In Progress Let's Play: Fallen Gods

[Lord of Riva]

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Don't worry, I even own redaxium, I take pride in supporting people who post in the den of evil. And this game looks rather good.



You really need to work on your advertisement skills though, I get that you don't want to overpromise but you make me depressed

 

[MRY]

I loathe hype and overpromising. I’d rather lose a sale than get one and have a disappointed player.

 

[Damned Registrations]

That was a very cool ending. Was delighted to see something as seemingly weak and niche as the fording stone end up being useful in the final battle. I'd love to see more stuff like that, but I suppose you can't include everything; even cost aside, it'd probably feel a bit silly having 6 scenes in a row where you're conveniently able to use a book, some boots, a hatchet and so on in the final battle.

 

[MRY]

That was a very cool ending. Was delighted to see something as seemingly weak and niche as the fording stone end up being useful in the final battle. I'd love to see more stuff like that, but I suppose you can't include everything; even cost aside, it'd probably feel a bit silly having 6 scenes in a row where you're conveniently able to use a book, some boots, a hatchet and so on in the final battle.

The final battle has an absurd number of helpful tools -- not the Skinbound Book or Woodbane, but the Wandering Shoes are among them. Setting aside swords, there are 11 items, 3 fetches, 3 god skills, and 4 stats that can come into play, plus the outcomes of 8 prior events. That's the "theme" of the Fraener path, a kind of "everything comes together" event. (And of course at the earlier stages of the path, there are also various events/skills/items/followers that can help or hinder you in seeing Fraener, winning over the jarl, and rallying his men.)

One reason why not everything can get checked (other than just the complexity of the event, which is already substantial given the need for textural variants depending on which Fraener you're fighting) is that it would trivialize the event by bypassing the stat checks and berserk fight.

Unrelatedly, one thing that Roxor's LPs showcase nicely is the way that runs include both setbacks and advancements. Basically the philosophical underpinnings for FG's design were laid out in some articles I wrote ~20 years ago (including setbacks, drawing on non-gaming sources, player-rather-than-character-driven stories, and gameplay with goals, immediacy, player-controlled pacing, and fairness), and I have to say, I'm pretty happy with how they've worked out. Going back and reading those articles, it's funny to read stuff like my hopes for AOD (then in development) or the backwater nature of Rogue-like/-lite games (now, of course, everywhere).

 

[Brancaleone]

For the first 10 runs on so, I'd guess, you are likely to regularly see new events. One reason you're seeing so much overlap is that Roxor is good enough at the game to get all the way to the end every time. Another is just dumb luck. But given the number of events placed every run, and the total event pool, there's always going to be overlap.

In these cases the main risk is that, due to mechanics/players' tendencies/whatever some (few) events occur disproportionally more often than the rest - as long as this doesn't happen, it will be fine. Do you have statistics on how often each event tends to occur?

 

[lightbane]

The worst part is that this game is taking forever to release. At this rate, Deltarune and Hibernarium will be released first!

 

[MRY]

Brancaleone We don't keep such statistics. I think there is some risk of that issue due to the nature of how some events are right there for you to walk into (e.g., "A Weed in the Waste"), while others (say, a sailing event) arise under only certain circumstances. Ultimately there's not much to be done about it; I have a couple more event ideas, but not many. There are only so many scenarios that fit the setting, provide an immediate situation to resolve, involve interesting skill/stat/item/follower uses, etc.

lightbane I just came across a thread where someone posted about this game for the first time in 2016, and I said it was unlikely to be released in 2016. I was right! I would be very disappointed if we don't release it in 2025, though. But the nice thing about not taking anyone's money, not making promises, and paying teammates up front rather than with hypothetical backend profits is that the only race is against Father Time.

 

[Brancaleone]

What no final boss battle but rather a cutscene win or loss against ChadLoki? Disappoint.
Also, I like offbrand Odin's justification that was totally not Improvised.

Actually I'd much rather have the Great Enemy fall in a cutscene because of some esoteric knowledge than because, let's say, a priest, a skald and a (gasp) woman have been hacking away at its hp for the last half-hour.