Din's Legacy - Soldak's new RPG with generational mechanic

[LESS T_T]

http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Legacy/Overview.html




https://af.gog.com/game/dins_legacy?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Soldak, known for Din's Curse, Drox Operative, and recently Zombasite, has been working on a new game from 2016 alongside the exapnsion(s) of Zombasite. Now they shared some details about that: http://www.soldak.com/Blogs/Steven/Hardcore-game-name.html

It's hardcore (as in pearmadeath) RPG with generational mechanic, and it could be titled Din's Curse 2 despite being not quite a direct sequel.

Hardcore game name

So I'm thinking about the name for the next game. I really don't like naming things; it's a pain and I don't think I'm that good at it. I'm actually more and more tempted to name it Din's Curse 2 and be done with it since there are plenty of similarities with Din's Curse. There are also some differences though.

A quick rundown of the next game: you play as one of the Mutated, characters are hardcore (permadeath) and mutate over time, the next generation of character is evolved from his/her parents and most of your total power carries over, you do have a lot of control of guiding your character's development (picking parents, picking skills, getting rid of unwanted mutations, etc), each world has a random setup and win conditions, and your goal in each area is to prove to the world that the Mutated is a "good" and powerful race.

Similarities to Din's Curse:

• Overall goal is to move to an area, more often than not to help the local people, and move on to the next area
• Both have same kind of resurrection mechanism thanks to the gods (Din in this case)
• Tighter focus than most of our other games (not controlling a clan)
• They are both cursed (DC your character is directly cursed by Din, in the new game basically the entire race is cursed because they are split off from Orcs)
• Random, dynamic world (this is also true of all of our games except Kivi)

Differences with Din's Curse:

• You're not playing a human, but a mutated (race introduced in Zombasite: Orc Schism)
• You're not forced into redemption, but simply trying to prove your new race is good and powerful
• It's not a true resurrection, but mutated and carry on from "parents"
• There are no direct hybrids, but guided mutations/evolution
• Not just a town and a dungeon (although many scenarios do this)

I didn't start this game as a sequel, but it fits pretty well; mostly just a change from Humans to Mutated as the focus. So what do you all think? Do you think I should go the Din's Curse 2 route or make this a separate game? Is it too different to be a Din's Curse game? Or do you not care what I call it as long as I hurry up?

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

somewhat interested since i had fun with dins curse and drox operative

 

[thesheeep]

I like the tighter focus.
The clan stuff in Zombasite just threw me out of the game most of the time. It's just too hectic (and the UI way too clunky) for me to enjoy. You get so bombarded with messages and events that the screen can be full with them

 

[Black]

I really don't like naming things; it's a pain and I don't think I'm that good at it.

Zombasite

You're up there with Larian.
Does anyone know how big Soldak is, how many devs?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I really don't like naming things; it's a pain and I don't think I'm that good at it.

Zombasite

You're up there with Larian.
Does anyone know how big Soldak is, how many devs?

Six, maybe.

 

[LESS T_T]

Possibly coming in the next month or two on Early Access: http://www.soldak.com/Blogs/Steven/Alpha-early-access.html

Alpha early access?

I'm seriously thinking of starting Early Access for the hardcore game sooner than usual, basically at an alpha level instead of the normal, for us, beta level. At least for my purposes here, alpha means very playable but lots of features and assets are not done yet. Beta means a few features left to do, but all assets are done.

The reason why I'm thinking this, is that it's going to be a while before we have all of the assets to get into beta, but the game is already pretty playable. So I could get gameplay feedback much sooner. Also, I really enjoy betas/Early Access which is why we have been doing them before Early Access was a thing. Getting immediate feedback on things as they progress is much more enjoyable and easier than working in a vacuum for a long period of time and then getting overwhelming feedback all at once. I also like you all getting a real chance to impact the direction of the game.

If I go this route, we would probably start Early Access in the next month or two. It is likely to only be on Steam during Early Access. We might still sell directly through us, but at the beginning it might just be a Steam key, with an actual build available when we hit beta or gold. The reasoning for this is that the Steam build system actually simplifies things quite a bit, but our patch system wouldn't work very well if we release publicly before all of the assets are finished. Our patches have always been cumulative which makes things simple since you only need to apply the latest one, but that means every change since going public has to be in the latest patch. If we keep adding art, this would make each patch fairly large and get bigger and bigger each time. Plus this means only 1 set of patches I have to deal with when things are changing often.

