Exiled Kingdoms received a minor update recently during which the developers next game was announced. Archaelund features real time exploration and turn-based strategy during combat.

Update 1.2.1118 released, and preliminary info about my next game.

15 January - DavidBVal

Today's update brings 100% complete Polish translation and other small improvements/fixes. You can check the full changelog[www.exiledkingdoms.com] of the game for details.

Since September I've been working full time on my next project. It's still too early for a full announcement, but there's a few things I can share about it already.

Archaelund

Prepare yourself to take control a full party of adventurers, and explore the broken lands of the vast continent of Andoria, home of the fallen Empire. The Exiled Kingdoms are claiming the shores of their mythical Homeland, but they'll find the region is not as deserted as they expected... you'll explore freely a huge world full with small details and hidden secrets, and will get inmersed in dozens of small stories and quests, and a main plot of epic proportions (no, really!).

Archaelund features a very unique combination of real-time exploration and careful turn-based strategy during combat; you'll explore the world in first-person perspective in a 3D world, much like in the Elder Scrolls games or in the classic Wizardry or Might&Magic games. But battles will happen in isometric perspective! When combat begins the camera floats up to offer a top-down view of the scene, so you can individually control your party members. The idea is to have the best of both worlds: an immersive exploration and tactical combat at the same time, allowing huge epic battles..

One of the main aspects of the game is the Geryon Rulesystem. I've been working on it for over a year already, specifically for Archaelund. I believe it offers many interesting ideas of my own, but at the same time it's deeply inspired by the versatility and flavor from my favorite tabletop RPGs from the 80s (WFRP, AD&D, Runequest, Rolemaster...) . Geryon will offer endless character development options; you can go for a straightforward approach... but it'll also allow crazy builds, even crazier multiclassing, and you'll never run out of things to try, if that's your thing.

Content is, as EK players probably guess, another essential pillar of the game. Expect the same open-world design, and the same weird combination of seriousness and silly humor and themes you "enjoyed" in EK; yeah, I am afraid the terrible jokes stay, and might get even worse.

Note: despite taking place in the Exiled Kingdoms setting, Archaelund is a completely standalone game. It's a far more ambitious project in scope, both in terms of design, graphics and depth.

There's little else I can disclose at the time since development is still at a very early stage. But I'll make a proper and detailed announcement in the next weeks/months.

The old school Action RPG Exiled Kingdoms will get some improvements:

Update #7: Release aftermath, and future development.

As a one-man team I can tell you this has been a crazy week; in particular the first 48 hours were pretty intense, with all the patching and large volume of feedback to handle. But at this point it is safe to announce that the launch has been successful, going well beyond my estimates. I want to say thanks to all the old-school roleplayers that supported the game and to the ones that wrote reviews (good and bad!), and I hope each of you is enjoying the little adventures, surprises and twists hidden in the remote corners of the Kingdoms.

Future development

Until a few months ago, my plan was to hold adding more content to the game when I released version 1.1 (which featured the Mage class and the Kingdom of Thuram). It's not that I don't enjoy making EK larger and more detailed, but I have a new game to work on; this new project is still in the "sketch" phase, and will be quite different from EK, even if it's also an RPG taking place in the Exiled Kingdoms setting; it'll have a larger scope, 3D graphics and be party-based, as well as some innovative gameplay elements, yet it'll stay faithful to design you've experienced in EK.

However, after the success of PC release I will stay focused on Exiled Kingdoms development for the next months. It's the least I can do in exchange of the awesome reception the game had! I can't realistically work on two games at the same time, so I'll postpone the new project until summer.

Here is a quick list of what I will work on. This might be released in small or large updates and in no particular order.

• New areas will be added. Most of the content will be targeted at level 18+, and playable after completing the main quest.
• Companion-related quests. These will be high-level (18+) quests that will enable advanced skills for your companions (a fixed set of them).
• New resolution options for PC. At the very least I'll add 1920x1080 mode and maybe higher modes, but please, don't expect miracles here; The UI will be smaller and sharper, but the hundreds of existing game assets can't be increased in resolution. I might zoom out slightly the game window in high resolutions, but I don't want to provide a noticeable gameplay advantage so this will be limited.
• Fixing some existing PC issues, like the ranged attack calculation and a few other reported issues.
• Improving controller/keyboard support, making the game menus also navigable with keys/controller.
• Improving existing localization, and maybe completing new ones.
• Steam Cards: PC version will offer badges and cards with cool original art.

There's a deliberate omission in the list regarding cooperative multiplayer mode. I will try to add multiplayer, and will experiment on it after the features above are complete. However, I am not certain it can be done without a large and complex coding effort that could also risk the existing stability of the game, so I'd rather not include it in any list of features yet, nor make any promises about it.

Lucky Day, let us know that Exiled Kingdoms, a game we have not covered before, has been release on Steam, with a 15% discount.

Exiled Kingdoms is a single-player Action-RPG that allows you to roam freely through a unique world, full with surprises and adventure. It is an isometric game, inspired by the classics in many ways: a challenging environment to explore, choices with consequences, and a simple but versatile rulesystem enabling endless ways to develop your character. Each of your character stats will make a difference, and the world is highly reactive; new conversation options might be enabled with high intelligence, or vary depending of your standing with the many factions or your previous actions.

Explore a vast world: no one will point you to the best hidden secrets in the 118 areas. Talk to over 300 NPCs with unique dialogues, and solve 85 quests ranging from the "stereotypical" menial tasks in early levels, to epic-scale plots full with twists and hard choices. Customize your character with 70 skills and hundreds of different items. Overcome all kind of monsters and antagonists, choosing carefully the weapons or powers for each encounter if you want to have a chance. And return to the classical dungeon crawl, with traps and secret doors, and death awaiting the unwary adventurer behind every corner.

Exiled Kingdoms is a huge game, with content hand-crafted during 4 years of development and writing. It easily counts 120+ hours of gameplay for the average player, and much more taking into account replayability.

The only review I could find is this one on TouchArcade. It is also good to note that this is originally a mobile game.