Since we announced our upcoming game, Auro: The Golden Prince several months ago, some questions have repeatedly cropped up. Today I’d like to quickly address some of these to clear things up.
- Auro is CROSS PLATFORM. A lot of people still seem to think that the game will only be available on iOS (probably because 100 Rogues was an iOS-only game). Auro will be available on iOS, Android, Windows, OSX, Linux and possibly more.
- Auro is NOT AN RPG. It’s easy to understand why someone would think it is an RPG: the game takes place in a dungeon, it’s got a fairy tale setting, has Japanese RPG-inspired music and pixel art. But Auro is most certainly a strategy game, not an RPG. There are no experience points, no inventory, no equipment, and a very minimal story.
- Auro is NOT A ROGUELIKE. Although it is high-score based, turn based, and has randomly generated content, Auro will probably not be considered a roguelike for the same reasons listed above. There is no “exploration” in Auro – the dungeons levels are totally linear “courses”. Some will probably call it “roguelike-like”, but I think the solitaire card game Klondike qualifies as a “roguelike-like”, which to me means that the term isn’t super useful.
- Auro is TURN BASED STRATEGY. Those who are looking for a well-designed turn-based strategy game should be very excited for this game. Fans of games like Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, Fantasy General, or abstracts like Chess will really love Auro.
- Auro will have VERY LIMITED DLC/IAPs that are ACTUALLY TOTALLY OPTIONAL. When you buy Auro, you’ve got the complete game. There may be additional expansion content available, but unlike most games, it’s not a scheme to sucker you into spending more money on the base game than is immediately visible. None of the extra content will make you “better at the game”, only provide new ways of playing. Examples would be new game modes or playable characters.
- Auro is NOT A CLONE OF ANYTHING. I am comfortable saying that there has never been a game quite like Auro. It is unique. The closest thing to it would probably be “what if you turned Diablo 2 into an elegant turn-based strategy game?”
Anyway, I hope this clears some things up for people! Please let us know if you have any more questions and we’ll add them here.
We, game developers, are expected by the community to degrade our games. This is the situation we are currently in.
Firstly, I have to explain that I am not a believer in the “more is more” philosophy. I believe that just as a good film has only the scenes it needs to tell its story and nothing more; just as a good poem has only the words it needs to make its point and nothing more; a good game has only the mechanics and content it needs to express its gameplay.
As opposed to, you know... this
While I know that I’m in the vast minority when it comes to the subject of modern digital games on that point, I’m in a very solid majority when you look at other types of games throughout history, and when you consider the very concept of “design” in general. Everyone knows that the more steps in your plan, the more moving parts in your machine, the more of a chance it has of breaking down. read more »
Hey all, check out this promotional action painting by artist Hanzo Steinbach for our game, Auro: The Golden Prince!
Click here for a full size, uncompressed image.
We want to thank Hanzo for his magnificent work on this! We feel that this picture really captures the spirit of playing Auro, in that he’s surrounded by a mob of many different kinds of monsters. Please check out Hanzo’s deviantART page at http://metalhanzo.deviantart.com/ for more of his brilliant work!
Not too many people know this, but I’ve actually been working on the game design for our upcoming game, Auro: The Golden Prince for almost two years. The first year was pretty much working out what the concept of the game would be. As I’ve mentioned before, I originally thought that the game would be a very normal roguelike. The original working title for Auro was “The Roguelike”, in fact. But, as time went on and the design progressed, I realized that there was simply way too much that’s fundamentally wrong with normal roguelikes, and I found more and more elements that simply needed to change. Eventually, I had something that barely even resembled what it originally was going to be.
I realized pretty early on that the most central part of Auro’s gameplay was going to be the Disciplines system. There have always been five discipline trees, with five abilities in each, although the amount of revisions, tweaks, and over-hauls I’ve done on this set of skills is staggering. What you’re going to be seeing today is the product of at least a full year of intense revisions. I have tested some of the abilities out in two separate digital prototypes. I’ve created two separate paper mockups which were also extremely helpful (one boardgame and one cardgame).
At this point, I think we’re very close to something that might launch with the game, and so I wanted to share it with you. Please note that these abilities are not final, and you will certainly see at least some changes in the release version (especially with regards to any numeric values you see). In particular, I wanted to go in-depth regarding the Ice and Fire disciplines. Some of these were illustrated in our early trailer, but I’ll be going into distinct detail here today. read more »
Firstly, I don’t think MMOs are games. MMOs, at least most of them, certainly contain games, but they also contain purely social activities, narrative bits, etc. You cannot “win” or “lose” an MMO. I would call a “raid” or an individual mission in an MMO a game, because you can win or lose them. So in this way I think MMOs are a lot more like an amusement park (which again, is a place that contains games and other things) than a game.
But that’s actually not what this article is about at all, so whether or not you agree, read on.
MMOs have a lot of problems, as anyone who has played one knows (even if they refuse to admit it – that usually just means they are currently under the influence of an MMO. Ask for a urine sample to be sure). The largest problem facing them, however, is that while MMOs are always “worlds”, they are also always “unsustainable worlds”.
What if I proposed a new Earth, where no humans could die, ever. Also, we could never be stolen from. Once you bought something (which is the ONLY way you could lose money), it would be in your possession forever, unless you gave it away. Nothing would break down and become broken; everything in the world is indestructible unless you are supposed to destroy it for a gain. Then that thing will respawn so you can do it again later. Everyone in the world can only go UP in the world from where they are when they start out. Everyone can, and will be a super-powerful bad-ass if they simply just log enough time.
The first natural response to this idea is “hey, that would be great”, and that’s how far MMO designers go. They think “it sucks to die and lose”, and then that’s the end of the thought process. But they fail to think a little further out and realize that there are unintended consequences surrounding immortality. read more »
I’ve had a lot on my plate recently, with writing a book and working on our next game, Auro, and so I haven’t been able to sit down with Nintendo’s latest entry in their flagship The Legend of Zelda series. First off, I have to say one thing: I know, I know – the last few entries you played in this series have left you a little concerned. Trust me, I have the exact same concerns. The big question in all of our minds, the question Nintendo has forced us to ask is: will this game be a good fit for a one-year old infant? Lucky for you, my baby cousin Eugene came to visit last week and together, Eugene and I are going to get to the bottom of this question, once and for all!
Story
The story of the game is absolutely FANTASTIC (for infants). Having literally no frame of reference for narrative, Eugene simply loved the “bully” character Groose and the funny trombone music that played during his lengthy cutscene. It made him giggle and writhe around on the floor. I must also compliment Nintendo for making the cutscenes so long, as they kept little Eugene busy for a long time while I watched Breaking Bad in the other room. Now I realize why these games advertise “50+ hours of gameplay” on the backs of their boxes! The only time he would make loud noises was when the game actually asked him to do stuff, so I’m glad that this wasn’t too often.
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