Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

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FrozenShade
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Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by FrozenShade »

This is about new retro styled RPG game, which is under development.
I hope that you find it useful.



Skullstone is a dark dungeon crawler game inspired by such classic titles as Dungeon Master and Stonekeep. Lead your four-character party through unexplored underground dungeon full of monsters and mysterious corridors. Solve numerous puzzles, find artifacts and powerful weapons.

After a small mining town in the heart of Lisenian woods endured a series of most unusual events, including an earthquake never before observed in the region, dangerous creatures started appearing. Attacks on locals and travelers quickly became a constant threat. Hunters discovered a passage in the mouth of a mysterious rock formation know as Skullstone. Long and dark corridor leading down below, and tracks suggest it's the monsters' lair. The elders agreed to send messengers calling for mercenaries brave enough to explore what lies below Skullstone and to put an end to dangerous intrusions.

The player picks four out of twenty pre-made characters. Each of them with unique set of skills and abilities along with advantages and disadvantages. The party of mercenaries then descents into the underground to explore abandoned mines, dark dungeons, ancient temples and other mysterious environments.

Variety of monsters await. From simple spiders and giant rats, through ghouls and golems to beasts so unique you’ve never seen them in any other game. Each and every creature uses not only attacks typical for its kind but also have access to a set of skills enabling them to harm you with various curses and area of effects attacks.


Gameplay:
Exploration combined with survival is among main gameplay elements. The dungeon is filled with secret rooms, switches, various puzzles and riddles, notes, and ancient books (filled with tips and helpful information). Finding a powerful weapon, piece of armour or an artifact (to use in fight or a quest) will not be uncommon as well. And you have to find food to fight growing hunger and which might be used in formulas to create potions.

During short brakes from discovering secrets of the underground world, players will visit the town above the dungeon to resupply, revive unconscious members, talk to important NPCs, and, most importantly, receive quests. Apart from you main mission a number of side-quests will be available as well.

Screenshots:
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Links:
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnqzGANkPG8
Webpage: http://skullstonegame.com/
Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/SkullstoneGame/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6lnWldWECaI10yJB2Ao3Rw
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=870575498
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Segata
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by Segata »

You just signed up to plug your game didn't you. :lol: To be blunt I think this doesn't look like it won't do anything to deter me from Grimrock.
Last edited by Segata on Fri May 19, 2017 7:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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emwearz
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by emwearz »

While I am sure you can fallback and say you were influenced by games like Dungeon Master, Black Crypt, etc. The games visual style makes it seem like a clone of the two Grimrock games (more the first one), which I think will hurt you in the long run.
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FrozenShade
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by FrozenShade »

Segata wrote:You just signed up to plug your game didn't you. :lol:


Yes, but I'll try to stay active at least in this thread.

emwearz wrote:The games visual style makes it seem like a clone of the two Grimrock games (more the first one), which I think will hurt you in the long run.


This is something we worried about, but if you want to make FPP game settled in dungeons you need to have:
- stone walls (which Grimrock already have)
- stone floor/ceiling (hey, Grimrock have it too)
- doors, grates (taken directly from Grimrock... and other games where you have doors and grates)
- trapdoors, levers, switches, torches - all of them are damn standard in rpgs ;)

In past few years I've learned that if someone want to flame me, he will find ANY reason. The game does not need to be similar to another one. Being similar to Grimrock is just an excuse.
But on the other hand we got opinions like "Legend of Grimrock 3 looks awesome" or "I liked Grimrock and I will play Skullstone". We got Greenlit in 18 days and this is, according to my knowledge, a very good score.
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marurun
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by marurun »

Welcome to the forum. We're a little blunt around here sometimes but I think your response was well-handled, so thanks for that.

And you're right. If you are going for "realistic" you'll probably end up looking a lot like Grimrock and similar. The only way around it is to go stylized with art design.
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Exhuminator
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by Exhuminator »

I'd play this game, but I'd be more inclined to do so if:

The mini-map was larger and more informative. It needs to show more of the surrounding layout.

The combat was turn based, not real time based. I assume this has real time combat. Real time combat isn't ideal for mouse click based first person dungeon crawlers, which are tile-movement based and blobbers.

Other than that, looks solid. It would be good company with Grimrock and 7 Mages.
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by BogusMeatFactory »

Segata wrote:You just signed up to plug your game didn't you. :lol: To be blunt I think this doesn't look like it won't do anything to deter me from Grimrock.


It was posted in the appropriate place in the creators corner. This is where it belongs and lots of developers have done the same. This place was meant for that.

As for the game itself, it looks great!
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FrozenShade
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by FrozenShade »

BogusMeatFactory wrote:It was posted in the appropriate place in the creators corner.


No, it wasn't ;) I don't know this forum, I'm first time here and just didn't saw creator's corner. I posted it in old school subforum. My bad ;)


Exhuminator wrote:...The mini-map was larger and more informative...
...The combat was turn based...


I don't want to show details on minimap. It's up to player to find switches, secret doors and so on. Such things cannot be shown there.

The problem with turn based combat is that I don't feel it at all. Might&Magic series (the old one, before VI) was fine, but I had much more fun with real time combat. In realtime speed is a factor, grid+turn based makes all mobs act almost the same: one turn = move or hit.
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Re: Skullstone - Old-school dungeon crawler RPG

Post by Exhuminator »

FrozenShade wrote:I don't want to show details on minimap. It's up to player to find switches, secret doors and so on. Such things cannot be shown there.

I don't mean those kind of details. I mean more of the physical layout around you, as in show more of the navigational map itself. It's already there, just too tightly cropped in the mini-map.
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