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Septaroad Voyager, like Final Fantasy 12 if it were built in the Octopath Traveler engine. Early Access on 1 June. Anyone want to review or test?

Nathaniel3W

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Unlock skills, set up your tactics, send your party into fast-paced battles.

OK, that's it for the marketing-speak. I don't have the energy to sound excited, even over a keyboard. Because I am absolutely insane, I am releasing Septaroad Voyager into Early Access on 1 June. I haven't even tested it thoroughly and I'm trying to get it out to streamers and stuff. I have a good reason for doing this. Or at least, it seemed like a good reason until maybe yesterday. But! I can still salvage the game and my sanity maybe if I could get some help with something. Any weeaboos here want to help me with testing or writing a review on the Codex? There's a free key in it for you. That's all I can offer right now. That, and maybe some gratitude typed out with my last remaining minutes of consciousness.

Um. Some other stuff, because people will want to know what makes my game different. What makes my game different from or better than the games I'm stealing from inspired by.

Infinite dungeons: Talk to the townsfolk to learn legends. Fight enemies to pick up maps, journals, and artifacts. Take the legends and the maps and stuff to the library, and combine them to find the location of a hidden dungeon.
DynamicQuestBuilder.jpg


Party of up to seven, all fighting in realtime battles at the same time. This makes battles more hectic than a lot of other games. It's kind of like a World of Warcraft raid if you don't have any friends.

Modding. Totally moddable, with all the source code, and an editor. Some people made a lot of mods for my last game. This game should be even easier to mod, and hopefully some people will have fun doing things I never imagined.

I'm sure there's more, but I'm too tired to think through it right now. I'll be back here soon, hopefully with a new trailer or something, and maybe some more playtesting to make sure the game isn't completely broken somewhere. Until then, any chance I could beg one of you to test it for me? And instead of me telling you why you should play my awesome game, maybe a brave soul could give it a try and write a review, and then he can tell you why you should play my awesome game.

OK, hopefully I'll have more energy tomorrow to tell you some more. Or no, Friday I'm going to busy all day with other stuff. Saturday though, I should be able to get my head above water on Saturday. See you soon.
 

Kaivokz

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Procedurally generated dungeons? Iffy on that.

I haven’t played Himeko Sutori, but I enjoyed the combat of FF12.

There is a similar license board system for character development? Do all characters have the same board?

I enjoyed tailoring my party members with the gambit system and it looks like you’ve got that too.

Only immediate feedback from the screenshots would be that the windows/menus look very RPG Maker / amateurish. Not a huge deal. HUD itself looks nice and minimal (Octopath influence?); I’m specifically referring to the menus.

I’m interested enough that I’ll likely buy into early access and give it a try.
 

Jinn

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Procedurally generated dungeons? Iffy on that.

I would agree that I'm not too happy to see this either.

Otherwise, I like the sounds of what you're doing. Hang in there, man!
 
Last edited:

SerratedBiz

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How much is the Early Access going to be? Seems interesting, at least from a distance.
 

Nathaniel3W

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Procedurally generated dungeons? Iffy on that.

I haven’t played Himeko Sutori, but I enjoyed the combat of FF12.

There is a similar license board system for character development? Do all characters have the same board?

I enjoyed tailoring my party members with the gambit system and it looks like you’ve got that too.

Only immediate feedback from the screenshots would be that the windows/menus look very RPG Maker / amateurish. Not a huge deal. HUD itself looks nice and minimal (Octopath influence?); I’m specifically referring to the menus.

I’m interested enough that I’ll likely buy into early access and give it a try.
So far the dungeons are made of 5 basic tiles, with some cosmetic variations. The undead version has undead enemies and an eerie green lighting. The spider version has spiderwebs all over the place. Demon cultists have red flames and braziers and statues. Bandits have ramshackle wooden structures all over the place. Then each variation also has its own kind of boss at the end of a small maze. I'll see what people think of it, and make adjustments and eventually add more variation. I'm planning on a sewer setting for a dungeon, a castle/tower/library, and an outdoor forest. Maybe I'll change up the dungeon generation code so it's not always the same kind of maze, and more like rooms connected by hallways.

This game is very different from Himeko Sutori. It has the same sprites, but the gameplay is 100% different. If you liked the combat in FF12, I think you'll like the combat in Septaroad Voyager.

SRV has a skill board. Or rather, 14 unique skill boards for each character class. You start off with a basic fighter class (adventurer) and a basic caster class (scholar), and those two classes unlock 6 other classes each. Every character can unlock every class, but skill points can only be spent in the class they were earned as, and it would take a long time to unlock everything without cheat codes. So you'll probably end up specializing, with each character working towards that class' best equipment and abilities.

Yeah, the UI is pretty minimalist. Was definitely inspired by Octopath Traveler.

Thanks for taking a look! I'm glad you're interested and I hope you like it.

