Lesquin, France, August 22, 2019 - As part of a special mission ordered by Friend Computer, our reporter was sent to Ireland to investigate Black Shamrock, the studio developing Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory, amidst rumours that one of the team could be guilty of treason…

As a Red clearance Troubleshooter, you have been granted access to the full video report. Many aspects of the game development were scrutinised: the passion for the Paranoia tone, the challenges of adapting a tabletop role-playing game into a video game, the combat system, the unique gameplay and, of course, the utmost happiness felt by everyone in the team!

But Citizen, Friend Computer noticed that one team member hesitated when asked. Don't forget, happiness is mandatory. Not being happy is tantamount to treason and traitors will be asked to report to the nearest extermination centre immediately.

Control a team of four Troubleshooters of dubious loyalty, who (mostly) obey orders from Friend Computer, a paranoid and irrational artificial intelligence. Inspired by classic CRPGs, the game is the first official adaptation of the cult role-playing game.

After checking with Friend Computer, we can confirm the game will release on 3 October 2019 on PC and later on consoles.
​

​

Wasteland 2 veterans will notice some changes immediately. The biggest, and one that sends shock waves through myriad other systems, is a rework of Initiative. In Wasteland 2, Initiative not only governed how early a character would attack, but how often as well. This enabled some extremely broken builds, where one character might attack as many as three times for each turn an enemy received. Meanwhile, slower characters like Scotchmo might fire their weapon one time per fight.

In Wasteland 3, turns function more like a standard tactics game where one side attacks, then the other attacks, and repeat. Gut instinct? It’s a good and necessary change. It’s easier to flank enemies and to coordinate maneuvers between teammates, and probably easier for InXile to balance as well. You can even have one party member attack, then hop over to another, and then go back to the first to attack again. This opens up some neat possibilities.

On the other hand, Wasteland 2’s flexibility—that ability to completely break the game by exploiting the systems given—was in line with its retro leanings and (for me at least) part of the fun. I’m somewhat sad to see it go, at least in this one respect.

Some aspects, I won’t miss as much. Characters now share an inventory, which is a welcome change. No more need to allocate ammo or health packs to each character individually, as they’ll all draw from the same pool. And skill checks are now semi-automatic. There’s no need to right-click a door, then tell someone to unlock it. If it’s locked, the Ranger with the highest lockpicking skill will automatically move to the door and try to get it open.

Something is lost in the simplification, no doubt. I don’t know if it’s something necessary though. Wasteland 3 feels less like a time capsule from 20 years ago, and in a way that’s a shame. It’s more playable though, and if we agree that its strongest suit is the writing? Then there’s no real need to lament the loss of the more fiddly mechanics.

Plus, it still takes the opportunity to trip you up when it can. There was a great moment midway through the demo where the path led through a cage full of bears. I carefully moved my squad away from the gate, except Scotchmo and his trusty shotgun. The plan? Spring the gate, and then have Scotchmo hit them right between the eyes. I opened the gate and…

I’d forgotten to reload Scotchmo’s shotgun after the last encounter. Oops.

Scotchmo was pretty good-natured as he fumbled a few shells into the shotgun, and we came out of it relatively unscathed. Still, it’s great to see certain elements of Wasteland 2 have carried over intact. This is still a crunchy CRPG at heart, even if some of the rough edges have been smoothed over.
​

​

​

​

​

​

Rachel Leiker from Hardsuit Labs here to bring you some tasty treats about the development of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2! Today I’d like to speak to something we get asked quite frequently – How do you translate a tabletop RPG into a first-person video game? Well, it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Mostly blood. Actually, it’s pretty much all blood.

When we first began work on Bloodlines 2, Vampire: the Masquerade Edition 5th (V5), the latest tabletop version of the game, was also in development. We were able to work closely with the V5 team to co-develop a lot of the systems you see in both games. The process was very interesting from a developer perspective because we wanted to maintain the tone and freeform nature of the TTRPG (tabletop RPG), but there were many challenges to get it to work on a digital platform.

The first Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines was a very true and accurate representation of the pen and paper version at that time. Many of the systems and designs were direct translations pulled from the core rulebook. For Bloodlines 2 we were less interested in a one-to-one implementation of systems in the tabletop version and more interested in what lies at the core of those mechanics – Being a Vampire.

Ka’ai outlined it perfectly in his previous post about the design pillars - there should always be a sense of supernatural power. How this is expressed mechanically is up for interpretation. We worked on really getting down to the nitty gritty of what that means and then set out to build it in a digital format.

One of the first things we worked on with the V5 team was Resonance, created to emphasize the “you are what you eat” part of feeding. Blood is great as a resource, but Resonance incentivizes feeding as more than just Hunger management and makes it more strategic.

