Game News The Age of Decadence Released

[t]

Vault Dweller Elhoim have you guys ever tested this game with 120Hz monitors? The game only detects 60Hz and 75Hz :/

I'll have to use RefreshLock to force it. Mouse is a bit laggy too, software cursor ?

Mouse has been reported, but not fixed yet.

 

[Straight elf]

No. 19 on the top selling list, ahead of ass creed III and Witcher DLC.

 

[likaq]

unfortunately abortion know as fallout 4 is in top 10

 

[HanoverF]

Its seems like only yesterday Age of Decadence was only a gleam in VDs eye... oh wait, no, it was like 10 fucking years ago.


Grats to everyone involved.

 

[Starwars]

Maybe someone with Twitter could reach out to some gaming celebrities, if it has not been done already. Maybe Fargo, Avellone, Sawyer and some others could give it a tweet?

 

[catfood]

Nice! But I think I'll wait for the Enhanced Director's Cut Edition.

 

[Azalin]

The Age of Decadence Released

Checking the calendar...wtf it's Wednesday...

 

[Tormented Seph]

 

[Kilus]

Maybe someone with Twitter could reach out to some gaming celebrities, if it has not been done already. Maybe Fargo, Avellone, Sawyer and some others could give it a tweet?

I sent Fargo a Tweet but it looks like he is busy or doing coke or something.

 

[likaq]

I still can't believe that this release is real...
After all these years...
King of incline has come...

 

[t]

18th on the steam bestseller list and going only up.

 

[DashiDMV]

I still can't believe that this release is real...
After all these years...
King of incline has come...

This is awesome but the true King of Incline is being worked on in an bunker somewhere is Aus as we speak.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Maybe someone with Twitter could reach out to some gaming celebrities, if it has not been done already. Maybe Fargo, Avellone, Sawyer and some others could give it a tweet?

Think Bee has been on it:

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

TToN just announced the release on their Facebook page.

 

[Infinitron]

TToN just announced the release on their Facebook page.

That would be the doing of one of these fine gentlemen:

 

[lisac2k]

Congrats on the release, ITS!

Purchased already several weeks ago, hope the game sells well... Anyway

Now, onto some serious cRPG-ing...

 

[Ogg]

Wasteland 2: Super Mega Atomic Bad Camera Edition
Twitcher 3: Looking for Shani's Pussy DLC
AOD: Vaporware Sublimation

Too many (very different) RPG at once. And of course last week I had so much free time I spent a dozen hours on Mad Max whereas now I have a hard time finding a single hour to play any of these. And it's not even thursday! Scheisse!

 

[Melcar]

So where is the fucking review already? Can't believe nobody has beat the game yet. Decline indeed.

 

[oldmanpaco]

So this is my first full price steam purchase in years. Better be good.

So where is the fucking review already? Can't believe nobody has beat the game yet. Decline indeed.

I also am waiting for the Vault Dweller review.

 

[Neckbeard Shitlord]

Congratulations to them. I had actually forgotten the game existed til I saw this post. Finally, it is released. Now all we need is Grimoire release.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

I think Hiver offered to do a review but he needs to be freed from Prosperland first

 

[garren]

Gratz mates. Will buy this to support you, continue making more awesome games.

 

[undecaf]

Hey, already at #6 in GOG. Last I checked it was somewhere closer to #20.

Congrats VD and ITS. Looking very much forward to playing this.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Congrats, guys!

 

[Infinitron]

I wonder how many people saw this: http://steamcommunity.com/games/aod/announcements/detail/79169731941085705

Released!

The Age of Decadence, our first but hopefully not the last RPG, is now available. If you've been following it or playing it in Early Access, you know what to expect (if you did play an earlier version, please delete prefs.cs file from your Documents/My Games/Age of Decadence folder before starting a new game). If you've just discovered it, "stay awhile and listen".

The most commonly asked question is:

What Kind of Game Is It?

It’s a very different game than anything you’ve ever played. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the RPG genre hasn’t really been explored yet and most RPGs follow the formula that didn’t change in 20 years. While there were always games that strayed off the beaten path – Darklands, Planescape: Torment, King of Dragon Pass – such games were the exceptions that only reinforced the rule.