How much is the Early Access going to be? Seems interesting, at least from a distance.
$25, but it'll have a 15% discount at launch. The reviews and Let's Plays should start in a few more days if you're on the fence. I'm hoping people like it.
 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Can I get five tags to put your game in my Upcoming rpgs thread?

Is there a pause button in combat? To issue commands to party members.

Can you make more than seven characters, and have some in reserve?
 

Nathaniel3W

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Can I get five tags to put your game in my Upcoming rpgs thread?

Is there a pause button in combat? To issue commands to party members.

Can you make more than seven characters, and have some in reserve?
Sure! How about the following?
  • party-based
  • single-player
  • HD-2D (or maybe 2.5D if we're being all "if it's not from Champagne, France, then it's sparkling wine")
  • JRPG
  • PvE
  • procedural generation
  • moddable
That's more than 5. Are some of those more significant/relevant in your list of tags?

No pause for inputting orders. Not rtwp. It's real-time. It's possible I could add rtwp if players demand it.

No reserve characters. The total is seven, and they're always in the party.

Let me know if you have any other questions!
 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Sure, one more question: Will the combat speed be adjustable?

It seems like a system with gambits would benefit from a pause option.

How deep is the Gambit customization?
 

Nathaniel3W

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Sure, one more question: Will the combat speed be adjustable?
Currently, no. It wouldn't be too hard to implement, and I originally had that as an option. But then I realized that combat speed also affected how easily you could run through an area. If the combat speed is set to slow, then it takes a long time to charge attacks, and you'll be able to run through a high-level area without getting attacked. So then I thought if I slowed down the combat speed, I would have to slow down movement speed, and then the movement speed just felt really sluggish and walking around felt tedious.

It seems like a system with gambits would benefit from a pause option.
You're probably right. I know that feature requests are going to start growing very quickly very soon. I'll probably have to start working on it sooner or later, but first I want to put in more content: playable characters, battle maps, dungeons, quests, etc.

How deep is the Gambit customization?
It's really deep. Each character gets up to 12 slots. Lots of options for targeting self, allies, and enemies under certain conditions. Lots of status effects, and some with trade-offs (take less damage, deal less damage with the knight's defensive stance; cast berserk on self to do lots of damage with a basic attack, but unable to cancel attack or do a different attack while berserk is active). And the enemies keep track of player threat level, so you might use some equipment and abilities to increase threat on your tanks, and use other equipment and abilities to reduce threat on your squishies.

You can target anyone with a specific character class, say if you want to keep a protection spell up on all your front-line fighters.

Certain attacks remove and apply certain status effects, and some attacks do bonus damage against a certain status effect, so you can set up long chains of attacks to dish out lots of damage on a finishing move.

There's stealing, and unique drops when using the hunt ability on beast enemies or the dismantle ability on mechanical enemies.

There are elemental strengths and weaknesses, and weapon-type strengths and weaknesses. So you'll want to set up your Tactics (not "Gambits," which are probably the IP of Square Enix) to take advantage of that, or else you'll end up wanting to insert manual attacks.

There are area-of-effect attacks that take a longer time to charge, and might do less damage per target, but will do more damage per second overall, depending on how many enemies you're facing. And you can choose to set "number of enemies" as one of the conditions for using an attack. Or "cast on self if number of enemies > x."

And there are probably other factors too, that you can consider when setting up your tactics. It's flexible and deep enough that players are probably going to come up with strategies that I hadn't thought of.
 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Cool.

I'll bother you this one last time. Are you willing to reveal classes?

How big of a role does the story have? Is it more of a background deal, and you just pick up requests, and then go kill stuff?
 

Nathaniel3W

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Cool.

I'll bother you this one last time. Are you willing to reveal classes?

How big of a role does the story have? Is it more of a background deal, and you just pick up requests, and then go kill stuff?
Sure. I can tell you the classes. From Adventurer, you can unlock Knight, Paladin, Ranger, Berserker, Rogue, and Mechanic. From Scholar, you can unlock Mage, Cleric, Druid, Warlock, Illusionist, and Alchemist.

I plan on the story being a major part of the game in the future. For right now, at the start of Early Access, the game is mostly open-ended adventure. Accept quests, listen to rumors, find dungeons, kill monsters.

I don't mind the questions at all! If there's anything else you'd like to know, go ahead and ask.
 

Empary

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I can do testing, if by testing you mean playing game normally and reporting bugs, and maybe drop short review
 

Baron Dupek

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FINALly indie went into 3D phase, took some sweet time to reach that point...
 

Stokowski

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Hmmm... Octopath, Septaroad ... I wonder if anyone is developing a game called Hexavenue or Pentalane?
 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I don't think that they will. There are already three Octopath Traveler games.
 

Nathaniel3W

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I can do testing, if by testing you mean playing game normally and reporting bugs, and maybe drop short review
Sent you a message!

