Development

[icycalm]

Menyr: Next-gen next-level VTT
https://www.patreon.com/posts/70345040

Menyr is THE DARK SOULS OF VTTS!!!

Also something I didn't mention in the article, straight from the developers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xrl1q- ... dQA6pcN3Gv

VR is coming a little after release

[icycalm]

2023 GOTY RIGHT HERE
https://www.patreon.com/posts/70907765

Just watch this friggin' video, future of gaming right there. Don't say icycalm didn't warn you years in advance.

[icycalm]

Immersive Storytelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJsiP9Z0B90



New video that's crazier than anything else I've posted.

Note the bases can be removed entirely, and you can walk around normally. In some of the videos, that's how they show it.

[icycalm]

Weather Control - sneak peek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmSzuL2wW4



The rain, snow, and time of day are cool, but what really blew me away is the wind. Watch how the trees bend, dust is kicked up, leaves flying everywhere. You don't get this stuff even in most traditional videogames, only in a handful of huge-budget games.

Note also no bases anywhere, just smoothly animated normal videogame models.

[icycalm]

https://twitter.com/MenyrNetwork/status ... 7790508033

System requirements so far is a 1080Ti or higher

lolwhat

[icycalm]

MOST WANTED: Menyr (provisional 2023 GOTY)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/71274710

The Menyr Kickstarter is live, and I pledged at the €49 level, my first crowdfunding pledge ever.

[icycalm]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... r/comments



Nothing much to see here, just icycalm starting a war, as on any given day.

[icycalm]

The KS is doing good, but...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... Q1Mg%3D%3D

I am worried about the program being free. This means that, once the KS is over, you won't have a way of raising funds until the marketplace is live. I hope you've thought this through...

[icycalm]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... kyMQ%3D%3D

The GM has full control over his world, including the NPCs. At any given time you can take control of an NPC that you have drag & droped into the map. If you use the function, you can even talk as the character and your players will hear the sound with it's location, thanks to spatialized sound.

They're saying all the right things. GMed Cyberpunk 2077 isn't far away. And the market is responding well so far, as they've reached €156k now. That said, the TaleSpire KS reached €350k, so they have a ways to go to catch up. They still have 17 days though, and the word is getting out. They might well get there.

Three new trailers are out, and they're incredible. The level of fidelity is easily near the level of LiF, Atlas, and Rust, and it will surely rise with cutting-edge assets. It's Unreal 5 after all.

Material technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbMWCOrZx08



House Generator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h274V_wFdjY



In-game Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLQ_0-81ax4



Watching these videos makes me miss Pathfinder terribly. We'll get back on that horse soon, guys, and with a ton of new bells and whistles.

[icycalm]

Menyr Lets You Build A Whole Damn World For Your RPG Campaigns
https://kotaku.com/ttrpg-rpg-d-d-dungeo ... 1849555946

Kotaku linked Menyr and their KS jumped to nearly a quarter of a million. They never mentioned TaleSpire because it's isometric, not really animated, etc.

[icycalm]

Village Generator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhahIZv0S58



Hotdamn. And this is all garbage procgen alpha.

[icycalm]

Guild Artillerist | Beneos Animated D&D Tokens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOBIr9gJC1s



New model by Beneos. Check out how high-quality it is. I think it is comparable to what's seen in Baldur's Gate III. That's the kind of quality we can expect to see in Menyr. Whole armies of them, and moving in real-time, at least during exploration phase.

If some AI can be added to the program, it could have massive ramifications for real-time tactics as well. So far I have been talking about a revolution in TURN-BASED tactics with TaleSpire, but Menyr has the potential to upend real-time tactics as well.

