SANDBOX RPG DUSTGRAVE REVEALS ITS RELATIONSHIP, RECORD, AND COMBAT SYSTEMS

Publisher Digital Tribe and indie studio Innervoid Interactive started a series of dev diaries discussing some key features of their recently announced sandbox RPG Dustgrave, which will be published on Steam in 2024. In the first entry of this series, Innervoid Interactive reveals how Dustgrave's Relationship and Record System works. In Dustgrave, everything you do has a meaningful impact. Stealing an apple? Ending a bandit's life? Trespassing? Saving someone's family? Helping someone with a quest? The game will remember everything, and will be used further down the line to affect your relationship with other factions, open up new questlines, etc.

Dustgrave features a complex system of more than a hundred Records that the game can use to keep track of everything happening in the world.  By recording every meaningful deed, Dustgrave can calculate relationships between characters and factions at runtime instead of relying on a simple score that wouldn't reflect a constantly changing world. You can see more details about this system in this video (or read the entire dev diary here). 
 

 
The second dev diary engages with Dustgrave's combat system, explaining its seven basic actions and how they change depending on the players' weapons, armor, and gear. You can watch the video detailing it below these lines, or read the dev diary here. 
 

ABOUT THE GAME

The crumbling of the Dahlan Empire brought times of struggle, times of war, hunger and plague – but also of opportunity for those strong and brave enough to carve their own path with sword and wits. You can be one of these adventurers and mercenaries who venture into this trouble land and leave a mark – as a criminal or a hero; a wise scholar or a hard worker; a holy man or just a mercenary: the choice is yours!

Dustgrave offers players total freedom in a true sandbox RPG experience, with eye-catching cell-shaded watercolor art and a deep turn-based combat system. You play as a band of adventurers in the ravaged lands of the former Dahlan Empire: you can create and customize your characters with an advanced character editor, and then choose your own way without limits. The world will react accordingly to your deeds and decisions: an advanced record & relationship system that tracks every event in the world, and then every NPC reacts to what they know about you depending on their morality and current allegiances.
 

Dustgrave features a deep turn-based combat system that allows you many different combinations of skills and items, offering players endless options of great tactical depth. But you will also have an advanced stealth system in your hands, which allows you to approach problems using your wits rather than your steel: you can break into secure places to find clues, steal treasures, or assassinate your mark without leaving a trace. 

• Everything meaningful happening in the world is recorded. NPCs will judge your good and bad deeds based on their personality or faction
• The world is in constant evolution. Factions will constantly fight against each other: some may acquire more power, others may be destroyed forever.
• All NPCs have unique personalities and desires, and their daily life is thoroughly simulated
• True fantasy sandbox RPG experience. You decide with your actions what kind of character you want to be: a holy man, a thief, a hero, a soldier, a mercenary, an archeologist, even just a mail deliverer… 
• Smash your enemies with an advanced yet accessible turn-based combat system, combining Skills and Items in huge tactical depth 
• Use an advanced stealth system to do anything you want! Stealing? Check! Assassinating? Check! Breaking and entering? Check!
• Create your own customized characters with an advanced character editor

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• PR contact: info@jaleopr.com

ABOUT INNERVOID INTERACTIVE
Innervoid Interactive is an indie studio based in Italy. The studio has worked on ICY and Chef: A Restaurant Tycoon Game in the past, and was finally able to devote itself to the ambitious goal of implementing dynamic narrative in videogames.