mountain of such treasures. Nobody knows where their lair is found, and if they did, what person would be fool enough to enter?

In the next update for the Lords of Xulima kickstarter we got new information about The Hall Of Heroes, and it includes a new video to go along with it.

The Hall of Heroes is an enormous mausoleum dedicated to the heroes who fought in the Great War against the ogres, the war known as "First Blood". When the Xulnari gave life to the first humans in Xulima, the humans found themselves in the middle of a vast continent dominated by the ogre race. It did not take much time before war broke out. The ogres were numerous and fierce and soon began to decimate the humans. A mere 400 years after they first came into existence, the humans soon found themselves on the brink of extinction... At that moment the Xulnari chose to subtly intervene in the conflict. They chose 20 of the most gifted humans and bestowed upon them gifts and wisdom to strengthen their cause. The twenty became powerful and, above all, intelligent, and just when it seemed that the fate of men was sealed, they rose up and led their armies to victory. The ogres quickly learned to fear them and withdrew. Defeated, the ogre race diminished and those that were left became wild, nomadic creatures who inhabit the remote places of Xulima.

Numantian Games in the next kickstarter update for Lords of Xulima talks about narrative, and quests. I found it just as interesting as the last one about gameplay and story.

Narrative and Quests

Many of you have asked us about the quest system in Lords of Xulima. Today we’d like to give you a little information about our thoughts on this subject and how it’s being approached in Lords of Xulima.

Personally, I don’t like it at all when the story of a game is simplified into a list of tasks that the player must complete. When I played Oblivion, I started to feel overwhelmed and stressed by all of the different quests I had waiting for completion in my queue. Sometimes, completing one quest just led to two or three additional quests being added. It left me with the impression that instead of playing a game, I was really working.

Are quests necessary in RPGs? 

It would seem that the answer to this question is obviously yes. It’s well established that an RPG has to have the typical quest system, a main quest line to advance the story and a number of optional side quests. Must every RPG follow this pattern? In JRPGs like Final Fantasy, epic storylines were fluidly told without having to resort to a quest system, though they had the advantage of being very linear. Games like the first few entries in the Might & Magic series and Wizardry VII didn't have a list of missions either, you simply advanced through the games learning about the story bit by bit, the drawback was that at times these games were a little too opaque and you had to guess what it was you were supposed to do.

The Main Story In Lords of Xulima

The main story is told through 4 themes that are developed in parallel and sometimes cross over. The four main themes are: The Divine Temples, The Impious Princes, The Divine Artifacts, and The Titans.

These plot lines advance according to what you chose to do in the game. Each time you advance in one of them, a note is added to the journal for that particular story arc. There are no missions associated with these; you decide how to proceed based on what you know of the story. 

If you are not sure what to do, you can always consult your journal to go over the events again. Our intention is that the player immerses themselves in the story and enjoys it at their own pace and rhythm, exploring and learning about the story as they play. We want the player to do as they choose, not give them a list of tasks that they need to complete.

In the latest update for Lords of Xulima Numantian Games talks about gameplay and story. I can't wait to see the replies as both mean different things to various players.

Gameplay

There are players who only appreciate gameplay and have no interest in a game's story. For others it's the reverse, they feel that a great story can make up for poor gameplay. I am of the opinion that a video game should not be like a book or a movie and a solid game play system has to be the priority of game developers. That said, if there is also a good story to go with the game play, something that draws you into the game and keeps you interested, then the enjoyment of the game is multiplied. 

For Lords of Xulima, my number one priority was to create a great role-playing game. It is made up of all the elements that I haveve enjoyed while playing RPGs and is the culmination of all of the experiences I have had over the years from playing every RPG I could get my hands on, from the classics to the most modern releases. On our blog I have written a few articles about the different aspects of RPGs and how they have been implemented in Lords of Xulima: 

• Pre-Made vs. Custom Characters
• Death in party based RPGs
• Food and Resting in RPGs
• Random encounters
• Balancing in non-linear RPGs

Story

The story behind Lords of Xulima was conceived a few years ago as the framework to an epic fantasy novel that I was writing. Though I never finished it, I did carefully detail the time line, characters and all of the major events ranging from the beginning of the world until its end. If you’d like to know more about the inspiration for Lords of Xulima take a look at the first blog entry on our site.

While we were developing the prototype of the game and only had the basic mechanics implemented, back when Lords of Xulima was known only as RPGTest.exe, I started thinking about using the novel I had been working on as the framework of the game. At first it seemed far-fetched, if it’s difficult to make a novel into a movie, adapting a novel into a video game can be really crazy.