Which reminds me of Robomoo by the way lol. He is working on a Tiny Metal clone right now, and I told him that he doesn't even know the good tactics games, so how can he expect to make a good one? Because Tiny Metal isn't good. It sure looks good, but it isn't good. The best tactics game is... Pathfinder. So if he wanted to make a good one, he'd have to make a new RPG system. That's why I am not making a tactics game: we already have the best, and I can't make a better one, so there's no use trying. It's a waste of time. What I am doing instead is inserting the best tactics system into the best MMORPG and overworld system, which is my Ultimate Edition and Battlegrounds. And what Menyr can potentially bring to this table besides first-person and high-fidelity graphics is REAL-TIME play, specifically real-time exploration and, hopefully some day with some AI added, real-time tactics.

Real-time action a la Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand, is coming too, but probably not with Menyr.

[icycalm]

The Crusader | Beneos Tokens Animated Dnd Tokens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1oOwbMlrDo



Sharakhul, The Flayed Dragon | Beneos Animated Dnd Tokens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYtsdNRp5L8



Beneos has been knocking it out of the park lately with more and more Baldur's Gate 3-level models for Foundry. This is the level of detail we'll be playing with in Menyr within the next two years. Note that both Menyr and Beneos use Unreal Engine, so it'll be a cinch to transfer his work to the Menyr marketplace, which is supposed to hit as early as March. But I expect it will take at least a year beyond that until there's enough material available to run a full campaign. So maybe two years overall, is a safe bet; plenty of time to finish at least one TaleSpire campaign by then.

The question is whether there will be any place for TaleSpire after Menyr takes over. Keep in mind that TaleSpire will probably retain superiority in terms of the Minecrafty building mechanics, plus it looks cute as hell, so ideally I would like both VTTs to thrive and grow, and keep using both of them depending on the kind of campaign we're running. We'll see how it goes.

[icycalm]

Via Kickstarter email:

Hello everyone!

We wanted to get back to you with some news on what's going on at NOG Studio. Since we last talked a few weeks ago, the team took some well deserved rest and is now hard at work.

As promised, the Feature Request webpage is up and running, and the VIP Discord channel is live for Archivists and up. We are already using your feedback on both places to refine our roadmap and complete feature list that we will share with you later on. It makes it really clear that the engine will not be the same without your input so we hope you'll continue to get involved as we'll rely on you going forward.



We just put out a little recap video (thank you Manu!) of the Octogône Convention where we did the final countdown for the Kickstarter campaign. For those who missed it or want to update their pledge, the Backer Kit Pledge manager and Late Backer shop will be coming this week!

In other news, we attended the Game Connection in Paris a few days ago. For context, it is on the professional side of the Paris Games Week, one of the biggest game convention in the world. We met a lot of important people that will work with us on Menyr in the future and help us push the boundaries of what we could do on our own. From editors to QA, content creators, localization, AI specialists and many more, it was an important convention for NOG and Menyr.

We are welcoming a couple recruits, focusing on integrating them into the team as we speak. Our main task now is to clean the actual alpha version so that we can build the program as stable as possible while allowing great flexibility when we need to expand in the future. This is a rather "quiet" time where there is not much we can "show" while arguably the most important one as core decisions about the engine are being made and will affect Menyr for the years to come.

Stay tuned for more, don't hesitate to join the Discord where most of the conversation is happening, and have a great day.

The Menyr Team


ps: NOG can finally revealed the EA project we've been working on for the past 9+ months, Need for Speed : Unbound! Can't wait to play this one :) Check our freshly made Artstation for more NOG productions ;)

If you check their ArtStation, you'll see they've worked on a bunch of big-budget games, and they're still working on titles. I asked specifically about this on their KS, and they said that even if Menyr funding stalls, they still have money coming in from their contractor work. So on top of the fact their KS made more than TaleSpire's, they also have this income to iron out cashflow issues. TaleSpire is being made by two full-time devs plus a couple of freelancers, but NOG is already a dozen people and they're hiring more.

Also note, no diversity. Though that is likely to change if they attract enough attention.

[icycalm]

Videogame Art Marches Forward
https://www.patreon.com/posts/74435538

Another year, another GOTY that no one will acknowledge except me, since the industry lost the plot a couple of years ago with the explosive growth of VTTs that no one even realizes are full-blown videogames now, and even the best of them.

