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Overview

Isles of Adalar is an open world single player/co-op fantasy RPG that can be played in first or third person. The game is one part RPG one part RPG maker as it ships with an integrated level editor and Steam Workshop support. Users can mod the existing content or create their own ranging from simple objects to fully fledged campaigns.

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ROLE PLAYING AND REPLAYABILITY
Choice and consequence is at the core of our dialogue system. We use a hybrid (mostly) text based system that features non specific voice lines for NPCs. This allows us to have in depth dialogue with the characters in the world but also gives the player necessary feedback to reflect the NPC's general attitude and response to the player. For example, you may try to intimidate a bandit and if you fail the speech check you may get a voiced response saying something like "I won't stand for this!" but the text can be more in depth and context specific.

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Instead of using a speech skill to determine dialogue choices and persuasion success, the player can assign multiple personality traits to their character and these traits will give unique responses. The success or failure of a persuasion attempt is determined by both the player character's level and if a specific type of persuasion logically makes sense in the context of the situation.

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MULTIPLAYER
We've always wanted to experience this style of RPG with a few friends. With that in mind, Isles of Adalar will support up to four player co-op on release. However, we know multiplayer isn't for everyone so we will manually scale the difficulty of every encounter to keep the integrity of the single player game design.

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MOD SUPPORT
Our vision is for Isles of Adalar to become known over time as a nearly endless RPG experience rich with narrative driven content. With this in mind we've designed our game to support mods and user generated content from the very beginning. Everything that exists in game is created using the same level editor that ships inside the game, so the modders have access to all the tools we use ourselves to create campaigns.

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Just shipping tools for modding is not enough to realize our vision. We are going to be actively working to build up a creative community around our game. This starts with making tools as user friendly and efficient to use as possible so that small teams of only a handful of people can make large scale campaigns. But in addition to the tools we will also be giving players extra content that is not used in the base game so that their campaigns can feel unique. This will range from environmental biomes, to different styles of architecture and even new enemies.

Community Update (12/10/2023)

 

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Dear Isles of Adalar Community,

 

I would like to take a moment and update my followers about Isles of Adalar since I have not posted since February of 2023. As I explained in my previous post my partner stepped away and I have since been working alone. This has been a slow process as I have been working as a contractor while working on the game part-time. 

 

I started working on a smaller game with the hopes of creating revenue for Isles of Adalar. Recently I was looking into the possibility of using Unreal 5.3. When I realized what it had to offer, I decided it might be possible to come back to the Isles of Adalar. 

 

About eight weeks ago I began the process of learning the Unreal engine and have been rethinking many components of the current game. There were multiple reasons to switch that would improve the overall game play for the users. Below is an outline of my goals and redesign. 

 

Goals of porting and redesign

  • Make game mechanics such as stats and skills simpler and more like existing RPG systems so players start with familiarity with how the game works.

  • Use json files for data instead of binary files. Requires less code, less UI, and modders will be able to easily look at existing json files to understand how to add stuff.

  • Instead of trying to finish the in-game editor, leverage the Unreal engine so that modders can use UE to create levels while also easily integrating the gameplay into the levels (items, NPCs, monsters, etc)

  • Use standard rigs to make it easier for modders to add new armor and characters

  • Start with a more traditional RPG setting and then slowly transition to the alien landscape of the existing game. 

  • Focus on the gameplay instead of the editor but design systems that can be modded (Json files and Lua scripts)

  • Concentrate on a story and simple quests. Start users in a town with a lot of simpler quests. Make sure there are a lot of smaller quests.

  • Have a smaller scope campaign centered around the first island but have an overarching campaign that connects the islands together. 

  • Be able to use much higher quality animations and animation system.

  • Be able to leverage UE’s much more sophisticated AI systems.

  • Put the game on the Epic store. 

  • Make it easier to localize for different languages.

 

Benefits of porting to Unreal Engine 5.3

  • Better graphics in general

  • Much better looking characters (Using metahuman for player characters)

  • Better performance

  • Level streaming

  • Leveraging many built in systems that in the Unity version of Isles of Adalar had to be built from scratch and still require a lot of work to make stable and feature complete.

  • Unreal engine has many of the features that are in the unity versions in game editor.

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For everyone who is playing the game, building their own levels, and continuing to support me, I will continue to update the Steam version with the Unreal version even when I start selling the game on the Epic Game Store. 

 

I am still only working part time on the game, but I have found that I am much more productive using the Unreal Engine than I was with Unity. Progress has been much faster than I expected but there is still a long way to go. I plan to release early versions as soon as I get the main gameplay loop implemented. 

 

Thank you for your continued support and patience. 

 

Kevin Nelson

Peakway Software

Isles of Adalar Update 2/5/23



 

Dear Isles of Adalar Community,

 

I would like to take a moment to express my appreciation for your support and to provide an update on the status of the game.

 

I regret to inform you that I have not been able to post updates over the past year. In April 2021, my partner stepped away from the project and I took on additional work to make ends meet. As a result, progress on the game was slow and I was unable to work on it full-time.

 

However, I am excited to announce that I am now working on a new, smaller game. This game is a single player, turn-based, rogue-like dungeon crawler that I hope to have completed by 2024. I am using this opportunity to apply what I have learned and develop a plan for addressing some of the challenges in Isles of Adalar.

 

My goal is to generate enough revenue from this new project to hopefully return to Isles of Adalar. I am currently not seeking funding or volunteers, as I simply need time to work on the game.

 

I understand that this may be disappointing news for some of you, but I want to assure you that I am still committed to bringing you the best possible gaming experience in my current venture. I appreciate your continued support and understanding as I work towards this goal. Special shout out to @Fall Damage for the recent review. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXda_4h9cQ8  

 

 

Please note that I am working alone and only part-time on the game, so I may not be able to provide regular updates or respond to all questions at this time. I will keep you informed as I get closer to releasing the new game.

 

Thank you again for your support and I hope to have some exciting updates for you in the near future.

 

Kevin Nelson

Peakway Software

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