Welcome back everyone that read my first newsletter, or welcome for the first time indie RPG fans! Last week we took a brief snapshot of Death Trash and Warbanners, two games that are fairly deep in their mechanics and unique in their visuals - which is right up our alley. Without further pause, let’s dive into this week’s games: Cat Quest and Dwarf Heroes.
Cat Quest
Isn’t this little action RPG just purrfect? In all seriousness, Cat Quest is being developed by Singapore-based Gentlebros Games (@TheGentlebros) and has all the elements needed to make a strong push in market. Already Greenlit by Steam and beginning to draw some attention from the general indie gaming scene, Cat Quest looks to only game momentum through the next few months as they draw closer to launch. The developers were kind enough to give Victoria Publishing an early demo version of the game and it was fantastic.
Built with Unity, Cat Quest is going to be playable on both mobile and PC, with the hook being that any progress that you make on your PC or mobile device will transfer over to your other machine(s). This cool feature is only the icing on the cake, though, as the gameplay itself already feels extremely enjoyable. Your basic attacks are achieved through a click, but the main strategy comes in when you move, avoid attacks, and cast spells.
Combat will be strategic with a fair amount of timing involved and putting together the right amount of combos to defeat the various NPCs. Your catventurer’s “class” is determined by his gear and there will be a reasonable selection that allows you to focus more on spell-casting, dodgy combat, or tanky sort of techniques.
And there will be a huge amount of loot to find and equip throughout the game, just like what you’d expect in an ARPG. Opening chests and killing monsters will give you that all important chance to get that next awesome piece of equipment. Other elements are being discussed and considered, so if you want to see anything particular - like cosmetic pieces or types of weapons - you should let the developers know here.
Cat Quest has forged a place in the hearts of the guys at Victoria Publishing, and though we can’t go into detail just yet, we are going to be working with the Cat Quest team to help bring this game to market. I hope you’re as excited as we are! Give them a like on Facebook as well.
Dwarf Heroes
With the Steam Greenlight campaign getting approval last December, Dwarf Heroes (@DwarfHeroes) has been slowly working on its “One Wave to Grave” gameplay and is slowly inching closer to release. The game is being developed by two students and their recently formed entity, MoonWolf Studio and looks to be chugging along nicely.
At its core, Dwarf Heroes is a Tower Defense game, but in it you also control a dwarf set with the task of building those towers and who can also single-handedly stave off the waves of NPCs that will be amassing to destroy everything you cherish. Since you’re a dwarf that’s likely to be the barrels of ale and rum you’ve got stored in your fortress, but that’s an acceptable reason to sacrifice your own bearded life.
The “RPG” elements of Dwarf Heroes are oriented squarely around progression in skills and talents. Utilizing a standard hot bar configuration, you having various options to unleash devastation upon your foes, with each wave getting progressively more difficult.
Probably the best way to check out this TD+RPG is to check out the YouTube video that the developers have put together for folks wondering what the game is all about:
Dwarf Heroes certainly has a lot of promise, but one of the highest bars to jump over as an indie is the challenge of bringing something new to market. If players can’t grasp the gameplay that you’re trying to achieve, it’s a difficult task to get games sold. However, if they can make it easy to jump into Dwarf Heroes and the mushing of both RPGs and tower defense works well, I expect these two students will have a bright future.
Next Week!
Thanks again for taking the time out of your Monday to read all about some upcoming indie RPGs. There are so many to talk about and so little time… thankfully we have many more weeks to come. Again please follow-me (and by extension Victoria Publishing) on Twitter and sign-up for our newsletter. For those of you that signed up last week expecting a copy in your inbox, we didn’t have enough time to finalize our design format - keep your fingers crossed for next week, but in the meantime we’ll still be here.
For the games that we’re covering next week, we’ll be taking a dive into The Iron Oath and Unworthy - to “heavier” RPGs to bring us squarely back to our roots. If you’re a developer of indie games - tabletop or digital - with complex mechanics, deep stories and unique visuals, please reach out and let me know.
See you next week!
Cody Bye Co-Founder of Victoria Publishing
