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[Democritus]

Nowhere Prophet
Website - Blog - Early Access



The game is currently in EARLY ACCESS. Most stuff is in but I'm still adding some more content, balancing it and making it sing.

The game
The game itself is a roguelike with a card-game conflict resolution system. That's quite a mouthful, but what it means is that the game world is generated at random each time you start a new game. Play features permadeath: Characters that die are lost - you can not load previous save games. While one playthrough is pretty short (maybe 1-3 hours), the game is not over after one game, because it is difficult and also invites exploration. Players can also unlock new content for the game through multiple runs.

When a combat with opponents happens it is resolved as a card game. Your crewmembers each have their own deck, as do the opponents. You take turns, playing your offensive, defensive and miscellaneous cards, trying to defeat the other team.



The setting
The world of Nowhere Prophet is set in the far future. Set on planet Soma, a world on the fringes of galactic civilization. After suffering a technological apocalypse, it has reverted to a state of barbarism. In this post-apocalyptic science-fiction world (without zombies) you have to build, grow and lead a convoy to safety across the hostile world. A colorful but untamed world, inhabited by a population and it's culture is strongly inspired by the culture of the Indian subcontinent.



More information
If you want to learn more about the game, the process and me then check out the Nowhere Prophet briefing page or the Blog. You can also subscribe to this thread as I'll try to update this devlog as I go along.

That said, all feedback is appreciated!

[Whiteclaws]

Looks promising, Going to be following

[Democritus]

So I've had some vacation driving through Europe, visiting Friends in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. On this trip I spend a good chunk of that thinking and talking about Burning Roads and I have a very solid grasp of all the involved systems now. I'm currently busy documenting the ideas and building prototypes for the different systems.

Here's a quick overview diagram:


To elaborate a bit, the systems are:

Map Travel
Here the player controls the convoy, moving it across the map. Speed and performance depend primarily on the lead vehicle, which carries the players' raiders, and is affected somewhat by the convoy. As the convoy travels they will consume resources (Food) and eventually accumulate Exhaustion. Exhaustion reduces the general performance of the convoy and the Raiders in combat. To get rid of it the player needs to spend time to rest and recuperate, which of course consumes more upkeep resources (Food).

I've already started work on a very simple prototype for the Map Travel gameplay. Here's a filtered-up photograph of the prototype:


(yes, this is the Dothraki Sea in the background. I need to use something as a stand in while I have no map myself yet )

Settlement Exploration
Across the map the player can encounter Settlements of various size. These can then be explored, once the Convoy reaches them. In the smaller settlements only a few options are available, while the bigger settlements offer more. Here the player can get new Resources, Equipment, Followers etc. He can also learn more about the surroundings, getting potential warnings and finding out about new nodes to travel to

Random Events
These happen while travelling the map. They are very simple multiple-choice options that can cost or reward resources. Often though they will lead to combat of one sort or another. The stats of your Raiders can affect the outcomes and options of these events.

Resource Management
Is managing regular resources (Food, Supply), items and convoy. Aquiring new followers, spending Supply for equipment or to upgrade your Raiders.

Character Development
This is where you upgrade your Raiders, get new skills and give them new equipment

Card Combat
The core gameplay. Combat with other raiders, groups, beasties and whatnot is represented with the card game system. This system is used both for physical combat (shooting mans in the face) and for social combat (shouting mans in the face).


So from here on I'll document the different systems, making the design more grounded and detailed. Meanwhile I'll continue building prototypes for the different systems. First independently before I will glue them all together to get a very crappy version of the game.

[Christian]

Following. Roguelike + Apocalyptic + Cards is my kind of game

What platforms are you considering? Any chance of seeing this on IOS/iPad? Games like this are pretty well suited for tablets.

[Democritus]

Hey Christian,

glad you like it. I'm hoping to amaze you with more awesome dev stuff in the future.

