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Game News Iron Tower's next game is Heralds of the Third Apocalypse, a Lovecraftian bronze age tactical RPG

Infinitron

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Tags: Heralds of the Third Apocalypse; Iron Tower Studio

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/648410/view/499439875179675800



As you probably know, our next project will not be a full-scale RPG (like Age of Decadence and Colony Ship). If it's the first time you're reading about it, here's why:

Colony Ship sold well (for an obscure indie RPG), but not enough to pay for a more ambitious and complex sequel. The plan was not to do another story on the same ship, but to continue the story after planetfall. Such a game - such a new world with everything that entails - would have required a bigger team and a much bigger budget. We simply don't have the resources to undertake that now, but hopefully we can come back to it later.

So we're in a situation where we can 'go the distance' and handle a 4-5 year long project, provided we keep the costs low and focus on combat, i.e. a complex tactical RPG. We know that some people will be disappointed, but it's either that or shutting down for good. So let's roll the dice one last time and see what happens.

Keep in mind that we're starting to work on it just now, so many things can and will change over the next few years (and many things will go wrong). The purpose of this post isn't to drum up some excitement but to let you know what we're working on now and what the goals are:
  • Lovecraftian bronze age populated by humans, non-men races, and eldritch horrors
  • Semi-sandbox, roam anywhere but be aware that some dark corners of this land will be more dangerous than others
  • Three mutually exclusive main questlines with plenty of choices (including switching sides)
  • Procedurally-generated quests to keep you entertained
  • Colony Ship style feats (and skill points) on level up plus feats earned in various events.
  • 10-12 character levels plus mastery levels that don't grant any feats.
  • AoD style combat (action points, different attacks, focus on melee) but with a hex grid.
  • Spellcasting (think fighters dabbling in magic rather than DnD wizards unleashing pyrotechnic hell)
  • Crafting and alchemy, AoD style; magic weapons and armor
  • Party size 6, recruit as many as you need if your comrades (or should I say battle brothers?) fall in battle
  • Colony Ship's death timer with feats detailing the worsening effects of your near-death experiences
  • Runes carved into the flesh of your comrades (think Colony Ship's implants)
So, that's the plan. Will we get there? I'd say 50/50, if we're being honest. Unlike the sequel to Colony Ship, this project is actually doable but doable and easy are two different things. Colony Ship will remain the budget generator for this project, so hopefully it will continue selling and see us through.

Now you're up-to-date!​
 

Vault Dweller

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S.torch

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Glad you're going to keep making games. Lovecraftian Battle Brothers sounds like an interesting premise.
 
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Bronze Age AND Lovecraftian?
I got AoD, Dungeon Rats (or did I buy it? My memory sucks) and Colony Ship as gifts (I played Colony Ship for like five minutes tho, I did get a friend to buy it).
But this one, I hope you enjoy my money, because you will have it.

Would be cool to see not just Bronze stuff, but Copper, Arsenic Bronze and Thunderbolt Iron. I know Iron Tower does not disappoint.

Is it in the same universe or multiverse as AoD, or would that be telling?

Bronze Age is so fucking boss, it doesn't get enough love at all. I know you guys will not disappoint.

Is that a Mesopotamian or Mesoamerican Ziggurat? I'm getting mesoamerican vibes for some reason
 

Tigranes

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That's a lot more feature-heavy than I expected. Can you really put in 3 mutually exclusive MQs with faction-switching and call this 'less ambitious and doable'? Do you feel that this is sort of a fundamental Iron Tower essence one simply cannot set aside? (Although arguably more important, HOTA is now not post-apocalyptic?)
 

Vault Dweller

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That's a lot more feature-heavy than I expected. Can you really put in 3 mutually exclusive MQs with faction-switching and call this 'less ambitious and doable'?
Easily, if the quests are all about combat and we don't have to worry about scripting dialogues, stealth, and basic consequences (like did you kill anyone or not). The game will have plenty of dialogues, of course, but no speech skills and no diplomatic solutions.
 