I read the mythology I had written again and again and, from there, I decided it could be broken into three parts that could function very well as a video game. Then, I began the laborious adaptation process, adapting both the story and the game itself. At first it all seemed very forced, but, little by little, the game system and the story converged so that after a while it seemed that they were perfectly made for each other.

Ironically, though I had prioritized the gameplay system over the story, I now feel that the story is the strongest aspect of Lords of Xulima. Its characters and the mythic background permeate every corner of the game.

Numantian Games has released two more updates in the last two days for Lords of Xulima. Details and links below as usual.

Update #11 - "Great news! 2nd Goal Reached &  Brian Fargo supports Lords of Xulima!"

Greetings!

Yes! We are proud to announce that the founding father of many important games for us (Bard’s tale, Wasteland, Planescape: Torment & too many others to list!), Brian Fargo, has supported Lords of Xulima by pledging here and mentioning us on Twitter. On behalf on our entire community (including us!).

Thank you very much Brian! Best wishes from the team!

New Goal Reached: The Divine Summoner 

We made it! Again!

Lords of Xulima will have a new special class for you, the Divine Summoner, who will bring a lot of new possibilities to the gameplay. With him by your side, the Heralds of the Gods will fight with you in the coming battles.

Update #12 - "Shaved, mustache or beard?"

If you were expecting a serious update please stop reading and wait for our 13th update, which will be posted very soon! :o) 

After announcing the portrait of Gaulen the protagonist of Lords of Xulima, we didn’t expect so much controversy . Specifically, his facial hair was the object of much debate. Take a look:

(Hmmm.... interesting...)

So, here you have three different versions of Gaulen:

(Which one is the manliest?)

I really prefer the one with the beard, so to support that decision I have joined to the Club of Beards as you can see here:

(Gaulen's mustache-only look was unpopular, so we both grew a beard!)

The success of Lords of Xulima depends on you!

Should Gaulen be shaved or have a beard? Make some noise and let us know. Gaulen and Jesús will both be forced to adopt the most popular look by the end of November!

Numantian Games has a new video showing off the beginnings of Lords of Xulima in the games latest kickstarter update.

New Video Footage - The Beginnings of Lords of Xulima

We would like to present you the first video of a small series dedicated entirely to the gameplay of Lords of Xulima.

We love our work and really wish to offer the best first impression possible, but at this point we feel there is no better way to thank you for all your support than by revealing more about the journey that lies ahead. 

Before watching it

Please keep in mind the game is not 100% done yet, it still needs some polish. Also, what you are seeing is the result of our poor 720p video capturing software, which is a bit capricious. The actual game runs smoothly at 60fps/1080p on a computer which is 5 years old, so it will look much prettier. Some of the English text is poorly translated (or not translated at all), and we apologize for that. Rest assured that the final version will be fully localized to English and revised by dedicated partners, as well as many of our Beta testers. Finally, some of the music and sound effects are still being improved by our composer. 

The video shows the beginning of the game. The introduction of the first chapter, "The Divine Temples", was left out because it was a bit too long. It also has a few surprises in store for you, once you get to play the game yourself :o) 

Here you will see part of the game-play which includes a mini-tutorial, a very easy battle and the entry area of the first peaceful town, Velegarn.

Enjoy this preview of how your journey in Lords of Xulima begins!

In the latest kickstarter update for Lords of Xulima Numantian Games talks about a new reward, and gives a recap on lockpicks.

New Reward! and Previous Updates Recap IV

$30 - Special Limited Bestiary Edition!

We have created a new reward specially for people who wants the Bestiary & Mythology book, that includes the digital version, the game guide, the HD map and the digital edition of Lords of Xulima. 

They are limited so don't lose the chance to have our masterpiece!

Do you have a lock pick handy?

For newcomers, here you have one interesting article about one of the most common elements in the RPG genre:

A classic moment in RPGs is when you find a locked door or chest. Each game has its own system for locks, some rely on skills and others use mini-games.

In Lord of Xulima there is a lock pick skill. It's available to the thief and explorer classes. Since Gaulen, the main character, is an explorer, you will always have the ability to develop this skill, though it may be better to have a thief so that Gaulen can develop other skills.

Numantian Games annouces in the next update for Lords of Xulima that the game is now Greenlit on Steam. Congratulations guys you deserve it.

Numantian Games has another update for Lords of Xulima with a recap on traps. If you have followed the game since the Indiegogo campaign it should be familiar.

