Descending: Curse of the Blood Crown - low poly blobber now in alpha

[Arkytoothis]

Descending: Curse of the the Blood Crown is a long time hobby project of mine, currently in an early Alpha state. Plans are for a Steam demo release in spring 2025 and eventual full release on steam. I am releasing free alpha and beta builds on the itch page instead of doing early access.

Descending is a Party Blobbing, Dungeon Crawling, World Spanning RPG Epic. A sort of modernization of some of my favorite old time RPGs, like Bards Tale, Might and Magic and Wizardry. Explore the world of Aeldrath in a fully 3d, low poly, tile based world with a Day/Night cycle, weather and celestial objects/events. Descending also includes a Map Editor and Data Editor, allowing nearly full in app modding and access to game content. The entire world (eventually 75+ overworld maps) will be hand built using the Map Editor.

Itch.io link to Descending: Curse of the Blood Crown

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Fargus]

Why modern indie devs love this ugly and lazy graphical style so much? Hideous shite.

 

[Grauken]

Why modern indie devs love this ugly and lazy graphical style so much? Hideous shite.

So much? I haven't seen many indies with this style at all.

 

[Fargus]

Why modern indie devs love this ugly and lazy graphical style so much? Hideous shite.

So much? I haven't seen many indies with this style at all.

I've seen multitude of these low poly with no textures games lately.

Gedonia is probably the least ugly but still

 

[Infinitron]

Looks like Arkytoothis has been chasing this concept for some time. A similar-looking game from 2020-2021 called "Descension": https://arkytoothis.itch.io/descension

A decade earlier, he made a tile-based roguelike with the same name: https://web.archive.org/web/20110907073229/http://descensionthegame.com/

And years before that, a Civilization 4 mod called "The War of Ascension": https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/mod-the-war-of-ascension-alpha-v0-1.158828/

 

[covr]

Arkytoothis have you considered adding elevation to the game? It looks really flat at the moment. Also, was any of your previous projects finished?

 

[Arkytoothis]

Why modern indie devs love this ugly and lazy graphical style so much? Hideous shite.

I for one am a big fan of the style and I'm a programmer. I couldn't make a decent 3d model to save my life. So I have a few options, don't make a game, spend years learning how to model and make my own garbage models or buy assets. I have chosen the last option. All of the models are made by Synty, an indie asset studio. This way they are all made by the same artists and share a similar look and style.

 

[Arkytoothis]

Arkytoothis have you considered adding elevation to the game? It looks really flat at the moment. Also, was any of your previous projects finished?

I have and it is on my todo list. And no, none of my old projects are finished. I have a disease called feature creep syndrome that makes it very difficult to finish games.

 

[Arkytoothis]

Looks like Arkytoothis has been chasing this concept for some time. A similar-looking game from 2020-2021 called "Descension": https://arkytoothis.itch.io/descension

A decade earlier, he made a tile-based roguelike with the same name: https://web.archive.org/web/20110907073229/http://descensionthegame.com/

And years before that, a Civilization 4 mod called "The War of Ascension": https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/mod-the-war-of-ascension-alpha-v0-1.158828/

Wow, thanks for the blast from the past. I had totally forgotten about that old civ 4 mod, how the heck did you even know that was me?

 

[Infinitron]

Wow, thanks for the blast from the past. I had totally forgotten about that old civ 4 mod, how the heck did you even know that was me?

You mentioned the title here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/descensionthegame/introduce-yourself-t42.html

Ive also played around a bit with mods for civ 4.

 

[Arkytoothis]

Wow, thanks for the blast from the past. I had totally forgotten about that old civ 4 mod, how the heck did you even know that was me?

You mentioned the title here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/descensionthegame/introduce-yourself-t42.html

Ive also played around a bit with mods for civ 4.

Ah gotcha, the dead forum I haven't touched in 10 years that is full of online pharmacy spam.

 

[Tyranicon]

I for one am a big fan of the style and I'm a programmer. I couldn't make a decent 3d model to save my life. So I have a few options, don't make a game, spend years learning how to model and make my own garbage models or buy assets. I have chosen the last option. All of the models are made by Synty, an indie asset studio. This way they are all made by the same artists and share a similar look and style.

Totally agree with this, devs aren't always visual artists.