We do still have a few things that we have to do before we could start Early Access though. We need to settle on a name, do some of the marketing stuff (blurb, marketing graphics for Steam, and a few screenshots), create a logo, finish some art style stuff, add the new game to our website & Steam, and fix some game specific multiplayer stuff.

 

[LESS T_T]

It's about feel: http://www.soldak.com/Blogs/Steven/In-progress-screenshots-of-next-game.html

In-progress screenshots of next game

I've been working on adding height to the terrain of the next game and someone asked for screenshots. So here are some with some explanations.

This is a screenshot of how this scene would look like in Zombasite just for reference (except the player model is different). Pic details - 1358x737, 336KB.

We decided to change the art style a bit for our next game. We have changed all of the world and creature textures to be much more colorful. This next screenshot shows this.. Pic details - 1358x737, 367KB.

And finally, I've added height to the terrain which you can see in the 3rd screenshot. I'm standing on a hill in the path. You can see it's much lower on the other side of the wall. Pic details - 1358x737, 364KB.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Fuck me but it don't look too different from Zombasite.

 

[flushfire]

About that, I thought they did a good job with Zombasite, toning down the colors from their previous games. Still had a bit too much green, but I was hoping they'd continue, instead they do the opposite lol

 

[felipepepe]

Fuck me but it don't look too different from Zombasite.

Which didn't look too different from Din's Curse... which didn't look too different from Depths of Peril.

What bothers me is not the graphics or engine, but the locations & art style... they all look exactly the same.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Dunno felipepepe, somehow Zombasite was less of an eyesore than Din's Curse and certainly better than Depths of Peril, fucking hell that game was an eyesore.

 

[thesheeep]

Yeah, the art direction in those games is... bothersome, and it doesn't seem to be getting better.

I don't think pumping up color saturation will help much.
Quite the opposite, actually, it will make everything even more flashy and confusing - and Zombasite already was flashy as hell with a hundred different things going on at the screen at the same time (half of them being UI messages...).

In those screenshots above, the first one looks MUCH better to me (color-wise).
Oh, boy...

 

[Lhynn]

Not very interested. Mostly because its losing a bit of depth with no more hybrids and because you wont be playing as a human but as a filthy and idiotic orc.

 

[Lilura]

Mmm... does all foliage have to be so vibrant? There is no accounting for taste these days, is there...

 

[ilitarist]

Which of their games was good? I like the idea but nothing in screenshots seems interesting.

 

[Luckmann]

Mmm... does all foliage have to be so vibrant? There is no accounting for taste these days, is there...

I was thinking the same. It looks like a nature photo where the saturation has been ramped up to 11.

 

[LESS T_T]

About sustainability: http://www.soldak.com/Blogs/Steven/Patreon.html

Patreon?

So I have been thinking of setting up a Patreon account for a long time now. The main point would be to steady our finances a bit if that is possible and we have been asked many times over the years if there was a way to donate money to us to ensure we keep making games.

The problem I keep running into is what could we offer in return (other than keeping us in business)? There are lots of things that we could do like exclusive videos, Q&As, exclusive posts, design input, etc. However most of these I feel like I really should release to the public to get more marketing presence, I already do and don't want to put behind a paywall, or I feel like it would fragment our already small community even more.

I have two ideas that I keep coming back to. The first is to have a Backer/Donation page on our website and possibly on the credits page in the latest game. This would list everyone (probably highest to lowest donation) that has ever donated or during the development period of the game in question. But would this interest anyone?

The other is to allow backers at a certain level to design a unique item, level, or monster every once in a while for our game that is in development at the time. Basically they would suggest the name, level, and modifiers. It would have to be approved of course (no Boaty McBoatFace). This might interest people and is not something we've really ever offered that I remember. Any interest?

Thoughts? Ideas of better rewards?

 

[LESS T_T]

And they got a Pateron page: https://www.patreon.com/soldak

About
Soldak Entertainment is a small indie game developer that creates action RPGS for Windows, Mac, and Linux. We do our best to create very unique action RPGs in ways that AAA game developers rarely risk. Since we started in 2004, we have released 5 games: Depths of Peril, Kivi's Underworld, Din's Curse, Drox Operative, and Zombasite. We are currently working on a new, unannounced action RPG.

