Archmage Rises is a slick-looking and unique RPG by Thomas Henshell of Defiance Game Studio that has been quietly in development since early 2014, but which only came to our full attention yesterday. Taking influence from titles such as Dwarf Fortress, Sid Meier's Pirates! and FTL, as well as the various editions of Dungeons & Dragons, the game takes place in an exhaustively detailed sandbox fantasy world in which you take the role of a renegade mage who must seek his fortune. In order to achieve that Dwarf Fortress level of complexity, Archmage Rising's gameplay is primarily menu-based, with 2D artwork and a blobber-like turn-based combat system. The official website promises an experience akin to being "Rastlin, Pug, Merlin, or Gandalf", but after watching the game's Steam Greenlight trailer, the first thing that came to my mind was "Rance". See for yourself:


Yes, yes, I think the Codex might end up enjoying this game. The website has lots of details about it, and if you'd like to see more, there are a whole bunch of gameplay videos on its YouTube channel. Archmage Rises will be available for preorder starting from August 4th, and is scheduled for release in Q1 2017. If you're interested, be sure to vote for it on Steam Greenlight.