Digitally Downloaded reviewed Broken Roads:

Review: Broken Roads (PC)

So this is what Australia will be like soon...

One of my favourite things about Broken Roads is that every second sentence there’s a word that’s highlighted, and you can press a button to see a little pop-up explaining what that word means. That word is inevitably a piece of Australian English, and the developers felt the need to include a complete glossary so that non-Australians could figure out what was actually being said.

In every other way, Broken Roads plays out like a classic Fallout (as in, before Fallout 3) or Wasteland. It’s a post-apocalyptic, gritty, hard western that likes to challenge the player’s morality almost as much as it does throwing them into deadly situations. But it’s also Australian. Not in a Crocodile Dundee over-the-top caricature to appeal to the stereotypical “understanding” of Australia that other places in the world seem to think is cute. No. It’s as Australian as Fallout is American. It just is, and that’s appealing.

[...]

There aren’t too many truly authentic games set in Australia, made by Australians, telling Australian stories. Broken Roads is one, and it is one of the most different and interesting games you’ll play this year on that basis alone. Yes there are more refined RPGs out there, but none of those will take you on a crash course through Australian mannerisms while delivering a compelling narrative of human resilience, community, weakness and savagery.

Score: 4.5/5

GamingBolt reviewed Broken Roads:

Broken Roads Review - The Final Verdict

Broken Roads is an ambitious debut game by Australian developer Drop Bear Bytes. Inspired by classics like Wasteland, Broken Roads feels like a fresh take on the genre with how it tackles certain aspects of those games in its own way. The best example of this is in the morality system, which is handled by a moral compass instead of a linear good-or-evil line.
The only real let down in Broken Roads is its combat system, which can often end up feeling overly simplistic. However, thanks to its unique post-apocalyptic Australian setting, the game manages to make exploring its broken world quite interesting.

Thanks Couchpotato!

The Turn Based Lovers reviewed Broken Roads:

BROKEN ROADS – REVIEW

Broken Roads has been awaited by fans as a post-apocalyptic CRPG in the vein of classic Fallout. Now that it’s here, the game may not be quite as deep as players were hoping, but there’s a beauty in its simplicity that makes it a memorable experience regardless.

A POST-APOCALYPTIC OUTBACK

Broken Roads takes place in Western Australia, some four generations after a nuclear war. The devastated world is less Fallout and more The Walking Dead, with survivors banding together in tight-knit communities or turning to banditry to survive. A feeling of tribalism and distrust pervades the setting since resources are scarce due to a fifteen-year drought, and anyone could be a spy or a thief.

At first, the world seems fairly grounded in reality, but some supernatural elements slowly start to creep in. A few hours later, characters with strange powers are introduced – not necessarily magic, but close enough for that to be the best term for it. Learning this power for yourself adds new builds and options in combat. There are also mutated animals roaming the Outback, from bloodthirsty dingoes to ravenous koalas and kangaroos.

The Australian setting is always front and center, and Broken Roads is clearly made by people who love their country and culture deeply and can poke fun at it. There are even tooltips to translate Australian slang for players who don’t hail from the Land Down Under.

[...]

The tree of possible outcomes isn’t anything revolutionary, and in most cases, boils down to whether you want to complete a quest this way or that way, but it’s executed well enough that consequences down the line feel organic. That’s really in keeping with Broken Roads as a whole; it doesn’t do anything that’s really new, but it also doesn’t try to overcomplicate things or reinvent the wheel. It’s not the second coming of Fallout 2, but rather a fun, contemplative RPG that’s more compelling in the quiet moments than in the midst of battle.

Thanks Couchpotato!

Capsule Computers reviewed Broken Roads:

Broken Roads Review

Overview
When one thinks of the post-apocalypse, it almost always involves some form of nuclear destruction, plague, or even zombie threat as the survivors struggle to continue living in a world that wants them dead. Usually these are set in a North American city or greater region, sometimes in Europe, but what about a place where the wildlife wants to kill its residents even on a normal day? Few games take advantage of Australia and the unique aspects the continent provides, even less in a post-apocalyptic Australia. So when indie developer Drop Bear Bytes worked hard to put out a CRPG called Broken Roads, where players have a moral compass, choices to make, and a world to survive in all while exploring Western Australia, it seemed like a perfect chance for something new. If only the game’s name didn’t end up having a double-meaning in the end.

[...]

Overall
As someone from a place with eternal road construction, seeing broken roads get patched is a common occurrence and often one that makes for smooth sailing after a while, but in the case of Drop Bear Bytes’ Broken Roads, some of these issues run deeper than the bug riddled experience, what with its lackluster combat, boring companions, and lacking quality of life features. Playing through the game the multiple times I needed to to actually see it through, it is evident that there is a lot of passion here and the writing does show it. The morality compass, the numerous ways things can develop and progress, and the unique Australian flavoring seeping from every crack in this broken road makes it an interesting game that we hope can get fixed in the future, even if some of its issues are far deeper than some patches can fix.

Score 4/10

Here are some release day reviews for Broken Roads from Gameffine, Mortismal Gaming and I Dream of Indie Games:

Broken Roads Review @ Gameffine

While I try to stay detached from the games I’m to review, one or two slip by this self-imposed rule. I have been eagerly anticipating the release of Drop Bear Bytes’ post-apocalyptic CRPG Broken Roads ever since I interviewed the game director nearly 4 years ago. After a last-minute delay in 2023 and a sudden publisher change, Broken Roads is finally coming out today. As someone who’s been playing the game in its multiple stages of development, this review has been a long time coming. I’ll be answering two major questions in this review — did the game live up to my hype, and would I recommend it to the average CRPG enjoyer?

Moral Dilemmas
You can already deduce the answer to the first question from the title of this review. From the outset, Broken Roads had all the right ingredients in stock — the ever-selling post-apocalyptic template, an unsaturated locale, 30 years’ worth of inspiration, and industry veterans as consultants. But what I experienced was a run-of-the-mill, and at times buggy CRPG that fails to capture some of the most crucial elements of a CRPG. Broken Roads is not a bad game by any means, as it shows signs of brilliance occasionally. But there are a dozen modern CRPGs that do what Broken Roads does better and the bugs don’t help either.

