Game News Avencast acquires a publisher

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Avencast

<a href=http://www.avencast.com/>Avencast</a>, an indie action RPG, was picked by <a href=http://pc.gamezone.com/news/03_22_07_09_34AM.htm>Lighthouse Interactive</a>:
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<blockquote>Lighthouse Announces AVENCAST: Rise of the Mage - A Unique Action RPG
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Haarlem, The Netherlands – Lighthouse Interactive today announced it has acquired the worldwide publishing rights to Austrian based developer ClockStone Software’s action RPG, “AVENCAST: Rise of the Mage”. Scheduled to release in Q3 2007 on the PC, this new RPG successfully marries the dynamics of an action game with strong adventure elements creating an enthralling and unique gaming experience.
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What’s unique about AVENCAST? “It effectively balances both combat and non-combat interactions for a perfect combination of both brains and brawn,” says Erik Schreuder, CEO of Lighthouse Interactive. “By drawing from player-skilled action games like shooters and beat-em-ups, and combining those elements with the game mechanics of an RPG, AVENCAST offers players the excitement of crafting a powerful character, but also requires them to bring their own skills to unleash their hero’s potential.”
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Michael Schiestl, CEO of ClockStone Software promises: “AVENCAST will finally bring some fresh air into the present action RPG genre with a combat system that favors skillful gameplay over dull mouse clicking.”
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AVENCAST is not only about combat. There are strong adventure elements involving numerous perilous quests, scouring vast environments for powerful items, solving riddles, and engaging with various NPC’s to advance the compelling story.
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GAME SUMMARY:
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The player begins their journey as an adept attending the renowned magic academy – AVENCAST – a place of learning in a world of wizardry, wonder and untold mystery.
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As an apprentice, the player is expected to complete a number of diverse quests to hone their skills in potions, spell casting, weaponry, and melee combat. As the story unravels, your character’s purpose becomes clear –things at the academy are not as they appear and when Avencast is descended upon by demonic hordes the very survival of his world is at stake. Armed with over 60 different combat moves and spells, and over one hundred different equipment items plus variations, the player must fight various nightmarish creatures and transcend dimensions into the past. The intriguing plot thickens revealing treachery, deceit, the tragic destiny of a forgotten people, and an astonishing truth that will forever change the battle scarred Wizard.
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AVENCAST: Rise of the Mage is a game accessible to both novice RPG players while still challenging core RPG and Action fans with a great variety of skills and strategies. To find out more and to keep up with the latest news visit www.lighthouse-interacive.com or www.avencast.com.
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FEATURES:
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• Many hours of exciting gameplay set in diverse worlds
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• Over 30 Fantasy Based Monsters with Advanced A.I.– Each with their own combat strategies, attacks, and defensive moves, their reactions are dependant upon the player’s behavior, attack strategy, and even health
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• Strong Player Personification – In third person view, the character’s appearance changes as they acquire new equipment, armor, and weapons
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• State-of-the-art 3D Engine not only allows for a fluid combat system but also generates special lighting and shadowing effects for a fully engaging experience. Players are immersed into ominous settings like dark dungeons with looming pillars and large corridors; creatures are more imposing with their highly detailed silhouettes
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• Learn Special Moves from Different Skill Trees – Blood Magic (elementally charged blows with varying speeds, ranges, and damage properties) and Soul Magic (covers all kinds of ranged magic spells allowing better area control) – both allow players to summon reinforcements during combat
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• An RPG by mechanics, but also a game that can be enjoyed by a broad range of players – RPG, Action, and Adventure</blockquote>Every time someone aims at a broad range of players - like adventure games players, LARP players, tennis players, etc. the results are usually disappointing.
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[Drakron]

Also is done by the dutch ... it cannot possible be good.

 

[kingcomrade]

Strong Player Personification

:S

 

[Section8]

I can't say it appeals as an RPG, but at least somebody has grasped the concept that an action RPG should be enjoyable as an action game, instead of being something where you steer a character around collecting phat loot and higher character stats. Diablo clones are for fucking passengers.

