Broken Roads - turn-based Australian post-apocalyptic RPG with "unique morality system"

[Modron]

Yeah the demo ends right when it feels like maybe you're getting out of an introduction segment a bandit raid on the town.

 

[Infinitron]

Nice:

 

[udm]

Original Fallout this isn't.
-What little demo included was pretty on rails, structured to scenes, like in HBS Shadowruns or other upcoming post-apoc game Prometheus Wept.
-Battle was pretty meh. AI felt bad, animations were annoyingly slow. Player can't just pull a gun and start fighting. Found only one actual combat encounter in demo, don't feel like playing it again to see if there are others.
-Didn't see anything that hinted into existence of mutants or other sci-fi elements.
-Yeah. Morality system is going to be full of cringe.
-There are other, more interesting projects coming. This seems to be trying to rely on its characters and writing to succeed; didn't work with me.
-At least on demo there wasn't overworld map and any free roaming.
Low expectations with this one. At least loading times were reasonable.

edit.
-There's no ammo management on inventory. Weapons can be endlessly reloaded.
-In combat there's different pools of movement and action points. There's also points which can be used to improve change to hit, those required points on some skill.
-Gained a level during demo, but didn't notice anything going up. Maybe disabled in this demo, like some morality wheel dependent skills/effects.

Yeah these were pretty much my thoughts too after I completed the demo. Overall I thought it was OK. Writing was a hit or miss. At least there weren't characters that pissed me off.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev-blog/broken-roads-june-2023-update

BROKEN ROADS JUNE 2023 UPDATE​

Hello everyone - what a month June has been for Broken Roads! The demo is live, we had some incredible YouTube coverage, the demo received many patches and improvements, and of course… We got the cover of PC Gamer!

This is such an honour and the team are of course so proud of this achievement, and we’re sending a huge thanks to everyone at Versus Evil, Plan of Attack and PC Gamer that helped bring this together. You can read more about the print issue on the PC Gamer website, as well as another piece - also written by Jody Macgregor, who did the magazine article - about the playable demo.

STEAM NEXT FEST DEMO UPDATE​

The Broken Roads demo on Steam has been so well-received and we appreciate all the kind words, encouragement and constructive feedback we’ve heard from the players. There are some lively discussions happening on our official Discord, there was a great r/Perth thread on Reddit, and of course the many Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing the game and sharing their videos - thank you all! We absolutely love seeing the game enjoyed by you and your communities.
Here’s our official Steam Next Fest demo trailer:

The team have worked really hard to patch the demo since it went live, including the likes of:

• Hold [Tab] to highlight interactables and display NPC names
• Added subtitles to the opening video
• Right click to use healing items in inventory outside of combat
• Support for 16:9, 16:10 and 21:9 aspect ratios
• Added tutorial pop-ups
• In the dialogue window, descriptions are grey and dialogue is now displayed in white
• Many animation, VFX and SFX improvements and additions
• Added in localisation for our launch languages (this is ongoing and we are patching in more translations as they arrive!)
• Fixed a bug that prevented audio level settings from persisting once you changed scenes
• Added in the option to display/hide moral choices to the settings menu
• Fixed many bugs along the way!

If you’ve not yet given it a try, you can download the demo from the Broken Roads Steam page.

CHARACTER PROFILE: DEAD RINGER​

Dead Ringer is the worst compulsive liar you’ll ever meet, but in amongst his strains of madness and impropriety rest stubborn grains of truth. A consummate Machiavellian, he’s willing to bind himself to anyone who understands the true nature of freedom, as he defines it.

If you recognise him, you’re mistaken. He’s just got one of those faces, hence the nickname. He swears it’s also why he gets locked up so often, because he’s being punished for other people’s actions, but omits the many, many crimes he himself has actually committed. People are so quick to judge, these days.

“Our painterly style and gestural brush strokes is always a lot of fun to use when expressing dirt and tattered clothing,” says Sara Laubscher, Lead Environment Artist. “Dead Ringer is certainly a character where we could really push that aspect of our visual language”. You can meet Dead Ringer in the demo once you reach Brookton, and how you deal with him - or not - is up to you.

COMPANION REACTIVITY​

One of the things we’ve put a lot of effort into is having realistic reactions from your companions and other significant NPCs, based on their own morality and personality traits. Here’s a snippet from articy:draft of what this can look like, intentionally kept spoiler-free:

Sometimes only a couple of companions need to respond to an event. Sometimes all of them do. Regardless, they'll always remember...

BROKEN ROADS OST - ‘IT’S AN EXISTENCE’​

"It's An Existence" is part of the Broken Roads soundtrack, written, recorded and produced by Drop Bear Bytes' Audio Lead and Composer, Tim Sunderland.

“I thought about the people of Brookton in-game,” says Tim, “and how they live a life of neither luxury nor ruin but the average person would just shrug their shoulders as if to say "It's an existence", content but with an underlying melancholy and so that's what I tried to convey with the music. This was one of the earlier written pieces that really helped define the overall sound and feel of Broken Roads.”

