Game News Ghost of a Tale Released

[Urthor]

I wouldn't call this an action game or an RPG, this is pretty much a pure stealth game in the classic avoid the guards style, really not much else to it.

 

[Urthor]

okay played half an hour. #1 this is a beautiful game, the one man dev makes pretty much every one man dev team ever look ridiculously untalented with how good his art is. Especially the fact it's 3D art and not a retro pixel art style that looks great but is relatively simple to pull off from a technical standpoints.

This art is actually beautiful, there are AAA games by 50 man studios that look significantly worse than this game.

The stealth mechanics are also properly challenging, this is definitely an RPG Codex special in how difficult it is to avoid guards, none of this mainstream AAA developer level simplicity to ghost these guards.

Codex will absolutely love this game but it's not an RPG at all.

 

[Darth Roxor]

#1 this is a beautiful game, the one man dev makes pretty much every one man dev team ever look ridiculously untalented with how good his art is.

IIRC the guy is an artist first and a dev second.

This art is actually beautiful

Yep.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Speaking of muh art, turns out there's a release trailor too:

 

[V_K]

I don't see any cats in the trailer.

 

[AwesomeButton]

This looks really great!

 

[Mark Richard]

The stealth mechanics are also properly challenging, this is definitely an RPG Codex special in how difficult it is to avoid guards, none of this mainstream AAA developer level simplicity to ghost these guards.

I would've expected a way to neutralise individual guards permanently as the game's stealth facade deflates the moment it could pose an inconvenience (i.e. challenge) to the player, but it turns out that's not the case. Another surprise was the day & night cycle. Really enjoying it so far.

 

[Hobo Elf]

IIRC the guy is an artist first and a dev second.

Yup, he has worked on high profile animation movies, like, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado and Despicable Me. Most likely he learned how to program as he worked on this game.

As for the game itself, it's pretty much pure incline. It has some stuttering here and there and I really wish they could be ironed out, but the gameplay and level design is superb. This is truly a labor of love.

 

[Darth Roxor]

It has some stuttering here and there and I really wish they could be ironed out

Played a bit to get out of prison just a moment ago - I found that it helps the stuttering to take "LoD quality" (whatever that even is) down to minimum.

This is truly a labor of love.

Yeah, it's always been my impression about this game too, and in fact I wish this was how the "Kickstarter craze" actually ended up...

I.e. "some guy has an idea, gets that idea funded and he just goes ahead and makes it come to life", without any bullshit or 180 degree changes in the middle of development for idiotic reasons. The current build seems virtually unchanged when it comes to gameplay compared to the last Early Access build I checked, and that was a full year ago.

I also like the way it's written. The dialogues are pretty witty, and the "footnote" deep lore dumps are very unobtrusive and very welcome. And then there are also the bits like these:

Spoiler

And of course there are all the details like the day/night cycle, the relative "hardcore" aspect of the gameplay (resource management, no permanent guard removal, etc) and the "secrets". All of it stuck out to me hella in EA already, which was why I dropped it relatively fast so as to not spoilerino too much, can't wait to play this moar now that it's fully done.

 

[Dorateen]

You can play a rat in Grimoire.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

I have pretty much given up on waiting for the "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" of RPGs.

That game already came out years ago. It's called Deus Ex.


Anyway.

I had this game at one point. Back then I couldn't exit the fortress, I believe. So what new content they added to the release version?

 

[AwesomeButton]

I'm about to impulsively buy this. The style and coherence are too good.

 

[Mustawd]

 

[Urthor]

http://www.ghostofatale.com/ remember to buy it from the website and not the Steam store so the developer gets 3 dollars more money from your purchase etc

Impulse buyers will not be disappointed

 

[Jinn]

BOUGHT IT! Can't wait to get into it.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

can not believe one guy programmed this. I have only seen the trailer and screenshots but its really unbelievable. I don't usually care that much about graphics, but I might get this game just to walk around in with my little mouse, its crazy one dude programmed all the art and movement etc..

 

[Haba]

REMOVE all Ratposters from premises!

 

[Mustawd]

REMOVE all Ratposters from premises!

Darth Roxor

 

[Jinn]

I must say that I am very impressed with my first couple hours of play. Level design seems top notch so far, inventory and armor is handled excellently, the stat system aimed more towards pure stealth is refreshing, atmospherically and aesthetically it's absolutely beautiful, dialogues are fun, and there seems to be a fair amount of choice and consequence in a more environmental way. Stealth could be more challenging, but when there aren't really combat options I understand why it is as powerful as it is. These are all first impressions that lead me to believe I'm going to enjoy this whole game very much.

 

[Mustawd]

From the vids I've watched the game just seems overall "charming".

 

[Jinn]

From the vids I've watched the game just seems overall "charming".

It's definitely extremely charming, but it doesn't seem superficial. The gameplay has been given a lot of attention.

 

[Naraya]

I refuse to acknowledge this was done by one guy...

 

[Astral Rag]

Tempted to d1p but it runs on Unity so I'm going to wait and see how it runs.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Yeah, it's always been my impression about this game too, and in fact I wish this was how the "Kickstarter craze" actually ended up...

I.e. "some guy has an idea, gets that idea funded and he just goes ahead and makes it come to life", without any bullshit or 180 degree changes in the middle of development for idiotic reasons. The current build seems virtually unchanged when it comes to gameplay compared to the last Early Access build I checked, and that was a full year ago.

Yeah, so far looks like a rare example of Kickstarted development done right. Reminds me of Hollow Knight in that, and also the level of quality being quite insane for such a small team.

 

[Urthor]

I mean this game was funded for about 50k and spent 2 and bit years in early access for a total development time of more than 5 years. It's less doing it right more well this guy went Stardew valley bedroom savant and came out with a game that isn't a hot mess like 99% of the bedroom savants who clog up steam