Indie RPG News Round-Up, June 2011

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 21, 2011

A little grab-bag of news of indie RPGs from all over. Due to time and exhaustion constraints, I’m keeping this quick… But hey! Videos!

Magical Diary

Hanako’s long-awaited game that sounds like it combines Cute Knight with a story-based high school / dating sim with a heavy dose of interesting magic (it’s a school for sorcerers) has finally been released. You can check it out here. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but considering how much I enjoyed Cute Knight, I suspect I’ll really enjoy this one.

Alternate Reality – The Remake Project

This is a planned full port of the classic RPGs Alternate Reality: The Dungeon and Alternate Reality: The City to modern systems. I never played ’em, though I have a friend who speaks very highly of them. You can find more information here.

Sylia

This is the newest jRPG-style game from Aldorlea Games, partnered with developer Ensorcelled Games. I have just started playing this one, and hope to have a “quick take” for you in a few days. The party banter at the beginning of the game All I can say is that it has a very cute, amusing twist right from the get-go, but I’m afraid anything I say about it will be a spoiler. You can try this one out for yourself here.

Driftmoon

Driftmoon is now entering alpha 5. It’s now available for pre-order. This update includes some really, really slick support for creating and distributing user mods, which you can see in this video:

Dead State

Death scenes are the topic of the latest discussion of the upcoming zombie RPG Dead State.

Vagrant Hearts

The latest jRPG-style game from Warfare Studios has been out for a few weeks. Entitled Vagrant Hearts, it follows the story of two sisters – one with the power to heal with a mere touch – in a fantasy world. You can check out the free demo here.

Avadon

Avadon has now been released for iPad. It is somewhat scaled down from the Windows / Mac release, but also comes at a significantly reduced price, which Spiderweb Software boss Jeff Vogel addresses here. There’s also an interview with Vogel to be found at IndieRPGs.com.

Frayed Knights

As mentioned last week, Frayed Knights is now beta. Woot. Testers have been unleashed upon it, and are now filling my inbox with reasons the game is still not quite ready for release. As if my horrid efforts to replace some stand-in monster art wasn’t reason enough.

Eschalon

Since I haven’t mentioned this yet, Thomas Reigsecker was interviewed by Gaming Irresponsibly last month. A few hints about the upcoming Eschalon: Book III are noted, in particular his plans to release his tools to the community to create mods and new adventures for the game.

Age of Decadence

The monthly update for Age of Decadence is up, showing the “Civil AI and animations,” and discussing the quest status and displaying the mocked-up revamped gui. I guess it’s time for another video, huh? Here it is:

Okay, yeah, they do look better than my dead-bird animation. But I like my dead-bird animation.

Dungeons of Dredmor

There’s an interview about this upcoming humorous graphical roguelike RPG from Gaslamp Games over at RPGWatch. You can read it here.

Soldak’s Untitled Space-RPG

I am a fan of Soldak’s previous RPGs, and so I have a lot of faith in their upcoming space-adventure RPG. The latest blog updates are on components and crew for your roving spaceship.

ArcMagi

ArcMagi is sort of a strategy-RPG mix with some of the sensibilities of a fighting game by MoaCube. It’s a sequel – or more of a complete re-imagining – of a smaller game called Magi that they did some time ago (and is currently on sale). The video looks pretty dang cool.

Well, that’s about all I have time for right now. Please post about all the games I missed in the comments! I’m sure I’ll smack myself in the forehead for having missed ’em, too…

Filed Under: News - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

Breakdance McFunkypants said,

Just wanted to say that I always look forward to these posts – without you I’d never hear about the kind of games I love the most: indie RPGs. Keep up the great work and always know that there are tons of people out there like me who silently lurk but do indeed warmly appreciate your efforts to spread the word about this fantastic gaming niche.
Rampant Coyote said,

Thanks! I don’t get a lot of comments on these posts, but I’m told people appreciate them, so I guess comments != popularity. But if I don’t do ’em periodically, *I* will lose track.
McTeddy said,

Woooooooooohooooooo!

An Alternate Reality remake!

Honestly… neither City nor Dungeon actually impressed me. But when I read what had been played for the series… my god…. I want that full series to be developed one day.
getter77 said,

Another good assortment, always pleased to feed you links as I can!

I too was amazed at the potential of that Alternate Reality project McTeddy—I suppose a crazy dream would be that it attracts other competent helpers like the DaggerXL chap and leaps forward a full and expanded realization.

There really still remains an untold number of utterly unknown gems from the 80’s and 90’s spanning the globe that need livening up for a much deserved place in the sun in these modern times with the tech to make them happen.
Rampant Games posts new Indie News Roundup @ IndieRPGs.com said,

[…] the time to amalgamate all of those tiny little updates into a giant wad of News. Today, Jay posted that very wad online for all the world to […]
Xian said,

I remember playing Alternate Reality back in the mid-80s on my Atari 800. From what I remember, there wasn’t too much to The City, it was a starter game to build up your party for the real games to come, though AR: The Dungeon was the only one ever released of the six planned. By the time AR: The Dungeon was released, I had moved on to gaming on the Amiga and Atari ST, so I never picked it up.

Driftmoon certainly looks interesting, I hadn’t heard of it before. Thanks for the info.
Michael Anderson said,

Re: Avadon – it really isn’t ‘scaled back’ if all you do is play the Single Player game.
Kelhim said,

I really like ArcMagi from what I see. Especially the artwork is beautiful, the fighting scenes look interesting, too. Combined with a new and creative story (though it is difficult to come up with something “new” nowadays), this could easily become both a popular and commercially successful game.
getter77 said,

Yeah, I will buy ArcMagi when I am able to—helped in large part by going ahead and grabbing the dev direct sale on Magi which nets me 50% off ArcMagi. : )
Doug said,

ArcMagi looks really good. The studios other game “Cinders” looks like something I’m gonna buy just because Visual Novels are a genre that the west doesn’t see enough of.
skavenhorde said,

I’ve heard lots of good things about Alternate Reality. Unfortunately I never played it. I hope they finish the remake because I’d like to try it out. Even if they don’t finish it Alternate Reality is on my “must play eventually” list

Thanks, Jay for linking these. I hadn’t heard of a few of them.