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We are now on Kickstarter, if you like the game please support us, every little helps make this game reality.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1832653738/border

We are now on Greenlight!
If you find the game interesting, please drop us a Vote.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=243049592

Welcome to Border, my dream.

I have a dream world and story i have spent almost 8 years now on developing.
Its a world of decay, of passing and ruled by the irreversible nature of time and one`s actions.

Its a world of extinct Gods, nature twisted, and humanity at its most efficient systematic cruelty.

While I could talk days upon day about the lore (and I will)
I rather just present the demo i made for the game, it represents the tone of the game perfectly.

Border is Manapunk, imagine Steampunk but the world is not centered around steam, but Mana, and magic, if you think that's interesting you might like the Lore of this world.

The gameplay is lead by Logic, and I mean this!
What we don`t have, and never will!

-No nonsense! (the world have its rules and laws and everything works accordingly)
-No hand holding! (no quest makers, no heavy handed directions, etc.)
-No treasure chests. (no treasure chests in forests or places anyone could have gotten them.)
-No fetch quests. (no kill x amount, get x amount, take this there.)
-No nonsensical puzzles in dungeons. (no complex block pushing or pulling levers, who resets these anyway?)
-No money on monsters. (why would monsters carry money?)
-No nonsensical loot. (potions they never use? weapons they never use? plus where do they keep them?)
-No childish sexism! (no weak, damsels in distress, overly sexualised female characters.)
-No R.O.U.S. (rodents of unusual size, no rats, slimes, etc.)
-No cheap bosses. (no bosses with 20 times the maximum hp parameter.)
-No heals/revives (someone is wounded in battle or knocked out? too bad.)
-No silly weapons (no whips, boomerangs, toys, etc)
-No elementals! (no fire,earth,water, holy, dark etc)
-No binary choices (no black and white morality with colour coded choices.)
-No stereotypical villains. (No emo mommas boys, no "the world is sad so I just destroy it" motives, etc)
-No 4th wall breaking.
-No killing 200.000 humans by the end of the story. (by the end of most rpg games you have committed mass genocide)



What we do have instead!

-A huge living breathing world. (a world with years of work behind it, not just copy paste fiction)
-A battle system designed to simulate real life fights. (centred around guarding, evading, etc)
-Side quests that compliment the story and the characters. (you find these yourself and decide what to do about them.)
-A realistic team relationship system. (don't be shy to express what you really think, one character not liking you might open up something with another.)
-A dark realistic fantasy.
-A new take on races. (dragons, demons, gods all very different with their own motives)
-7.000 pages of comic turned game. (a very long and complex story.)
-A game using a world and story 8 years in the making.


The battle system might seam a little weird at first and that's OK, i will create a manual file soon enough, but there will never be an ingame tutorial.

I will try to gain some notoriety to the game, because it is indeed a commercial project, so treat it accordingly, I really need the feedback, be as harsh as it may.
If you like the demo and interested in any way, drop by my blog, or just comment here if more convenient.
Blog:http://fallenvalkyriestudio.wordpress.com/

Still i hope you enjoy the game, its definitely not for everyone, but that is fine.

Link to Demo:https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4n5znwxgj6wbbh/Border%20Alpha%20DemoV2.exe
(for now its dropbox file size 130MB, includes rtp, but that only about 10Mb so it dose not warrant two versions.)

Latest Blog

Q&A with Jparker1984

(Q)
Jparker1984: Going into this, did you realize at all that disregarding most the fantasy aspects for Border in exchange for a more realistic feel, would generate some level of negative feedback?

(A)
Grayborders: Absolutely! As a kid I loved and enjoyed many of the more loose and silly aspects of these games, they are still charming to me, but I could never really get deep into these worlds mythology because of these elements.

(Q)
Jparker1984: The graphics are amazing, very consistent all across the board. Where did you get your inspiration from and are there multiple people working on them?

(A)
Grayborders: The visuals of the game are all coming from me, so its easy to stay focused on one style. This is the very same style I started out with 8 years ago, the first drawing of a ruined city, overrun by nature still represents the tone of this world the best.

(Q)
Jparker1984: Now, deciding to go with a realistic game is difficult in its own right. Are you planning to make this "Epic" length, like 30+ hours of gameplay?

(A)
Grayborders: Yes, the main story is around 30H, plus the 30+H of optional content. The story and setting of the game is all but done to the very last detail for a few years now.

(Q)
Jparker1984: I was very interested in the relationship aspect, are you planning to go as deep as Mass Effect?

