KickStarter Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones - a Lovecraftian Computer RPG

[Ninjerk]

Where's Cthuldo?

 

[Roqua]

Greetings Roqua. You will be creating one main character at the beginning of the game. Some backgrounds to choose from will be Soldier, Academician, Performer, Investigator and many more... Your can obtain two more companions for your party of three. Some of these companions will have invaluable benefits to your campaign while others will turn against you and will have other less than pleasant surprises in store for your character. It will all depend on how you handle your Belief systems, quests, dialogues and actions. You can let them join or you can let them go at certain times and places in the game. These actions will also have their positive and negative consequences. Some of these npcs will be quite human, others will the otherworldly. It all depends on where you want to take the game with your strategies and roleplaying. The number of "party-available" npcs are in abundance as you can see. But you need to progress in the game to see and experience all of them. As for the portraits, there will be many many more portraits once the game hits the demo stages. There is going to be something for everyone. We will even offer adapdations and interpretations of user/backer portraits if we reach our stretch goals in the Kickstarter campaign. So you can have any portrait you wish in the game if you are the backer of the appropriate kickstarter package. Our game is not a armor heavy game. Sometimes your protection will be supplied from the most unconventional and unorthodox of items, so do not expect "combat armor mk II" style power combat elements. Think of charms, talismans, jewelry, arcane technological items, futuristic steampunk inventions. Anything and everything to get your imagination going. It's the 1920's rural U.S.A. after all and besides; "What dimension are we in right now?". Your equipment slots will be numerous, do not worry about it. Think of it as an adventure game. You will be doing some stacking for crafting certain items and inventions but you won't be arranging everyone's equipment for 2 hours before you go into a big combat. However, it certainly will not be lite or casual. There will be plenty of inventory strategy and identification/research on many items your character does not understand or does not know what it's used for. I hope your questions are answered. Thank you for your time and feedback. Keep'em comin'.

This looks awesome. One question - you stated we create characters. Does this mean we create two of the three party members or just one? Do you have to take your companions or can I create three of my own?

Lastly, I hate to sound superficial, but lately I have been into portraits and downloading portrait packs and installing them into games. A few of the portraits I see look decent, but more would be better. I doubt portrait packs will work since it seems the portraits are the pictures of the character's onscreen. I like tough looking guys with angry faces, preferably not white but not ridiculously stereotypical dark blacks with big lips and afros. Since this is Lovecraft maybe a well muscled guy in a shadows with an angry face with an ambiguous race? Tough, mean looking, not scrawny, no weird facial hair, that is the ticket. No long haired hippies either. Also, maybe a guy with a crazy, unkempt and non-groomed wild beard sounds kind of fitting.

Also, how many equipment slots will there be? Please don't go rpg-lite in the equipment slot and itemization department.

Sounds great. Thanks for the reply. I don't care about types of equipment slots, as long as there aren't just a couple or three with boring, linearly progressed item upgrades. What you are saying sounds pretty substantial so I am happy and you have yourself a fanboy and backer. When is the kickstarter opening?

 

[Scrawled]

NEW SCREENSHOT!!!

Acolyte of the unfathomable. Do you dare enter its' den?

http://www.stygianthegame.com

 

[CptMace]

Although I don't really like the art style or the background nor the one of the char models, I do actually love the strange perspective the gap between them gives us.
Feels like the characters are out of place, it's a cool effect for a lovecraft game imo.

 

[vivec]

This game looks quite promising! Looking forward to the Kickstarter to unveil a few more details. The music also has a Prince of Persia vibe. Loved it.

https://youtu.be/tuRzQfuWcnU

 

[tormund]

I love how your screenshots looked so far, but you REALLY need shadows for you characters and NPCs.

 

[Scrawled]

NEW SCREENSHOT!!! This is the picture that I meant to share 8 hours ago. But I can't edit my own posts after a while? Anyway...

 

[Kem0sabe]

How is the transition between outside and building interiors? Fast loads, seamless, all buildings accessible?

 

[Hobo Elf]

I like it.

 

[Scroo]

I really like the description box on the lower right

 

[Ellef]

Watching with interest. I hope it's filled with lots of lose-lose slightly less scenarios rather than typical RPG fanfare. I'm pretty much blinded by Lovecraftian and turnbased atm.

 

[Hegel]

Lovecraft's works are public domain, right? Why so few CRPGs?

 

[nikolokolus]

Lovecraft's works are public domain, right? Why so few CRPGs?

The majority of Lovecraft's protagonists face cosmic horrors that destroy their minds. If the best you can hope for is not going insane, it sort of runs counter to the the CRPG tradition of piling up numbers and getting better/tougher through experience.

I've always felt that his short stories and novels translate best to adventure games or perhaps rogue-likes.

 

[thesheeep]

Yes, there are not many games out there that do not focus on your overcoming everything, eventually.

