Vapourware Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen - Chaos Chronicles reborn and dead again

[Infinitron]

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceresgames/realms-beyond-ashes-of-the-fallen

https://www.realms-beyond.com




https://af.gog.com/game/realms_beyond_ashes_of_the_fallen?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Realms Beyond is a classically inspired fantasy role-playing computer game with turn-based combat and a party system that allows you to control up to six characters at any one time. Whether you yearn for an open world to explore at your own pace, tactical combat that allows you to plan your moves carefully, or want to lose yourself in the rich fabric of our world, trying to survive and make your mark, Realms Beyond offers endless choices, lands to travel, monster-infested dungeons and a host of storylines to follow. Adapting and responding to the player’s interactions with the world, you will find a depth and richness for your adventures that combines the very best of traditional gameplay with modern-day technologies. The result is a game world that comes alive, brimming with undiscovered stories, content, mysteries, and challenges.

Key Features:

• Turn-based combat, featuring many favorite spells, feats and actions, based on rules described in the (3.5e) Revised System Reference Document (SRD) covered by the Open Game License v1.0a (OGL) by Wizards of the Coast, Inc
• Custom-built, isometric graphic engine that combines zoomable 2D and 3D technology to bring to the screen a never-before-seen amount of detail
• A bustling open world, spanning entire continents, replete with believable NPCs, complex cultures, factions, societies and a fascinating history
• Create a party of up to six characters, with customizable appearance, ranging from 7 different races and 8 different classes
• More than one hundred spells, each with unique, stunning visual effects
• Thousands of individual items to use and interact with
• An epic storyline, massive quests, uncounted missions, hordes of monsters and a world that is steeped in lore and mystery
• Create your own adventures, campaigns or even entire worlds using the UrWelt RPG Engine framework

Platform: PC Windows

Planned Release Date: 2019

 

[Ivan]

k

 

[Jaesun]

Hell yes!! And the composer they have on board for this!

 

[J_C]

This looks bloody good..

 

[Darth Roxor]

third time's the charm?

 

[Cyberarmy]

I'm somewhat intrigued. Gonna watch this closely.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Can someone give a brief history of chaos chronicles, demons age and this one?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.realms-beyond.com/sound-design-1/

Sound Design #1: Details are everything
December 21, 2017

To fork into some different territory and cover more aspects of Realms Beyond, we have prepared a few blog posts about game design and technology. To start things off, let’s have a look at the sound design.

It’s an obvious thing: Atmosphere is not only a visual thing, and it’s not only created by gameplay. There are many more factors at play, so many, in fact, that it’s hard to even count them. Atmosphere is what you get when you put all the components of a game together and everything fits. Often overlooked, but without a doubt, one of the key elements to create an engaging sense of atmosphere is the sound design. Imagine, if you will, an RPG without driving combat themes, or an epic main theme. It would feel like a movie with the TV muted. Distant, remote… But not only the music is of importance, sound effects and atmospheric sounds are every bit as important. It’s all in the details.

But what are those sonic details? Let’s pick one and discuss. If you look back at games like the original Realms of Arkania trilogy (Das Schwarze Auge: Die Nordland-Trilogie) you’ll find that a great deal of detail went into those games, the likes of which you won’t find in games nowadays anymore—which is really a shame. Just take the inventory, for example. There’s even special, unique sound effect playing when you put some new leather gloves on one of your characters. Even the most minute details were carefully designed and considered.

Unfortunately, over the years, sound design in roleplaying games has changed—and not all for the better. While sound effects may be better produced these days, with a lot of oompf and high in-your-face impact, consider for a moment what happens these days when you put some new clothes on a character? Right. There’s a generic little bling-bling sound and that’s probably it. In some cases, it’s a rather atmospheric sound effect, but in most cases, you will that it is a nondescript something without real character or representation of the action.

That’s not to say that this is inherently bad. It works in many games but it doesn’t create atmosphere. It’s just there to fill the silent void. Back in the days, you had a plethora of different sounds. Not for every item, but at least for different item classes. For swords, for leather gloves, for steel gloves, for helmets, and so on. You heard short, unobtrusive sounds that told you: Alright, you just put on a heavy armor. And you could tell from the sound effect alone.

It is details like those, things that don’t make a huge difference in the game as a whole, but add a little special attention to things that we want to achieve in Realms Beyond. Naturally, not every item in the game will have its own sound effect (with over 2000 items in the game, that would be an exorbitant number of sounds), but there will be a great many small sounds for several item classes. If you change from a dagger to a heavy sword, you’ll hear the Shing! of steel. Putting on leather gloves will play a different sound than putting on brass gauntlets. You get the drift.



Many people—and game designers—do not realize just how much impact such a small detail can have on the overall atmosphere of a game. But once it’s there and you get used to it, you will find playing a modern RPG with its generic sound effects, strangely out of place. Because you expect more. You expect atmospheric details and a generic, soft Whooosh! or click just won’t do it any longer.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Pleasantly surprised. I never even noticed how the sound degenerated in modern rpgs.

