The Sundered Anvil

[BasiliskWrangler]

"The Sundered Anvil"
An Adventure Beyond the Cosmic Gate

Edited this original post, all the early-Alpha sneak peek game information for "The Sundered Anvil" is now on the front page of our website:

https://basiliskgames.com

All new screenshots, gameplay trailer, game information, and Steam/GoG pages coming October 1st.

[Painted Lady]

This looks absolutely fantastic!

[joshg253]

I love the lighting & pixelated look of the dungeons!

The 3D trees don't "feel" like the same aesthetic. Perhaps a more ~voxel approach would fit better.

[Prismatic Maelstrom]

Is it too early to start a compilation of spelling mistakes? You've spelt Dual Wielding incorrectly! And why is it Skulduggery now? It was Skullduggery in the Eschalon series.

I know your list isn't exhaustive and is subject to change given the early alpha stage, but could you please tell us if TSA has been designed with moddability in mind? If it hasn't, I'm good with that, I would just like to know please.

[BasiliskWrangler]

The 3D trees don't "feel" like the same aesthetic. Perhaps a more ~voxel approach would fit better.

Yep, we are still experimenting around with the outdoor trees/foliage.

Is it too early to start a compilation of spelling mistakes? You've spelt Dual Wielding incorrectly! And why is it Skulduggery now? It was Skullduggery in the Eschalon series.

Nope! Never too early to start bug hunting via screenshots "Skulduggery" is a slightly more common spelling and it's what the spellchecker fell back on, I didn't have a big preference either way so didn't go back and change it. Dual wielding was added rather than transfered over, so there was no spell checking on it.

I did decide to keep the non-standard spelling for "magick" as I used in Eschalon because to me it feels like:

magick = "powers existing in a fantasy world"
magic = "pulling rabbits out of a hat at a kid's birthday party"

I know your list isn't exhaustive and is subject to change given the early alpha stage, but could you please tell us if TSA has been designed with moddability in mind? If it hasn't, I'm good with that, I would just like to know please.

Yes, moddability is important in modern games, and I certainly have no issue with allowing or assisting modification to the game. Some things (such as drop-in alternate languages) will be available right away, however building a new game with full day-1 mod capabilities would greatly increase development time. So the plan is: finish the game, release the game, and update the game engine based on what modders want to be able to modify. Remember, this is built with Unity so I shouldn't have the same limitations like Eschalon did being built with a obscure game engine.

Probably the most difficult aspect to modify is going to be the world itself. Unlike some dungeon crawlers that ship with a simple grid-based dungeon editor, this world is fully hand built inside of Unity's editor. A big technical aspect I have worked on is to be able to go from a truly dark, enclosed dungeon to open-world exploration seamlessly, rather than a loading process like most RPGs. But I have some ideas that might work for externally built dungeons.

[Lorenz]

I like the look of the trees!

Will there be a version for macOS as well? (Thanks to that, I was able to play all three Eschalon games)

[BasiliskWrangler]

I like the look of the trees!

Will there be a version for macOS as well? (Thanks to that, I was able to play all three Eschalon games)

At launch, we will have Windows and native Linux support. We want to support macOS, but currently we have no modern, functional Mac in the studio. The Mac we used to develop Eschalon on is functionally dead as it can no longer be updated to run any current version of macOS.

My official statement on it is: yes, we will likely have a macOS version but probably not at launch. If the game sells well on other platforms, we will reinvest some profits into updating our Mac hardware and Apple Developer License, and have the macOS version ready 6-8 weeks after the other versions.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Looking forward to it, though as a MacHead, I may have to wait a little longer (or finally decide to pick myself up a Windows or Linux gaming rig).

First Person isn't generally my favorite game style, but I do enjoy the Bard's Tale games and some others that way. Will there be mini-map functionality? Whether always on or pull up as a window like you're looking at a map you've drawn, it's helpful and reduces some of the frustration of figuring out where you are in the first person view.

[Prismatic Maelstrom]

On the Steam forums I always see comments about AI generated artwork, translations and vigorous controller support. You've already mentioned that no artwork in this game will be generated using AI and that translations will be community driven which is a good thing.

I'm personally a keyboard and mouse player but will controller support see any special attention? I've seen some very toxic discussions on Steam and Reddit about this subject where people say they won't buy a game until it has support.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Looking forward to it, though as a MacHead, I may have to wait a little longer (or finally decide to pick myself up a Windows or Linux gaming rig).

First Person isn't generally my favorite game style, but I do enjoy the Bard's Tale games and some others that way. Will there be mini-map functionality? Whether always on or pull up as a window like you're looking at a map you've drawn, it's helpful and reduces some of the frustration of figuring out where you are in the first person view.

Yes, there is a minimap that will function like Eschalon- the more points in cartography, the more detail you can get. Only one character needs the cartography skill to activate. It does serve well as an overview of the area around you.

[BasiliskWrangler]

On the Steam forums I always see comments about AI generated artwork, translations and vigorous controller support. You've already mentioned that no artwork in this game will be generated using AI and that translations will be community driven which is a good thing.

I'm personally a keyboard and mouse player but will controller support see any special attention? I've seen some very toxic discussions on Steam and Reddit about this subject where people say they won't buy a game until it has support.

In terms of AI artwork: I have several artists that I am currently working with for TSA, and I have definitively expressed that I do not want any AI generated artwork in this game. I am paying artists to provide me with hand-crafted graphics, but the honest truth is that I can't always guarantee that they won't use any AI generated elements. Same with the music. It is a challenge that all developers are currently facing.

Translations will take some time based on user assistance, unless the game ends up performing financially well I can pay a translation service to more quickly handle it.

Controller support: mouse and keyboard by default, but yes, this will have controller support. Steam Deck support is something I really want to include, and while I don't currently have a Steam Deck in the studio, I use an Xbox controller to test UI interaction with. So yes, controller support is largely in the game already.

[Painted Lady]

Any chance of Borislav Slavov providing some of music? He did a wonderful job with Eshcalon.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Any chance of Borislav Slavov providing some of music? He did a wonderful job with Eshcalon.

Oh I loved working with Borislav and I would LOVE for him to contribute, but his pay grade is well above my budget at this point. But don't worry, I am picky about music and am working with some talented people. I think we have the primary "theme melody" worked out now.

[32r2352a]

If I can't beat it solo, I won't be playing it.

[BasiliskWrangler]

If I can't beat it solo, I won't be playing it.

Just like Eschalon (or Balder's Gate 3, for that matter) the game difficulty does not scale based on your party size. Finishing the game with a solo character will be possible, but certainly challenging.

[edit] sorry that response wasn't clearer, as Eschalon didn't have a party! What I mean is, Eschalon never scaled to the player's skill level. Neither will TSA.