Information Heroes of a Broken Land Announced: Turn-based Multiple Party RPG

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Heroes of a Broken Land

IndieRPGs.com have posted an announcement for Heroes of a Broken Land, a first person turn based RPG that has you control multiple parties instead of just one, plus some town management. Esteemed community member Humanity has risen! has already played the alpha and called it a "really fun" "mix of Might and Magic and Master of Magic."

One-man studio Winged Pixel (a.k.a. Andrew Ellem) writes in to announce the development of Heroes of a Broken Land. Do yourself a favor and look past the game’s rough graphical presentation for just a moment as we read:

Turn-based gameplay, with first-person dungeon crawling, a sprawling 2D overworld to explore, plus some town management too. You can control up to 6 separate parties at the same time, each with up to 6 individual hero recruits. The entire world is procedurally generated, so you get a new world each game.​

Dude.

Let me just recap that last paragraph: Heroes of a Broken Land combines first-person dungeon crawling, a turn-based strategy overworld layer with town management, procedural world generation, and control over up to 36 characters spread across six separate parties.

This game is not screwing around.

Heroes of a Broken Land is up to Alpha version 0.1.0 – said alpha build is currently playable for free in-browser right here.

HoaBL is in development for Windows, Mac and Linux, with an estimated release date of Summer 2013. You can pre-order the finished game for $5. I’m tempted to suggest we all do that so Andrew can hire himself an artist. This game deserves graphics to match its gameplay ambitions.

​

The developer also replied to some questions on our forums. Here's what he said:

The multi-party facet of the game design isn't fullly utilized yet. The multi party system was designed so the player would have more options on how they choose to explore their world. Do you power up one party? Or do you spread your resources across many potential parites?

You are all right in that currently there really isn't any pressure to use more than one party. I do have ideas to make multiple parties useful (even required) - perhaps through multi party dungeons or even linked dungeons, where you MUST have more than one party clear a dungeon at the same time.

Also as for randomization: you're correct that at some fundamental level it really is dungeon after dungeon. I think that's true for most games, procedurally generated or not. If you don't enjoy the second-to-second gamplay, then then minute-to-minute doesn't matter. Same with the quest-to-quest gameplay.

That's one reason why I consider the game is still in Alpha. Currently the long and mid term goals are weak or missing, so every game feels the same, even though the world and dungeon layout is different. These issues need to be explored further, and need to be addressed in some way before HOBL is finished (or Beta). These are difficult problems, with no ready solution. That said, my priorty really is to make the short term decisions interesting and meaningful.​

The game's official website can be found here.

 

[Infinitron]

control over up to 36 characters spread across six separate parties.

 

[warmonger3]

This just reeks of incline. Five bucks isn't much to pay for such a noble cause.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Esteemed?

Spoiler

I kid, I kid.

 

[HobGoblin42]

Wizardry Nostalgia Flash
But they should work on their character portraits, people are _very_ picky with those.

 

[Dorateen]

This looks great. And the idea of running multiple parties is fantastic. Since the concern was raised about making this facet a viable option for the player, I'll mention a couple of examples from where I most enjoyed this.

Might & Magic II. The roster at the Inn could allow the player to create upward of 20 or 25 characters. From these, the party of 6 (plus NPCs) could be assembled. This was extremely useful because of a couple of gameplay reasons. The Judges of Mount Farview gave class-restricted quests. So when it was time for the player to renunite Corak's soul, you could bring along all your clerics. Or gather up all your archers who were hanging out at the Inn, in order to take out Baron Wilfrey. Also, each castle dungeon had zones that restricted certain classes and races. You would have to come back without any characters who were not allowed, but you could fill their spots in the party with other characters stored at the Inn.

More recently, in Demise:Ascension, it was frequently helpful to construct "secondary" parties who could be sent into the dungeon for fetching tomes or other items, while the Alpha Team was the one your build up and push deeper. You might also have a "rescue" team for when the first party gets into trouble in the lower levels.

I would say the key consideration when the objective is to make multiple parties desirable is to have a robust character customization system wither regard to class and race. And then restrict parts of the map to certain of those elements, making it necessary to have one type of party explore where another cannot, or is limited. Also, an open world works better for this style of play rather than a linear story.

 

[Broseph]

The graphical style in general doesn't bother me but those character portraits definitely need some work. Otherwise,

 

[Crooked Bee]

Also, each castle dungeon had zones that restricted certain classes and races. You would have to come back without any characters who were not allowed, but you could fill their spots in the party with other characters stored at the Inn.

Wizardry III had the same feature in 1983 (I assume it was the first CRPG to have that?), and it really made the exploration more interesting.

