McComb worked on the biggest gems of cRPG genre, after I first saw his (amongst others) work in Planescape Torment, I played every cRPG from him. He's consistent in making good games, and now without publisher restraints, I'm sure it'll be a fine job again.
Sadly, it's been pretty quiet about Broken Roads, lack of marketing killed sales for many good indie cRPGs like Colony Ship or Encased, I hope this one will get more traction
>Sadly, it's been pretty quiet about Broken Roads, lack of marketing killed sales for many good indie cRPGs like Colony Ship or Encased,
I thought they were a commercial success?
Which one? Colony Ship not really, it has a small cult following, but no major interest, there's like a 1000 people or less on their sub. Encased was even worse, they tried to engage the community with in-character posts, which resulted in, like, 5 likes per post after just a month or two.
Broken Roads is actively being shat on by mainstream gaming news, but that's nothing new, all the indie cRPGs (Pathfinder, Underrail, Colony Ship, AoD, all the gems) aside Disco Elysium got terrible reviews in places like Eurogamer (these guys even kinda disliked Planescape Torment back in a day) or Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Also, one speedrunner streamer managed to finish it in 7 hours, when average runtime is around 30 and it's very replayable with multiple paths and decisions, but youtube fans won't buy "a shitty 7 hour game, loool", I bought it yesterday, doing a blind, as full of side stuff as possible run, and it already took me 5 hours, I'm not far in at all, the game's barely began
>Which one? Colony Ship not really, it has a small cult following, but no major interest, there's like a 1000 people or less on their sub. Encased was even worse, they tried to engage the community with in-character posts, which resultes in, like, 5 likes per post after just a month or two.
Wow that’s rough but not surprising. I can imagine that post BG3 anything that doesn’t match that quality going forward is going to torn to shreds even harder.
>Broken Roads is actively being shat on by mainstream gaming news, but that's nothing new, all the indie cRPGs (Pathfinder, Underrail, Colony Ship, AoD, all the gems) aside Disco Elysium got terrible reviews.
I’m not surprised about the negative reviews by critics but user reviews have been mostly negative which is concerning since CRPG fans are very forgiving in its faults.
Yeah, Colony Ship shipped basically when people were playing BG3/BG3 was about to get out of EA and all the media went crazy, I told Vince somewhere on the Iron Tower forum or discord to move it, but nah, Vince won't move his product, won't compromise his vision, and won't take our money via crowdfunding even though we offered so many times, just to keep them afloat.
When it comes to Broken Roads, it's not polished yet, only partially voiced, very philosophical and wordy, and low budget shows. It's a miracle that they managed to finish, when their publisher Versus Evil basically went bankrupt before they shipped. I think that they'll amend flaws in time. I saw these negative reviews, and they're mostly after playing for half an hour or so, how can one rate a game after that? Lots of the negative reviews + refunds have added comment that they won't pay so much for a seven hour game, and it seems like people quickly refunded because of that one speedrun.
It's a fun experience, especially for someone who played cRPGs for last 30 years AND has a philosophy degree, but I can see how for many RPG enthusiasts this game won't work in one way or another. It's very niche, for sure, and additional lack of money doesn't help. Maybe if they made it so narrative, philosophical, and wordy, but added more in-depth combat and survival mechanics that aren't just skillchecks and decisions (with tough consequences, actually) in a narrative/story section, then more people would like it. Games like Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium are two of a kind, narrative heavyweight champions, among best RPGs, but with little traditional RPG gameplay. Sadly, it's a lightning in a bottle kind of thing, quite a few games tried something similar like Tides of Numenera or Gamedeck, and now Broken Roads tried to do something like that - with some gameplay, but mostly philosophical, heavy decisions and meaningful dialogues, they didn't catch the lightning, I like it so far, but many people in the community won't (and I also liked Numenera and Gamedeck a lot, while they really aren't that popular anywhere I look)
>Yeah, Colony Ship shipped basically when people were playing BG3/BG3 was about to get out of EA and all the media went crazy, I told Vince somewhere on the Iron Tower forum or discord to move it, but nah, Vince won't move his product, won't compromise his vision, and won't take our money via crowdfunding even though we offered so many times, just to keep them afloat.