The Age of Decadence is an experiment, an attempt to explore a different direction, taking you back to the PnP roots of the genre. It doesn’t mean that the game is awesome. In fact, there is a good chance that you won’t like it, precisely because we took too many liberties with the established design.

So What Sets The Age of Decadence Apart From Other Games?

1. The Setup

Traditionally, many fantasy RPGs are about killing things, clearing up dungeons, and being a hero. There is nothing wrong with mindless fun and wish fulfillment, but we want to offer you something different. To quote Tom Chick (Quarter to Three's game critic):

"But Age of Decadence wants nothing to do with kobolds, just as it wants nothing to do with Doo-dads of Unimaginable Power. The overarching idea is a crumbling society divided among three noble Houses, each fumbling around in its own version of darkness to comprehend what destroyed the world. That’s the central mystery. It plays out like noir in that you are the detective, piecing together what really happened from differing accounts, all vividly written with clear voices and efficient prose. And like a detective in a noir yarn, you can’t help but become part of the central mystery, effecting an outcome you might not have intended."

The Age of Decadence is not a game about killing monsters or exploring mystical lands, but rather, surviving amid the greed and brutality of your fellow humans and carving out a name for yourself. Good and bad are purely relative. It’s a world of scheming and backstabbing in which your words and actions have the potential to forge alliances and sow discord, and your path is never certain.

You get to play with seven different factions: three Noble Houses and four 'professional' guilds: merchants, assassins, thieves, and the army, all fighting for power or influence; over 100 named characters, over 750 ‘generic’ characters with unique IDs taking part in violent take-overs, assassinations, and power grabs, and over 600,000 words of dialogue: a well-developed and thought through world, believable characters, realistic motivations, but no elves, dwarves, magic, and wizards in fashionable, pointy hats.

2. Combat difficulty

Another design aspect worth mentioning is combat difficulty. It’s a hard game.

Combat difficulty is integrated into the setting. You can’t say that the world is harsh and unforgiving and then let the player kill everyone who looks at him or her funny. The game has to be hard, dying should be easy, and you should have reasons to pick your fights.

You aren’t a powerful hero who can defeat anyone and save the world and it is the difficulty that reinforces this notion. Make the game easier and we’re back to the powerful hero setup. So unless you’re a natural born killer, watch what you say and think before you act or you’ll end up dead before you can blink.

3. Choices & Consequences

Choices are what the game is all about - crafting your own narrative via a variety of choices that alter the story, playing field, and your options down the road. From multiple quest solutions to branching questlines you'll have plenty decisions to make and consequences of said decisions to deal with, which is what makes the game incredibly replayable.

Starting the game as a mercenary and joining the Imperial Guards will give a completely different experience, different quests, different content and points of view than, say, playing the game as a merchant (less buying low and selling high, more scheming and plotting to gain advantages for the guild), a praetor serving a Noble House, or an assassin.

The questlines are interwoven, forming a large, overarching story, so playing the game only once will be like witnessing events from a single perspective, which is limited by default. You will have to play the game several times to better understand what’s going on, piece everything together, and see the full effect of the choices you make.

The Big Question: Should You Buy The Game?

Try before you buy. Even if everything I said sounds exactly like your kind of game, try the demo first. That’s what it’s there for. It gives you access to the first Chapter, consisting of 3 locations and about 30 quests split between mutually exclusive questlines and decisions.

What's Next?

• We'll continue supporting the game and paying attention to your suggestions and concerns (as long as they fit the core of the game). During the next 3 months we'll work on extra content because why not? I dislike DLCs, so we won't charge anything for all extra content related to the game.
• Our short-term project is a party-based dungeon crawler set in the AoD world. One of the characters mentions a prison-mine called The Second Chance and you'll be given an opportunity to escape it or die trying. This game will use the existing assets and systems.
• Our long-term (i.e. a full scale RPG) project is a "generation ship" game, inspired by Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. We're aiming to create a different experience with the same core ('hardcore', TB, C&C).

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported us over the years. We wouldn't have made it this far without you.