Aren’t they kind of dated considering the advent of NWN?
No. NWN is a terrible single-player game…well, that’s not fair. It’s OK, but it’s certainly not good. I’d much rather play a Vogel game. Different game engines are more important to me than different areas within a game, like a module. Why NWN, in fact? Why not RPG Maker?
Have you tried many of the NWN user made mods, Robert? There are some amazing single player experiences out there. Anything made by Stefan Gagne is better than Geneforge.
Troy
Some, yes. I like the mages series of modules, where you play a high level mage. I can’t remember what they are called. But again, I don’t like the engine and the D&D system. Is the Gagne stuff a full mod that changes those things?
I’ve been a fan of RPG-maker systems since Adventure Construction Set in 1984, but I rather doubt that NWN is flexible enough to meet all the needs that an RPG designer may want. Vogel, to use the obvious example of an indy RPG designer, has his own systems of combat and inventory and so on and they work fine for him.
Good NWN mods? DAMNIT. I lent my copy to a really hot gamer girl and then she moved to Arizona… neither of us remembered she had it until after she’d left! Curses and drat!
Anyway, I’m all about the indie rpg’s, including text adventures. It’s kind of hard to find really good ones, though. There are a few on various Linux software repositories, but none of them particularly stand out, except the updates/releases of older games (Beneath a Steel Sky, for instance). But yes, they are made rather dated what with NWN. The concept behind NWN and make-your-own story environments was a great idea.
What I realy want to see more of us modular scalable game engines, but that’s a pipe dream.
Well, he works with in the D&D confines but tries to break out of them as much as he can. These aren’t hack/slash dungeon crawls for the most part.
The Penultima series was his first group (sort of an Ultima homage) but his best stuff has been his psychology focused Eternum games and the sci-fi-ish mod Hex Coda.
Troy
did you get any?
Alas, no. And for reasons surprisingly more complicated than me not quite being “in her league.”
I think she might be coming back to town, though. Maybe I’ll check if she still has it. I just didn’t want to demand that she mail it to me from Arizona.
I like this question. It’s a good question. It’s a troll question, sure, but it’s a fine thing to post about anyhow. Indie game engine arguably are dated, dead, probably not the best thing to get into anymore. For one, they are incredibly difficult to build at all - let alone build well - let alone build with some kinda polish. But that’s not the same as saying all indie RPGs are dated, dead and gone.
Come on, it’s obvious. NWN has a certain way about it, a certain rule set. But it ain’t the end all, be all. I’m glad it exists and I think it let some folks shine with their ideas and all that. But there’s plenty of room for other stuff. For one, the JRPG market is not reflected in NWN at all (unless I’m missing some mod of NWN). Anime stuff has it’s own vibe, style and dance to it. I don’t like it much (although sometimes I do), but the point is, NWN can’t do it. Doesn’t do it. And Indie RPGs do.
And then there’s so many other directions to go. Indies love to explore the edges - at least I do. Big companies, they can blow a hole in the middle of it all and scarf up the gibs. But Indies - we’re the hyenas waiting for our share. And yeah, we laugh alot too.
Could we possibly turn this into a thread about recommendations of great indie RPG’s?
Damn viral marketers.
;)
Too bad the download link is a 404. The download page says that the full game is “coming soon”. Was there another version available at some point?
That links works for me, so try it again. It’s buggy but an excellent RPG.
True indie western cRPGs (so I’m excluding anime/JRPGs, Diablo clones and puzzle/adventure crossovers) are fairly thin on the ground but there are some interesting ones coming. Keep an eye out for Eschalon: Book 1, The Age of Decadence and The Broken Hourglass. There’s plenty of older stuff from over the years, of course.
I don’t think Gagne’s NWN work exceeds Vogel at all. Stephan writes an interesting narrative but the ones I’ve played were pretty linear adventures rather than great RPGs - I’d rather Geneforge.
Damnit, Dhruin. Are none of those games out yet? Eschalon, in particular, looks great, but they all look good. Give us some older ones we haven’t heard about.
Would King of Dragon Pass be considered an indie RPG?
Ah. The link on the download page doesn’t work, but the one on the main page does.
Good thread! I personally agree that NWN and Indie RPGs represent the something valuable that will probably always set the PC apart from the consoles (to link this thread to the latest PC games are doomed thread). I doubt you will ever see a console with developer tools as powerful as NWN’s aurora built in. As I understand the economics, you won’t see too many true indie RPGs on the consoles because of the development cost hurdle (this might change with wii, eh?)
Long live the PC!
Huh. Reminds of the good (but definitely desperate) days of Mac rpg gaming when Spiderweb was about all there was. Well, that and the Gold Box D&D, but they were pretty dated by the time I got to them. Of course, this was soon to be replaced by the heyday of Ambrosia space games, but I digress.
Are there any comparative reviews of these games? I mean, I can work with the graphics and everything (I’ll just pretend my gameboy has gone 1920X1240), but what they promise seems to good to be true, and I have a hard time slicing through the masses of gushing anonyreviewers cited on their pages. I can’t explain my pathological aversion to demos or shareware versions (I downloaded Escape Velocity 3 or whatever it’s called the other day, purchased it for a pretty steep 30$ for a 2002 game because Cap’n Hector was pissing me off and I was in a fit of Space Rangers induced 2d space nostalgia, and then never touched the game again), but they are a just a dangerous gateway drug to me.
That doesn’t explain why I’d trust a random review here, so much, but for some reason the popular consensus here usually works to a degree for me. I’m still grateful for Space Rangers 2.