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Operencia: The Stolen Sun - turn-based blobber by Hungarian pinball devs

Efe

Erudite
Joined
Dec 27, 2015
Messages
2,597
which high budget?
 
Self-Ejected

Thac0

Time Mage
Patron
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Apr 30, 2020
Messages
3,292
Location
Arborea
I'm very into cock and ball torture
which high budget?

Thats kinda the point, the game looks like it took two shoestrings and a piece of gum to make. It has good art direction but it doesnt strike me as particularily expensive. With the flat bux from Epic and Xbox (as felipepepe mentioned) this was very likely profitable.
 

Zboj Lamignat

Arcane
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
5,523
Even if it was (although citation needed), that's a very short sighted strategy. You just burned a lot of bridges and probably didn't get too many fans who actually played your game and will be excited for what's next.
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
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7,714
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at a Nowhere near you
Epic pays their devs a minimum amount for the exclusivity when they dont reach the expected sales.
Given that Control's - an AAA shooter - bribe amounted to something like 200k copies, I seriously doubt that they paid no-name indies for more than 10k copies.
 
Self-Ejected

Thac0

Time Mage
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Arborea
I'm very into cock and ball torture
Epic pays their devs a minimum amount for the exclusivity when they dont reach the expected sales.
Given that Control's - an AAA shooter - bribe amounted to something like 200k copies, I seriously doubt that they paid no-name indies for more than 10k copies.

Control is AA. Also control got more than 10 million dollars for the deal, and its not even AAA. Still not necessarily a smart thing, they should have released simultanously on GoG at least, but maybe lucrative.
 

cvv

Arcane
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Kingdom of Bohemia
Codex+ Now Streaming!
Epic pays their devs a minimum amount for the exclusivity when they dont reach the expected sales.
Given that Control's - an AAA shooter - bribe amounted to something like 200k copies, I seriously doubt that they paid no-name indies for more than 10k copies.
I remember reading about some indie devs with an Epic deal saying it basically covered their costs and every sale now is profit. Can't find it now but it might've been A44 or Coffee Stain.
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
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Joined
Feb 2, 2007
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17,274
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Terra da Garoa
Even if it was (although citation needed), that's a very short sighted strategy. You just burned a lot of bridges and probably didn't get too many fans who actually played your game and will be excited for what's next.
It was on Xbox Game Pass ON RELEASE: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/03/29/now-available-operencia-the-stolen-sun/

A lot more people played it than they would as another obscure indie niche game on Steam.

We don't know how much they made from Epic Store exclusivity and from being on Xbox Game Pass, but I would guess it's probably more than they would have from Steam sales alone. The Bard's Tale 4 Director's Cut has meager 258 reviews, Operencia has half of that PLUS Epic Store and Xbox money.

If they can get a deal like that again, they can easily "burn bridges" with people who get bleeding butthurt over 1 year store exclusivity.
 

Ayreos

Augur
Joined
Feb 20, 2015
Messages
109
Played it. Battle system seemed thoughtfully designed. Graphics okay. Voice acting okay. Writing both cliché and cringe. Music unremarkable. Too bad the latter two are the ones that matter to me. Dropped before 2 hours.

I'm easy to get... set up an interesting setting with a dozen lines. Heck, a short poem would do. Put a track that aids the narrative if you want to overkill. If you can't do that, what business do you even have bothering with a plot?
"Demons are invading, we gotta close the gate!" got old before 3D graphics. I'd still pick up an old (free) game book from the library above this.
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
A few hours in and this is pretty charming so far. Nice party banter and art direction (even if mediocre technically and with some odd performance issues). I can't say I know much about the folk lore so I am easily entertained on that front. Sound design is well done with some nice ambience, but music seems pretty underutilized.

I set combat difficulty to hard with all other options on normal and I would say it's just right. I want to use all the tools at my disposal and Reka provided a really good challenge, while those flaming skulls made me terrified, quite literally. It's a bit odd that the crafting system uses no actual gatherable materials, rather you create them out of thin air by figuring out the word puzzle, but I suppose playing something that doesn't have me running around on an autistic gathering fiesta is nice for a change.
 

Mark Richard

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2016
Messages
1,192
One standout feature I've failed to compliment thus far are the varied tilesets. I struggle to recall another dungeon crawler which offers environments that are so distinct from one another. Each new map is a feast for the eyes, and it's difficult to find any instances of recycling across maps, even in parts where the developers probably could've gotten away with it. After you leave the Lake of Anna, you're never going to see that particular bulging stone wall again. Any stone walls encountered in other areas will be different, tailored specifically for that map, informing you about the history of the environment through subtle visual details.
 