The Wall

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You have to nail art style, atmosphere, vibe and mood of this. Bronze age brutal low magic multi-species lethal world with Battle Brothers gameplay? Could be FUCKING GREAT! Make sure 66% fighters are lesbians with bright hair colours, 33% are Diddy looking niggas and 1% is hwhite stoic man with negro baby carrying on his back. Self-insert for CONSERVATIVE Stoic Devs. Multi-racial bronze age tribes, women as all the leaders, skinny female champions, gay shamans summoning Cthulu to finger their asses, nomad women riding horses, their husbands riding behind them holding them tightly around waist so they don't fall off. I expect in 30sec from the moment I click [New Game] to see grizzly female blacksmith forging legendary bronze dildo
 

The Wall

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Conan + Cthulu + Battle Brothers could be such an awesome setting and money printer. But once more: remember to fuck it up. Don't forget to fuck things up, make it Police Academy: Bronze Age, thou Regan era progressive conservative TV might be too far right for you. Horizon Zero Down, latest and wokest one. Go with that vibe. Make sure every character is actor from modern USA metropole area in CocaCola commercial dressed up in Bronze Age clothes

If you don't fuck it up, you'll let me down
 

The Wall

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2D is much better suited for Bronze Age setting. 3D can still communicate Bronze Age Conan-like low magic setting married with Lovecraft IF it's sincere. Sincere in World's writing, inhabitants' thinking, different tribes and intelligent species and their civilizations ethos, monsters, landscape etc. But you have to be sincere

If you are capable of being sincere and real while building this alternative world, then this will be great thing. IF
 

Zanzoken

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Battle Brothers is one of my favorite games ever, and Iron Tower is one of my favorite studios. So I will be happy to support you guys on this as soon as you're ready to ask for money.

I will say though, I think it's going to be hard to follow Battle Bros both in terms of quality and sales. Turn-based tactics is a crowded space. I also wish this was taking place in the Age of Decadence setting since that was cool and unique. As opposed to Lovecraft which has been done to death.
 

The Wall

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Battle Brothers is one of my favorite games ever, and Iron Tower is one of my favorite studios. So I will be happy to support you guys on this as soon as you're ready to ask for money.

I will say though, I think it's going to be hard to follow Battle Bros both in terms of quality and sales. Turn-based tactics is a crowded space. I also wish this was taking place in the Age of Decadence setting since that was cool and unique. As opposed to Lovecraft which has been done to death.
If they don't nail art style for this, they'll hammer the cross on the grave of Iron Tower Studio. Colony Ship sold badly because they didn't nail art style. It was 90% dark, dull and same. Do the exact opposite this time. Battle Brothers is success because it is symphony of it's style, gameplay and writing. And you fucking believe in that world
 

MrBuzzKill

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I have an opposite take from the previous poster, I think Colony Ship looked TOO good. Meaning, I feel a lot of time/energy/moneys was spent on making art assets, which maybe hurt the game in terms of scope and C&C.

I'm not confidently saying that, since I have never made a game myself, I'm just saying I'd prefer a bigger and deeper game that looks more basic (while having its own distinct style) to a shorter and better-looking one
 

luj1

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Colony Ship sold badly because they didn't nail art style.

It's more than that. The game just didnt grab a lot of people

- same bad camera from AoD
- same teleporting to dialogues shenanigans from AoD (albeit less but still)
- UI uses 1 color and wasnt pleasant to look at
- quality of story and characters varied greatly
- art style mediocre/nothingburger
- chargen copied from Fallout
- game wasnt cheap, 40 euros or something
- combat wasnt great

To sum it all up, the game was too much like AoD on a systemic level, didn't look interesting visually and wasn't cheap
 

Cleveland Mark Blakemore

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Cleveland Mark Blakemore, do you have any objection to Vince using the word "Heralds" in his new RPG's title?

:troll:
Was hoping I was going to read a description of this game as a story-intense open world Lovecraft with tactical combat similar to FO3 but right in the middle the guy flashes a huge disappointing summary that made me want to buy his game never.

Guess it is up to me or it will never happen. The big studio efforts (which I paid full price for on XBox) were total crap.

P.S. Actually recently I was thinking open world Lovecraft with RE3/RE4 style using a mix of third person and camera angles might be the perfect take on it. With RE1 super simple mapping abstracted to "complete" areas critical items etc. so you could not miss important stuff and exploration. Big Miskatonic University campus as the central starting area with METROID style discovery of many areas on campus revealed over the course of the game. .... message like "You don't need to go to the West Campus labs yet, you better head out for Arkham Mansion as your current mission indicates is your destination." etc. plus NPC followers that change dynamically. As in when going to a case involving a strange ectoplasm you take the "anomalous materials expert" with you.
 
Last edited:

Raghar

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Iron Tower. Wait these are the folks that created Colony Ship, the game with next to zero interactivity with environment.

Folks do better.
 

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