[Kickstarter] Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones - A Narrative Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror cRPG [funded]
Kamigoroshi
Member Posts: 5,870
Not sure how many Lovecraftians we have on this website, but anyhow. Might as well give this upcoming narrative cosmic horror cRPG its own thread here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgAEAbBpbVM
Those who frequently visit kickstarter may already know about Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones. It is the start of a new cRPG franchise by Cultic Games. They took inspiration from Planescape: Torments, the early Fallout games, the AD&D Dark Sun series, Heroes of Might and Magic and mixed it with H.P. Lovecraft's works. Hand drawn 2D backgrounds and art assets together with turn-based combat system, skills, classy 1920's archetypes/classes and unique game elements makes this title rather fascinating in my eyes. My favourite components are the Believe System and Angst System.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-ivhhpEtE
And of course there are lots of text and dialogue choices:
They are currently at €38.795 and get funded when reaching their €55.000 goal. That should be more than doable with 18 remaining days.
Of note is that the physical game disk come together in a very special case. Not plastic, nor metal... it is real leather:
There are even plans of gifting the Merry Folk from the Stars Children's Book in .pdf format to all backers when they reach the 1000th's Like on facebook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgAEAbBpbVMThose who frequently visit kickstarter may already know about Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones. It is the start of a new cRPG franchise by Cultic Games. They took inspiration from Planescape: Torments, the early Fallout games, the AD&D Dark Sun series, Heroes of Might and Magic and mixed it with H.P. Lovecraft's works. Hand drawn 2D backgrounds and art assets together with turn-based combat system, skills, classy 1920's archetypes/classes and unique game elements makes this title rather fascinating in my eyes. My favourite components are the Believe System and Angst System.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2-ivhhpEtEAnd of course there are lots of text and dialogue choices:
They are currently at €38.795 and get funded when reaching their €55.000 goal. That should be more than doable with 18 remaining days.
Of note is that the physical game disk come together in a very special case. Not plastic, nor metal... it is real leather:
There are even plans of gifting the Merry Folk from the Stars Children's Book in .pdf format to all backers when they reach the 1000th's Like on facebook.
Beautifully illustrated, 1920's children's book about a little girl's pact with the Old Ones to punish all the grown-ups. A haunting bedside publication which greatly contributed to humanity's demise. This doomsday book is also featured in its own related quest in the game.Perhaps @Anduin and @lolien may be interested in reading their kids stories where the Old Ones get awakened by a little girl to punish the grown ups?
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Also, In the newest kickstarter update, Cultic Games clarifies Stygian's skills and their related perks. It's really refreshing to see such vastly different skills from the usual D&D, Pathfinder or d20 rule systems.
On a similar note, their previous backer update revealed a theme song (possibly even the main theme?) of Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones. Lovely little tune for bedtime stories.
Beauty in Madness: Environment Art of Stygian
Greetings fellow admirers of the macabre!In this update we'd like to give you more information on the creation process of our environment art along with sharing some images from different stages of production. Our environment artist Elwira Pawlikowska is responsible for breathing life into the eerie landscapes you'll visit in Stygian. Her painstaking, authentic pencil drawing style and background in architecture made her the perfect choice for Stygian's backgrounds.
Let's hear Elwira's thoughts on the process:
"Hi there lone fighters against the forces of darkness! I'm Elwira - the environment artist responsible for giving the right shape to the Stygian's settings.
What was needed was a hand drawn 2D world reflecting the mood of Lovecraft's universe, saturated with decay, hopelessness and madness.
The first step was "research" ie becoming familiar with book and newspaper illustrations "from the era" (1920s), analyzing approach to contours, shading and texturing. It also meant browsing through plenty of images related with US industrial districts from the prohibition time and ... photos of extremely weird mushrooms.
The next step was making precise pencil drawings of my own designs (buildings, vehicles, plants, environment in general). After scanning them it was time for "digital inking" with a graphic tablet, which enabled the graphic crew to work freely with all the files, but also helped to maintain a retro feel.
Many visual aspects were already carefully thought out by the game designers from the beginning, however there were still space for my imagination! The best moment was elaborating all the tiny little details of the ruined city, indicating, that something dreadful has happened there. As an architect of education I'm much more accustomed to creating than devastating. Thus creation of devastation for Stygian awoke dormant areas of my consciousness..."
They also provided a shoutout for another ongoing kickstarter project: Andromeda, an 8-Bit sci-fi exploration/bullet hell game. People who liked late 80's console games will have their nostalgia buttons pushed.
Now all that's left is to see how many stretch goals it reaches with the remaining 7 days.
The leather binding of their physical game edition looks especially nice. Definitally something different from the all too common plastic cases and steelbooks.
Welcome to the Fathomless Depths of Stygian's Inventory System!