​

And that’s it for now - thanks for reading! We’ve still got the demo live on Steam and deciding if or when we’ll take it down. The team are already back to being focused on working on the full game
- The Drop Bear Bytes team

 

[Latelistener]

Didn't like the demo. It's mostly narrative-based, but writing doesn't draw you in because it's cringe inducing shit. Feels like a comedic theatrical play of Fallout. Hypsterocalypse as someone said before.

If you don't have a strong backbone of an RPG, then all other possible criticism is meaningless.

 

[Reinhardt]

how giant are giant spiders in this game?
and why deadly australian fauna not mentioned on title screen? they are TRUE natives of the land. and sea. and sky.

 

[Modron]

Yeah they don't really answer the important Aussie questions like can you run over a 'roo with a 4x4 or jam your thumb up a crocodile's butthole.

 

[Akachi]

Dead Ringer sounds like he could be a cool character, but how is he constantly confused for other people based on how he looks to the point where he's even punished for their crimes when he has two distinctive scars across his left eye as identifying features anyone would notice? Rereading, it says he "swears" that's the case, so maybe it's not meant to be true, but if that's the case then he must be a complete idiot and terrible liar. If Ted Bundy had two scars over one eye, he wouldn't have been a chameleon who could look like anyone, you'd look at him and notice the scars and go "oh there's Ted Bundy!"

 

[luj1]

Feels like a comedic theatrical play of Fallout.

called it

 

[Infinitron]

Deep Australian lore

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

jam your thumb up a crocodile's butthole.

From which side?

 

[Infinitron]

"Caravan" is part of the Broken Roads soundtrack, written, recorded and produced by Drop Bear Bytes' Audio Lead and Composer, Tim Sunderland. Didgeridoo samples courtesy of Barry Rainman Boland.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Ok so I tried the demo and I'll try to be as constructive with feedback as possible.

Its a pile of shit which I couldn't uninstall quick enough.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev-blog/broken-roads-july-2023-update

BROKEN ROADS JULY 2023 UPDATE​

The months are flying by as we get closer to launch (no, no release date to be announced yet, but it is coming soon™) and the team wrap up the final bits and pieces, level/environment polish, new character textures, updates to the UI, and work on controller support (we’re going to have Xbox controller and Steamdeck support from the get-go).
The Broken Roads demo is still live on Steam and we’re still receiving a lot of valuable feedback via the webform or through the feedback/bug reporting channels on our official Discord server - if you’ve not visited yet, please come and say g’day!

ANOTHER VID FROM THE BROKEN ROADS SOUNDTRACK IS LIVE​

We added “Caravan” from the Broken Roads OST to YouTube, and it’s already become the most viewed music track from the game after only 24 hours. This is more great work from our Composer & Audio Lead Tim Sunderland, and the track was also featured on Meena Shamaly’s ABC Classic radio show. You can listen to that episode here, or enjoy “Caravan” in the vid below:

BROKEN ROADS ON THE COVER OF PC GAMER US​

Last month we were on the cover of PC Gamer in the UK, and last week the US edition dropped, again with Broken Roads as the cover feature. We’re so proud of this moment because, hey, cover of PC Gamer magazine (!), and that’s such an achievement for a small Australian indie working on our debut title.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us along the way and for all the congratulations and well-wishes for the demo and for landing this cover.

If you’ve not been able to find the mag on the shelves, or if you’re interested in getting a digital copy, you can get it online here.

UPDATED LEVEL UP UI​

Our team have also been working on getting the level up screen to match the new character creation screen. What you may not know is we did a complete UI overhaul over the last 9 months or so and are putting the finishing touches on and then adding in controller support for all of these screens, which can be a lot bigger task than it sounds.
Not committing to exactly when, but as soon as the controllers are working throughout the game, we’re keen to get the demo updated for this as well.

BROKEN ROADS DEMO INTRO VIDEO​

We’ve also posted the intro video from our playable demo on YouTube (it is still available to download on Steam). Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this video and game may contain the names and voices of people who have passed away.

Thanks for reading, and we will have more to show next month. We’re prepping some intros to our team members, a blog about the Moral Compass/moral quadrants, and a look at some of the game features once the technical and UI work is out the way.

- The Drop Bear Bytes team

 

[Readher]

Interesting content warning:

This is the introductory video for the Broken Roads playable demo, released on Steam in June 2023. Voiceover by the legendary Uncle Jack Charles.

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this video and game may contain the names and voices of people who have passed away.

 

[Tweed]

I hear DEAD people.

 

[flushfire]

Can't change video settings in the demo? Unfortunate, seems it can be playable in a potato with reduced detail and lower res.

 

[Infinitron]

"Ambient 1" is part of the Broken Roads soundtrack, written, recorded and produced by Drop Bear Bytes' Audio Lead and Composer, Tim Sunderland.

 

[Infinitron]

Nice:

https://www.pcgamer.com/broken-road...-2-planescape-torment-pillars-2-baldurs-gate/

Broken Roads is a post-apocalyptic CRPG in the classic vein: 'We are unashamedly copying Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Pillars 2, Baldur's Gate'​

The end of the world is coming home.

