We are excited to announce that the alpha of Shadow of the Road is almost here, and with it, we present you with a brand-new trailer that reveals what awaits you: a story of honor and duty, mystical yokai and unprecedented technologies, and epic battles where every choice shapes history!

Now is the time to prepare your weapons and armor because a thrilling adventure is about to unfold. To get ready, you only need to follow a few simple steps.

1. Mark Your Calendars! The alpha is set to launch on March 25!
2. Visit the official Steam page for Shadow of the Road by clicking here or search for Shadow of the Road directly in Steam.
3. Scroll down and click on “join the shadow of the road playtest.”

That’s it! All that remains is to hone your patience as you await the epic journey starting next week!

Prepare yourself, sharpen your resolve, and get ready to carve your own path through an unforgettable adventure.

The fate of the Empire awaits its heroes — will you answer the call?​

In Dev Diary 17 we introduced you to the Anarchs, one of the enemy factions you will face. Tonight, we want to introduce another: the I.A.O.

The Information and Awareness Office spearheads the U.S. government's response to the Blankbody threat. While officially defunded, it operates on a large black budget that allows its hunters to face the undead under the guise of "training missions" and "counter-terrorist strikes”.

In one of my favourite quests to work on, Phyre explores an I.A.O. stronghold on Harbor Island which is heavily guarded both inside and out by I.A.O. agents.

It’s one of the game’s largest and most expansive combat areas, providing multiple ways to navigate the environment, as well as allowing you to tackle objectives in whichever order you choose. The I.A.O. have set up thermal shielding to block certain routes - touching or going near the shields will damage you. You will need to search Harbor Island to find a way of shutting them down, opening up more areas to explore.

I.A.O. agents are more organized than the other enemies you would have faced by this stage of the game. They patrol the facility in groups making it harder to pick them off one-by-one, and their use of night-vision goggles, searchlights, and personal radios requires you to be more strategic if you want to take them out without being spotted.

If you engage the I.A.O. in combat head-on they will use more militaristic tactics with better accuracy and knowledge of their weapons, knowing where to shoot you for the most damage. They wear combat armor, allowing them to take more damage than other humans, but are still weak compared to ghouls and vampires. They make up for their mortal frailty with an arsenal of anti-vampire weapons, which are the strongest you will face in the game: Thermal Batons for close combat, which unlike other enemies will cause damage if you hit them when they are blocking your attacks; Phosphor Grenades which create pools of burning damage to flush you out of hiding spots; and Sniper Crossbows which fire explosive bolts causing lots of damage if you don’t remove them in time.

A favourite tactic of mine is to catch the phosphor grenades or explosive bolts mid-air and throw them back for maximum carnage. It's also a great quest for using a Ventrue’s Possession ability, getting an agent to attack one of their own and hearing the panicked screams of friendly fire.

- Senior Game Designer Martin Akehurst

Santiago
The I.A.O. aren’t the only hunters to feature in Bloodlines 2. There is evidence that an ancient hunter is active on the streets of Seattle.

In the early years of the 20th Century, many Kindred met their Final Deaths at the hands of a hunter known only as Santiago. Multiple coteries were wiped out in San Francisco and New Orleans, their destruction attributed to this same relentless pursuer. At the site of each incident, an ornate metal memento in the shape of a sharpened cross was left behind. Crucifixes of this form are called the Cross of St. James - hence the name given to this hunter.

Speculation persists that Santiago, whoever they truly were, was a member of the Society of Leopold, one of the most ancient and feared factions of hunters of the supernatural. If that were true, Santiago would have seen themselves as a soldier of Christ, waging a holy war against the Damned.

- Project Narrative Director Ian Thomas​

London, U.K. - March 11th, 2025 – Longdue has unveiled the atmospheric debut teaser for its in-development ‘psychogeographic’ RPG, Hopetown, alongside new details about the key talent shaping the project. The studio is also excited to announce that Hopetown’s Kickstarter campaign will launch on March 17th, with a pre-launch page featuring a limited set of early-backer rewards live now.

