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Glorious Companions - TB RPG where you lead a mercenary company - now available on Early Access

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland
https://gloriouscompanions.com





logo.png

Glorious Companions is a turn-based tactical RPG set in the dark fantasy world of Navaroth. Craft your own journey as a leader of a mercenary company! Aspire to become a powerful lord, solve the mystery of the Ancient Guardians, or just ride around the continent building your fortune on trade.

The first prototype for this game was created a decade ago, in 2009. Now it's getting really close to an Early Access release on Steam.

Here's the recently released first official gameplay from the game along with a dev's commentary:



Steam Store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1001040/Glorious_Companions/
Website: https://gloriouscompanions.com/
Devlogs with more in-depth info: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1001040/allnews/

Full Description:
Glorious Companions is a turn based tactical RPG set in an original dark fantasy world of Navaroth where you craft your own journey as a leader of a mercenary company. Aspire to become a powerful lord, solve the mystery of the Ancient Guardians or just ride around the continent building your fortune on trade.

intro_image.png


The world of Navaroth has been carefully built and maintained by us throughout the years. The whole premise began as a pen-and-paper RPG system. Even the game itself had many different forms throughout the years. In 2009 it was a small mini-game with 2D cards representing the characters. However, it has turned into so much more.

header_bullets.png

  • Custom and gritty combat system: no one is invincible as a single well-aimed strike can take out a careless warrior.
  • No battle is truly over until it’s over: eliminate the enemy captain to win the battle, but be careful as it works the other way around too!
  • Tried and proven formula: the world of Navaroth has its roots in an original pen-and-paper RPG system featuring a science based magic system.
  • Pick your side: become an ally to the vengeful Scarres or join the ranks of the wise Valrenay militia. More factions will be revealed during the development.
  • Take care of your men: keep their morale high by serving them luxury food and alcohols, train them at special facilities when they gather enough experience and crucially - don’t let them bleed out after a tough battle.
  • No two soldiers are ever the same: play to your units natural predispositions, train and equip them to your liking.
  • New world on each playthrough: the continent and its political climate are procedurally generated at the beginning of every journey.
  • Start small and expand: focus first on making a name for yourself as a lord by winning small skirmishes, or lay the foundations of a thriving merchant guild.
  • More power means more responsibility: a wise leader is not merely an army commander; attend to a variety of political and economic issues as your empire grows.
  • Danger from afar: try not to get too complacent, as the Ancient Guardians eventually wake up and threaten the known world.

header_companions.png

At the very beginning there’s only you, your family’s grumpy servant and a rusty sword against the entire world. Forget about a big army of professional mercenaries, you’ll have to settle for a bunch of shoddy, club-wielding scoundrels as you work your way up and gain enough credibility and coin to hire better companions.

Remember that the journey is not a fairy tale. You will scramble for gold to keep your party fed, rested and more importantly, with their pouches full of coins - as your men will not stay with you for very long without their wages paid on time.

companions.png


Your units earn experience points proportionate to their contribution on the battlefield. Send them to train in militia barracks or to master new abilities in distant shrines and they’ll come back stronger a few days later. You’ll be able to choose from a plethora of different equipment to gear them appropriately. Each item and armor piece has different qualities and there are no clear-cut best builds for every possible scenario - all the weapons are designed to be viable under favorable conditions.

header_lead.png

Folks say that a brave commander doesn’t hide behind their troops. What they don’t tell you, though, is that they’re usually not alive for their second battle. You’ll have to be very careful to not overextend and yet not appear too scared to join the fray, as your men will take notice of that.

Depending on your starting archetype your lord commander will provide a different aura that helps nearby companions. Fighter’s Command is a buff that will help you to build a protective formation around your commander by granting nearby units a shielding/parrying bonus for each ally unit in direct contact with one another. Skirmisher’s Path on the other hand, grants a dodging and mobility boost for nearby units who are not standing next to allies. You’ll unlock more unique commander abilities as you progress in the game.

header_path.png

The game is a big breathing world where things happen even if you stay idle or focus on doing your own thing. Decide between rising in the ranks of the chosen faction, or risk making more enemies by founding your own kingdom; between playing dirty and taking any advantage you can, or becoming an honorable hero; between making bank and making allies.

Your end game is dependent on your play style and the actions you took. There’s no set story in the world of Navaroth. You may end up managing wood supplies between a dozen cities you own. Who knows, you might simply enjoy the life of a vigilante’s band leader and decide to stay on the run. This is your story.

