We're excited to announce Dragon Ruins II, our new project. Due to the positive feedback and demand for a deeper game, we've decided to make a new game and apply a few ideas we've wanted to execute for quite some time.

KEY FEATURES

• Take on various quests, from clearing the basements to facing ancient dragons
• Grow stronger through automatic battles with new twists
• Find new equipment and balance between power and speed
• Unlock new passive skills to get an edge over enemies
• Use Synergy attacks to get out of dire situations
• Revisit completed quests to see new stories unfold

Wishlist now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3293490/Dragon_Ruins_II/

[ 2024-11-21 07:23:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're excited to announce Demon Lord Reincarnation Gaiden, our new game. Originally, this scenario was planned for a sequel, but it took off in its own direction and became an Ultima-style game with a new story. However, the initial draft was too good to abandon, so we turned it into a standalone expansion, similar to how Wizardry II was to the original Wizardry.

KEY FEATURES

• Enjoy a new scenario with new character classes and improved game systems
• Survive through brutal turn-based battles, where poor judgment can result in the permanent loss of a party member
• Unlock new skills in the heat of the battle, from devastating attacks to underhanded moves
• Inventory system with a variety of consumable items to buff, improve and customize your characters, including the ability to cheat death
• Come up with new party builds using new character classes and skills
• Find safe spots to regain your health and make sure the monsters won't get a drop on you
• Enjoy stylish visuals supported by atmospheric music and rocking battle tunes
• Read the manual, it's there for a reason!

Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2783400/Demon_Lord_Reincarnation_Gaiden/

[ 2024-01-28 16:13:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Earlier this month I started a personal blog called "Diary of a Graverobber" to share development stories and talk about game design and various things that inspired our games. You can find the Ringlorn Saga postmortem here. Enjoy!

[ 2023-11-16 12:02:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Das Geisterschiff and Der Geist series turn five years old today. In these experimental dungeon crawlers, you play as a mech pilot and complete dangerous missions in a dying world. These games offer unique wireframe-style visuals to simulate the "visual sensor" of your Robotic Combat Suit and atmospheric electronic music in the style of 80's electro-industrial. The series enjoyed limited success, but these games remain special to me, as they started my career as an indie game developer. All games are 66% off on Steam right now. https://store.steampowered.com/app/975230/Das_Geisterschiff__The_Ghost_Ship/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1217070/Der_Geisterturm__The_Ghost_Tower/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1581240/Der_Geisterjger__The_Ghost_Hunter/ Also, we are making a new Der Geist game. It's in the early stages of development. Thank you for your support over the years. -- Romanus Surt of Graverobber Foundation

[ 2023-09-19 14:10:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're excited to announce Ringlorn Saga Gaiden, our next game. Due to the warm reception and interest in the Temple of Rebirth bonus dungeon in the original game, we've decided to make a standalone RPG based on the possession mechanics. Ringlorn Saga Gaiden is an adventure RPG inspired by the Japanese PC classics. After dying in a decisive battle, your spirit is separated from your body, and you must exact your revenge on the Dark Lord by possessing his minions.

• A short-but-sweet Action RPG that won't hold your hand, nor waste your time
• Fight enemies to get stronger, possess their bodies, and use their abilities to survive
• Explore an open world, find items that will strengthen your spirit, and complete objectives in any order
• Simple but nuanced game mechanics and controls
• MSX-inspired 8-bit sound
• CRT filter for an authentic retro experience
• If you lose your way, pray to Morrigan

Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2262980/Ringlorn_Saga_Gaiden/

[ 2023-02-24 18:06:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, As promised, the Japanese localization is finally available. The game design took a lot of inspiration from Japanese PC classics, such as Hydlide, and thus it's only natural that the game should be accessible to Japanese players. We want to thank Ryu Ito for his work on the localization and for delivering it as quickly as possible. Please, enjoy the game, and don't hesitate to share your impressions with us. Thank you for your interest and support, Graverobber Foundation Team

[ 2023-02-10 03:33:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, First, we'd like to thank you for your support and interest in Ringlorn Saga. This game was an unexpected success for us, leading to the best launch in our entire history, and it became our second-best-selling game in less than two months. Second, we're working on the Japanese localization, as the game was inspired by the Japanese PC classics, and it's only natural that it should reach as many Japanese players as possible. Since we follow the "do it well or don't do it at all" mentality, we've partnered with a veteran translator Ryu Ito (@Ryu_Ito1976) to ensure that the translation remains faithful to the original, while offering the quality that only a native speaker could achieve. And last, but not least, we're looking into the possibility to localize the game in more languages and let the community join the fun. If you want to see the game localized to your native language and you're willing to help to make it happen, please let us know. Happy Holidays! --RS

[ 2022-12-24 09:03:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Added Ukrainian localization. Special thanks to Bunker Indyka, Urizchenko Alexander, and TellerySpyro for their help with editing.
• Implemented harsher checks to fix the enemy despawning issue for those who still experience it.
• Minor script fixes, including an embarrassing mistake in the intro and ending.
• Implemented localization support. This may lead to localizations to other languages in the future.

