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Website: www.legacyofsvarog.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Legacy-of-Svarog/1611016455819940
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LegacyofSvarog
Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=485941283
Indie DB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/legacy-of-svarog
Legacy of Svarog is a 3D Action RPG and Adventure Game hybrid based on Slavic Mythology. Fight enemies, investigate crimes, build your keep from the ground up and make choices with real story changing consequences (every choice really does matter). The game features multiple playable characters and an in-depth and responsive combat system that rewards patience and planning. Meet characters and deities from the little known stories of the Ancient Slavs.
The game opens up in a tavern located near military barracks of The Long Arm, We meet Yaroslav a decorated veteran in the King's Army, drunk mid-day on bad braga and down to his last 50 coppers. In walks Prince Volga, young, inexperienced, looking to fill the king's shoes. He comes to Yaroslav in need of help establishing an important stronghold. Will you help him? Will you send someone in your stead? Or will you tell the prince to sod off and do it himself? Your choice begins here.
The game is currently gathering votes on Steam Greenlight and a Kickstarter will go live in a matter of days.
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You must upgrade and improve your stronghold in order to be ready for an enemy invasion within the first year from when you begin. Building facilities such as the smithy, the tavern and the library all cost money which can be obtained by searching ruins, completing quests and conquering enemy encampments.
The game features progressive leveling, meaning skills improve as you use them, and a resposive combat system that rewards patience and careful use of strategy.
Choice has real consequence and influences the difficulty of the game as well as recruitment of certain characters.
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The game takes place over a year. Time passes only when you take actions. No need to worry about a ticking clock. When the game is complete, another cycle becomes available. The player keeps their money, any weapons found, crafting and town progress and loyalty progress for companions. Basically the player keeps everything and starts the story over. The story can change even, because certain conversations and choices are gated by companion loyalty and better, more elegant solutions to problems will be offered if the loyalty is at maximum.
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Each day consists of either 3 minor actions or 1 major action. If a minor action is chosen in the morning then the major action is no longer available.
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- Expeditions - the player travels to an available dungeon/cave/tower etc to reduce the enemy presense there. The expeditions are mainly combat and award money and other resources. Strength type and combat skills will help with these.
- Investigations - sometimes a monster or enemy spy will commit acts of evil in the town. The player must then investigate the crime scene and determine the source of the damage. Intellect and lore skills will help here.
- Hunts - when the investigation is successful the hunt becomes available (and replaces the investigation). The player must track down and deal with the source of the disturbance in the town. This typically involves fighting through a dungeon of some sort with the culprit being the boss. Legerdemain, perception and trap disarming skills can help here.
- Social Missions - the player can choose to spend the day with a companion. This improves the companion loyalty depending on dialogue choices. Loyalty affects story choices and recruitment possibilities. At max loyalty, companions may gain extra perks and teach the player their class bonuses. Dialogue skills and charisma can help here.
- Stronghold Missions - the player can choose to spend resources to upgrade the town or build a stronghold. For example the player can give money to the smith to upgrade the forge or ask the architect to build city walls or siege platforms. The story requires that the player build a stronghold before the end of the year. The quicker this is done the easier castle defense missions will be.
- Castle Defense - sometimes monsters or enemy armies will attack the stronghold. The player must place companions and troops at defense points and fight off the enemy. Combat and strategy skills help here as well as upgrading the town guard equipment, building ballistae and catapults and upgrading city walls. Losing these will result in the destruction of a random upgrade and loss of gold due to looting. It also tends to make the leader unpopular with the townsfolk.
- Story Missions - Unique missions that don't fit into any other category. These can take multiple days to complete. Lost your gold shipment to bandits? Look for it and recover it. These missions can usually be solved either by combat or through conversation. You don't have to complete story missions and instead go hunting or something, but it is strongly recommended. At least for those who enjoy the story.
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- Training - go to the training hall (once built) and improve various statistics as well as learn combat techniques.
- Weapon Maintenance - repair damaged equipment. Freshly maintained equipment gains bonuses in the next mission based on your smithing skill. (once smithy built)
- Gather Intel - walk around town and listen to rumors or find anomalies. This makes some major missions available. (more missions as town grows)
- Go Shopping - buy new gear/weapons/armor at the local stores. (once built)
- Go to tavern - lowers stress. Stress gives penalties to combat performance if it gets too high. Can invite companies for loyalty boost. (once tavern built)
- Go to library - read books to learn strategy and discover monster weaknesses. (once library built)
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- Walk around town - can walk around and look at the town you've built. Doesn't open any new missions and limits NPC dialogue to greetings. Sometimes it's nice to just relax and walk around.