[icycalm]

Beneos Tokens Welcome Video + Setup Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAapK-iZpeo



Great video by Beneos that showcases his growing army of "tokens" as he calls them. If you want to see the kind of model fidelity we'll be playing with in Menyr next year, don't miss this video.

I also posted a comment:

Great video, but... maybe it's time to stop using the word "tokens"? We'll soon be able to use your stunning models in VR in Menyr. Tables and tops are dead.

[icycalm]

Tomb of Nhek Aachariya | Jungle Ruin and Tomb | Beneos Animated DnD Assets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU8y7eliXYE



With this environment, Beneos achieved photorealism. I cannot tell the difference between this and National Geographic, even though I am running it on a mere 1080p resolution and at a huge 42 inches right in front of my face.

Don't miss this video. This is what playing in Menyr will be like. And it will be fully interactive.

[icycalm]

A Look Back at 2022: How Far We've Come and What's to Come
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... ered_users

Dude Menyr's art direction is out of this world. It crushes every CRPG ever including the rolling on the floor games as far as I am concerned. Utterly unbelievable.







This thing looks better than the D&D movie lmao.

Check this PDF for more: https://menyr.nogstudio.com/wp-content/ ... ewards.pdf

GOTY 2023, and we'll be playing the first side-missions in this before the end of next year.

In VR.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... g2Mw%3D%3D

Your art direction is out of this world, as I reported here: https://culture.vg/forum/topic?p=36392#p36392

Beauty and intelligence are related. Whoever leads this project has impeccable taste, which means he is a genius.

[icycalm]

Beta roadmap and features list
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... ts/3720153

PDF with all the images I posted below: https://menyr.nogstudio.com/wp-content/ ... s-List.pdf

Glad to see this update as I was starting to worry the Menyr KS is a scam. It's still possible that it's a scam, but the chances are lower now. I have never seen a KS or EA project be this casual about updates so long after launch, and this could mean one of two things. Either it's a scam—and they're dripping out updates and pushing back the release date (which has now been moved from March to June) to rake in as much money as they can via extended backing services such as BackerKit—or they're perfectionists like Chris Roberts and me and just taking their time to deliver something awesome and unmatched. Judging by the quality of everything they've shown so far, plus how much thought has gone into their roadmap shown below, I would guess the latter. If it's a scam, however, there's still an upside. It would mean that TaleSpire gets a reprieve of a couple of years to realize its full potential without the pressure from this behemoth breathing down their necks. Honestly I am happy with either scenario, and if nothing else is achieved by this project at least it will have shown the market how much demand there is for this engine, that obviously someone will end up making sooner or later. Hell, the talk from butthurt backers (of which I am one, to the tune of €49) should help attract even more developer talent to the cause.

It's also interesting that talk of "scam" endures about Star Citizen, though it gets less and less each year. I am also sure some people think my Battlegrounds is a scam too lol. So I suppose it was merely a matter of time before the same accusation was leveled at Menyr. And I am the one making it lol. Mostly because I am just impatient for some media. I would have expected a lot more MEDIA by now, rather than plans and roadmaps etc. But it seems it's just too early in the development process for that.

It all makes sense when you realize that all this stuff 1) Is taking forever to come out, and 2) Seems too good to be true. So, 3) It appears to be a scam, especially to the impatient. And I am certainly an extremely impatient person. Especially when it comes to the work of others!

ANYway, leaving talk of scams aside, what the slides below reveal is a design plan that will totally consume World Anvil, TaleSpire, Dungeon Alchemist, Foundry, Syrinscape, the One D&D VTT et al. All the pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together for the greatest videogame engine ever. Because consider this: Which is the best engine on the market right now? It's Star Citizen's Star Engine. No other engine can do what this engine does. But can it do flashbacks? Flash forwards? Can it pause time? So how can you say it is the ultimate "storytelling engine"? Clearly, Menyr will be that, and it will be impossible to make cutting-edge games without it, once it is released. It will make even Star Citizen seem dated at that point. I am sure no one understands what I mean, but when you see fully interactive VR Game of Thrones-level footage running on this thing in a couple of years, you'll understand.

