Vapourware Corven: Path of Redemption - reboot of cancelled Ultima IX fan game

[taxalot]

So I checked their official website.

There are three people working on the game, probably on their spare time. But rest assured, guys.

such a small team should be able to create a RPG like this? Yes! We might be a small team, but we are not one trick ponies. That we managed to do what you see in the trailer should be some proof of that, but don’t take our word for it, we could promise you anything right? So just check our updates in the next months and see for yourself!

You hear ? Trust'em, they're pros. Totally back their kickstarter when it happens. What could go wrong ? It was totally worth ditchin' Eriadain for 15 years of this running joke.

 

[Junmarko]

http://ultimacodex.com/2017/02/corven-path-of-redemption-january-development-update/

Corven – Path of Redemption: Development Update
BY WTF DRAGON · FEBRUARY 22, 2017
The Titans of Ether posted — and yes, I’m a tad late in reporting this — a development update for the work done on Corven – Path of Redemption in the month of January:

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

You can check out the screenshots mentioned above in the update post proper.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

There's a fuck tonne of work left to go into this thing. Best of luck to these guys, but this currently looks a lot like the 99% of mods/indie projects that end up being vapourware.

 

[taxalot]

This will be like Redemption. They will show pictures of the game world being made, of stunning vistas and there will be zero gameplay footage or screeenshot because they haven't figured out how to code any.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.titansofether.com/development-update-and-crowd-funding-info/

Development update and crowdfunding info

It’s been a while since I posted, but let me assure you, we are working on the game constantly.

We thought about posting updates often, but they would just distract from the work that needs to be done right now which is to create a working demo that at the same time is the beginning of the actual game. The demo won’t just be a separate “proof of concept”. This way we are working towards the bigger goal with minimal time spent on things that do not benefit the end product directly. This also means that we are working on all aspects of the game at the moment, not just the combat or the world or the storyline etc., which is, as you can imagine, quite a challenge for our small team.

Beside the demo we are also preparing the crowdfunding campaign. Here are some thoughts on it:

We are a completely new indie studio and this is our first project, so we cannot assume that people will trust us blindly. The demo should help with that, but I think it is important to not only plan for the optimal outcome of the crowdfunding campaign, but also for the minimal outcome. So I needed to figure out how much money we need for the minimal version of the game and the optimal version of the game. Minimal does not mean that the game will be cut short. Either way the full storyline will be in this game. It’s all about features outside of the main storyline which require more art assets, more time and/or manpower etc. I am talking about side quests, additional features which are not required for the main storyline, like the depth of crafting and so on. On top of that money also determines how much unique art can be created and how many assets that were not specifically made for this project have to be used.

The focus of the game always was and always will be the storyline and the quests with adventure-game-like puzzles.

We are aiming to start the campaign in fall. Please understand that until then updates will continue to be minimal. We promise we have lots of information for you once the campaign begins.

We cannot wait for you to play our demo and we want to thank everyone for the interest and support!

The whole team wishes you a happy easter!!

Florian

Oh and here a little screenshot of a path through a forest up a mountain:

 

[Bester]

Beside the demo we are also preparing the crowdfunding campaign.

So that's what this was all about. Another long con.

 

[Finn Willoughby]

Never heard of this before. I will have to keep an eye out.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.titansofether.com/development-infos-and-game-modes/

Development infos and game modes

We are working very hard on the game demo which will show the big first island of the game and most gameplay aspects of the final game. The only things defnitely not in the demo will be the day-night cycle and the NPC schedules.

Currently we are working on:

• finalizing story aspects of the starting island
• quest implementation
• finalizing world building on the starting island
• skill system
• combat system
• interaction menu

The interaction menu pops up when you click on an item that has more than one use. This is where the “Adventure game” part of our project comes in. Our quests will not only be about combat and dialogue but also about combining objects, using objects etc… think Monkey Island (or for younger players: Walking Dead) if you will.

My goal is to combine what I most liked about Ultima and Adventure games. My favorite Ultimas and RPGs in general always had a deep engaging storyline, so did my favorite Adventures. Delivering an engaging storyline that makes you want to know what happens next all the time is the core goal of this project. I want you to experience the story in a way that you won’t have to suffer through long “story-downtimes”, which for me is the worst part of RPG storylines: You love the story but to get the next little glimpse of it you first have to kill 500 monsters and do 3 huge dungeons. That is not part of the design philosophy for Corven. Don’t worry Adventure fans, frustrating illogical puzzles will also not be part of the game, you will always know what to do next and what you need to do will always be logical.

Corven will have 2 game modes. The regular RPG mode and a story mode (or Adventure mode). In story mode you will have far less combat. Only story relevant fights remain and those will be solved in a way that you will not have to deal with the skill system (numbers) at all. Hardcore RPG gamers can call this easy mode, but it is definitely a way for players to enjoy the story without having to deal with numbers (skill system) or combat skills.

