Wadjet Eye Unavowed - Dave Gilbert's RPG-inspired urban fantasy game

[Crooked Bee]

http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/unavowed/




https://af.gog.com/game/unavowed?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Just wanted to create a new thread about this so it doesn't get lost in the Technobabylon discussion.

A while ago taxalot asked what Gilbert himself was up to, i.e. what game he's writing himself next. Here's the answer:

http://ask.fm/WadjetEyeGames/answer/128768722806

what's the status of that RPG project that was in the works? Wouldn't that be Janet's first game as lead?

Sadly, pretty much dead in the water! Janet spent about six months working on that engine before deciding her time would be better spent working on Resonance instead. I think everyone can say with certainty that she made the right choice.

That said, I've been thinking a LOT about my next project (meaning game that I am personally writing) and it is very RPG inspired. Sort of. I'll talk about it more once I know more.

Too bad that RPG is dead, but I wonder what he means by "very RPG inspired. Sort of".

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Quest for Glory-likes?

 

[Athelas]

I wonder what he means by "very RPG inspired. Sort of".

Take your pick:
http://store.steampowered.com/tag/en/RPG#p=0&tab=NewReleases

 

[Western]

Quest for Glory-likes?

Inspired by the new Kings Quest.

 

[rohand]

Quest for Glory-likes?

Inspired by the new Kings Quest.

Akin to the torrent of Roguelike-like-like-likes, now we'll have Quest-for-Glory-like-like-likes

 

[RPGMaster]

Romances confirmed.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Sounds like his next project is an adventure game inspired by VTM Bloodlines:

https://twitter.com/WadjetEyeGames/status/618088160216641536

 

[Infinitron]

VioletShadow !

 

[Jaesun]

Holt shit

 

[Zed]

The best part of Bloodlines was the first person perspective so you could see those vampire bewbs (and also to see characters up close). The writing and setting could probably translate pretty well into 2d side-scrolling point-and-click tho.
That jew game very pretty cool - at least as LP.

 

[taxalot]

Sadly, I doubt he can manage the scope. A short point and click can be very fun, but I am not sure at all when it comes to a five hour Bloodlines.

Let's just wait to know more about it.

 

[VioletShadow]

VioletShadow !

I'm... skeptical

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah, I'd like to see some early concepts of design on what exactly he is trying to do with this.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I think the main problem is that he's essentially making casual games. Not that that can't work for a Bloodlines-like game if the writing and interaction are strong enough, but still.

 

[taxalot]

His problem is ultimately going to be his indie budget. Unless he wants to go the Jeff Vogel route.

 

[DeepOcean]

Dunno if I'm interested, if you are making a game about vampires, its kinda important to make the fact that there are vampires on your game something important and different. If its just Blackwell with vampires... I dunno, I already played a bunch of storyfag casual adventure games and I'm kinda tired of the lack of substance.

 

[V_K]

Here go my hopes for another RPG/Adventure hybrid...

 

[SCO]

This is gonna be bad. Without rpg elements you can't even have Bloodnet bad, which would at least be entertaining.

The important part of Bloodlines, besides the good alternative solutions and good clan detail work and good powers and good dialog and good sense of place and good music.

Was the developed setting, wholesale lifted from White Wolf. Which you really can't develop on a indie game produced in a year, no matter how good you are (even if the game doesn't actually show any of this, for the dedicated nerd, such things have a large mental impression of unstated connections that make a work truly headcanon worthy, just look at the Caine headcanon in Bloodlines).

Ah well, Donna the Avenger of blood was a 'good' (for certain values of good) vampire adventure, it's not like it's impossible.

 

[pippin]

You can't fit Bloodlines in a Wadjet Eye-like game.
Hell, even Bloodlines itself was too big for its own good, according to B.Mitsoda. I'm not quite sure how WE could do this.

 

[Crane]

Considering it's Wadjet Eye I think it'll be good, but we should temper our hopes of seeing Bloodlines in an 6 hour P&C adventure game. Honestly I'm thinking that we'll only see small lines of continuity between Bloodlines and whatever game this'll be. Maybe stuff like "vampire have to blend into human society without being noticed" from the Masquerade setting, but not much else.


There is another Bloodlines inspired (read: ripoff) RPG on steam, but I haven't tried it out.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/280600/

 

[DeepOcean]

I think it would be nice if they made a game focused on the relationships. I mean something like you being a new vampire on your clan, as you enter on vampire society, your sire ends dead because of a power struggle inside the clan, as you being his "child" and now you being without protection you are marked to die as him/her. The gameplay is about you developing a network of people that can help you survive the power grab of a terribly powerful elder.

As a vampire, you use your powers to get allies, you seduce/manipulate powerful pople, you turn bankers and politicians on ghouls or if you think you have something to gain you can decide to turn them on vampires too to pledge loyalty through the blood bond with you. You manage a network of ghouls and loyal vampires and you work for them to get on better positions, you happen to use your powers to get rid of the competion for your ghoul to reach CEO status on that company you think will help you out.

You have to be careful, saying to too many people you are a vampire could be dangerous, you can't be that open as many people won't react well when discovering they are dealing with a monster that is trying to dominate them and will react on nasty ways like calling the help of vampire hunters and such. They could make a mostly adventure game with lots of roleplaying and decision making without combat or stats but I fear he will go for straight linear storytelling, it could be awesome depending on the story but I would be disappointed, so many possibilities of storytelling that use the interactivity of videogames and most designers still just ape movies and books and throw some simplistic token gameplay just to keep the gamming quota over 10%, its a shame.

 

[WhiteGuts]

I hope the game includes a cabbie.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Interview with Dave from yesterday: http://www.twitch.tv/starrmazer/b/681166225 (starts at about 15:00)

 

[Crooked Bee]

Uh-oh: http://ask.fm/WadjetEyeGames/answer/131652506742

Do you know what your next game after Shardlight will be? Have you already started working on it?

Yep! In small baby stages. The game will be called "Unavowed" and it's an urban fantasy in the vein of Dresden/Hellblazer/World of Darkness. There's no art or anything yet, but the design is moving forward. I've teamed up with former Bioware writer Jen Hepler (who I went to summer camp with when I was 14!) and we aim to have the design finalized by October. So with any luck we'll be ramping up on Unavowed just as Shardlight is winding down.

The world really is small.

 

[Crane]