Here's how Australian Broken Roads is: instead of magic potions, you drink beer. Game director Craig Ritchie casually mentions this when listing consumables, alongside bandages and first aid kits. "You can't get magic potions in our game so we have multiple sources of beer," he says. "The beers have different abilities."

Broken Roads is so Australian one of its character archetypes is summed up as someone who "wouldn't even blink in a shit storm." Funny thing is, this post-apocalyptic homage to classic RPGs like Fallout wasn't always set in Australia. It wasn't even always an RPG.

When Ritchie first told a friend about his videogame idea in January of 2019, it was a tactics game, "a road trip with tactical battles along the way." The focus was on turn-based combat, and the setting was a "generic post-apoc place."

That friend was Jethro Naude, who became co-founder of Drop Bear Bytes with Ritchie, and Broken Roads became their first game. But not without changes along the way. Within a month they realised it made sense for an Australian studio to set its Mad Max-esque game in Australia, and they wanted it to be about more than just combat. They wanted to deepen the characters, expand the story, make it more like the game they both consider their favourite: Baldur's Gate 2. "We made a decision, I think in early February," Ritchie says. "This is going to be a narrative-driven RPG like the greats of the genre that we love."

As their ambition expanded, so did the studio, with new staff acquired by diverse means. Composer and audio lead Tim Sunderland was found via Reddit, while narrative director Leanne Taylor-Giles came as a recommendation from creative lead Colin McComb, the two having worked together on Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Slang gang​

The larger, more spread-out team was useful when it came to ensuring the dialogue was accurate. Broken Roads is full of evocative Australian slang. Children are called "ankle-biter" or "sprog", an overconfident merc's "a legend in his own lunchbox", and insults you'll hear include "derro" and "bogan". My favourite phrase in Broken Roads is "Technicolour yawn," a poetic way to describe vomit.

What counts as Australian slang is a divisive topic among Australians, with residents of different states baffled to learn their neighbours use different words. "Even Leanne and I disagree on some things and we're both from Queensland," Sunderland says. Because Australian culture is often depicted inaccurately in fiction, especially the accents, people are protective of what counts as "real" slang. Whether you call a slice of potato that's been battered and deep-fried a potato cake, scallop, or fritter can start fights.

"It's interesting," says Taylor-Giles, "because my husband grew up in Victoria and I grew up in Queensland. I'll turn to him and I'll say, 'Have you ever heard this phrase?' He's like, 'No, what does it mean?' Then I have to think and go, 'I don't actually know.' Then it's this whole etymological journey to figure out." She found a source for accurate dialogue equally close to home: older relatives. "I just call my grandma or my uncle and listen to them chat for a while. 'Yeah, those are some good phrases,' and I put them in the game."

Further research meant travelling around Western Australia, the state Broken Roads is set in, and in particular its wheatbelt region. They took thousands of photos and audio recordings of places like the Super Pit, which used to be Australia's biggest open-cut gold mine. It's a hole 600 metres deep that makes a sound Taylor-Giles calls "a drone like the background of the universe."

It was also important to research the beer, I'm assured. "It's all Craig," Sunderland says, "he loves his craft beer. We were in Kalgoorlie, which is in the middle of Western Australia, and he found a craft beer restaurant. What? How?"

"What I've done is look at real flowers, plants, that kind of thing that either are or can be used in craft beers that are the fauna of the specific area of the wheat belt of WA," Ritchie explains. "You can get like banksia and desert pea, I can't remember them all right now. You get this item, you take it to the right person, and a new beer becomes available in the world."

Another location visited was Wave Rock—a hill naturally formed into the shape of a breaking wave the team compares to Erana's Peace, the peaceful haven in Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero. Sunderland's quite pleased he captured authentic audio to accompany it. "When you're in Wave Rock [in the game] you're hearing Wave Rock exactly where you are," he says. "Not just Western Australia, but exactly where you're standing."

Sunderland also composed the score, balancing gentle piano with instruments he figured could be constructed in a wasteland, making them out of scrap and broken guitars. He wrote from the perspective of "a musician that lives in a tin shed that's had a bit too much sunstroke and has collected all these musical instruments and synthesisers and whatnot over the years. They're just experimenting in this little shed."

They sound like the kind of raggle-taggle instruments only a wasteland scavenger or Tom Waits could love, and demanded to be played a certain way. "Playing that cigar box guitar is awful, because I've used nails on it as the frets, and they're sharp and they're rusty and I probably got tetanus. It really changes the way that you play an instrument because you think it's just a guitar, but then you pick it up and you go, 'This does not feel like a guitar. This feels like a weapon.'"

The final layer of authenticity came via reference photos, from which building facades were faithfully rendered (minus logos, for legal reasons). Broken Roads doesn't look photorealistic, however, with a painterly art style and visible brushstrokes.

