Forum Mortuorum · build 15107063 · published
Nick here. It is with great pleasure that I announce the demo has been updated to the new 0.7.2 patch. If you've been following Forum at all, you may notice that there's been a long gap between announcements. Well, that's because a lot has happened. First, channeling some recent events in my own life, I started on a second extraordinarily different, much softer game, Alight. If it seems a departure from Forum, well - people contain multitudes.
Second, as I got some distance from Forum, I had an opportunity to reflect on how the previous version wasn't living up to the vision I had for the game. I quite seriously intend for Forum to be the best gladiator management game ever made.
So I've spent the past 6 months hard at work rebuilding nearly everything in the game. My effort was focused in three major areas.
Art. I'm at best a hobbyist artist and I'm a big fan of the game Battle Brothers. When I started Forum, I figured that if character busts were good enough for that game, it would be good enough for Forum and was within my artistic ability. However, I've since learned that game succeeded in spite of its art, rather than because of it. Thus, I resolved to reinvent the combat graphics using full-body sprites, animations, and full depictions of the game's equipment. After a lot of work, I'm pleased to present the result. I think it's still a little rough around the edges and I'll refine it, along with the arenas. Also, to my surprise and delight, Sabrina Adai, the artist I was working with on Alight was enthused to also create characters for Forum. As the game expands towards my narrative goals for it, it's gaining a beautifully illustrated set of folks courtesy of her superb work.
Equipment and combat. I love games that let you tinker with builds and test the result. Games like Battletech, Rule the Waves, and Airships: Conquer the Skies. Forum's equipment system wasn't creating the creative puzzle that I wanted it to, so I reinvented everything about it. I began with the stat system, bringing the numbers down to single digits so that one stat point feels meaningful. Then I layered in equipment that not only changed stats, but added effects to make each build feel unique. Third, I made it so that the effects only activate if you can also provide the correct 'affinity points' elsewhere in a panoply. Finally, I added gladiator perks that interact with your gear grid, taking up spots and forcing you to be creative in placement and make choices as you round out your gladiators. Along the way I had to set aside some concepts for now, including training and healing. I intend to bring those back eventually, but first I want to fill out the items and perks so that these new systems are full of strategic choices.
Infrastructure. After 3 years of working on and off on Forum and learning a lot, I hit some walls in my code. My original attempts to add a save-system were challenging in particular. As I rebuilt everything else in Forum I stacked every bit of persistent state into a database with an eye to separating fixed 'design' data (like what items are possible) from game-specific data (like the copies of items a player has). Thus, when I want to save a game, I just take a snapshot of the game-specific data. This means that 0.7.2 finally has a save and load system. The other benefit is that it's much more common for me to add content or adjust balance by tweaking values in a database rather than in code or config files; something that helps me more quickly test out changes.
So, that's all in there now. It's a whole different game and, in my humble and modest opinion, a substantially better one. Because I didn't want to delay more in getting this massive overhaul out, it's still a little rough around the edges in polish and content. My goal is to take these new foundations and polish it for a more 'finished' feeling demo by mid November. If you try it and think "hmm this has potential", well, check back in two months and see what I've cooked up for you!
Cheers,
Nick