Longdue can reveal that Lenval Brown, the unmistakable voice of Disco Elysium’s narrator, whose unique timbre and gravitas are instantly recognisable to those in the know, will be closely involved in the project and voice a key character in the game, as teased in the latest trailer for Hopetown.

“It feels good to be back—to step into something new,” says Lenval Brown. “There’s nothing like bringing a world to life, shaping a story that’s been waiting to be spoken into existence.”

Martin Luiga, founding member of the ZA/UM Cultural Association, writer of the first short story in the Disco Elysium universe and writer of 7 characters in Disco Elysium, has also joined the Longdue team.

“I am pleased to share my experiences with Longdue to help them craft the narrative and systems for Hopetown, playing to the strengths that the narrative RPG genre has achieved thus far and attempting to innovate upon them to tell a rich story based in equal parts on what has been, what is and what could be,” said Martin. “I am confident that the team can deliver a worthy addition to the canon of Western RPGs. I call upon the fans of the RPG and adventure genre to back the Hopetown Kickstarter to help us make the game."

Lenval and Martin are joined by Piotr Sobolewski, who oversaw a team of 15 that worked on Disco Elysium and were instrumental in shaping the game’s signature mad, gnarly energy into something smooth, cohesive, and deeply immersive. Alongside them, a growing roster of creative talent from the RPG space and beyond and beyond is bringing Hopetown to life.

“At Longdue, we’ve built—and continue to build—a team with real horsepower: Disco Elysium contributors, AAA stalwarts, indie artisans—all champing at the bit to unleash their talents,” says Grant Roberts, Narrative Lead at Longdue, “Hopetown is what happens when you bring those minds together: a rich, reactive world, razor-sharp writing, and an RPG that purrs with depth and atmosphere.”

The studio is excited to share more about Hopetown when its Kickstarter launches on March 17th, including deeper insights into the team behind the game, its psychogeographic and journalism mechanics, the mining town setting, and more.​

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They decided to show the Infinity Engine to their friends at Interplay, accompanied by the suggestion that it might be well-suited for powering an Ultima Online competitor. They booked a meeting with one Feargus Urquhart, who had started at Interplay six years earlier as a humble tester and moved up through the ranks with alacrity to become a producer while still in his mid-twenties. Urquhart was skeptical of these massively-multiplayer schemes, which struck him as a bit too far out in front of the state of the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure. When he saw the Infinity Engine, he thought it would make a great fit for a more traditional style of CRPG. Further, he knew well that the Dungeons & Dragons brand was currently selling at a discount. Muzyka and Zeschuk, who were looking for any way at all to get their studio established well enough that they could stop taking weekend shifts at local clinics, were happy to let Urquhart pitch the Infinity Engine to his colleagues in this other context.

Said colleagues were for the most part less enthused than Urquhart was; as we’ve learned all too well by now, the single-player CRPG wasn’t exactly thriving circa 1996. Nor was the Dungeons & Dragons name on a computer game any guarantee of better sales than the norm in these latter days of TSR. Yet Urquhart felt strongly that the brand was less worthless than mismanaged. There had been a lot of Dungeons & Dragons computer games in recent years — way too many of them from any intelligent marketer’s point of view — but they had almost all presumed that what their potential buyers wanted was novelty: novel approaches, novel mechanics, novel settings. As they had pursued those goals, they had drifted further and further from the core appeal of the tabletop game.

Despite TSR’s fire hose of strikingly original, sometimes borderline avant-garde boxed settings, the most popular world by far in which to actually play tabletop Dungeons & Dragons remained the Forgotten Realms, an unchallenging mishmash of classic epic-fantasy tropes. The Forgotten Realms was widely and stridently criticized by the leading edge of the hobby for being fantasy-by-the-numbers, and such criticisms were amply justified in the abstract. But those making them failed to reckon with the reality that, for most of the people who still played tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, it wasn’t so much a vehicle for improvisational thespians to explore the farthest realms of the imagination as it was a cozy exercise in dungeon delving and monster bashing among friends; the essence of the game was right there in its name. For better or for worse, most people still preferred good old orcs and kobolds to the mind-bending extra-dimensional inhabitants of a setting like Planescape or the weird Buck Rogers vibe of something like Spelljammer. The Forgotten Realms were gaming comfort food, a heaping dish of tropey, predictable fun. And the people who played there wouldn’t have had it any other way.