But, Synty assets are so oversaturated you're going to get bugged about this nonstop. So if you're considering switching to a lesser-known asset pack, it might be a good idea. Just some friendly advice.

 

[Arkytoothis]

I for one am a big fan of the style and I'm a programmer. I couldn't make a decent 3d model to save my life. So I have a few options, don't make a game, spend years learning how to model and make my own garbage models or buy assets. I have chosen the last option. All of the models are made by Synty, an indie asset studio. This way they are all made by the same artists and share a similar look and style.

Totally agree with this, devs aren't always visual artists.

But, Synty assets are so oversaturated you're going to get bugged about this nonstop. So if you're considering switching to a lesser-known asset pack, it might be a good idea. Just some friendly advice.

Ya I expect some blowback and I'm ok with it. Eventually Ill spend some time customizing more of the models, or replace the more common ones with lesser used assets. I know I've seen the goblin models especially in a bunch of games on steam and I am in the process of updating many of those to new assets (to Syntys new goblin horde pack). Believe me, I've spent many hours scouring asset stores for good alternates but there really aren't any good options, unless I want to replace my entire library.

 

[Kabas]

Reposting my earlier impressions from another thread.

Also, I have found a proper blog for me, the name is everything you need to know https://freeroamblobber.com/

Cool blog and it showed me another interesting game to keep an eye on.

Trigger warning: Synty.
https://arkytoothis.itch.io/descending-curse-of-the-blood-crown

Choosing male symbol turns character into female one and female symbol turns one into male.

Yep, 17 FPS is expected here.

I don't recall generating this character with a beard .

Constant delay between actions and end turn are really annoying. Plus inability to turn your camera diagonally while giving everyone ability to shoot diagonally - annoying too.

View attachment 58089

Anyway, currently it's a barely working alpha where many things aren't working but i think it's got dat potential.
My favourite minor thing is that you can bypass walls with a teleport spell. Not sure if it's a bug or a feature tho.

Only thing i really disliked about the alpha was the slowness of combat but i think it's got great potential.
Will be watching progress with interest.

 

[Arkytoothis]

Reposting my earlier impressions from another thread.

Also, I have found a proper blog for me, the name is everything you need to know https://freeroamblobber.com/

Cool blog and it showed me another interesting game to keep an eye on.

Trigger warning: Synty.
https://arkytoothis.itch.io/descending-curse-of-the-blood-crown

Choosing male symbol turns character into female one and female symbol turns one into male.

Yep, 17 FPS is expected here.

I don't recall generating this character with a beard .

Constant delay between actions and end turn are really annoying. Plus inability to turn your camera diagonally while giving everyone ability to shoot diagonally - annoying too.

View attachment 58089

Anyway, currently it's a barely working alpha where many things aren't working but i think it's got dat potential.
My favourite minor thing is that you can bypass walls with a teleport spell. Not sure if it's a bug or a feature tho.

Only thing i really disliked about the alpha was the slowness of combat but i think it's got great potential.
Will be watching progress with interest.

Thanks for the feedback, some good stuff in there for me to work on. Yes, combat is currently very slow. Now that combat is in a state where it is working well, ill be adding features like Party Ranged Attack, Party Melee Attack and Party Repeat Attack to speed things up. I also have plans for Party Combo Attacks, sort of ultimate abilities that require actions from multiple party members. Combat is also very unbalanced at this point but I will be doing a balance pass soon.

 

[Arkytoothis]

Reposting my earlier impressions from another thread.

Also, I have found a proper blog for me, the name is everything you need to know https://freeroamblobber.com/

Cool blog and it showed me another interesting game to keep an eye on.

Trigger warning: Synty.
https://arkytoothis.itch.io/descending-curse-of-the-blood-crown

Choosing male symbol turns character into female one and female symbol turns one into male.

Yep, 17 FPS is expected here.

I don't recall generating this character with a beard .

Constant delay between actions and end turn are really annoying. Plus inability to turn your camera diagonally while giving everyone ability to shoot diagonally - annoying too.

View attachment 58089

Anyway, currently it's a barely working alpha where many things aren't working but i think it's got dat potential.
My favourite minor thing is that you can bypass walls with a teleport spell. Not sure if it's a bug or a feature tho.

