Indie Urtuk: The Desolation - open-world dark fantasy turn-based RPG

[Abu Antar]

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://madsheepstudios.itch.io/urtuk-the-desolation/devlog/66531/worlds-lore-karwla

World's lore & Karwla


In Urtuk, the world is an old, destroyed and hostile place. Centuries ago, after the Giants' Extinction, a conflict arose because of the new Trilium resource - a mysterious liquid from the remains of the dead Giants. Since then, this valuable extract has been used to improve physics and health and for all kind of drugs.

There were 4 main factions which inhabited the world - pesky Scavengers, mutated Swampers, proud Valdor Empire, and mysterious Necrons (we might change the name because of Warhammer 40K universe).

Besides all of these, a new hostile race emerges from the Undergrounds - the Karwla.
Little is known about the Karwla, but rumor is that once they were normal people living under the surface and mutated to insect-humanoid species.

When player begins his journey, the Karwla becomes active and erupts to surface, devouring everything in its way.. The appearance of this species expands from zone to zone and player must take great attention to where he wants to go next to avoid the hostility of Karwla.

Karwla continues to expand from west to east within world, the exact way how the player travels.In other words, the player is forced to move quickly to east but he might revisit old locations or even travel to undiscovered nodes back even when occupied by Karwla.

By normal circumstances, the difficulty of the enemy in the current player's zone is balanced but the Karwla is much more harder to defeat. So it poses a great risk for any encounter with this hostile species.

Picture below show our current world map visuals:

The player travels from location to location and can do this in any direction. But as the time goes on, Karwla might spawn in spots expanding from west to east. The player can of course meet those pesky creatures on battlefield, but the odds will be always against him! So plan accordingly!

Karwla seems to take pretty much the same role as Rebel fleet in FTL.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Karwla seems to take pretty much the same role as Rebel fleet in FTL.

yes, the inspiration is there, but we also intend to let the Karwla evolve around the world, and add specific quests based on this species..

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Darth Canoli]

Found the demo before the thread and just finished testing it.

This is the shit !
Art-style is good obviously but the combat seems quite basic in the first seconds.

After that, enter the damage bonus from higher ground, swap places with allies, crits, seems better already.
Then, the achievements skills kick-in.

But that's not it, on the second battle (demo i tried has 3), you're introduced to the spearman and ranged support.
And then, all the skills you acquire while fighting and can use on any ally.
Then the crossbowman (i prefer the spearman) and the "blood" mage ...

TDLR : The combat is brilliant ! Good sound effects, fast animations, tactical options and a terrain you can use to your advantage.

Amazing work, didn't play such a good tactical game in years, can't wait to see the character development.

Official website : http://www.urtuk.com/

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Found the demo before the thread and just finished testing it.

This is the shit !
Art-style is good obviously but the combat seems quite basic in the first seconds.

After that, enter the damage bonus from higher ground, swap places with allies, crits, seems better already.
Then, the achievements skills kick-in.

But that's not it, on the second battle (demo i tried has 3), you're introduced to the spearman and ranged support.
And then, all the skills you acquire while fighting and can use on any ally.
Then the crossbowman (i prefer the spearman) and the "blood" mage ...

TDLR : The combat is brilliant ! Good sound effects, fast animations, tactical options and a terrain you can use to your advantage.

Amazing work, didn't play such a good tactical game in years, can't wait to see the character development.

Official website : http://www.urtuk.com/

Thanks a lot for your warm words - it makes me quite happy We have been designing the battle mechanics for 3 years now, and every day we focus to improve it and balance it.
FYI - this week we publish our closed beta - with the campaign (overworld map, character development, party managment, quests, ..), so if you're interested let me know, I'll ping you when we're ready.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Of course i am

Can't help but notice you seem to be the dev (if it's not obvious enough with your posts) having the same nickname as the dev on the itchio forum.

Infinitron Who should we ping to get this gentleman ( MadSheepStudios ) his dev tag ?

 

[Abu Antar]

DarkUnderlord

Developer tag for MadSheepStudios

Infinitron there are two threads for this game. The other one is in RPG discussion forum. A merger would be nice.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Of course i am

Can't help but notice you seem to be the dev (if it's not obvious enough with your posts) having the same nickname as the dev on the itchio forum.

Infinitron Who should we ping to get this gentleman ( MadSheepStudios ) his dev tag ?

Perfect! And yes I am the lead of development here

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Of course i am

Alright! We just released the closed-beta
Get it here for win, macOS or linux(32/64bit):

https://mega.nz/#F!A1RAzATC!oRvh9OPOsExIi83rpUiPYQ

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Of course i am

Alright! We just released the closed-beta
Get it here for win, macOS or linux(32/64bit):

https://mega.nz/#F!A1RAzATC!oRvh9OPOsExIi83rpUiPYQ

or from itch.io:
https://madsheepstudios.itch.io/urtuk-the-desolation#download

 

[Darth Canoli]

I played the new demo you just shared for a couple of battles.

I really like these features :
+ Items that gives some passive skills with limited slots (support strike, inflict bleed on crit, etc. )
+ Can't remember the name of the beasts spawning on a cleared area after some time, tough bastards, great fight
+ Seems like char dev isn't going to break the game balance, that's a good thing

It would be nice to see these features in your game :

• Boss fights, some well designed boss here and there, might be something for later though.
• Demi-bosses spawning randomly, = regular monsters with a different color (skin/size would be a bonus but it's not really necessary), more skills and maybe a boost in HP/stats like +25% to +50%.
• Some small villages / hubs / whatever with some NPC interactions, doesn't have to be bigger than one screen.