Certain types of Resonance give certain benefits and buffs in both games and is a huge part of the hunting and feeding cycle. But finding and feeding on specific Resonances in V5 is a fundamentally different experience than in Bloodlines 2, and for very good reasons.

In the tabletop game, Resonance type can be determined by a skill check against a character Advantage or by physically tasting the blood. There are 4 types of Resonance (for humans...) and 3 levels of strength depending on the victim’s emotional state (Temperament). An amount of Resonance may be gained via feeding, in the cases where there is an extreme amount of Resonance, a Dyscrasia, or clot, is formed. This Dyscrasia acts as an immediate buff to the Vampire and is determined by the storyteller to serve specific needs (I’m simplifying a lot here, if you’d like more information, check out p.227 in the V5 corebook). There is a lot of flexibility and on-the-fly numbers rolling for the tabletop version, which works well for that format, but can be cumbersome when applied to a video game.

In Bloodlines 2, our Resonance system is expanded to 5 types and several different levels of strength. Delirium, Desire, Fear, Pain, and Rage are all emotions that can be discovered and devoured in the game and act as a secondary XP to unlock and activate Resonance-specific buffs, or Merits. The Resonance and Merits in Bloodlines 2 are more rigid in their implementation, but they allow players to quickly hunt for and manage the resource throughout the game.

Another example of applying tabletop systems in a video game world are the Thinblood disciplines developed for Bloodlines 2. We chose the playable Clans in the game because they most closely resembled typical player archetypes – Brujah = Fighter, Tremere = Warlock, Malkavian = Paladin (just kidding, Bard) - they are familiar enough that most players will immediately identify with one Clan based on their playstyle even if they are not familiar with Vampire: The Masquerade. Thinbloods were something of a challenge because at the beginning of the game players don’t choose to become a Thinblood, it is foisted upon them and discovering why is the crux of the story. We had to somehow give players some say in their situation in the form of Thinblood Disciplines.

The three Thinblood Disciplines – Chiropteran (Affinity to Bats), Nebulation (Mist Form), and Mentalism (Telekinesis) have mostly traversal and defensive applications. Thinblood Alchemy in V5 is much the same way – Thinbloods are at the very very bottom of the food chain, so survival is the number one priority. We maintain the core feeling of what it means to be a Thinblood and use those powers but make it more video game friendly by expressing it in familiar ways. Who doesn’t want to glide across the Seattle skyline, travel as mist with the wind, and move objects without touching them?
​

Titan Outpost, our first RPG, is now available. Curious? Stick around.

What is Titan Outpost?

It is an RPG with survival, base building and adventure elements set on Titan, the 6th moon of Saturn. It is traditional, true to PnP roots and old-school in some ways, and innovative in others.

How does it work?

The dialogue and negotiation systems, the temperature-based survival aspects, the base construction and the world map all feature gameplay that is either completely unique or a combination of tried-and-true things that have never been tied together before in this way.

At the core is the game’s character system. Most RPGs focus on combat and combat related skills, but Titan Outpost is different. Your character sheet contains ‘science’, ‘construction’, ‘negotiation’, ‘exploration’ and ‘hacking’ skills, for example. You can gain experience points, level up and increase these skills like in any other RPG, but the way they affect what is happening in the game world is different.

You know how, when you talk to people in an RPG, it is always the same tree-based conversation? You ask a question, and the NPC gives you an answer. In Titan Outpost, you’ll feel right at home if you like this sort of thing, but whenever you start negotiating, it becomes more involved. You can interject with leverage, you can change the goal of your conversation, you can select pushy responses or backpedal and you can influence the dialogue in other ways. You can finally cover the flanks in a battle of words instead of always taking it head on with a couple of options.

Getting around on Titan is difficult. The average surface temperature is −179 °C (−290 °F), so you drive around in a heavily isolated and heated rover, and when you absolutely have to traverse anywhere on foot, you do so in a specialized suit. Time is the currency here: Every minute spent outside drains your suit's charge. Limited nutrition, your oxygen supply and other elements combine to provide a tense survival atmosphere.

You can expand the Outpost as you would in a base builder game, with resource management and a top-down interface. Your character skills partly determine how you can go about this. You can be a curious scientist, a savvy entrepreneur, a ruthless ecowarrior, a smooth-talking diplomat, a stoic engineer, an intrepid explorer or anything in between.
​

Dark Envoy is a non-linear RPG inspired by the likes of the Divinity series, XCOM, FTL, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age to offer free world exploration with an emphasis on tactical combat layered with lore and strategy. A continuation of Event Horizon’s attempt, which began with the studio’s debut title Tower of Time, to shatter long-standing RPG tropes and to create something unique in the process.