Previous Updates Recap III - Traps: Watch your step!

Greetings!

For newcomers, here you have one interesting article about one of the most common elements in the RPG genre.

Traps: Watch your step!

So, you think you can take the treasure and just walk out of the dungeon? Clearly, you haven’t played many RPGs… 

In Lords of Xulima there are many types of traps: There are permanent traps like poisonous clouds, flames that burn through cracks in the ground, pressure plates that spring blades from the floor, spider webs that slow your movements while their owners inject their venom, and many other special surprises.

Numantian Games has posted the next update for Lords of Xulima that shows the new title cover, and to announce a new limited time reward for backers.

New Title Cover

First of all, we changed the title cover of our project with our new hand drawn portraits. We're proud to show off the face of our protagonist, Gaulen the Explorer. See that handsome man in the center? That's Gaulen! What do you guys think? We are always interested in your feedback.

(Click here for the New Cover Art)

New Special Limited Reward

Special Signed Physical Edition ($120)

Through your feedback, we decided to add Signed Physical Copies. That's right! The Lord's of Xulima director, and RPG Guru, Jesús Arribas will be signing and personally inscribing the awesome "Bestiary & Mythology" book. He will even write a unique dedication, just for you!  

(Click here for The Book Image)

This is going to be an extremely limited tier, as we are only doing this for only 20 copies at the $120 level. Anyone who pledges to the other rewards above $120 (such as naming an NPC at $140) will also get their Bestiary and Mythology book signed!  

It's very easy through Kickstarter to up your pledges if you are interested in having your copies signed!

TruePCGaming interviewed Lords of Xulima Creator Jesus Arribas that talks about how the game came to be, and much more.

Where did the idea for Lords of Xulima come from?

The story that’s told in Lords of Xulima is just a fragment of a much larger mythology that I began writing some time ago. Originally, I wanted to tell the story in an epic novel format. The mythology spans the entire history of the world from its creation until its ultimate end. It tells how the nine Creators, the Lords of Xulima, intervened in the world and conspired to rule it according to their own visions and desires. From this project, the RPG Lords of Xulima was born. Because of this earlier work, all of the background, history, characters and, above all, the main plot, have been developed with an exceptionally high degree of depth.

What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Lords of Xulima?

Our biggest success was in developing the tools that enabled us to design Lords of Xulima in the most efficient way possible. Without them it would have been impossible for such a small group of developers to create such and expansive and detailed world.  Of course, our initial inexperience in developing games also led us to make some common mistakes such as starting off with too large of a project instead of beginning with something of a much more limited scope.

In its current form, how close is Lords of Xulima to your initial vision?

I would say that it’s very close to the original idea.  That said, we would like it to be even bigger. There are a lot of ideas that we won’t be able to implement due to lack of resources.   However, in some aspects, such as combat, it is even better than we hoped for. When you implement a turn-based combat system, you run the risk of the game being slow or even tedious if the combat is too easy. But in Lords of Xulima we feel combat is agile, dynamic and addictive. We are very happy with this aspect of gameplay.

Numantian Games has posted the next update for Lords of Xulima with news the kickstarter was funded, and talks about the future goals of the game.

WE MADE IT!

Here we are, just over a week into the campaign, with our first goal reached. As we are trying to find the words to express our gratitude, we are also dreaming about what lies ahead. You guys have made it possible and supported us through a very large step, thank you!!

With this goal, we have added over 4 extra hours of content, which includes:

• A new zone : Travel through the Path of the Red Mountain (on the borders of Hamaleth), where one of the Ulnalum Guardians prevents access to the remote region of Varaskel.
• An epic new foe - One of the sturdiest creations of the Gods, this towering sentinel awakened by divine powers is not likely to be open to dialogue.
• A unique Divine Artifact : Kersket’s Hammer. Kersket is the mighty God of earth and stones.
• A new Tower of Sorcery built by the God of Works, Golot. Could it have kept the artifact away from unholy hands, after all this time?

A whole new 18 awesome hand-drawn portraits for your heroes, to make your party even more unique and personalized!

Numantian Games has posted the third update for Lords of Xulima allowing us to listen to the games main theme song composed by Nicolas de Ferran.

The melodic fantasy sounds bring you that nostalgic feel of old-school RPG gaming, yet blends in modern touches.

You can listen to more songs by Nicolas de Ferran by visiting his SoundCloud page. There you will see the extent of his talent. We couldn't be happier to be able to have him on the team for Lords of Xulima.

What do you think? 

