Game News Balrum, new indie cRPG soon to be kickstarted

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Balcony Team; Balrum

BalconyTeam, a new upstart indie team composed of George and Attila, are about to kickstart their cRPG in the works "Balrum" soonish. The game has been in development for about 2 years now and is inspired by classics such as Gothic, Arx Fatalis, Arcanum, Ultima, Eschalon Book, TES, Thief. Here's a short description of the game that they've sent us and the promo video:

Main features of our game:
-crafting (craft and name your own potions, armors, weapons..)
-farming (to survive you must eat, maintain your farm to always have food on you..)
-building (build your home, craft furniture, make chests for your loot..)
-combat (hybrid turn based, cooldowns, buffs, debuffs, AOE, lots of different spells with truly different mechanics..)
-exploration (explore huge dungeons, find hidden treasure, explore deep forests..)
-stealth (use water arrows to disable distant torches to ensure that you remain hidden in the shadows..)
-lots of clickable stuff (mushrooms, plants, minerals, and other materials..)
-HD resolution, dynamic lighting.. blah blah and stuff like that
These are only a few of the main features.
...
We plan to start a kickstarter campaign on the 14th of June.

 

[Haba]

Games we love and take ideas from:
-Gothic
-Arx Fatalis
-Ultima
-NWN
-TES Morrowind
-TES Oblivion (and Nehrim)
-TES Skyrim
-Eschalon Book
-Spiderweb games
-Diablo
-Two Worlds

Newfags detected.

 

[abnaxus]

Two Worlds, really?

 

[felipepepe]

Seems great! Perhaps too great, hope they manage to deliver it, not a bloody mess...

 

[Fens]

If your fireball hits the target it will damage it of course, and apply a damage over time effect too. But what if your fireball does not hit? Well then that fireball will go on and maybe hit something else!
...
Learn area of effects spells that deal lots of damage, but be aware that these powerfull spells damage you and your allies too.

wasn't too impressed by the video (looks like diablo with turn based combat ... and house building ?), but the stuff they write on their project pages sounds interesting enough

 

[General Maxson]

Where is Arcanum?

WTF, seems they sent a different list of model games for RPGCodex contact page? o_O

 

[Name]

Games we love and take ideas from:
-Gothic
-Arx Fatalis
-Ultima
-NWN
-TES Morrowind
-TES Oblivion (and Nehrim)
-TES Skyrim
-Eschalon Book
-Spiderweb games
-Diablo
-Two Worlds

Newfags detected.

Apparently they just AOEed all the recent mainstream-known RPG of every subtypes to score as many backers as possible.
And no Black Isle/Obsidian/Troika games? Guess they do not deserve any love.

 

[Surf Solar]

Nice MMO UI they have there, I pass

 

[Jack Dandy]

You people seem to be bothered more by their list of inspirations than the actual fucking video

It looks like it's gonna be really similar to Eschalon, which means I'll stay far far away from it. Couldn't stand that game.

 

[Niektory]

Ballroom? Balcony?

 

[General Maxson]

This one ticked into the contact us section.

Hi RPG Codex,

My name is George and me and my fellow developer Attila have been working on our PC RPG game for about 2 years now. In the game you need to survive with your grandfather in a village hidden from the world. Ultimately, you will find out about the reason why the village is hidden, and after that, you will explore the world that has been hidden from you. The game mixes elements from: Gothic, Arx Fatalis, Arcanum, Ultima, Eschalon Book, TES, Thief.

Main features of our game:
-crafting (craft and name your own potions, armors, weapons..)
-farming (to survive you must eat, maintain your farm to always have food on you..)
-building (build your home, craft furniture, make chests for your loot..)
-combat (hybrid turn based, cooldowns, buffs, debuffs, AOE, lots of different spells with truly different mechanics..)
-exploration (explore huge dungeons, find hidden treasure, explore deep forests..)
-stealth (use water arrows to disable distant torches to ensure that you remain hidden in the shadows..)
-lots of clickable stuff (mushrooms, plants, minerals, and other materials..)
-HD resolution, dynamic lighting.. blah blah and stuff like that
These are only a few of the main features.

We call ourselfs the Balcony Team .. Yes, we are real indie developers.. Our best ideas came when we were relaxing on the balcony.

In case you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
We are also open for an interview.
We hope to create a little buzz before our kickstarter campaign!

Check out our webpage: balconyteam.com
Screenshots: http://balconyteam.com/screenshots/



We plan to start a kickstarter campaign on the 14th of June.

Cheers,
George

Looks 'k.

Yeah, seems like they modify their model games list for every site. This was originally sent to Codex.

 

[AstroZombie]

Real time combat?

 

[General Maxson]

Real time combat?

No.

Combat in Balrum is turn based. (but only combat, the world is realtime) The player will have a large selection of spells and abilities at his or her disposal.

 

[mondblut]

Eschalon meets Unreal World Lite?

I dunno, why shouldn't I stick with the original URW?

 

[Kem0sabe]

Looks like Eschalon, hopefuly it doesn't play as bad.

 

[Mortmal]

A list of games that have nothing in common with each others, you like video games ok , me too ,that dont make me a good game designer either .Turn based diablo, is there anything else to say ? No party, few options,thats a questionable use of turn based, it reminds me the appaling gameplay of eschalon . I see you gonna bash skeletons and giant spiders, how original , how exciting.

 

[7hm]

The game looks pretty polished for an indie about to do a kickstarter.

The common thread in that list seems to be (limited) exploration based, single player (as opposed to party based) gameplay.

 

[Name]

The game looks pretty polished for an indie about to do a kickstarter.

The common thread in that list seems to be (limited) exploration based, single player (as opposed to party based) gameplay.

Spiderweb games don't fit.
I think there are three threads, one is the emphasis on free exploration(Gothic, Arx Fatalis, Ultima, TES, Eschalon, Two Worlds) you mentioned, the other is turn-based combat(Ultima, Eschalon, Spiderweb games), the last one is single PC(Gothic, Arx Fatalis, TES, Eschalon, Two Worlds, NWN, Diablo).

Or this is simply just a list of RPGs they have played.

 

[Junmarko]

If you were to translate the lyrics in that orchestral song, they would sound something like "Gen-er-ic fan-ta-sy theme. Gen-er-ic fan-ta-sy theme. Gen-er-ic fan-ta-sy theme. Gen-er-ic fan-ta-sy theme."

 

[BalconyTeam]

Hi everyone!

Ooh why did we list our favourite games! :D
You can read about our game under the Balrum button!

Niektory, we laughed so hard! :D

 

[AstroZombie]

No.

Didn't look turn based from that video.

 

[General Maxson]

No.

Didn't look turn based from that video.

Well, would they lie on their own site? If you're interested, go and check it. It's under COMBAT tab.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It looks TB but similar to roguelikes and Eschalon.

 

[General Maxson]

Hi everyone!

Ooh why did we list our favourite games! :D
You can read about our game under the Balrum button!

Niektory, we laughed so hard! :D

Well can you tell us will it be a proper crpg, with dialogue, NPC's, quests etc. or more of a minecraft/terraria/roguelike?

 

[BalconyTeam]

It will be a proper cRPG.
Story is crucial for us, and we hope that we can create NPCs who have real personalities.