Game News Dustgrave is an upcoming turn-based sandbox RPG from the creators of ICY

[Infinitron]

Tags: Dustgrave; Inner Void Interactive

Publisher Digital Tribe and indie studio Innervoid Interactive announce today the sandbox RPG Dustgrave, which will be published on Steam in 2024. The crumbling of the Dahlan Empire brought times of struggle, times of war, hunger and plague – but also of opportunity for those strong and brave enough to carve their own path with sword and wits. You can be one of these adventurers and mercenaries who venture into this trouble land and leave a mark – as a criminal or a hero; a wise scholar or a hard worker; a holy man or just a mercenary: the choice is yours!

Dustgrave offers players total freedom in a true sandbox RPG experience, with eye-catching cell-shaded watercolor art and a deep turn-based combat system. You play as a band of adventurers in the ravaged lands of the former Dahlan Empire: you can create and customize your characters with an advanced character editor, and then choose your own way without limits. The world will react accordingly to your deeds and decisions: an advanced record & relationship system that tracks every event in the world, and then every NPC reacts to what they know about you depending on their morality and current allegiances.

Dustgrave features a deep turn-based combat system that allows you many different combinations of skills and items, offering players endless options of great tactical depth. But you will also have an advanced stealth system in your hands, which allows you to approach problems using your wits rather than your steel: you can break into secure places to find clues, steal treasures, or assassinate your mark without leaving a trace.

KEY FEATURES

• Everything meaningful happening in the world is recorded. NPCs will judge your good and bad deeds based on their personality or faction
• The world is in constant evolution. Factions will constantly fight against each other: some may acquire more power, others may be destroyed forever.
• All NPCs have unique personalities and desires, and their daily life is thoroughly simulated
• True fantasy sandbox RPG experience. You decide with your actions what kind of character you want to be: a holy man, a thief, a hero, a soldier, a mercenary, an archeologist, even just a mail deliverer…
• Smash your enemies with an advanced yet accessible turn-based combat system, combining Skills and Items in huge tactical depth
• Use an advanced stealth system to do anything you want! Stealing? Check! Assassinating? Check! Breaking and entering? Check!
• Create your own customized characters with an advanced character editor

 

[Alter Sack]

Let's not forget their biggest hit:

https://games.softpedia.com/get/Games-Demo/That-Day-We-Left.shtml

With that kind of pedigree success is inevitable.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I could't get into Icy but this looks very interesting!

 

[Tyranicon]

I thought this was Void Interactive, the Ready or Not guys, for a second.

Was Icy good?

 

[Modron]

Well I actually enjoyed ICY's story and exploring the world but the combat was just servicable. The game at least had the decency to make combat encounters something you could resolve quickly.

 

[luj1]

sterile looking games nowadays

everything looks like made in RPG maker

 

[Mortmal]

I thought this was Void Interactive, the Ready or Not guys, for a second.

Was Icy good?

Icy was an okay choose-your-own-adventure-like game with some stats. It had a good atmosphere but wasn't daring enough, far too tame for a post-apocalyptic setting, and didn't bring anything new to the table. The developers used to come here. Now, their next game was supposed to be about the life of refugees. We told them it was a very bad idea and that no one would support them, which is exactly what happened. I haven't heard from them since. I just received an email from Indiegogo about it.

 

[garren]

sterile looking games nowadays

everything looks like made in RPG maker

No style at all. Generic, nondescript landscape, pudgy clayfaces, music from some free generic library.

 

[luj1]

Crisis of originality

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Sounds cool, we'll see.

 

[Kruyurk]

• Smash your enemies with an advanced yet accessible turn-based combat system, combining Skills and Items in huge tactical depth
• Use an advanced stealth system to do anything you want! Stealing? Check! Assassinating? Check! Breaking and entering? Check!
• Create your own customized characters with an advanced character editor

I think we can also expect some advanced writing quality in this one.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Let's not forget their biggest hit:

https://games.softpedia.com/get/Games-Demo/That-Day-We-Left.shtml

With that kind of pedigree success is inevitable.

what is that? A game about trying to cross the border?

 

[LarryTyphoid]

The way the trailer presents the game is very uncanny. It reminds me of those ads for mobile games like Mafia City. The assets look like they came out of a mobile game, too. I never played ICY but it looked a lot more professional than this.

 

[mindx2]

Does this have an actual story or is everything procedurally generated?

 

[MrBuzzKill]

I disagree that this looks generic, imo it looks actually pretty different from the usual CRPG coming out these days. A bit too simplistic maybe, but definitely got its own style.

 

[OwNathan]

• Smash your enemies with an advanced yet accessible turn-based combat system, combining Skills and Items in huge tactical depth
• Use an advanced stealth system to do anything you want! Stealing? Check! Assassinating? Check! Breaking and entering? Check!
• Create your own customized characters with an advanced character editor

I think we can also expect some advanced writing quality in this one.

The most advanced you will ever see, so advanced you will want us to use that single word even more times.

The way the trailer presents the game is very uncanny. It reminds me of those ads for mobile games like Mafia City. The assets look like they came out of a mobile game, too. I never played ICY but it looked a lot more professional than this.

This trailer is based on older content and has been done by non-professionals. We now have a PR company who will take care of that. We are now studying the best way to convey how the dynamic narrative works without making a long video. We definitely want to do better.

Does this have an actual story or is everything procedurally generated?

It's a mix. It's not a game with generic and procedural content: the world's beginning is set in stone, there are specific factions of different tiers, and specific content is dedicated to factions and places. At the same time, we heavily rely on dynamic content to adapt the narrative to the current context, with particular care regarding player's choices: non-specific quests have templates we adapt to in-game variables, all kinds of variables heavily influence dialogues, so we have a dynamic way to put them together.

We aim to offer extreme freedom, so it will never have the writing quality of games like Dysco Elysium or Pillars Of Eternity, but nearly all dialogues and quests will change according to who is speaking, what the player did, what relationships exist between the two entities and their respective factions, what is happening in the world, and so on.

The final result should be a middle point between classic RPGs with their branching stories and games like Rimworld, Stellaris, or Battle Brothers, which offer extreme freedom but little narrative content.

I disagree that this looks generic, imo it looks actually pretty different from the usual CRPG coming out these days. A bit too simplistic maybe, but definitely got its own style.

Thanks! We spent some time improving the presentation in the last months, and the current results are much better. We felt the overall level design was lacking and we found new and faster ways to create levels. We also integrated new assets to further differentiate the various cultures and factions.