As a backer, we encourage you to give us feedback. We would love to get the full 18 score soundtrack composed by Nicolas de Ferran, but this can only be possible if we reach our 3rd stretch goal. We would like to announce that if reach that goal, all backers above $20 will receive the high quality version soundtrack of Lords of Xulima.  

If you want to help us reach this goal, you can easily up your pledges to receiving the bronze medal in the credits and all the digital rewards for $40, or even get the whole physical package deal for $95 which includes the boxed copy of the game, printed manual, printed guide, and the indispensable book: Bestiary and Mythology of Xulima. Or if you cannot increase your pledge, spread the word by Tweeting about our campaign or letting your friends know about the game.

It is through your support that together we can make Lords of Xulima the epic tale it deserves to be.

Thank very much for your support!

Numantian Games has posted the second update for Lords of Xulima with information on talismans, and artifacts.

What is the Talisman of Golot?

Today we want to give you some additional information about this reward, which is exclusively available to our backers. Golot is one of the nine Lords of Xulima. To humans he is known as the God of Works and Dreams. It is he who will guide Gaulen through his mission, whispering cryptic information into Gaulen’s dreams. 

The Talisman of Golot was forged by the God of Works with the intent of creating life from the lifeless. He was unsuccessful, as only the Lord known as Alnaet has the power to give life to the creations of his fellow Lords of Xulima. Only through trickery was Golot able to give the talisman the power to speak and communicate with its bearer. Although it is still not technically alive, few would doubt its value as a companion on long journeys as it can render great assistance. 

 The Divine Artifacts

Unlike other games where slightly better than average common items can be called artifacts (+15 sword…), in our game artifacts are items that were created by the Lords of Xulima and have unique and extraordinary powers. 

There are artifacts that speak, like the Talisman of Golot, others that can help you find hidden beings, like Taliet’s Whisper, and others, like the Tears of Nalaet, purify even the most cursed places. There are more than 15 such artifacts with different powers.

The search for the Divine Artifacts constitutes one of the major plotlines in Lords of Xulima. The search leads Gaulen to unravel the mysteries of a number of ancient and deadly places.

Numantian Games has posted the first update for Lords of Xulima with a recap of the pevious updates from the Indiegogo campaign.

We are very excited to share our work on Lords of Xulima with the community and we are happy to have such a positive response early on in the campaign. We are going to keep working on our end to spread the word about Lords of Xulima, and anything you can do to help us in this effort would be very much appreciated. Please tell your friends about our campaign so we can help make Lords of Xulima even better.

As some of you may know, this campaign follows a previous crowdsourcer where we reached 120% of our goal. Thank you so much! For newcomers, we’ve combined some of the interesting articles about the game that we released before. We will add more recaps as the campaign progresses, along with exclusive new updates. Enjoy!

The Lords of Xulima kickstarter is now live to get more funding to expand the game after the successful Indiegogo campaign.

Our Vision   

Lords of Xulima was born from the dreams of developers who have been playing countless RPGs from the beginning of the genre. One day we asked ourselves:

"What would make the ideal RPG for us?"

In Lords of Xulima, we have set out to make a challenging, turn-based RPG in the vein of the old school classics. We're making a game filled with character development, puzzles and often difficult strategic combat. Our goal is to create an immersive environment and a challenging combat system; how you choose to play it will be entirely up to you.

Why Crowdfunding?

In developing a game as complex as Lords of Xulima, we needed to make a lot of decisions about what aspects to include and which ones to exclude. Even though we would like to be able to do everything to make Lords of Xulima the best game possible, unfortunately we need to adjust our vision to match our budget. For this reason, we have decided to launch this campaign and ask you to contribute towards improving Lords of Xulima.

When finished, the game will be about 60 hours long and it is currently about 70% complete. It will be available in early 2014 on PC, Mac and Linux. At a future date, we would also like to make it available on Android and iOS tablets.

Why fund Lords of Xulima?

As an independent group, we, the developers, have the freedom to make decisions around every aspect of the game so that it is completely true to our artistic vision. Lords of Xulima will be a wholly original game with unique gameplay. If you also miss the complexity and challenge of the old school RPG classics and want to take part in the new era of Role Playing Games, this is your chance to contribute.

We want to make the best new RPG we can, and for that we need you to participate in our campaign.

Numantian Games has posted a new update for Lords of Xulima with news the project was successful, and to look forward to the launch of the kickstarter.

UPDATE 12: The end of the campaign... for now

From Numantian games, we would like to thank the nearly 300 contributors who have helped us reach $12,000. You are the first people to trust in us and help us to develop Lords of Xulima. If we are successful and Lords of Xulima becomes the grand saga that we have planned, to us you will always be the founding fathers of our projects.