[...]

I won’t deny that my anticipation for Broken Roads has affected my opinion of the finished product in one way or another. The idea of Broken Roads propagated by the mainstream press is a far cry from the game I played to completion. The game’s witty Aussie charm and gorgeous visuals are let down by its underwhelming narrative, static game world, and barebones combat mechanics. But, if you’re a newcomer to CRPGs, then Broken Roads may satiate your urge. Even then, my suggestion is to wait for the developers to clean up the remaining bugs.

Score: 60/100

Broken Roads - Review After 100%

Broken Roads Review - Heartbreaker

The isometric RPG Broken Roads will be released today:

Broken Roads

Born of a love for traditional computer role-playing from franchises such as Pillars of Eternity, Disco Elysium, Fallout, Wasteland, Tyranny, Pathfinder, and Baldur's Gate, Broken Roads provides a rich, engaging narrative in which players make their way across a desolated future Australia. Blending together traditional and all-new role-playing elements on top of a classless system offering nearly unlimited character development options, Broken Roads presents players with an original morality system: the Moral Compass. This novel design sees dialogue options and questing decisions influence, and be influenced by, a character's philosophical leaning.

Immerse yourself in a game world set in post-apocalyptic Western Australia filled with intricate lore, deep history, and compelling characters. As you embark on your epic journey, complex storylines, branching quests, and memorable encounters await. Uncover hidden secrets, unravel political intrigues, and confront moral dilemmas that challenge your assumptions about right and wrong. Every decision you make shapes the rich narrative, leading to multiple outcomes and ensuring a truly personalized gameplay experience. From the grand overarching plot to the smallest details, the world is brought to life with atmospheric descriptions and vivid dialogues, delivering an immersive and unforgettable adventure.

The game seamlessly merges classic RPG elements with innovative features, providing players with a unique and customizable gameplay experience. Building upon a classless system, it offers an extensive range of character development options, allowing players to shape their abilities and skills to suit their playstyle. The inclusion of all-new role-playing elements adds depth and complexity to the game's mechanics, intriguing moral choices, and immersive narrative arcs.

The Moral Compass introduces a groundbreaking morality system that goes beyond traditional notions of good and evil. Instead, it focuses on a character's philosophical leaning, allowing players to shape their protagonist's world view in unique and nuanced ways.

For example, a character who leans towards utilitarianism may prioritize the greater good, making decisions based on the overall benefit to society, even if it means sacrificing individual lives.

With every tough decision that is made, the characters Moral Compass can shift, potentially making them more broad or narrow-minded or even able to change their morality entirely as the journey progresses.

The system allows players to create a protagonist with a unique moral identity that influences their journey and relationships, but also is influenced by every choice they make.

Roam the vast Outback, explore decaying urban centers, and navigate treacherous desert regions as you uncover the secrets of this hauntingly beautiful and dangerous land. Survive, fight, and forge alliances in a unique setting that captures the essence of Western Australia's diverse people and landscapes and brings a fresh twist to the post-apocalyptic genre.

Couchpotato spotted the origin story of the Surveyor:

Broken Roads Origin Stories - Surveyor

The wide-open places call to you. They always have.

"You love the thrill of discovering places that fell off the maps or finding the towns that have sprung up since the fall. It’s almost as good as getting paid when you tell some new client what you’ve found."

The wide-open places call to you. They always have. You spent nights under the stars as a child, your parents teaching you about constellations, the plants, the animals. The first time you learned how to use a compass, you were hooked. You took off from home young to explore the trackless wastes. It was only a happy accident that you discovered you could make some serious coin by telling people what you found.

The world is a treasure waiting to be found. You're just the fella to reveal its secrets.

Gameffine reports that Broken Roads will be released on April 10:

Broken Roads

Independent game studio Drop Bear Bytes are proud to reveal their upcoming isometric RPG Broken Roads is coming to Steam, PlayStation and Xbox consoles on April 10th, with the Nintendo Switch version to follow soon after that.

Broken Roads is a narrative-driven RPG that brings exploration, strategic turn-based combat and meaningful philosophical choices to an all-new Australian post-apocalyptic setting. Broken Roads skillfully blends traditional and all-new role-playing elements on top of a classless system offering near-unlimited character development options built around four philosophies: Humanist, Utilitarian, Machiavellian, and Nihilist. Furthermore the game presents players with an original morality system: the Moral Compass which sees dialogue options and questing decisions influence, and be influenced by, a character’s philosophical leaning and the tough decisions they make along the way.

[...]

Couchpotato spotted a new Broken Roads origin story:

Origin Story Trailer - Barter Crew 

You’ve seen thousands of deals go down.

"You learned to haggle with the best of them when you were knee-high to a quokka, and by the time you were a teen, you decided that maybe it was time to make your way."

You spent your earliest years riding the back of a barter crew's wagon, travelling all across Western Australia, from Boddington to Bonnie Rock. You've seen thousands of deals go down.

You've got a head for numbers, an eye for trade, and a tongue keen for speech. Nothing makes you happier than driving a hard bargain. It's been a hell of a ride. You get your way, you'll hunt down every opportunity in Australia.

Attribute bonuses: Charisma +1, Resolve +1
Starting skills: Leadership +10, Biology +5

Couchpotato spotted the origin story of Jackaroo:

Broken Roads Origin Stories - Jackaroo

The post-apocalytic RPG Broken Roads will be released in early 2024.

Thanks Yemeth!

Learn more about the Hired Gun in Broken Roads:

Broken Roads Origin Story: Hired Gun

Introducing the Hired Gun, the first in our series of Origin Story trailers! In Broken Roads you play as one of four origin stories; Hired Gun, Barter Crew, Jackaroo & Surveyor. Each origin story has unique attributes and starting skills, as well as a certain reputation around the world, which affect how people you meet along the way will interact with you.