"I want players to feel like they're playing in concept art," Ritchie says. "I've often thought concept art looked better than what actually made it in the game. We started off with the same art team that did the Shadowrun Returns series of RPGs. They were working with the art director to get the style down, however that was all 2D, hand-drawn sprites for 3D characters walking around on flat ground. As we've got the publisher funding and more investments on, we've managed to increase the budget and now we've recreated the whole world in 3D."

State of origin​

Broken Roads has multiple playable prologues, one for each character archetype, like Dragon Age: Origins. As a Hired Gun my origin involves joining a party of scouts for a job escorting an engineer to Kokeby Waystation—a train depot converted to a market—where we'll rendezvous with another traveller, then take both to the nearest town. Along the way I pick up sidequests like dealing with a merc hired to protect Kokeby who has become a bully they can't get rid of. Backed up by two armed scouts I try threatening him, but he doesn't take kindly to that. It ends in a shootout.

Despite modern touches like the moral compass that tracks your decisions and measures your philosophical leaning across four axes (humanist, utilitarian, machiavellian, and nihilist), it feels like a classic CRPG rather than a radical reinvention of the genre. More Bogan's Gate than Drongo Elysium.

Still, seeing traits activated by reaching certain scores in the moral compass—like Anomic Aggression, a reward for nihilism that improves your stats at the cost of allies finding you disconcerting—it's hard not to think of Disco Elysium, even though I first saw Broken Roads demoed at PAX Australia in October, 2019, days before Disco Elysium came out. "We are unashamedly copying Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Pillars 2, Baldur's Gate," Ritchie says. "Those are our, 'Yep, we took from those.' Disco Elysium, we even had our art style defined and people have said, 'Look, you're copying the art!' I promise you, we were nine months in before we even saw that game."

I'm pleased to hear the team reference Sierra's classic adventure RPGs in the Quest for Glory series too. "Quest for Glory was a direct influence on this game as well," Ritchie says, "right down to the design of one of the guilds in the major town. We copied some of the stuff from the Adventurers Guild in the original Quest for Glory, 100%. That game, I played so much of that. I just loved the freedom, and I loved the RPG combined with the adventure game."

Disco Elysium did end up having some influence on Broken Roads, though. Disco's Thought Cabinet, which let players internalise specific memories and ideas in return for changes to their stats and other effects, was so similar to a Broken Roads mechanic where players learn things from books that it was pulled and is being rethought. "We designed something so similar we were like, if we put this in people will just think we're ripping it off completely," Ritchie says.

Second, Disco Elysium being successful despite its lack of combat pushed them to include additional non-violent ways of solving problems. "We'd always planned to have the mix," Ritchie says, "but I'd say it's swung the needle a bit more into having more of those."

When you're faced with a problem, Taylor-Giles says, "You can solve it with violence, you can solve it with dialogue, or if you are over here, and you're like, 'I wonder if I take this item the entire way across the world, if that's gonna have an impact?' It does."

"And sometimes you can just bribe people as well," adds Ritchie. "If you've got enough money."

Philosophers with clubs​

Replaying the demo as a less utilitarian and more humanist character I do exactly that, paying Kokeby's thuggish merc to leave town instead of killing him. There were other dialogue options I couldn't choose, shown in struck-through text—something you'll be able to toggle in the finished game if you'd rather not know what you're being locked out of. I'd definitely prefer to have them hidden. Seeing my character isn't enough of a humanist to be able to offer a sick man some water makes me want to game the system so I'm not locked out of options like that in the future, rather than just roleplaying.

Taylor-Giles points out that base-level options are always available, no matter which philosophical quadrants your spread covers, as well as ones in a "moral history" keeping track of what you used to believe. "If you start off as a humanist and you've somehow managed to do a full 180 and go round to machiavellian, but then you want to take on a humanist option and it's within your moral memory you can still do that because of the person that you used to be."

"It's not so much locking as limiting," says Ritchie. "Not trying to put a PR spin on it, but it adjusts to your playstyle, it evolves with your character."

Taylor-Giles mentions that while some ways of solving problems will be open to characters based on which moral quadrants they're in, others will be based on their origin or previous actions, "so it feels like it's a tapestry that you're taking part in. We try to come up with as many solutions as possible."

Though they added enough peaceful solutions that a full pacifist playthrough will be possible, if difficult, they never considered removing combat altogether. Far as Broken Roads has travelled from its turn-based tactics origin, that remains non-negotiable. As Ritchie explains, "Publishers actually contacted us and said, 'Hey, if you could remove combat from the game, then we'll publish [it], look at Disco Elysium.' They basically wanted us to change it completely. We were like, no, we are a traditional RPG. We are gonna have combat."

While he considers comparisons to Disco Elysium a compliment, he's resigned that Broken Roads will "probably never get out of its shadow." Which is frankly an issue every CRPG faces now. "We're not going to spend our whole next six months' marketing campaign telling people 'No, no, we didn't copy Disco Elysium,'" he says. "We'll let people on Reddit say what they want."

 

[0wca]

Alright so I've finished the demo so I'll give my thoughts here while my memory is still fresh.