[ 2022-12-01 05:31:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed a critical bug that allowed you to save the game during the boss battle and made you unable to progress if you loaded that save, requiring you to restart from the latest autosave.

[ 2022-11-14 21:49:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed issues related to enemy despawning. Thanks to muffins4life for reporting this issue.

[ 2022-11-12 23:15:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed bugs caused by the workaround related to the inability to advance dialogue with certain controllers. However, the keys used to advance the dialogue are now limited to Space / Enter on the keyboard and the A (Xbox Controller / Steam Deck) / Cross (PlayStation Controller) / B (Switch Pro Controller) buttons. This was made to prevent accidental advancement of the in-game dialogue, e.g. while taking screenshots. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

[ 2022-11-10 17:32:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Added analog stick support for character movement based on user requests. Have fun!

[ 2022-11-10 05:52:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Added a potential workaround for certain users who were unable to advance dialogue when playing with a gamepad. Earlier, some users managed to solve this issue by disabling Steam Input. If the issue persists, please let us know.

[ 2022-11-10 03:13:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

* Talking to the Bartender should no longer softlock the game * Improved cursor (un)locking while alt-tabbing in and out of the game Special Thanks to Wulden and Oleksandr Urizchenko for reporting these issues.

[ 2022-11-08 18:42:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! In this DevLog well continue talking about the game design of Ringlorn Saga. Please keep in mind that this post will share some information about the inner workings of this game, so if you want to go in blind, consider reading this post after playing the game.

World Design

Since the beginning, we knew that we wanted to feature an open world, but it provided its own sets of challenges, such as the world size and content density. If the world ended up being too large, the content density might end up not being high enough to work well with our plan to make the players curiosity the main beacon throughout the campaign. Thats why weve decided to look at our main source of inspiration (Hydlide) and use the screen-based world structure and settle on the 5x5 world size for the overworld and the underground area and made the world wrap around itself to tease players with key locations, but create natural obstacles in reaching them. Then, we designed key areas of various sizes, placed them across the world world, and represented them via miniatures on the world map.
This ended up being a nice compromise between the world size and density, as the world never felt too big to the point it takes forever to reach an area thats teasing you from across the river, yet it allowed for tense dungeoneering experiences through key areas. Weve also decided to spawn new enemy types on the world map based on the player level to ensure that the player faces new challenges even if they get lost, and use fixed enemy rosters for dungeons to create the desired difficulty for this area. This eliminated the need to implement easy modes, as the player could always level up a bit on the world map if they found the next story dungeon too challenging.

Scenario Design

Due to the small scope of this project, weve decided to settle with a linear story structure, but keep the design as non-linear as possible instead of running from Point A to Point B in a defined straight line and enjoying a cutscene between each run, your curiosity is your main guide through the game. This meant that there was little to no space for lore dumps for the sake of lore dumps, and the line between the main and side content should be either blurred or erased completely. Almost every line of dialogue that contains a bit of lore should lead you somewhere if you decide to look into it, help you reach your next goal, or provide additional context for your actions.
It may seem counter-intuitive at first, as we didnt want to spell out the exact actions that players should take to reach their objective, but testing showed that some people found these leads easy to follow, while others took longer to figure them out, but found them very rewarding when they did. In both cases, weve noticed that testers were surprised that the lines they assumed to be pure flavor text carried actual substance in the game itself.
In the next DevLog, well talk about the technical aspects and tools used to create this game. If theres anything you want to see in the next DevLog, please let us know.

[ 2022-11-01 12:51:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! In this DevLog well talk about the game design of Ringlorn Saga. Please keep in mind that this post will share some information about the inner workings of this game, so if you want to go in blind, consider reading this post after playing the game.

Initial Game Design

When we started the project, we already had several constants in place: Action RPG, open world, and real-time bump combat. The number of character attributes was also decidedly limited to just three: Health, Strength, and Defence. This leads to a simple, generic premise: you explore an open world and fight enemies by bumping into them. Your strength determines the power of your attacks, your defence determines the damage reduction of enemy attacks. Here comes the first challenge: how to make an interesting game out of this?

