Synthnostate: Crusaders of the Tinfoil Hat

Engine V2 is almost done. No art/style changes, just a rebuild in plain C with cleaner graphics+GUI systems, Lua scripting, and in-engine editing for smoother content editing & modding.

A class system is in the works, tentively a modern spin on the old Warrior-Mage-Rogue system, with subclasses like Brawler, Hunter, Pilot, Tradesman, Hacker, Gamer, etc.

I’ll start uploading tech demos as soon as I have basic grid movement and character creation in the new engine, and I’ll continue into open beta / early access like I should have done from the start. A basic competent B-grade debut release is the goal; I could go further if there’s popular demand, otherwise I’ll call it done at some point and move on to the next project…

Tracking progress here: https://doomcult.itch.io/synthnostate/devlog/319143/roadmap-demo-1-dev-sprint-beyond

Synthnostate: Trial By Combat

A direct sequel with the same turnbased engine and lots of new content and combat mechanics. Hopefully I can put together a small team for this one. Tentatively it takes place a year or so after the events of Crusaders, in a world thrown off-balance by the rapid proliferation of alien-derived technology which makes this COVID insanity look tame - mostly in the hands of various darkly-glowing syndicates who are out to get YOU.

True vampires will be among them, now that I’ve written them into the series canon… supernatural, but subjected to hard scifi treatment. But they won’t have many vampiric combat mechanics, as they’re loathe to show their hand overtly, preferring to act through intermediaries instead.

Synthnostate sequel in which you play a vampire…

This first-person RPG is still in the pipeline. I’ll probably upload some tech demos next year, built in Godot 4 and/or my custom engine, with some experiments in facial animation, cloth physics, subsurface sampling… really just to study the feasibility and time/cost requirements of making a decent looking FP RPG. The full game is years away. It could become a reality before I finish it, lol.

The other challenge of this project is to create an interesting mix of vampire action, proven realtime stealth mechanics, and decent combat as another option.

UPDATE 11/26

Character Creation V2 is coming along… just needs a 3D background with better lighting, GUI sliders/spinners/scrollbars, and color chooser.

I don’t want to rush V2 and make a mess of it, defeating the purpose of this engine rebuild. I won’t even upload a demo until V2 has character movement, which is one of the messy parts of V1. It includes tile grid generation, A* pathfinding, mouse picking, raycasting, and animation sequencing. It’s so complicated that I thought it might be easier to implement a hybrid navmesh-grid system with seamless multifloor 3D pathfinding (for muh verticality). So I looked at a few navmesh papers/articles (lol, I probably met the guy who invented it… I remember visiting the UMass robotics lab ~30 years ago… they had everything figured out except batteries) and on second thought it’s too much change. Who needs verticality in a turnbased rpg anyway? It’s not exactly what made XCOM and JA2 great.

I can simplify V1 tile grids a lot anyway. No multifloor scenes (just fake it for appearances), no grid quad/triangle (only dots), floor mesh mouse picking (navmesh style), no movement cost grid…

…the rainbow-colored fills just don’t look good, it’s too much work to make it look better (like Shadowrun), and everyone just moves their mouse around searching for the perfect tactical position anyway.

UPDATE 12/16

Almost ready for the first demo; we have character creation and grid movement, just need to spend a week or so tying up loose ends.

I’ve been thinking about the business side… it would be nice to have a publisher, i.e. a businessman to deal with game stores and advertising in exchange for a big enough cut of the proceeds to motivate him (or theoretically her). But I have high standards: I won’t tarnish my sterling brand by association with shovelware or woke trash. And it would have to be a hardcore RPG publisher. I know a few devs in the publishing business, unfortunately most of them got out of it OR became addicted to building advergames and mobile shovelware for income, hired a bunch of woke millenials to build them, and became woke trash.

Assuming I don’t find an acceptable publisher, I’ll probably release Synthnostate as shareware so I don’t have to deal with the stores. I’ve already proven to myself that I can make the kind of B-grade RPGs I set out to make IF I’m not wasting time on social media and marketing.

And I don’t necessarily have to run this project as a business. It made some sense way back when I started (when Trump’s star was still rising) but for the forseeable future we’re operating under an NWO hellbent on crushing independent businesses. I could build up a loose-knit modding scene where hardcore modders can contribute greatly to the game and take donations independently to support their work. It’s too soon for that now; too many cooks spoil the broth; but when the time is right, I think it would be cool as hell.