Game's definitely got potential, but needs a lot more work.


The Good:

• Classes seem to have different amounts of usable equipment slots based on their class.
• Morality system unlocks special perks based on player's attitude towards the world and how they handle problems.
• Seems to be a lot of different items in the game and (I'm hoping) lots of uses for said items (wrenches, screwdrivers, radio equipment, etc.)
• Some parts of the atmosphere are pretty good like the dust blowing in the wind, random emus running around, lots of desert vegetation, etc.
• Pretty open-ended way to solve problems, but not yet at its full potential (see below)

The Meh:

• Animations in combat are a bit too slow. Should be a slider to adjust that.
• Combat action menu should grey out the actions that the player can't use due to insufficient AP/MP. Otherwise they have to constantly check their available MP/AP.
• Soundtrack ranges from OK to somewhat interesting. Definitely could be improved.
• Characters are pretty uninspiring. Not really any memorable ones that I can remember (except for that dude with the shits was pretty funny).
• Dialogue ranges from mediocre to acceptable. Nothing groundbreaking here.
• AI is pretty iffy. Enemies tend to stand in one area and then shoot. There were some that ran for cover, but it definitely can be improved.

The Bad:

• The morality system is pretty flawed. Instead of simply increasing the value of each of the 4 quadrants based on one's choices, it eventually locks you out of a lot of choices that are out of your current "spectrum". This is pretty bad as it severely limits one's choices. You should have all of those choices available to use in dialogue (of course some should be gated behind charisma checks) and they should simply increase one's percentage in that quadrant when they are used. It would still allow for the player to gain certain perks based on these choices as they should only be able to max out one of the quadrants fully per playthrough.
• The game doesn't feel like a post-apocalypse. This is a similar mistake than in Fallout 4. The buildings are too clean. There's not enough dust and grime and the whole place looks like an Aussie open market instead of a post-apocalyptic trading town. Traders have unlimited money. There's stuff like whole stalls of fresh vegetables available. Really? In a post-apocalypse, that should be a luxury. There's not enough strife in this world and everything looks too 'nice'. You should definitely add some misery to it, otherwise it will feel like a desert walking simulator.
• There's very little sense of exploration. Not sure if this is just how the demo is set up but the game basically keeps you on rails by sending you from town to town instead of letting the player explore the world map on their own. You can only explore the towns themselves but there's only so much exploration to be had this way.
• That encounter with the kid on the road didn't make much sense. I shot him in the foot, so he wouldn't shoot himself and thought I could then bandage his leg, but the narrative just stopped there and that was it. Should be a speech check of some sort to help him out afterward.
• The caravan guy you come to the last town with is laying it on really thick against that emissary from the other town for no other reason than the game to tell you that "this is the bad guy". Seems very forced and doesn't make sense other than to set you up for the obvious raid.
• Bugs. There was a weird bug that locked the camera on my party for a few secs then went back to normal (happened a couple of times and was pretty annoying). Lots of info markers on the various PoIs were bugged (couldn't click them, or they were offset).

That's all from the top of my head. There's much room for improvement but it probably require quite a few re-writes and/or expansions of what's already there.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.brokenroadsgame.com/dev-blog/broken-roads-august-2023-update-snc5j

BROKEN ROADS AUGUST 2023 UPDATE​

BROKEN ROADS AT GAMESCOM 2023​

It’s the end of August and that means gamescom again! We sent a small crew to Cologne to show off Broken Roads to European press as part of the Australian contingent in IGEA’s booth and were very stoked to see Broken Roads’ key art blown up huge on the stand walls.

We demo’d Broken Roads for three days straight, met a ton of fellow developers working on some awesome projects, took a quick look at what the AAA studios are up to, and of course checked out the most intriguing new indie games in the works.

One of the highlights of this year’s event was showing off the localised build to European journalists and getting their take on the quality of the translations - and we’re very happy to say feedback was extremely positive. Broken Roads will launch in numerous languages - English, French, German, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (LatAm) - and seeing people enjoy the game in their own languages was great.

Gamescom is that strange mix of fun and exhausting, where you can’t wait for it to start and then you find yourself really relieved once it’s all over. We had a blast, but now it’s back to work on the last few months before launch!

(Above) The line for wishlisting Broken Roads was longer than ever this year.

A big thanks to all the journalists who have been covering Broken Roads. We’ve already seen a few articles start to drop:

Gamereactor: Broken Roads (Gamescom 2023) - In videogames, as in life, not everything is black and white (English)
Xboxygen: On a joué à Broken Roads à la Gamescom : nos impressions ! (French)
Konsolowe: Gamescom 2023: Graliśmy w mnóstwo indyków (Polish)
Starbit: Gamescom 2023 – Broken Roads (Portuguese)

It was also great to showcase a new build of Broken Roads next to our good friend at Catchweight Studio (wishlist CONSCRIPT on Steam here).

And that’s a wrap for gamescom 2023.

