Indie RPG Roundtable
So what's happening in the world of indie CRPGs?

In case you missed everyone-and-his-cousin announcing this earlier this week, RPG Codex ran a great interview with three indie RPG developers - Jason Compton, producer of The Broken Hourglass; Thomas Riegsecker, lead developer of Eschelon Book 1; and Steven Peeler, lead designer / programmer of Depths of Peril.

Check out the interview here:
Interview With Indie RPG Developers

These are all (by my understanding) "big" RPGs. From a brief discussion I had with Jason Compton, it sounds like they is actively seeking a publisher / distribution partner. Interestingly enough, Steven Peeler is a six-year veteran of Ritual Entertainment, so he's also an experienced developer from the mainstream game industry.

All three games - by their screenshots - are looking pretty sharp. They don't have AAA-release $20million budget photo-realistic graphics, but the visuals are nice and professional, as you can see for yourself in the screenshots:







What makes these games interesting, both from an RPG fan's point-of-view and from an indie point-of-view?

Eschelon: Book 1 is my favorite (so far) out of the batch. It's a turn-based RPG, for one thing --- a rarity these days. Thomas and his team have gone back to classic CRPGs for inspiration for this game, and it shows in both the screenshot and what has been written about this game in this interview and elsewhere. It looks like Basalisk Games may be poised to give Spiderweb a run for its money for this style of RPG. Who will win? My money is on RPG fans!!!

Soldak Entertainment's Depths of Peril looks like the most traditional (of modern RPGs) design - an action-RPG that looks like it may have Diablo-esque gameplay. The twist is a strong strategy / political element to the game --- something that at first blush sounds a little incongruous with more hack-and-slash action gameplay. But I'm anxious to see how Soldak pulls it off. The game also features a more open-ended, organic quest system - quests you can actually fail and have "believable consequences."

Jason has been very public with the development of some very unique, cool gameplay mechanics in a weekly series for The Broken Hourglass. I've been reading the series, and every week I find myself saying, "Gah! Why didn't I think of that?" One of the coolest innovations that has caught my eye is the "party skills" system. Since there are many activities that involve the entire party of adventurers, the game calculates a composite "group skill" level based upon the contributions of individual party members. I immediately think of rogue skills in relation to the whole group, and apparently they've got that covered.

I try to curb my enthusiasm somewhat when I read these things, realizing that a lot of things that sound awesome on paper often come out a little less spectacular in the final implementation. That's the way of things. But it looks like we RPG fans have interesting times ahead from the indie RPG sector, and I mean that in a good way.


(Vaguely) related prattling-on...
* RPG Preview: Eschalon Book 1
* How To Get Me To Buy Your Indie RPG
* Why Does Jeff Vogel Hate RPGs?
* 2006 Indie RPGs of the Year Announced
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Labels: Indie Evangelism, Indie RPG News, Roleplaying Games

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