And yet fewer and fewer Dungeons & Dragons computer games had been set in the Forgotten Realms since the end of the Gold Box line. (Descent to Undermountain would be set there, but it had too many other problems for that to do it much good.) SSI and their successors had also showed less and less fidelity to the actual rules of Dungeons & Dragons over the years. The name had become nothing more than a brand, to be applied willy-nilly to whatever struck a publisher’s fancy: action games, real-time-strategy games, you name it. In no real sense were you playing TSR’s game of Dungeons & Dragons when you played one of these computer games; their designers had made no attempt to implement the actual rules found in the Player’s Handbook and Dungeons Master’s Guide. It wasn’t clear anymore what the brand was even meant to stand for. It had been diluted to the verge of meaninglessness.

But Feargus Urquhart was convinced that it was not yet beyond salvation. In fact, he believed that the market was ready for a neoclassical Dungeons & Dragons CRPG, if you will: a digital game that earnestly strove to implement the rules and to recreate the experience of playing its tabletop inspiration, in the same way that the Gold Box line had done. Naturally, such a game would need to take place in the tried-and-true Forgotten Realms. This was not the time to try to push gamers out of their comfort zone.

At the same time, though, Urquhart recognized that it wouldn’t do to simply re-implement the Gold Box engine and call it a day. Computer gaming had moved on from the late 1980s; people expected a certain level of audiovisual razzle-dazzle, wanted intuitive and transparent interfaces that didn’t require reading a manual to learn how to use, and generally preferred the fast-paced immediacy of real-time to turn-based models. If it was to avoid seeming like a relic from another age, the new CRPG would have to walk a thin line, remaining conservative in spirit but embracing innovation with gusto in all of its granular approaches. The ultimate goal would not be to recreate the Gold Box experience. It must rather be to recreate the same tabletop Dungeons & Dragons experience that the Gold Box games had pursued, but to embrace all of the affordances of late-1990s computers in order to do it even better — more accurately, more enjoyably, with far less friction. Enter the Infinity Engine.

But Urquhart’s gut feeling was about more than just a cool piece of technology. He had served as the producer on Shattered Steel, in which role he had visited BioWare several times and spent a fair amount of time with the people there. Thus he knew there were people in that Edmonton office who still played tabletop Dungeons & Dragons regularly, who had forged their friendships in the basement of a tabletop-gaming shop. He thought that a traditionalist CRPG like the one he had in mind might be more in their wheelhouse than any giant-robot action game or cutting-edge shared virtual world.

He felt this so strongly that he arranged a meeting with Brian Fargo, the Big Boss himself, whose soft spot for the genre that had put Interplay on the map a decade earlier was well known. When he was shown the Infinity Engine, Fargo’s reaction was everything Urquhart had hoped it would be. What sprang to his mind first was The Faery Tale Adventure, an old Amiga game whose aesthetics he had always admired. “It didn’t look like a bunch of building blocks,” says Fargo today of the engine that Urquhart showed him in 1996. “It looked like somebody had free-hand-drawn every single screen.”

As Urquhart had anticipated would be the case, it wasn’t hard for Fargo to secure a license from the drowning TSR to make yet another computer game with the name of Dungeons & Dragons on it. The bean counters on his staff were not excited at the prospect; they didn’t hesitate to point out that Interplay already had Fallout and Descent to Undermountain in development. Just how many titles did they need in such a moribund genre? They needed at least one more, insisted Fargo.