As you know, this campaign was not to fund the overall development, but was instead meant to help implement some important improvements. We divided these improvements into 14 goals for the campaign, and thanks to IndieGoGo we have successfully funded the first goal. You have commissioned the artwork of 18 more portraits for the epic heroes and the portraits for more than 60 NPCs. Very soon we will be able to begin to show you the results. You have also allowed us to begin implementing a new Hard-Core mode that will include so many changes to the original campaign that it will be perfect for those who have completed the game once and are looking for a new challenge.

As we mentioned in the last update, we have now found a way to launch a campaign on Kickstarter. It will be nearly identical to the IndieGoGo campaign with a few changes to the rewards and some re-ordering of the goals based on your feedback. We will start at the same point that this campaign leaves off, trying to reach the second goal which include more hand drawn portraits for the heroes and a new quest arc, the Guardian of Ulnalum, which would add another 3-4 hours of content to the game. How many of the 13 goals will we reach? Soon we'll find out.

So, we leave you, for the moment, by saying again from everyone on the team:

Thank you very much for your support!

Numantian Games has posted a new update for Lords of Xulima with news that the next campaign will be on kickstarter.

UPDATE 11 - WE WILL CONTINUE THE CAMPAIGN IN KICKSTARTER!

Hello Everyone!

Our time with IndieGoGo is coming to an end. For us, this campaign has been a great adventure. We worked very hard to show you our first project and we are absolutely delighted with your response. We thank you for your support with all our heart. Lords of Xulima is an ambitious project and we believe it will breathe fresh air into the world of RPGs. It is a new concept with a different flavor that you will be able to enjoy from the moment you start the game.

The objective of our IndieGoGo campaign has been to improve the game so we can make the final version a more well-rounded project. We are here to finance the improvements that we, as a team, cannot afford to fund ourselves. With IndieGoGo we've succeeded in reaching the first of the thirteen goals we've set to improve the game.

We want to do everything possible to continue advancing and reaching new goals, especially the original soundtrack. For that reason, we have decided to continue our adventure in Kickstarter. 

For us, crowdfunding campaigns are a democratic exercise and it is you, the contributors who decide which projects to support and how. Because you are the ones making the decisions, we at Numantian Games understand it is extremely important to always be honest and transparent with you. We need to announce that due to the high costs of launching a Kickstarter campaign as a Spanish studio, it is necessary for us to increase the price of some of our backer rewards, especially the physical items, which, as you know include shipping costs. To make up for the increased costs, we will be including more digital rewards and exclusives that we hope will promote excitement in the campaign. 

Again, thank you very much for all you have contributed here on IndieGoGo, you have been our first supporters and for that you will always be important to us. 

A HUG FOR ALL THE PIONEERS OF LORDS OF XULIMA!

Numantian Games has posted update #10 for Lords of Xulima with the projects next goal with less than 60 hours left to go.

UPDATE 10 - NEXT GOAL!

Greetings!

Our next goal includes:

More portraits for the player characters

2 portraits for each class, a male and a female version. 18 new epic portraits in all!.

New Special Enemy & Quest: The Guardian of Ulnalum

“On the continent of Xulima, there is no material harder than the ore known as Ulnalum. It is said that one of the first acts of the Gods was to create a group of creatures known as the Guardians of Stone. 

These Guardians built the divine temples according to the thoughts of their creators. Golot, the God of Works, improved the guardians by covering them in Ulnalum. This made stronger and their constructions were also improved as a result. It was in this condition that the Guardians built Golot’s Towers of Wizardry. 

When they were finished with these buildings, the Guardians lay down to sleep beneath the mountains of stone in the region known as Varaskel. There they remained sleeping until the time when the Impious Princes came to power and invaded the lands of the free people. 

At that time a grand priest of Golot, known as Kiriong, invoked the protection of the guardians and they arose to protect the passes between the different regions of the continent. However, these Guardians of Stone make no distinction between good and evil and instead kill all who dare to cross the passes they protect.”   

Thank you very much for all of your support!

Numantian Games has released a new press release about the game being funded, and also announced a new campaign will be launched after the previous one.

Developer Celebrates By Announcing Follow-Up Campaign For Stretch-Goals!