Curratum

Guest
Is the game OK comparing to LoG?

Can't compare it to LoG because LoG is real-time and this is turn-based. You could compare it to Bard's Tale 4, and that comparison favors Operencia in all areas except the soundtrack.
 

newtmonkey

Arcane
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
1,725
Location
Goblin Lair
I've put a few hours into this, so here are my initial impressions.

Good:
+ Dungeons are decent
+ Combat can be pretty fun

Bad:
- God awful dialog and characters
- Damage sponge enemies
- A blobber where you cannot create your party

I really struggled to come up with good things to say about this, other than "it's a turn-based blobber and I like turn-based blobbers." The game promises that you will, "guide a team of memorable characters through a world inspired by Central European mythology," so imagine my disappointment to, instead, find myself guiding a bunch of bickering grandpas written by humorless ESL students through a world of caves.

The dialog in this game is some of the worst I've ever read in a game. No one ever says, "Watch out for that pit over there." It's always:
Guy A: "Hey now. Is that a pit there?"
Guy B: "Well, perhaps you should jump in and find out!"
Guy A: "Why would I do that? I am not the type to jump into pits."
Guy B: "I am certain that untold riches await in that pit. Why don't I give you a push?"
Guy A: "I will pass. But why don't I push YOU into that OTHER pit over there?"

I found the combat both interesting and annoying. Defending is interesting because it not only increases your defense for a couple of turns, but also regenerates some % of your ability points. Enemies also have exploitable weaknesses and there are a lot of buffs and debuffs to play with.

However, a few hours in I've found most enemies to be pretty tedious. It seems every enemy has some annoying ability you cannot counter (at least this early in the game). There are lots of encounters against groups containing tanks and healers, where you are literally forced to chip away at the tanks (because they taunt you, forcing you to target only them) as they are healed round after round. Other enemies inflict fear, which cuts your damage in half for several rounds; imagine slowly chipping away 2-5 HPs per character round after round against a group of three enemies each with 80 HPs. You are never really in much danger of dying... it's just, oh, here's another 15-round encounter.

Because you cannot create your own party, and because you can respec characters at any time, character development isn't really interesting. On top of that, half of the abilities you unlock are VERY similar (do 2-3x your normal damage with some percentage chance of stunning/sleeping/slowing), so it's not very exciting to unlock them.

Well, what can I say? A blobber is like pizza; even if it's done bad, it's still pretty good. Maybe the characters will get interesting (or just less bad) later in the game, and maybe I'll enjoy it more when I at least have the option of choosing which annoying characters are in my party.
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
I didn't have as much of an issue with the chatter, but I can understand why it would get grating for some. The only character I really didn't like was Kela. The MC was a bit too happy go lucky, but Sebastian and Joska were my favorites. I couldn't listen to anything the old hag said due to the terrible effects they added to the young VA's performance, but there is at least a reason for that.

What I think the game really needed was more enemy variety, with fewer repeated immunities. You meet so many enemies that are poison immune.
 

newtmonkey

Arcane
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
1,725
Location
Goblin Lair
The enemy variety is definitely a problem. It seems each area just has 2-3 different enemies, and you fight the same groups of enemies over and over. All the encounters are fixed, so it seems pretty lazy to me.

The lack of party creation really robs the game of much of what makes blobbers so enjoyable. It can be fun in Operencia to get wrecked by a boss, respec all your characters, and then go back and defeat it... but it also feels sort of empty.

It's interesting that the three attempts at modernizing turn-based blobbers (BTIV, M&MX, Operencia) all did their own things with party creation/development, but all have fixed encounters and use MMO-esque skill/ability trees:

M&MX: Full party creation, no respec
BTIV: Full party creation (eventually), limited repec (probably the best way to go about a blobber with fixed encounters, in theory anyway)
Operencia: No party creation, free respec
 
Last edited:

Curratum

Guest
It's really simple.

"I did not play that otherwise good game because there is no party creation" is certified autists who play games because they like to masturbate to numbers.
"I played this great adventure even though I could not customize my party" is people who actually enjoy a game as a whole and like exploring and adventuring and don't touch themselves over builds and synergies and numbers.
 

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