PEGBRJE: The ‘Software’ of Page 4
Hello and welcome to another ‘blog’ post.
Unlike many of the previous pages, page 4 is quite varied with the number of different downloadable contents. It also marks the very first Light Novel (I think) that is in the bundle! So sit back and enjoy the list.
For The Honor is a tabletop RPG made by Quinn, containing the fantasy world Rathael and creating messy alliances in the hopes of quelling the Legion and the unrest through any means necessary. Interestingly, this is a GM-less TTRPG, instead utilizing the Firebrands Framework which focuses on creating roleplaying gameplay through interactive mini-games. There are 12 included within For The Honor, and can be played with 3–6 people for a few hours of heartbreak and emotional (or literal) warfare.
Heroic Asset Series: Overworld contains hundreds of 16x16 assets for whatever project one might be thinking of creating in a 2D environment. Admittedly, this looks to be catered more towards the RPGs of old — the island instantly reminded me of Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire — but with some work could be utilized anywhere. This is one of many in a series by Aleksandr Makarov, and if you need any other 2D assets his store will most certainly have it.
This is a game for the times, so to speak, as ‘this discord has ghosts in it’ is a Discord Server RPG made by Will Jobst and Adam Vass. The best way to describe it is to say that it’s a variation of TTRPG and TTMystery, but through the creation of a discord server dedicated to hosting the game itself. It plays with some members being ghosts haunting the rooms of the server, with ghosts attempting to discover the investigator’s deepest fears by creating new rooms in the server, uploading images and sounds. It’s currently in early access with the devs looking to expand on optional rules, so check it out if you wish to try something a little different.
My Friend Took Me To A Feline Therapy Place For My Anxiety And I’m Starting To Wonder Where The Cats Are? is the longest title of anything I’ve downloaded (in proper light novel fashion) and is a full colour light novel by Alex Zandra, a light novelist. This is, I believe, the first thing I’ve downloaded — including games — that I’ve met and spoken to the author to directly. At the time I was seeking consultation with another about sensitivity readers for the upcoming game I was working on. So to see her work in this bundle is a welcoming changing, especially as the first light novel found in the bundle so far. The light novel itself is a dive into anxiety and how those may deal (or not) with it, and a dive into the fantastical in the latter half with a shift in sentience. It gets quite heavy the farther in, so there is a content warning in case you may struggle with its themes. However, I do recommend reading it in one sitting if possible, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
HPS Cartography Kit is a collection of hexagon tiles that can be used in the Hex Kit (featured earlier in the bundle) or other hexagon software. It contains more than 400 tiles with differing features from common grasslands to bizarre skulls, so it can fit into whatever campaign one might be running. Of course this is hexagons only, so if you want to make these into squares you’ll need to look elsewhere.
By far the most intriguing software I’ve seen, Drum Brain is a program that allows one to configure their musical gaming peripherals to be actual instruments. Created by Andrew Rudson, it allows these gaming hardware pieces to be viewed as windows controllers and have them configured as such so that you can either use them as midi controllers or plug in your favourite songs into Drum Brain and play along with them. It’s an interesting idea that I wasn’t able to utilize as the current build is not compatible with Windows 10, but eventually I’ll get to go more indepth with it.
Multi Platform Tileset is a 2D asset pack made by Shackhal, a solo indie in Peru. Containing hundreds of assets, it focuses more on sidescrolling backdrops and platforms to match, giving devs an easy way of implementing quick levels to test or create their own games.
Pixel Art Medieval Fantasy Characters is another asset pack but for characters made by CleanCut Games, a dev team out of Paris. Unlike the previous asset packs, this contains only characters to place into games, and comes with over a dozen different animations for each character. The animations alone are worth a bunch given how long animations can take, and even includes enemies for the fantasy characters to beat up if need be.
ECH0 is a TTRPG that also utilizes a GM-less format by Role Over Play Dead, a group in Malaysia that make different types of TTRPGs. In ECH0, players are the ones that create the maps as they search for a lost soldier’s final resting place centred around the possible wreckages of mechs from the previous war. It’s focused mainly on the story that is told by the perception of wars of the past, how one may forget and how those memories may live on. I’ve heard of a few players using it as the backstory or worldbuilding for other Mecha RPGs, which just shows how open and player-driven it can be.
That’s all of them! Which was a lot, actually. 9 is a lot more than average so far.
Page 5 starts today, hope you’re ready.
