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Tags: Lords of Xulima II; Numantian Games
The 2014 indie RPG Lords of Xulima by Numantian Games was a minor hit on the Codex, and it seems to have been reasonably commercially successful as well. Earlier this year, Numantian began soliciting feedback for a potential sequel on the game's Steam forums. It looks like they now have an idea in mind of where they want go with Lords of Xulima II, but before proceeding with its development, they're going to release a different game first. Yesterday's announcement has the details:
The 2014 indie RPG Lords of Xulima by Numantian Games was a minor hit on the Codex, and it seems to have been reasonably commercially successful as well. Earlier this year, Numantian began soliciting feedback for a potential sequel on the game's Steam forums. It looks like they now have an idea in mind of where they want go with Lords of Xulima II, but before proceeding with its development, they're going to release a different game first. Yesterday's announcement has the details:
New Game Incoming
It has been a long time since our last update, yes, but don’t think the Numantian team has been on holidays since then. We have been working hard during these past months on our new game. We will announce it for Christmas and expect to release it for the end of Q1 2017. Although it is not LoX II or even an RPG, we are sure this game is going to please all that have enjoyed Lords of Xulima (even the main developers are playing it a lot instead of working on finishing it…). We will talk more about it in the next update, but let’s drop a tiny hint: its initials are T.A.B. Any guess?
The Sequel: Lords of Xulima II
We decided to create a different game before Lords of Xulima II for two reasons: First, to have more time to design it with new and fresh ideas. And of course, we will be continuing the original story. This story, by the way, will be much more epic than the first one. The first game, “A Story of Gods of Humans” is actually the prequel to the main story. Second, we would love to produce Lords of Xulima II with much better quality in all aspects: graphics, sound, and voice. We believe that the new game will help us reach that goal.
Keep in mind, behind Lords of Xulima, there are 4 years of development. Designing a 100-hour RPG, with the world, gameplay, mechanisms, puzzles, classes, and everything being coherent with the main story was like squaring the circle. And the sequel is much more ambitious.
We are very proud of LoX. It is not perfect, we know it, but we will use all our experience and all that we have learned so far to make the sequel even more special and unique.
Game Length and Replayability
We love long games, especially in the RPG genre. In the old-school days, games like Wizardy VII or the first Might and Magic games were huge epic games with 100+ hours of content. Nowadays it is rare to find a game that lasts more than 20-30 hours.With Lords of Xulima, we wanted to bring back those huge stories of the past when you had time to slowly evolve your party from weaker than rats to adventurous young men to powerful demigod heroes.
In this case, we think we went too far since Lords of Xulima is a bit too long. This isn’t a problem in itself, but the third part of the game suffers a bit, as it lacks in fresh content, too much combat, and less variety of enemies. We had to do it because of the long story. The eight temples / gods should have an equal level of importance. But to keep that in the story, the gameplay suffered. Nevertheless, with the last part of the game, it was interesting to drink the blood of a king through the horn of a demon or find an old sea-route in some ancient ruins to reach a small isle and there find a speaking chest with the most powerful weapon.
For the sequel, we plan on making it shorter of about 40-50 hours for the main story. However, it will have different endings depending on your actions. One of the endings will be especially difficult to achieve. Only the most hardcore players will be able to beat it after 100 hours+ of playing.
Additionally, we are going to focus more on the replay value. Since the game follows a story, there must be a lot of static content (dialog, places, puzzles, NPCs …). Though it won’t be a procedurally generated roguelike, there are some aspects of the game that can make every new game more random and unique:
Numantian plan to publish updates like this one once every few weeks. The next one will be about linear vs open worlds.It has been a long time since our last update, yes, but don’t think the Numantian team has been on holidays since then. We have been working hard during these past months on our new game. We will announce it for Christmas and expect to release it for the end of Q1 2017. Although it is not LoX II or even an RPG, we are sure this game is going to please all that have enjoyed Lords of Xulima (even the main developers are playing it a lot instead of working on finishing it…). We will talk more about it in the next update, but let’s drop a tiny hint: its initials are T.A.B. Any guess?
The Sequel: Lords of Xulima II
We decided to create a different game before Lords of Xulima II for two reasons: First, to have more time to design it with new and fresh ideas. And of course, we will be continuing the original story. This story, by the way, will be much more epic than the first one. The first game, “A Story of Gods of Humans” is actually the prequel to the main story. Second, we would love to produce Lords of Xulima II with much better quality in all aspects: graphics, sound, and voice. We believe that the new game will help us reach that goal.
Keep in mind, behind Lords of Xulima, there are 4 years of development. Designing a 100-hour RPG, with the world, gameplay, mechanisms, puzzles, classes, and everything being coherent with the main story was like squaring the circle. And the sequel is much more ambitious.
We are very proud of LoX. It is not perfect, we know it, but we will use all our experience and all that we have learned so far to make the sequel even more special and unique.
Game Length and Replayability
We love long games, especially in the RPG genre. In the old-school days, games like Wizardy VII or the first Might and Magic games were huge epic games with 100+ hours of content. Nowadays it is rare to find a game that lasts more than 20-30 hours.With Lords of Xulima, we wanted to bring back those huge stories of the past when you had time to slowly evolve your party from weaker than rats to adventurous young men to powerful demigod heroes.
In this case, we think we went too far since Lords of Xulima is a bit too long. This isn’t a problem in itself, but the third part of the game suffers a bit, as it lacks in fresh content, too much combat, and less variety of enemies. We had to do it because of the long story. The eight temples / gods should have an equal level of importance. But to keep that in the story, the gameplay suffered. Nevertheless, with the last part of the game, it was interesting to drink the blood of a king through the horn of a demon or find an old sea-route in some ancient ruins to reach a small isle and there find a speaking chest with the most powerful weapon.
For the sequel, we plan on making it shorter of about 40-50 hours for the main story. However, it will have different endings depending on your actions. One of the endings will be especially difficult to achieve. Only the most hardcore players will be able to beat it after 100 hours+ of playing.
Additionally, we are going to focus more on the replay value. Since the game follows a story, there must be a lot of static content (dialog, places, puzzles, NPCs …). Though it won’t be a procedurally generated roguelike, there are some aspects of the game that can make every new game more random and unique:
- More Variety of Classes: New classes that make you play the game in a different way. We will talk more about them it later.
- Traps: Most traps will be randomly placed. With each new game, they will change.
- Static Enemies and Random Encounters: In LoX I, they had a bit of randomness but in the sequel, they will be much different.
- Dynamic NPCs: Some special NPCs will travel through the world. Their interaction will have important effects on the player.
- Special random world areas and dungeons: Some world areas like Geldra and Pernitia from the first game will be generated randomly. Also, some optional and special dungeons will be random too.
- Special Items and Artifacts: Every game will have a set of special items whose nature and location will change. Special Bosses: Some bosses will change with every new game, such as their nature and location.
