Dark Envoy - guns n' sorcery RTwP RPG by Tower of Time developer

[Infinitron]

Apparently this appeared during the Golden Joystick awards:

Dark Envoy is a love letter to classic tactical RPGs with a modern approach to combat. The gameplay trailer recalls the studio’s legendary genre inspirations, showcases battle tactics, skill variety, and introduces the dark force that all players must face in this tale of destiny, set in a conflict-torn Guns N’ Sorcery world. The game is being developed and will be published by Event Horizon, the creators of an independent RPG gem, Tower of Time.

 

[Infinitron]

This will be published by Asmodee Digital

Looks like they dropped it: https://steamdb.info/app/945770/history/?changeid=16642037

 

[cyborgboy95]

Dark Envoy | Faces
Creating and customizing your hero is essential to all RPGs. In Dark Envoy, you can choose the class, attributes, equipment and the appearance of each of your party members!

Before you venture forth, you can decide on your character's face, skin color, hair, eye color, eyebrows, facial hair, makeup, scars or war paint. All the heroes in Dark Envoy carry their own burden. One look into their eyes and you'll know that the story they want to share with you isn't a fairy tale, but a dark adventure into which they plunge without knowing exactly what the future holds for them.

The face models were created by Konrad. If you want to see more of his work, visit his Twitter:
https://twitter.com/KonradMajewsk11

 

[cyborgboy95]

Vasso used to serve in the army, but military steps were never her way to shine on the dance floor of life. Many have tried to read her history from her tattoos before they gave up the ghost...

 

[cyborgboy95]

Want to play Dark Envoy this week?
If you've been waiting for Dark Envoy, it's closer than you think. Take part in our demo test for friends and family and get a 1.5-hour taste of the game. To participate, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/WR73BFaWdS3KnjBm7.

We’ll contact you in a separate email with further instructions. More info on our Discord[discord.com].

 

[Nortar]

The form, among other things, asks to select favoured game genres.
And it has all kinds of crap from sports and racing to mmo and auto-battlers.

The one genre missing is the turn-based tacticools.

 

[lycanwarrior]

Dark Envoy Hands-On Preview – Tactical Treasure Hunting With Pause​

https://wccftech.com/dark-envoy-hands-on-preview-tactical-treasure-hunting-with-pause/

Dark Envoy Hands-On Preview – Tactical Treasure Hunting With Pause​

The past few years have been a new golden age for computer role-playing games. Development studios both big and small tried their hands at the genre, providing players with sprawling adventures filled with wonders, enemies, treasures, and world-changing choices that made them feel an active part of these universes they were supposed to save or destroy.

Among the many cRPGs released in the past few years was Event Horizon's Tower of Time. While the game did not really try to challenge role-playing game conventions, it was definitely a solid effort and a more than worthy purchase for those who live and die by dice rolls, both real and in digital format. The development studio is now hard at work on their next game, Dark Envoy, a game that is setting out to be slightly more interesting than Tower of Time thanks to many of its features.

During Steam Next Fest, which will be held from February 6th until February 13th, Steam users can try out a Dark Envoy demo featuring over one hour and a half of content. I had the chance to try out this demo before its official release, and couldn't help but notice how, this time around, Event Horizon broke away from the typical fantasy cRPG trappings to offer something a little more unique.


Dark Envoy is set in the world of Jäan, which has known balance since its creation until humanity arrived. With their superior technology, humans started conquering vast sways of the land, taking it away from the magically-advanced Old Races. The tension between the two factions continued to increase over time, and the Human Empire and the League of Old Races are almost at war when the game's story begins.

Malakai and Kaela are children of war refugees and live as adventurers and relic hunters. By no means an easy life, this allowed them to thrive somewhat and achieve a serenity that most of the people of Jäan do not. Relic hunting, however, will get them involved in the impending war between the Empire and the League, making them understand that everyone has a role to play when the world is about to burn.

While the demo doesn't feature a whole lot of story, what it does feature feels interesting enough. The main characters are a little tropey at the beginning of the adventure, and the writing is standard role-playing game fare, but the atmosphere feels different enough from most games. It reminded me, in some ways, of the very first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, although with plenty of differences.

The demo features lots of gameplay, which has left a positive impression on me. For those not in the known, Dark Envoy was originally conceived as a turn-based game before the developers experimented with real-time with pause combat and eventually switched to it. As such, there are some remnants of the older combat system, such as plenty of environmental interactivity with a variety of objects, such as cacti that release needles causing bleeding when hit, destructible covers, and more. These elements make combat feel more dynamic than basic real-time with pause combat, forcing players to focus not just on skill usage but also on positioning. All of the combat mechanics are properly explained with in-game menus, which make the experience feel quite accessible, even to newcomers.


