Dear Roadwardens, with this patch, we are fixing several exception errors, where the food rations could go into minus and an issue where food and money could be unlimited. Also, there is a fix included, that prevents all achievements from getting unlocked automatically after the epilogue. You will find an explanation beneath.
FIXED
Fixed Several Typos and Grammar errors
Fixed food rations going into minus / unlimited food bug and money
Fixed several exception errors
Fixed all achievements getting unlocked automatically after the epilogue (see explanation below on how to correct your achievements)
How to fix your achievements unlock status
Apologies to anyone that encountered the “auto-unlocking achievements” bug. We were able to identify a fix for at least one instance of it. If more instances come up, we will of course investigate those as well.
Here is how you reset your Steam achievements to reflect the correct ones you have unlocked with your playthrough:
Launch the game and load any save you want. Ideally, it’s going to be a save from the epilogue
Being in the game, press Shift+O. Don’t do this while looking at the game’s menu, inventory, or a journal, for it may make step 3 not work. You want to see just the regular screen presenting the narration and the illustration.
In the gray console, type or paste the following: "$achievement.clear_all()" (no quotation marks).
After you do so, Steam will take away all your achievements and will instantly start giving you the achievements your current save earned. It may once again look like a wave, but don’t panic.
If you alt+tab and take a look at your Steam client, it may still list all the achievements as unlocked. If so, simply press any other game, then Roadwarden again to let the client refresh. From now on, the list should fairly reflect your earned achievements.
If you played Roadwarden more than once, you may want to load the saves from other epilogues after that to load their achievements as well.
Your teams from Moral Anxiety Studio & Assemble Entertainment
Toss a Coin to your Roadwarden! - Textbased RPG Roadwarden is now available!
Adventure calls, waiting for explorers who are up to the task. Today, together with solo-dev Moral Anxiety Studio, we have launched our isometric text-based RPG Roadwarden. Combining elements of high fantasy with mechanics borrowed from traditional RPGs, visual novels, and adventure games, Roadwarden mixes the familiar with the unexpected in a unique take on text-based interactive fiction.
Listed on Polygon’s “The 17 most exciting video game releases of fall 2022,”Roadwarden is an illustrated text-based RPG in which players take on the profession of the titular roadwarden, exploring and changing a hostile, grim realm. A modern take on classic text-driven choose-your-own-adventure RPGs, Roadwarden’s gameplay is entirely driven by scenarios presented through text, with players making decisions based on events happening around them. With the option to spec the protagonist to be a warrior, mage, or scholar based on what abilities are upgraded, players will traverse through an enigmatic peninsula to spread the Merchant Guild’s influence.
For those who want a taste of the adventure, an official demo is available for download on Steam. store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden
Check out the world of Roadwarden in today’s launch trailer:
Roadwarden’s Key Features:
Explore & Change the World: Discover the secrets and face the challenges of a hostile fantasy world — inevitably unveiling its uniquely sinister history Grow With the Challenge: Create your own background story, personal abilities, beliefs, and personality to shape your very own future as a Roadwarden Classical RPG Attitude: Prepare yourself for an epic journey, either as a warrior, mage or scholar, and define your character‘s traits; like friendly, playful or intimidating, during interactions with various NPCs Mysteries Unfold: Use your savvy and wiles when investigating and drawing your conclusions to understand the true nature of this world. Immerse yourself in detailed dialogues and sidequests with dozens of NPCs to gain their trust and support.
Toss a coin to your Roadwarden: To celebrate the game's launch today, get it on Steam with a limited-time 10% launch discount.
store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden
Roadwarden gets more polishing - Release rescheduled for September 12!
Roadwarden!
Being a Roadwarden is a dangerous path, and as you might already know from the demo, the journey is never easy.
Like the life of a Roadwarden, game development can be challenging, too! As we want to provide you with the best-possible game experience, we would like to spend a few more days working and polishing the game and thus pushing the release of Roadwarden to September 12!
Thank you for the patience! - Stay sharp, Roadwarden! -Your teams at Moral Anxiety Studio & Assemble Entertainment-
In the meantime, please feel free to play the free demo here on Steam and wishlist Roadwarden, to get notified as soon as it will be released!
New Roadwarden Devlog - Road to Release on September 8th!
Greetings, travelers! Now, here’s quite a jump forward — Roadwarden will be out on Steam on September 8th, 2022!
It’s an illustrated text-based RPG in which you explore and change a hostile, grim realm. Roadwarden has been in development for almost 4 years now, and we’re on the final stretch!
The last few months were all about tying up the loose ends and hunting for bugs — but there are still a few new features to talk about!
Difficulty Selection Screen
The time limit is the most restrictive system in Roadwarden. Given enough time, the player can heal their wounds, earn coins to buy useful equipment, or gain trust of the locals. However, some of the quests are time-sensitive and players who repeatedly fail at preparing themselves for exploration and combat may reach the game’s epilogue without completing some of the major storylines.
While it’s possible to complete all of the major quests in less than 25 in-game days, most newcomers will struggle to efficiently optimize the Roadwarden’s systems. Adding an “easy mode” for players who are not used to RPGs (or video games in general) and the “hard mode” for returning players is meant to open the game up to a variety of expectations and playstyles.
Updated Quick Menu
After many months of being untouched, the buttons in the top-right corner are not only reshuffled…
…but I also replaced the Trade button with a quick access to the Character Sheet.
When tested, it turned out that it’s a bit too easy to omit the Trade option while talking with various NPCs. From now on, the trading is available through the dialogue options, always staying in the player’s field of view:
The Ancient Bug
This annoying line of code has crashed the game more times than I can count.