Only one more event for us (PAX Australia, from 6-8 October!) before Broken Roads’ launch later this year!

MORE ANIMALS!​

Western Australia is home to a huge amount of farmland, and it wouldn’t be an authentic experience without the animals one finds there. Aside from the top secret, wait-and-see-what-we-have-in-store mutant creatures, here’s a quick look at some of the animals still being farmed in Broken Roads' post-apocalyptic future Australia.

PATROL PATHS​

There are a lot of ingredients that go into making an RPG and bringing the world to life, and one of the largest leaps forward we experienced as a team was when we added in patrol paths for our NPCs. Until we’d set this feature up, NPCs were standing or sitting in one place, and our busy and bustling post-apoc communities were a little… static.
The team are now implementing patrol paths and a range of animations throughout the game, and we’re really happy to show off some of the results so far.
"Some people interact with those around them, others are secluded to their work,” says Level Designer, Luke Dorman. “In the past couple of weeks, I have been using Senior Developer Amos Wolfe's Patrol Paths Editor to allow characters to walk around and perform various animations.”

“With these tools, I've been able to give many of the NPCs in Broken Roads little stories and personalities shown through the paths they travel and the tasks they carry out.”
We’ve only got a few scenes left to go, and with the day/night cycle plus the range of chapters and possible game states, we’re able to have varying patrol paths set up depending on where, and when, in the game you are.

LATEST RELEASE FROM THE BROKEN ROADS OST​

As with our last few updates, we’ve been dropping a new track to YouTube ever month. "Ambient 1" is part of the Broken Roads soundtrack, written, recorded and produced by Drop Bear Bytes' Audio Lead and Composer, Tim Sunderland. With launch just a few months away, there’s only a few more coming before you’ll have to see the rest in the game itself.

And that’s it for August! We’ll have more to show next month - and keep an eye out for some other big announcements coming very, very soon!
- The Drop Bear Bytes team

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Release date is set to November 14th!

 

[Darth Canoli]

Alright so I've finished the demo so I'll give my thoughts here while my memory is still fresh.

Game's definitely got potential, but needs a lot more work.


The Good:

• Classes seem to have different amounts of usable equipment slots based on their class.
• Morality system unlocks special perks based on player's attitude towards the world and how they handle problems.
• Seems to be a lot of different items in the game and (I'm hoping) lots of uses for said items (wrenches, screwdrivers, radio equipment, etc.)
• Some parts of the atmosphere are pretty good like the dust blowing in the wind, random emus running around, lots of desert vegetation, etc.
• Pretty open-ended way to solve problems, but not yet at its full potential (see below)

The Meh:

• Animations in combat are a bit too slow. Should be a slider to adjust that.
• Combat action menu should grey out the actions that the player can't use due to insufficient AP/MP. Otherwise they have to constantly check their available MP/AP.
• Soundtrack ranges from OK to somewhat interesting. Definitely could be improved.
• Characters are pretty uninspiring. Not really any memorable ones that I can remember (except for that dude with the shits was pretty funny).
• Dialogue ranges from mediocre to acceptable. Nothing groundbreaking here.
• AI is pretty iffy. Enemies tend to stand in one area and then shoot. There were some that ran for cover, but it definitely can be improved.

The Bad:

• The morality system is pretty flawed. Instead of simply increasing the value of each of the 4 quadrants based on one's choices, it eventually locks you out of a lot of choices that are out of your current "spectrum". This is pretty bad as it severely limits one's choices. You should have all of those choices available to use in dialogue (of course some should be gated behind charisma checks) and they should simply increase one's percentage in that quadrant when they are used. It would still allow for the player to gain certain perks based on these choices as they should only be able to max out one of the quadrants fully per playthrough.
• The game doesn't feel like a post-apocalypse. This is a similar mistake than in Fallout 4. The buildings are too clean. There's not enough dust and grime and the whole place looks like an Aussie open market instead of a post-apocalyptic trading town. Traders have unlimited money. There's stuff like whole stalls of fresh vegetables available. Really? In a post-apocalypse, that should be a luxury. There's not enough strife in this world and everything looks too 'nice'. You should definitely add some misery to it, otherwise it will feel like a desert walking simulator.
• There's very little sense of exploration. Not sure if this is just how the demo is set up but the game basically keeps you on rails by sending you from town to town instead of letting the player explore the world map on their own. You can only explore the towns themselves but there's only so much exploration to be had this way.
• That encounter with the kid on the road didn't make much sense. I shot him in the foot, so he wouldn't shoot himself and thought I could then bandage his leg, but the narrative just stopped there and that was it. Should be a speech check of some sort to help him out afterward.
• The caravan guy you come to the last town with is laying it on really thick against that emissary from the other town for no other reason than the game to tell you that "this is the bad guy". Seems very forced and doesn't make sense other than to set you up for the obvious raid.
• Bugs. There was a weird bug that locked the camera on my party for a few secs then went back to normal (happened a couple of times and was pretty annoying). Lots of info markers on the various PoIs were bugged (couldn't click them, or they were offset).