And btw, they're upping the size of the max area from 60 sq. km to 100 sq. km. That's an insane size, it's like an entire Pathfinder kingdom, fully walkable in one scene. And of course you can chain together as many scenes as you want, for an entire planet.

The downside is that it will take a couple of years for the engine to become feature-complete, and I am not going to bet that Menyr's overworld features will be done anytime soon. So I'll go ahead and keep building our overworld in World Anvil, because we can't really keep playing without it at this point, too much stuff happening across too many campaigns to keep it all in our minds without the overworld. And when Menyr's equivalent features launch, I'll just have to transfer them over. It's extra work I don't want to do, but I'll have to do it. Nothing can be done about it. At least the transfer will be easier than the initial inputting of the data. At least half the work is finding and arranging the data, after all.

So that's all I have for now. Take your time going over the slides. I haven't even done that properly myself yet; too excited to get this update and analysis out.

[icycalm]

Looking better than ever!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... ts/3791687

This announcement has been months in the making. After reworking the engine entirely, new visuals are now available!

Back in October during the Kickstarter campaign, you may have noticed that procedural generation, terraforming and gameplay were shown separately. Here's why: most features had been prototyped, and although they were each working on their own, they were having a hard time working together. Now everything works smoothly at the same time. We're very happy to announce that we have successfully integrated the features shown in the Kickstarter into the reworked engine, as well as added new features, now with more potential for the future (the Codex for example).

After months of silence, we have an update, and the thing does indeed look better than ever.

Forest Generator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoY7BfFrASg



In fact good is an understatement. It looks incredible. It's so powerful that it automatically builds bridges when you lay a road across a river. Moreover, even though it already looks great, according to the devs it's merely "basic" and will be greatly improved:

As you can see in the video, roads and water can be hand drawn quite easily, and the environment will adapt to their placement. This feature is rather basic at present, but the hardest part of the job is done. Now we will turn our focus to building upon and beautifying the whole thing: the road material will be better looking, posts will appear at crossroads, gravel, rocks and grass will blend the road into the surrounding environment, etc.

I don't think anyone in the world understands what all this means besides me. This thing can build out dozens of square miles of terrain in a few clicks. Entire countries will be built in this. And this means that to go from one town to the next will take you... exactly as long as in reality.

And I don't think anyone else in the world understands how vastly games will be changed by this. Only I understand. And soon enough, my friends, you will too, because this thing is going live next fucking month! No bullshit. I've been in their Discord, and the high backers will get access next month, and the rest of the plebs probably too (70% chance for them in June, and 100% in July). Either way, in July at the latest we should have it.

Which leads me to some more news I have for you today, that I am preparing right now, so please check back later for it.

[icycalm]

https://twitter.com/gematsu/status/1658 ... XBtIUuAAAA



They won't say a word about Menyr. They won't even know what it is.

Have to wait for the Greek Direct for this.

[icycalm]

Latest Cult Engine 4 build from Cult Games Paris. You won't find these images anywhere else. I have access because I own the studio.

















Roadmap is now up (click on each entry for details): https://portal.productboard.com/ycntuex ... /4-roadmap

Scroll down to see all upcoming features. Some highlights:





As you can see from the roadmap breakdown, essential features such as fog of war won't be in until 2024, so we won't be using this engine until then. Fret not however, because many more engine upgrades are coming between now and then, and much content to take advantage of them.

Community feature request section is also up and filling nicely. Put your requests here and my designers and engineers will take a look at them: https://portal.productboard.com/ycntuex ... ty-request

[icycalm]

Cult Engine 4 versus Cult Engine 2.75
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgdX39Z ... XVyolQO3wj



Comparison video between Cult Engine 4 and 2.75. The first part of the video shows the upcoming full-3D CE4, and the second part shows the (also upcoming) 2.5D CE2.75.

