Game News Successor now available on Early Access

[Infinitron]

Tags: Playwood Project; Successor

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1284730/view/537729347429073658

Hi Everyone

The day has finally arrived. Successor has officially entered Early Access, and we couldn't be more excited to share it with you!

We've been working tirelessly over the past months to get everything ready. While there are still a few rough edges to smooth out, we're committed to addressing issues quickly and shaping the game's future based on our community's feedback and experiences.

The world of Successor is vast and ambitious. Our early access approach is to roll out the planned experience in stages. This lets us make meaningful improvements and gameplay refinements as we expand the content with the community.

Early Access content and what's planned.
Today's launch introduces our first two Lords, Lord Craig and Lady Gwenn, who rise to battle the growing corruption in the realm through a handful of handcrafted story campaigns where you will meet the Greyrose Faction, the Dregg, Blackrock Bandits, and the infamous Bloodfang sisters.

It also has an early version of Adventure Mode, where you can generate custom campaigns, explore the universe, and complete challenges to unlock equipment for future adventures.

Our first major update is already on the horizon: The Plague of Bones Campaign will introduce the Grim Legion faction and the brand-new World Event Cards system to spice up your conquest.

Until then, we hope you enjoy diving into Successor, and we can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Best regards
The Playwood Project Dev Team​

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1284730/Successor/

 

[Blaine]

Blatant over-reliance on compounds of common words—Greyrose, Blackrock, Bloodfang—all in one sentence, no less. Then again, the studio is called Playwood.

I'm sure this is the game's least-concerning fault, but I'm so damned tired of seeing compound word slop in low-effort, creatively bankrupt fantasy shovelware. It's the indirect equivalent of technobabble in science fiction. If you consult a glossary of Tolkien's works (excluding settlement or regional suffixes such as -ton, -ville, -vale, and -land), you'll find that <5% of all proper nouns and proper adjectives in his novels are compounds of common words.

Even if you include settlement/regional suffixes (such as Dunland), partially uncommon/novel compound words (such as Shadowfax or Erkenbrand), and include hyphenations (such as Middle-earth itself), still I'd estimate that <25% of proper nouns and adjectives are compounds of, or containing, common words.

Treebeard, Goldberry, Wormtongue, Greenleaf, and Blackroot (Vale) stand out as clearly being compounds of purely and indisputably common words. Each time you wish to dig up another five, you'll find it much more difficult, and will top out in the very, very low double digits among hundreds and hundreds of proper adjectives/nouns. What's more, many of these characters and places have alternative names in addition to their common compound names.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Blatant over-reliance on compounds of common words—Greyrose, Blackrock, Bloodfang—all in one sentence, no less. Then again, the studio is called Playwood.

I'm sure this is the game's least-concerning fault, but I'm so damned tired of seeing compound word slop in low-effort, creatively bankrupt fantasy shovelware. It's the indirect equivalent of technobabble in science fiction. If you consult a glossary of Tolkien's works (excluding settlement or regional suffixes such as -ton, -ville, -vale, and -land), you'll find that <5% of all proper nouns and proper adjectives in his novels are compounds of common words.

Even if you include settlement/regional suffixes (such as Dunland), partially uncommon/novel compound words (such as Shadowfax or Erkenbrand), and include hyphenations (such as Middle-earth itself), still I'd estimate that <25% of proper nouns and adjectives are compounds of, or containing, common words.

Treebeard, Goldberry, Wormtongue, Greenleaf, and Blackroot (Vale) stand out as clearly being compounds of purely and indisputably common words. Each time you wish to dig up another five, you'll find it much more difficult, and will top out in the very, very low double digits among hundreds and hundreds of proper adjectives/nouns. What's more, many of these characters and places have alternative names in addition to their common compound names.

It could be worse, we could go back in time for fantasy naming and hit things like the use of 'y' instead of 'i', introductions of random letters like 'z' and 'x' in areas where it won't make any difference phonetically and possibly my personal favourite, the random apostrophes to make names properly fantasy. Be careful what you wish for.

 

[Blaine]

It could be worse, we could go back in time for fantasy naming and hit things like the use of 'y' instead of 'i', introductions of random letters like 'z' and 'x' in areas where it won't make any difference phonetically and possibly my personal favourite, the random apostrophes to make names properly fantasy. Be careful what you wish for.

It could be worse, yes, but it could also be better.

