Age of Gladiators News

Sector Unknown - Latest Devlogs
Here are some devlogs from my latest sci-fi cRPG that I've been working on. Hope you enjoy! If you like what you see, please feel free to wishlist and follow:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2734270/Sector_Unknown/

[h2]Devlog: The Planets of Sector Unknown[/h2]
A few weeks back, I wrapped up the last of the five story planets for Sector Unknown. There’s still the “point of no return” planet—the climactic final world—to finish, but every planet leading up to it is now fully fleshed out with quests, writing, and design.

Now seems like a good time to share a bit of insight into each of these worlds. Keep in mind, these are just the core story planets—there are also numerous side-mission stations, derelict ships, and other locations scattered throughout the game….

Read More!



[h2]Devlog: The Setting[/h2]
As humanity expanded into the cosmos, the narrative of "Sector Unknown" unfolded in a clandestine sector comprising three primary star systems—Xiphos (XPH-6430), Svion (SVN-8912), and Fivo (FIV-6789)—along with several minor ones. These systems were home to the planets Maku, Nabi, Sjo, Eremtera, and Helfyr (more devlogs to come on each of these planets).

For decades, Star Frontier, a colossal trading entity reminiscent of the historical East India Company, attempted to ruthlessly exploit these planets. Operating with impunity due to the sector's erasure from all official star maps, Star Frontier unrelentingly expanded into the sector, unhindered by governmental oversight…

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[h2]Devlog: Skills, Attributes, and Combat Stats[/h2]

In Sector Unknown, your character and companions will have their own skills and attributes.

Attributes are commonly used to determine your combat skills, but can occasionally be used to outside of combat as well. Combat stats are derived from your attributes and determine your success in combat. And finally skills are used primarily outside of combat in dialogue, through world interactions, and more. The only skills that can be used in combat is Piloting, which determines your skill in space encounters, and Luck which provide re-rolls on failed critical hits and evasions…

Read More!

Hi All,

Here are some devlogs from my latest sci-fi cRPG that I've been working on. Hope you enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2734270/Sector_Unknown/

Companions
"Welcome to the party, pal!"
In my last devlog, I discussed non-combat support personnel that you could recruit for your cause. This devlog will focus on combat companions/party members. These are allies you can recruit to join you on missions if you choose, or you can opt to go it alone. There might be some people that want to murder hobo everyone in the game, including potential companions. Yes, there's even room for serial killers in Sector Unknown...
Read More



Support Personnel
In your adventures across various planets, you'll have the opportunity to recruit a wide range of characters into your organization. While not all of these characters are suited for combat, they will each bring unique skills and contributions that are vital toward your success...
Read More



Space Travel
In Sector Unknown you find yourself stranded on the desert planet Maku. From there, once you find a ship of your own, the stars open up to you with six story planets available to explore and bring under your control, either through diplomacy or by force...
Read More



Bounty Hunting & Contracts
In Null Sector, a region unmarked on star charts and devoid of formal settlements, inhabitants are continually threatened by both bipedal adversaries and wild beasts. To counteract these dangers, locals sometimes gather their resources to handle a threat beyond their capacity.
Read More



Crafting & Resources
After claiming the abandoned mining facility on Maku as your base, you will unlock crafting in the game...
Read More

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2734270/Sector_Unknown/

After creating quite a few strategy games as an indie (and mostly solo) developer, I decided to create an cRPG instead. This is the genre that I find myself playing and enjoying the most, from classics such as Baldur’s Gate 2, Fallout 2, Fallout New Vegas, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, to more contemporary games such as Pillars of Eternity, Outer Worlds, Colony Ship, Trudograd, Underrail, and Encased. In short, I really, really like RPGs, and especially ones that use an isometric angle of gameplay.



Sector Unknown is sort of my love letter to both the classics and the contemporaries. I think I’m better suited for telling a story than number crunching strategy games (as evidenced by my mixture of reviews in that genre).

After three years working part-time (well almost full time) on the systems, the game is close to complete on features (movement, inventory, party management, quests, dialogue, crafting, combat, itemization, space flight, etc). I’m aiming to have a demo for the game completed in a month or so. It’s close to completion now, but I’m still not happy with the tutorial level. What I do not want is for it to be a barrier to entry like the much-maligned temple tutorial level in Fallout 2 (I almost never experienced the rest of that fantastic game due to being so turned off by the temple).



The goal for this game is to launch into Early Access. I intend to have over half of the game completed by that EA launch with full launch occurring 6-9 months after that. The idea to do an EA launch was not one taken lightly, but one thing I have found with my past launches is that just when I think a game is bug-free and ready for a seamless launch, players will find new and interesting ways to break things – leading to frantic post-launch schedule of rushing out bug-fixes and patches. I think this way is better. Launch into Early Access and take player feedback over time so that I can get everything sorted for a smooth launch after that.

The other factor is budget. Right now, I do not have the armor or model system in place for player characters and NPCs. These are assets. This will change before Early Access as I have the models done (with no armor or clothing yet), but even after that, I suspect I will need some of the additional revenue from EA launch to finish the last 2-3 planets (as mentioned I aim to have 3-4 story planets complete for EA launch, with the first one ready for the demo in the coming month or so).

I hope people will wishlist and follow this game. It’s always been a dream of mine to create a sci-fi cRPG, and there doesn’t seem to be many on the market except for Colony Ship (which I completed three times). So I hope there’s a market for something like this, a game taking inspiration from early Bioware and some of the great current game developers on the market today.

I will continue to provide updates in the next while, including game systems, story, ideas, and more. I really look forward to people's feedback and thoughts as well.

Thanks for your patience last week with the delay.

Age of Gladiators Reforged has now launched (a few minutes early even!)

I hope you all enjoy the new version of the game. It was a lot of fun for me to revisit my first foray into game design. Looking at my old code I had to shake my head. This one is a complete remake from scratch - the nice thing as well is that it can be updated far easier than the old version.


Here is the bundle link for previous owners of Age of Gladiators (50% Discount):
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31123/Age_of_Gladiators_Reforged/


And here is the link to anyone that just wishes to purchase the new version:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2103620/Age_of_Gladiators_Reforged/

Thanks again to all the previous fans of the series and to perhaps some news ones as well!

Hey all,

Just a quick note: Age of Gladiators Reforged is on track to be launching on Monday, March 27th at 11:30 AM Eastern Time.

As announced before, there will be a discount for all previous owners of this game.

Will keep you all up to date!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2103620/Age_of_Gladiators_Reforged/