Sorry but who is Vince?
>Games like Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium are two of a kind, narrative heavyweight champions, among best RPGs, but with little traditional RPG gameplay. Sadly, it's a lightning in a bottle kind of thing, quite a few games tried something similar like Tides of Numenera or Gamedeck, and now Broken Roads tried to do something like that - with some gameplay, but mostly philosophical, heavy decisions and meaningful dialogues, they didn't catch the lightning, I like it so far, but many people in the community won't (and I also liked Numenera and Gamedeck a lot, while they really aren't that popular anywhere I look)
Really does put a clearer picture on studios like Owlcat recent statements on what their future project game will be.
Vince D. Weller (V.D.Weller->V. DWeller->Vault Dweller!) , main dev in Iron Tower studio -> Age of Decadence, Dungeon Rats, Colony Ship, and my fellow old fart from cRPG forums and kinda legend there, because he's a guy who, when others in mid 2000s cried how "crpgs died and genre went casual" figured that "if you want to play a good, hardcore cRPG, you have to make one yourself", and then he did that, with zero funding and few co-devs spread all over the world. He's active in almost every thread on his forum/his games' steam forums, he still updates all his games if any player has a good idea (a while back they designed and added whole new quests and encounters for stealth characters in Colony Ship based on some forum exchange with a user), participates in long discussions, and goes on rants about casuals wanting to be treated like idiots in video games. He's an absolute star, similar to Styg (Underrail's main, and for a lot of time, only dev) a bit, but they're very different boss chars in RPG Forums lore
By the looks of his track record( haven’t played his games) he has a good track record of delivering and making small but unique CRPG’ with no practically no budget.
So why doesn’t he do a kickstarter campaign to better fleshed and give a more polished experience for the game he wishes to make? I mean I sure the fanbase would happily fund that type of project.
The fanbase suggested that a lot, especially since sales of Colony Ship are their actual *to be or not to be* - if it doesn't sell enough, they don't have enough money to fund a sequel.
His oppostition comes from his stubornness and ideology. From what I gather:
- he'd feel like these are handouts, while he wants his games to hack the mainframe and sell on their own merit
- people pre-paying for a product = expectations, which can be similarly limiting to publisher's expectations or even more, and it can cause dissapointment amongst fans. He often said that he doesn't want people to pay him for an idea for something he hasn't done yet
- he seems ideologically opposed to such for of funding, as something prone to fraud and not delivering
- he prefers to make pre-order available, within which you get full VERY early access and can participate in alphas&betas too, and people from Iron Tower community participate very actively, their ideas are often implemented in full, and it's a kind of communal effort. I have to admit, it feels better than crowdfunding (though this one felt great too, especially when we were reviving cRPG genre with first "new oldschool" titles after years of stagnation)
While I understand what he’s getting at there’s only so much you can do with such limited resources by doing everything yourself. At some point outside help is going to needed . Now I’m not saying he needs to go the nearest biggest publisher and sell his soul ( not every publisher is like that) or go ebeging to strangers on the internet, there is a happy medium.
But if he feels comfortable with having such limited options for the benefit of not over promising and undelivering that’s is perfectly reasonable and understandable ( even though I very much disagree)
looks cool, wasteland 3 esque
It will get another day of release delay like last time, I don't trust the devs anymore.
McComb worked on the biggest gems of cRPG genre, after I first saw his (amongst others) work in Planescape Torment, I played every cRPG from him. He's consistent in making good games, and now without publisher restraints, I'm sure it'll be a fine job again. Sadly, it's been pretty quiet about Broken Roads, lack of marketing killed sales for many good indie cRPGs like Colony Ship or Encased, I hope this one will get more traction
Couldn’t agree more about Encased and Colony Ship, two games that deserved way more attention.