San Francisco, October 14^th 2013: Independent games developer ‘Numantian Games’ is proud to announce they have reached their target goal in a successful crowdfunding campaign to finance their epic turn-based RPG, ‘Lords Of Xulima’ for the PC. With less than five days remaining of the original campaign, ‘Numantian Games’ is happy to announce a follow-up campaign is in the works to secure stretch-goals!

Featuring additive and immersive gameplay inspired by legendary classics such as Ultima™ and Might & Magic™, ‘Lords Of Xulima’ includes enchanting and beautiful visuals, stunning animations, immersive audio, realistic sound effects and exciting quests. Players get to explore a vast and exciting environment in a world where only the bravest will survive in the lands of challenging climates. With its fast and dynamic combat-system in a turn-based environment, and 18 different classes of weapons and 20 qualities for each, ‘Lords Of Xulima’ offers plenty of options to players of all experience levels. More than 100 types of enchantments are available providing different powers to weapons, and you can even combine the two for special combat moves within each class.

Support ‘Lords Of Xulima’ by pledging your support to the game TODAY: www.indiegogo.com/projects/lords-of-xulima

Numantian Games posted a new update for Lords of Xulima with news the game is funded, and gives their thanks to every backer.

UPDATE 9 - SUCCESS!

You did it! 

You've helped us reach our first goal with five days left in the campaign! We are extremely grateful to all those who contributed and we are very excited that we'll have additional resources to help us make Lords of Xulima an even better game. 

Please help us make the most of the final days of our campaign by continuing to spread the word about Lords of Xulima. We look forward to fully showing you our gratitude by providing you with an awesome role-playing game.

Thank you very much for all of your support!

Numantian Games is back with a new update for Lords of Xulima talking about how traps work in the game. The project has 7 days left and still needs about $1,400 to reach its minimum goal.

UPDATE 8 – TRAPS: WATCH YOUR STEP!

So, you think you can take the treasure and just walk out of the dungeon? Clearly, you haven’t played many RPGs…

In Lords of Xulima there are many types of traps:

There are permanent traps like poisonous clouds, flames that burn through cracks in the ground, pressure plates that spring blades from the floor, spider webs that slow your movements while their owners inject their venom, and many other special surprises. 

Each of these must be dealt with in its own manner. Some you will be able to avoid with a careful step, others can be neutralized with spells and there will also be occasions where the only way to get the treasure you desire will be to take your chances and hope the reward is worth the damage you’ll sustain.

The traps we will talk about today are those that are hidden from sight and are only triggered once. These are traps that can be found on the dungeon floor or in the locks of chests and doors

How are they detected?

Detection works automatically. As you get close to a trap your party members will use their perception skill. Based on the complexity of the trap and the party’s ability, there will be a roll to see if you discover the trap. If you succeed, a red zone will appear on the trapped area. Every time you move another attempt will be made to locate objects like traps and hidden doors. It’s a good idea to search an area carefully!

Once detected, you can use your “Disarm Traps” ability. There are two ways to do this:

Automatically

This works like the pen and paper classics where your chance of success is measured by your ability against the difficulty of the trap. If you fail, the trap will activate and damage everyone in your party.

Manually

Depending on the trap's difficulty, a certain number of gears will appear on this mini game. The gears rotate and change colors between red, green, and yellow. You have to click on the gears when they are green to succeed. If you click a yellow gear, nothing happens, but if you click when it's red, then you'll spring the trap. This may seem like a game of reflexes, but the gears change color according to fixed patterns. The higher your skill level, the simpler the patterns.

Numantian Games has posted another Indiegogo update for Lords of Xulima showing off the lockpick system. The project has 12 days left with only $6,469 pledged. So keep spreading the word they can still make it.

UPDATE 7 – DO YOU HAVE A LOCK PICK HANDY?

Greetings!

A classic moment in RPGs is when you find a locked door or chest. Each game has its own system for locks, some rely on skills and others use mini-games.

In Lord of Xulima there is a lock pick skill. It's available to the thief and explorer classes. Since Gaulen, the main character, is an explorer, you will always have the ability to develop this skill, though it may be better to have a thief so that Gaulen can develop other skills.

If you don't have the key, or you can use one of these three tactics to open a lock:

Manually

Open the lock by playing the lock pick mini-game. The difficulty depends on the level of your lock pick skill and the complexity of the lock.

To successfully pick a lock, the player must find the correct path between two sides of a grid. The size of the grid depends on the difficulty of the lock. The player always knows how many more cells they must traverse to win and can use this knowledge to deduce the correct path.