Thanks Couchpotato!

WellPlayed interviewed Craig Ritchie about Broken Roads:

Made In Australia: We Talk Broken Roads With Drop Bear Bytes

We whack on a couple of Akubras and head outback to chat all things Broken Roads

Back at PAX Australia in 2019, the recently formed Drop Bear Bytes exhibited at the show with little more than a concept and the hopes and dreams of its creators. The elevator pitch: Fallout in Australia (it’s a quick elevator). But not the Fallout you’re likely thinking – the one with Bethesda and Todd Howard’s craftmanship all over it. No, this is pre-Todd Fallout; this is Fallout as developed by Interplay (1997) and Black Isle Games (1998), a CRPG that includes extensive and immersive dialogue and turn-based combat. Drop Bear Bytes was aiming to infuse that DNA into its project Broken Roads, and while it may have only been a teaser on display in 2019, it captured our interest and we’ve been hanging for it ever since. Fast forward to late October 2023 and we’re roughly two weeks away from the release of Broken Roads on Xbox Series X|S and PC (with PS5 and Switch to come later). We were able to sit down and chat with creative director and Drop Bear Bytes co-founder Craig Ritchie about Broken Roads, its development and how they got that true blue Aussie flavour.

WellPlayed: When did development on Broken Roads begin?

Craig Ritchie: The first idea of the post-apoc game that would become Broken Roads came up between Christmas and New Year’s 2018, we founded Drop Bear Bytes in January 2019, did the original designs in January and February of that year. By March we’d designed the basic story, key characters and the Moral Compass, but actual development got underway around the middle of 2019.

WP: How did the idea for Broken Roads come about? 

CR: It started off with what I thought I could reasonably do with minimal funding and a team of friends helping out with the basics. It was an Oregon Trail-style road trip through a generic post-apocalyptic world. It had nothing to do with Australia at first, but then one day – and I don’t recall exactly how it came to mind – I thought why not have this across Australia? 

I had not seen many games set in Australia and after doing some more research I was actually surprised how few there were – neither already released titles nor any games that I could find in development.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

RPG Site interviewed Drop Bear Bytes about Broken Roads:

Broken Roads Interview: Painting the human experience against a desolate backdrop

Broken Roads, by Drop Bear Bytes, is an upcoming post-apocalyptic CRPG set in the Australian Outback. After playing part of the full build at PAX Aus, I asked the team my questions.

RPGSite: What was the reason to set the game out around Western Australia specifically, was it just the large swaths of land, or is anyone on the team from there?

Craig Ritchie, Game Director: We originally planned the game as a road trip starting in Perth and running to the Daintree in far north Queensland. It was going to be a generic post-apocalyptic world with tactical combat and resource management along the way. The more we got into the characters, story and locations, the more Jethro [Naude, co-founder of Drop Bear Bytes] and I realised we were making Broken Roads into a traditional CRPG. 

So, we narrowed it down to just WA, and then just the Wheatbelt part of WA, going for depth instead of breadth. At the time, no one on the team was from WA, but we have since hired Amos Wolfe, our Lead Programmer, who is from Perth.

RPGSite: The art direction looks to be a blend between classic Australian landscape paintings and top down crpg style. Was there any inspiration in that regard, or just a natural consequence of portraying the outback?

Bianca Roux, Art Lead: We have done everything we can to stay true to Australia’s colour palette by having our team take trips to Western Australia, capturing well over 1000 photos of the various locations in  the game, and researching numerous locations on Google Maps/Street View. 

There was a process of research and development in exploring how to capture a hand-painted style on 3D characters, buildings, and objects. We leaned on researching many different games with similar styles, while still trying to create our own unique method. Our Texture Artist paints all the textures by hand, capturing large brush strokes, and thus, giving the world our unique painterly aesthetic. Our goal is to create a game where it feels like you are playing in concept art and we achieve this aesthetic with our method of hand painting 3D models.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

An announcement video for Broken Roads which will release on November 14th.

We’re so excited to announce that Broken Roads is coming to PC & Xbox consoles November 14, 2023! Embark on an unforgettable journey across a post-apocalyptic Australia full of danger and tough decisions. Stay tuned for release date information on other platforms coming soon!

Download the Broken Roads demo on Steam now:

Drop Bear Bytes posted an update on Broken Roads:

Broken Roads June 2023 Update

Hello everyone - what a month June has been for Broken Roads! The demo is live, we had some incredible YouTube coverage, the demo received many patches and improvements, and of course… We got the cover of PC Gamer!

This is such an honour and the team are of course so proud of this achievement, and we’re sending a huge thanks to everyone at Versus Evil, Plan of Attack and PC Gamer that helped bring this together. You can read more about the print issue on the PC Gamer website, as well as another piece - also written by Jody Macgregor, who did the magazine article - about the playable demo.

STEAM NEXT FEST DEMO UPDATE

The Broken Roads demo on Steam has been so well-received and we appreciate all the kind words, encouragement and constructive feedback we’ve heard from the players. There are some lively discussions happening on our official Discord, there was a great r/Perth thread on Reddit, and of course the many Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing the game and sharing their videos - thank you all! We absolutely love seeing the game enjoyed by you and your communities.

Here’s our official Steam Next Fest demo trailer:

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Broken Roads is part of the Steam Next Fest:

Broken Roads Steam Next Fest Broadcast - Day 2

Hey, everyone!

We’re excited to announce that Broken Roads is participating in Steam Next Fest this year, and our demo is available now for you to download June 19 – 26th

We’ll also be re-broadcasting a special playthrough of the demo on Tuesday, June 20 at 11am PT / 2pm ET to show you the ropes. There will be some light spoilers, so be warned.

And while you’re here, be sure to wishlist the game!

Mortismal Gaming checked out Broken Roads:

Check Out: Broken Roads

Thanks Couchpotato!

A demo of Broken Roads is available for download. It's a 5.5 GB download:

Broken Roads Demo Available Now

We’re excited to announce that the Broken Roads demo is available now for you to download!