I'd love to know your opinions on what we're working on here, guys. I know the gameplay is still lacking in a lot of ways but we're working very hard to make this game the best it can be. Mind that we're only two friends who work on this game in their free time and fund the assets, models, etc. with their (little) savings.

Cheers!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Hey, this looks nice (if quite derivative). Somebody should have made a thread about it.

Announcement teaser from December:

 

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland

ugh, I haven't seen this teaser in a while and I have to say that it doesn't look as good as I remembered it :o

Fortunately we've remade the character models since then (one race finished and going strong with the next units) and also the animations (in the gameplay video the animations are still a little wonky but we fixed that up).

We'll definitely have to make a new trailer for the EA release, anyways thanks for the kind words, Infinitron!
 

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland
tl;dr; this appears to be rng reliant tactics
To that I'd say that you can incorporate rng into your tactics and it's also fun, though to each their own - personally I am not the biggest fan of games where you can predict everything and each attack will always do the same amount of damage. Also it's based on a custom RPG system and those usually use the dice for deciding outcomes of actions and that's what we've stuck with. I have always been a big fan of pen'n'paper rpgs and wargaming systems and I always liked the rng aspect of them, it's something you gotta play around I guess.
 

Tavernking

Don't believe his lies
Developer
Joined
Sep 1, 2017
Messages
1,216
Location
Australia
Wow this looks scarily similar to my own game. You're even using REXARD icon art from the Unity Store which I also planned to use.

Good luck and I'll definitely buy a copy!
 

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland
Wow this looks scarily similar to my own game. You're even using REXARD icon art from the Unity Store which I also planned to use.

Good luck and I'll definitely buy a copy!
Yeah, for now we're using lots of placeholders since we don't have a budget for the game, though we plan to swap all the placeholders during the early access and hopefully we'll sell enough copies to hire some more people.

Thanks and may I know what's your game called? I hope it's not THAT similar :shredder:
 

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland
Managed to record the first gif of Glorious Companions, what do you think?

EntireRelievedIrukandjijellyfish.gif


(tried to keep the file size as low as possible)
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
You'll be able to choose from 4 playable races in the final release.

Release Date:
2019 Q1
hmm
We're working hard to release a well polished Early Access version but we're only 2 devs and we have full-time jobs, but we're very close.
It's Q2 already.
As a customer, I think early access games should just put "When it's done". If the release date is near I'm less likely to buy an early access game.
 

Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Well the obvious question is what are the main differences when compared to Battle Brothers (apart from the existence of legs of course)
 

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland
Well the obvious question is what are the main differences when compared to Battle Brothers (apart from the existence of legs of course)
Thanks for your question, Jimmious!

So, let's get to the differences:
  • Each side of the battle moves all of its units at once, there's no initiative system (so you can properly set up battle formations, etc.)
  • Killing a team's captain ends the battle, you don't have to kill all of his units so a battle's tides may turn in unexpected ways
  • Units are more mobile, with a nimble unit you can often move, attack with a light weapon and still have AP to move a little more
  • You'll be able to talk to all the characters on the world map
  • You'll be able to take over settlements, cities, decide what and where to construct new buildings, etc.
  • It's 3D :dance:
  • It's fantasy, there will be magics
  • You will be able to choose from different races, not only humans
  • In each race there are various unit archetypes with their own strengths and weaknesses, with their own skill trees, etc.
  • There'll be more focus put on the politics aspect of the gameplay when you're past early game

I hope that's enough, though I can point out more differences between these two :salute:
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
Looks more like Low Magic Age but i guess it's the same system as BB.

A shame the game isn't more fleshed out, the combat seems interesting enough, so far (supposing there's skills and spells later ), a Fallout-like game in a fantasy world is what would turn the players on but this is probably easier to develop.
 

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland
You can hide your captain behind obstacles and behind your troops to not get hit by ranged attacks (except for some AoE ones ofc but they don't have an unlimited range). And you will be vulnerable in close combat with all mage/archer roster.
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
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Messages
13,512
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Hey, this looks nice (if quite derivative). Somebody should have made a thread about it.

Announcement teaser from December:


I just put games in the Upcoming RPGs thread. Even the interesting looking ones.
 

ANtY

Ancient Forge Studio
Developer
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
57
Location
Poland
BEHOLD



I've spent 20 hours over the weekend recording and cutting this mf, let me know what you think
 

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