Gnoblins: Shattered Dungeons (Now at Alpha v1)

[getter77]

http://www.gnoblins.net/

This is strategy role playing game with a strong focus on managing a small community of minions while exploring a dungeon in the first person perspective. The game is in development since 3 years and is not finished yet. But we want to deliver an early alpha version to the interested audience for free and to take part in the development process.   Many features has been disabled for now and will be reactivated during the alpha phase. Here’s a list of planned features for the alpha version:

    Explore as warrior unknown dungeons and fight dangerous dungeon dwellers.
    Craft your own items to help you to survive in a hostile environment (disabled).
    Get your pet to help you on your journey (disabled).
    Hire and manage a small group of minions (disabled).
    Build your own dungeon for you and your minions (disabled).
    Utilize the dungeon generator to explore ever changing challenges (disabled).
    Sound (disabled).

Most parts has been implemented already and will be enabled during the alpha phase. Once we reach the beta stage, the focus will switch from feature completeness to content generation. In the meantime the content is limited, nevertheless we will add more content during the alpha phase.  We want to deliver a game experience build for an interested audience and wish to get support by the community. Currently we are completely self-funded and produce the game as hobby project, so limited time and money prevents us to deliver the vision we have from the beginning, but with some patience and support of the community we hope to make fast progress. For now you can help us by playing our game, have some fun, and eventually give us some feedback.

    System requirements are not fully known yet, but Gnoblins should run on the following PC
        OS: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
        Memory: 1GB or more
        CPU: 2 GHz or more
        Video: ATI 3xxx or Nvidia 7xxx

[getter77]

v0.0.2

The second pre-alpha version with some great improvements is out. Most important are the addition of sound fx and music. The awesome  music is created by Christian Andersson (Craze Music).

The new configuration supports mixed resolution rendering, that is, the 3d world can be rendered in a lower resolution than the gui to keep a moderate framerate at higher monitor resolutions even for not high-end videocards. The following screenshots display a scene with different quality setting at a screen resolution of 1680×1050 (the fps is displayed at the left, upper corner). All screenshots have been taken on a nvidia 8800 GTS videocard.

Major Changes:
————–
- Added an ingame options dialog.
- Sound and music have been added !

Minor Changes & Bugfixes:
————————-
- The map displays the edge of the level properly now.
- Added a pause function (clock icon in hud).
- Player animation/actions don’t stop while a dialog is open any longer.
- Inventory item drag’n'drop behaviour improved.
- Items are no longer black when dragged.
- Some gui frames do not change the color any longer.
- Fixed a bug, where sometimes items are not showing up properly after a game has been loaded.
- Game start time and level switch time have been reduced dramatically.
- Fixed the terrain texture glitch.
- Added an exit button to most ingame dialogs.
- Armor and combat values (damage/penetration) are displayed in the equipment dialog now.
- Handling of the save games has been improved:
. You can delete characters now.
. You can only play saved characters with the proper game version.
. Fixed some bugs related to saved games.
- Removed some texture glitches (red lines).
- Can’t equip any item to the earring,ring,bag slot any longer.
- A newly created character gets a random name, which you can change.
- Un-/equiping items to a statues is displayed properly now.
- Added some low level creatures to the starting area.
- Added Anti-Aliasing (set postprocessing setting above very low)
- You can turn off the outlines now (set postpressing settings to extreme low)
- Animals can no longer open doors.

The only odd bit to this promising project is the uncannily....detailed/large user agreement/license thing before a download is accepted.  Nothing crazy or anything, but I suppose they are really aiming to cover their bases legally versus clones and other people acting the fool.

So yes, go ambitious RTS Roguelike thing, go~!

[Nachtfischer]

Just weird graphic bugs for me.

[getter77]

v0.0.3

- AA shader should work now with newer nvidia and amd/ati videocards.
- Changed the player control, it is not ‘sluggish’ any longer.
- Creature movement has been adjusted too.
- Quickfix for keybinding and inverted y axis of the mouse.
To change the keybinding, install the game and start it once !
After starting it, go to c:\users\<user name>\AppData\roaming\gnoblins\config\game_config.xml
Open the file and change the following settings accordinly (always use upper case characters, nothing else is supported yet):
<value name = “invert_y_mouse_axis” data = “false”  />
<value name = “key_toggle_inventory” data = “I”  />
<value name = “key_toggle_character” data = “C”  />
<value name = “key_toggle_quest_log” data = “J”  />
<value name = “key_toggle_crafting” data = “B”  />
<value name = “key_toggle_map” data = “M”  />
<value name = “key_toggle_recipes” data = “R”  />
<value name = “key_move_forward” data = “W”  />
<value name = “key_move_left” data = “A”  />
<value name = “key_move_right” data = “D”  />
<value name = “key_move_backward” data = “S”  />

Notes:
——
- A proper ingame keybinding mechnism will be included in a future release.

Also:  Roadmap in general!

After the successful pre-alpha start (many thx to rockpapershotgun for an incredible boost !!!)  I want to talk about the future of the game.

At the moment I’m working at the crafting system, the dungeon building part and the gnoblins, which will see the darkness of the dungeon in the next major release. You will get some preview videos of the upcoming features in the near future.

The following version will contain mainly a content update. This will pimp existing content and add new: more skills, new creatures, the next dungeon world, new items etc.

After that I want to address the following features/content (unordered and incomplete)

    more content (can’t tell you too much without giving some spoilers)
    performance tweaking
    visual improvements
    dungeon generator improvements

If and to what extend we will go commercial is unplanned at the moment. But the alpha version (currently only the pre-alpha version is available) will be for free and will contain many of the planned features. Because of being only a hobby project (we both work only in our spare time at this project), and with the vision of the complexity of our game, a polished, completed version at steam or similar publishing service is unlikely at the moment. More probably will be a business model like minecraft, that is, you can buy the game before release for a discount and will get access to the beta version. But this will be decided in the future, first comes the Gnoblins.

Seems to me that they are making sound moves and this indeed shall be one to keep tabs on!   

[getter77]

Initial Alpha finally released a little while back:

Today we are proud to announce the release of the alpha demo of Gnoblins. You can download it directly from our homepage over here or from IndieDB:

Download from IndieDB
Gnoblins is a 3d dungeon crawler game, a rogue-like in its heart,  with a lightweight RTS part. You need to save the world of Amunlak from an upcoming peril. You,  a former novice of the destroyed secret society of the guardians, found yourself in unknown underground world inhabited by the unimpressive appearing people, who call themselves the Gnoblins. But with the help of these people, you must find a way to save the world from its own greed and hate.

The demo features the  first underground world consisting of several levels which contain randomized parts. You are able to explore the underground world in first person perspective and to seek hidden treasures and secrets which might be helpful in your quest. Additionally the Gnoblins will lead you a helping hand, at least for a small obolus. With their help you will be able to craft better equipment and build your own dungeon to survive the dangers hidden in the darkness.

The game is still in the alpha stage, therefore expect some bugs and glitches and consider that most, but not all features have been  implemented yet (details). But if you like the game, please consider supporting us. Just mentioning our game on twitter, facebook or your blog would be really help to us. If you need some footage take a look at the screenshot section (including a small press-kit). Although vote for Gnoblins on Greenlight and on IndieDB. If you have some questions, take a look at our FAQ section or post your comments on either Greenlight, IndieDB or our own forum.

Also has a fresh trailer there on the homepage.