We have always actively sought and responded to feedback from our gamers through various forums, betas, and early access. This has worked very well in the past and will continue. However, now with Patreon, we can take this to the next level with personalized additions to our games. Have you ever wanted to add a unique item, level, monster, or something else cool to a game for everyone to see? Now is your chance!

Goals
We see Patreon as a Win/Win/Win.

• Win for Soldak: increase and stabilize our income
• Win for Patrons: you get to add cool, personalized stuff to our games for all to see
• Win for our games & gamers: More unique content in our games

 

[thesheeep]

I still think Patreon for game development is a terrible idea in most cases - new games (well, if not some crappy hentai Flash games, I suppose) come out every X years, not months or weeks.
But usually you at least get the games with supporting a favorite developer of yours.

In this case, it looks like you don't even get the games.
So you give a dev something between 1-80 (wtf? ) dollar per month and don't get newly released games.

I see the point from a developer perspective, but absolutely not from the consumer one. Who would do that, and why?

And letting users put content into your games is a very high risk, too. It's not like most people are good at designing that stuff.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Ask people to pay you to design your game that you'll sell them. No wonder they see it as win/win/win. As thesheep said, there's no incentive here to pay them more money than the price of a new game when they have one released.

 

[speeler]

Does anyone know how big Soldak is, how many devs?

I'm the only full time person. We currently have 6 part-time contractors.

Not very interested. Mostly because its losing a bit of depth with no more hybrids and because you wont be playing as a human but as a filthy and idiotic orc.

Personally I think this one will actually have more depth because you can ultimately have skills from any class, you just don't pick 2 specialties up front. You actually play something closer to an elf than an orc.

I like the idea but nothing in screenshots seems interesting.

Those screenshots were just trying to show the color differences and the terrain, nothing more.

So you give a dev something between 1-80 (wtf? ) dollar per month and don't get newly released games.

I see the point from a developer perspective, but absolutely not from the consumer one. Who would do that, and why?

You can already buy our games many other places, so I felt offering our games didn't really offer anything new. This would only be attractive to you if you wanted to add something to our games for everyone to see.

Ask people to pay you to design your game that you'll sell them.

They're not changing the design of the game. Our games typically are built around random, dynamic worlds that react to what you do, what you don't do, what the monsters do, what the clans do, what happens in the environment, etc. They aren't changing any of that. They are basically adding flavor.

 

[thesheeep]

So you give a dev something between 1-80 (wtf? ) dollar per month and don't get newly released games.

I see the point from a developer perspective, but absolutely not from the consumer one. Who would do that, and why?

You can already buy our games many other places, so I felt offering our games didn't really offer anything new. This would only be attractive to you if you wanted to add something to our games for everyone to see.

But don't you think that once people haven given a certain value, they should be getting the game(s) anyway, independent of other rewards?
As it is right now, I could only see that working for the most hardcore of fans - which isn't wrong per se (as you said, it is meant as a supplement, not your only source of income), but why not expand that somewhat?
I'd imagine getting a game after some time of pledging would bring more people in. Of course, those people would then not buy the game on platform X, but as they'll most likely stay around and keep pledging that may very well be a non-problem.

 

[Hobo Elf]

They're not changing the design of the game. Our games typically are built around random, dynamic worlds that react to what you do, what you don't do, what the monsters do, what the clans do, what happens in the environment, etc. They aren't changing any of that. They are basically adding flavor.

I know what your games are about, I bought them all and I'll continue to buy new releases and support Soldak in the traditional way since I enjoy your games a lot. I just don't see any appeal in doing monthly subscription based donations like this. Maybe someone will, and for your sake I hope you'll find enough people who think so and you'll get a worthwhile sum out of it to make a difference in the development of new games.

p.s please consider making another game like Drox Operative. I don't necessarily mean a literal Drox Operative 2, but something that's different than the usual fantasy game. DO was really good.

 

[Lhynn]

Drox operative was boring as fuck.

He should go back to depths of peril competitive dungeon delving, or dins curse town depth and interesting random events. Expand those concepts and maybe combine them.

 

[Hobo Elf]

For the record I only disagree with Drog's Operative being boring. The rest I don't mind / agree with.