Wizardry also had the entire "rescue party" thing, but I'm not sure it'd be particularly useful or interesting in a non-ironman RPG.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I have fun with it, but it's too preliminary, devoid of options and repetitive to be fun so far.

Also I try to pre-order the game but it keeps rejecting my credit cards, is it working for anyone else?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I think there are problems in the game, I have been in more than one dungeon where I couldn't find a switch to open a door after having been in all other cases.

 

[norolim]

Added to my watch list. Heh, my watch list is enormous now. Mere 2 years ago it consisted of exactly 3 RPGs
everywhere.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I have to stop playing this, I got to another dungeon that cannot be completed because of a door level that doesn't exist.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

He updated the game on his site to version 0.20 alpha and I lost my save from the earlier version, geez thank you

He seems to have made a few improvements, most notably the ability to sidestep

I wonder if we will get more options that we get in Wizardry-likes, like a function to parry, flee, an option to advance to a higher class, and the like

 

[Metro]

WingedPixel Have you considered a Kickstarter for this?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

The enemy seems able to flank you in this version, and there is now a trap which generates monsters.

There are still bugs with the dungeon design, I cleared every step in a dungeon and the game tells me there are still 3 monsters left.

 

[WingedPixel]

Thanks for the feed back everyone! Glad you're enjoying the game.

I have to stop playing this, I got to another dungeon that cannot be completed because of a door level that doesn't exist.

There are still bugs with the dungeon design, I cleared every step in a dungeon and the game tells me there are still 3 monsters left.

It's possible that a bad dungeon was generated, I personally haven't seen a bad dungeon generation in quite a while, I've spend quite a bit time making the generation solid. Of course there are 2+ billion dungeon combinations per dungeon types, so it's not like I can actually test even a small % of them.

Monsters do move around, so it can be a PITA to find them all on the more sprawling layouts. Closing doors helps, because the'll never open them.

What I do need to add is some bug report feature, so you can press a button to send me a bug report about a potentially buggy dungeon so I can duplicate the dungeon and fix it.

Also, sorry about breaking your saves, but that will probably happen a lot during the Alpha phase of the project. I probably should have mentioned that the old version was still available on the webpage if you wanted to continue (but I guess it's too late now...).

WingedPixel

Have you considered a Kickstarter for this?

I've certainly considered it, but Kickstarter isn't available to Canadian companies, I'd need a US or UK partner. I could use IndieGoGo or one of the other crowd funding sites, but they only get a small fraction of the traffic. For now I'm going to try and push my preorder system. Fortunately the style of game (low-res, 2D art and random generation) makes it fairly cheap to produce.


My next challenge is adding puzzles to the dungeons. What type of puzzles do you enjoy? Any memorable puzzles from other games?

 

[thesheeep]

Have you considered a Kickstarter for this?

I've certainly considered it, but Kickstarter isn't available to Canadian companies, I'd need a US or UK partner. I could use IndieGoGo or one of the other crowd funding sites, but they only get a small fraction of the traffic.

I read that alot and I would seriously suggest to re-think it.
Yes, Kickstarter does have more game projects going on, but they also have more failed game projects going on (rarely mentioned).
What really matters is how you prepare your campaign (work on generating interest long before the actual campaign starts) and how active you are on forums like this, indie websites, etc. Actually, you already seem to be doing that, so don't be afraid of using the smaller platform.
The platform IMO is almost irrelevant to the success of a campaign. It's not like people are browsing Kickstarter like mad in search of games that may come out in some years. No, they read about it somewhere, from friends, Facebook, etc. All of that is far more important than the brand that hosts the campaign

 

[Crooked Bee]

My next challenge is adding puzzles to the dungeons. What type of puzzles do you enjoy? Any memorable puzzles from other games?

I'd say go with traditional Wizardry and Might and Magic-style puzzles. Maybe even go through some LPs/walkthroughs for those games to refresh your memory. Personally, my favorite puzzles are not just "pull a lever here and then push a button there", but those where the dungeon itself is designed as a puzzle (which works really well in first person RPGs). For examples, have a look at The Dark Heart of Uukrul (I did an LP of it - the link is in my sig) or Wizardry 4 (again, I LPed it: http://lparchive.org/Wizardry-IV/). I'm not saying you should make your game as hardcore as those games, naturally; I'm just saying they have the right sort of approach to puzzles.

You could also integrate some text based/CYOA-style puzzles where you're given a list of actions/replies. Again, Dark Heart of Uukrul did it rather well. So did Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan, but there the outcome was stat check-based; not sure if you're willing to approach it the same way in your game.

I also enjoyed some of the puzzles in The Dark Spire for Nintendo DS. Having certain clothes act as disguise to fool an NPC is a nice example, for one.