Hmmm... Octopath, Septaroad ... I wonder if anyone is developing a game called Hexavenue or Pentalane?
Possibly. Maybe also Nonaboulevard. Hopefully I grabbed the last usable combination though.

is it ok from a legal standpoint to name it like that? people will assume it’s a sequel
Haven't gotten a cease-and-desist yet, so hopefully I'm OK. Also, it's not like you can just trademark every possible combination of numbers of people on a road.

I don't think that they will. There are already three Octopath Traveler games.
Really? I only know about Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler II. Is there a 3 out or in development? I hadn't heard about that.
 

Abu Antar

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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I can do testing, if by testing you mean playing game normally and reporting bugs, and maybe drop short review
Sent you a message!

Hmmm... Octopath, Septaroad ... I wonder if anyone is developing a game called Hexavenue or Pentalane?
Possibly. Maybe also Nonaboulevard. Hopefully I grabbed the last usable combination though.

is it ok from a legal standpoint to name it like that? people will assume it’s a sequel
Haven't gotten a cease-and-desist yet, so hopefully I'm OK. Also, it's not like you can just trademark every possible combination of numbers of people on a road.

I don't think that they will. There are already three Octopath Traveler games.
Really? I only know about Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler II. Is there a 3 out or in development? I hadn't heard about that.
Mobile game.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
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Looking good! My only gripe is the AI portraits, which look a bit odd.

Also, unlike probably some other posters here, I like the concept of real-time. The only issue is the AI has to be relatively decent.
 

Nathaniel3W

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Released!

Sepatroad Voyager. It's like a Warcraft raid for people who have no friends.
CultistDungeon.gif



SeptaroadMeme.jpg




If you buy one video game today, buy Diablo IV. If you buy two video games today, buy Septaroad Voyager.
Demon-scaled.jpg


Enjoy some other gifs!

SeptaroadZombies.gif

CactusKids.gif

Skullbirds.gif

This last one I thought was kind of funny because I wasn't expecting the loot to get launched like that.

So the game has been released. Now all I can do is sit back and see what happens... Unless I get a lot of questions from Twitter or on Steam. Then I respond to the community. But besides that, I'm going to take a breather for now. And I'll get back to patching later.
 

Jinn

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Think you're selling yourself short with the Blizzard comparisons and self-deprecation. I'd play this over Diablo IV or godawful WoW any day. Congrats on the early access release! I'll be waiting until 1.0 before I can throw in my support, as I don't touch EA for the most part these days, but I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread.
 

Nathaniel3W

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looks interesting. any plans for a demo?
No demo planned. I've actually read a lot of people saying that demos hurt sales. I know that players like them, but from a business perspective it's not worth putting in the effort.

If you think you might be interested, you could buy the game, play it for an hour, and if you don't like it you can get a refund.
 

Kaivokz

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Nathaniel3W Observations while playing the early access.

Bugs:
  • When switching from female to male, "textField" displays in the Bangs Color section of character creation.
    vyjqnuK.jpg
  • On 21:9 resolution (playing at 3440x1440) left click menu is off of the screen. When I switch to a 16:9 resolution, the box is even farther off of the screen.
    sfxvTUy.jpg
  • Character gets stuck on environment when trying to attack. Some enemies seem to get stuck in environment as well, which prevents attacks
Thoughts:
  • You are allowed to target yourself with attacks, which is fun.
  • Music is nice. I like the percussive focus of the battle track I encountered. Reminds me a bit of Carl Palmer covering Prokofiev. The exploration tracks are good.
  • Having no idle animations on enemies in a real-time game is a bit weird looking, but overall I thought the attack animations were nice.
  • The character(s) you're not controlling run all around the map aggro'ing everything. If this is world of warcraft for people who have no friends, I wish my fake friends were at least competent enough to stand still when there are aggressive mobs all around.
  • No ability to toggle tactics off on the fly? Or I missed it, but it would be nice if it was toggle-able party-wide so that you could run by enemies without tactics settings causing your characters to attack anything they see (unless "in combat" is a tactic unlocked later, but I think that should be a basic game mechanic, not something you need to unlock).
  • Even if the menu were on the screen at ultrawide resolutions, having your cursor in the bottom left of the screen to select combat options is cumbersome. I think having it be a context menu where you click would be nice or at least having more control over where the combat menu is. I switched to a controller because the m&kb controllers were too awkward. Controller worked well, except that (1) need to push down or up before selecting an option is also awkward, should just default to the top option, at least for regular interactions like accepting quests and (2) scrolling through menus on a controller was slow.
  • The quest conversation presentation is bit awkward. I think a more traditional "dialogue" appearance would be better.
    K1XIjbD.jpg
Need to stop for tonight, but I see potential for some fun with character building and tactics settings depending on the types of combat encounters that you've built. I think the Octopath crowd might be a bit offput by the fact that the characters are customized rather than with set personalities.
 

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