 

[The_Pope]

Player skill based action RPG sounds cool. Normally they have the visceral thrills of spreadsheet management combined with the intellectual depth of serious sam, and I think having character skill without character has something to do with it.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

If it is based on player's physical skills then it is no CRPG, even no Action CRPG.

It's crap like DARK MESSIAH, or LEGENDS.

It is even more crappy than SILVER, TES, GOTHIC, UU ...

Why do those projects get publishers?

 

[The_Pope]

Because most people care more about enjoying themselves than the sanctity of an acronym?

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Because most people care more about enjoying themselves than the sanctity of an acronym?

You can't be f*cking serious. These are Action games - so they should market those as action games.

And: I never enjoyed any game labeled as a CRPG that featured physical player skills mostly. And I don't even know anyone who does (and I know a whole lotta people).

 

[Dementia Praecox]

You can't be f*cking serious.

You know cursing is allowed on The Codex, right?

 

[The_Pope]

You can't be f*cking serious. These are Action games - so they should market those as action games.

And: I never enjoyed any game labeled as a CRPG that featured physical player skills mostly. And I don't even know anyone who does (and I know a whole lotta people).

I quite enjoyed the Gothic series and Deus Ex, and I doubt I'm the only one. Games like Sacred, Progress Quest, Titan Quest, Silverfall and Diablo, on the other hand, bore the hell out of me.

 

[The Rambling Sage]

I quite enjoyed the Gothic series and Deus Ex, and I doubt I'm the only one. Games like Sacred, Progress Quest, Titan Quest, Silverfall and Diablo, on the other hand, bore the hell out of me.

This can be seen as heresy aroung here, but i am with you on this one. I am of the P&P tradition that sees challenges as being for the player, not for the character: The character's skills and stats are just a way to obtain more clues/options. One of the reasons the group i played and narrated with was against almost any kind of combat was that it required almost no player skills other than choosing where to move, what to attack, and how to attack it. We used to say that if you knew not enought biochemistry as to roleplay a biochemist, you could either go and study at least the basics or choose to play another kind of character. Not for nothing is the mind-set needed Roleplaying usually compared with the mind-set needed for theater, but then that group was even more elitist about their roleplaying than most people around here is about their CRPGs.

From where i am standing, if you are going to have puzzles that solve themselves if you have enought INT and are impossible to solve if you have not enought, do not put any puzzle. If you are going to have stealth where you just click "stealth" and try not to step in a lamp, then do not put any stealth. And if you are going to have a combat system where you just choose a weapon, an attack, and a target, then do not put any combat.

For an example, the Thief games were the essence of what should playing a thief be like - Now tie all this gameplay into an elegant character (stats, blah blah) system, relate this system to dialogues offering tens of different options, consequences to different approachs to thievery, branching paths, mutually exclusive choices, et cetera and you have the Thief class nailed. Repeat with all other "classes" and you have my dream RPG come to be, and then suffer me asking for more complexity, ad nauseam.

But then most around here will say i am a false roleplayer, an heretic, or both.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

bla

I don't have a problem with games which need physical skills. I played them.

But I am coming from a strong p&p background. Roleplaying a character always meant to stay within the boundaries of the stats. You could develop the stats over time to reflect the development of your character, but it is an interdependent relation.

BUT games that are based on player's physical skills are only CRPGs like LARPing is playing a p&p. It is remotly similar but definitly different at its core.

So: pysical skill determine the success of your action = no CRPG

BTW: You are a false roleplayer, an heretic, or probably both.

 

[The Rambling Sage]

I don't have a problem with games which need physical skills. I played them.

But I am coming from a strong p&p background. Roleplaying a character always meant to stay within the boundaries of the stats. You could develop the stats over time to reflect the development of your character, but it is an interdependent relation.

BUT games that are based on player's physical skills are only CRPGs like LARPing is playing a p&p. It is remotly similar but definitly different at its core.

So: pysical skill determine the success of your action = no CRPG

BTW: You are a false roleplayer, an heretic, or probably both.