Also there has to be at least one teleporter maze! (I.e. a navigational puzzle) For an example, see The Summoning or The Bard's Tale (or was it The Bard's Tale II?)

And since you're going to have multiple parties in your game, having zones or quests that are only accessible by certain classes/characters carrying a certain item/whatever other criteria you can come up with is a must, imho (examples: Wizardry III, Might and Magic II), as is having some puzzles only be solvable by having two parties work together. (Some dungeons can have two different entrance points, for example, which is fairly realistic and can open up new possibilities for puzzles.)

EDIT: Also a couple of threads that may or may not contain any ideas you could use:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/so-puzzles-in-crpgs.55650/ (<- this is the best thread)
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/puzzles.49500/

 

[Humanity has risen!]

But Crooked Bee, how many of these can be realistically implemented in an entirely randomly generated game, like those where an entire dungeon is supposed to be a puzzle?

Maybe something easier would be sections with permanently pitch black squares

Charles-cgr, I think your opinions are needed here again

 

[Crooked Bee]

But Crooked Bee, how many of these can be realistically implemented in an entirely randomly generated game, like those where an entire dungeon is supposed to be a puzzle?

Well, for one, I think a teleporter maze can be implemented with random generation. Then again, I'm not a programmer so maybe I'm wrong; just throwing some ideas out there -- it's up to the developer to judge how feasible they are.

 

[Crooked Bee]

It's just that if there are going to be puzzles, they better be at least somewhat complex and interesting. Puzzles are the heart and soul of a dungeon crawler so making them dull/simplistic is a sure way to bring down the entire experience.

Basically: they shouldn't be just an afterthought.

 

[warmonger3]

How about permanently dark passageways in which the only means of light are via torch/switch/spell/ or not at all?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

It's just that if there are going to be puzzles, they better be at least somewhat complex and interesting. Puzzles are the heart and soul of a dungeon crawler so making them dull/simplistic is a sure way to bring down the entire experience.

Basically: they shouldn't be just an afterthought.

Yes, I definitely think he should take his time and make the dungeon crawling more unique, and more challenging.

Right now it is still fun, but monotonous, and ultimately it becomes drudgery. I am never challenged or never fear dying, and there is next to no "spice" or so to speak in the dungeon crawling.

Sure you can't expect miracles, but even if ultimately there is going to be lots of repetition, he should not hesitate to be aggressive on the player and constantly make him fear dying, so that this way the dungeon crawling would always be fun and exciting.

I pre-ordered it since I think it is an original idea that deserves support, and I encourage other Codexers to do the same.

 

[Charles-cgr]

But Crooked Bee, how many of these can be realistically implemented in an entirely randomly generated game, like those where an entire dungeon is supposed to be a puzzle?

Maybe something easier would be sections with permanently pitch black squares

Charles-cgr, I think your opinions are needed here again

Well, my opinion on the subject is kind of a bailout. Don't go with random generation. I just don't get those and this discussion kind of illustrates why. The most fun part of making a game like this is designing the levels imo, so why give that up to some algorithm? It seems to me the level design loses soul and too many options are lost.

Honestly I don't think I would've been able to include puzzle maps with random generation. All in all it seems to me the game loses soul for a very theoretical gain in replayability.

 

[WingedPixel]

Teleporters are planned, placing them is pretty easy, placing them so that they're interesting/fun will require a lot of thought and testing.
I will probably also trapped floors that trigger based on some timing, so you have to move, wait, wait, move, etc. or get badly hurt (maybe even killed).

I suppose it does matter what I mean by "puzzle". I'm not just looking to add hard core, head scratching puzzles. Really I'm looking to add variety to dungeons. I plan on adding more interactive objects (fountains, etc.), which may be helpful or harmful.

I do agree with most people that the best and most memorable puzzles are part of the entire dungon design (and work within the themes and plot of the overall game). And yeah, that's going to be hard to do randomly.

1) Not every dungon will have puzzles. Some will just be caves or mazes (like now, with some more interactive elements)
2) Some will have obstacles (switch puzzles, or small local (single room) puzzles), that aren't really that challenging. I'm pretty sure I can pull this off.
3) Some will ideally be large puzzles, like a rearranging maze. I can think of a few ways of doing this.

Using light is a good idea. I originally had torches/light spells, but I found it just got tedious to keep re-casting. However I like the idea of using light to add variety (dark room + monsters can be interesting).

Mazes can get tedious, but some dungeons will be very maze like, possibly with automapping disabled in all or part of the dungeon.

I like the ideas about using multiple parties to solve the same dungeon. Switch between them if they're in the same dungeon at the same time. Some Final Fantasy 6 dungeons used multiple parties to good effect.

There's probably more ideas that I could implement - but good discussion!