Accessibility seems to be one of the things Event Horizon focuses on the most in Dark Envoy. While the menu system is similar to those seen in countless other cRPGs, it features explanations for pretty much everything, from stats to skills, classes, and gear, detailing, for example, how improving certain stats improves the character, which perks are unlocked after reaching certain stats thresholds and so on. This is another extremely welcome feature for RPG veterans and newcomers alike, making it much easier to develop effective builds.

Speaking of builds and character customization, Dark Envoy will feature plenty of it. The appearance of the siblings Malakai and Kaela can be changed at the start of the game with a character creation system featuring plenty of options, as do their combat abilities. The demo features four different classes - Ranger, Adept, Engineer, and Warrior - coming with very different skills. All classes will have different specializations that were not available in the demo, so there will be a lot of ways to customize characters in the final release.






With crafting and enhancing rounding up the role-playing game mechanics' package, and co-op multiplayer, Dark Envoy is setting out to be an interesting RPG. While not as big, or as anticipated, as some of the biggest role-playing games releasing this year, such as Baldur's Gate 3, the game by Event Horizon looks like it will have the chance to carve out its own niche when it launches later this year on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Sunsetspawn]

But do iron golems run on electricity or on soul?

Usury

 

[HoboForEternity]

Diablo style loot? Why do developers do this

 

[Bara]

A part of me still wishes they stuck with turn based combat vs real time. But it does feel like rtwp rpgs are getting even smaller later and rarer so probably for the best dev stuck with what he new best and it helps cater to a crowd I fear is getting less and less.

But darn it Diablo loot... not again

 

[cyborgboy95]

Dark Envoy Demo Out Now!
Dark Envoy Demo is out now thanks to your feedback!

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of our followers and members of our great Discord community have participated in friends and family tests of the Dark Envoy Demo. Our goal wasn't to fix the bugs because that's what our QA is for, but to find out what your feedback is and what we can improve to bring you more fun during the upcoming Steam Next Fest.



Thank you for joining us on this journey. Here's a list of the latest updates we've implemented based on your valuable comments and observations. Thank you for playing Dark Envoy Demo! Oh, we almost forgot to mention that it is now available for free to all Steam players!

Patch Notes: Dark Envoy Demo, 3 February 2023

General:

• Added an option for the cursor to be locked to the game window. It can be toggled in settings → display.
• Multiple small performance improvements, especially on lower tier hardware.
• Target framerate can no longer be decreased below 30 fps.
• Added VSync setting.
• Fixed various problems with loading saves from previous versions.
• Audio banks loading should take considerably less time.
• Substantially improved level loading times.

Gameplay:

• Neutral summoned units no longer reveal fog of war for the player.
• Re-rolling item modifiers during item crafting now works properly.
• The player can no longer move the camera during cutscenes.
• Some unit statistic values have been renamed, and the values shown have been fixed.
• Custom items with already applied enchantments on them can be found.
• Cone skill targeting (e.g., Adept’s Frostbolts) had been centered and now show proper range.
• Fixed a glitch in intro cinematic that caused the first few frames to be rendered incorrectly.
• Fixed slow time audio effect when opening popups.
• Fixed face animation in first cutscene.
• Fixed an issue with enemies getting stuck on covers and other static units.
• Improved interactions with objects or NPCs when multiple units are selected.
• Improved line of sight calculations, for both better performance as well as more clarity for players
• Fixed an issue with player being in combat, despite no enemy being in proximity.
• AI:
  (1) Threat system had been improved – target switching should now be more obvious to the player.
  (2) Skill casting should now be more reasonable.
  (3) Rats should now behave more like actual rats.
• Removed excessive party join/leave messages.
• Fixed an issue where audio positioning wasn’t always properly set.
• Added new difficulty setting: Story.
• Hard statuses (Stun, Freeze, Knockdown etc.) now interrupt casting skills.
• Removed TAA and Motion Blur display options as they tend to glitch too often.
• NPC units no longer ignore personal space of other characters.
• Added Edge Panning sensitivity settings.
• Added Edge Panning and arrow keys movement to World Map.
• Fixed an issue that caused blurry screen upon entering World Map.
• Added item comparison when buying from a Merchant.
• Fixed an issue with Frozen status that caused damage mitigation not to work correctly.
• Fixed starting camera position on World Map.
• Healing fountain logic had been improved, as the previous one could have been abused by the player.
• Multiple balance changes throughout the game, including, but not limited to:
  (1) Items,
  (2) Enchantments,
  (3) Skills and their synergies,
  (4) Enemies stats and skills,
  (5) Resources dropped,
  (6) Crafting prices.
• Various tweaks to both boss fights:
  BOB:
  (1) Increased range on some of his skills, as they were not feasible to use previously.
  (2) His charge skill had been fixed to have specific interactions with rats.
  (3) First phase of combat had been altered to the correct version.
  ANCIENT GUARDIAN
  (1) Minor tweaks to his balance.
• Fixed an issue where Bandit Chief could have become invulnerable for an unlimited time.
• Fixed the issues with missing item icons in inventory.
• Fixed marking area of effect skill effects that are triggered by projectiles on hit.
• Fixed an issue with some enchantments that caused units wearing items with them to stop moving.