In this demo, you’ll play as the Hired Gun, one of the four origin stories available in the full game. As the Hired Gun, you’ll have unique attributes and starting skills, as well as a certain reputation around the world, which will affect how people you meet along the way will interact with you.

Get a taste of Broken Roads’ turn-based combat, Moral Compass system, and gorgeous hand-drawn visuals as you explore a post-apocalyptic Western Australia and meet its inhabitants, each with their own individual stories and motives.

Before you hop into the demo, a quick note about localization. Although the full version of the game will support Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, and Spanish (Latin America) at launch, this demo is available in English only for now. We hope to have a localized version available very soon!

Thanks Redglyph!

An official Wiki for Broken Roads is now availble:

The Official Broken Roads Wiki is here!

Howdy everyone! VS Trippi here with a quick update. We’ve officially launched our Wiki page for Broken Roads! Wiki.gg is a community of developers and editors that come together to create the best possible experience for gamers.

This Wiki page will act as a central hub for information regarding the game, and we will continue to roll out updates for it month over month up to and beyond the games launch.

Thanks Couchpotato!

Drop Bear Bytes posted an update on Broken Roads, in which they reveal details about the attributes and skill trees:

Character Attributes in Broken Roads

In this update we’re giving a rundown of the attributes in Broken Roads, the three categories of skills the attributes play into, as well as a brief look at some of the skills derived from them. Please note: we’re in the middle of reworking much of the UI, so the images shown here are not representative of the finished product.

Attributes are the core stats that determine a character’s build. As with many RPG systems we know and love, they determine hit points, movement points, a character’s ability to perform actions based on what attribute that action is associated with, and so on. In Broken Roads, attributes also determine the baseline integer for skills in each tree (or ‘category’, explained below).

We wanted each attribute to be significant both in and out of combat, with skills and abilities to suit the kind of build a player wants to have, or the playstyle they may be going for in any given run through the game. Want to build a charismatic but not too smart mercenary-type with a fixation on serving the greater good? We want that to be completely viable. Or a wily, self-interested merchant who can handle any type of gun with ease but is so weak they can’t fight themselves out of a wet paper bag? Also entirely viable.

THE SIX ATTRIBUTES

Strength (STR)
Affects Action Points, melee and thrown weapon damage (for non-explosive projectiles), lifting heavy objects, bashing down doors, and pretty much anything that involves flexing a bit of muscle.

Agility (AGI)
One for the acrobats and athletes, this is the major determinant of Movement Points, increases accuracy of thrown weapons, and works alongside Strength to determine a character’s base score for Fortitude skills.

Resolve (RES)
This measures how well a character can withstand pain, their success in facing both physical and psychological adversity, and their ability to stay calm under pressure.

Awareness (AWR)
The stat that allows a character to notice things around them, for example improving aim and general use of guns, spotting a camouflaged creature or enemy, and knowing when someone's lying. A character’s Awareness and Resolve scores are added together to determine a character’s base score for Temperance skills.

Intelligence (INT)
Simply put, how smart a character is and how well they apply themselves to support tasks such as first aid, tinkering/repairing things, and of course constructing convincing arguments in dialogue.

Charisma (CHR)
This stat determines how good a character is at talking their way in, through, and out of difficult situations. Charisma can also increase the success chance of numerous dialogue checks. Along with Intelligence, Charisma determines the starting value of a character’s base score for Wisdom skills.

BROKEN ROADS' THREE SKILL CATEGORIES

Fortitude: Strength & Agility

Fortitude skills include Melee Mastery (bonus damage, accuracy, critical hit chance and Initiative while wielding a melee weapon), Barbican (shrug off damage like a brick shithouse) and Opportunist (help yourself to a free swipe at enemies doing a runner).

Wisdom: Intelligence & Charisma

Wisdom skills include Tinker (use swanky devices, pick locks, add additional utility slots in combat), Biology (increases the amount healed by restorative items, and at higher levels grants a chance not to consume a restorative item on use), as well as Leadership (set an example for those around you, granting Initiative and other bonuses in combat, as well as unique dialogue options at certain moments throughout the game).

Temperance: Resolve & Awareness

Temperance skills include Shooting Mastery(not only improving how handy you are with a gun, but grants various passive abilities as you increase the skill), Drunken Master (grants various bonuses obtained from consuming the different kinds of beverages on offer in the game) and Flow State (after two consecutive ranged attacks that hit their target, the character receives a bonus to accuracy on each attack until they miss).

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Drop Bear Bytes will have their AMA session this Friday 10am AEST (that's GMT+10), that they'll be streaming on Steam. -> Tweet

Mark your calendars

This Friday (30/9) we’ve got an exciting day lined up!

1. At 10 a.m. AEST we’ll be kicking the showcase off with a live AMA from the @DropBearBytes
    narrative & studio teams
2. At 8 p.m. AEST the Drop Bear Bytes art stream will take over the live stream

Thanks Redglyph!

PC Gamer thinks the post-apocalyptic RPG Broken Roads can be the next Disco Elysium:

Broken Roads has the potential to become the next Disco Elysium

The post-apocalypse returns to Australia.

Broken Roads' creative lead, Colin McComb, has a long history with CRPGs. He previously worked on Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment and Wasteland 2. More recently he was creative lead on Planescape's spiritual successor, Torment: Tides of Numenera. McComb is now taking a chance on Drop Bear Bytes, a debut studio working on an ambitious new post-apocalyptic tale.

"Craig Ritchie called me up in 2020," says McComb. "He's the game director. He said, 'We'd like to get you on board with this game', and I was like, 'Sell me on it'. He said, 'Post-apocalyptic'. I was like, 'Done three of them'. He said, 'Philosophical'. I was like, 'OK, sounds good'. He said, 'Set in Australia'. I'm like, 'Intriguing'. And then he said, 'It gets weird'." Suitably convinced, McComb joined the team.