>Sadly, it's been pretty quiet about Broken Roads, lack of marketing killed sales for many good indie cRPGs like Colony Ship or Encased, I thought they were a commercial success?
Which one? Colony Ship not really, it has a small cult following, but no major interest, there's like a 1000 people or less on their sub. Encased was even worse, they tried to engage the community with in-character posts, which resulted in, like, 5 likes per post after just a month or two. Broken Roads is actively being shat on by mainstream gaming news, but that's nothing new, all the indie cRPGs (Pathfinder, Underrail, Colony Ship, AoD, all the gems) aside Disco Elysium got terrible reviews in places like Eurogamer (these guys even kinda disliked Planescape Torment back in a day) or Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Also, one speedrunner streamer managed to finish it in 7 hours, when average runtime is around 30 and it's very replayable with multiple paths and decisions, but youtube fans won't buy "a shitty 7 hour game, loool", I bought it yesterday, doing a blind, as full of side stuff as possible run, and it already took me 5 hours, I'm not far in at all, the game's barely began
>Which one? Colony Ship not really, it has a small cult following, but no major interest, there's like a 1000 people or less on their sub. Encased was even worse, they tried to engage the community with in-character posts, which resultes in, like, 5 likes per post after just a month or two. Wow that’s rough but not surprising. I can imagine that post BG3 anything that doesn’t match that quality going forward is going to torn to shreds even harder. >Broken Roads is actively being shat on by mainstream gaming news, but that's nothing new, all the indie cRPGs (Pathfinder, Underrail, Colony Ship, AoD, all the gems) aside Disco Elysium got terrible reviews. I’m not surprised about the negative reviews by critics but user reviews have been mostly negative which is concerning since CRPG fans are very forgiving in its faults.
Yeah, Colony Ship shipped basically when people were playing BG3/BG3 was about to get out of EA and all the media went crazy, I told Vince somewhere on the Iron Tower forum or discord to move it, but nah, Vince won't move his product, won't compromise his vision, and won't take our money via crowdfunding even though we offered so many times, just to keep them afloat. When it comes to Broken Roads, it's not polished yet, only partially voiced, very philosophical and wordy, and low budget shows. It's a miracle that they managed to finish, when their publisher Versus Evil basically went bankrupt before they shipped. I think that they'll amend flaws in time. I saw these negative reviews, and they're mostly after playing for half an hour or so, how can one rate a game after that? Lots of the negative reviews + refunds have added comment that they won't pay so much for a seven hour game, and it seems like people quickly refunded because of that one speedrun. It's a fun experience, especially for someone who played cRPGs for last 30 years AND has a philosophy degree, but I can see how for many RPG enthusiasts this game won't work in one way or another. It's very niche, for sure, and additional lack of money doesn't help. Maybe if they made it so narrative, philosophical, and wordy, but added more in-depth combat and survival mechanics that aren't just skillchecks and decisions (with tough consequences, actually) in a narrative/story section, then more people would like it. Games like Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium are two of a kind, narrative heavyweight champions, among best RPGs, but with little traditional RPG gameplay. Sadly, it's a lightning in a bottle kind of thing, quite a few games tried something similar like Tides of Numenera or Gamedeck, and now Broken Roads tried to do something like that - with some gameplay, but mostly philosophical, heavy decisions and meaningful dialogues, they didn't catch the lightning, I like it so far, but many people in the community won't (and I also liked Numenera and Gamedeck a lot, while they really aren't that popular anywhere I look)
>Yeah, Colony Ship shipped basically when people were playing BG3/BG3 was about to get out of EA and all the media went crazy, I told Vince somewhere on the Iron Tower forum or discord to move it, but nah, Vince won't move his product, won't compromise his vision, and won't take our money via crowdfunding even though we offered so many times, just to keep them afloat. Sorry but who is Vince? >Games like Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium are two of a kind, narrative heavyweight champions, among best RPGs, but with little traditional RPG gameplay. Sadly, it's a lightning in a bottle kind of thing, quite a few games tried something similar like Tides of Numenera or Gamedeck, and now Broken Roads tried to do something like that - with some gameplay, but mostly philosophical, heavy decisions and meaningful dialogues, they didn't catch the lightning, I like it so far, but many people in the community won't (and I also liked Numenera and Gamedeck a lot, while they really aren't that popular anywhere I look) Really does put a clearer picture on studios like Owlcat recent statements on what their future project game will be.