Greetings Fellow Collectors of Eldritch Artifacts!In this update we'd like to share Stygian's inventory system.
Let's start with a video showcasing the system, and then talk more about its features and our design approach.
Stygian's inventory consists of the following sections:
Paper Doll - shows all the items the player currently has equipped, including weapons, outfits, artifacts, a backpack and things of that sort. We are pretty sensitive about customization and aim to display the player's choices with as many visual representations as possible. We're also designing unique models for special items such as rare weapons and gadgets. We are keenly aware of the fact that we RPG players love to play with our dolls, preferably voodoo dolls...
Equip your character, in style...
Statistics - shows almost all of the secondary statistics which affect combat and exploration. Potential effects of the items will be displayed as a tool-tip in the form of colored numeric modifiers.
We haven't forgotten you Min-Max scholars
Party inventory - shows all items in the party's possession. Stygian uses a shared inventory system so you won't need to spend time shifting carried items from one character to another. Less item management, more black magic, count us in!
Did we tell you that we're also fans of adventure games?
Item category tabs - grant easy access to all the items you'll need to prolong your hopeless struggle against the shapeless horrors of the abyss. Tabs are divided into the following categories: Weapons and ammo, outfits, consumables, tools and gadgets, artifacts, books and tomes, quest-related items, miscellaneous, and of course the favorites tab, which can be customized by the player.
Quick items - allows you to set certain items to be instantly available during combat and exploration. Don't forget to add your favorite smokes to one of the quick item slots. Cigarettes are essential for reducing stress but remember not to smoke them all because the Cigs have become Arkham's rising currency!
As you can see, we tried to build upon the inventory features typical of western role playing games while balancing convenience and thematic flavor. We also chose to use larger icons for our items in order to include more detail, increase immersion, and show off the efforts of our talented artists.
Finally, for the closure of this unholy update, Cultic Games present you the talented leather artisan, Master Sebo, working on our Special Edition Game Tomes! These hand made books of madness will bring doom to your neighborhood when the game is out.
No human skin was used in production of our special edition tomes
So please share your opinions with us fellow cultists and seekers of the forbidden knowledge. Are we walking the path of desolation gracefully?
Until we meet again, sailing through the tides of the black unknown...
Team Cultic
This time it's all about the Character Creation process:
Details can be found in Stygian's newest update Character Creation, Gamescom and More!
So much insanity rich eyecandy~. Worth noting is that there will be an 2h gameplay demo on September 25th next month.
But the real hard fact which was revealed to us in this update was this:
Stygian will be delayed from the initial targeted release date of November 2017 all the way to the end of 2018.
That's a big, bitter pill to swallow merely three months before of the old release date. Still, 1 year delay is better than portioning Stygian into episodic releases for each game chapter... I guess. Which indeed would be the case as shown in the kickstarter project comment section. I really hope the extra 365 days of development time will be worth it.
A nice tune that was. I like that belief and angst system idea, his characters always do have some 'issues. to face in the stories.
Mostly though...
I want that lil book for the kiddies, myself.
(It will look nice next to my ol copy of The King in Yellow by Chambers.
EDIT: Shoot, I can't be a guy that finds out he's turning into one of The Deep Ones? Man...
I hope they get some 'nice' whippoorwill sounds in there somewhere.
Written and illustrated By Whateley, hehheh. Nice touch.
There has been something moving in the dark at Cultic Games studio earlier this year:
For those who are still left clueless in the dark: Cultic Games released the public demo of Stygian on steam.
But the more dreaded news is that Stygian's release date has been delayed 'till next year... again.
Hoh boy... 2019 can't come soon enough now....
I was able to talk my way into companions who fought better than me, and enough resources that my characters weak combat ability didn't feel like a handicap. About my only complaint was that combat feels SLOOOW.
Cultic Games mentioned in earlier updates that there will be settings for adjusting the game's pace in the final product. So it should be just so slow because the configuration (+ save & load) menu had been disabled in the beta.
Here's a lenghty and insightful 1 hour interview about Cultic Games and Stygian. It's in Turkish because, well, they're an Turkish studio. (surprise, surprise) But since the video also has English subs available, it's not a problem either way.
(Fun fact, the heraldic creatures on the Area Map are actually real this time... and just as deadly to encounter)
And there you have the Regional Map. You can read the full kickstarter update here.
Also, have a video about Stygian's crafting and publishing system:
I have to wonder... am I the only one who wants that font on their gravestone? Not sure if they are tentacle-like letters or letter-like tentacles.
(I bet you all can imagine my favourite of the bunch
No release date as of yet. But it seems the devs are targeting somewhere around Autuumn 2019.
I must say, that's one of the coolest combinations of inspirations they could have for a game!
And it comes with a crawling chaos release trailer to boot:
On the 26.09.2019 we will all succumb to utter madness!