A great start would be for English speakers to learn (or, at the very least, research) more than one language, as Tolkien did. Tolkien was a literary luminary who spent most of his life building up and elaborating upon his intricate fantasy world, and matching that (especially in his exceptionally long shadow) is pretty much out of reach. All I'm asking for is a bit of effort. I ask that of everyone alive. If you're going to do something (such as write fantasy), try to excel at it. Slop-shovelers really piss me off.

Despite the fact that I've been lurking the Codex since it was founded and posting since 2012, I have always leaned strongly toward science fiction, and developed something of an aversion to fantasy by the turn of the century due to the high slop factor it had developed over the decades. I'm not exactly a Tolkien superfan, but to this day he makes almost everyone else look like a bumbling clown when they try to write fantasy.

 

[Tyranicon]

It could be worse, we could go back in time for fantasy naming and hit things like the use of 'y' instead of 'i', introductions of random letters like 'z' and 'x' in areas where it won't make any difference phonetically and possibly my personal favourite, the random apostrophes to make names properly fantasy. Be careful what you wish for.

It could be worse, yes, but it could also be better.

A great start would be for English speakers to learn (or, at the very least, research) more than one language, as Tolkien did. Tolkien was a literary luminary who spent most of his life building up and elaborating upon his intricate fantasy world, and matching that (especially in his exceptionally long shadow) is pretty much out of reach. All I'm asking for is a bit of effort. I ask that of everyone alive. If you're going to do something (such as write fantasy), try to excel at it. Slop-shovelers really piss me off.

Despite the fact that I've been lurking the Codex since it was founded and posting since 2012, I have always leaned strongly toward science fiction, and developed something of an aversion to fantasy by the turn of the century due to the high slop factor it had developed over the decades. I'm not exactly a Tolkien superfan, but to this day he makes almost everyone else look like a bumbling clown when they try to write fantasy.

You're also comparing random indiedevs to someone who devoted his entire life to his work and is literally the most popular modern fantasy writer.

I unironically support you in this endeavor.

Keep at it.

If you're on codex in 2025 you should have hyper-elitist snob nerd takes on nerd topics. Casuals can get BTFO'd.

 

[Gahbreeil]

It could be worse, we could go back in time for fantasy naming and hit things like the use of 'y' instead of 'i', introductions of random letters like 'z' and 'x' in areas where it won't make any difference phonetically and possibly my personal favourite, the random apostrophes to make names properly fantasy. Be careful what you wish for.

It could be worse, yes, but it could also be better.

A great start would be for English speakers to learn (or, at the very least, research) more than one language, as Tolkien did. Tolkien was a literary luminary who spent most of his life building up and elaborating upon his intricate fantasy world, and matching that (especially in his exceptionally long shadow) is pretty much out of reach. All I'm asking for is a bit of effort. I ask that of everyone alive. If you're going to do something (such as write fantasy), try to excel at it. Slop-shovelers really piss me off.

Despite the fact that I've been lurking the Codex since it was founded and posting since 2012, I have always leaned strongly toward science fiction, and developed something of an aversion to fantasy by the turn of the century due to the high slop factor it had developed over the decades. I'm not exactly a Tolkien superfan, but to this day he makes almost everyone else look like a bumbling clown when they try to write fantasy.

Don't bother with mediocrepoet. BTW, care for a novel reccomendation? https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/gahbreeil-the-thread-to-discuss-the-novel.146158/

 

[Blaine]

You're also comparing random indiedevs to someone who devoted his entire life to his work and is literally the most popular modern fantasy writer.

So I said, but the developers of these games should at least apply themselves and make an effort. There is a coconut-picker somewhere in Costa Rica who's excellent at what he does. He earns next to no money, can't read, lives in a shack, but by God he can shimmy up that tree and process coconuts with a machete in no time flat, and would burn down the house of anyone who fucked with his wife or seven children. That guy actually deserves respect.

What do these people have? They can't program. The people building the game are lever-pullers, not engineers. They learn to tinker adequately with someone else's engine via a development package. They sure as shit can't write. They're not very creative. The music is generic, probably some dude messing around with a synthesizer he pirated from torrents. The art, models, and animation, well, they have to pay for that, or at least whatever they can't download from some online database. They usually don't have the gameplay, either.

It's just a bunch of people who are bad at what they do working to realize some half-baked concept, presumably to cash in. It's fucking baffling. If you aren't excellent at something, why are you trying to cobble together some mediocre bullshit no one will play? Then they all complain about how hard it is to be noticed in the indie space.