(A)
Grayborders: I`d say deeper. I try to focus on character conflicts, the team in the story is staying together not because they are friends, but because of a common goal, they all have very different opinions of the world and the things they will have to do in the course of the game. So there will be a lot of conflict, and you get to take your sides.

(Q)
Jparker1984: How many if any, traditional fantasy aspects will you be including?

(A)
Grayborders: All that makes sense and won`t raise logical questions. There is magic, airships, Dragons(even if they are very different from the normal definition). But I treat them with respect, and actually explain all of it.

(Q)
Jparker1984: In today's gaming world a lot of games tend to have more characters then generations past with a few exceptions, usually at the cost of character personalities. With path do you plan to go more with?

(A)
Grayborders: Well, again I had a lot of work done with the characters. I love these characters, each and every one, even the "villains" during the 8 years I jumped back and forth with them constantly making sure they are who they should be.

(Q)
Jparker1984: You have what looks like a lot of fans already. As I'm sure you know, non-commercial games often have a history of looking really nice, but never see a finished product. Are you worried at all that could be a problem for you?

(A)
Grayborders: Not at all. Many commercial games come to be with the idea to make a game first, I made a world and story for a very long time, and later decided about the medium. This means all that's left is to put down all existing lines, and stories into the game. If we get funded, it will be done!

(Q)
Jparker1984: For a break from game specific questions. How long have you been an active pro gamer, for lack of better terms?

(A)
Grayborders: Due to where I lived I get to grow up on games form the dawn of gaming, I had an Amiga, a Nes, a Genesis, and when ppl in other countries were playing Quake 3, I was playing the only thing my PC allowed me to, Emulators. But if I have to say an age, since I was 8.

(Q)
Jparker1984: With a bunch of good RPG series out there such as Tales Of, Final Fantasy, Star Ocean and so on. Do you have a favorite?

(A)
Grayborders: Tales of games. I love them, which is ironic because they have some of the most loose lore, and settings. I used to love FF games, used to...

(Q)
Jparker1984: As hard as it is, pretend RPGs don't exist. What's your favorite commercial game from a different genre?

(A)
Grayborders: Very hard question, I have many favorites. But close to my heart is the Metal Gear series, I` m an avid fan, I played every single game of it, even the odd PSP ones, I know their lore inside out. So I'd say it's the MG Games.

(Q)
Jparker1984: This last question has nothing to do with gaming, but I just have to ask. Does bacon actually make everything taste better?

(A)
Grayborders: I never ate bacon!
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  • 03/26/2014 05:55 PM
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Pages: first prev 12 last
synbi
267
01/07/2015 10:14 PM
Just played through the short Alpha 3 demo, took about 30 minutes. I was drawn in by your no-nonsense disclaimer at the top of this page, and I'm glad I stayed to play it through! Though I didn't explore the town that was mentioned because, silly me, wanting to take a cruise on the airship first meant I had to get completely LOST as expected and couldn't find my way back there. Here's a mini review:

The bleak aesthetics really stood out. Custom and modified graphics are also well integrated everywhere. It's interesting how much you're able to make just modifying contrasts on default RTP sometimes!

Music is fitting though with this sample of tracks in the demo it left a rather generic impression on my ears. (I find pianos better served with a deeper/more old classical sound than you/your composer's tastes in bright pianos and tonal writing might allow, but that's just me. Keep composing as you will!) Winners of the soundtrack for me are "Core underground bg" "Duel" and especially "Core mk3 v2".

I found the writing to be confusing, and this could be due to several things. First of all, the way the action is presented makes no effort to explain itself or any of the characters, terms or factions at play here. There's lots of spelling mistakes all over, mostly in map object texts. Dialogue isn't particularly engaging, but it might feel different if I had any idea what was going on :)

Oh and gameplay... mapping is fine but layouts were confusing at some parts. Skills and abilities obviously WIP but the guard/life system feels like a solid fun foundation for an engaging battle system. I've not much to add but to wait impatiently for what comes next in development for Border!
bicfarmer
3601
03/25/2019 09:56 PM
Easy demo, 2 dungeons. Game has some unique mechanics, everyone's MP acts as some kind of shield which regenerates over time and must be depleted before damage can be done to HP. However there are still skills and magicks that cost MP, so there's a bit of risk to using those. However no enemy in the demo was threatening enough to ever deplete anyone's MP. Maps tend to be fairly large. The town at the end of the game is massive, but there are missing RTP files all over the place so you wont get far in there.
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