BioWare’s employees were astonished and overjoyed when they were informed that a chance to work on a Dungeons & Dragons CRPG had fallen into their laps out of the clear blue sky. James Ohlen and his little gang from Grande Prairie could scarcely have imagined a project more congenial to their sensibilities. Ohlen had been running tabletop Dungeons & Dragons campaigns for his friends since he was barely ten years old. Now he was to be given the chance to invent one on the computer, one that could be enjoyed by the whole world. It was as obvious to Urquhart as it was to everyone at BioWare that the title of Lead Designer must be his. He called his initial design document The Iron Throne. When a cascade of toilet jokes rained down on his head in response, Urquhart suggested the more distinctive name of Baldur’s Gate, after the city in the Forgotten Realms where its plot line would come to a climax.​

STOCKHOLM – Feb. 27, 2025 – Today during the celebrity-attended and tabletop-focused Lost Odyssey Event, Swedish publisher Raw Fury announced their partnership with developer Christoffer Bodegård to launch their absurd fantasy CRPG, ESOTERIC EBB, this year. Until March 17th, players can play the demo on Steam.

ESOTERIC EBB is an isometric, Disco-like, TTRPG-turned-CRPG, featuring deep and branching dialogs with a staggering amount of choice set in an Arcanepunk-fantasy setting.

In ESOTERIC EBB, the player is the Cleric, one of many menial laborers of the city of Norvik. Tasked to solve the mystery of an exploded Tea Shop, players will roll dice against the voices in their head, explore a fantasy city on the brink of its first-ever election, and strive to become a hero of legends. Or completely ruin the campaign.

Key features in ESOTERIC EBB include:

• Make choices that may come back to bite – Complete open-ended quests, low and high-stakes alike, set in the streets, towers, and dark tunnels of Norvik. Become the city’s savior or its demise.
• Roll the dice – Roll to wrestle dwarves, steal anything in sight, or keep from looking like a complete fool. But remember, in true TTRPG fashion, failure can often be way more interesting.
• Warp reality to your whim – Use The Cleric’s innate magical power for unique narrative choices. Control minds for fun and profit. Detect secrets in the tunnels below or within the minds of enemies.
• Master turn-based combat sequences – Clerics in Norvik are taught to use violence as a last resort. When the need does arise, a roll of the dice determines success or failure ala the best tabletop RPGs.
• Progress through the story to complete the Questing Tree – A quest log, skill tree, and mind map all at once. Each Quest Branch can take root in your mind and alter the Cleric’s playstyle through game-changing feats.

More details about ESOTERIC EBB are coming soon. To keep up with the latest on ESOTERIC EBB, follow the game and its developers on X.​

What makes a vampire distinct? What transforms them from “alluring nocturnal wizards” to memorable creatures of horror, monsters in all but looks? Tonight, we take a look at this element: the mortals.

The characters you are about to see are all caught up in Seattle’s vampire underworld in one way or another. Most are unaware, thinking their misfortune the result of bad luck rather than the interference of vampires. Such is the way of the Masquerade.

If Everyone is a Vampire
To achieve the stark contrasts essential to gothic horror fiction, the vampire must be viewed through the attraction, addiction, and terror they inspire. Every mortal is a lens through which the audience — and player — sees a sliver of the vampire as they appear to the living world.

They are the canvas on which the Kindred wield their bloody brush, for to be a vampire is to possess terrible powers, allowing one to use and abuse people as tools, food, and pleasure. (Of course, the ratio of these three also says something about a vampire’s moral nature.) Most of all, mortals elevate the vampire experience, providing the backdrop against which the undead stand in bloody relief.

After all, if everyone is a vampire, then no one is.

Mortal outcomes
These are only some of the mortals you will encounter in the game. What you do with them is up to you. Whether you treat them with respect, contempt, or simply as the next meal, their lives may be irrevocably changed by the encounter. Some will never sleep easy again. Others will spend every night looking for you. And some — perhaps many — will face death, victims of Hunger, fury, or casual whim.​

You are Cralon the Brave, hunting a demon that is stealing the inhabitants and belongings of a nearby village. But during your pursuit, the creature surprises you and you fall into the shaft of an old mine, trapped in the darkness. A maze of corridors and secrets lay ahead and you must find a way out to avert the threatening doom. But the further you venture into the underworld, the clearer the feeling becomes that something is wrong. With the help of the creatures of the shaft, you face your fears and uncover the secret of the mine.