It's not difficult at all, if you meet the prerequisites. You have to have some measure of talent, expertise, creativity, technical know-how, and vision. Look at Factorio, Stardew Valley, and many other games that showcase clear expertise and talent, regardless of what one personally thinks of the game in question. Instead, 99% of the time you have a bunch of bedpan-changers and nurses with online degrees trying to be neurosurgeons.

Not every doctor can be a neurosurgeon who graduated from Harvard Medical School. Some of them just do family practice in a small city in a flyover state, and that's okay. But these people aren't even doctors, are barely even nurses in most cases. Fucking Hell.

I unironically support you in this endeavor.

Keep at it.

If you're on codex in 2025 you should have hyper-elitist snob nerd takes on nerd topics. Casuals can get BTFO'd.

You're God damned right. Shovelware is literally a waste of everyone's time on every level, so this fun rant is a great way of salvaging my lost moments of life scanning the blurb and video.

 

[Raghar]

So what I see in that video is: cards, and some kind of hex grid. I kinda remember developers in 90s that spend more effort to make freeware games.


Would it be at least as great as this?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Blatant over-reliance on compounds of common words—Greyrose, Blackrock, Bloodfang—all in one sentence, no less. Then again, the studio is called Playwood.

Next thing you know, their setting will have places named Blackmoor and Greyhawk.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Blatant over-reliance on compounds of common words—Greyrose, Blackrock, Bloodfang—all in one sentence, no less. Then again, the studio is called Playwood.

Next thing you know, their setting will have places named Blackmoor and Greyhawk.

A great start would be for English speakers to learn (or, at the very least, research) more than one language, as Tolkien did.

And Sawyer! Then we could get more delempŵgra and other fantastic creatures instead of generic garbage like dryads!

Fucking nailed it, my man.

 

[SixDead]

Sucks ass, or?

 

[Gahbreeil]

And Sawyer! Then we could get more delempŵgra and other fantastic creatures instead of generic garbage like dryads!

Fucking nailed it, my man.

Dude, come on.

He did hammer the nail on the head because you're a dummy as always. Ruukha, as seen above, is a hobgoblin. A species whose language and culture is alien to both humans and elves within the timeline of the novel I attach an image of. What does that mean? Greenwood uses both ruukha and hobgoblin in the novel, Greenwood expands the lore. Ruukha is hobgoblin in elven. Sawyer studied languages and he tried to allow the players of Pillars of Eternity to glimpse fantasy cultures and languages. I mean come on, would you rather have Mario Kart lore in an RPG or something akin Tolkien's legendarium?

Dryads, pshaw! Woodland spirits.

 

[Jaesun]

The grid combat looked pretty damn cool.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Games which return to fundamentals of the genre always interest me. They want to be combat games rather than telenovelas, which is incline. The trouble with this set piece battle map style, is that it eliminates adventure. You have no exploration. No discovery. That's a vital pillar of the RPG genre. If the combat is really good it can stand on those merits, but it's starting with a major disadvantage.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Combat looks interesting. Is this real-time-with-pause on a grid? I haven't seen that before.

 

[Zanzoken]

Blatant over-reliance on compounds of common words—Greyrose, Blackrock, Bloodfang—all in one sentence, no less. Then again, the studio is called Playwood.

I'm sure this is the game's least-concerning fault, but I'm so damned tired of seeing compound word slop in low-effort, creatively bankrupt fantasy shovelware. It's the indirect equivalent of technobabble in science fiction. If you consult a glossary of Tolkien's works (excluding settlement or regional suffixes such as -ton, -ville, -vale, and -land), you'll find that <5% of all proper nouns and proper adjectives in his novels are compounds of common words.

Even if you include settlement/regional suffixes (such as Dunland), partially uncommon/novel compound words (such as Shadowfax or Erkenbrand), and include hyphenations (such as Middle-earth itself), still I'd estimate that <25% of proper nouns and adjectives are compounds of, or containing, common words.

Treebeard, Goldberry, Wormtongue, Greenleaf, and Blackroot (Vale) stand out as clearly being compounds of purely and indisputably common words. Each time you wish to dig up another five, you'll find it much more difficult, and will top out in the very, very low double digits among hundreds and hundreds of proper adjectives/nouns. What's more, many of these characters and places have alternative names in addition to their common compound names.

This sort of bland fantasy worldbuilding might be the #1 thing that makes an RPG feel fake and gay.