As for the platforms: I am building this in Unity so it can run on iOS/Android. In fact my current combat prototype runs on my iPad and I brought it with me to gamescom. However my primary target platform will be PC and consoles. Why? This is a kinda hardcore game (roguelike and all) and it's easier to reach that audience on the PC and the consoles.

If I am successful enough there I will definitely consider porting the game to iPad, but for the time being mobile tablets are planned towards the end. However I'll try and make sure the interface always remains viable, wether it's keyboard & mouse, controller or touch. It's very unlikely that it will make it's way to phones though, the screen real estate is just too limited for a card game. I'd have to come up with a lot of clever tricks to get the whole thing to work, and I'm not sure that's going to be worth it.

[Kyle Preston]

Dothraki Sea?......you must be good people; I will play your game. 

Will there be cinematics? If so, is 'Off the Beaten Track' going to be the style you intend to shoot for; it's very good!

[Democritus]

Hey Kyle.

Currently there are no cinematics planned. There might be room for some but since it's a roguelike you're bound to see the same ones over and over again, quickly reducing their value. And producing variety to show you new ones is beyond the scope of my project. That said, if whichever artist I find wants some cinematics I'll see if we can make it work

[Kyle Preston]

Yeah, repetition isn't ideal for cinematics.  Still though, very cool; best of luck with the game! Will be coming back. 

[Democritus]

While I am busy working on the Event System and the general travelling design I had a buddy of mine (the stupendous Anjin Anhut) sketch up one of the raiders - a hunter/sniper/scout. I then took that and made a pretty simple promo image out of it. It's mostly text since my current screenshots are all pretty damn temporary - prototyping art and all.

[DuckfaceNinja]

This look unique, never seen anything like it before... I'll be following to see some gameplay video.   

[Democritus]

Hey DuckfaceNinja,

thanks for the compliment and I hopw you'll enjoy the progression. It will be quite a while before there will be anything remotely resembling a gameplay video though. Showing the prototype in action is pretty damn ugly

[Democritus]

So I've spent some time trying to get a little influence/sinspiration map together. The idea is that it quickly conveys the visual ideas I have for Burning Roads. It's meant as a tool for me to get back to every once in a while. And as a help for potential artists to give them a quick glance at the stuff that's floating around in my brain.

I'm not sure how useful this is for game development directly but it was a useful exercise for myself. I have been (and still am) collecting inspirational imagery for different facets of the world. Selecting the most fitting from those was insightful.


Clean apple-style tech meets the western wasteland.

Let me know what you think, guys.

[Democritus]

So I've been a bit quiet on this, but not inactive. I now have a unified prototype and I'm looking for some really early testers. If you're interested to check out the game and provide me with feedback, let me know!

Here's a youtube preview of the protoype in action:

[87]

I really dig the idea and the concept, but I feel like it will stand and fall on the merits of the card-combat, so I hope you have something great in store there, and am waiting to see more :D

[Democritus]

Hey, thanks for the reply. I'm well aware that the card gameplay needs to stand on it's own. I'm confident it already will and I'm not done improving it yet

[Democritus]

So, it's been a bit quiet here. Sorry for that. I've been pretty busy with the game.

I have found a bit of a team and a bit of funding. With that I've been busy solidifying and simplifying the game concept. A bunch of complicated concepts got removed, others got joined and brought closer together. I spent a lot of time scribbling in my notebook.

Now with the final name of Nowhere Prophet we've set up a website and a blog. I'm currently working on a bit of a video cast to show how I'm working on an interface mockup.

[Democritus]

I finished a first dev diary, which turned out to be more of an explanation than a diary.

Anyway, if you want to find out how I go about building interface designs, check out this quick video:

[Democritus]

A look at the card zoom in the combat screen.

[Democritus]

Some more GIFs. Anjin was working on some animated mockups for different combat visualizations. You can read all about it on the blog.

Here's just the fancy anims:

[Vilanat]

A little bit necroing, but seeing how you still update on your blog, i thought i'd both post to watch and perhaps trigger you into re updating in this dev log as well

Btw, i admire your work and very much hope this game will get finished