Key Features

• A huge dungeon with seamless levels and varied environments
• A deep main story with side quests and twists
• Original and bizarre creatures that can be both hostile and friendly
• Fully voiced dialogues with different choices
• Melee and ranged combat
• Items to inspect and collect
• Opportunities to upgrade and improve your character
• Recipes and crafting
• Creepy elements and scary situations
• Hidden puzzles and traps
• Documents and pictures with clues and background information

As you probably know, our next project will not be a full-scale RPG (like Age of Decadence and Colony Ship). If it's the first time you're reading about it, here's why:

Colony Ship sold well (for an obscure indie RPG), but not enough to pay for a more ambitious and complex sequel. The plan was not to do another story on the same ship, but to continue the story after planetfall. Such a game - such a new world with everything that entails - would have required a bigger team and a much bigger budget. We simply don't have the resources to undertake that now, but hopefully we can come back to it later.

So we're in a situation where we can 'go the distance' and handle a 4-5 year long project, provided we keep the costs low and focus on combat, i.e. a complex tactical RPG. We know that some people will be disappointed, but it's either that or shutting down for good. So let's roll the dice one last time and see what happens.

Keep in mind that we're starting to work on it just now, so many things can and will change over the next few years (and many things will go wrong). The purpose of this post isn't to drum up some excitement but to let you know what we're working on now and what the goals are:

• Lovecraftian bronze age populated by humans, non-men races, and eldritch horrors
• Semi-sandbox, roam anywhere but be aware that some dark corners of this land will be more dangerous than others
• Three mutually exclusive main questlines with plenty of choices (including switching sides)
• Procedurally-generated quests to keep you entertained
• Colony Ship style feats (and skill points) on level up plus feats earned in various events.
• 10-12 character levels plus mastery levels that don't grant any feats.
• AoD style combat (action points, different attacks, focus on melee) but with a hex grid.
• Spellcasting (think fighters dabbling in magic rather than DnD wizards unleashing pyrotechnic hell)
• Crafting and alchemy, AoD style; magic weapons and armor
• Party size 6, recruit as many as you need if your comrades (or should I say battle brothers?) fall in battle
• Colony Ship's death timer with feats detailing the worsening effects of your near-death experiences
• Runes carved into the flesh of your comrades (think Colony Ship's implants)

So, that's the plan. Will we get there? I'd say 50/50, if we're being honest. Unlike the sequel to Colony Ship, this project is actually doable but doable and easy are two different things. Colony Ship will remain the budget generator for this project, so hopefully it will continue selling and see us through.

Now you're up-to-date!​

Why Early Access?
We’ve been working on our game non-stop since 2020 and, over time, we’ve built one of the most amazing online communities out there. They have been invaluable in adding polish, features, and helping us create the best game we possibly can. We’re extremely proud of what we’ve achieved and believe our audience deserves to experience Peripeteia beyond the demo while continuing to help us achieve our vision.

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
Peripeteia will remain in Early Access until the last few levels are polished and updated into the game. We hope to reach that state in early 2026, with plans to continue supporting the game with new post-release content and ongoing updates.

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
We plan for the full version to be completed through subsequent updates, including new maps to conclude the story campaign, bug fixes, and refinements to existing content. While our aim is to achieve these goals within the next year, this timeline may shift as we progress with development and respond to feedback.

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
The current Early Access version includes five complete levels, each with major features implemented. Along with this there are two bonus levels, Arena and Ratical, with their own modes.

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
The price at Early Access release will remain the same throughout its development cycle, we may adjust the price upon full release.

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
While Peripeteia’s world, story, and mechanics is the game we want to play, created with the shared vision of Snaketicus and Shodanon, we absolutely love discussing development and receiving feedback, from the smallest nitpick to the most scathing critique. Through community interaction, we’ve added features we wouldn’t have thought of on our own and implemented community content that makes up the soul of the game, like the fever dream that is Joychan. We want to continue this mutually beneficial relationship with our fans.
We will continue to update the Steam forums and community through there, as well as on our Discord server.​

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But Why Tho?
COGconnected
Comics Gaming Magazine
DualShockers
Eurogamer
IGN
PC Gamer
PCGamesN
Pro Game Guides
RPG Site
RPGamer
The Nerd Stash​

The wait is finally over—Avowed, Obsidian Entertainment’s highly anticipated fantasy RPG has officially launched! Step into the breathtaking Living Lands, a wild and mysterious island located in the Pillars of Eternity world of Eora, and embark on a journey filled with danger, discovery, and adventure.

