Indie RPG News Roundup, March 19th
Indie Computer Role-Playing Games. They aren't just for breakfast anymore! Somehow, in spite of putting in nearly 80 hours this last week for the harsh taskmasters of The Day Job, I've managed to dig up a little bit of dirt on the latest goings-on in the independent computer RPG scene.

Geneforge 5
Spiderweb Software has released some additional information on their latest RPG in development, Geneforge 5. They've confirmed that it is the final game in the series, and expect it to be available for the Mac in November.

Some details: The storyline will be closer to Geneforge 1 and 2; there will be five different factions to interact with; there will be three Shaper classes and six rebel classes; there will be "considerable" upgrades to the interface; and the spell system will remain similar but be reworked to solve some issues that have cropped up.

For more details, you can check out the Geneforge 5 March Update.

Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled is an upcoming Nintendo DS game from Studio Archcraft that retains the old-school, 2D RPG tradition of the old SNES games (and newer games like Aveyond, Aveyond II, and The Last Scenario). I am not used to hearing of indie games for the DS, but they have no publisher listed and it sure sounds like a self-funded project. Most impressive. And to make matters even more fascinating, they have employed Shamus Young of Twenty-Sided and DM of the Rings fame and elevated him to the lofty rank of script-monkey. Or something. So now we can tease Shamus for being a sellout game developer. You can check out Shamus's announcement here.

I wish I had a DS, now. But I guess now I have another good reason to get one. Hey, guys, any hope for a PC / Mac release? :)
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled Project Page

Project Rhapsody
You may remember me mentioning Project Rhapsody back in September, but progress seems to be happening on this ambitious project. The latest is a pretty cool-looking battle video, which makes me think this game is really pretty far along:



You can find more information on the Project Rhapsody Website.

Adventures of Cendah
Version 1.01 of Adventures of Cendah has been released by KingDiz entertainment. Updates include: More mana when leveling, fix to a character freeze issue when leveling up, more gold in the tutorial, collision fixes, changes to bats, and trees now blocking enemy arrows.

Adventures of Cendah

Krum
This hack-and-slasher looks to be getting made in Blender's game engine + Python. Hopefully that means multi-platform? It's a freshman effort currently two years into development. The website and the game are both under development, but its projected release date is late 2008. And here's a short gameplay video:



The website is still as much under construction as the game itself. Hopefully it will expand a bit soonishly:
Krum Website

Depths of Peril
Soldak Entertainment has a new short story up, taking place in the world of the (awesome!) Depths of Peril. It is entitled "Looking Red the Crystals Cry." Checking out the story, I felt a sudden desire to boot up the game again. It's been a few weeks, and like Diablo it's a pretty good game for some quick hack & slash action. It's just that there's so much to do in the game, with so many quests evolving as you play, that it gets tempting to just keep playing...

Monster's Den
Monster's Den is a quick-and-dirty dungeon crawl. It's not quite the level of quality of FastCrawl, but it's online and free to play. And frankly, I remember playing in some ol' Pen-and-Paper games back in the early days that weren't much different or any better. Enjoy! (Hat tip to TIGSource for this one.)

Monster's Den

Age of Decadence
I have already mentioned the Age of Decadence "playthrough" at RPG Watch, but I figured I'd mention it again, AND point out the staggeringly huge original thread discussing it over at the Iron Tower forums. 59 pages and counting as of right now!


And that's what I've got for this week. And, uh, last week. There is some pretty fun stuff here or on the horizon for computer RPG fans. But now I do have a few extra questions that come to mind when looking over this stuff:

#1 - With both the Geneforge and Avernum series coming to a close, what's next?

#2 - While there have been patches and story updates, things have been quiet from Soldak Entertainment. What is Steven & company up to? Depths of Peril II? Something else entirely?

#3 - What other project is Studio Archcraft working on? And will we see Shamus "McLaser" Young take a more active roll in game design & writing?

#4 - Planewalker Games has been a little quiet lately concerning their upcoming Baldur's Gate - inspired indie RPG, "The Broken Hourglass," but Jason has assured me they are still busy toiling away and trying to get it done. But I wonder how close they are to alpha at this point...

As usual, keep me posted!

(Vaguely) related fun stuff:
* Indie RPG News Roundup, March 2nd
* Indie RPG News Roundup, February 18th
* Indie RPG News Roundup, February 2nd

Labels: Indie RPG News

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