UI:

• Input had been blocked on loading screen.
• Fixed an issue where some skill icons were not loaded.
• Multiple mini-map fixes:
  (1) Dungeon mini-map is now updated properly when obstacles are removed.
  (2) Fixed mini-map marker rotation.
  (3) Added a setting for disabling mini-map rotation.
  (4) Added labels for map markers in large map view.
  (5) Added dungeon entrance icon.
• Blocked save button if a save file name is empty.
• Unit information tooltip will be shown over non-targetable units.
• Disabled scaling of environment-related overhead messages.
• Added confirmation popups if a player tries to exit without saving in Settings, Crafting, Skill Tree and Attributes screens.
• Added icons in Player Menu, when a player has points to distribute remaining.
• Added sorting inventory by most recent and markings for new looted items.
• Added warnings when player wants to progress through Class Selection screen without selecting a class.
• Skill telegraphing UI is now properly removed if a skill is interrupted.
• Removed unit names over their health bars to decrease screen clutter.
• Moved Weapon Skill from Skills to Inventory screen.
• Rearranged multiple settings options as well as added missing descriptions.
• World Map Location popup is now attached to the edge of the screen.
• Fixed an issue with Weight modifiers not influencing all shown stats correctly.
• Fixed an issue where some Attribute modifiers were not shown to the player.
• Multiple improvements to the quality of background textures in different UI panels.
• Fixed mouse input problems when trading with a Merchant or using the Journal screen
• Fixed an issue with cursor rotation image not displaying
• Character creation panel now explains that the specialization can only be selected at level 5
• Changed the way Frozen status was shown on units
• Clicking on the background around the map automatically closes it.
• New looting popup – “take all” button instead of “close”.
• Added an option to hide helmets in inventory.
• Added “continue” button that automatically loads your last save.
• Multiple changes to tutorial popups, for better clarity.

Visuals:

• Charged Ground – range is now shown more visibly.
• Healing Fountain – new 3D model and VFX.
• Point of Interest icons now have an animated effect.
• Columns in mines now fade out.
• Multiple lighting tweaks in mines.
• Multiple minor item (both weapons and armor) tweaks to the textures and icons.
• Fixed issues with ocean rendering in City of Bones.

Co-op:

• Improved automatic region selection.
• Added connected region and latency info in multiplayer menu.
• Added latency display per player in multiplayer menu.
• Online session can be started once the player has at least 2 units in the party.
• Improved unit synchronization when a client takes control of a newly assigned unit.
• Fixed skill level synchronization for client.
• Fixed multiple game breaking errors when loading a saved game.
• Improved session connectivity and added specific error notifications for easier debugging.
• Fixed an issue with stats being mismatched between the server and a client.
• Fixed connectivity errors when a client leaves a co-op session and joins a new one.
• Fixed client stuck on loading screen when leaving a co-op session.
• Reduced delay when client is casting skills.

Share your feedback[forms.gle]
Join our community: Discord[discord.gg]
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[Infinitron]

Dark Envoy is a love letter to classic RPGs with a modern approach to combat. The game is being developed and will be published by Event Horizon, the creators of an independent RPG gem, Tower of Time.

Track list:
00:00 Black Prison
01:52 Factory 1
04:38 Factory 2
06:50 Dark Mountain 1
09:10 Dark Mountain 2
11:13 Temple
13:33 Lands of Jäan 1
16:19 Lands of Jäan 2
19:05 Lands of Jäan 3

 

[Infinitron]

 

[The Wall]

Dark Envoy is a love letter to classic RPGs with a modern approach to combat. The game is being developed and will be published by Event Horizon, the creators of an independent RPG gem, Tower of Time.