Automatically

This is the classic method, similar to a pen and paper game. The chance of success depends on the difficulty of the lock and the skill of the characters. Each time you fail to pick the lock, one of your lock picks breaks. You can try as many times as you like as long as you have lock picks

Brute force

Have you ever asked, why can’t I just break the lock? In Lords of Xulima, you can. However, it can be very difficult. The amount of time it can take to break a lock will depend on the strength of your party members and the difficulty of the lock. Time, of course, is precious since you only have a limited amount of food reserves. Losing 8 hours in a dungeon, trying to break a lock can be a very bad idea. That said, if you have a group of soldiers and barbarians with no lock picks, force may be a good way to get through

Which method do you prefer?

As one of our testers said “Every time I run into a chest, I hope it’s locked so that I can play the lock pick mini-game…”.

Numantian Games is back with another Indiegogo update for Lords of Xulima with more information about the games weapons.

In Lords of Xulima there are 18 different types of weapons, each one with more than 20 characteristics. To name a few: there are the quick weapons like the dagger, slower weapons like the crossbow, easy to use weapons like the sword and more complex weapons like the halberd. There are long weapons like the lance that allow characters to attack from the back line, and bows that can attack any location. There are two handed weapons like the battle ax or the great sword. There are very powerful weapons like the flail that can cause critical hits but can also fail frequently.

Weapon Skills

Weapons in Lords of Xulima can be grouped into 5 categories that correspond to 5 attack abilities: Swords, axes, daggers, blunt weapons, polearms and missile weapons. Improving your character's attack abilities augments the effectiveness of their weapons in the given category.

To the point: What kind of damage do they cause?

Generally in RPGs weapons simply hit the enemy and take away hit points. In Lords of Xulima there are 4 types of damage and each type of weapon causes its own combination of damage types:           

● Normal: Of course we have the normal type of damage that deducts hit points from the target with no further implications.

● Bleeding: Sharp weapons can cause bleeding damage that will continue to hurt the enemy over a period of turns.

● Stun: this stuns the target and leaves them unable to take any actions for a period of time; they won't be able to evade any incoming hits and will lose turns. Weapons like the mace cause this type of damage.

● Wound: Wounds cause the target to lose attack ability and hinder their ability to dodge blows and cast spells. Piercing weapons such as arrows and spears frequently cause wounds. The effects of multiple wounds can stack and leave a fighter completely useless.

How you use these damages to improve your combat strategy is up to you. You can try to stun an enemy who is about to attack, try to wound an especially powerful enemy, or try to use bleeding damage against a target with lots of hit points. There are also special attacks that increase the different types of damage, used wisely they can make all the difference in battle.

Shall we go shopping?

The 18 different types of weapons and each comes in 16 different qualities and can have one of the 70 different types of enchantments. You're going to be spending a lot of time in the stores choosing the weapons that work best for you. 

Numantian Games has a new Indiegogo update for Lords of Xulima with more informaton about the tactical combat grid.

Greetings! 

In our next several updates we are going to be focusing on the combat system for Lords of Xulima. 

Today we're going to talk about the combat grid:

When in combat, the player characters and your enemies are each arranged into two lines: the front line, or vanguard, and the rear line, or defense.

Combatants in the vanguard armed with melee weapons can only attack enemies in the opposing front line. Those armed with missile attacks like bows, crossbows, throwing weapons or spells are able to attack any enemy from any position (though there are some exceptions to this rule). Enemies armed with weapons that have extra reach, like spears or halberds, in the rear lin,e can also make melee attacks against their opponent's front line..

Reach is an important aspect to consider.  A combatant armed with a sword on the right wing of the front line will not be able to attack the leftmost enemy of the opposing line. There are times when you will need to use this to your advantage by moving a wounded ally to the rear line or to the far flank of the front line to get them out of the enemies reach.

Lords of Xulima has a new Indiegogo Update giving more details on the games enemies.

Greetings!

One of the things that we loved in old-school games was when you first entered into battle with a new enemy that you had never seen before. 

We miss the feelings of uncertainty and fear that such an encounter would inspire: What powers might the creature have? When was the last time I saved my game? We are hoping that we've captured those same feeling in Lords of Xulima.

"It is said that the Lords of Xulima experimented with different forms of life, following their visions and their whims"

Visit the link for more information as it's a lengthy post

Numantian Games posted update #3 for Lords of Xulima on the games Indiegogo page.

UPDATE 3 - THE TOUCH OF THE ARTIST

Even though all of the elements of the maps in Xulima are hand drawn, there are times when we create rendered objects for the artist to use like a sketch.