The location was built by a fairly recent hire to Cult Games Germany. Very promising new recruit by the name of Beneos. He's only been with us for about two years, but he shows tremendous promise. Always glad to guide and nurture new talent. That's what Cult Games is about after all.

[icycalm]

Cult Engine 4 Beta Public Live Demo Montage YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0euhey ... XVyolQO3wj



Cult Games Paris demonstrates Cult Engine 4 in a 21-minute video. I recommend watching all of it to get a sense of the insane possibilities and level of detail. You gotta watch the thunderstorm towards the end, where he explains how players will shit their pants when they hear it, especially if they have 5.1 surround etc. Also, the fast time pass that's movielike.

It's Crysis level of detail. Best water ever in a CRPG if not in a videogame period. I think the water looks at least as good as in Atlas. Maybe Sea of Thieves' looks better, but keep in mind Sea of Thieves is boring, it's an Atlas minigame, just like Atlas is a Battlegrounds miningame. So Sea of Thieves is a Battlegrounds microgame. And also keep in mind that ALL this stuff will be improved. It's already better than anything, but they keep saying everything will be improved.

Also keep in mind that we won't have to create anything ourselves. We won't have to mess with these tools at all. I am hiring THOUSANDS of people to create the sets for us, and I will select the most talented and hardworking among them, and it's in THEIR creations that we'll play. Of course, if players feel like terraforming, then yeah, we'll use these tools. Miss your ditch-digging days from Life is Feudal? Well you're in luck because Life is Feudal is yet another microgame contained in the Alex Kierkegaard's Battlegrounds metaverse. If you've ever thought "LiF is great but I wish I could roleplay in here as well as dig ditches", you're in luck, because that's precisely what you'll get in 2024 if you play my game. Plus the ditch-digging can be sped up here so that we can focus on the fun battles and wars and adventures enabled by the ditch-digging as opposed to the ditch-digging itself. The ditch-digging is a MECHANIC in my game and not THE WHOLE FOCUS OF IT because I am a designer not a stupid programmer who can't tell the difference between high drama and menial crap.

[icycalm]

Cult Engine 4 is now on Steam! Wishlist your next most played game ever!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2499260/Menyr

Create immersive worlds in seconds and play with friends in Menyr's storytelling engine. Generate dungeons, change biomes, and enjoy AAA graphics. Fully customizable, community-driven, and free, Menyr brings your TTRPG adventures to life in a seamless and immersive virtual tabletop experience.

All the other screens uploaded are old. This is the only new one. I think it's superior to both Sea of Thieves and Atlas. Cult Games knocking it out of the park once again!

Your Beta keys are available!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/no ... ts/3870123

!!!Please keep everything related to this Beta release confidential and do not share any images or videos unless it's in the Beta Testing channels on our Discord channel. Avoid posting anything on the internet for now. This discretion period will be lifted in a few weeks, and we will notify you via another update. Once lifted, you'll be free to share your experiences on any platform and stream your gameplay.!!!

I have a beta key from the Kickstarter and it just went live, but we are prohibiting people from streaming for a few weeks while we get the kinks worked out, so I won't install it until the public is free to stream. At that point I'll stream a tutorial session and highlight any cool content that has been released by talented Cult Games builders.

The cool thing about bringing CE4 on Steam is that now you can get your hours tracked alongside CE1 and CE3. Only CE2 (internal codename: Foundry) isn't on Steam because the lead dev there is against the platform for some reason. I am hoping he'll see the success of all the other engines and change his mind. Of course Valve takes 30%, but then are the other teams stupid for going along with it? Probably the extra exposure covers the costs.

The forum is fun. Midwits encountering alien technology and art and being unable to understand them, as I'd predicted: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2499260/ ... 0786301402



He's probably thinking, "Oh like Final Fantasy then."