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Eee! I love mythology :) It looks a really nice game too, I will have to check out the Kickstarter when that begins (I don't use steam).
Out of interest, do you know any good English-language introduction to the Slavic myths etc you're using?
Thanks, When the game is complete I will have it available most likely on non-steam sites so it can be purchased elsewhere.
I am not using any English-language references (I am originally from Russia and grew up fascinated by the stories.) But I did find these online that can give you a little bit of an introduction. Typically things are either spelled wrong (Russian has more letters than English), pronounced wrong, or just wrong in general (some gods had multiple names but some references list them as two different people for example). The history and religion of the Slavs were lost when Christianity moved in and destroyed their books, temples, and idols. Though some people still celebrate some of their traditions in Slavic countries today. Like leaving out milk and cookies for their Domovoi, or house spirit, to bring good luck to the house. Before the game is released we are going to have a guide to the Slavic gods, myths, and creatures on our site. It may come in handy in gameplay if you want to know the background of certain characters.
For example, early on in the game you will meet a beggar, you have the option to give him your last 50 coppers or nothing at all. If you know Slavic Mythology, you will recognize this is Chernobog, the black god, in disguise and you better give him your money lest he curse you. (or in our game, make your gameplay more difficult.) Certain characters will recognize that it is Chernobog (with Lore based checks), while other characters will not, but you can choose to give him your money or not no matter the character you play.
http://dusanbozic.com/slavic
http://www.slavorum.org/slavic-mythology-by-igor-ozhiganov/
That's great :) I really like it when out-of-game knowledge can actually come in handy in a game, I know it annoys some people but I'm all in favour of encouraging people to learn more myths. :P
Thanks for the links, I'll have a read of them soon - and yes, definitely try and make it available not-on-steam, I'm interested for one!
It looks a bit like Guise of the Wolf, is it that same art style or no? It's pretty dark and while that looks great in game, it does obfuscate the videos and pics.
I have never seen Guise of the Wolf before, but I see the resemblance. Yes similar art style in the matter of things are outlined in black. There will be a lot more lighting in future trailers and screenshots. We are still in pre-alpha graphics mode. Below is more recent screenshot. The good thing about it is that all of the systems are done (dialogue, combat, etc) now it is continuing to add content and polish, polish, polish.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CMZFQ1ZWEAAL3jV.jpg:large)
Nice, looks good so far and the setting is especially great. I'll definitely keep an eye on how things are going, best of luck to you :)
How big a team have you got working on this btw?
It is mostly just me, but I work on it full time. I do the rigging, coding, animation, modeling, and writing. My wife does the textures and the marketing, graphic design, and website design (she does marketing, graphic design, and trade show graphics for a living). We want to do a kickstarter so we can hire a full time programmer to polish and to add more bells and whistles. My first job was as a data programmer but the last 10 years I was the lead technical animator for a marketing company. It is a matter of I can do it all, but I would prefer to hire someone who can do it faster and cleaner. Either way the game will be finished.
Impressive skillset! I can just about code myself but my game dev attempts have always been hung up by my lack of ability to do the graphics :( I'd definitely chip in something on a KickStarter, might not be much though as my income is likely to be negative for the next year or so!
You said you were originally from Russia - where are you based now?
Thanks, I'll be sure to post the kickstarter link when it is up and running. I am currently in Massachusetts, it's great here because there is a large game development community. We'll be at the Boston Festival for Indie Games on September 12 with a demo. I am also putting the demo online on Indie DB and the Legacy of Svarog website the same day as the show.
Ooh, cool :) Look forward to seeing it!
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Excited to announce that in just 33 days we have been Greenlit and we just launched our campaign on Kickstarter. You can find it here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1850069277/legacy-of-svarog-a-unique-3d-action-rpg-and-advent (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1850069277/legacy-of-svarog-a-unique-3d-action-rpg-and-advent)
Such a big weight off my chest honestly.
Well done, that's fantastic :D
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Just letting everyone here know who is interested that Legacy of Svarog now has a playable demo for download on Indie DB for both PC and mac. We're looking for as much feedback as possible.
http://www.indiedb.com/games/legacy-of-svarog/news/new-demo-now-available-for-pc-and-mac-download
Kickstarter is also still running, it is all or nothing if we don't reach our goal you don't get charged a penny: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1850069277/legacy-of-svarog-a-unique-3d-action-rpg-and-advent