KickStarter Hidden Pass. A Tactical Turn-Based RPG with elements of 4X Strategy in a Technomagic world - Kickstarter on May 7th

[LostQuest]

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-tactical-turn-based-rpg-with-base-management

https://hpgame.pw





In our game you lead an expedition to the centre of a vast cluster of uncharted isles floating in the sky. You are a Wanderer, who is trying to solve the mystery of Elyrium Belt. Carefully choose your steps during tactical combat to reach the success.

Here is the combat gameplay trailer:

Our game is a single-player turn-based RPG.

Battlefield layers is one of the core features in Hidden Pass. You use the strengths of flying units to improve your position on the battlefield.

The second core feature is Elyrium Madness (inverted mana). Each used ability brings you closer to death, because Elyrium is driving you mad. The more this track of Elyrium Madness is filled the higher the damage your abilities cause.


We will be posting updates here in thread, on our discord server and twitter. Also, we are planning a kickstarter campaign, you can follow us there to be more involved.

The demo of Hidden Pass is nearly ready and will be availble on Steam during Steam fest in October.

 

[agris]

does your game provide health insurance so that everyone who gets eye cancer while playing is covered?

 

[Falksi]

Damn, this fucking vile Rainbow/LGBT/Nintendo-esq artstyle really has to die a death soon.

This game looks like it could be worth checking out if I wasn't fighting the urge to vomit every time I looked at it.

 

[Nortar]

Was it a dwarf in your vid?
I'm a simple man - I see dwarves, I play the game.

 

[LostQuest]

Was it a dwarf in your vid?
I'm a simple man - I see dwarves, I play the game.

Sure, dwarfs are one of the main races in Averon

For years they have worked in the depths of the mountains creating new mechanisms. They were born with a strong penchant for engineering, making them poorly trained in the art of magic

 

[Spike]

Damn, this fucking vile Rainbow/LGBT/Nintendo-esq artstyle really has to die a death soon.

This game looks like it could be worth checking out if I wasn't fighting the urge to vomit every time I looked at it.

I think it is because of Divinity: Original Sin II and now Ballturd's Gate 3 (I am being facetious, I am actually excited to play BG 3 but I couldn't help myself). That said, this game does look neat.

 

[Tigranes]

Eye assault aside, verticality & madness are always welcome mechanics. And 'create automatons', apparently?

 

[LostQuest]

Eye assault aside, verticality & madness are always welcome mechanics. And 'create automatons', apparently?

Yes, a player will be able to manufacture this units in factory and it won't be a pity to loose them as you can craft some more. But, of course, it will cost quite much. Due to our strategic part you will have more than one hero (who can be lvlup), but not a lot of them. So, mostly you parties will consist of automatons.

As a reference could be used Songs of Conquest and Heroes of Might and Magic. In those games they have Heroes who are the head of Army and units from which army consists of. We have the difference that Heroes are fighting in combat (and could die during battle) and there are less units in battle, but they have much more tactical freedom and abilities.

 

[LostQuest]

Damn, this fucking vile Rainbow/LGBT/Nintendo-esq artstyle really has to die a death soon.

This game looks like it could be worth checking out if I wasn't fighting the urge to vomit every time I looked at it.

I think it is because of Divinity: Original Sin II and now Ballturd's Gate 3 (I am being facetious, I am actually excited to play BG 3 but I couldn't help myself). That said, this game does look neat.

Divinity: Original Sin II was one of the main refs for visual effects of abilities

 

[Infinitron]

 

[cyborgboy95]

I always like it when a dev dare to enter the wretched codex to promote their indie niche rpg, don't mind the usual naysayers around here, it's part of the charm of this site... wishlisted and good luck!

 

[LostQuest]

when a dev dare to enter the

Thx! We'll try our best

 

[LostQuest]

Our first dev diary this year. In this article we share mostly the previous achivments: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2430170/view/5562564282368602874?snr=1_5_9_

Also we have updated the screenshots on steam.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Cartoony WoW meets LoL visuals......*sigh*

 

[LostQuest]

Hey guys!

Dev diary. October 2023.

It is well known That October is a busy month for the game developers. Our studio is no exception. All month long, we have been hard at work developing the Global Map.

At the moment, it contains : the Tower - the key structure and your base of operations; and the Eolites - islands of different sizes floating in the air, which you can colonise for resources and experience and other perks.

As well as being resource points, eolites are also your outposts. Small bases, if you like. You can build and upgrade facilities on them, and maintain a defensive garrison. Most importantly, conquering eolites increases your faction's influence, which is one of key elements of the story’s narrative that leads you straight to the Gates about which you can learn about in the game's prologue.

