Thanks guys.

Really nice and interesting. At Spain I have seen that you are making something with Indiorama

Yeah, there's a Desura key giveaway if you can come up with a cool item that would help you survive in a post-apocalyptic metro. https://www.facebook.com/events/153820201444798

New trailer video is up:

Haven't posted here for ages, but just wanted to drop by and let you guys know that there's a playable demo now: http://www.indiedb.com/games/underrail/downloads/underrail-alpha-demo-v041

The game is also purchasable in its alpha state on Desura and GamersGate.

For those who give the demo a try let me know what you thought.

Cheers.

Thanks, guys.

The green/yellow division on the action points bar: When you've used up all the green, can you no longer shoot? Of how does that work?

Yes, pretty much. Yellow points can only be used for movement, green can be used for anything.

Hi,

I'm the indie game developer currently working on an isometric indie RPG called 'Underrail' (formerly known as 'Timelapse Vertigo').

I just put up a new gameplay video for Underrail that you guys might be interested in taking a look at.





It shows a quick run through one of the early ‘dungeons’.

Here's a sample screenshot:


Regards,
Styg

Hey Martin,

Thanks for your offer, but I'm currently only looking for pre-made sound.

Best of luck.

I'm looking for a place to purchase some good sound effects for my game. I've checked out a few websites and so far I'm liking http://www.soundrangers.com the most as it has good selection of Sci-Fi sounds as well as interface sounds.

Anyone got any recommendations for other sites or sound libraries?

[Alpha 2 demo video]

Alpha 2 demo video

Check it out

.

Eric Brosius - System Shock 2

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=system+shock+2+soundtrack&aq=f

Looks good, looking forward to checking out the demo.

By the way, what mode of play will it offer: single scenarios, campaign, random maps? Will there be multiplayer?

[Removing charisma, Alpha 2 demo]

Removing charisma, Alpha 2 demo

I've decided to remove charisma from the base stats pool. I did this for two reasons:

First, currently there's only a single skill based on charisma (persuasion). While I could make the social skills more granular, that's exactly the thing I want to avoid. In fact, persuasion was originally separated into three skills, but I decided I don't want to offer too many non-combat skills as I suspect they wouldn't be used much over the combat ones anyway. Which leads me to the second reason.

I think that having a non-combat base stat in a heavily combat oriented game is bad design, and since I can't and won't incorporate charisma into combat, I'm removing it.

Persuasion will now be based on wisdom. I guess I could base it on intelligence as well, but since another social skill (mercantile) is already based on that, I think this would allow for more variety.

* * * *

In other news, I'm planning to release a playable alpha 2 demo sometimes mid to late august. It's still an alpha build, so it won't include that much: just a few missions with some dialogs, trading and combat. Below are screenshots of a few areas I was working on recently:

[The Crafting System]

I've started keeping a dev log at the game's website as well. Anything I've post there will be mirrored here as well, so use whatever is more convenient for you (here's an RSS feed as well). Anyways...


The Crafting System

When I started thinking about the crafting system for Timelapse, I knew I wanted to make something that would allow creating a great variety of items, but without getting into a situation where I’d commit to creating just a bunch of crafting blueprints for completely custom items.

So I thought that well since I’m already planning to implement a random item generation, I could leverage that in making the system more robust. So here’s how it goes:

Instead of creating a blueprint for every single item you’d be able to create, I’ll be implementing just one per every type of craftable item, such as: one for each weapon and armor type, one for every gadget / medical item, etc.

Now while some of these blueprints will define very strictly the components they need, most will just require an item of certain type and allow you to provide any variation of such. This will allow you to vary the crafted items in two ways: first, you can provide any of the subtypes of the item available, each contributing different bonuses/penalties; and secondly, the provided item can be of varying quality which allows for item scaling and, basically, reuse of the blueprint throughout the entire game by just providing the required components of greater and greater quality.



So, for example, let’s say we have a blueprint that creates leather armor from a hide of some genetically mutated beastie. So let’s also say that there are a few different types of these beasts, each of which hides provide different bonuses; and also, the quality of the hide is tied to the level of the beast itself, so as you are able to kill tougher beasts, you obtain better hides, and this allows you to make better armor.

Now let’s also add another component to this blueprint and let’s make this component optional. For example, you could be able to create an overcoat for your armor suit that would perhaps grant you some additional damage resistance, or a stealth bonus. So basically this component would also have similar variations as the first.

So you can see that adding components to a blueprint increases the number of variations of the resulting item exponentially.



As for the crafting requirements, they will be tied to the components used. So each component will have certain technology skills related to it, and the component’s quality will determine how high the skills have to be to use this component in a blueprint.

Mind you, this is not set in stone yet, and implementation details may evolve and change over time to balance it out, but the general idea will remain.

(should be listened to at the actual locale in the game for complete experience)

I'm liking the hit and run (or jump, rather) combat, but I'm not liking the platforming part. I think you'd need to have smooth and more easily controllable jumping mechanics to make that enjoyable, but we'll see how it works out with the changes you're making.

A few UI suggestions:
- the health indicators / energy bar are too big, scale them down a bit
- when you use an item from the inventory, don't show the message box that requires pressing X again unless it applies a newly discovered effect
- show the health pack count in the hud
- create a hotkey for health pack usage

Found a bug too: if you move and jump through the transition, you'll have to repress the movement key

Overall, I think the game has a nice feel to it. Looking forward to the full version.

