Interview The Tangut Prophecy Interview at FODev

Tags: The Tangut Prophecy

If you've been browsing the RPG Codex forums, you may have come across a thread dedicated to The Tangut Prophecy, a FOnline engine-based RPG set in the 12th century China. The man behind the game, CrazyLoon, who is also a Codex member, has been interviewed by FODev.net; here's a snippet from the interview along with some images (click them for higher resolution):

What can you tell us about The Tangut Prophecy? How many people are working on the game and what's the current status?

The Tangut Prophecy is the game that I've been working on for the past almost 3 years. It is a FOnline based, historical fiction singleplayer RPG set in XII Century China. The game covers the small evenlope of peace time, about 40 years long, starting in 1167, between 3 historical Chinese nations: the Western Xia of the Tanguts, the Jin of the Jurchens, and the Song of the Hans. We seek to bring the harsh reality of medieval China, along with a focus on player choices and story telling, to the singleplayer experience. The game will be available for download, free of charge, when finished.

I'm the only official, committed member as of today. It pretty much has been this way ever since the inception of the game. It's almost like a full time job for me. I work on everything: Writing, scripting, graphics, mechanics, you name it. So if you see something crappy, feel free to blame it all on me. I do receive help from other people occasionally. A friend of mine for example, who is a professional working in a major Taiwanese company, lends a hand on the graphics from time to time. I also received some help on animating the horses and other animals in the game. Just things like that in general.

As for the game's current development status, it is going okay. There is still a lot to do. I don't want to put a timer on myself; I have seen enough games being ruined by inadequate development time. Who knows what we would've gotten had Troika spent 6 more months on Arcanum before it was released. Anyway, I'm looking at 2014/2015, not promising anything. Speaking of which, I'm also looking to recruit 10-15 beta testers once the game is ready to enter the testing phase. More details on that coming soon.

Will the game use a stats and skill system similar to Fallout 1/2 or are you going to change it from the bottom up?

It uses same system. The only change is that some attributes govern different aspects of your character than the original Fallouts. The attributes will weigh a lot more evenly in terms of importance.

Do we get only one character to control or is it going to be possible to traverse 12th century China in a group too? If so, what's the group size limit?

You can get up to 5 companions.​

The interview also contains a detailed description of an in-game C&C-heavy quest, so be sure to read it in full.

 

Finally a proper introduction to this project on the main site. Would like some writing sample and not only graphics, though.

 

The graphics look great.

 

Wow I will be keeping my eye on this one.

 

Nice, another thing to look forward to. Just hoping it won't turn to vaporware.

 

Been following this on the workshop thread. My initial reaction was as follows.

Single player RPG

Oh goodie, another one xD.

with a top down view

Thankfully, another one in a new line of gems indeed.

with heavy C&C

Great!

.... set in XII century China

HOLY MOTHER OF-

No, scratch that. My excitement couldn't be described in words, or even gifs. But this... this comes close

....

Made me cry, man.

 

Great stuff. I especially liked the example of C&C in the interview.

Screen shots look great. Best of luck to Crazy Loon in finishing the game...

 

Looks really good, can't wait to see more.

 

Beautiful graphics, original historical setting, C&C, horses, TB combat...not much more one can ask.

 

Looks great, sounds great, the setting is to die for.

Good luck!

 

Dammit stop commenting and finish your game.
Thursday is nigh!!

 

What a promising game, graphics are just flawless. I'd love to see some writing and dialogue too.

edit: The quest sample in the full interview brought tears to my eyes. So fucking tasteful.

 

IIRC Free. That's passion right there.

 

Well. Textures look a bit too much like something from a sample pack and could have used a little less repetitive patterns. But other than that, yeah looks great. And setting sounds interesting too.

 

Indeed this looks fantastic and shall very much remain something I look forward to when all is hopefully situated.

 

The biggest indie thing I'm looking forward to after AOD. It's a long way away but good to see some stuff!

 

Props to this talented individual. I hope he succeeds. I would say this is a good kickstarter project at some point. However, if he wants to give it away for free, so be it. ;P

 

We can has bi-lingual Chinese-English script?

 

Also, primitive guns and grenades?

 

It looks amazing.

 

"I have seen enough games being ruined by inadequate development time. Who knows what we would've gotten had Troika spent 6 more months on Arcanum before it was released"

 

Wow. I never knew this existed, I so hope it gets released eventually.

And that the writing is good.