Fabled Lands News

[h3]Prelude[/h3]



I have been struggling a bit to keep up to speed my work pace as I have been fighting the symptoms of Meibomian glands dysfunction for some time now. If you do not know what that is you basically feel your eyes burning, itchy, irritated and dry. Symptoms get worse when you are on the computer for a long time which lead to pink eye. Obviously, the timing is "just perfect" when I am on the bring of releasing Prime Games’ biggest title to date. Fortunately, once I knew the correct diagnose, with proper medical treatment in combination with more physical exercise in the past one month my eyes have finally shown improvement and things are slowly getting back to normal (fingers crossed).

[h3]A game dev in the making [/h3]

"If you grew up during the 80s or 90s, chances are you had a few Choose Your Own Adventure books on the bookshelf. Or maybe you had seen some at school, or perhaps your best friend’s older brother had a box of them hidden away somewhere.

Gamebooks weren’t just a craze; for a generation of people, they were a cultural phenomenon, part of the shared zeitgeist."

Quote by Martin Plowman



I lived and breathed gamebooks growing up. I was inspired by them and invented new rules and stories, maps, weapons, and enemies. I even got to the point when I had several notebooks of my writings with art either done by me or cut out and glued on paper taken from some photocopied fantasy magazine or book.

While I was adding yet another alchemy item like Parrot Fungus, Witch’s Hand, Uncanny Salts, or a mythical artefact like the mighty White Sword that you may never lose (even in the after life, after all it is given to you by the God of Death himself, a-hem, a-hem) the child in me felt deep satisfaction.



[h3]The Finish line is only the beginning.[/h3]

I am massively expanding the content from the closed alpha version of the Fabled Lands game that testers from the community had the chance to play in January. It is quite the wonderful feeling to populate the world with the bizarre events, entertaining stories, and tough quests that were brought to life under the quills of brilliant creators Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson. It all comes together in an interesting and quite addictive story-telling way in a ‘may you live in interesting times’ sense.

Well, now I must buckle up my programing skills, walk the final steps and finish 2 years of development to deliver you something that I am already proud of. I am fortunate to not be alone in this endevour but backed up by the authors themselves, the really amazing and talented artist Bernar Aganchyan, the testers and the wonderful community.

Still, the release is only the beginning! Already the roadmap for the year includes developing and enhancing the game further, and further and it looks quite exciting! Hope you will enjoy the ride too!

‘Awake, my paladins! Now has the time come for our rebirth! Harkuna will be freed, and the Uttakin will feel the wrath of my revenge.’



At the far end of the chamber, a stone plinth is raised above the rest. On it sleeps a man dressed in purple-hemmed cloth of gold. On his bearded and patriarchal head rests a golden crown, which glints in the quivering light you have brought with you. His hands are crossed over his chest. In one he holds a steel mace, the head of which is fashioned in gold to resemble a flaming sun. In the other, he holds a silvery scythe, its blade fashioned into a crescent moon. It is the High King, sleeping through the lost
centuries, awaiting the day of his awakening.

Suddenly the temperature drops even lower – a sudden cold that threatens to stop your heart.

If you have a wolf pelt, it protects you from the cold. If you haven’t, roll two dice and lose that many Stamina points.

If you still live, a smoky, phantasmal shape appears in the centre of the chamber. Her spectral white face is as blank and smooth as snow, and her ghostly robes, pale as moonlight, billow out behind her like a trail of stars. Taloned hands, like the wind-blasted branches of a winterbound tree, clutch at you.

...

Ah... was it wise to meddle with things that much?

Oh, well, even if you have second thoughts, I am sure you'll love the opportunity to find out how your choices affect the world of the Fabled Lands.

That is, if you live long enough to see it...

This week saw the release of the closed alpha of the Fabled Lands cRPG and, oh, boy, what a week it was! On the morning of Saturday, one week after the release, once the dust had settled, I texted my best men: “You know you’ve had a release with this type of chart:”



He asked in return: “Why, what does it mean? New players? Downloads?”

“No,” I answered. “Code commits*.”

* git commit is a command that captures a snapshot of the project’s current changes in its state. The graphic shows the number of times I have ‘patched’ the game on a weekly basis over the last couple of months.

