Hi everyone!

If I may get your attention for a little while I would like to present you Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer:

A crpg in development by one man indie company Witchgrove Games. It takes you back to the golden era of pc-gaming when classics like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Ultima and Lands of Lore ruled the world and home computers like Amiga and Atari ST were still alive. This first-person adventure-rpg is made with RPG Maker MZ enhanced with bunch of great plugins like Cutievirus' MZ3D which takes RPG Maker to a whole new level.

For now you can follow the development in Dungeoncrawlers.org discord server's development/dev-games section (link can be found from here: https://dungeoncrawlers.org/),

in Witchgrove Games' Youtube channel which contains gameplay videos showcasing the game: https://www.youtube.com/@witchgrovegames

or in Twitter: https://twitter.com/WitchgroveGames

Wishlist it here: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/chronicles_of_vaeltaja_in_search_of_the_great_wanderer

Chronicles of Vaeltaja: In Search of the Great Wanderer takes you to the kingdom of Twin Falls where strange menace is threatening the land that once lived in tranquil. You are hired by the King Menekses II to investigate strange occurrences in seaside town of Pramea where children have been disappearing and travellers are under constant attacks from bandits and beasts that shouldn't even roam there. Your job is to gather a party and find out who or what is behind this new threat.

The game's world and dungeons are hand-crafted from the ground with pre-made and custom assets, so there is no procedural generation. It aims to be one of the deepest and best looking games ever created with RPG Makers.

So ready your weapons and wits to take on a memorable journey across vast forests, fields, marshes and dungeons to bring peace back to Twin Falls.

[*]First-person exploration in beautiful and colourful world created with 2.5D pixel graphics combining pre-made and custom assets.
[*]Main questline where some quests give you a possibility to choose from couple of different solutions.
[*]Mythology inspired by ancient Gnostic writings.
[*]Six character party system with skills and stats that affect beyond battles and conversations.
[*]Grid-based movement that takes you back in the golden era of pc-gaming.
[*]Turn-based battle system with animated enemies.
[*]Overworld areas full of exploration.
[*]Atmospheric and dangerous dungeons where different enemies delve and puzzles await.
[*]Fight against bandits, bats, skeleton warriors, zombies, leechers, dark mages and other creatures of evil.
[*]Boss battles that might have other solutions than violence.
[*]Hand-crafted game world with no procedural generation.
[*]Multiple side-quest that may even lead to optional dungeons or other hidden secrets.
[*]Branching conversations where your 'charisma' and speech skills are put to test.
[*]No tutorials, no hand-holding, no cinematic cutscenes - just pure joy of experiencing and discovering!
[*]Lots of equipment and items to help you on your journey - don't forget to buy at least torches as the dungeons are dark places to wander.
[*]Use mouse and/or keyboard to interact with the game world.
[*]Control battles with mouse and/or keyboard.
[*]Interact with NPCs to access side-quests.
[*]Meet quirky characters like The Order of the Knights Who Never Discuss About the Same Topic Twice.
[*]Inspired by the classics like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Ultima and The Legend of Zelda
[*]Nvidia 3D Vision support for those who enjoy stereoscopic 3D gaming.
[*]Release 2023.

Thank You for your time!

+1
The more old-school dungeon crawlers there are and hopefully going to be on GoG, the better.

Thank You, gentlemen! :)
I will keep updating this thread occasionally to show how the development is progressing.

Looks potentially interesting, but of course, I have some questions:
* Is the game turn based *outside* of combat?
* Is it possible to play without a mouse, using only keyboard?
* How does the character growth system work?
* Is the game going to be linear or non-linear, or something in-between? (I'm thinking of the mandatory parts of the game, since apparently there's going to be side-quests.)

With that said, there's plenty that I like about the description provided:
* Grid-based movement
* Turn-based combat
* The lack of cinematic cutscenes
* Mentions of exploration and side-quests

Thank You for your interest!

- Game is in real-time outside combat.
- Yes, it's possible to play with keyboard only.
- Your party get experience from combat and completing quests. Every time you gain level, you get stat and skill points to improve your stats and skills. Main character has the skills needed to interact with the game's world and rest of the party is mostly hired muscle to help you on your quest. You can hire more than the needed five characters beside your main character, but you can only use six characters at time in your active party.
- It's something in-between: Game world opens while you progress in the game, but some of the main quests have optional ways to approach and complete - if you go straightforward you might even miss a whole dungeon and so on. Some of the side-quests are not that obvious and you might need your stats (like perception and charisma) and skills (speech etc) to find them in the first place.

I hope this answers your questions. :)

Real time outside of combat, and the spending of stat and skill points are actually negatives for me, partly because they're overused, and partly because I don't like real-time gameplay in my RPGs.

One question, does the game allow you to remove the main character from the party, or is the main character required to be in the party at all times?

How much customization of the main character? In particular, can I make the main character female?

Is there a respect feature?

You can leave main character out of the active party, but you can't customize him outside of skills, stats and equipment, because he has a place in a bigger story that will open up even more in the sequels (I hope I'll get that far). Even though this game is only a part of a bigger story (that is spread across thousands of years in the game world's history) it can also be played as it's own adventure.

Main character's stats and skills play part in how you interact with the game world. For example with good perception you're able to find secrets you wouldn't find otherwise and in some cases more loot etc, charisma affects what npcs are willing to talk in the first place and so on, but there's also some randomness in the play when using skills. Stats also affect to combat, but how they affect depends on character's class.

Cheers. :) I would encourage you to bold the text before the wishlist entry, so it stands out.

"Wishlist it here: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/chronicles_of_vaeltaja_in_search_of_the_great_wanderer "

Thank You! That is a small but important detail, which is changed now. :)

Pretty sure you mean respec.

Could you at least put in the option for a female main character?

I've been considering respec option for skills and stats, but haven't made that decision yet.

The thing with adding female character option is that reincarnation is part of the bigger story and for now this is the story of this certain character who happens to be male, but I'll think about it, though no promises.

I'll say this: In this sort of game, the lack of a female main character option can actually be a dealbreaker for me.

Cheers. One other suggestion I have would be to share about the game, and the wishlist link, on the r/gog subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/gog/ (I don't believe it breaks the rules of that subreddit.)