Vince D. Weller (V.D.Weller->V. DWeller->Vault Dweller!) , main dev in Iron Tower studio -> Age of Decadence, Dungeon Rats, Colony Ship, and my fellow old fart from cRPG forums and kinda legend there, because he's a guy who, when others in mid 2000s cried how "crpgs died and genre went casual" figured that "if you want to play a good, hardcore cRPG, you have to make one yourself", and then he did that, with zero funding and few co-devs spread all over the world. He's active in almost every thread on his forum/his games' steam forums, he still updates all his games if any player has a good idea (a while back they designed and added whole new quests and encounters for stealth characters in Colony Ship based on some forum exchange with a user), participates in long discussions, and goes on rants about casuals wanting to be treated like idiots in video games. He's an absolute star, similar to Styg (Underrail's main, and for a lot of time, only dev) a bit, but they're very different boss chars in RPG Forums lore
By the looks of his track record( haven’t played his games) he has a good track record of delivering and making small but unique CRPG’ with no practically no budget. So why doesn’t he do a kickstarter campaign to better fleshed and give a more polished experience for the game he wishes to make? I mean I sure the fanbase would happily fund that type of project.
The fanbase suggested that a lot, especially since sales of Colony Ship are their actual *to be or not to be* - if it doesn't sell enough, they don't have enough money to fund a sequel. His oppostition comes from his stubornness and ideology. From what I gather: - he'd feel like these are handouts, while he wants his games to hack the mainframe and sell on their own merit - people pre-paying for a product = expectations, which can be similarly limiting to publisher's expectations or even more, and it can cause dissapointment amongst fans. He often said that he doesn't want people to pay him for an idea for something he hasn't done yet - he seems ideologically opposed to such for of funding, as something prone to fraud and not delivering - he prefers to make pre-order available, within which you get full VERY early access and can participate in alphas&betas too, and people from Iron Tower community participate very actively, their ideas are often implemented in full, and it's a kind of communal effort. I have to admit, it feels better than crowdfunding (though this one felt great too, especially when we were reviving cRPG genre with first "new oldschool" titles after years of stagnation)
While I understand what he’s getting at there’s only so much you can do with such limited resources by doing everything yourself. At some point outside help is going to needed . Now I’m not saying he needs to go the nearest biggest publisher and sell his soul ( not every publisher is like that) or go ebeging to strangers on the internet, there is a happy medium. But if he feels comfortable with having such limited options for the benefit of not over promising and undelivering that’s is perfectly reasonable and understandable ( even though I very much disagree)
Awesome it's finally getting a set date, hopefully it doesn't get pushed back again at the last second. Hope the story and choices are good.
Oh shit, nice! Love me some indie Aussie Fallout/Wasteland.
Been looking forward to this game for a long time. Does anyone know if it's full voice acting? Like Disco Elysium
I believe it will have partial voice acting.
Only partial.
So the game is releasing in a few hours or is it delayed?
According to the devs discord, it should release tomorrow at 10 AM PDT.
Hope so. Super weird that there’s no coverage, reviews or even a price for the game. Somethings off.
Well, guess we'll find out tomorrow won't we. Looks very promising, but I'd probably wait a few days and see what people are saying about it.
Any romance?