Track list:
00:00 Black Prison
01:52 Factory 1
04:38 Factory 2
06:50 Dark Mountain 1
09:10 Dark Mountain 2
11:13 Temple
13:33 Lands of Jäan 1
16:19 Lands of Jäan 2
19:05 Lands of Jäan 3

They made all male characters on cover darker, like thin layer of shit was rubbed in and spread all over their skin. Jew's kiss of death. Not a single good game was shilled by Infinitron. Not a single good game. Because shilling good games is not his job

 

[Jarmaro]

I've seen Dark Enovy has a demo, so I gave it a try. The results? My head hurts.

I'm fully aware that niche and indie games have their limitations, but the unspoken assumption about Indie Games is that they are as good or better conceptualy than big titles, merely lacking appropriate funding and thus scaled down. At least, that's how I perceive the discourse about Indie Games. Recently, I've been convinced that Indie games (in general) are as bad conceptualy and creatively bankrupt as big AAA titles. Dark Envoy seems to be a good example of that. The entire presentation of the game in trailers and advertisement is highly pretentious, claiming to be 'something new in RPG genre' and boasting of its Choices&Consequences, while at the same being utterly generic. It appears to be present itself as dark, moraly grey story, but all I see is clear good/bad dichotomy.

But let's talk about playing the game itself. The character creator was okay, although it took me over a ten minutes of creating a character to realize I'm supposed to make two characters, and the gender button was switching between them, not changing my character's sex. I didn't know you use two protagonists beforehand. Next up, the class selection and attributes were somewhat opaque, without Attributes being explained. The game weren't so kind as to inform me Might is important for every character as everyone mainly uses basic attack. But those are secondary problems.

The real problems started once I actually clicked 'begin'. The opening cinematic was not only uninspired, it was actively made worse by the amateurish narrator who sounded like a student recording in their room. This is simply below any expectations for a serious title developed for multiple years. I've seen mods with professional openings, voiced by great narrators. What's an excuse for an established developer who has already published a game before?

From there on it only went worse. The voices of the two main characters can be considered better, but the material they work with is terrible. I've read hundreds of books. Mlilions of words worth of webnovels. I know it when I see good dialogues and it wasn't the case here. After just three lines I started wincing at the amateurish quality and lack of any ideas fArom the narrator how to organicaly present the characters and story to the player. Obviously, writing good dialogues is not easy, but for an RPG game it's a must, servicable material is simply not enough. There is no excuse for it being as bad as it is, especially after years of developement. How long has it been developed, 5 years? More?

Next up, gameplay and combat. I don't think the concept in itself is bad, but the execution is questionable. Dark Envoy plays like a weird combination of WoW and Torchlight, except worse. Everything about it feels unpolished and clunky. Things get exponentially bad once we get reunited with our sibling and now how have to control both of them. Trying to micromanage both of them in combat is downright horrible. Many times I was confused which character I was controling at the time. Later on I'd read that the game was supposed to have Turn-Based Combat at first, and as much as I dislike Turn-Based, it would probably be a better choice here.

The exploration itself reminds of Tower of Time, or rather all its primitivness and the reason I've stopped playing that game after just a few hours. Everything feels basic. Walking around and opening chests (that are visible on your map from the start, oh the joys of discovery! /s). The healing towers/shrines boggle my mind and feel like an alpha element of a designer that need to be sure the game testers can play-test the areas more smoothly. You fight, then walk to a shrine to get healed. Why? Why not just add Health Regeneration outside of combat instead? It would work the same, just not as weird.

Once you approach a piece of lore, you can be read later in Codex. Not a bad idea, but the entire framework of interacting with written material this way is more typical of non-RPG games. You don't grab a letter your inventory, it's just added to Codex. In theory it's a little difference, even a smoother one as it doesn't clutter the inventory, but to me it screams that the game isn't an RPG. It feels more like a weird Adventure game.

It's hard to not compare the game to more successful titles like Pathfinder (Dark Envoy utlizies similar environmental descriptions based on clicking icons on the map), or even Dragon Age: Origins. DA:O is particularly interesting, as it appears to be like Dark Envoy, but better in almost every regard. No Hack&Slash loot, still somewhat MMO Active Skills...and above all else actually morally ambiguous choices.

You know what a good game with multiple choices does? It gives a player multiple choices without telling him whether the choice is bad or good. It doesn't put extreme exmphasis on it. Here you are given a big screen with two choices to pick. It's not a good RPG design. The entire idea of emphasizing it like this feels wrong. You pick dialogue lines or lines indicating an actions. This weird, barebones C&C system is simply inappropriate.

The common theme here are weird design choices (or lack of any real design). I'm genuinely confused how a game like this can gain popularity. I'm not saying that it's horrible, because it's not. But I would definitely call it on the verge of being below average. After so many years of developement is simply shouldn't be so janky and unpolished, but technical aspects are more forgivable than the conceptual ideas and broken foudations on which the game is built.