Hidden Pass has elements of Songs of Conquest.
As we said before, our work was inspired by many great games: Age of Wonders 4, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, its more modern spiritual successor- Songs of Conquest . Of course, conquering new lands is not an easy feat. These mysterious lands are populated by all sorts of morbid creatures.




The gameplay involves a dynamic expansion from one eolite to another until the player reaches the End Goal.

The path to victory will not be easy, and a quick rush will not be possible due to the many obstacles. The exploration of the wild eolites implies battles with monsters, which get stronger the further you delve into the Belt. If you didn’t invest in upgraded automatons, better heroes and abilities for them,your conquest will be nothing but exercises in futility.

The Gate is the key to the Elyrium Belt.

Do not hesitate! You are not alone in the Elyrium Belt. There are rival factions who also have the Gates in their sights.

The Gate doesn't want to be taken over, it evolves, and its power grows with it . So do the dangers that await the player.

Elyrium Emissions. They will keep you on your toes, as each emission brings all sorts of nasty events that can happen anywhere in the Belt. Neither the Tower nor the garrisons on your eolites can escape the consequences. All you can do is prepare for trouble. Your rivals will face the same issues - all are equal to the Gate.

Conclusion.
That's the broad outline of what we're doing now. Most of the mechanics are already written and are in development. We will keep you updated with more detailed screenshots and videos as they become available.

In the alpha version - our main goal is to create the basic gameplay of Hidden Pass, so that it is playable but with a limited pool of enemies and facilities.

Develop your faction, advance deeper into the Belt, gather resources and repeat! Getting stronger and better fit for challenges ahead.

GG
Thanks for reading our October DevDiary! We hope you found them interesting.
If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, feel free to leave your comments on our Discord or X (ex-Twitter).

Visit our Website or you can follow us on Steam.

P.S. Don't forget that we're planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign in early 2024, so you can sign up on our Kickstarter page.

 

[LostQuest]

Dev diary. November 2023.

Greetings Friends!

This November was all about the development of our Global Map. We are almost done with its general features. And as all always, it all started with an idea!

Global MapWe have finished the basic movement between Eolites and, finally, have managed to get our Zeppelins to doc to the land properly in all kind of situations: whether Eolite is overrun with monsters; or it’s occupied by your competitors; or it’s guarded by enemy Zeppelin… etc.

Properly entering combat state is an important milestone. In Hidden Pass you can encounter a fight en route to your next Eolite , and also on the land itself in an attempt to claim the land for yourself.

It’s very important for us to make a visually appealing global map since that's the place where the players will spend most of their time planning their journey through the Belt . Our VFX artist did an amazing job bringing the environment of the global map to life. (and more improvements of the background are on the way!). We took some notes from Space Rangers 2, where the map is simple, yet beatiful.



Player Outpost.Slowly, but surely we are working on the Tower. Tower is the player's main base of operation. Its design, main interactions and concept art are done. First iteration of 3D model is almost complete and will be presented in the following month.

CombatAt the same time as developing the Global Map, we are adding some small changes to the Combat System: new VFX and animations. These changes will be available in March Alpha Version!



GG
Thanks for reading our October DevDiary! We hope you found them interesting.
If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, feel free to leave your comments on our Discord or X (ex-Twitter).

Visit our Website and you can follow us here on Steam.

P.S. Don't forget that we're planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign in early 2024, so you can sign up on our Kickstarter page.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

We took some notes from Space Rangers 2

Could've fooled me

 

[vazha]

Atrocious art direction, a shame, really, it looks like it might have interesting mechanics / story.

 

[Jermu]

codex is full of graph whores
gl with the project

 

[PlayerEmers]

codex is full of graph whores
gl with the project

i wouldn't say graph whores
it's mostly personal preference for art styles

this game has that "mobile game"/"we want the fortnite audience" style into it; toony, colorful
personally I dont hate it, but i do find it bland because im seeing stuff like this everywhere

 

[LostQuest]

Last time appeared a question about gameplay loop of Hidden Pass and the 4X elements, so I’ll review the core mechanics of the game. I'll try to combine correctly the information (and video materials) to make understandable, what the game looks like.

Overall.
I haven't published anything here about the gameplay loop.
So, for an easier understanding of the gameplay: Songs of Conquest/Age of Wonders 4 meets Mutants Zero: Road to Eden/Urtuk: The Desolation.

Basically, Hidden Pass consists of 3 main parts: Global, Lore, and Combat. And action takes place in a technomagic world, called Averon. So, the gameplay loop looks mostly the same as in Heroes of Might and Magic/Songs of Conquest: you as a player move through the global map, trying to reach the edge of the map, and fight in multiple battles, because there are plenty of enemies that try to stop you. The main goal is to defeat The Gate, which is heavily defended. During the whole process, you are greatly involved in the plot of the main storyline.