This looks awesome. I like the GUI very much. To be honest it has way too many stats for my preference (Intelligence, Wisdom, Will AND Charisma?) but that's just me. Besides, I guess that means it will have a lot of different build paths and replayability.

Also,

real time combat.

Thanks. I'm was trying really hard to make the UI comfortable and responsive.

And yeah, the game is intended to be a bit stats heavy.

This might be fun though the plot sounds like it derives from fallout a bit much, but that might just be the post apoc setting. the sprites are also kind of meh right now, so they can be improved.

The settings should become more apparently different from that of Fallout when I get more content done. Fallout is kinda ‘industrial age nuclear apocalypse that happened in recent history’, while this will be more ‘early space age non-nuclear apocalypse that happened quite some time ago’… Hope that makes sense.

Also, the sprites are placeholders. The blockmen will not make it to production.

[Features:]

Timelapse Vertigo is an 2D isometric role-playing game, I've been working on for quite some time now. It draws inspiration from western RPG classics such as Fallout, Arcanum and Neverwinter Nights, but also borrows combat mechanics heavily from modern MMOs, such as WoW.

Features:
-    Rich character customization options through stats, skills, feats, gear, psi abilities and more.
-    Dynamic and challenging real-time combat with many special abilities
-    Procedurally generated areas as well as procedurally generated world map that, coupled with well designed custom areas, should provide great exploration experience and replay value

Story:
The game is set in a distant future, when the life on the Earth's surface has long since been made impossible and the remnants of humanity now dwell in the Underrail, a vast system of metro station-states that, it seems, are the last bastions of a fading race.

The player takes control of one of the denizens of such a station-state whose life is about to become all that much more interesting and dangerous, as our protagonist is caught amidst the conflicting factions of the Underrail as they secretly but violently struggle for the Humanity's last gem of hope.

Alpha 1 demo:
Keep in mind it's mostly placeholder graphics at this point.

You can watch badly commentated low quality videos at YouTube:








or you can download badly commentated high-quality one from here.

Playable demo coming soonish.

Also, have some screenshots.

Hi,

My name is Dejan and I have a passion for computer games, both playing them and designing/programming them. I've started game programming by learning QBasic, then moving onto C++, and now I'm coding in C# with XNA.

I'm a professional programmer. I currently work in the banking software industry, on things such as SOA, DB and integration. But my long term plan is to go full-time indie.

My current project is Timelapse Vertigo, an RPG.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys around.

[Project name:]

Project name:
Timelapse Vertigo

Brief description:
Timelapse Vertigo is an 2D isometric role-playing game, I've been working on for quite some time now. It draws inspiration from western RPG classics such as Fallout, Arcanum and Neverwinter Nights.

The main features are:
-    Rich character customization options through stats, skills, feats, gear, implants, psi abilities and more.
-    Dynamic and challenging real-time combat with many special abilities
-    Procedurally generated areas as well as procedurally generated world map that, coupled with well designed custom areas, should provide great exploration experience and replay value

Story:
The game is set in a distant future, when the life on the Earth's surface has long since been made impossible and the remnants of humanity now dwell in the Underrail, a vast system of metro station-states that, it seems, are the last bastions of a fading race.

The player takes control of one of the denizens of such a station-state whose life is about to become all that much more interesting and dangerous, as our protagonist is caught amidst the conflicting factions of the Underrail as they secretly but violently struggle for the Humanity's last gem of hope.

Target aim:
Self-published shareware. Possibly some game portals.

Compensation:
Team members would receive percentage of revenues, based on the amount of work put in. Do not expect any short term payment.

Technology:
The engine is built in Microsoft XNA. Targeted system is Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista, 7).

Talent needed:
One or eventually two 2D graphics artists. Ideally, I would like to partner up with someone who would also be willing to help me determine graphical style and work with me on designing this game graphics-wise. But if you prefer working by detailed specifications, you are welcome to apply as well.

Graphics that will be required of you:
-    isometric tiles (96x48)
-    Animated sprites (humans, insectoids, robots) (~50x100)
-    Various isometric objects: walls, doors, furniture, etc
-    Item and spell icons (33x33)
-    effects (projectiles, explosions, fire, acid splashes, smoke, etc)

Graphics that you could also do, but is not required:
-    concept art
-    character portraits (100x100)

One thing I should mention, however, is that this is a serious long term project, which I really do plan on making a commercial title in the end. For that reason I require a certain amount of dedication and focus from you (maturity goes without saying). I'm not expecting you to quit your job to work on this, but if you are only looking for weekend pastime, this is not a project for you.

On the other hand, if you are looking to break into industry and are enthusiastic about game making, as well as hard working - this is the perfect project for you.

There might be more positions available later. Feel free to check the web-site from time to time.

Team structure:
Styg (me) - game design, programming, art, website administration, etc. I have 3 years of experience as a professional programmer (and plenty more as self-taught amateur). I work in banking software industry on things such as SOA, DB and integration, but I have passion for game and game making, so in my spare time I work dedicatedly on this project and plan my steps to make indie game development my fulltime job.

Website:
www.timelapsevertigo.com

Contacts:
[email protected]

Additional Info:
If you have some questions/proposals/feedback regarding this projects, feel free to contact me on the e-mail specified above.

The game is playable at this moment, but does not have much content to it. I've created a demo video you can watch on YouTube:








or download high-res one from here.


You get to laugh at my rusty verbal English.

Also, have some screenshots.