City of Chains

[Matseb2611]

[SIZE=16pt]General Features[/SIZE]

 - A dark sci-fi set in a large, dystopian city.

 - 4 leading protagonists, each with their own skillset.

 - No levelling up or experience points. Acquire skill points by making progress and use these to learn new skills and passive bonuses for each character.

 - Enemies can be approached with direct combat, taken out with a grenade, or bypassed altogether.

 - Non-linear and semi-linear locations. Use hacking, lockpicking, charisma, and wall smashing to find alternate routes to your goals.

 - Choice and consequence – your decisions will have impact on the world around you.

 - Grenade crafting and Medicine making. Use ingredients to create various grenades and medicinal pills.

 - Watch morale of your teammates! Morale makes your allies more efficient in battle and out of battle.

 - 3 difficulty modes – Casual, Hardy, and Dystopia.

Available on Steam: Click here Currently 30% off.

Trailer





[SIZE=16pt]Screenshots[/SIZE]

Spoiler

[SIZE=16pt]Story[/SIZE]

Holt Allaway is a skilled engineer, specialising in the construction and programming of robots. When the government approached him to sign up for a military programme to create battle machines, Holt declined, not wishing to create weapons of war. He expected this wouldn’t go down well, and he was right. Shortly after, the officials fabricated a story that he was conspiring with underground movements against the government and convicted him of a crime he did not commit.

Upon being arrested, Holt is taken to a temporary holding facility where all arrested criminals are brought for an interrogation, as well as a verdict that decides their fate. Some are executed, and their organs are harvested and sold. The others are taken to high-security prisons and used as labourers or test subjects.

Shortly after an interrogation, the holding facility is attacked by corrupted machines, and chaos ensues. A scout bot that’s remotely controlled by a mysterious individual calling himself Cai sets Holt free and instructs him to escape. Holt joins forces with a smart scientist Chloe and an assassin Lorelei, both of whom were also imprisoned, and flees the facility.

However, their ordeal has only started. With no allies, few resources, and government police on their heels, they must find any means to survive and escape this condemned city - a City of Chains.

[SIZE=16pt]Playable Characters[/SIZE]

Spoiler

Name: Holt Allaway

Age: 29

Bio: Engineer and a computer genius. Holt builds and programs robots for a living, preferring to spend a lot of time alone. His rejection to build machines of war angered the government officials, and he was arrested.

Name: Chloe Berthold

Age: 26

Bio: A bright scientist working with nanotechnology and its use for medical purposes. Chloe is kind, laid back and polite, but she will speak her mind when wronged.

Name: Lorelei Livingston

Age: 25

Bio: Ever since her teen years and being born to a poor family, Lorelei did unconventional jobs to survive. Being quick and athletic, she was often hired as a mercenary to infiltrate and steal, and eventually also developed a proficiency to kill.

Name: Dreschner Braun

Age: 34

Bio: Dreschner spent many of his younger years being a simple security guard. It was a low-paid job, but it was enough to survive. In time, his exceptional might and combat skill were noticed, and police hired him for difficult missions. Shortly after, he was outfitted with cyber implants to make him even more lethal in battle.

[SIZE=16pt]Non-Playable Characters[/SIZE]

Spoiler

Name: Roddrik Hudner

Age: 32

Bio: An honest cop. Roddrik likes to get the job done and for justice to be served. His job comes second only to his family, whom he will protect no matter what.

Name: Jinn Yao

Age: 34

Bio: Leader of a gang, rival to Li Shen. Jinn is violent and dangerous, but he is also resourceful and pragmatic. He won’t think twice to even kill an ally if it furthers his own goals.

Name: Hope Goldhaber

Age: 31

Bio: Being highly intelligent and having a strong sense of justice, Hope was put in charge of her precinct. She is not much of a fighter, but she is a skilled strategist and commands absolute respect.

Name: Daelan Berthold

Age: 48

Bio: Daelan is a father to Chloe, but he is also a respected politician, often being in charge of scientific progress and innovation.

