New game and Strive news

Hello Everyone! It's been few weeks since I've announced a new project and originally I planned to bring something graphic for a showcase, however after some heavy considerations, I'm looking for a new lead artist for the project, so anything appealing might take another week or two to show up. Instead I gonna explain what it will be about.

Gameplay

It would be easiest to compare new game to Strive, since there are some notorious parallels. Firstly, instead of the mansion, you will be in control of small settlement, managing its workers and resources. If Strive's core mechanic was interacting with your slaves and the mansion management, the new game will be focusing heavily on crafting and combat. The crafting system is planned to be very flexible as time goes on, making lots of potential interesting combinations. The combat is still planned to be turn-based but considerably simpler in its core. While it might look similar to traditional jrpg/rpgmaker concept, I do not appreciate its narrow linear design. With wide arrangement of tools and mechanics, the idea is to give players lots of interesting combinations to experiment with. 

Plot and Setting

With Strive taking itself very serious most of the time, next game will be lighter in the mood with some laughs thrown in it. It is also fantasy-but-not-in-classic-type world. Story will follow a rather eccentric exiled prince Arron, who appeared in unknown and desolated place with his only companion. After wandering for some time, they find a small poor settlement. Said settlement becomes their base and attracts new unusual people. While Arron's ultimate goal is to return to his kingdom, biggest part of the story will be revolving around meeting new characters and exploring new, occasionally bizarre world. 

Development progress

So far the framework and many of the basic mechanics have been implemented. In terms of engine completion we are closing to finish, except for combat. Many previous mistakes were taken into account. A number of narrative scenes were written, and depending on how things go, it might take only a week or two to finish all the text planned for the demo. The Art, however (except for gui) has not gone any further than a couple of reject designs, so it might take some time to get there. On the plus side, in case of an art falling behind my area of responsibility, I'll be giving more time to Strive's content. 

Overall, the goal for a full-fledged demo is already set and approximately should take about 3 months, with followed up production of a year and half plus minus another half. That said, it's planned to be rather compact and short compared to strive, hence finished quickly. In a way it's a test and an experiment for me to make something rather different, yet relatable. 

Stay tuned and we'll be giving more information and details on the game as time goes by. 

Strive

I started the new project with the firm idea in mind (one of them at least), is to make a reasonable framework engine which can be adaptively used by me in the future. Something originally designed to naturally support translations, modding and all small details I had to bruteforce later on in Strive. 

So here's another thing, now we have a programmer who's taking care of existing code structure of strive turning it into a sensible one. As this does not take much of my time, the plan is to eventually prepare a codebase for Strive 2 by using said code and parts produced for new game. Yes, this basically means we have a big plans for Strive 2, which for now will be developed with side help. Strive 2 is planned to be somewhat of a direct opposite to the new game: it will be large, heavily tied to the original game, provide lots of freedom and roleplay options. 

Naturally, I'll keep you updated on how whole thing is going giving more details. I thank you all for the support allowing us to enter into the new cycle and increase overall productivity to match our ambitions. Let us know what you think about it or leave your suggestions in the comments below.