I had a wonderful release. With alpha testers playing their hearts out, having fun and finding bugs and issues along the way. Such a great community any indie dev could ask for. How can I forget to mention Guy from ‘How to be a Great GM’ who did a fantastic live playthrough on his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxoaOseFr8Y&t=6598

[h2]Back to the topic at hand[/h2]

In the last development update, I talked about active skills. You obtain skill books and learn the spell within if you meet certain criteria. Well, another interesting item to obtain are the skill scrolls. They contain the knowledge of a skill that will apply a passive bonus during combat. Unlike active skills, the passive ones do not have requirements related to the character’s base abilities (or stats) and can be obtained by all professions at any point in the game if they have the money.



There are different types of bonuses. Most are conditional and depend on the environment, status effects, currently equipped and active weapon, etc. while others are independent of all of that and are constantly applied.



For example, the Hot Pursuit passive skill regains you some of the Action Points expended in combat. Early in the game, the amount of action points you have per round is 6 which limits you to few basic actions like most pen’n’paper RPGs do. Move and attack, disengage to avoid provoking opportunity attacks, use an item from your backpack, swap weapons or cast a spell. With the Hot Pursuit you can have an additional 2 action points each time you cast any of the skill’s signature active skills.



While the Brawler passive gives you a damage boost when in the vicinity of 3 or more enemies.



In my current example, my Mage has learned Archery, Brawler and Blizzard’s Bite. Naturally, as any self-respecting mage, I have bought a bow (or a sling) to shoot from a far and cast my spells before my enemies could even reach me. Archery helps to improve my critical hit chance. My AOE spell Ice Bolt hits multiple enemies and applies the Frostbite status effect which reduces their Action Points by 1 to keep my skin safe just a tad more. My passive Blizzard’s Bite increases the damage received by all targets with the Frostbite status effect. Finally, the Brawler boosts the damage output even more when I am surrounded.

Now, depending on the encounter this selection of skills might prove useful, especially in the cases where I am about to fight a boss and their minions, changing the strategy a bit to keep the minions alive and apply some damage until a devastating attack finishes the boss in one or two mighty blows.
Thus, the player can adjust his skill combination before a certain combat, especially later on when meeting more devastating enemies.

[h2]Final Words[/h2]

The combination of passive bonuses, active skills and equipped weapons are the core foundation that forms the type of builds in the game. However, they are not an isolated system within the combat encounter but a fluid part of the world. The players must keep a fragile balance of spending quest rewards on an ability that would help them learn a new skill versus on an ability that would improve their ability checks within the story, especially helpful in certain areas and bigger quests. On the other hand, rotating and experimenting with skill books and skill scrolls requires constantly generating more income, thus balancing out the end-game economy.

When advancing in the game beyond the boundaries and safety of the known realms every bit of an additional stat can prove the difference between life and an expended resurrection deal!

I thoroughly enjoyed the last sip of my third coffee cup for the day. I roll up my sleeves and begin typing this week’s dev-log update in the late evening. The riffs from Twisted Sister’s I wanna Rock are helping me set the proper mood and I afford a vague smile acknowledging the moment. It is already mid of January and I am working hard to hit the alpha release of Fabled Lands cRPG in the end of the month. I was able to grab the much-needed rest around the Holidays and recharge my batteries. I must say, quite an important endeavor for an indie developer when about to release their biggest and most ambitious game thus far.

When adapting the massive game world of the Fabled Lands’ gamebooks as a full-blown computer game, there are quite a few challenges to overcome. Many things that work well on paper do not transfer well in the digital medium. Also, it is no longer the 90s and the players’ expectations have risen.

One of the aspects I enjoyed a lot in the original gamebooks was the choice of a profession (a Rogue, Warrior, Troubadour, Mage, Wayfarer or Priest) and the various quests available to those professions (more on that later). However, due to the nature of how combat was conducted, with each side rolling dice and comparing what was essentially the Combat ability, meant that the Warrior profession had an edge. I have seen mentions of this on the Fabled Lands blog and Facebook group that picking a Warrior is kind of selecting “easy” mode while playing as a Mage or a Priest is the outright “hard” mode and requires good knowledge of the meta. Fixing that without changing everything is one kind of challenge. Another is the so called “late game”. I wanted to give more things to grind for to keep earning money and unlocking new content challenging even at later stages of the game.

