Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game News

[p]Click here to read Part I.[/p][p][/p][p]It's been 6 months since we started working on the next project. We'll have to reevaluate the situation by the end of the year, but right now the future looks a little bit brighter. Here's a short update:[/p]

• [p]Setting - good progress, evolving fast, loving it personally.[/p]
• [p]Systems - the first iteration is done (on paper, the full implementation would take at least 2 years); while this is merely the first step and the final iteration would look like a distant cousin, this first step is important as it's like creating coherent order (where everything makes sense and works together) out of chaos of different ideas. [/p]
• [p]Combat - we have a rough prototype that looks good (maybe even surprisingly good) with the placeholders (as we don't have any assets yet, which is the real tragedy here).[/p]
• [p]World Map - unlike our previous games, the worldmap is a massive playable level and thus something new. It's shaping up well and Unreal 5 is a real marvel when it comes to terrain.[/p]
• [p]Weapons - we'll need 30 weapons (5 weapons per category, 6 categories - swords, axes, maces, spears, bows, crossbows) plus as many uniques. Fortunately, we have a good artist, so that's one less problem.[/p]
• [p]Armor - it would be nice to have 30 armor sets that show visual progression. Damage Resistance would only go to 7 or 8 (before upgrades) so we'd have to rely on the other stats like Hardness or Resistance to differentiate armor in a meaningful way. It seems we finally have a good artist (working on the test armor which looks good so far), so fingers crossed.[/p]
• [p]Location models (to go with the world map) - good progress there, the two main cities are done, the artist is working on the third one, the rest (lesser towns, forts, and camps) should be easier.[/p]
• [p]Creatures - we have a long list, but haven't started yet, hopefully the location artist can handle it (he did the creatures for Colony Ship), probably year 2 (currently we're in pre-production so year 0).[/p]
• [p]Secondary items (potions, rings, amulets, alchemy and crafting components, etc) - probably year 3. [/p]

[p]Parting gift:[/p][p][/p][p]Wearily, the Tidekeeper of Sankarum took his seat and gestured to the priests to proceed with the Offering. How many has it been this year? He lost count. In his father's days, a single sacrifice was enough to buy safe passage for a month, but now blood must flow with every tide to keep his ships afloat. And what was he without his ships? A lord of stone cliffs where nothing grows? He shook his head.[/p][p]The sea was a harsh queen, and they lived and died at her pleasure. Every seaman knew that his fate was sealed the moment he stepped onto a ship's deck. Sooner or later the tides would take them all, but as long as the blood price was paid, they could all live to see another day. And then perhaps another....[/p][p]A servant interrupted his thoughts, whispering in his ear. More trouble, this time over the trading towns. The Tidekeeper's efforts to gain ascendancy on the coast near Zangabar was drawing the wrath of the desert people, but without warships or sea whisperers, there was little they could do. Worse was the word of Harudal laying claim to yet another town. This required serious considerations, especially if the rumors were true.[/p][p]Harudal was growing strong, while its rivals struggled to survive. That the mountain clans had struck some bargain with the accursed Ythlir was hardly a secret. Without it, their men wouldn't have lasted a day underground. The god of the sky holds no sway beneath the earth; there in the darkness you make your pact with darker things, whether you want to or not.[/p][p]But there were limits there, lines that should never be crossed... Shouldn't they? Or was everything he was taught as a child wrong? Time would tell, it always did.[/p][p][/p]

- Optimized performance inside Hydro Green camp.
- Improved PC walking animation.
- Party members now walk when the PC is walking.
- Improved several dialogue cameras.
- Fixed typos.

Before switching to the new project, we went over Colony Ship one last time to see what else we can improve and add:

• Improved visuals in the Pit, Hydroponics, and Mission Control
  
• Minor visual pass across the board
  
• Arena crowd during matches
  
• Animated Hydroponics' bioreactor (quite a difference)
  
• Improved camera in certain dialogue interactions
  
• More civilian animations
  
• More interactions and dialogue options
  
• A stealth option to escape the detention centre
  
• A colorblind mode for the stealth mode (sorry it took so long)
  
• Party members' gear comparison when trading
  
• New NPC portraits, including monks and mutants
  
• New combat tracks
  
• Balance improvements and fixes
  
• Further optimization

New details and lighting, before:


After:


To new players, we hope you'll enjoy the game. To 'old' players, as always, thank you for your faith and support over the years.