He's not the only veteran on board. "Leanne Taylor Giles, our narrative director, recently joined us from Ubisoft Montreal," says Ritchie, aforementioned game director and studio founder. "She worked with Colin on Torment: Tides of Numenera, so that relationship already exists. She loves Planescape: Torment—she's got a Planescape tattoo. So we're bringing together fans of the genre, and people who've been doing the genre for decades."

[...]

Drop Bear Bytes announced a 2023 release for Broken Roads and shared their new Gamescon trailer. They also presented their publisher, Versus Evil:

Broken Roads - Official Gamescom Trailer

Broken Roads is an RPG that takes inspiration from the golden age of traditional computer role-playing and the great titles of the genre. You will experience an immersive, story-driven adventure that takes place in a post apocalyptic Australia.

Thanks Redglyph!

Drop Bear Bytes has posted a dev update about the flora in Broken Roads:

Dev Blog: Crafting the Flora of Broken Roads

With Broken Roads being set in the Australian Outback, we knew it was important to create diverse and vibrant environments to immerse players in a truly Australian-flavored apocalypse. Australia has a huge range of flora and fauna that varies wildly by region, and many of which aren’t found anywhere else in the world. As the technical and VFX artist at Drop Bear Bytes, one of the coolest parts of my job has been helping the art and level design teams fill our apocalyptic world with trees and plants across the whole range of the outback, from forests to barren wastelands.

As a technical artist, I get to work in the wonderful area in between pure art, pure programming, and the mysterious art of level design. One of the immediate challenges we faced was how to fill large areas with dense vegetation (without having to place each bush and twig by hand), and how to vary the vegetation according to the different regions and areas of the game. As a Canadian currently living in Spain, I’ve not yet had a chance to visit Australia, so I started off on a virtual road trip, thanks to Google Maps.

After having visited each of the real-world locations of the scenes in the game, I had a nice overview of what each area’s vegetation looked like. Armed with this, I was able to make some categorizations of the various biomes, and typical plants, trees, and scrub. However, there was still the challenge of filling large environments with regionally correct vegetation, now that I understood what it should look like.

My solution was to create a custom tool, creatively named the Vegetation Tool™ (I’m not the best with creative naming). It allows our level designer, Luke, to paint in the density of vegetation across the scene, and then spawn vegetation according to a pre-defined biome. These biomes are made of a list of regionally correct plants, debris, grass, rocks, etc, and some information describing how they grow and are scattered. This creates a non-destructive workflow; it ensures everything is editable, reversible, and allows the art team to work on or change any individual assets without level design having to redo vegetation every time (just regenerate vegetation with the updated biome). Here’s how that works in practice:

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[...]

 Thanks Redglyph!

Redglyph spotted the newest dev-blog (with pictures) for Broken Roads:

Dev Blog: Level Design With an Art Perspective

Today’s devblog is with Luke Dorman, our intrepid Level Designer and Unity integration expert. Luke’s going to walk us through Ardath, a location in Broken Roads that holds a special place in our hearts. Our very own hive of scum and villainy, Ardath is where you’ll find the very best of black market goods and the (almost) worst that humanity has to offer. Collectively, the people living here can be a bit disorganised, but they know how to throw a punch, how to take one, and best of all, they brew their own beer. Cheers, Luke!

Hello, all! I’m Luke, the Level Designer of Broken Roads, and today I’ll be going over some of the things I use from an art perspective when creating and assembling levels for Broken Roads!

We’ll be looking at some of the props and objects around the Ardath Hotel. Ardath is a small settlement filled with thugs, thieves, artists, and those who were rejected from other societies. These people are bandits, pillagers, and raiders, but they feel truly free here in Ardath.

The Ardath Hotel is of course based on the real-world equivalent in the actual location of Ardath in Western Australia. The 3D model of the building was done by Bianca Roux, and the texturing was done by Sara Laubscher, both brought the building to life while giving it that Aussie post-apoc flair!

[...]

Drop Bear Bytes released a 30 minutes video interview of Narrative Director Leanne Taylor-Giles and Creative Lead Colin McComb, about their work on Broken Roads:

Broken Roads' Narrative Director and Creative Lead talk story

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Drop Bear Bytes' Leanne Taylor-Giles, Narrative Director, and Colin McComb, Creative Lead, answer questions about their work on Broken Roads.

[...]

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Broken Roads' Narrative Director and Creative Lead talk story
01:12 How did you become a writer and what are some of your influences?
02:51 What are some of the best written games?
05:37 The writing team are in various time zones. How have you made this work?
08:34 Colin, how have you researched Australia, and what is something you've learned that you find fascinating?
09:51 Leanne, what did you miss about Australia while living in Canada?
10:53 Can you give any details on the apocalypse in Broken Roads?
12:05 You both worked on Torment Tides of Numenera. What's it like to be working together again on another traditional-style CRPG?
15:35 What have been some of your influences for Broken Roads?
18:30 What are some of the challenges in writing about a post-apocalyptic world - a genre that's been explored so much already?
21:48 How do you deal with writer's block?
25:46 What's a highlight of your career, or a personal achievement that you're proud of?
27:47 What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Thanks Redglyph!

Redglyph spotted some new screenshots for Broken Roads:

New environment screens and concept work

Six new images from the Broken Roads origin stories

The Drop Bear Bytes art team have done some amazing work on the visuals these last few weeks, and we wanted to share these six environment pieces by our 2D & 3D Artist, Sara Laubscher.

We are experimenting with different ground layer styles, adding details to existing props, some possible post-processing and full-screen effects, and improvements to the edges of interior maps (as shown in the pub scene below). Enjoy!

• Brookton Pub interior
• Brookton Town
• Taylor's Farm - Storage Area
• Brookton Clinic
• Kokeby Waystation
• Taylor's Farm - Sheep Pen

[...]

Tim Sunderland, composer for Broken Roads, demonstrates what goes into creating the soundtrack.

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Take a deep dive into creating 'Cameltrot' from the Broken Roads soundtrack with Drop Bear Bytes' composer and Sound Designer, Tim Sunderland. Tim walks us through the ins and outs of creating game music in Ableton.