Let’s visualize the main parts of Hidden Pass.
Global Part:

Combat Part:

Global Gameplay.
On the global map, your faction is developing your base (Wanderer's Tower), exploring the map, fighting+colonizing new floating islands (The Eolites), and moving towards the center of The Elyrium Belt (It is the cluster of floating rocks in the sky). Certainly, the main goal is to reach the center of The Belt.

Wanderer's Tower is your flying operational base. Most of basebuilding and development activities you will be doing here. There are main structures which give you new units and heroes (possibility to resurrect your heroes), learning of new abilities, teleportation through astral, exchange market, connection with Big land and many other things. Finally, the only way to lose in Hidden Pass - the destruction of your Tower. And, it goes without saying, that you start your exploration of The Belt near the Tower.

Tower demonstration:


From the beginning you will know that your goal is to reach the Gate (the background is told in the Demo of Hidden Pass, you will be able to play it during Steam Fest in February). From this point you start your exploration and expansion activity through The Elyrium Belt space, but it isn’t easy because there are a lot of troubles on the way.

Zeppelin movement:


Troubles on the global map involve monsters, human mercenaries, and demons, but the most difficult part is The Gate, which stands right in the center of The Belt. And This Gate (and creatures staying behind) has their own will and power, which grow with time. And this power will try to destroy the player’s faction. So, the troubles and the game progress are highly connected with the game lore and will give you a lot of gameplay stories inside Hidden Pass. We won’t be spoiling the game lore, but in the future DD will certainly explain the mechanics that are connected with it.

Some weather types from global map:


Combat Gameplay.
Combat in Hidden Pass is classic turn-based and x-comlike, but with some fresh things. First, our combat field is quite narrow, but has 3 layers. Heroes and non-hero units can move among them freely with usage of different mechanics (from flying, for example, to simply climbing the high ground).

Battlefield layers:

Then a player has two different types of units: heroes (they can level up, gain new abilities, equip artifacts, etc.) and non-hero units. Automatons, which you produce on your base, and invoked units. This gives an opportunity for a player to lose units, not painfully, as you can craft new automatons instead of destroyed ones.

Automatons demonstration:


And, finally, there is elyrium madness track (or inverted mana) in Hidden Pass. All units in this game use elyrium for casting the abilities, and they receive EM points. The more EM you have, the closer death is. But on the other hand, high Elyrium Madness track level means higher damage from all abilities, which makes you stronger. The high risk means high profit.

The ability usage:


GG
Thanks for reading, guys! I hope you found this interesting. I couldn't describe the mechanics deeper as long as it would be too much long. In next articles, I'll focus on one part and will try to write more complete.

All the links used are for demonstration of gameplay or leads to our official pages.

If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, feel free to leave your comments here or on our Discord.

You can visit our Website and you can follow us on Steam.

P.S. Don't forget that we're planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign in early 2024, so you can sign up on our Kickstarter page.

 

[LostQuest]

Greetings, Friends!

The year is about to be over. We end this year with excitement in our hearts!

Looking back on the year, we have made a tremendous amount of progress! We have laid groundworks for core gameplay features: combat, economy and exploration. We now know how Hidden Pass feels. Yet, there is much work to be done in the upcoming year.

To have fun - that’s what matters. Our main goal is to see our vision of Hidden Pass through and show this vision to the players. We plan to give a glimpse of it in the Alpha, coming in Spring 2024, and to start the testing of the main gameplay so we can polish the game properly.

Now, back to DevDiary for December 23. This month, we concentrated on finishing core gameplay of the Global Map and did some work on combat.

GLOBAL MAP.

This month we introduced the Wanderer’s Tower. It serves as your main hub, which you will expand and upgrade.



Staging of construction is an important aspect of the Tower. The main building has three tiers of upgrades, and with each new tier, more options become available. For example, your garrison's capacity increases, new buildings unlock and old ones can now be upgraded to higher tier, your income, directly linked to the main building, increases.

Our game features seven distinct facilities, which all have specific gameplay importance:

Academy - learning new abilities;
Factory - production of Automatons;
Logistics Center - communication and interaction with your faction;
Air Dock - production and improvement of zeppelins;
Research Center - technology research;
Wanderers’ Hall - managing your characters;
Astral Stone - placement of the Tower on the Global Map.

Yes - you can move your base! Tower’s whereabouts influence your income, reinforcements for your expeditions to the depths of the Belt, defensive strategy.

Safeguard your base! Its loss spells doom for your adventures.

You will oppose the Gates. All kinds of monsters will spill from beyond them in an attempt to thwart your progress and attack your colonies as well as your Tower.



