The RPG Renaissance - the European Third Wave

[just]

eu got fed up with american rpgs and decided to make their own.
in the end unity free asset packs and a bunch of russians give you a better game for $20k then usa for $2m+

 

[luj1]

Underrail-type amateur efforts that take a decade to complete.

Underrail began development as a real-time game called Timelapse Vertigo in 2008, finally released in late 2015, expansion released in 2019.

No one even heard of Underrail/Timelapse Vertigo before 2010 you cuck. So you're looking at a period of 5 years, not 10 (expansion in 2019 doesn't matter).

Also for calling it an amateur effort you deserve to be spit in the face.

 

[AwesomeButton]

AoD/Underrail-type amateur efforts that take a decade to complete

These two games are worth playing more than PoE/Wasteland 2/D:OS combined. If these are amateur efforts, please let us have more amateurs and fewer washed out former luminaries who used to play 3rd fiddle in the development of games which in their turn happend to be good by accident some 15 years ago.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Underrail is by no means an amateur effort. Sure, it's a project made on a tiny budget by a few motivated guys, but despite those limitations, it looks and plays much better than games by Jeff Vogel - a '25 years veteran' of the genre. The variety of character builds and ways to progress through the game world is rarely equalled by more financially robust titles. And I am not talking about AAAs which are streamlined by nature.

The production values of Underrail are not bad either, if you remember what the team had to work with and how big it was. Music is especially evocative, but the visuals, while being a simple pixelart, work well due to good art direction and suggestive color palette (once again, learn, Vogel!). And ofcourse the lighting system that brings life to the mysterious caverns and desolate rail tunnels.

After playing it for almost 50 hours so far (I still have a lot to see and do), I have to say the game is a freaking miracle. The devs really had balls of supersteel to pull it off and then do it again by providing a large expansion pack which actually feels and plays differently from the core game.

 

[V_K]

it looks and plays much better than games by Jeff Vogel - a '25 years veteran' of the genre.

To be fair to Vogel, if he operated on a 7-year development cycle, who knows how his games would turn out.

 

[Lord_Potato]

But then he would have to move to Serbia, to take advantage of lower living costs.

 

[Infinitron]

I call AoD & Underrail amateur efforts because they took so long to make, not because they're bad (or bad-looking) games. RPGs aren't supposed to take 7-10 years to develop. That's not the basis for a real genre resurgence.

No doubt this new wave of European RPGs could turn out to be bad or vaporware too, but right now it's a different state of affairs than what I wrote about three years ago, when it looked the only games that could make the Codex happy were either better-written popamole AAA RPGs or "amateur"/vaporware indies.

 

[AwesomeButton]

RPGs aren't supposed to take 7-10 years to develop. That's not the basis for a real genre resurgence.

I agree, but with a given development cycle come certain requirements on development team size and hence on expected returns, which expected returns dictate some design decisions, i.e. result in going for the more casual parts of the audience.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

There's also Trudograd from team that made ATOM, post-apocalyptic game from Timeslip and Cechian JA2 inspired game about CIA operations during Laotian civil war.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Underrail is by no means an amateur effort. Sure, it's a project made on a tiny budget by a few motivated guys, but despite those limitations, it looks and plays much better than games by Jeff Vogel - a '25 years veteran' of the genre. The variety of character builds and ways to progress through the game world is rarely equalled by more financially robust titles. And I am not talking about AAAs which are streamlined by nature.

The production values of Underrail are not bad either, if you remember what the team had to work with and how big it was. Music is especially evocative, but the visuals, while being a simple pixelart, work well due to good art direction and suggestive color palette (once again, learn, Vogel!). And ofcourse the lighting system that brings life to the mysterious caverns and desolate rail tunnels.

After playing it for almost 50 hours so far (I still have a lot to see and do), I have to say the game is a freaking miracle. The devs really had balls of supersteel to pull it off and then do it again by providing a large expansion pack which actually feels and plays differently from the core game.

i am most impressed tbh with underrail's lighting system, that in principle very simple. that a light source just modigy the % of brightness/hue of a tile, but the result is amazing. they made something that looks it have dynamic lighting even if it's just tile. something like fire have different color than say, lamps or electricity, flares etc.

the art direction, especially in the DLC is fantastic.

 

[Curratum]

I call AoD & Underrail amateur efforts because they took so long to make, not because they're bad (or bad-looking) games.

But they ARE bad-looking...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

With regards to development time, it's not fair to begin counting from when the game originally began being "worked on"
Many of these projects sit in design and pre-production phase for years until real development begins.

 

[JDR13]

it looks and plays much better than games by Jeff Vogel - a '25 years veteran' of the genre.

To be fair to Vogel, if he operated on a 7-year development cycle, who knows how his games would turn out.

Probably exactly the same.

 

[Diggfinger]

These aren't low budget pixel art indies, procedurally generated roguelites, or AoD/Underrail-type amateur efforts that take a decade to complete. They all look polished and professional. Some of them are crowdfunded or will be, but many aren't. It's really an unprecedented situation for the genre. There are so many of them.

Ouch!
Someone got up on the wrong side of bed this morning? Jeez
The 'or' softens it abit but still

 

[cb.spike]

There's also Trudograd from team that made ATOM, post-apocalyptic game from Timeslip and Cechian JA2 inspired game about CIA operations during Laotian civil war.

Any more details about the "JA2 inspired game"? Name or who is working on it?

 

[Makabb]

eu got fed up with american rpgs and decided to make their own

and not a single one managed to capture the spirit of baldur's gate or fallout 1, or try replicating the complexity of daggerfall, not mentioning surpassing them.

 

[Rahdulan]

Well, it's not like US was entirely out of the loop.

I felt like Serpent in the Staglands slipped through the cracks for many and Copper Dreams is still pending.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i didn't know about timelapse vertigo, but googling it made me found this old ass video (2010 is considered old ass now, yes)



i think not much of the game really changes, with the graphics (thankfully) revamped. the system, even feats name, etc are identical to underrail.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

i didn't know about timelapse vertigo, but googling it made me found this old ass video (2010 is considered old ass now, yes)



i think not much of the game really changes, with the graphics (thankfully) revamped. the system, even feats name, etc are identical to underrail.

Oh, and so you know, I heard about it on RPGWatch. Maybe you could get the guys at RockPaperShotgun interested in it. They reach a rather wide audience of PC Gamers. I've discovered a lot of cool indie games via their site.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

There's also Trudograd from team that made ATOM, post-apocalyptic game from Timeslip and Cechian JA2 inspired game about CIA operations during Laotian civil war.

Any more details about the "JA2 inspired game"? Name or who is working on it?

Not much since they're not officially announced it yet.
These guys are making it:http://www.alchemist.gg/

They got some prototype secreenshots and videos on their discord with "do not distribute" -markings.
https://discord.gg/e8bcEKB
Sending folks to their discord is apparently ok.

 

[V_K]

i didn't know about timelapse vertigo, but googling it made me found this old ass video (2010 is considered old ass now, yes)



i think not much of the game really changes, with the graphics (thankfully) revamped. the system, even feats name, etc are identical to underrail.

Yeah, and given that it's a single-character game, I'm not sure if it wouldn't have been better off RTwP...

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I forgot to mention Stirring Abyss.

 

[turkishronin]

Ok so which one of the third wave RPGs are actually good

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Ok so which one of the third wave RPGs are actually good

Looks good tier:
Encased

Keep an eye on tier:
Solasta

Looks bad tier:
Everything else

Stabbed in the back tier:
Realms Beyond

 

[turkishronin]

Encased

What's with Russians and their love for nuclear wastelands