Hi everyone, I was invited to post some info on the game I'm developing here. I've been trying to find an active (PC oriented) community to share some of the development with, and hopefully get some criticisms and feedback. It's a solo project and I've definitely entered the stage where I can't tell myself if the game is going to be fun or not, objectivity has left my desk a fair while ago.
So definitely not trying to break into the Dwarf Fortress community, so please let me know if this isn't the place for something like my game. I've heard this a pretty engaged community, and I respect there are rules and introductions.
An introduction to myself:I'm Tomas Sala(hi), and I've been an applied game developer for over 13 years, working for education,healthcare and brands, so serious games as its called. A few years back I did a Mod for Skyrim called Moonpath to Elsweyr, which although put together quite experimentally (read haphazardly) did quite well and gathered an unexpected amount of attention. This was really the first time in 13 years I did something solo and man did I enjoy it!.
So after that I decided I'd do a full game by myself, which is what I'm working on now for over a year. It's called Oberon's Court and it started out as an RTS and is now evolving into a bit more of an adventure(if that makes sense). I started out by going for a mobile game, but a month ago it was shown to the guys at Valve and was directly accepted into Steam. Seeing I had such a fun time on steam with the modding, I've decided to go for PC full steam. But that means changing quite a lot, and rebuilding a dialogue with potential players. Hence I took up the invitation from a user on RockPaperShotgun to post here.
I'm going to post as much info and visuals from the game as I can, and hope at least some of you would like to feedback or critique what you see, and if quality wise its something you might consider picking up from steam. I'm still heavily developing this, but any help or feedback would be great, I'd happily explain any questions you might have, so ask away. I hope to also be able to distribute some alpha type builds in the near future.
Now going to spam a lot of info, sorry for hogging your bandwith (don't worry its all hosted externally,so not taxing the bay12 forums)
So Oberon's Court:
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Oberon's Court is a journey of the soul as it transitions through the afterlife, reclaiming its identity by conquering the harsh world of shadows. Will you chain and bind other souls and make those weaker suffer, or shepherd them to their own salvation. Oberon's Court mixes RPG elements with a RTS control scheme and combat to create a streamlined strategical adventure experience. Combat is quick and fierce, two shades go in, one comes out a master, the other a slave or worst.
"The battle was short, a flutter of bravado, the soft embrace of muddy ground . The sound of wooden wheels sloshing through it , as you silently thank the looters for taking your body away, a reprieve before the final indignity. Night is coming, all is lost. Time for carrion to dream, the dream eternal, surrender or rise a shadow"
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| In the underworld of Oberon's Court every soul becomes a shade, an animalistic representation of their former selves. Lost and confused the shadows of the underworld are slowly driven insane in an attempt to keep what remains of their identity intact. You the player traverse the underworld with a small cadre of shadows, they won't follow you willingly though. To add units you'll need to defeat and then chain the wild shadows of the underworld. Bind them to your will and any enemy can become yours to command. As you progress you'll find and bind the shades of kings and commoner alike, each stuck in their own dark shape and their own abilities. You will need to decide what to do with the shades you command, increase their power by harvesting resources and buffing them or weaken them by removing parts of their identity and giving them eternal rest. This is your choice, empower them and keep them stuck in the underworld, or unbind them and grant them a chance for release. Will you become a shepherd or a tyrant.
Some of the mechanics- follow the campaign "Shadow Chains" from a semi-randomized tactical map
- grow your three squads by defeating and chaining other shadows
- gather resources, blood, bone and essence to summon your shadows and empower them
- unlock special abilities for your shadows (binding them)
- weaken your shadows so you can release them (unbind them)
- explore mini dungeons,and meet elder shadows that help or hamper your progress
- Be judged for your worth, a shepherd or tyrant
- Find oberon and figure out his motives
The game itself is a hybrid of sorts, not a true RPG or adventure, but a dynamic campaign played out over 20 or so maps. You will traverse the underworld where each map has different enemy shadow types, bosses, npcs and dungeons. In the end you'll be able to face off with Oberon himself who is chained to the underworld. Your behavior along your travels will determine the outcome of the game.
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Some of the shades you'll encounter and bind: (the number has grown, so you expect more variation in the future, at 10-11 shades currently)
Some images from the game: A typical view of a level, with one squad of three shades | Some combat with some souls fleeing their defeated shade form |
A very crude design for a simple dialogue, for a gate in this case | You'll find nodes for each of the resources, you can choose to harvest them for use in summoning a shade you've chained or directly buff the shades in your squad. The latter is what's happening in this shot |
The dreamtime is a reward level you'll occcasionaly enter where you need to choose between binding/unbinding your units | There are several necropolis maps in the game, where'll you'll meet some of the boss shades |
The entire game is developed without any textures, as you can see here, even the interface is only geometry and shaders | As an animator and 3Dartis by trade (one that can code/script a bit) I love the challenge of abstracting all the artwork to just shapes and colors, no fancy normal maps or all that jazz |
Some gifsTwo bosses duking it out
buffing from a blood node |
A soul trying to flee |
A soul getting chained (old interface) |
Videoshttps://www.youtube.com/user/dummy36923/videosLinks:
website:
http://www.oberonscourt.comfacebook:
http://www.facebook.com/oberonscourttwitter:
http://www.twitter.com/littlechicken01indieDB entry:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/oberons-court