Indie AKARUUK - old-school turn-based RPG in early development

[CryptRat]

Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873716254

http://happyponyland.net/akaruuk/



I guess it's legit to try and reach Steam via Greenlight as long as it still exists, so here is a game which doesn't have that much chance to ever be completed, but could be fun and is currently on Greenlight :

AKARUUK is an old-school CRPG currently in development.

AKARUUK offers a massive, open world with non-linear gameplay.

- Three separate story arcs with numerous side-quests.
- Follow clues to unravel the evil threatening the world, or explore freely at your leisure.
- Turn-based combat with tactical challenges. Use magic, stealth or brute strength to overcome your foes.
- Delve into treacherous dungeons and murky caves. Infiltrate strongholds to confront adversaries. Avoid traps, pick locks and escape with the treasure.
- Visit towns to trade and gossip. Make a career as a bard by performing in taverns, or as a thief by breaking into houses.
- Recruit allies. You may only have four in your party, so choose wisely who to bring along.
- Improve your characters. Allocate experience to attributes and skills. Learn new abilities and spells.
- Live off the land. Camp in the wild, collect reagents for spells, hunt, fish and forage for food.

Are you still not convinced this is the greatest game ever? How about these additional features:

- 560x320 resolution which scales cleanly to modern 16:9 monitors in windowed or fullscreen mode.
- Runs on Linux and Windows.
- No in-game "journal" or quest log. Rediscover the satisfaction of taking notes!
- In-game signs use a runic script.

Turn-based combat with action points and free skill advancement, enough to make me intrigued at least.

 

[Aenra]

CryptRat thanks for both this and Lurking. You're like an anti-Roqua YES!

edit: even the joke sounds like an insult, doesn't it.. no offense friend, no offense.

 

[luj1]

I'd tap that.

Despite the Precambrian graphics (which I'm highly resistant to) I think it has great core gameplay, combat design in particular is quite modern.

 

[Excidium II]

I like the minimalistic grafics but the systems look like trite shit.

 

[luj1]

Looks quite similar to Unknown Realm, to the point where I thought 'twas the same game.

 

[Morkar Left]

Looks oldschool with oldschool design without falling into the fallacy of just copying an old game. It looks like they try to improve oldschool gamedesign. Highly appreciated and I hope it will come out!

 

[Dorateen]

I strongly approve many of the listed design features. The first four items, which include side questing around story arcs and non-linear exploration, share the same influences from computer role-playing games I enjoy most. I love how the developer boasts about the lack of a journal and encourages note taking. I'd wager that the size of the game world might warrant some kind of player drawn map for self-reference.

I do wish a game like this had full party creation. Yes, you can recruit up to three pre-made characters. However I believe allowing the player the freedom to customize their team brings an additional level of complexity to the table.

I like how he does the follower tagging along the player's icon on the map. Although for this kind of top down tile-based movement, I have come to determine the best approach is a single character represented on screen, and the ability for the player to swap between party members, like Dark Sun or the Storm of Zehir overland map.

 

[Excidium II]

I like how he does the follower tagging along the player's icon on the map. Although for this kind of top down tile-based movement, I have come to determine the best approach is a single character represented on screen, and the ability for the player to swap between party members, like Dark Sun or the Storm of Zehir overland map.

It's just for the city screen from the vid.

 

[Dorateen]

I like how he does the follower tagging along the player's icon on the map. Although for this kind of top down tile-based movement, I have come to determine the best approach is a single character represented on screen, and the ability for the player to swap between party members, like Dark Sun or the Storm of Zehir overland map.

It's just for the city screen from the vid.

At 1:41 I see two character icons approaching an encounter. Maybe this display is reserved for only certain areas. I was giving the developer the benefit of the doubt that it might be a toggle to show the full party or just one character. But the main thing I am interested is allowing the player to select any of the four party member slots to be represented on the screen.

 

[Excidium II]

I like how he does the follower tagging along the player's icon on the map. Although for this kind of top down tile-based movement, I have come to determine the best approach is a single character represented on screen, and the ability for the player to swap between party members, like Dark Sun or the Storm of Zehir overland map.

