itch.io

Hey Elska, thanks for getting in touch!

Around 3 years ago, I quit my full time 3D artist job to start developing my own games. I spent 2 years working on little projects and prototypes to hone my programming and general dev skills until around a year ago when a friends asked if I could host a D&D campaign. Having not GM'd in a while, I assumed there'd be some pretty nifty VTTs out there that would allow you to build in full 3D but just couldn't find any I liked the look of so... I decided to try making my own! And thus, (in April 2021) The RPG Engine was born!

The Team:
Osian -A friend of mine is a brilliant software engineer (with a full time job) who helps me on the occasional evening and weekend to bounce coding principles and help clean-up some of the back end code. He's also responsible for some of the features (such as Ctrl + Z). Without him the game would not be at the level of polish it's currently at.

Jeremy - Around 2 weeks ago at my part time job (climbing instructor) I met a very talented Ui/Ux designer who has kindly offered to do some bits and bobs when he has time (The logo is already being made)

Community  -Over the last month the community has also tremendously grown and there have been some amazing individuals who have helped bug-testing, making screenshots and some are even starting to make tutorial videos. They have been so welcoming to anyone joining or asking for help and they've come up with a whole host of amazing features I've implemented into the game! It's been an absolute joy interacting with them. (You can interact with them too: https://discord.gg/mJntEJ2kzC )

Me - Admin, Art, Design, Coding, Shader, Videos etc...This project is my baby and have been having an absolute blast making it!

Kickstart:
There hasn't been one yet. I'm not a fan of the amount of kickstarters that promise so much but deliver so little. I planned to make a demo and show users what the games all about by letting them experience it, not by showing some faked trailer and setting ridiculous milestones (the best I've seen is 200k for an autographic camera mode... literally a toggle in unity). I'm unsure if there will be a kickstarter at this point in time. It was certainly my plan but I've been informed as the game is already out there may not be much point.

Pricing: 
For the duration of the alpha, anyone can host any amount of players. Demo-> Demo, Main -> Demo works too.  On release (I'm tentatively aiming for the end of the year). There will most likely be a small subscription to have more than 1 or 2 free users join your lobby. This will include a "lifetime membership" purchase option. It's really difficult to put any exact numbers on it as it's an ongoing discussion.

Plans:
The plans for the RPG engine are big. As the community is developing, more and more amazing features are being suggested and implemented. 
Some notable upcoming features are:

• Dynamic player sheets, with referencing and automatic rolling -> Designed to cater to homebrew as much as existing TTRPG systems.
• Roll Logic - We're currently looking at adding a system similar to "Anydice" which should also cater to FUDGE/FATE game modes.
• Obj Importer - because the 4.5k placeable objects already in the game just don't cover all possibility!
• Additional Terrain Tools ( to make sculpting easier and faster).

The community has also be crying out for a 1st/3rd person mode so that's something which I'm likely going to look at adding.

Rather long post but  hope I've covered all your questions.
I really appreciate you spreading the word and if you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Cheers,
Justus - The Architect

polydemons.demos@gmail.com
https://discord.gg/mJntEJ2kzC

Thanks you so much and what an amazing idea. I will add it to the search tags and descriptions, but this issue has already been resolved :)
It's about to be released on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1818180/The_RPG_Engine

Hey Alexander thanks for getting in touch.
Please drop me a message on Polydemons.demos@gmail.com so we can sort this out.
Cheers and hope you are well.
Justus

Hey Aslanemperor! Thanks for the comments.
I have a small collection of Themed assets which I will be importing over the next few updates.
In the long run I plan to make this game extremely mod friendly -  with servers for uploading and downloading maps, assets and addons. This means people who just want to build beautiful maps will be able to share their work, and others who just want to RP a bit can pick any of the collection of maps online.

The current plan (and this may change as the development progresses) is to keep the game free to play for the duration of the Alpha. Upon release I'm thinking of a one time charge that will get you the game and full access to all community content. I think it would also be cool to have the option to donate to creators of maps or assets should you download and use them.

Now the Map-Making part of The RPG Engine is in a solid starting place, I will be taking a look at the player/character sheet side of things to make playing TTRPG easier. If all goes well things like dynamic roll calculations will be part of that.

