Titans of the Past is a new free roam blobber style game in development by a small, but passionate, Ukrainian team: Devil’s Dozen Games.
This game is inspired by games like Wizardry, Might and Magic, The Bard’s Tale, Eye of the Beholder, and Legend of Grimrock. While drawing inspiration from these legendary titles, Titans of the Past is not your typical blobber RPG. The developers have implemented some unusual features and some very unique gameplay mechanics not commonly seen in these types of games.
Having piqued our interest, the team at FreeRoamBlobber.com reached out to Devil’s Dozen Games to learn more about this interesting new development project.
Q: Can you give us a general overview of your game?
A: Titans of the Past can be described as Might and Magic meets SUPERHOT meets Slay the Spire meets HOMM3. Controls are typical for free-roam blobbers – a party of four within one ‘camera’. No grid, free look, etc. We have dungeon crawling on handcrafted maps but within procedurally generated Adventures like in Slay the Spire (combat and event nodes and paths between them, map mutators, and so on). Time flows as in SUPERHOT – the world moves when you move. You can dodge arrows! And town building like in Heroes of Might and Magic – buildings unlock new gameplay mechanics and content, like Classes and Races for new characters.
The game is single-player, aimed at PC, and is session-based. We position it as a fantasy dungeon-crawling sandbox: create wild builds and try to find combinations that break the game.
Q: Did you have any big inspirations for the game?
Emotionally, we are aiming to build a world that feels both cozy and dangerous at the same time. HOMM3 and the whole Age of Wonders series are inspirations here. RP system-wise – MM: we have Skill Masteries and quite a lot of skills we are used to from those games. Spells are also modified with Mastery growth, and not only in terms of ‘numbers go up’. E.g. Heal on Grand Master becomes party-wide, Fire Arrow starts to pierce an infinite amount of enemies, and so on. Lore is mostly fantasy but with surprises like in the Heroes universe.
Q: What is the type of combat? Is it turn based, real-time, strategy, or something else?
We haven’t invented this, but we’re doing something quite unique for the genre. Time flows when you move. So it’s real-time with pause but with a twist. We didn’t want to make a turn- and grid-based game, so experimented with controls and game flow a bit until I prototyped this system, we playtested it and decided on ot.
Real-time means cooldown-based combat, so watch your timings!
Q: Are there any other mechanics that you are excited about or that you consider unique in your game?
We love meaningful achievements that reward players. So we’re bringing achievements that unlock new Classes and Races.
Also, we have a huge focus on replayability:
- There are mobs with mutators;
- Randomly selected perks to buy during a run;
- Maps with randomly selected paths so each map plays differently each time you spawn on it;
- Maps have mutators that drastically change the gameplay. E.g. if one party member dies it’s a game over, or mobs drop bombs on death – and bombs damage everyone, so it opens varied tactics.
Q: How big is your development team? Do you have any details or shout outs you would like to give?
10 people currently. We are a collective of like-minded people working without funding and wages – we just want to make this game happen.
Our lead developer is a ‘fresh’ guy – this is his first project. But he’s truly great and has an amazing future. I’ve found him while playing Vermintire 2. He was good at it, I wasn’t.
The second programmer is an old dinosaur. About 50 years, ex-CTO of a Silicon Valley startup, ex-lawyer. And a cat lover!
The third programmer is keen on graphics programming (but mostly does gameplay stuff heh).
A QA guy has been my friend since childhood. It’s ok to do business with friends while it’s not okay to do it with just pals. Absolute trust in a person helps here. He’s determined and a bit bitchy in a good way – which suits QA well.
The VFX guy is amazing at his job and covers all our VFX bases.
Our tech GD is our Spells feature owner – and I found him in a hookah lounge (my permanent office actually).
A 2D artist of ours is a graduated person in the field. She is great.
Our Level Artist is my wife – it’s her first project in the role, and she delivers. Where would I be without her?
My partner, co-founder if I can say this for a no-funding endeavor, is an LD and GD in one amazing human being. The core concept of the game is his work. We also make most important GD decisions together. He has 13 years of XP.
And me – a leader of this team, a producer, and a GD. 18 years of XP, both indie and commercial.
Q: Is there any ETA on next big release or demo?
The demo will be released somewhere in Q1-Q2 2025.
Q: Do you have any dull release details that you want to share at this time?
Full release – we’re not going Early Access – is Summer-Autumn 2025.
There will be:
- 33 Classes
- 15 Races
- 100+ items and 100+ item affixes
- 20+ Boons (aka perks)
- 10+ map mutators
- 30+ mob mutators
- 18 buildings to build and upgrade
- A class constructor feature so you can create your own classes
- Custom portraits
- Custom personalities (text lines with which characters react to various gameplay situations)
- Town building
- 260+ spells
- Crafting, inspired by Last Epoch and Dwarven Realms
- Much more!
You can check out more of the game here:
Wishlist here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3098170/Titans_of_the_Past/
Join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/93KFxxVcNX
Watch our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@DDGStudio13
We had a chance to play an early version of the game and we will share our thoughts about the title soon.
Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when the review is published and we encourage you to give Tians of the Past a wishlist on Steam!