Elyrium Eruption - is an important game mechanic. As time passes, the Gates accumulate energy. When the threshold is reached, all of that awesome power is released beyond the gates in a quick burst. This troubling event is known as Elyrium Eruption. It will lower the quality of life, so to speak. Less income, More monsters, frequent attacks, special events. Your task is to live through it.


COMBAT

Combat went through a huge overhaul: movement has been changed; new ways to interact with the environment - push enemies to their doom or throw a tree to the enemy's face!

The map became smaller in size, but richer in gameplay. With the new Push mechanic, players will find it useful in this compact space filled with intractable objects.

New Content - heroes can now gain experience and level up to gain new expertises or upgrade an old one!

There will be 7 hero classes in Hidden Pass: Nature mage, Astral mage, Ranger, Engineer, Rogue, Warrior, Acolyte.



Each class will have several starting specializations to choose from. For example, an Astral mage can choose to be an Adept of the Chaos, a Mage of Space and Time, or to be a Necromancer.

You can choose your Class and Specialization during the Recruitment process, but won't be able to change it later. But through upgrading different aspects of your character, you will be able to learn expertises fit for your play style.

GG
Thanks for reading our December DevDiary! We hope you found them interesting.
If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, feel free to leave your comments on our Discord or X (ex-Twitter).

Visit our Website and you can follow us here or on Steam.

P.S. Don't forget that we're planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign in early 2024, so you can sign up on our Kickstarter page.

 

[LostQuest]

Greetings, Friends!

Here are the first DevDiaries for 2024!

January was dedicated to structuring what is done to this point, setting important milestones for important updates for Hidden Pass and many other administrative work. Nonetheless, the development is thriving and improving.

Global Map.
We finished fine-tuning the global colour scheme and conceptualised the visuals for the Eruption.



Overall, the main gameplay revolves around the Gates, which the player is to conquer in the end. As in all classic 4X strategies, the player’s goal is to explore the Elyrium Belt and journey to its core while claiming new Eolites expanding your influences.

There are two main obstacles to overcome.

First - the Eolites are well-guarded more often than not. Thus, you should prepare for battles, while managing your economy. Better economy means more automotons to use on the frontlines. Why would you need a better economy? Nothing In the world is free, as well as in Averon.

You were sent with a spirit-rising mission to explore the Elyrium Belt for the betterment of the society! Buuuut there is a small sub-goal - extract Elyrium and send it to the Mainland. Your faction won’t appreciate your valiant efforts if you fail to meet your goals. They need you, but you need them more. Remember that. You will need all the help you can get.

Second obstacle - the Gate itself. Not only do they wish to not be conquered , but it has the will of its own. It will try to hinder your progress in any way it can. From lowering your income in general , to doing such sacrilege as attacking your Tower directly. Stay sharp, don’t throw all of your resources into exploration and think about the rear. The enemy is sly and cunning.



We have already talked about the Eruption, but just briefly. In many aspects, it’s similar to a mechanic from Against the Storm. It’s a difficult time when the player has to battle against hordes of monsters, further exploration is hindered by better protected Eolites. Thus, yeah, you can definitely chill and do nothing… but not for too long or else you will pass a point of no return where the Gate will accumulate too much power.

Combat.
After a major rework of the combat we continue to develop our mechanics and to enhance the gameplay in general. We do not plan to change it in the future and we hope that it will be dynamic and engaging. “Into The Breach “ is a huge inspiration for us: you can complete the goal in many different ways and combinations.



Thanks to its compactness , you can interact with every point of the map. Unused and unnecessary spaces were removed. Small obstacles, like rocks, are now interactable - you can push or throw them. Some tiles now have special effects like poisoning. So watch your step and walk carefully or use it to your advantage and push enemies in that direction.

As we already said, each class will have specialisations and you can build your character to your preferences. There are no restrictions on expertise so you can combine abilities from different fields. You chose a character's class and specialisation while recruitment.



GG
Thanks for reading our January DevDiary! We hope you found them interesting.
If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, feel free to leave your comments on our Discord or X (ex-Twitter).

Visit our Website and you can follow us on Steam.

P.S. Don't forget that we're planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign and we finalised the month: it is May 2024, so you can sign up on our Kickstarter page.

 

[NotSweeper]

codex is full of graph whores

Uh-uh-uh, aesthetics whores.
It matters.

 

[Serus]

codex is full of graph whores

Uh-uh-uh, aesthetics whores.
It matters.

This. I can play games from 80s (assuming acceptable interface) or made in ASCII. In fact I did. I can take very low tech graphics. Poor style is much harder to swallow. This game is worse that "poor" in that area. It has eye cancer inducing graphics because of the chosen style and/or its execution. Which is a shame because the game seems interesting otherwise.