I also want to let you know that we will change our company name very soon. More info soon.

Thank you for being interested in our project!

Florian

and of course you’ll get another screenshot:

 

[Darkzone]

Animation Starter Pack is for free.
Low Poly Fooilage Forest from Dokyo Pack for $23.53.
Lake Side Cabin or Country Side from PolyPixel?
Open World Demo Collection is for free.
Fantasy Music Pack 3 from Micheal La Manna for $64.72.
Easy Dialog Creator is for around $30.
And with one week of work we have Corven: Path of Redemtion for around $170 and half of that costs in the december winter sales that ended around 20.12.2017.
So if they have put 6 months of work for two developers, then they have wasted their time.

Edit:
I have not seen the Bones Dragon from mr.Necturus ($25) and Kraken from PROTOFACTOR INC ($41).
The Houses look like the Medival Town from Dokyo for $76 or Top-Down City for $94.

So i would state that the end sum could be between $320 normal and $160 with winter sales.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.titansofether.com/dialogue-portraits/

Dialogue portraits

I decided to go with actual painted portraits in conversations instead of pictures of the NPC models. So now Rune Johansson, a freenlance artist, is creating them for Corven! I am extremely happy with her work. Here you can see for yourself:

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Project dead?

 

[Luzur]

Why not make a "Ultima-esque" game in the Ultima 7 engine?

 

[Cael]

Why not make a "Ultima-esque" game in the Ultima 7 engine?

The U7 engine is a bit clunky, IIRC. It requires a bit of tinkering to get it to work even in the old computers that it was designed to run on. Exult cleared up a lot of the problem, but it is not exactly the original U7 engine, I think.

 

[Luzur]

Why not make a "Ultima-esque" game in the Ultima 7 engine?

The U7 engine is a bit clunky, IIRC. It requires a bit of tinkering to get it to work even in the old computers that it was designed to run on. Exult cleared up a lot of the problem, but it is not exactly the original U7 engine, I think.

still saves up alot of cash and also prob makes the game come out faster

 

[Infinitron]

taxalot It lives! Sort of: http://www.lycantic.com/update/

Update



It’s been a while, sorry about that! As you know there were changes in the team and I tried to figure out how to best proceed. There was the plan to ditch RPG parts of it to make it easier to develop, but that’s not the case after all. The concept and workflow are streamlined and final now. No change in the team can affect development anymore (finally). This is what you can expect:

– mostly open world (dungeons etc. are separate scenes)
– iso/3D person view
– turn based combat
– story still plays a central part and is not an afterthought
– hearkens back to games like Ultima IV-VII and also some JRPGs like early Final Fantasy.
– it is an RPG… stats, abilities and a party will be there

This is just a small update for now. More details soon. Sorry again for the long silence but I did not want to write anything before the concept and workflow were done and I could be sure that form here on out I could provide constant updates.

I did switch to Unity from Unreal, but don’t worry about the graphics, it will be very close to what you saw in Unreal so far. In my opinion actually quite a bit better.

http://www.lycantic.com/unity-update/

Unity Update

The change to Unity is going well. Worldbuilding is progressing, many gameplay features are close to done. Thinking about maybe putting some sped up worldbuilding video up.

not done, but so you get an idea how it looks in Unity:

http://www.lycantic.com/main-world/

Main World

Here a screenshot of the main world in Corven.

Unfinished

 

[taxalot]

So after years of silence they have decided about the genre of the game, and a triangle shaped game world.

Great progress. Like they are advising, I am not worrying too much about the graphics.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.lycantic.com/unityupdate/

Corven Unity Update

The world in Unity is coming along very well. Still lots to do of course, but here are a few screenshots from the start island (Veroen).

Quick reminder: The world in Corven is open and not split up in scenes. Only dungeons and similar areas will be loaded separately.

I will post gameplay updates in the not too distant future. I want to get it polished more before I post any of it.

Thanks for checking in! Please make sure to subscribe to the newsletter! (on the right sidebar) ->

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[Infinitron]

I blame the Ultima Codex.

 

[Bester]

Looks like a nature asset pack presentation video

Two years later, still looks like a nature asset pack. Guys still haven't even figured out how to do custom lighting. Still haven't unlocked colors other than green for the environment.

 

[Ranarama]

When the title said Ultima inspired, the last thing I thought it would be was an Ultima IX inspired game.

 

[taxalot]

When the title said Ultima inspired, the last thing I thought it would be was an Ultima IX inspired game.

It's not anything.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.lycantic.com/feature-video-1-movable-objects/

In this first feature video I quickly show how you can move objects around in the world, just like you might be used to from Ultima. By double clicking the object you can move it directly. If you single click it you will get a context menu with everything you can do with this object.

 

[Viata]

Tbh, this is not the kind of Ultima-inspired game I was expecting.

 

[Machocruz]

I'm gonna take the path of exemption on this one dawg