Combat System

First, weve added a switch between the Attack/Defence mode. In Attack mode, you attack at full strength but your defence is halved, and in Defence mode, your strength is halved, but your defence is full. The next step was to prevent the player from attacking mindlessly. Weve added a power bar that gets depleted with each attack and recharges over time, which enforced more tactical play: find a moment to land a strong attack or overwhelm the enemy with quick attacks. The recharging speed depends on the percentage of the players Health: the lower it is, the faster your power will recharge. Damage types were added later and the combat system was adjusted toward finding ways to kill enemies faster and exploiting this knowledge. For example, bashing attacks will make Skeletons go down faster, but they will be ineffective against Slimes. Directional damage was added to reward players for sneaking up on enemies, and retaliation/blocking was added to punish them for mindless frontal attacks. Additional nuances and details were added along the way to spice up the combat system, but these details are learned best while playing.

Magic System

The ability to use magic was planned since the beginning but only came into the picture later, once the combat system solidified. The magic system was designed to expand players options while keeping melee combat the primary focus. Weve decided to limit the players spellbook to a handful of AoE and support spells, such as stunning all enemies on the screen for a short time or healing the player characters wounds faster. Even with these limitations, it added more options to get out of a tough situation alive. The magic bar also depletes after casting a spell and recharges over time, depending on the last spell cast by the player certain spells can block spellcasting for up to 4 minutes. This is quite a lot, so to prevent magic from feeling too little, too rare the magic bar gets a small bump whenever the player kills an enemy.
In the next DevLog, well continue talking about game design. If theres anything specific you want to see in the next entry, please let us know.

[ 2022-10-21 05:48:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone!

In our first DevLog, we'd like to introduce our new project "Ringlorn Saga" and talk about the thought process behind this game.

What is Ringlorn Saga?

It is a top-down adventure RPG with an open world that wraps around itself and the bump combat system. As Prince Gerhard the Brave, you explore the world, crawl through dungeons, find useful items, talk to NPCs for additional information, and slay fiends to get stronger. Your goal is to find your father and investigate the appearance of a magical barrier. Its a simple concept, but effective for what we are aiming to do an RPG that anyone can pick up and play, but spend quite some time finding everything it has to offer, and still wonder if theyve found everything the game has to offer after finishing it. Its main source of inspiration is the Hydlide series, a classic series in Japan that got poor reception in the West for a variety of reasons, but mostly due to poor timing the NES port came out three years after the original, and by that time Legend of Zelda came out and surpassed it.

Why an 8-bit style Action RPG?

Our fans will notice that Ringlorn Saga is a bit of an oddball in our portfolio, as its our first project that doesnt rely on vector / polygonal graphics. Its also an Action RPG, which is another new thing for us, as prior to that the only action games weve developed were Phantom 3D and NeuroWorm. To put it simply, weve decided to try something different. Despite having tons of ideas for the DG series and the DRPG genre, after dedicating 5 years to it with minor distractions, we felt that we were falling into the trap of incremental improvements between games as we didnt have the resources to make huge leaps forward like we initially planned to.

There are so many games out there, whats special about this one?

RPGs tend to focus on epic stories that can easily take up to 60+ hours of your time. Ringlorn Saga is aiming towards a short-but-sweet adventure that will keep you occupied for about 6 hours, without any meaningless padding. And yet, Ringlorn Saga also aims to bring back the feeling of wonder that many of us have experienced while playing these old games. Like seeing a structure in the distance and working our way there, wondering what awaits us inside, wondering if this journey will bring us closer to our goals. This is what, in our opinion, makes it special.
In future DevLogs, we'll discuss the game and world design. If theres anything you want to see in the next DevLog, please let us know.

[ 2022-10-07 07:02:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're excited to announce our next project. Ringlorn Saga is an adventure RPG inspired by the Japanese PC classics. Prince Gerhard the Brave embarks on a journey to the neighboring land to investigate the appearance of a magic barrier that surrounds it and his father's disappearance.

• A short-but-sweet Action RPG that won't hold your hand nor waste your time
• Explore the world, find new gear and valuable items, and get stronger while fighting a variety of enemies
• Stumble upon hidden events and quests
• Simple but nuanced mechanics and controls
• 8-bit style visuals and sound inspired by MSX
• CRT filter for an authentic retro experience
• If you ever get lost, have a drink with the bard

Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2135990/Ringlorn_Saga/

[ 2022-09-02 00:41:17 CET ] [ Original post ]