From your feedback sheet i guess you're planning to add more enemies variety and battlescapes at some point, it wouldn't hurt either even if i have a lot of fun with the current build.

I just freed 2 prisoners though, maybe some of it is already awaiting ahead.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

I played the new demo you just shared for a couple of battles.

I really like these features :
+ Items that gives some passive skills with limited slots (support strike, inflict bleed on crit, etc. )
+ Can't remember the name of the beasts spawning on a cleared area after some time, tough bastards, great fight
+ Seems like char dev isn't going to break the game balance, that's a good thing

It would be nice to see these features in your game :

• Boss fights, some well designed boss here and there, might be something for later though.
• Demi-bosses spawning randomly, = regular monsters with a different color (skin/size would be a bonus but it's not really necessary), more skills and maybe a boost in HP/stats like +25% to +50%.
• Some small villages / hubs / whatever with some NPC interactions, doesn't have to be bigger than one screen.

From your feedback sheet i guess you're planning to add more enemies variety and battlescapes at some point, it wouldn't hurt either even if i have a lot of fun with the current build.

I just freed 2 prisoners though, maybe some of it is already awaiting ahead.

We have already bosses - in each zone, the final node is a unique boss fight.
We also have 'elite' monsters in place - they are re-skinned/altered visually of their regular types but are much more powerful.
At the end of zone - there is a hub, actually a shop

 

[Darth Canoli]

Well done then, i'll test it further soon

A couple more things i wrote down but forgot to mention.

+ Backstab, i know it's common but it's nice to have it
+ Interesting AI, it doesn't walk on traps, try to avoid to be hit from higher ground while going for the most wounded or vulnerable character. It's not perfect but honestly, if it had a human skill level, it'd just be a nightmare, it's nice to play the small AI flaws.

Things that aren't that common, even rare to non-existent and i really like :

+ Bonuses from higher ground, it really rules the game-play and makes you fight to get the better position
+ An enemy you push on an ally doesn't harm your ally and your ally retaliates on the unfortunate enemy

Really makes it a modern innovative tactical cRPG.

Other ideas i withheld :

• Is there some support xp ? The mage is way behind already.
• It would be nice to be able to move past an ally for 3PM (or 3PM min but all your PM) when there's no way around and maybe no enemy control zone to cross
• Or to have a class with some mobility moves besides the swap position one.

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Well done then, i'll test it further soon

A couple more things i wrote down but forgot to mention.

+ Backstab, i know it's common but it's nice to have it
+ Interesting AI, it doesn't walk on traps, try to avoid to be hit from higher ground while going for the most wounded or vulnerable character. It's not perfect but honestly, if it had a human skill level, it'd just be a nightmare, it's nice to play the small AI flaws.

Things that aren't that common, even rare to non-existent and i really like :

+ Bonuses from higher ground, it really rules the game-play and makes you fight to get the better position
+ An enemy you push on an ally doesn't harm your ally and your ally retaliates on the unfortunate enemy

Really makes it a modern innovative tactical cRPG.

Other ideas i withheld :

• Is there some support xp ? The mage is way behind already.
• It would be nice to be able to move past an ally for 3PM (or 3PM min but all your PM) when there's no way around and maybe no enemy control zone to cross
• Or to have a class with some mobility moves besides the swap position one.

thanks!
Today I've added support XP. You and other testers were right with Priest under-leveling..
Warmonk is a class which can jump over objects/characters, he even has an ability to flip any enemy behind him

 

[Darth Canoli]

Wow, i hope you get to add a couple of amazing tracks and some story-telling and quests, your game has a huge potential.

 

[YanBG]

Sounds pretty good! Nice combination of words in the title

 

[MadSheepStudios]

Wow, i hope you get to add a couple of amazing tracks and some story-telling and quests, your game has a huge potential.

There are already quests in battles, mainly from second zone onwards. The first zone is kind of 'easy going' so without any quests.. We implement the quests in a world aware fashion, meaning the outcome of quests will have furhter impact on world events and other quests.

 

[Alienman]

My mind read the name as "Urturk", which would mean proto Turk in Swedish

 

[MadSheepStudios]

My mind read the name as "Urturk", which would mean proto Turk in Swedish

I had hoped to come up with something which makes sense

 

[Darth Canoli]

Fought the boss, there were 2 "mini" bosses level 16 and 17 or something dealing twice the boss damage.
I was also unprepared, my party was butchered.

After a fresh start, i freed a warmonk, he's a fucking beast.

Karwla boss ?
Going straight for the boss, my party was level 2/5, i think so i traveled back to eradicate the Karwla.
When i turned back to fight the boss, Karwla had spread and it's now a Karwla boss but no mini bosses this time, far easier than the original fight (didn't fight it but previous fight was 5 vs 8 Karwla lvl 9-10 and they barely scratched anyone --> higher ground + aegis + protect an ally + offensive perks)

Some ranged Karwla and/or a fix on the Karwla boss fight might be necessary, like 3/4 Karwla mini bosses + 1/2 ranged to make it the hell it should be.

Bug ?
When Urtuk is under the barbarian focus ability (dmgx0.7 -30 or 40% current HP ) + Focus (next attack is a crit) , he gets an insane bonus damage making him hit as much as the barbarian / warmonk.
It's weird because his base damage is 42 and he can hit for 300 / 400 ...

Shield an ally
It's extremely powerful because the protector gets 0 damage and the protected one counters ...
There's something to be done to balance it, 50% damage received ? Less ?
Maybe it's tougher in the second area as you said and it's not necessary.

Screen-shot ?
The default screen key takes a screen-shot of the desktop instead of the game, is it deliberate ? Wanted to share some screens here.