Explore the world using your Skyship, it is your base of operations after all. Hunt for mythical locations, and procedurally generated dungeons with optional tactical objectives. Choose wisely where to travel however, as the world map adjusts with the passing of in-game time. Locations will randomly respawn, becoming progressively more challenging to travel for you and your party.

Features

• Non-linear RPG with turn-based combat accompanied by a real time pre-combat phase where tactics and party power are equally important.
  
• Player choices impact the world: it can be destroyed or saved, and the stories that unfold will lead to multiple endings reflecting the characters’ personalities and decisions.
  
• Co-written by Michael Chatfield, an Amazon Top 100 Science Fiction / Fantasy writer (specializing in litRPG genre).
  
• 15 unique character classes to discover - with the ability to mix skill trees - including some rare classes which can only be found in remote locations or through chained quests.
  
• New RPG system, promoting experimentation and requiring frequent adaptation to the new challenges.
  
• Can be played solo, two player co-op, as well as a unique mode called Player vs World where Player 2 acts as the final boss seeking to destroy Player 1 before he/she becomes too powerful.
  
• High-replayability factor due to large pool of quests, local, and world events. One cannot uncover all of the content in a single playthrough.

​

For Alpha Eyes Only
The Wasteland 3 Alpha is closer than ever, and those of you who have pledged at the First Access ($75) or higher tier (or added the Alpha as an add-on) will soon be getting hands-on with the game. Come August 21 you’ll be setting foot in the frozen post-apocalyptic Colorado for the first time.

This is an early preview, so we want to get in a few disclaimers. This demo is firmly an Alpha, so every single piece of the game you’ll see and play will very much be a work in progress. While we’re going to do our best to provide a stable build, you should expect some amount of crashes, performance drops, compatibility issues, etc. to be possible. That’s part of what we’re testing and getting your feedback on. Speaking of which, stay tuned for official feedback and reporting methods.

The Alpha is combat-focused, and revolves around the last leg of your journey to deal with one of the Patriarch’s children, lovingly known as the Psychopath. At this point in the game you’re higher level, and are taking the last few steps to deal with him in the mountain town of Aspen—however you choose to do that. You’ll get to experience most of the systems related to combat, including the player vehicle. We will have some things purposely blocked off, like the Perk and Skill menus, and multiplayer, which aren’t quite ready to see just yet.

While the full game will include the deep narrative choices, colorful characters, and all of the broad RPG systems and experiences you know and love in Wasteland, our goal with the Alpha is to get early testing and feedback on combat basics and a sense of how players are tackling the game in terms of its level designs and available systems, and we’re hoping you put it through its paces.

And Everyone Else
For many of you who didn’t back at the Alpha tiers, you’ll be looking forward to Early Access, which is the second demo we’ll have before launch. Alpha and Early Access will both use the same Steam entry (the Alpha will be replaced with the Early Access demo), so Alpha users you’ll only need to redeem one key to play both, and Early Access players you’ll get your keys later on when we get closer to that point. If you’re looking to get the full game on GOG, no worries, while the Alpha and Early Access will be run on Steam, your final product choice won’t be impacted.

Of course, Alpha players can take screenshots, videos, livestream, etc. and everyone can enjoy. Player’s choice, but based on past experience, you’ll probably want to keep an eye on Twitch and Youtube. Our fans have traditionally enjoyed sharing their experiences and impressions.
​

​

​

Daily Star
DualShockers
Eurogamer
Game Informer
GameCrate
Gamereactor
GameRevolution (Interview)
GameSpot
GamesRadar
IGN
Kotaku
LADbible
Metro
MMORPG
MonsterVine
Newsweek
Noisy Pixel
PC Gamer (Part 2)
PCGamesN (Part 2, Part 3)
PlayStation Blog
Polygon
Press Start (Part 2, Interview)
Rock Paper Shotgun
RPG Site (Interview)
Screen Rant
Shacknews
Stevivor
The Telegraph
The Verge
Twinfinite (Part 2, Interview)
USgamer (Interview)
VG247
VICE
VideoGamer
WhatCulture
Windows Central
Xbox Wire
Xbox Achievements​

Inspiration:
The game is a classic western RPG inspired by the games from the 90s. Basically, it’s the kind of game I personally find missing nowadays. Light, fairy tale, epic, heroic and slightly humorous. One that does not take tons of hours to complete or require endless grind to progress. Something that caters to players like me who don’t have tons of hours to beat one game but still like to play and have a sort of nostalgia for the way games were made in the old days.

It was inspired by Dungeon Master, Eye of The Beholder 2, Might & Magic 3-5, Crystals of Arborea (a not so well known prequel to Ishar series), GoldBox series (Champions of Krynn, Dark Queen of Krynn, etc).