Devs don't spend nearly enough time thinking about how these things work in real life. Like how language evolves, disparate cultures borrow from each other, etc.

This aspect is extremely well done in Morrowind, which I believe is why it so thoroughly captured my imagination as a youth... it felt like you were visiting a real place with real history, politics, culture, etc.

 

[Blaine]

Ravencloak emerged from the Drakewood, the Windtree Way abruptly widening beneath the soles of his emberskin boots. He was grateful to once again feel the sunshine of Meadowvale on his face; smiling, he threw back the hood of his whispersilk cloak, and touched its wraithstone clasp for good luck. (He didn't light his bumblebriar pipe to have a puff, because smoking is bad, unlike solo-hiking through a haunted forest populated by eldritch abominations.)

With a feral but very relatable and human roar, a vibrant and promising Redmane orc suddenly burst from the underbrush nearby, brandishing a palesteel cutlass! As he took up his Dreadstaff to mount a defense, Ravencloak paused a moment to chide himself for suspecting that the cutlass might have been stolen or looted from some unfortunate traveler. Cursing himself for his problematic prejudices, Ravencloak considered that perhaps the Redmane intended the palesteel cutlass as a gift.

Ravencloak died with a smile on his face, knowing that at least he wouldn't die a bigot. The Redmane orc probably deserved his emberskin boots, whispersilk cloak, wraithstone clasp, bumblebriar pipe, and Dreadstaff more than he did, anyway, due to the Steelmarch Empire's long history of colonialist expansionism.

 

[damager]

Games which return to fundamentals of the genre always interest me. They want to be combat games rather than telenovelas, which is incline. The trouble with this set piece battle map style, is that it eliminates adventure. You have no exploration. No discovery. That's a vital pillar of the RPG genre. If the combat is really good it can stand on those merits, but it's starting with a major disadvantage.

I agree. It is possible to have these elements of exploration and adventure on the world/travel map though. Realms of Arkania did this really good, with it's unique events and locations you could discover. And systems to overcome obstacles and solve quests or do activities like hunting and foraging, all with your characters skills on the worldmap.

 

[damager]

Combat looks interesting. Is this real-time-with-pause on a grid? I haven't seen that before.

That would actually solve quite a few problems RTWP has. Pretty smart idea.

 

[Blaine]

There's been a solution to RTwP's problems for thousands of years, and that is turn-based gameplay. RTwP was a "solution" to a "problem," and the problem was that studios wanted faster gameplay with flashier graphics and animations to sell more copies to wider audiences. It has to be "with pause" because otherwise you're left with the manageable tactical depth of an action game.

There's only one cRPG that gets a full RTwP pass, and that is Darklands, because Darklands literally did it first, absent any declined motivations.

Cool! Two axes to grind in one thread! Anyway, there's no fixing RTwP, more than thirty years later. It will always be a watered-down compromise.

 

[Blaine]

Let's farm this out to ChatGPT.

Ah, perfect! We're practically ready to start working on a new fantasy indie game, and we didn't even have to write our own slop!

...Oh hey, look, a compound noun from Skyrim. How could that have happened?

 

[damager]

Nah. I'm a turn based purist. But RTWP has it's pros. Large scale battles including many player controlled auto attacking creatures for example. Something like this can be interesting, but nobody would want to do it in TB.

 

[Blaine]

Nah. I'm a turn based purist. But RTWP has it's pros. Large scale battles including many player controlled auto attacking creatures for example. Something like this can be interesting, but nobody would want to do it in TB.

Nobody seems to want to do that in RTwP, either, at least not in RPGs. It's pretty much the domain of RTS games, which oftentimes can be paused, although depending on the game you may or may not be able to issue commands while paused.

The scenarios you describe are better left to RTS games. Some even exist that are "RPG-like" or "include RPG elements."

Besides which, I could argue that it's still better to stick to turn-based, but abstract large groups of creatures into units rather than trying to simulate them all attacking inidivually, similar to many tabletop wargames, which have been around since before computers.

 

[damager]

So what? What if I want to make a game with more than 8 character party and a lot of summons and giant enemy armies or I have any other reasons to go RTWP instead of TB. Who are you to say nobody wants to do that in gaming? Are you okay old man? Need a new senility check?

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

There's only one cRPG that gets a full RTwP pass, and that is Darklands, because Darklands literally did it first, absent any declined motivations.

Cool! Two axes to grind in one thread! Anyway, there's no fixing RTwP, more than thirty years later. It will always be a watered-down compromise.

*Ahem*