Thanks for checking the game out and if you do have any other suggestions, ideas, or feedback please let me know. You can also join us on Discord for more discussions and updates: https://discord.gg/mJntEJ2kzC

Hey! Thanks for trying out The RPG Engine and for the very kind words. It's great to hear it's heading in the right direction.
At the moment sharp edges can be created by using a smaller brush around curved top of the slope, this will push the edges out and create more of the effect you are looking for. In future I will absolutely be looking at how to optimise the building process, both in the terrain sculpting as well as the Prop placement (and colouring). There are some things I will be adding first such as a major Ui update, custom item importer and player sheets. After these core elements are in, tools update and many more features will be added!

Hey! Thanks for the report. The game Ui is currently not great at adapting to different screen resolutions. The best resolution to run this game at is 1080p. In an upcoming update the Ui will be dynamically scalable to any resolution.

There's a new experimental Mac build on the discord which should have most of the issues fixed!

So in a future update I will be adding an in-game uploader and downloader. For now maps can be shared by simply copying the #.map file (and #.png file if you have an icon for it) located in: AppData>LocalLow>PolyDemons>The_RPG_Engine>Campaigns. There you will find a list of you campaigns as folders and inside are the map files. (you can also open and share your template maps by selecting the folder icon in the template menu). I hope this helps for now!

Yo! I've made an experimental build for mac but am not in a position to test it right now. More info and the download link to the experimental version can be found on the discord in the "mac-experimental" channel.
https://discord.gg/mJntEJ2kzC

Hey, thanks for your feedback! What do you mean by export? The ability to share your maps?

I'm a solo Dev but do have help every other weekend from a software engineer for some brain storming on coding concepts.

Hopefully, if all goes well, I will release a mac version this coming Thursday!

Hey, I just released a patch with some extra light and atmosphere settings!
Give it a try and let me know your thoughts :)

Hey there!
Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm thrilled you are enjoying the game!
To answerer your questions:

1. Yes! Unity doesn't handle lighting too well so I need to code a custom solution to allow for multiple torches and Light-sources. Then I will add night time. I am also planning to introduce an entire weather system, allowing you to create and move thunder- and snow-storms, control fog, light rays etc. (Check out Aura 3 for unity for what's to come)

2. The character creator is on my list of things to do and in the first version it will allow you to change the masks/helmets/shoulder pads of each character. As the game progresses I'm hoping to add a much larger variety of characters and creatures to give you more freedom to play!

3. I've just tested it on a couple of other computers and it seems to be working fine.. In the first patch I will add a keyboard control menu to give you the option to rebind keys. Until then, try saving and restarting the game or maybe temporarily change your keyboard language while playing.

I would love to see some of the maps you've created! Feel free to join the Discord where I will be posting updates and hosting discussion.

Ctrl + z.
An undo stack to make sure you can undo mistakes and miss-clicks. 

Dynamic Lighting.
A dynamic lighting option will be implemented to simulate what the player can see from their characters perspective.

Sometimes you can't remove items from player backs.
This is cause by the collider of the character being larger then the character itself and covering up the hit box of the item on the characters back.
Recommendation: Position the camera inside the character and move around until you manage to select the item then either delete or use the locator to move the object further away from the character before dragging it off.

UI Overhaul.
The current in-game UI is purely for testing. There will be a full UI overhaul including item searching, a tag manager & better layout customisation.
This overhaul will also include a full rework of the UI art style.

Animation states are not stored on save.
Animation states only work if enabled after player or GM has joined - if a player joins the map while a character is not in the default state (idle) they will not have the animation playing on their end.
Recommendation: Only use the animation feature once all players have joined the map.

Prefab system.
A way to store and share prop combinations for easier in-game editing.

Modding Support.
Integration tools & auto importers to allow users to integrate their own models.

Player Sheets.
A system to allow both the players and GM to take and store notes and values.

Music Manager.
Integration of YouTube (& maybe Spotify) to allow the GM to control the in game auditory atmosphere.

Occasionally the navigation mesh the characters use to move around the world doesn't bake correctly.
Recommendation: Push some props around the floor where the error is occurring -> should fix the issue.

Any edits made by the GM while a player is joining the server will not show up on the players side.
Recommendation: Avoid editing while players are joining.

Please add any bugs you encounter here. (It would be great if you checked the "Known Bugs" board first  in case we are already aware of the issue)

List of known bugs.

Check below for any planned or upcoming features!

Please add any gameplay features or mechanics you would like to see in the RPG Engine!