Indie RPG News Round-Up, 22 Oct 2009
Indie computer RPGs are those games created by small, independent game-studios which have not been funded by major publishers. As the holiday season draws nigh, their counterparts in the mainstream have been releasing a flood of press releases, interviews, and previews. While the indies don't typically cash in on the holiday season, there's been a lot of activity on that front as well. Here's a really quick, short run-down of things going on over the last couple of weeks:

Knights of the Chalice
Knights of the Chalice has become a recent addiction of mine. Both the demo and full game have been upgraded Version 1.21. The big addition in this version: Turn Undead. My clerics always felt a little naked without it. Also, I posted some tips to playing Knights of the Chalice earlier this week that might prove useful for new players who feel overwhelmed by the depth of the game.

Din's Curse
Steven Peeler's taken the show on the road. We've got an interview here, another interview here, the first preview of Din's Curse here, and a blog article about cave-ins in the game.
Depths of Peril
In spite of working on Din's Curse, Mr. Peeler has also gone back and made some changes to his award-winning freshman RPG, Depths of Peril. The changes are mainly bug-fixes, though there are some improvements in adventuring with members of other covenants, and a decrease in the difficulty of kidnapping quests. You can download the patch here.

Aztaka
The version 1.04 Patch and new demo is now available here. This update adds new setup utilities to support wide screen resolutions, mouse speed adjustment as well as increasing the game’s stability.

The Three Musketeers: The Game
This RPG, based an the Alexandre Dumas novel, has now been released. I wrote my quick-take on The Three Musketeers yesterday. And you can snag your copy of The Three Musketeers: The Game here.

Scars of War
Gareth is posting a short story about the world entitled, "Magic's Price." Part 1 and Part 2 are already up. Part 3 is due out soon.

Legie
This is a very unique 3D Adventure / RPG Dungeon-Crawler from Czech developer Sudokop Games. I'm actually putting this one up for sale at the Rampant Games store soon (tonight?). But it's different. The demo doesn't provide any of the dungeon crawling, for which I'm not too thrilled. And the text dialog seems very - uh, translated - and strange. You are an apprentice bartender in a town that going through rough times. There is no magic, and no elves. The demo has you serving beer and cleaning up vomit with a rug which starts soaking through before you are done. It's got a weird name that still doesn't make sense to me after the playing through the demo (UPDATE: Gee, a little actual research, and I discover that Legie is Czech for LEGION. Now that makes much more sense). And the movement system is... different.

And yet, something about it is intriguing and compelling enough for me to shell out the clams for the full version to see what it offers. If you want to check it out yourself, you can check it out here: Legie, by Sudokop Games

Cyclopean
Cyclopean is a Lovecraft-inspired horror RPG. They've posted an "annual" update here. At least now they have a game engine and honest-to-goodness programmer. And a LOT of writing.

The Broken Hourglass
They aren't dead yet! Jason Compton reported to me in an email that he's spending WAY more money than he'd like on this Baldur's Gate 2 - inspired RPG by hiring a full-time implementer (huh, harkening back to the old Infocom "imps?"), and frantically working towards making the "critical path" of the game complete and playable. Once that's done, they'll be re-evaluating what needs to be done with all the side-quests and additional content.

Doublebear's Zombie RPG
Doublebear has been posting a weekly series of Design Updates for your enjoyment and edification. The latest is on skill perks, but I'm just gonna link to the entire forum.

Legend
Aldorlea games has announced the title (and precious little else) of their next RPG, Legend. Man, Indinera Falls & cohorts sure crank 'em out, don't they? Legend will be a one-off game with futuristic elements, and not part of a series (at least, not planned at this point). And it's supposed to be funny. I think it is safe to assume it will be a jRPG-style game using the RPG Maker engine. The closest thing to be had for official information can be found here.

Eschalon: Book 2
The box art for the physical edition can be viewed at the official site. Okay, it's just freakin' box art, but MAN does it bring back the feel of late 80's / early 90's computer RPGs. Which is, of course, the whole idea.

Got more news to share? Let us know in the comments or in the forums! Or PM me in the forums. Or email me. I've got, like, contact information on the "about" page and everything. Which nobody ever visits. *Sniff*.

Hey folks! Have fun! That's what it's all about, right?

Labels: Indie RPG News

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