[h2]Enough chit-chat let us dive in![/h2]

The shaping of the skills & spells system and how character builds are going to unfold is at its final stages. Still, keep in mind things are bound to change, especially regarding balance, but the concept is pretty much laid out.

In the demo from last year, you could try the hex-based combat firsthand, allowing you to test the starting spells for each profession. Each class has two starting skills at their disposal.
Skills would be divided into two major categories: active skills and passive skills. The active skills are type of actions the players can perform during combat while the passive skills would provide constant bonuses.



Instead of skill trees and distributing points old-school style, learning new skills would happen by acquiring skill books or skill scrolls either through merchants or difficult quest rewards. Once acquired the skill book can be “memorized” and the new skill or spell would go in the character’s “spell book”. The limit for known active spells or skills is 4 while the limit for passive ones is 3. The most powerful combinations will be left to you to theory-craft and discover.



Learning a skill is one thing, using it – another. To do that, the player’s character must meet certain criteria. For example, Animal Companion which summons a bear on the battlefield to fight for your side, would require base Scouting of 6 to use. While this is a starting skill for all Wayfarers, this skill is available to purchase and learn by the other professions as well!

The active skills are divided thematically as are the 6 major professions. For example, Warrior skills rely on brute force, high defenses, quick and deadly engagement, Mages use elemental power at their will through keeping their distance, while, for example, Rogues maneuver the battlefield, utilizing damage over time.



In the world there are hidden places (via quests or other means) for you to increase the base value of your starting abilities. Whether you would choose to increase your profession’s main ability to access more powerful skills in your area of expertise or divert and increase other abilities is up to you to decide.

With the given starting values for all six professions, one can suspect what hybrid classes would be interesting to build. Naturally, Rogues and Wayfarers could gain easier access to Warrior specific skills as they can catch up in Combat while a Troubadour can go the way of the arcane arts or the way of the “sneaky little hobbitses”. Keep in mind that all 6 abilities are key not only for combat skills and spells but for the various ability checks throughout your adventures. Scouting is still needed to find one’s way in the wilderness or Thievery to pick a lock and steal something precious!



Oh, and did I mentioned that any skill learned is carried by your character even after a resurrection deal. Talk about a good investment place to dump those extra Shards (the in-game currency)!

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

This is part one of the Skills and Spells update. Things get really interesting in part 2 which I will publish next week, where I will talk about the passive skills, what bonuses they provide and give you example synergies one can achieve.



With that I wrap up this dev-log update. Character skill and equipment builds are being introduced to the Fabled Lands. It essentially means more items to buy, more reasons to stash your loot in Town houses, more options so that professions feel better distinguished from one another, but above all, more interesting choices for you to make!

This week was very productive in terms of bug fixes and balancing. The first big area of the game is completed and you will have a chance to participate in the closed alpha at the end of January. Players will be picked from the community on Discord who have helped me during the development with fruithful discussions, feedback or just a thumbs up for support.

In the remaining time while working on the next major areas, I'll add all the quest markers for Sokara, and impement buying & learning combat skills from markets.

An example of such a quest is attempting to steal the golden chain mail of Tyrnai in Caran Baru. It pushes your thievery abilities to the edge. The two stone golems that guard it require cunning and skill to overcome and are tough opponents if underestimated. Many rogues have failed before and have been caught and sold as slaves until the rest of their lives. Will you be the one to succeed?

The Temple of Tyrnai, the God of Battle, Chaos and Strife, is built like a small fortress in one corner of the city, near the barracks. Its heavy wooden gates are flanked by iron statues of bull-headed men wielding clubs. The workmanship is uncannily life-like. Inside, the god is represented by a stone idol of a jaguar-headed warrior. A beautiful suit of gold chain mail adorns the idol.

This and other interesting events await you in one of the cities of Sokara, Caran Baru. Be on the lookout for the man with the velvet eye-patch!