As you probably know, our next project will not be a full-scale RPG (like Age of Decadence and Colony Ship). If it's the first time you're reading about it, here's why:

Colony Ship sold well (for an obscure indie RPG), but not enough to pay for a more ambitious and complex sequel. The plan was not to do another story on the same ship, but to continue the story after planetfall. Such a game - such a new world with everything that entails - would have required a bigger team and a much bigger budget. We simply don't have the resources to undertake that now, but hopefully we can come back to it later.

So we're in a situation where we can 'go the distance' and handle a 4-5 year long project, provided we keep the costs low and focus on combat, i.e. a complex tactical RPG. We know that some people will be disappointed, but it's either that or shutting down for good. So let's roll the dice one last time and see what happens.



Keep in mind that we're starting to work on it just now, so many things can and will change over the next few years (and many things will go wrong). The purpose of this post isn't to drum up some excitement but to let you know what we're working on now and what the goals are:

• Lovecraftian bronze age populated by humans, non-men races, and eldritch horrors
  
• Semi-sandbox, roam anywhere but be aware that some dark corners of this land will be more dangerous than others
  
• Three mutually exclusive main questlines with plenty of choices (including switching sides)
  
• Procedurally-generated quests to keep you entertained
  
• Colony Ship style feats (and skill points) on level up plus feats earned in various events.
  
• 10-12 character levels plus mastery levels that don't grant any feats.
  
• AoD style combat (action points, different attacks, focus on melee) but with a hex grid.
  
• Spellcasting (think fighters dabbling in magic rather than DnD wizards unleashing pyrotechnic hell)
  
• Crafting and alchemy, AoD style; magic weapons and armor
  
• Party size 6, recruit as many as you need if your comrades (or should I say battle brothers?) fall in battle
  
• Colony Ship's death timer with feats detailing the worsening effects of your near-death experiences
  
• Runes carved into the flesh of your comrades (think Colony Ship's implants)
  

Setting intro:

From atop the ziggurat's shrine, the High Priest watched the sandstorm rage about his city. The winds battered the walls for hours, but the blood-fed wards held firm, and the stones stood unscathed.

In the desert only the strongest survived. The sands had swallowed many towns over the centuries, leaving nothing but shifting dunes and bleached bones, but Zanghabar and its people had endured and even blossomed. And yet, the High Priest was troubled. The tiding that came from afar were grim, and the dreams even worse. Something was stirring in the impenetrable heart of the desert, a darkness to which the city’s very existence was an affront that could be tolerated no longer.

Zanghabar's rivals sensed it too, circling and pecking like vultures at a dying beast. Harudal’s warbands openly raided their trading outposts, and Sankarum’s ships plundered their shores with impunity. In the past they wouldn’t have dared to venture that far, for the deep waters were even more treacherous than the desert, but their sea whisperers must have found a way to calm the waves. Or made some pact with the children of the sea, a possibility that was bleaker still.

Nothing good ever came from dealings with the Ythlir, the misbegotten spawn of another age. They dwelled where no man could: beneath the ocean's waves, deep within the mountains, and even – the High Priest flinched at the thought – in the heart of the desert, where nothing could live. Nothing except for the accursed Ythlir and their dark gods…

* * *

So, that's the plan. Will we get there? I'd say 50/50, if we're being honest. Unlike the sequel to Colony Ship, this project is actually doable but doable and easy are two different things. Colony Ship will remain the budget generator for this project, so hopefully it will continue selling and see us through.


PS. Thank you so much for the overwhelming support and encouragement. Many people ask about supporter editions and donations; while we appreciate your generosity, the best way to support us is to leave a review, no matter how brief. Reviews boost visibility and influence sales, and we'll need all the help we can get there, since the revenue generated by all 3 games is the 4th game's budget.

Thank you in advance.

If you’ve enjoyed our game and the countless hours we've poured into making it better, we’d be honored if you’d consider nominating us for the Labor of Love category.

This game has been a true passion project—seven years in development and a year of post-release updates and improvements. Everything we did was driven by our love for the subgenre and our amazing community.

Thank you for your support.