Descension is a turn based free roam blobber style game for PC in development by independent developer Arkytoothis.
Set in the world of New Terra, players are encouraged to explore 5 dynamic islands to discover mysterious dungeons, defeat ravenous monsters, and uncover a dangerous evil that threatens to overrun this magical land. The developer sites classic computer RPG titles like Might & Magic, Wizardry, and Dungeons and Dragons as inspirations.
There is a playable demo available on their Itch page and you can find more info on Descension on their itch page: https://arkytoothis.itch.io/descension
The game is unfortunately no longer in development, but developer is working on a new grid based movement game in a similar style called Descending that is currently in an alpha state.
Although Descension is no longer in development we wanted to talk to the developer about the game and future games. You can check it out below!
Q: What is the name and general overview of your game?
Descension. Gridless party based RPG (blobber). Globe spanning epic RPG that ends with a massive cataclysm that completely alters the face of the world. The basic story is that a party of adventurers unwittingly release an ancient evil that proceeds to rampage across the globe, leaving nothing but death, destruction and massive scars in the earth itself in its wake.
Q: Any big inspirations for the game?
Later Might and Magic (6 to 9) and Wizardry 8 some Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer influence.
Q: Any personal anecdotes you would like to share about the game?
My attempt to capture the magic and epic feel of the games that I played as a youngster.
Q: Type of combat? turn based, real time, strategy?
Combat is turn based.
Q: Any other mechanics you are excited about / unique in your game?
Day/night cycle. Terraforming through spells and events, large scale alteration of the world. Procedurally generated dungeons. “Loose” profession based system where skills unlock abilities and upgrades and professions start with a set of skills and equipment and a unique ability tree. Skills can then be learned through training, events or items. “Prestige” or Hero Classes are a planned feature can be unlocked which give access to hard or impossible to find skills and their own abilities.
Q: How big is your development team? Any details or shout outs you would like to give?
Just myself but I have a large library of assets I have purchased over the years.
Q: Any ETA on next big release / demo?
When its done. I work full time during the summer but have the winter to work fully on the game so it is slow going but I will try to release a playable demo of the starting map sometime in early 2025. (this is for Descending)
Q: Is the game still in development?
This version is cancelled. The problem I ran into was using a fully 3d, gridless world, it would have taken me way too long to build an entire world by hand and fill it with the detail I was envisioning. I tried using procedural terrain generation but just couldn’t generate something I was happy with.
Q: What are you working on now? Any details?
My new game, Descending – Curse of the Blood Chalice, is a “First Person Grid Based Party Blobbing Dungeon Crawling RPG”. I am using the same assets but with a simpler, easier to read world. With the problem I described above I decided to scale things back and go with a grid base approach, much more similar to World of Xeen or the newer Amberland games. This will allow me to create a large world with the detail I want without spending thousands of hours hand building everything. I am also building a map editor which will be used to build the entire game. The editor is included with the game, the idea being to allow players to build full maps and worlds of their own. A tile based world also makes it very easy to alter terrain and world on a large scale or with simpler spells, rituals or game events.