 

[Reinhardt]

If the mine abandoned who lit all torches?

 

[xipenec]

The sharpness of the screenshots make it look like there is a filter on them. And as if they are a pixel gfx game ala Nox. Looks very detailed and nice.
I doubt that they can afford this level of detail throughout but how knows.

 

[Reinhardt]

I got Divine Divinity vibe from screens. And never released The Lady, the Mage and the Knight.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Can someone give a brief history of chaos chronicles, demons age and this one?

Yeah, look up "Why did Sir-tech go bankrupt?"

 

[Infinitron]

New fan:

 

[Baron Dupek]

That's a lot of promises.
Even if they only make part of them (and they do, that's how the development is, a flood of ideas and cutting limbs and rejections) - they still should end with playable game.

 

[AbounI]

Wait, pumpkin again?
Do you guys remember how they were on every screen of CC? Like this one

From an old interview with Michael Hoss (bitComposer) (in French sorry):

L'auteur de "RockPaperShotgun" fait un post à propos de l'annonce et a fait une plaisanterie sur une citrouille qui était visible sur l'une des captures d'écran. La chose vraiment drôle, c'est que cette citrouille a en effet quelque chose à dire à propos de l'histoire du monde. Certaines personnes dans les commentaires ont continué dans le délire et ont même prédit son importance. Maintenant il est temps de se venger : ils avaient raison. Cette citrouille est importante. Et elle l'était déjà à l'époque

 

[JarlFrank]

The sharpness of the screenshots make it look like there is a filter on them. And as if they are a pixel gfx game ala Nox. Looks very detailed and nice.
I doubt that they can afford this level of detail throughout but how knows.

Since we're not creating pre-rendered 3D environments but instead create levels with a nice level editor that has quite a few varied assets in it, we can certainly afford this level of detail throughout. A good level designer can plop out a level of this detail in an hour or less for a screenshot like this. We're also going to create a couple more assets during development for more environment variety. Even if, towards the end of development, we run into time constraints, it will only take a few minutes to plop down some more environment assets into half-finished levels to give them a little more visual detail.

 

[FeelTheRads]

So, are the levels 2D or 3D? I find it hard to tell.

Also there seems to be a general lack of shadows. What's up with that? Intended or unfinished?

 

[JarlFrank]

We're still in pre-alpha and I think Peter is still working on properly implementing the shadows.

The levels are 2.5D. The characters are 3D, everything else is technically 2D even though we use 3D models for the objects, but once everything is placed and light and shadow has been calculated, the level is essentially 2D for all practical purposes, but with 3D lighting. This allows for a higher level of detail while draining less GPU power in comparison with full 3D.

 

[Tigranes]

So roughly in the ballpark of IE-style pre-rendered backgrounds?

 

[FeelTheRads]

We're still in pre-alpha and I think Peter is still working on properly implementing the shadows.

The levels are 2.5D. The characters are 3D, everything else is technically 2D even though we use 3D models for the objects, but once everything is placed and light and shadow has been calculated, the level is essentially 2D for all practical purposes, but with 3D lighting. This allows for a higher level of detail while draining less GPU power in comparison with full 3D.

Ok, I meant in the game if the levels are 3D or made up of 2D renders of 3D objects.

 

[JarlFrank]

More like Ultima VII or Divine Divinity. The creation process is so vastly different to IE's pre-rendered backgrounds. I can create a decent-ish level with the editor within an hour. That wouldn't be possible with pre-rendered backgrounds like those in the IE engine, those require a dedicated graphic artist to create each level rather than just a pure level designer.

From a creator's standpoint, we can deliver much more levels in a much quicker amount of time than pre-rendered backgrounds would allow us.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Does it have c&c?

 

[AbounI]

Does it have c&c?

According to the blog, it seems so

Dialogues
Role-playing has always been about interacting with other characters in the game world and Realms Beyond to draw players into these conversations, the game uses a multiple-choice system with complex conversation trees that provide depth and breadth. But don’t be fooled, simply trying out all possible entries won’t do much good. Choices have consequences, and words cannot be unspoken. Once selected, players may find that they just completely changed the outcome of, or triggered, certain events that could potentially change the world.

Now I'm aware choices aren't necessarily a matter of dialogue options, but for that it's too early to discuss : will there a time management to accomplish certain quests, who knows? IE I remember some quests in Eisenwald dit it quite well : save the witch before villagers burn her, and things like that. As a counter exemple, I would say I've always found the meeting with Viconia in BG2 was stupid, as if the citizens are waiting for you to arrive in the right place at any time. What if there was a time management to save her? It could have be written better, with rumors speading over the city that a dark elve will be executed in a few days, so that it's up to the player to arrive at time. Don't come too late (or even too early ) if you want to save her.

 

[felipepepe]

I find the scale of indoor areas very weird... look at this:

That tavern doesn't look functional in any way, and you can tell that you're never going to battle there. :/

Compare that with this alchemy shop, which is like 5 times bigger: