It’s been a while since we heard about Gates, so here’s James from Stormforge West to talk about how he’s been getting on with it:
Gates has been in progress for close to four years now. A long time for sure. Schooling has taken up most of my time. Senior year is rough, but it is just about over. Though I can see my bachelors degree on the horizon, and I am itching to focus on making games.
The current state of Gates is playable. Hell, it is damn near complete. What I need to do to finally finish this game is to continue to polish and play it over and over. I need to wait for art, which will take a while because the art style of gates is a beautiful hand-painted (with real paint) aesthetic. I suspect another year will be needed to get Gates to where it needs to be. I am patient, and I hope you will not lose hope. Gates should be given the care it deserves, rather than rushing it out. Similar to what I did for Haunt. Some other time sinks include another RPG project (I am a fool, I know. More on that soon) and a video game studio that I am starting here in a month or two. That, and a full-time job so I may eat.
With the depressing stuff out of the way, here is some info about the game. I have fleshed out some of the rules for worlds. Different rule changes based on the genre of the world. For instance, in a wild west inspired world, there are rules for duels. One of my favourite rules for that genre is the tumbleweed rule. Essentially, combat pauses whenever a tumbleweed blows through the scene.
Naturally, you do not need to follow these rules. But they can make the worlds feel like the genre they are in.
Artifacts are something else I did not talk about in length. So this is a prime opportunity to do that. Artifacts are magic items, but they are also a part of the character. They influence your characters actions as well as give different boons. More importantly, they grow with the character as well. With more spirit, the character can have a more powerful artifact. Here is a quick example is taken from the book (western themed to keep the post consistent, of course.):
Gates is starting to look very good, but its snail pace is frustrating. But, slow and steady, right?
Anyway.
The other RPG I am working on will be a free product. It is an OSR game, and if you are not familiar with that I will make a blog post later to go over the game in detail. In a nutshell, its a retro DND clone. Though, this game has a heavy bronze age theme to it. Instead of saving princesses from dragons, you will be fighting dinosaurs to gain favour with the gods. It’s working title is Stone and Spear: Dawn of Kings.
If you want to chat with James and the other devs of Stormforge West about the games they’re making, come join our Discord server.