Only thing i really disliked about the alpha was the slowness of combat but i think it's got great potential.
Will be watching progress with interest.

Ill respond to your other feedback here.
1. Gender Symbology - dont know how i missed that
2. I'm very interested in performance feedback. If you are interested in chatting about it hit up my discord. https://discord.gg/YTbqTMh9
3. Hero appearance bugs should be fixed in newest version, as well as name and appearance customization
4. I think the long delays are from the low fps, ill have to look into that.
5. Lol too much bloom?
6. Teleport is working as intended but is temporarily a first level spell. Later in development you wont get access until later in the game and there will be anti-teleport zones, especially in dungeons.

 

[Kabas]

I think the long delays are from the low fps, ill have to look into that.

FPS issues weren't that bad even if it did constantly swing from 17 to 40 for me. Compared to certain other games it was playable at least.

Might be a good idea to automatically end the specific character turn if they can't use any actions anymore, maybe?
Played it a bit more afterwards and the speed of combat greatly improved after i git gud and learned about the existence of [space] button together with that another stronger attack buff spell that allows my party to actually hit those damn rats .
Anyway, looking forward towards that balance patch.

 

[mondblut]

So I have a few options, don't make a game, spend years learning how to model and make my own garbage models or buy assets. I have chosen the last option. All of the models are made by Synty, an indie asset studio. This way they are all made by the same artists and share a similar look and style.

You could buy those that don't look like a fucking LEGO.

 

[Arkytoothis]

So I have a few options, don't make a game, spend years learning how to model and make my own garbage models or buy assets. I have chosen the last option. All of the models are made by Synty, an indie asset studio. This way they are all made by the same artists and share a similar look and style.

You could buy those that don't look like a fucking LEGO.

The thing about synty packs is the variety of content I have available. Literally every 3d model I need in a matching style. If there is a series of packs out there available to buy that matches the variety that AREN'T low poly or made by synty then I haven't found them. In a perfect world I would buy a series of assets that are high fidelity with all the races, items, enemies and environmental assets that I need, but that doesn't exist. I cant spend tens of thousands and wait years to hire a modeller to make everything that I want. What I can afford is to buy Synty packs for a couple hundred at most and then do I want with them. In the five minutes it takes me to download the pack. So its a compromise Ive had to make to realize the vision that I have.

But its funny that you mention Lego. When I buy a new synty pack it kinda feels like when I was a kid and I got a new Lego set. I open the demo scene and imagine how all the pieces will fit into my vision. Then I get to work on building my dream game.

 

[Arkytoothis]

I think the long delays are from the low fps, ill have to look into that.

FPS issues weren't that bad even if it did constantly swing from 17 to 40 for me. Compared to certain other games it was playable at least.

Might be a good idea to automatically end the specific character turn if they can't use any actions anymore, maybe?
Played it a bit more afterwards and the speed of combat greatly improved after i git gud and learned about the existence of [space] button together with that another stronger attack buff spell that allows my party to actually hit those damn rats .
Anyway, looking forward towards that balance patch.

Yes, to hit chance is too low. I think something in the 70% to 75% range would feel better for starting heroes. Ill be addressing this as well soon.

 

[covr]

You better finish this game, god dam it

 

[Luzur]

Man, totally rad and tubular, dont care much for the art style but i do love me some MM blobbering.

 

[Dorateen]

I like the idea of a traditional six character party. In theory, starting with 3/4 and then adding the others sounds interesting, but wouldn't it be better to start with all six or give the player the option? If XP is divided, this could be balanced by resulting in a larger party advancing slower. How long into the campaign before other members could be added? I wonder about the new additions falling behind the characters who started the game, but I suppose in an open world adventure there are plenty of ways to catch them up.

 

[JarlFrank]

Why modern indie devs love this ugly and lazy graphical style so much? Hideous shite.

So much? I haven't seen many indies with this style at all.

If you spend a lot of time browsing the Steam and itch stores for hidden gems, you'll find dozens of shitty asset flips using that exact character pack. It's become so common that my first impression whenever I see these characters is "cheap low effort asset flip" even if the game is good. The dev has to do a lot of work to convince players that the game is worthwhile if he uses these assets, simply because they're a commonly used cheap asset pack, so lots of trash uses it.