@Farflame has spotted an interview of Drop Bear Bytes by Escapist, thanks!

Broken Roads Challenges Your Philosophy in Innovative Ways in a Doomed Australia – Interview

[...]

Granted, the CRPG genre has largely been consigned to the graveyard by major publishers, but its crowdfunding-driven renaissance through the last decade has proven that a game like Broken Roads is still financially viable. After all, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Pillars of Eternity, and Wasteland 2 remain among the top 10 most backed and highest-funded video game projects on Kickstarter.

To assist with production, Drop Bear Bytes has been fortunate to receive Australian state funding and support, and Ritchie sang the praises of those systems.

“I hope that people appreciate just how much these Australian bodies are doing to allow Australians to stay competitive in a world where the barrier to entry for making games is incredibly low,” he noted. He went on to say, “I can absolutely say that Broken Roads would not be where it is without the support of Film Victoria and people like that. … It’d be good for people to hopefully have their states (offer) the same kind of support.”

[...]

Drop Bear Bytes has posted a little update with the 2021 highlights and a few words about 2022.

HELLO AND WELCOME TO 2022, EVERYONE!

The team at Drop Bear Bytes are slowly crawling out of their holiday haze and gearing up for a massive year rounding out the content in Broken Roads.

We’ve got some great announcements coming in the next few months (possibly next few weeks, but let’s see!) and one of the first we’re happy to say is that we’re going to commit to fortnightly updates on YouTube, which will all be posted to Steam as well.

STEAM COMMUNITY GROWTH

Steam has grown into our largest following (as you can see in the image above, we’re at over 5,000 people, a stat which can be tracked on SteamDB) and we’re really stoked to be ranked at #259 out of all wishlisted games. To put it in perspective, there were over 10,000 games launched on Steam in 2020 and there are well over 50,000 games listed on the platform in total.

So that means Broken Roads is ranked in the top 0.5% of all the titles on Steam. (It’s never enough, though, so tell everyone to wishlist our game!)

UPCOMING VIDEOS

We’re really ramping up the video content this year, and planning to release the likes of more time lapses from the artists, interviews with various members of the team, dev commentary playthroughs with specific Q&A of characters and locations, and much more. We’re going to show off each origin story in more detail, take a deep dive into the development of different audio tracks, and of course a couple secrets we have up our sleeves. Much more to come.

2021 HIGHLIGHTS AND WRAP-UP

[...]

Drop Bear Bytes posted a new video with commentaries from the team.

Aldersyde & Surveyor origin story video with dev commentary

New video with Broken Roads' Creative Lead, Audio Lead and Game Director discussing more early game content

New playthrough and commentary video just gone live!

Here's a first look at the Surveyor origin story and the small settlement of Aldersyde, with dev commentary by Creative Lead Colin McComb, Composer and Audio Lead Tim Sunderland, and Game Director Craig Ritchie.

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Audio Lead Tim Sunderland and Game Director Craig Ritchie play Broken Roads and comment on it.

Broken Roads Dev Commentary Live Play at MIGW21 Steam Festival

Join Audio Lead Tim Sunderland and Game Director Craig Ritchie playing through some early-game content from the Hired Gun origin story of Broken Roads!

[...]

This livestream was part of the Melbourne International Games Week 2021 Steam Event, where also did an AMA on 2 October and an art stream on 4 October.

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Drop Bear Bytes is organizing an "Ask Me Anything" stream on Discord this Friday/Saturday (depending where you live).

Drop Bear Bytes' first-ever Broken Roads AMA

Streaming live during the Melbourne International Games Week Steam Festival

Join us for a live AMA this weekend!

Broken Roads' Game Director (Craig) and Audio Lead (Tim) will be live on Steam and Discord to answer your questions and queries!

Ever wondered why Western Australia? How many camels are there in the outback? Just who is this Mad Max guy anyway? Or perhaps you are curious about the airspeed of an unladen African swallow - come along, post some questions, get some answers!

The AMA will be happening:

• 10:00am, Saturday 2 October AEST (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra...)
• 8:00am, Saturday 2 October AWST (Perth, Geraldton, Broome...)
• 2:00am, Saturday 2 October CEST (Amsterdam, Berlin, Cape Town, Madrid, Rome, Stockholm, Warsaw...)
• 1:00am, Saturday 2 October BST (London)
• 8:00pm, Friday 1 October ET (Atlanta, Detroit, New York, Ontario, Quebec...)
• 5:00pm, Friday 1 October PDT (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Tijuana)

Come say hi on Discord in the meantime (and to participate in the AMA): https://discord.gg/W9UZzrk

Thanks - catch you on the weekend.
- The team at Drop Bear Bytes

Drop Bear Bytes briefly present the Morale Compass, which is their alignment feature to orient the decisions and dialogue options in Broken Roads.

Broken Roads’ Moral Compass Presents an All-New Approach to Role-Playing Game Consequences

Broken Roads’ unique morality system is based on four areas of moral philosophy: Utilitarianism, Nihilism, Machiavellianism and Humanism. In a 360-degree chart of possible options, players are able to choose from those within a certain range of their character’s core alignment.

Your decisions and dialogue options will shift your leaning and thus alter your possible range of future choices.

We believe this will enhance the game’s roleplaying realism - you can not take an evil option and then immediately follow up with the most noble option. Decisions will not be clear cut good and bad – we want to present real moral dilemmas that players will have to carefully consider.

Drop Bear Bytes has teamed up with publisher Team17, and they are announcing the release of Broken Roads for PC and consoles in 2022.

Team17 Presents... Broken Roads

A post-apocalyptic narrative-driven RPG set in Australia, this is Broken Roads.

The wastelands of post-apocalyptic Western Australia reveal their stories in Drop Bear Bytes’ emotive and branching isometric role-playing game coming to Steam and console platforms in 2022!

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We are delighted to confirm the development of Broken Roads alongside Drop Bear Bytes, an original and narrative-rich, isometric, turn-based role-playing game set in an unforgiving, post-apocalyptic Western Australia. Scheduled to launch on Steam in 2022, Broken Roads presents a post-apocalypse with real-world locations and landmarks serving as the backdrop for the complex stories of Australia’s survivors.

