Indie Passageway of the Ancients - Baldur's Gate-Like RPG with Dual-Persona Character Development

[Camel]

The creators are two Texan men in their 70s. That's certainly a thing.

https://www.passagewaygames.com/game-development-back-story/

Game Development Backstory​

I have always been passionate about RPGs with deep stories. When I wasn’t acquiring degrees or working as an R&D software engineer, I was involved in playing and creating various types of fantasy role-playing adventures for more than 50 years.

My loyal crew of role-playing adventure gamers would studiously read obscure texts, such as the Hermetica by Hermes Trismegistus. Many an hour was spent developing a magical spell system that adhered to our thoughts on how a magical system should function – both physically and philosophically. Alongside researching medieval magic, we would pore over reports that detailed how medieval weapons and armor functioned – as well as how they were employed in battle.

When I wasn’t knee-deep in studying medieval magic and combat, I developed my storytelling skills by taking on the role of Dungeon Master in tabletop RPG adventure games. I learned very early on as a DM that if I wanted to keep players engaged and satisfied, I had to create a vast world for players to explore.

From these early experiments, I developed a complex lore and fable system that form the basis of novels, which will accompany or follow Passageway of the Ancients and additional titles in the planned series. Having played every major RPG title I could get my hands on – such as the Ultima and Diablo series, and countless other offerings – and with my intimate RPG experience, I’m excited to be working with the rest of the Passageway Games team to create an epic RPG unlike any other!

Damn, and I thought I'm old to play RPGs.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Your quest will take you far and wide – from Gofolen’s Grove to the Whispering Dragon.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Your quest will take you far and wide – from Gofolen’s Grove to the Whispering Dragon.

Is this the map for the entire world will be able to explore when released?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Your quest will take you far and wide – from Gofolen’s Grove to the Whispering Dragon.

Is this the map for the entire world will be able to explore when released?

No man, just from Golofen's grove to the Whispering Dragon meadow is playable. Says so right there.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

New Updated Demo
Hi Everyone!

We hope you all are having a fantastic holiday season and are ready to bring in the new year! We just wanted to share how much we appreciate everyone who has downloaded the Passageway of the Ancients demo – especially those that shared their feedback. It was a great help – and we took your constructive criticisms to heart.

We’re excited to share that there’s a new version of the demo now on Steam, which incorporates your suggested changes. Please check it out and tell us what you think!

– The Passageway Games team

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Dude this looks great. I hope I'm this based when i'm 70 years old.

 

[JonG]

Dude this looks great.

Thanks for the gracious comment.

 

[Ladonna]

Looking good. Definitely a purchase once it is finished.

 

[mediocrepoet]

It's a small thing, but that summoning casting animation is hilarious. It looks like the guy is turning his back to the camera so he can jerk it and spawn new guys where his seed lands on the ground. Is the PC supposed to be Marduk?

 

[cyborgboy95]

Your father’s arcane research attracted enemies – and may have led to his murder.

 

[Habichtswalder]

Your father’s arcane research attracted enemies – and may have led to his murder.

The fighting sounds in the last video make it seem like he's aggressively humping the rat, but apart from that it's an interesting project and I'll put it on my wish list

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

I'm waiting for release date so I can play and review that's all i care about

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The graphics reminds me the Spiderweb games.

 

[HoboForEternity]

It looks better than jeff vogel's 20 years old recycled assets. (Never have problems with this aspect of his games, just for jokes. Modern spiderweb games have problems, but not the gfx. I am neutral)

 

[cyborgboy95]

Strange creatures hide among the statues of the family shrine.

 

[Shaki]

I normally dislike RtwP, but I'm still excited for this one. It has this unique quality, you feel it's a project fueled by love and passion for the genre, immediately after looking at it. They always grab my attention, in the sea of souless products masquerading as RPGs.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.passagewaygames.com/860-2/

Passageway of the Ancients: Behind the Curtain​

We’d like to thank all of you who have downloaded the demo version of Passageway of the Ancients. We appreciate your constructive feedback and are hard at work on implementing your suggestions. After nine years of development, our small team is at the five-yard line in terms of putting the finishing touches on the game.

Development-wise, our main focus right now is enhancing the real-time special/particle effects. Forexample, we want a visual cue that indicates when weapons, armor, and shields receive a stat enhancement or elemental magic bonuses.

In today’s isometric CRPG environment, there’s a tendency to increasingly shrink the size of player characters on screen, which makes the implementation of special effects ever more challenging. You want the effect to be eye-catching and believable, but not totally obscure the detailed texture of the underlying surface.

Above all else, we remain passionately committed to quality in all aspects of the game – from the storyline and graphics to (of course!) the gameplay. Passageway of the Ancients is a large game with 34 levels and numerous story branches, shops, quests, and puzzles, so maintaining quality is a major challenge – but it’s one we take very seriously. We have never believed in words like “mediocre” or “good enough”!

Along those lines, we are especially indebted to Novy Unlimited, which is our marketing firm. They do much more than assist us with our messaging. One of the key services they provide is an in-depth quality control review of the game. In addition to finding the obvious bugs that we somehow managed to overlook, they have also provided excellent guidance on the features that should be included/enhanced in the game, game mechanics, UI, and the flow of the game, etc.

As we continue our march toward launch, we promise to update this blog periodically. Again, thank you for your interest in the world of Aieryon. Your response to the demo has been truly gratifying – not to mention helpful! We greatly appreciate it.

– The Team at Passageway Games

 

[Konjad]

I played the demo a bit. Looks promising, but too little content to judge yet. I'm looking forward for the release date.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Passageway of the Ancients: Behind the Curtain #2
We are pleased to report significant progress on major enhancements to Passageway of the Ancients as we ready it for launch. In our previous post, we were at the five-yard line in terms of putting finishing touches on the game. Now we feel we are at the two-yard line, with strong forward momentum!

When we last posted, our primary focus was creating the game’s real-time special/particle effects. For example, we were creating a visual cue that indicates when weapons, armor, and shields receive a stat enhancement or elemental magic bonuses. We have successfully achieved these special effects goals and believe they will significantly enhance the game.

We have also upgraded the comparative inventory feature. You can now compare weapons and armor across all party members at the same time, allowing for a more streamlined approach when equipping your characters. New keyboard shortcuts, an updated right-click menu, and quicker methods to sell items in shops also make overall inventory interaction even easier.

The UI has also been significantly improved. We adjusted several aspects for balance and clarity, such as optimizing and consolidating the character window and redesigning travel menus. We also overhauled the combat options window to give players more detail and granular control over spell casting. The quest log has been revised to make it easier for players to track their progress and view helpful quest information.

The new real-time special/particle effects, inventory feature, and UI upgrades have been added to the current Steam demo. Please check it out and tell us what you think!

Sure, this polishing phase has slightly delayed the release of Passageway of the Ancients, but we felt it was a worthwhile endeavor. As stated in our previous post, we are committed to quality in all aspects of the game – from the storyline and graphics to (of course!) the gameplay.

Thank you for your interest in the world of Aieryon. We greatly appreciate it and will continue to update you on our progress towards launch.

– The Team at Passageway Games