It's sad that the state of the genre is so bad we need to get excited for subpar media such as this.

 

[lukaszek]

Jarmaro exactly this. Except I didnt even reunite with my sister. My character got stuck in terrain and as I was hitting load I pondered on my life choices and whether this game offers anything unique. Since the answer was negative that was it.

Tower of time had unique setting that I was curious about. Basically post apocalyptic dying world and you exploring some ruin.

In here formula is clearly similar. Oooh there was some ancient civilizations and we keep on finding some old artifacts. They are everywhere, scattered around some desert and in general presentation sucks so bad that I just didnt care.

per thread title: is this actual steam punk? It feels like no one care with steam engines when you can power up stuff with magic. Technology seem more like pumping mana into your pistol so it fires big ball of energy

 

[Dexter]

Played through the Demo. Extensive character creation with 4 Classes (Warrior, Ranger, Engineer, Adept(Mage)) each featuring 4 Specializations. You design two characters (one male called Malakai and a female called Kaela), a brother and sister pair. The overarching story seems to be about some conflict between the Technologically advanced Human Empire and a rag-tag alliance of Magical other races fighting to keep them at bay with a few Neutral parties including a town your characters reside in. There are some A and B story decisions every now and then that might or might not have influence over the overarching plot. Demo is relatively long.

Space to Slow down time/Pause. There's Status effects and the likes, cover, exploding objects, notes with scribbles on them, some interact-able objects for choice text, rare dungeon puzzles. The usual. There are teleports and Health shrines with limited charges placed at specific locations on the maps. Leveling up happens based on story progression, not combat. Graphics are simplistic 3D. You will meet and combat Ancient robots and once you get to the city people are wearing some sort of Power Armor. Start a combat encounter by walking into the "red" sight cone of enemies and every enemy belonging to said group will engage in combat. Some encounters spawn additional troops dropping in from the ceiling or teleporting behind you. There are 6 total active abilities you can use per char once leveled up and some sort of Crafting and Enchanting system I haven't bothered with.

Don't expect a great story or big story hubs, but might be of interest to scratch the party-based combat faggotry itch, maybe. Seems like you'll be able to choose from a Roster of characters to take with you on missions up to a party of four with some locked in for specific missions. Some of the combat once you enter the ruin can already be a bit challenging. There are unfortunately not very rewarding Random(?) Optional combat maps between main story missions, probably for the purpose of padding the game. I ended up a bit Overgeared after the first map or two that were moderately challenging because you only have two characters and limited abilities. Once you get to three chars and are geared/skilled up more it seems a lot easier. There also seem to be some imbalanced builds too, especially involving things like 20%+ Life Leech from items and Attributes or generally stacking certain Attributes high for the Boni.

Lots more Screenshots

 

[Infinitron]

A big thank you to everyone who played the Dark Envoy Demo! Your support means the world to us!

 

[Infinitron]

Get ready for some action! Today we'd like to bring you a video that showcases the devastating power of the Adept/Elementalist specialization in Dark Envoy! The video features two signature skills that will make your enemies freeze in fear or burn them away from the battlefield. Meteor Blast lets you summon a fiery explosion, while Frost Breath allows you to channel a stream of cold that freezes your foes in place, dealing heavy damage over time.

 

[Skorpion]

"a video that showcases the devastating power of the Adept/Elementalist"
...
Meanwhile the enemy bro just walks through everything to stab her in the face so they had to cut the vid at :19 seconds

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Meanwhile the enemy bro just walks through everything to stab her in the face so they had to cut the vid at :19 seconds

Casterfags btfo as usual

 

[Cryomancer]

Flashy but extremely unneffective magic is extremely boring. If an caster in 2 seconds can cast an meteor but any ogre can soak 50 meteor spells, the caster is not throwing an meteor. Simple as that.

 

[Tyranicon]

Looks like they made the enemy warrior dude an invincible juggernaut just to show off spells. But that has the effect of making the warrior way cooler than some caster with a limp noodle.

Spells are not just elemental arrows/bullets. Magic should be devastating but have drawbacks. Considering just adding a heartstopper spell to my next game.

 

[Zariusz]

Get ready for some action! Today we'd like to bring you a video that showcases the devastating power of the Adept/Elementalist specialization in Dark Envoy! The video features two signature skills that will make your enemies freeze in fear or burn them away from the battlefield. Meteor Blast lets you summon a fiery explosion, while Frost Breath allows you to channel a stream of cold that freezes your foes in place, dealing heavy damage over time.

It looks like this magic duel was going to end like this