That's all from the top of my head. There's much room for improvement but it probably require quite a few re-writes and/or expansions of what's already there.

A release in november after that review makes me think it's going to be a disaster...

 

[0wca]

Alright so I've finished the demo so I'll give my thoughts here while my memory is still fresh.

Game's definitely got potential, but needs a lot more work.


The Good:

• Classes seem to have different amounts of usable equipment slots based on their class.
• Morality system unlocks special perks based on player's attitude towards the world and how they handle problems.
• Seems to be a lot of different items in the game and (I'm hoping) lots of uses for said items (wrenches, screwdrivers, radio equipment, etc.)
• Some parts of the atmosphere are pretty good like the dust blowing in the wind, random emus running around, lots of desert vegetation, etc.
• Pretty open-ended way to solve problems, but not yet at its full potential (see below)

The Meh:

• Animations in combat are a bit too slow. Should be a slider to adjust that.
• Combat action menu should grey out the actions that the player can't use due to insufficient AP/MP. Otherwise they have to constantly check their available MP/AP.
• Soundtrack ranges from OK to somewhat interesting. Definitely could be improved.
• Characters are pretty uninspiring. Not really any memorable ones that I can remember (except for that dude with the shits was pretty funny).
• Dialogue ranges from mediocre to acceptable. Nothing groundbreaking here.
• AI is pretty iffy. Enemies tend to stand in one area and then shoot. There were some that ran for cover, but it definitely can be improved.

The Bad:

• The morality system is pretty flawed. Instead of simply increasing the value of each of the 4 quadrants based on one's choices, it eventually locks you out of a lot of choices that are out of your current "spectrum". This is pretty bad as it severely limits one's choices. You should have all of those choices available to use in dialogue (of course some should be gated behind charisma checks) and they should simply increase one's percentage in that quadrant when they are used. It would still allow for the player to gain certain perks based on these choices as they should only be able to max out one of the quadrants fully per playthrough.
• The game doesn't feel like a post-apocalypse. This is a similar mistake than in Fallout 4. The buildings are too clean. There's not enough dust and grime and the whole place looks like an Aussie open market instead of a post-apocalyptic trading town. Traders have unlimited money. There's stuff like whole stalls of fresh vegetables available. Really? In a post-apocalypse, that should be a luxury. There's not enough strife in this world and everything looks too 'nice'. You should definitely add some misery to it, otherwise it will feel like a desert walking simulator.
• There's very little sense of exploration. Not sure if this is just how the demo is set up but the game basically keeps you on rails by sending you from town to town instead of letting the player explore the world map on their own. You can only explore the towns themselves but there's only so much exploration to be had this way.
• That encounter with the kid on the road didn't make much sense. I shot him in the foot, so he wouldn't shoot himself and thought I could then bandage his leg, but the narrative just stopped there and that was it. Should be a speech check of some sort to help him out afterward.
• The caravan guy you come to the last town with is laying it on really thick against that emissary from the other town for no other reason than the game to tell you that "this is the bad guy". Seems very forced and doesn't make sense other than to set you up for the obvious raid.
• Bugs. There was a weird bug that locked the camera on my party for a few secs then went back to normal (happened a couple of times and was pretty annoying). Lots of info markers on the various PoIs were bugged (couldn't click them, or they were offset).

That's all from the top of my head. There's much room for improvement but it probably require quite a few re-writes and/or expansions of what's already there.

A release in november after that review makes me think it's going to be a disaster...

Definitely needs more development time.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Alright so I've finished the demo so I'll give my thoughts here while my memory is still fresh.

Game's definitely got potential, but needs a lot more work.


The Good:

• Classes seem to have different amounts of usable equipment slots based on their class.
• Morality system unlocks special perks based on player's attitude towards the world and how they handle problems.
• Seems to be a lot of different items in the game and (I'm hoping) lots of uses for said items (wrenches, screwdrivers, radio equipment, etc.)
• Some parts of the atmosphere are pretty good like the dust blowing in the wind, random emus running around, lots of desert vegetation, etc.
• Pretty open-ended way to solve problems, but not yet at its full potential (see below)

The Meh:

• Animations in combat are a bit too slow. Should be a slider to adjust that.
• Combat action menu should grey out the actions that the player can't use due to insufficient AP/MP. Otherwise they have to constantly check their available MP/AP.
• Soundtrack ranges from OK to somewhat interesting. Definitely could be improved.
• Characters are pretty uninspiring. Not really any memorable ones that I can remember (except for that dude with the shits was pretty funny).
• Dialogue ranges from mediocre to acceptable. Nothing groundbreaking here.
• AI is pretty iffy. Enemies tend to stand in one area and then shoot. There were some that ran for cover, but it definitely can be improved.

