About my next game (preliminary info!)
As you'll probably know, development of Exiled Kingdoms is
officially complete with version 1.2 and even if it's possible I release more content in the years to come, right now my focus is on my next game.
This is just a preliminary announcement, as development is in a very early stage after only 6 weeks of work. I am aiming at at least 12-15 months of development before having a demo and maybe an Early Access release, followed by another 1-2 years to complete the game, so you can imagine what a
very early stage we're in at this point.
A saner company or developer would probably wait a few months before giving out any details. But the community gathered here is pretty much like a family, so I'd love to share a few things about
Project Geryon (which is not the real name of the game, just the "internal" codename). Some I've already mentioned elsewhere, other might be new. Feel free to ask questions as this is an open thread, although at this point there's not much I can share.
About the game
First of all, Geryon is
not a sequel to Exiled Kingdoms, but a completely standalone game set in the EK world. It's a far bigger, more complex and ambitious game. I won't be holding anything back here, since the success of Exiled Kingdoms gives me the freedom to develop this game without making any compromises. Or that's the plan, at least
Geryon will be a game mostly
targeted at the PC platform, which will try to bring back the old flavor of the Golden Era of RPGs, pretty much like I tried to do with EK on mobile. I also plan a mobile release afterwards, just the opposite way I did with Exiled Kingdoms. I might also release on some popular consoles. At this point the only thing I can confirm 100% is the PC release, although I am aware of the EK mobile fanbase and will do all I can to have a proper mobile release as well.
You'll control a
full party of adventurers, and explore the broken lands of the vast continent of Andoria, home of the fallen Empire. The Exiled Kingdoms are claiming the shores of their mythical Homeland, but they'll find the region is not as deserted as they expected... prepare yourself to be inmersed in dozens of small plots and quests over a large world map once again, and to face a main plot of epic proportions (no, really!).
The game will feature a very unique combination of real-time exploration and careful turn-based strategy during encounters; you'll
explore the world in first-person perspective in a 3D world, much like in the Elder Scrolls games or in the classic Wizardry or Might&Magic games. But
battles will happen in isometric perspective! When combat begins the camera floats up to offer a top-down view of the scene, so you can individually move your party members. The idea is to have the best of both worlds: an immersive exploration and tactical combat at the same time, allowing huge epic battles. As far as I know, no modern RPG has done this before; classical games like Pool of Radiance or Betrayal at Krondor did, but in a very limited way and using much simpler graphics.
I'm developing a
full-fledged rule system for this game, with dozens of classes, skills and a huge list of spells and abilities. Still I'm carefully designing the preogression to make it intuitive and quick to understand. The combinations of races, classes and builds will be immense, so it's impossible to have everything on your party in a single playthrough.
Content will be, as you probably imagine, an important part of the game. Expect the same
open-world design, and the same weird combination of seriousness and silly humor and themes you "enjoyed" in EK; yeah, I am afraid the terrible jokes stay, and might get even worse. I already have a large list of ideas for side-quests, and a very interesting plot in mind for the main quest as well; when all is said and done I'll try to have a game that spans over 100h for the "completionist" player.
Development Progress
After just a few weeks of development I'm very happy with the progress. The current build already allows the party to move around, shows a basic UI, transitions from one area to the next, and deals with the aforementioned "perspective change" when combat begins. It was for me very important to make sure the perspective-change was technically doable and didn't look confusing to the player, and after testing it I can say it works fine, I love it. I'd show a video, but I'm just using "placeholder" graphics and UI, so unfortunately you'll have to wait to see it working. It's unlikely that there's any screenshots or video in the next 5-6 months, because I'll be focusing on development first.
That's all for now, thanks for hanging out there and I hope you enjoyed the read!
Edit: slightly redacted for clarity.