Name: Li Shen

Age: 36

Bio: Leader of a gang, rival to Jinn Yao. Unlike his rival, Li is level-headed and charismatic. He doesn’t act without thinking and likes to treat his allies fairly.

Name: Cai

Age: Unknown

Bio: It is unknown who Cai is, but he engineered an attack on the holding facility where Holt and Chloe were being kept. In the midst of chaos, he sent a remotely controlled scout bot to free them from their cells and instructed them to escape. His motives are not yet clear.

[SIZE=16pt]Credits[/SIZE]

Spoiler

DEVELOPED BY:

Matthew Ashworth / Matseb2611

of Astronomic Games

PUBLISHED BY:

New Reality Games

SOFTWARE:

RPG Maker VX Ace by Enterbrain

ART:

PVGames

Hyde

Timmah

Enterbrain

Kadokawa

Sherman3D

Adellie

Matthew Ashworth

MUSIC:

Joel Steudler

Benjamin ‘Scythuz’ Carr

Jewelbeat.com

Murray Atkinson

Darren 'Desperate Measurez' Curtis

JDB Artist

Deceased Superior Technician

Iichi Kohuro (Audiojungle)

Zander 'TheRedGiant' Noriega (Audiojungle)

SOUND FX:

Benjamin ‘Scythuz’ Carr

Joel Steudler

Enterbrain

SoundCandy (Audiojungle)

HazardStudio (Audiojungle)

Rucisko (Freesound.org)

SCRIPTS:

Yanfly

Dekita

Galv

Neon Black

Syvkal

Shaz

Modern Algebra

SiChainlinks

Todd

Bgillisp

Vlue

Jason 'Wavelength' Commander

Jet

Zeriab

STORY and CHARACTERS:

Matthew Ashworth

TESTERS:

The Stranger

Cabfe

Palladinthug

Soul

AwesomeCool

Wizewun1

 

[The Stranger]

Looking forward to playing this. I love cyberpunk games.

 

[Soul]

Ooooooo, this looks promising. Question on the battle-hud: Is that eventually going to be modified, or not? It's not an issue either way, more curious than anything.

 

[Matseb2611]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I am still not certain about the battle screen look. At the moment there are no sci-fi/cyberpunk battlebacks in PVGames style, so this is something I am hoping to sort out during the development.

 

[Soul]

You could always make a battle-back by making a map in-game and taking a screen-shot of the map itself. When you go to import the picture, it goes to the Battle-back 1 folder. I've done it for past games I've worked on - makes special fights look awesome. You could event set battle-backs to specific regions if you wanted, I've seen a script for it somewhere. But, my question was aimed towards your battle-hud: where the HP/etc. of characters is shown, within the window.

Side-note: May wanna put the NPC's and maybe even PC's into spoilers (if both,  I suggest separate to keep PC and NPC apart). Makes scrolling easier for people.

 

[Matseb2611]

I was considering the idea of making battlebacks from maps, but how do you give it that perspective effect?

In regard to HUD, I am not sure. Ideally I would like to change it, but I don't know of a good script I can use. Luna Engine is a bit hard for me, and it also doesn't seem to be compatible with Galv's Animated Battlers system, so I have to find something else that can work.

Thanks, gonna do that now.

 

[Soul]

Could you specify the perspective you're talking about?

And when I've the chance, I plan on buying the Luna Engine. I'm sure I can figure it out and teach you from there. When it comes to making stuff beautiful, A.K.A, "prettifying" things, you can always save it for later anyway. Was there no tutorial made by someone that covers how to edit it around in Luna, though?

 

[Matseb2611]

Like you know how you get a feeling of depth. With the floor converging as it gets further away from us.

Like this:

http://www.turkeyfreelance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/perspective-bg-free-download.jpg

And thank you. I'll be very happy to hear some tips on making Luna work (assuming if it works with Galv's script). I think there are plenty of tutorials, but scripts are a whole other language to me and I usually stare at them as though they're Matrix code.