The Bad:

• The morality system is pretty flawed. Instead of simply increasing the value of each of the 4 quadrants based on one's choices, it eventually locks you out of a lot of choices that are out of your current "spectrum". This is pretty bad as it severely limits one's choices. You should have all of those choices available to use in dialogue (of course some should be gated behind charisma checks) and they should simply increase one's percentage in that quadrant when they are used. It would still allow for the player to gain certain perks based on these choices as they should only be able to max out one of the quadrants fully per playthrough.
• The game doesn't feel like a post-apocalypse. This is a similar mistake than in Fallout 4. The buildings are too clean. There's not enough dust and grime and the whole place looks like an Aussie open market instead of a post-apocalyptic trading town. Traders have unlimited money. There's stuff like whole stalls of fresh vegetables available. Really? In a post-apocalypse, that should be a luxury. There's not enough strife in this world and everything looks too 'nice'. You should definitely add some misery to it, otherwise it will feel like a desert walking simulator.
• There's very little sense of exploration. Not sure if this is just how the demo is set up but the game basically keeps you on rails by sending you from town to town instead of letting the player explore the world map on their own. You can only explore the towns themselves but there's only so much exploration to be had this way.
• That encounter with the kid on the road didn't make much sense. I shot him in the foot, so he wouldn't shoot himself and thought I could then bandage his leg, but the narrative just stopped there and that was it. Should be a speech check of some sort to help him out afterward.
• The caravan guy you come to the last town with is laying it on really thick against that emissary from the other town for no other reason than the game to tell you that "this is the bad guy". Seems very forced and doesn't make sense other than to set you up for the obvious raid.
• Bugs. There was a weird bug that locked the camera on my party for a few secs then went back to normal (happened a couple of times and was pretty annoying). Lots of info markers on the various PoIs were bugged (couldn't click them, or they were offset).

That's all from the top of my head. There's much room for improvement but it probably require quite a few re-writes and/or expansions of what's already there.

A release in november after that review makes me think it's going to be a disaster...

Alright so I've finished the demo so I'll give my thoughts here while my memory is still fresh.

Game's definitely got potential, but needs a lot more work.


The Good:

• Classes seem to have different amounts of usable equipment slots based on their class.
• Morality system unlocks special perks based on player's attitude towards the world and how they handle problems.
• Seems to be a lot of different items in the game and (I'm hoping) lots of uses for said items (wrenches, screwdrivers, radio equipment, etc.)
• Some parts of the atmosphere are pretty good like the dust blowing in the wind, random emus running around, lots of desert vegetation, etc.
• Pretty open-ended way to solve problems, but not yet at its full potential (see below)

The Meh:

• Animations in combat are a bit too slow. Should be a slider to adjust that.
• Combat action menu should grey out the actions that the player can't use due to insufficient AP/MP. Otherwise they have to constantly check their available MP/AP.
• Soundtrack ranges from OK to somewhat interesting. Definitely could be improved.
• Characters are pretty uninspiring. Not really any memorable ones that I can remember (except for that dude with the shits was pretty funny).
• Dialogue ranges from mediocre to acceptable. Nothing groundbreaking here.
• AI is pretty iffy. Enemies tend to stand in one area and then shoot. There were some that ran for cover, but it definitely can be improved.

The Bad:

• The morality system is pretty flawed. Instead of simply increasing the value of each of the 4 quadrants based on one's choices, it eventually locks you out of a lot of choices that are out of your current "spectrum". This is pretty bad as it severely limits one's choices. You should have all of those choices available to use in dialogue (of course some should be gated behind charisma checks) and they should simply increase one's percentage in that quadrant when they are used. It would still allow for the player to gain certain perks based on these choices as they should only be able to max out one of the quadrants fully per playthrough.
• The game doesn't feel like a post-apocalypse. This is a similar mistake than in Fallout 4. The buildings are too clean. There's not enough dust and grime and the whole place looks like an Aussie open market instead of a post-apocalyptic trading town. Traders have unlimited money. There's stuff like whole stalls of fresh vegetables available. Really? In a post-apocalypse, that should be a luxury. There's not enough strife in this world and everything looks too 'nice'. You should definitely add some misery to it, otherwise it will feel like a desert walking simulator.
• There's very little sense of exploration. Not sure if this is just how the demo is set up but the game basically keeps you on rails by sending you from town to town instead of letting the player explore the world map on their own. You can only explore the towns themselves but there's only so much exploration to be had this way.
• That encounter with the kid on the road didn't make much sense. I shot him in the foot, so he wouldn't shoot himself and thought I could then bandage his leg, but the narrative just stopped there and that was it. Should be a speech check of some sort to help him out afterward.
• The caravan guy you come to the last town with is laying it on really thick against that emissary from the other town for no other reason than the game to tell you that "this is the bad guy". Seems very forced and doesn't make sense other than to set you up for the obvious raid.
• Bugs. There was a weird bug that locked the camera on my party for a few secs then went back to normal (happened a couple of times and was pretty annoying). Lots of info markers on the various PoIs were bugged (couldn't click them, or they were offset).

That's all from the top of my head. There's much room for improvement but it probably require quite a few re-writes and/or expansions of what's already there.

A release in november after that review makes me think it's going to be a disaster...

Definitely needs more development time.

Its a lost cause.