[...]

Chris Picone interviewed Craig Ritchie from Drop Bear Bytes about the post-apocalyptic RPG Broken Roads:

Drop Bear Bytes

We have a special guest today; Craig Ritchie, founder of Drop Bear Bytes and director of Broken Roads, an isometric post-apocalyptic RPG set in Australia and one of my absolutely most-anticipated games of all time. We got to have a long chat about his team, what it takes to run an international game studio, their experience with Film Victoria, marketing plans, and of course, Broken Roads.

***

CSH: First tell us a bit about your studio. I’ve been keeping an eye on your dev blogs and couldn’t help notice that you have managed to gather what looks like an incredibly talented team with loads of gaming experience and qualifications - but this is your debut game, so what’s your secret?

Craig: Thanks a lot. Yes, we are incredibly proud of the team we have. I think it’s really just come down to having been in the industry for a while prior and having been lucky enough to get some good recommendations really early on. Jethro Naude, co-founder of Drop Bear Bytes, and I have been friends since we were like 14 years old and he’s got a ton of experience in start-ups and finance, as well as previously having worked as a game economist.

I was recommended our art director, Kerstin Evans, by a mutual friend and I also spent a ton of time looking at and reviewing many, many CVs and resumes over the last two and half years. Most recently we’ve had the incredible fortune to attract even more experienced talent in our narrative lead, Leanne Taylor-Giles, and her husband James Giles, another gameplay animator, who both joined us this year from Ubisoft Montréal.

Some people were hired because I saw them post some of their work on Twitter, others posted to Reddit boards for game devs looking for work, while others I just reached out to out of the blue to see if they liked the look of the project want to work with us. I’m really happy with how the team has grown and continues to attract great talent.

[...]

CSH: Onto the game then! Let’s start with the fundamentals. In this day and age, why did you opt for isometric? Why turn-based?

Craig: For quite a few of us on the team, isometric RPGs are our all-time favourites. It really is as straightforward as that. It’s a proven approach that has worked incredibly well for decades now, again looking all the way back to the Ultima games and many others from the late 80s and early 90s, through to the giants such as Fallout and Planescape: Torment, and more recently Shadowrun and Pillars of Eternity. I love the perspective; I love the way it can both inspire nostalgia and still have room for innovation. Isometric RPGs allow for, in my opinion, the best instantiation of tabletop role-playing on a computer. The raised position view of a single portion of the map, seeing a little bit more of the world at a time, adventuring through and uncovering the fog of war… We love all these things and we know that the kinds of players we’re connecting with love them too.

Broken Roads is turn-based quite simply because we all prefer more cerebral combat and the strategic & tactical thinking which that style of gameplay offers, where your decisions and your smarts matter more than your reaction speed. There is absolutely room for awesome action RPGs and other action titles or fighting games where it’s all about how good you are with the controller, how well you can react in a moment, and so on. We love those games too, but we knew from the outset we wanted Broken Roads to feature turn-based combat and be a narrative-driven, very story-heavy game.

[...]

A progress update for Broken Roads reveals graphics improvement.

We wanted to give a quick progress update on one of our favourite scenes from early in the Broken Roads adventure.

Hey everyone,

We wanted to give a quick progress update on one of our favourite scenes from early in the Broken Roads adventure: Kokeby Waystation.

This trading hub brings together people from all the nearby settlements, as well as the odd scavenger or water merchant who wanders in from further afield. If you start the game as a member of a Barter Crew, you’ll begin your origin story here, but all characters will be able to visit Kokeby at some time or another.

In late 2019 when we first revealed Broken Roads, Kokeby Waystation was one of the locations we showed off in our earliest videos and screenshots:

The art team have been hard at work on bringing our environments to life better than ever before, and we’re incredibly proud of the progress made since then.

October 2019 vs July 2021

We hope you enjoy this glimpse of things to come.
- The team at Drop Bear Bytes

Thanks Farflame!

The Turn Based Lovers have interviewed the Broken Roads devs:

10 Turns Interview with Broken Roads Developers

An old man and a child go together towards the evening. In the distance, the red dust raises above an ill sun.
All around there is nothing, except the gloomy outline of towers of smoke.
While the two are walking, the old man softly speaks and his voice is like a whisper. In his wet eyes slides the images of past myths. He looks afar and tries to follow the faint scent of his memories:
“Imagine this, covered by wheat, imagine the fruits and imagine the flowers, and think of the voices and think of the colors. And on this plain, up to where it gets lost, trees grew and everything was green; the rain fell, the suns marked the rhythm of man and of seasons.”

[...]

1^st Turn) I’m only an old man and he is just a child, but we definitively have to go on this journey! What kind of dangers lies ahead?

That depends on who you ask, wanderer. Monsters of beast and man lurk out beyond Merredin, some scouts say, but even our most experienced surveyors don’t range that far. We hear tell of unseen dangers in the salt lakes, of raiding parties far more savage than even the Bitch Queen’s Mongrels, and Western Australia’s already deadly fauna and savage weather seeing many a barter crew never made it home from the Waystations. You’re brave to take that boy with you. He’ll see things no child ever should.

2^nd Turn) What do you think, there will be the possibility to resolve some encounters without fighting? I mean, I cannot be a good fighter, not anymore at least, I’m too old, but I’m a wise man and I know a lot of things. Do you think that even these skills could come in handy?

The crew came in here not three days ago, on two camel cars trailing a beat-up old wagon. Nine there were in total, and only two hired guns in tow. Said they’d manage to reason with some would-be attackers, something about owing future favours. I got talking to the youngest of their crew – bit of a jackaroo from the sounds of things, with a penchant for engineering. Reckons leader of their crew had won over the head of a settlement with his silver tongue… quite the charismatic fella, apparently, so if you may be able to talk your way out of a few things. And old man… you tell that boy to put that fruit back where he found it, or I’ll see to it he’s not quite so deft with those little hands any longer. We have little patience for thieves here.

