Descension

PROJECT IS NO LONGER IN DEVELOPMENT

My newest project is a grid based blobber RPG, currently in pre-alpha state.

Descending : Curse of the Blood Chalice

Descension is a first person, Party Based, story light RPG with a strong focus on world exploration, dungeon crawling and turn based combat. Inspired by games like the Might and Magic and Wizardry series, with a huge D&D influence and lots of modern quality of life improvements. Party morale must be managed or risk your favorite character losing heart and abandoning their quest. Permadeath and debilitating injuries must also be dealt with though with the use of powerful enough magic, any wound can be healed.

Dungeons are dangerous places, full of deadly traps and monsters but also great rewards. They can consist of multiple levels and longer dungeons will require more careful preparation and resource management.

WORLD

New Terra consists of 5 main islands, each with a different biome, forest/mountain, desert, arctic, jungle/tropical and volcanic are planned, with possible excursions into the elemental planes. Movement and maps are fully 3d, there are no tiles or grids. Darkness will play a large role, concealing dangers, secrets and encounters if the party isn't properly prepared.

BACKGROUND

There are 8 elemental gods who forever fight amongst themselves, having cataclysmic consequences on those living in the material plane. Some are wise and just, others are cruel and barbaric. Each has a large number of followers on Terra, granting them powerful boons and magic.

Imperial legionnaires have recently discovered a series of islands far from the known world. The islands are full of dangerous creatures, rich with ancient treasures and resources but not completely uncivilized, there are small pockets able to survive in the harsh wilderness. Mysterious ruins and evidence of a long dead culture are scattered across the islands.

Arkanium is a mysterious element that only occurs in New Terra. It has many powerful properties, it greatly enhances magic, can be used as a nearly limitless power source and is easy to access, sprouting from the ground in large glowing crystals. But it also very dangerous and unstable. If great care is not used when handling Arkanium, it will have dire effects on those unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. Arkanium has fueled the rise of many great civilizations throughout history, and ultimately led to their downfalls, will it lead to the fall of the Empire as well?

The Explorers guild is among the first able to access this new world. It is hiring the bravest men and women, those who are willing to risk everything for a chance at riches and glory. You are tasked with gathering a party of adventurers and exploring these strange new islands, searching for Arkanium deposits and other resources for the guild. In your search you will uncover a plot to spread a devastating and magical plague across Old Terra, turning untold numbers of innocents into ravenous undead legions. You discover that Arkanium not only fuels the plague but is also the key to stopping it, will the cost be too high?

PLANNED FEATURES

• World maps are a mixture of procedural generation and hand placed assets
• Dungeons are procedurally generated, featuring multiple levels, boss fights, traps, hidden doors and secret rooms
• Darkness/light system which will conceal traps, secrets and encounters
• Several tools to deal with darkness including torches, lanterns, light spells and abilities as well as natural dark vision
• Key system separating dungeon regions
• Dangerous traps including pit traps, blade traps, fireballs, poison clouds and falling traps
• Upgradable profession system with 3 tiers, each tier unlock access to new abilities and skills
• Large variety of fantasy races including some rare races such as Faelings, Giantkin, Shadow Elves and possibly a Cyborg
• Some sci-fi elements in the form of relics from a long dead civilization, discover the secrets to their demise and how it forever changed the world
• Turn based combat with features like initiative order, concentration/interrupt system, percentage based hit system and critical hits/fumbles
• Full day/night cycle and calendar, with encounters, maps and quests/objectives changing depending on the time of day or year
• Huge variety of randomly generated items, each item consisting of a base, material, quality, prefix and suffix enchantments
• Upgradable spells and powers, use runes to enhance an abilities range, area, damage or effects

Steam Early Access and release planned. (no release date yet).

INSTRUCTIONS

New Game Screen - You start with 4 Characters. The next and previous buttons will select the next/previous character. The Random button will randomly change the Characters race and looks, profession is currently locked. Race and profession can be changed with the dropdowns. Gender is chosen randomly if changed through the dropdown.

Continue button skips character generation and loads the last party.

OVERWORLD / UNDERWORLD

W,A,S,D controls, Left Shift to run, Space to Jump

Left Alt - toggles Mouse Look. Cursor is wonky and you have to click on window to refocus game.

` (tilde) - Open and close dev console (no functionality yet)

C - open and close Character Viewer - not much functionality yet.

V - open and close Codex - in game guide

Backspace - exit the game

Escape - open and close Escape Menu which allows you to save and load, exit to Main Menu or Exit to Desktop.

Left Control + H - enable and disable frame counter

Save/Load Functionality mostly works. Game is Auto-Saved after scene transitions and can be saved through the escape menu (no hotkey for now). Must exit to Main Menu to Load Game for now.

ENCOUNTER

End Encounter - destroys all enemies and returns party to Exploration state

Tab - skips current actor, no other functionality implemented currently

INVENTORY

Right click on an equipped item or accessory button to  unequip it.

Right click on a stockpile item to equip it.

* full drag and drop system coming soon

KNOWN ISSUES

Too many to list. Nothing really works except for scene transitions, saving data, basic inventory and combat. If something seems broken it probably just isn't implemented yet, but feel free to leave feedback anyway.

• Very Early Pre Alpha. Lots of broken and missing features, bugs and probably crashes.
• I am interested mostly in crash reports and major graphical glitches (pink or white textures/models especially). Also any issues with really low frame rate.
• Random Dungeon Generation is bare bones simplistic. A path is generated from the Spawn Room to the Vault Room.
• Loading an auto save after exiting the dungeon will spawn the player at world origin.
• Water plane is temporary until I find something that works with weather system
• Time is reset between scenes
• Quests cannot be completed, only Explore Room and Kill Enemy objectives are hooked up.