Actually, physical skills are no different from mental or social skills but in that they are impossible to roleplay in a P&P situation, "LARPing" included. Also, i do not see what is so "physical" about, for an example, the gameplay of a Thief game. The timing? The hearing? Pressing two keys at the same time? Now tie that gameplay, used before as an example, to a stat-based RPG system. What is so Un-RPGish about it?

And roleplaying "physical" skills is not related to LARPing in any way or shape, just as needing some player imput when aiming in the original Deus Ex does not mean that you are a good shooter in real life.

A P&P example of what i am saying:

The party enters a complex of several rooms. One archway, out of twenty, has a trap on it. Obviously, the complex is shaped in such way they must pass through it, after passing almost every other archway in it. When they first enter the complex, the GM asks for a single spot traps check, without explaining for what it is, nor that it is "spot traps." That check, made upon entering the complex, is for that last archway. Every single archway is described in the same, monotonous way. IF the player that passed the spot traps check investigates the last archway, identical to all others before in a superficial way, he discovers some extra details based on that check. Now, not every single thing in that trap is the trap, and actually only one of every five things is the true trap: The rest activate it if messed with. There is no check about how he disarms it: Just the character's tools and gizmos, and the player's smarts.

Now, how would that be Un-RPGish? Or any different to manually correct your aim when shooting in a FP.RPG? You are roleplaying a thief with a high spot-traps ranking, so you better go and check every single thing before steping on it, passing beneath it, opening it, or taking it, or just looking at it. And then rely on your smarts and the tools you adquired before to face that challenge. No "passive checks" to see if you detected the trap, no "disarm traps" checks to see if you managed to deactivate it. Just the check to see how much you actually see if you, by chance, look in that small, dark, at first sight uninteresting place. Your options depend on your sheet, but the success you reach through them depend on your skill as a player.

Oh, yeah, that would make disarming a trap a MINIGAME, though a very complex one! And we all know those are inherently Un-RPGish, because it seems most so-called "roleplayers" like to feel like a master thief/warrior/wizard/diplomat/whatever without any kind of effort/input by the player...

That is the kind of "roleplayer" i dislike. You want to play a diplomat? Then raise your charisma, presence, and talking skills, and then have fifty new dialogue options in every turn of every major interaction and rely on your wits, smarts, and attention to choose the ones that are best for you. That having a "diplomat" means having one or two clearly superior options to interactions is stupid, and just too easy for the player - And the game should be challenging for the player, not for the character.

The same applies to all "builds."

[edit] And i too have a pretty hardcore P&P background, but under the rules of that group i just had to make a lot of research and analisis before playing a new kind of character, instead of just taking the build and letting the stats play the game for me.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Long winded argument, I actually took the time to read.

"this is the kind of role playing I dislike" - Yeah, maybe. BUT the roleplaying I learned from my research. I never said "let the stats do the playing", I said "interdependent".

Let me tell you what that means. Take D&D3.5, moral ambigous situation for a low level paladin.

He can kill the villain for his deeds in favor of taking him to the authorities to prevent him to murder ever again. It is justified by the inner conflict of "lawful" and "good", but the character has to act it out that way. He can't do it without thought beforehand or remorse in hindsight. He never will be happy with his decision, whichever it was.

If he does it like a Drow Assassin, without any moral problems, THEN he will fall from grace - and it is reflected in his alignment. Next time he finds himself in the same situation "playing it out" won't mean a moral conflict of his alignment, but of his decision if he wants to stay "fallen", wants to be a Blackguard or even tries to reclaim his Paladinhood.

You see: Interdepence is the key word.

Physical skills are not needed in a p&p game. You need, strategy, diplomacy, empathy, tactics, luck, but no physical skills. That does make it so attractive to nerds, by the way.

If you remove for example "Auto-Aiming" from a certain character class (like TRAINWRECK LONDON does) you turn into a simple shooter. DEUS EX had auto aiming and auto deaiming, based on the characters skills. Try to shoot a UNATCO soldier in the head with the sniper gun from 300 metres without the sniper skill. Even a powered-up gun will make a hit pure luck - and that reflects the p&p "natural 20".