A Land in Turmoil
The Living Lands is a frontier unlike any other. This rugged and untamed island has become a haven for exiles, dreamers, and adventurers seeking a fresh start. Its vibrant regions and scattered settlements pulse with life, each hiding untold stories and ancient secrets waiting to be uncovered.

But this land of promise is fraught with peril. The Dreamscourge, a devastating soul-plague, is driving settlers to madness and turning them against one another. The very land itself resists colonization, haunted by echoes of lives long past. As an envoy chosen by a foreign emperor and blessed by a mysterious god, you are thrust into the heart of this chaos. With divine powers at your fingertips and the will to shape your own destiny, you’ll confront ancient threats, unravel mysteries, and decide the fate of the Living Lands. Will you unite its people or watch as their struggles tear them apart? The choices you make will define the future of the Living Lands—and the person you become.

Forge Your Own Path
In Avowed, the power of choice is yours. Create a character and shape your playstyle with four expansive skill trees—Fighter, Ranger, Wizard, and Godlike. Whether you’re a stealthy sniper armed with dual pistols and a longbow or a spell-slinging barbarian wielding an axe and a grimoire, the possibilities are endless. Your choices define who you are and how you’ll tackle the challenges ahead.

But you’re not alone on this journey. Your companions each bring their own skills, personalities, and deeply personal stories:

• Kai, the steadfast protector, whose calm demeanor and unwavering loyalty make him a dependable shield in battle.
• Giatta, a brilliant animancer scientist, whose relentless curiosity drives her to uncover the mysteries of the Dreamscourge, even at great personal risk.
• Marius, a lone-wolf hunter, whose sharp wit and tracking expertise make him an invaluable ally in the wilderness.
• Yatzli, a fiery Godless expert, harnessing explosive magic and a rebellious spirit. Her disdain for the gods adds complexity to her character and your choices.

Their history, relationships, and perspectives intertwine with your story, adding depth and weight to every decision you make. Will you earn their trust, challenge their beliefs, or forge something more profound? How you guide your companions—and how they influence you—shapes the adventure in unexpected ways.

Your Living Lands, Your Way
Avowed is a game built to immerse you in its world. The Living Lands is a sprawling playground for adventurers, rewarding exploration at every turn. Traverse rugged cliffs, wade through winding rivers, and uncover unique hidden treasures—from ancient elemental weapons to fragments of God Shrine Totems that come together creating powerful new abilities.

Combat is equally immersive, offering a seamless blend of magic, melee, and ranged attacks. Unleash shockwaves with Grimoire Snap, trade health for devastating power with Blood Magic, wield weapons you have upgraded and enchanted, or mix and match abilities to create a playstyle that’s entirely your own. Every encounter is an opportunity to experiment, strategize, and push the boundaries of you and your companions potentials.

At the heart of Avowed lies its dedication to player choice. Inspired by the freedom of tabletop RPGs, the game puts the power in your hands. Your decisions ripple across the Living Lands, shaping alliances, influencing factions, and determining the fate of your companions. Whether you negotiate peace, spark conflict, or carve your own path through the chaos, your actions leave a lasting impact on the world of Eora.

This seamless blend of storytelling, exploration, and creativity makes Avowed an unforgettable RPG experience, offering an experience where every choice matters and every discovery feels personal.

Start Your Adventure Today
Whether you’re a longtime fan of Obsidian Entertainment or new to Eora, Avowed invites you to dive into a world of wonder, danger, and opportunity. With its vibrant setting, unforgettable characters, and deeply immersive gameplay, this is the role-playing experience you’ve been waiting for.

The Living Lands are calling. Gather your courage, forge your path, and let the adventure begin!​