Indie RPG News Roundup, February 2nd
The Indie RPG - no limit, no budget, no problem. Here's what's the rumor mill has been churning out in the world of independent computer role-playing games. As you can see this week, it can be a weird, weird place.

Age of Decadence
Wow. Vince D. Weller fires both barrels at Kieron Gillen at Rock Paper Shotgun in this interview, which is ostensibly about the upcoming turn-based RPG Age of Decadence. But a lot of it is about indie development in general, and a defense of turn-based RPGs - in the spirit of the saying, "the best defense is a good offense." Here's a little teaser (and I share this as a big fan of RPS, I must add...):

Vince: ...When you have time, Kieron, how about writing an article explaining the difference between RPGs and shooters to your audience? Or maybe an article mentioning that the first computer games were real-time, not turn-based, and disputing the popular opinion that RT is more advanced than TB? I mean, it’s nice that your site tries to attract morons and makes them feel at home, but shouldn’t you be educating them too? It wouldn’t take much to double their IQs, so if you want, I can give you a hand there.

So he offends pretty much everybody except maybe the RPG Codex folks. Even me. But I enjoyed it completely, found it hysterical, and was rooting for both sides.

Vince D. Weller Interview at Rock, Paper, Shotgun



The Spirit Engine 2
"The Spirit Engine 2 is the follow up to the freeware game 'The Spirit Engine', originally released in November 2003. Set in a new world, with new characters, new graphics and a rewritten game engine, TSE-2 sets out to improve upon the game experience of the original in every possible way."

The game is currently scheduled for "late 2008," and based upon this video, it looks like it may be pretty dang cool:


Depths of Peril
Soldak has posted two more "Myths of Origins" short stories. The new myths are about the Teratai and the Wood Elves.


Mount & Blade
The Turkish(?) Indie Action-RPG Mount & Blade now has a publisher - Paradox Interactive. The game should be released sometime this spring / summer. It has been in beta for... uh... a long time. However, you can buy it now directly from the developer and play it now - with a free upgrade to the full version - for only $25, whereas it will retail for $39.

Anyway, congrats to developer TaleWorlds!


Barkley - Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden
'The Great B-Ball Purge of 2041, a day so painful to some that it is referred to only as the "B-Ballnacht". Thousands upon thousands of the world's greatest ballers were massacred in a swath of violence and sports bigotry as the game was outlawed worldwide. The reason: the Chaos Dunk, a jam so powerful its mere existence threatens the balance of chaos and order. Among the few ballers and fans that survived the basketball genocide was Charles Barkley, the man capable of performing the "Verboten Jam"...'

You know, I ordinarily wouldn't post about this. Because it's only a short demo, the full version is unlikely to ever be seen (I first saw this posted a YEAR ago on the Great Games Experiment, so it's taken a full year just to get this far). But - you know - it gets massive points for being completely, bugged-out CRAZY different. Absolutely bizarre. It was built using RPG Maker 2003. Unfortunately, with my joystick plugged in the way it is, it's pretty impossible for me to play. YMMV. But... man. Gotta give points to the weird.

Barkley, Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden


The Broken Hourglass
GameBanshee continues to demonstrate a decent level of indie-friendliness, so I gotta hand them props. This week, they give us a great, 3-page interview with Jason Compton about the upcoming Baldur's Gate-inspired indie RPG The Broken Hourglass. Jason keeps mum about the release date, but talks in depth about the character creation system and other fun tidbits. Kick back and enjoy:

The Broken Hourglass Interview at GameBanshee


IndieGames.com Best Freeware RPGs and Roguelikes
The IndieGames.com weblog released their top ten list of indie RPGs and roguelikes of last year. Now, here's a funky thought. Many of the games they list are either still unfinished, or --- I THINK --- initially released in some state prior to 2007. This makes assigning the "best game of the year" award a little tricky, as you could end up with perennial winners that keep taking home the prize year after year as they crawl up to that "1.0 Final" version... and beyond.

But that's the nature of indie games. I mean, Pretty Good Solitaire has been constantly updated for like, a decade. And MMOs that don't get at least two significant updates per year are going to die of a bored player base. So... maybe these guys have the right idea.

Regardless, it's a fascinating list:
The 10 Best Freeware RPGs and Roguelikes of 2007


And --- there we have it, for this week. Send me any updates of anything I missed. As always, HAVE FUN!


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Labels: Indie RPG News

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