Game Development Community

Indie RPG News Roundup - December 13th

by Jay Barnson · 12/13/2007 (9:44 pm) · 2 comments

www.rampantgames.com/blog/uploaded_images/esch1-796271.jpgWow. I've neglected these for the past few weeks. Sorry. Crunch-mode in the day-job (which is also game development) has left me a little frazzled. So... here we go with the Indie RPG News for the... well, the last MONTH actually. A heck of a lot has happened.

Eschalon: Book 1 shipped. Nice old-skool western RPG goodness here, turn-based, but very pretty. Great lighting effects, and good reviews so far. I haven't finished it yet due to the aforementioned crunch-mode, but so far I've been really digging it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is another of this years' excellent examples of what an indie RPG can be.

Aveyond 2 has also shipped, only about two weeks after Eschalon! This is yet another outstanding RPG from Amaranth Games. If your tastes run to jRPG (Japanese RPGs) rather than the western variety, Aveyond 2 is a game you should check out. The original game (well, the commercially-released predecessor), Aveyond, is also very fun, but it not required in order to enjoy this sequel.

In fact, speaking of RPGs in general, we had about FIFTEEN INDIE RPGs released this year! That I know of! There may be more --- please help fill me in. But that seemed pretty significant to me. I mean, okay, maybe it's just that I'm paying more attention this year. But role-playing games are about the hardest (specifically, most resource-intensive) of the single-player game genres to do, and it's impressive to see indies not only rising to the task, but doing a spectacular job on many of them. And thanks to everyone who's helped fill me in on what's going down in this area lately.

Here's a quick run-down of the *completed* indie RPGs that have appeared on an Internet Near You:

What Were the Best Indie RPGs of 2007?www.rampantgames.com/blog/uploaded_images/snowcity-785722.jpg
There are some more awesome-looking RPGs waiting in the wings, too. Hopefully 2008 should be an equally awesome year, if not better.

And now for some of the news of the last few weeks:

Indie RPG News Roundup, December 12th, 2007
Indie RPG News Roundup, December 5th
Indie RPG News Roundup, November 28th
Indie RPG News Roundup, November 22nd

Well, that's all for now. As always, if you have some tips on some soon-to-be-released RPGs (developers, I'm talking to YOU), please contact me and let me know. I try my best to scour the web, but dang sometimes hunting down indie games is like snipe-hunting.

Good luck, and happy adventuring! TTFN!

Jay Barnson
Rampant Games
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Torque Owner Joshua Dallman
#1
12/13/2007 (10:32 pm)
It's great to see Aveyond 2 out, it adds momentum and professionalism to the indie RPG scene. I chatted with Amanda recently and here's what she said about the release: "It's been a looooong couple of months. Now I'm going to sleep for a couple of weeks!" Makes me nostalgic for that feeling :) Also on asking about if she had a release party: "I went with Bryce to the Microsoft Christmas Party, but we christened it the Aveyond 2 release party. It was great fun having our party at the expense of Microsoft! Oh, the indie life!" Oh the indie life indeed :)

Torque Owner Jay Barnson
#2
12/13/2007 (11:29 pm)
I've never met Amanda face-to-face. Just exchanged emails. But she strikes me as being both extremely nice AND extremely professional. A great combination. You can't help but wish her the best of success.

And hey, she makes good RPGs...