 

[Soul]

Actually, yes. There are scripts for that - Mode 7 is what they're called. Here's one by a scripter called MGC: http://www.rgss-factory.net/2015/02/15/ace-mode-7-ace-v-1-7-2/

When I get back from giving a friend a ride, I'll look for/through some Luna tutorials about this. See if I can help you understand them without the engine on my end. If I need the engine to just have a better idea, then unless someone else with it offers to help you in the meantime, I'll definitely be able to help once I get it. Between my game and RL, wallet is a lil tight momentarily. I'll be able to get it sometime in the next two or three weeks.

 

[Matseb2611]

Oh cool. I've heard of the Mode7 scripts. It looks really complex though. What are its terms? Can it be used commercially?

Thanks for offering to help. Don't worry about it too much though if you don't have Luna Engine.

 

[Soul]

The one I linked to can be used commercially. Need help with using it?

EDIT: After looking around, didn't find an tutorial for changing up the hud. Probably to protect the actual scripts from being taken. Regardless, when I've bought the engine I'll be able to help. Just to clarify, not getting it to just help you. I've wanted it so I can easily make the menu layouts look the way I'd like, as well as the combat. Seen some wicked cool pic's of what people have done. It's beautiful, man! e.e

 

[Matseb2611]

Heh, thank you for the offer to help with mode 7, but you don't have to really. I'll think up of something though.

It's up to you. Worst case scenario, I could commission a scripter to modify a battle HUD for me. Still got plenty of time to sort this out.

 

[Soul]

It'd be easy enough to help with, not much of a problem at all really.

I'll be figuring out how to change it around regardless. As you've already boughten it yourself, might as well give it a go before commissioning a scripter. If there's some stuff you'd like that it can't do, that'd be more worth it. But you're right, you've plenty of time before it really matters at all.

 

[Matseb2611]

Ah OK. In that case I'll give it a try, and if I have any questions, I'll send you a PM. Thanks.

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

Matseb2611, I really like what you do with the PV games material. 

Have you been using part of the Mythos pack to get that old sci-fi/bunker look?

 

[Matseb2611]

Hey there, Nitenman. Thank you for your comment.

For the sci-fi style bunker look, I mostly used Wild Steam tiles, but recoloured them grey and did a few edits here and there. I did use some Mythos tiles too, but most was Wild Steam.

 

[LucasGodzilla]

Cool! I am curious though, how did you make your own custom PV Games styled characters with some Sci-Fi assets? Did you franken-sprite or use a special program or what?

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, I did a lot of photoshopping. Wild Steam pack has templates and character pieces to create your own characters, though most of those are steampunk and wild west themed. I simply edited some of those to have a more sci-fi look.

 

[sokita]

I love the actor sprites!

 

[Matseb2611]

Thanks guys.

I've got some new screenshots of the first few areas:

Slum

Repair shop

A small barracks building

I also tried to tidy up the battle screen a bit. Changed the thickness of the HP/M bars and made the battlebacks look a bit better.

Also wanted to talk a bit about the 3 difficulty modes and how they'll differ from each other. These are the things currently in place, although I am open for suggestions. There is a chance some of these will change as the development goes, since I am yet to test higher difficulty modes.

Enemies and Bosses:

Casual - All enemies have base stats to keep the challenge easy.

Hardy - Enemies get a 20% bonus to HP and 25% bonus to Atk power. Many will also now use more dangerous abilities. Some bosses might have some other bonuses too.

Dystopia - Enemies get a 20% bonus to HP and 40% bonus to Atk power. No new skills from what Hardy already offers, but you might get more enemies in a troop.

Aid (Health) Stations:

Casual - Give you a full heal.

Hardy - Only restore your HP fully, but do not revive fallen allies.

Dystopia - Aid stations are completely disabled.

Morale penalties (certain things cause your allies to lose morale):

Casual - Normal penalties. 1 morale loss if an ally gets KOed in battle. No penalty for escaping.

Hardy - Normal penalties. 1 morale loss if an ally gets KOed in battle. No penalty for escaping.

Dystopia - 1 morale loss if an ally gets KOed in battle (might raise that to 2). 2 morale loss upon escaping a battle.

That's it so far. Development is going very smoothly (aside from a few minor problems here and there), and the Act 1 demo will be available sometime later this month.