Roadwarden [Fantasy/RPG Elements/Pixel Art] [DEMO]

[Aure]

Roadwarden is an interactive fiction
in which you explore and change a hostile, grim realm.

Everyone knows to stay away from the wilderness. Most people would never risk a lonely journey.

Roadwardens not only accept this struggle, they embrace it. They deliver messages, assist merchants, burn human corpses and, if possible, get rid of beasts and highwaymen.

They live on the road, die young or retire early.

It’s a dangerous job, but a respectable one. And it pays well.





Main Features:

• Explore and change the world. Travel through a detailed fantasy setting filled with secrets, challenges and uniquely harsh lore.
• Have immersive conversations. To gain support of dozens of NPCs, you need to earn their trust during complex dialogues and sidequests.
• Create your own character through role-playing and decisions. Shape your background, abilities, beliefs and personality.
• Unveil the local mysteries. Investigate, use your wit and make connections to understand the true nature of this realm.
• Overcome your weaknesses. The wilderness is full of dangers and you can trust nobody. Find your path to success against all odds.

You can find more information as well as the free demo on the game's website!

So, hello again! What do you think? Have you got any idea how can we call this game's genre? : P

[Jubal]

I think it's an adventure game. It includes aspects like stats (eg your health) and an inventory, so it's not purely what I'd think of as interactive fiction, but it's mainly working through trying to get a defined set of choices toward certain outcomes rather than being primarily stats/inventory driven and open so it's not really an RPG - adventure game seems to fit well IMO

And it looks great - looking forward to playing it more at some point

[Aure]

Thank you, Jubal! Some time ago I joined a cool Facebook community that loves retro adventure games, and I feel like labeling my game as an adventure game could be a bit false and maybe even dishonest. I do believe that there are good reason to bring this genre up, though at the same time, the game distances itself from some adventure tropes... I mean - by definition, even all Visual Novels are adventure games, but I think we can agree that there are significant differences between the expectations of a person who wants to play Quest For Glory and of a person who plays a VN. : )

[Jubal]

Mm, I don't think I agree: I mean, I guess maybe you could pitch it as an adventure game/visual novel crossover in genre terms?

I think Quest for Glory is at the other end of the spectrum where Adventure Game crosses over into RPG, mainly because it has a functioning combat system; I don't think QfG is a very representative adventure game for that reason, most adventure games don't have that sort of RPG style combat at all. I guess the main difference on the other hand between Roadwarden and, say, King's Quest is the feel of the story (Roadwarden is much more serious) and the input method (CYOA style link options vs parser input). But I think the presence of an inventory and modulation options (the mood/attitude buttons) shifts RW out of what I'd consider a visual novel to be and to be quite a bit closer to what I'd think of as an adventure game.

[Aure]

I keep thinking that for Most people, adventure games are usually story-heavy puzzle games with 2D front-view graphics and gameplay involving point & click controls / player's text parsers or other popular solutions. I honestly believe that there are so many games that classify as adventure games and, at the same time, merge themselves with other features (like 3D FPP camera) or touch other genres (RPGs, dungeon crawlers, Visual Novels), that this categorization is filled with dead ends.

IN THE MEANTIME : P

I love it when a game slowly moves from place holders to the actual graphics. Here you can see the first part of the game’s map - the large “objects” are icons allowing you to select the area you want to visit. Heavily inspired by Baldur’s Gate. ; )

If you think it can still look better, I’ll be happy to see your feedback!

[Pentagathus]

This looks cool.

[Aure]

Cheers!

[Jubal]

Fair enough, we can agree to disagree on the adventure game thing

I really like the new map style, it works very well! Will the areas off-road get filled in at all, or is the final map just going to look like a road network with gaps between?

[Aure]

Thank you! I haven't decided yet, but the current idea is that I want to make some "dark spaces" open to a) make it easier to add some new, quest-locked areas and b) make it more clear to read, without surrounding the player with unnecessary information.

[Tusky]

Looks good!

I like the graphical style you've gone for, and the sepia colour scheme

[Aure]

Hello, hello!

It was a busy week and I think I should start writing devlogs about the game’s development, highlighting new features and the general progress. I’d like to share the first post like this starting next week. : )

The coolest part of this week, however, was working on the new picture for the game. Do you remember my castle-tavern? I wanted to draw its interiors. The first attempt, which displays the exteriors as well, was a failure. It doesn’t allow to show that many details and limits the scope of furniture while also ruining the proportions, even if I’d add buttons allowing to hide and show specific floors.



But the new one feels great to me. For me, it feels cozy. It feels like I can’t help but imagine all the stories that started (or ended) here.



What do you think? Do you like it?

[Jubal]

I think I feel less negatively than you do about the first attempt, though I agree that I think the second attempt is really good and works well

I think the only thing that feels a bit off is some of the proportioning. The beds in particular seem tiny, and the windows seem pretty high in relation to that - I assume they're smallish windows because it's a defensive structure, but then you probably still want them to be accessible and reachable by defenders who might want to shoot out of them.

[Aure]

Thank you, Jubal! I personally feel like these windows are not a part of the castle's defenses, unlike the embrasures in the tower behind the main building, but rather as a way to let in some air and sunlight during the warmer days. The tower and the walls are meant to serve as the lines for defenders, but the inn in itself serves mostly as an inn - if the monsters are under the door, it means you already lost and all you can do is lock yourself in and hope they won't be able to get inside. : P If they can get through the walls, they almost surely can get to the ground-floor windows. But if they try to get through the main entrance, at least you have a lot of space to strike them!

Thank you also for pointing out the beds, I still have to decide if I like them or not. : P The one in a separate room is larger... Maybe I could Try to draw the furs on the floor instead, though it would be a bit hard.

[Jubal]

Maybe it would help to draw a person-size comparison figure as a separate layer in your piece (not to be included in the final thing) and shift it around the building graphic to check the scale of different parts matches up? That's what I'd do.

[Aure]

A new feature added - having an option to end the game! : P

Since Roadwarden is going to have a very unusual story structure and is, in some way, an open world game, I expect that not everyone is going to complete it in 100%. So, you’re going to be able to finish the game whenever you want - even in the middle of the tutorial. And if you want, you can always read a summary of your journey (which will get more and more detailed as your playthrough goes on) to let you know how much of a “good” ending you’ve earned up to this point

And yes - these endings are going to be heavily personalized. The one you see in the video, for example, belongs to a PC whose main goal is the wish to help people. Other characters have a bit different endings.

The entire “ending” section is still in an early WIP. It’s going to have additional graphics and maybe even an interface looking more like the game’s prologue, but for now it’s fine as it is. : )

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By the way... Have you seen the game’s first devlog?

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I was planning to focus on writing the new scenes for Roadwarden, but I decided to change my approach. Since the demo of the game received quite a bit of attention and a lot of helpful feedback (which includes one game-crashing bug), here are the plans for the nearby future:

Monday, May 25th - new devlog focused on the “genre” of the game (why is it an RPG / Visual Novel / text adventure hybrid : P).
Friday, May 31st -  the new demo of the game (with few fixes and some additional features).
Saturday, June 1st -  a video presenting the entire “tutorial” section of the game. For those who’d like to just see a couple of bits without sinking into the entire thing.
Monday, June 3rd - a regular devlog explaining the new features from the demo and some other changes.

After that point, the demo will no longer be updated unless a game-breaking bug will be spotted.