 

[Ellef]

The first one that does can have all my shekels

 

[lightbane]

The majority of Lovecraft's protagonists face cosmic horrors that destroy their minds. If the best you can hope for is not going insane, it sort of runs counter to the the CRPG tradition of piling up numbers and getting better/tougher through experience.

That doesn't necessarily mean you can't do both. Your character can acquire forbidden knowledge that nearly shatters his mind, but obtains in exchange a fragment of the power of the Old Ones and things like that. What's most likely the reason why Lovecraft doesn't get many games is because they require effort: you can't do a walking simulator and call it a day (actually, it could be done, a Dear Esther with horror and tentacles), nor a shitty pixelated platformer. More importantly, Lovecraft's stories are 100% inadequate in nowadays' politically correct and easily triggered society.

 

[mondblut]

In Stygian you gain combat XP according to the amount of damage you deal to the enemy entities, you do not have to eliminate them to become stronger.

In b4 grinding on monsters w/health regen and/or healing an enemy between attacks

The text window is really tiny for the amount of text it is supposed to show. If using a scrollbar is mandatory at all times, u r doin it rong.

 

[Snorkack]

I love rpg's and I love Lovecraftian horror, but I think there's a reason we don't see those two combined together that often. Seeing those screenshots and picturing how I'd duke it out turnbased on a Homm-style hex map with Shoggoths I just can't imagine how this evokes a suspension that is even remotely like Dark Corners of the Earth.

 

[lightbane]

IIRC DCoftE started with appropriated "low-key horror", but also ended up in a big over-the-top note, with the main character acquiring a laser machinegun with infinite ammo from the Elder Race, then killing Hydra, countless Deep Ones and even Dagon.

 

[Snorkack]

Right, the game got pretty bad a few hours in. But they absolutely nailed the atmosphere in the early game, the mechanics play a strong part there. 1st person view, lack of interface, hallucinating,... I just don't see how this could translate to turn-based isometric view in any way.

 

[tormund]

That Cyanide Call of Cthulhu game looked like it might scratch DCoftE itch during early announcements, but that too is going to be a some sort of party based RPG so I don't see that happening (even if they keep mentioning immersion, stealth and adventure/investigation elements).

 

[Lhynn]

ITT people thinking lovecraft themed RPGs dont get made for any other reason that they dont have elves.

 

[Scrawled]

This is strange Karnak. Actually we're working on a game system called "Angst". In Stygian, choosing the moral or the mutually beneficial path is sometimes the toughest. On your journey you'll be losing things one by one, your comrades, your sanity and your moral values. This reflects to the mechanics as "Angst" system in Stygian. Your pain and despair collects like a sort of black experience throughout the game and with Angst, you can gain access to unique perks like "Masochism" which grants you a small amount of sanity whenever you take physical damage. Thanks for the spot on recommendations. In Turkish we have a proverb which goes like "The path to reason is one."

A note from our designer:

"We'd like to share some notes about the design approach of "Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones" after reading some of your rightful concerns;

There are no giant tentacle fights or ludicrous hyper boss fights or sorts in the game.

We do not endorse player in to fighting. If it happens to be the last choice, the primary goal will be escaping the battle with minimal damage after wearing out the enemy to a certain level.

Stygian embraces the design philosophy of "enduring", instead of winning. If you are alive and sane (or almost) be content.

It will be very difficult to eliminate enemies like the Star Spawn or the Dark Young but those creatures aren't so rare anymore after the Black Day which refers to the wake of the Old Ones.

In Stygian you gain combat XP according to the amount of damage you deal to the enemy entities, you do not have to eliminate them to become stronger.

Are those hard design choices? Yes. Will this withhold us from trying our best to create the tightest experience? We're working our asses off on this Thanks for your valuable feedback!"



Can Oral
Lead Designer
Cultic Games

I think you should include some way in which the player characters could get new "powers" and abilities based on what they suffer during the game (like Darkest Dungeon).
Characters could become insane due to the chaos around them, thus getting physically stronger but also more chaotic or unable to perform other actions.
Or they could obtain magic powers, due to their meddling in ocult studies. But that same occult knowledge would transform their bodies and minds, making them less human and more "other things".

In the end, we could get an entire party of "heroes" which would be more cosmic horrors than humans. Maybe the characters could even fight against rival factions of Old Ones in order to become masters of the world.

 

[Scrawled]

Greetings Kem0sabe. Most of the intact buildings (or dwellings) will be accessible. The loading time depends on the size of the location but since Stygian does not require a performance PC, we can say that they'll be pretty fast on most computers. The interior camera will be a bit more zoomed than the exterior which will create an adventure-like atmosphere indoors, especially in locations like the mob controlled bar "The Old Eel".

How is the transition between outside and building interiors? Fast loads, seamless, all buildings accessible?

 

[Prime Junta]

The premise reminds me a bit of Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald. I actually liked that story a quite a lot.

Digging the art style. Looks like this could be a v. cool adventure/RPG hybrid. Not sure about the combat, a shotgun isn't much use against eldritch horrors if just seeing a picture of one in some forbidden book will make your face melt.