It's just for the city screen from the vid.

At 1:41 I see two character icons approaching an encounter. Maybe this display is reserved for only certain areas. I was giving the developer the benefit of the doubt that it might be a toggle to show the full party or just one character. But the main thing I am interested is allowing the player to select any of the four party member slots to be represented on the screen.

That's the entrance of a settlement...1:38 he enters it from world map

 

[YES!]

I strongly approve many of the listed design features. The first four items, which include side questing around story arcs and non-linear exploration, share the same influences from computer role-playing games I enjoy most. I love how the developer boasts about the lack of a journal and encourages note taking. I'd wager that the size of the game world might warrant some kind of player drawn map for self-reference.

I do wish a game like this had full party creation. Yes, you can recruit up to three pre-made characters. However I believe allowing the player the freedom to customize their team brings an additional level of complexity to the table.

I like how he does the follower tagging along the player's icon on the map. Although for this kind of top down tile-based movement, I have come to determine the best approach is a single character represented on screen, and the ability for the player to swap between party members, like Dark Sun or the Storm of Zehir overland map.

I fully agree to full party creation. Games without it and a party almost always have shitty combat. I disagree with the taking my own notes. I'd much rather the game handle the shit most people don't find fun and is proven by the low pay of the work. The people taking minutes at a meeting are usually hourly wage workers. Let us pretend my character wrote the notes and put them in his or her journal. I also prefer cartography to be a skill that can be improved like in Wiz7 and Eschalon series. That is the best of both worlds. Hell, tie the journal to intelligence and cartography for better/more informative notes and quest markers. That's the rpg way. Me as a paying customer taking my own notes and making my own map is like survival games with no content. They do it because they can get away with it, not because people like taking notes or playing games without content.

 

[YES!]

CryptRat thanks for both this and Lurking. You're like an anti-Roqua YES!

edit: even the joke sounds like an insult, doesn't it.. no offense friend, no offense.

I don't understand what you are saying.

 

[Severian Silk]

Looks way better than Grimoire. Voted yes!

 

[Lord Rocket]

re: notes, here is a great idea that any fucking simpleton could have thought of (as proven definitively by the fact that I thought of it): let players copy dialogue text to an in-game journal themselves, using, say, a right-click menu. That way you get the convenience of an in-game journal but you still have to pay attention to what you're reading, AND you'd eliminate transcription errors and incomprehensible handwriting!

Anyway, this looks OK I guess. The combat seemed pretty simplistic and the runes are fucking stupid - all the inconvenience of 1983-style copy protection in the age of, not just photocopiers, but 2 second PDF downloads. Oh and the guy's website doesn't really inspire much confidence (yeah, alright, he did that as a teenager. Personally I don't think people change all that much though, more of a difference in degree rather than kind. For example, when I was a teenager I was a tubby little loser with no mates, and now I'm a bigger tubby loser with maybe as many as two friends. And I have a beard), and I'm not sure about those rectangular tiles, although the art is nice and clear at least. Actually on second thoughts this will probably suck. I voted yes anyway.

 

[coldcrow]

Spiderweb games (Avernum et al.) let you do that.

 

[Scroo]

Looks pretty cool I hope it'll make it on greenlight. And gets finished

 

[Aenra]

I don't understand what you are saying

That's because you're a nigger. No one can help with that.

 

[Lord Rocket]

Spiderweb games (Avernum et al.) let you do that.

beaten to the punch yet again

In my defense the last time I played a Spiderweb game was that one where you were supposed to be a bad arse enforcer from some powerful castle which everyone is supposed to be scared of (I'll remember the name of it sometime tomorrow), but every cunt just ignored you whenever you told them to do something, thus completely undermining the whole concept. It sucked.

 

[Abu Antar]

Hello,

Thanks for the interest. Yes, it is still under development but
progress has been very slow lately. I've developed something of a
writers block and also had to prioritize other things in life. I hope
I can make more time to work on it next year.

/Ulf

I'm not too optimistic, but I had to ask.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Shame. But thanks for the update.

 

[luj1]

Wondered what happened to it.