[...]

Yemeth found this gameplay trailer for the upcoming Aussie post-apoc RPG Broken Roads at PAX Online:

Broken Roads at PAX Online 2020

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Jay Krishnan of Gameffine checked out the postapocalyptic RPG Broken Roads:

Exploring Broken Roads — A post-apocalyptic RPG where you forge your path through a collapsed Australia

Making a role-playing video game has never been easier. The advent of crowdfunding, the Early Access model, readily accessible engines like Unity, as well as the advancements made in videogame development are helping smaller studios make their dream RPGs, the way they want. The past couple of years saw the release of excellent indie RPGs like Age of Decadence, Underrail, ATOM, Encased, and Disco Elysium that provided players with hours of entertainment or, in the case of some, defied the traditional RPG tropes to fulfill a far more cerebral experience.

Broken Roads, the debut title from Drop Bear Bytes (what an assortment of random cool words) aims to do the same for the RPG genre — standing on the shoulders of genre classics such as Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, and Planescape: Torment while challenging players with complex moral choices in an original setting. All the classic CRPG tropes such as overworld exploration, questing, combat, adventuring with companions, unexpected encounters, and a sense of discovery are present in the game, all the while featuring some gorgeous art by Kerstin Evans. Broken Roads is expected to launch for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in late 2021.

Recently, I got to pick the brain of Craig Ritchie, the founder and game director of Drop Bear Bytes regarding the game they have been making since early 2019. Here’s what I found out!

Trouble Down Under

Broken Roads, at its core, is a traditional isometric RPG that puts you in a criminally-underused Western Australian setting in the aftermath of the apocalypse. Now, if you say oh it’s set in Australia, so it must be like Mad Max, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Broken Roads – initially conceptualized as a post-nuclear Heroes of Might and Magic style game, ditched the strategy and resource management elements in favor of a narrative-driven isometric RPG early on. While the game tips its hat to classic films like Mad Max, A Boy, and His Dog, Threads, and Stalker, it’s heavily inspired by Cold War and post-Cold War era movies in which the threat of nuclear annihilation is really front and center, as well as post-Plato philosophical ideologies.

[...]

A pre-alpha showcase video for Broken Roads which now has a Steam page.

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We're very proud to share the progress made on Broken Roads this year, so we've put together this edit of per-alpha footage for our showing at gamescom 2020 to tie in with launching our Steam page.

Player2 reports that Broken Roads have hired Colin McComb as their Creative Lead.

RPG Legend Lends His Talents to Broken Roads

While wandering among the indie titles at PAX last year my attention was drawn to Broken Roads, an isometric RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Western Australia. While the small slice of the game on show looked gorgeous, the prospects of the 360-degree morality system and its effects on the gameplay had me hankering to see more. Now the team at Dop Bear Bytes has gotten even stronger with the addition of Colin McComb as the Creative Lead.

[...]

The first dev blog for Broken Roads looks closer at The Moral Compass.

Indie Graze have interviewed Game Director and studio founder Craig Ritchie about Broken Roads.

EM: You incorporate a morality system that influences dialogue and other in-game actions, thusly rewarding different kinds of play (Utilitarian, Machiavellian, Nihilist, Existentialist). In a practical sense, how did you come up with this system, and what led you to tie specific leanings to unique perks?

CR: I’ve always been really interested in philosophy and ended up doing 6 years studying the subject in my undergrad and post-graduate time at University. As for Utilitarian etc, I landed on this mix because it covers both morality and attitudes towards being in the world. It’s by no means an exhaustive list covering all views – far from it – but they do allow us to have a 360 degree ‘compass’ where the fringes of each quadrant could arguably be blurring the lines between different moral philosophies. For instance, you could pick a response that’s Machiavellian from a certain perspective, but the exact same thing could be seen as a Utilitarian solution to a problem. So in a situation like this, the dialogue choice would be right on the border of the two, and because your philosophical leaning can be anywhere on the 360 degree range, and any degree of commitment from 1-100 from the centre of the compass outwards (we’re referring to this as broad- or narrow-mindedness), there are over 35,000 philosophical leanings that a character can have. It also allows us to show how intent vs action can affect your morality, so we might put players in a situation where there is only one course of action, but their approach to it affects their character’s philosophical leaning.

Their range of options is called their ‘World View’ – shown as a highlighted gold area on the compass, and any dialogue choices, quest solutions, and moral traits within their World View are available to them. And this is over and above the skills and abilities in the talent tree – so you can have your pursuits and projects on the one hand, and your quirks and complexities on the other. While talents are generally always positive or open up something new, traits are generally a double-edged sword. For instance, going full nihilist might grant some brutal combat abilities but prevent you from any greater-good dialogue and questing options.

I always felt philosophy was a little underserved in gaming, as there are so many interesting moral dilemmas and thought experiments that can be played out in an RPG if the underlying system allowed for it. I really just wanted to create something that broke away from a light-side/dark-side split, or clear binary good and evil thinking. Even a spectrum between those two extremes doesn’t capture the depth and nuance of many situations we can face in our lives.

[...]

Broken Roads is an upcoming post-apocalyptic isometric RPG from Australian indie studio Drop Bear Bytes.

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Broken Roads is the upcoming debut title from Australian indie studio Drop Bear Bytes. Born of a love for traditional computer role-playing, Broken Roads provides a rich, engaging narrative in which players make their way across a desolated Australia. Blending together traditional and all-new role-playing elements on top of a classless system offering unlimited character development options, Broken Roads presents players with an original morality system: the Moral Compass. This novel design sees dialogue options and questing decisions influence, and be influenced by, a character's philosophical leaning.

Features:

• All-new post-apocalyptic setting

• Unique morality system influencing dialogue, quests and character development

• Authentic Australian locations and environments

• Blend of traditional and original RPG mechanics

• Up to 6 party members

• Turn-based tactical combat

• Hand-drawn artwork

• A content-rich and densely-crafted world