Core Design Choices:
1) Classic, 90 degree rotation, FPP, turn-based, tile movement RPG.
2) Party-based (7 heroes, either predefined or manually assembled upon new game).
3) Open world with a big overworld to explore.
4) Fast paced combat. Quick travel. Easy inventory management. No grind.
5) Light, fairy tale like fantasy, epic story about heroes on a noble quest.

Mechanics:
Mechanically it’s 100% turn based (so you can go and make tea in the middle of a fight) with grid movement and 90 degree rotation. All this is very fast paced, both combat and travel is really fast. The goal was to cut down the boring parts and flesh out the fun parts.
Overall, the mechanics are pretty traditional and straightforward with modern additions like weightless bag combined with equipment encumbrance system.

World and Storyline:
Storyline is a fairy tale, mythical heroic fantasy. You are the good guys on a quest to fight the forces of evil. The world is non linear, with very few locked areas. You basically can go anywhere and do things in different order. In addition you can choose a different set of quests to finish the game (but those are not mutually exclusive, so you can finish all quests if you like). It’s more world driven than story driven. The priority was to make the world feel alive and let you explore it as you wish than follow a linear list of quests.

The game starts when the royal wizard finds out about an old crown that belonged to the royal family for generations. Yet, strangely no one ever heard about the crown and there was just a single mention of it in the royal annals. Upon further study he discovered that there has been cast a powerful spell of forgetfulness of unknown origin which caused everyone in the whole land to forget the crown ever existed. Without knowing who or why someone went to such trouble to conceal the existence of the crown he decided to investigate it. He summoned a party of noble heroes and tasked them with finding whereabouts of the mysterious crown and the origin of the spell.

FAQ:
Q: How long it takes to beat the game?
A: According to Early Access players it can take between 20 and 50 hours to finish the game (I estimate a typical playthrough would be 25-40 hours for most players).

Q: Can I create party members or are they predefined?
A: Yes, you can create all party members upon start if you wish (there is also a quick start option).​

We are so pleased to welcome you to the world of Attiras. A world, Forged of Blood, is now yours for the taking.

As you take on the role of Prince Tavias Caenican, you will be presented with a world of grey moral choices and difficult decisions in the war ahead. The forty-two regions of Attiras are yours to claim in conquest, and the three varied faction arcs will place the fate of this world in your hands.

Forged of Blood is a complex and expansive game. As you recruit and build characters in your retinues, you will have at your disposal an array of 10 Weapon Categories and 6 General Ability trees. Each weapon has a place on the battlefield, and various synergies with the General Ability trees are available for you to discover as you explore and experiment our character systems.

Beyond the confines of the medieval armory are the unending mysteries of magurite - our vast system of magical energies. Here, we put at your fingertips one of the largest spellcrafting systems ever made in a video game and empower you with freedom to experiment and explore to your heart’s content. In Forged of Blood, players will wield 3 “types” of energies, and 2 energy “states” for each that add up to 6 unique “primordials.” Each of these 6 “primordials” will have 8 unique effects, with each spell able to contain 5 effects at any single time. Each of these effects can then be modified through the use of the 12 “effect modifiers” before the entirety of the spell can be shaped through the 12 “global modifiers.” All this is to say that there will literally be an almost incalculable amount of spell combinations for you to play with.

Finally, in keeping with our general theme of choices and consequences, we come to the philosophies that will drive the narrative and endgame mechanics of our game. Gone are the binary good and evil tropes of old, and in its stead we present the Tri-axis Philosophical Index. Choices throughout the game will move you along three axes that follow the world’s philosophies of Altruism, Hedonism, and Rationalism. Your movement and placement in this index will have narrative, gameplay, and endgame consequences as you conduct your war in Attiras, and the outcomes of your campaign are myriad.

As gamers and game makers, we lean into the complexities we’ve built in Forged of Blood. Through the complex depth of our mechanics we’ve found freedom in gameplay, and we are extremely proud of that. However, we do know that it is not for everyone, and we have gone to great lengths to make sure that everyone can play and enjoy our game. For our weapons, we have provided two archetypes that will auto-level your characters as they gain ability points. With our spellcrafting we provide a selection of pre-set spells that will scale in power as your character grows more powerful. And finally, we provide gameplay sliders that will give players the freedom to play our game the way they want to.

It had taken us three years, five months, and seventeen days to get here, but the studio and I are by no means “done with this game. In the coming weeks and months we will continue to refine and tune the game. In the immediate days that will follow our launch, we will be watching, listening and reacting to your feedback and we hope to smooth any rough edges as we go. Internally, we have our own back-log of refinements that we will be taking on and we will share these updates with you as we go.

From all of us here at Critical Forge, I welcome you to Attiras and hope that you will enjoy our game.
​

​