This is when our talented artists works his magic... and from a rough and lifeless block of stone, carves a haunting faceless statue that appears to be so ancient as it were watching over a cursed treasure...

             

Numantian Games has posted update #2 for Lords of Xulima on the games Indiegogo page.

UPDATE 2 - MORE DETAILS REGARDING LORDS OF XULIMA

Greetings!

For those who would like to know some more in-depth information about Lords of Xulima, we would like to invite you to our blog where we have written our thoughts about some of the more fundamental elements that make up our favorite games. On the blog we explore the various ways these elements have been implemented in the past and how we have decided to approach them in the creation of Lords of Xulima.

Numantian Games has a new update for Lords of Xulima on the games Indiegogo page.

Hi there!

We've had a great first day! Thank you all very much for helping us get to 30% of our first goal. We are very excited to share our work on Lords of Xulima with the community and we are happy to have such a positive response early on in the campaign. We are going to keep working on our end to spread the word about Lords of Xulima, and anything you can do to help us in this effort would be very much appreciated. Please tell your friends about our campaign so we can help make Lords of Xulima even better.

Some people have asked us in other forums about how to increase their pledge level to get better rewards.

If you have already made your contribution and would like to get a higher perk, please pledge again with the amount needed to bring you up to the desired level, but do not select any perk. Instead,  notify us by sending an email to info@numantiangames.com or send a private comment in the campaign and tell us what reward level you would like. We will keep track of your preferred perk.

Lords of Xulima announces that their crowdfunding campaign is now live on Indiegogo. The goal is $10,000 to help enhance, and finish the game.

The crowdfunding campaign for Lords of Xulima is now live!

Please visit our IndieGoGo campaign website to find more information about this project: our video, our goals, the rewards, and more:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lords-of-xulima

Would you like to help make this campaign a success?

If you would like help us in our effort to make Lords of Xulima an even better game, please share the campaign link with your friends, on your favorite forums and on social networks. We would also love to get your feedback, please post your comments on the campaign forum or on Steam Greenlight.

Every action counts!

Email us at info@numantiangames.com telling us about what you have done to help and in addition to thanking you personally, we will reward you with a special surprise.

A new blog has appeared on the Lords of Xulima site talking about crowdfunding a part of the game.

Basically, there are three optional features that we’re not certain if we’re going to be able to include because of their costs.

Lords of Xulima is our first production and even though for us it’s the ideal role-playing game into which we’ve put all of our passion and thousands of hours of work, we really don’t know how it will do commercially.

For this reason we’ve decided to start a crowdfunding campaign to try to include these features that would improve the game and make Lords of Xulima a much more well-rounded production.

And those 3 features are: An Original Soundtrack, Additional Languages and More Content.

Lords of Xulim has released a series of new screenshots for its isometric, turn-based, single-player 2D role-playing game. We also have a game trailer and technical demo.

Game Trailer

Technical Demo

Lords of Xulima project staff sends word of a new blog post on the games webpage. The topic of discussion deals with balancing in RPGs 

Hello Watch,

The Numantian Games team is hard at work on their debut indie RPG, Lords of Xulima. We expect the game to be ready in late 2013. Here is a link on our latest developer blog post. As we work on refining Lords of Xulima and making it the best RPG we can, we are taking time to look back at past games and describe how their systems and designs have influenced us. Here we talk about the challenges of balancing in open world games, and the horror of auto-scaling.

The Lords of Xulima devs have written a new editorial, which this time is about random encounters.

Random encounters are also a way to auto-balance  the difficulty of the adventure. They can allow the player to grind for experience and treasure as much as they want in a nearly unlimited fashion (well, limited only by the player’s patience). In RPGs without random encounters the total experience that a player can earn is often set at a fixed number. In some of those cases, if a player has not made a group that the game designer has deemed ideal for the adventure, then the player has less opportunity to take time to level their characters up to be more useful in the game. Sometimes this is solved for by the game providing many more optional areas, re-spawning areas with enemies like in Might & Magic VI,  or more directly, by addressing balancing with other artificial methods like scaling enemies to the player’s level.

The Nature of Encounters

The vast majority of random encounters are with enemies where a battle is automatically triggered, but this does not always need to be the case. The encounter can be with an NPC, like in the villages of Wizardry VII, a messenger, a merchant or any other type of event such as a revealing dream.

Even if the encounters are with enemies, many RPGs give the player options to avoid combat or to use other abilities of the characters in the group. The most common method of avoiding combat is, of course, to flee, but depending on the game players can also try conversation (which rarely works), bribery, or threatening the enemies to scare them away.