Here you can see how it should look like:
The reason why it destroyed me is that the game didn’t break when this bit of text was loaded. Instead, it could lurkin the shadows for minutes, until it appeared in a completely different area or conversation. I spent many hours tracking down the source, especially after it crashed the game of one of the demo players. “Is it a memory leak? Is the game simply falling apart after some time? Am I going crazy?” But now, the bug is no more! I’m FREE! And all sorts of tiny, yet important details
And what is this just below the quick menu? Is this the new, fancy clock? Why, yes it is!
It’s less distracting and offers more information at once whenever pointed at, with fewer space restrictions. The item list in the inventory is now more flexible. In the early stages of the game, it remains small, but…
…once the player gathers enough items, it resizes, usually filling the entire screen without forcing the player to scroll down to see everything at once. Also, while the owned coins are still meant to be displayed together with the other “Merchandise”, the game now recognizes when there are no other items from this category. In such cases, the coins are moved to the Misc section, instead of occupying the entire row by themselves.
While some quests may still need updates in the journal, they now more often use gray font to hide outdated information, and horizontal lines to divide quests into sections, for example — separating the old part of a quest from the new one, which gets pushed to the top of the entry.
And last but not least — autosaves occur more frequently, after roughly 20 dialogue choices. It’s still not recommended to play without manual/quick saving, but the game is now more resistant to unfortunate crashes and bugs that would punish players who forgot to save in a long time.
Thank you for taking a look at this devlog, and for your support and feedback over the years!
You can also find me on socials, and Roadwarden has Steam and GOG pages where you can add it to your wishlist — I hope it will be available on September 8th!
Have a great day!
Roadwarden gets Release date! - New Trailer and new Demo on Steam available now!
Roadwarden, our illustrated text-based RPG by indie dev Moral Anxiety Studio is hitting the old dusty trail on September 8, 2022, coming to Steam with support on Windows PC, Mac, and Linux.
Today, Roadwarden’s release date announcement is accompanied by an all-new trailer and an official demo now available on Steam.
Roadwarden merges elements of high fantasy and medieval adventure and is punctuated by a distinct isometric pixel art style. Combining mechanics borrowed from RPGs, visual novels, and interactive fiction, Roadwarden tells the tale of an explorer hired by a powerful merchant guild, tasked with journeying to a mysterious peninsula to spread the guild’s influence. With over 40 hours of gameplay, dialogue choices that branch into hundreds of thousands of text lines, and progressively upgradable character abilities, Roadwarden is a truly epic and unique adventure experience where no two playthroughs are alike.
Check out the brand-new Roadwarden release date trailer:
Roadwarden’s features
Explore and change the world!Discover the secrets and face the vast challenges of a hostile fantasy world – inevitably unveiling its uniquely fierce lore.
Grow with the challenge! Create your own background, abilities, beliefs, and personality to shape your very own future as a roadwarden.
Classical attitude! Prepare yourself for an adventurous journey, either as a warrior, mage, or scholar and define your character‘s attitudes, like friendly, playful or intimidating, during interactions with NPCs.
Get lost in conversation! Immerse yourself in profound dialogues and sidequests with dozens of NPCs to gain their trust and support.
Mysteries unfold! Use your savvy and be witty when investigating and drawing your conclusions to understand the true nature of this world.
Overcome your weaknesses! The world is full of dangers and nobody can be trusted. Be the roadwarden you want to be and find your path to success against all odds!
Developed by Moral Anxiety Studio, a solo development operation from Poland, and published by Assemble Entertainment, Roadwarden will launch on Steam September 8, 2022.
Roadwarden, Join us for recorded gameplay-session now and enjoy the free ROADWARDEN Demo during Steam-Next Fest. Add Roadwarden to your wishlist and join us on an epic adventure!
Roadwarden Devlog - Growing and Evolving
Greetings, travelers! The game’s development goes smoothly, especially content-wise. Since the last devlog I added 5 large settlements, more than doubling the previous amount, and it’s a delight to see how the areas and quests on my task lists get marked as “finished”.
The break from social media has been a relief. Spending less time on maintaining an online presence took a huge weight off my shoulders, allowing me to focus on what’s going to matter the most to the players. I hope you can forgive me for keeping a few surprises until the game’s release, and for now here are some highlights! : )
Interface updates
The shops are now denser, using fewer buttons and having an option to display more items at once:
The sleeping / resting spots no longer require any memorizing or guessing on the player’s side, instead explaining directly how they will affect the character stats:
What also affected the healing ritual for mages:
Also, the game no longer marks the “distanced” Attitude as the default option during conversations. The player has more freedom in looking at the options they find any interest in, without being pushed to seeing one of them as “the regular one”.
Due to popular demand, the game now highlights the Trade / Rest (Seek shelter) / Travel buttons to make it clear the player isn’t “stuck” in a conversation or interaction.
And while there’s much more, let’s end with this tiny adjustment:
The character sheet
As the game gets more complex, it requires better tools to explain its rules, especially to the players who take longer breaks between play sessions. The character sheet allows the player to learn the rules in greater detail while also keeping track of various actions.
The map key
Thanks to the new icons, it’s easier to keep track of various services and opportunities. Unlocking new options and areas adds more icons to the key, so getting used to them takes little effort.
The upgraded inventory
Speaking of icons - how about a glimpse of the current item set from the game?
I recently redrew about 1/3 of them. To those who’ve been following the game since its oldest demo I offer this humble reminder how things used to look like a few years back:
To some encounters, mostly the combat scenes that are not a result of an ambush, I added an option to use the healing potions mid-action. The game keeps track of the possessed potions and reminds the player about them if it sees the PC is currently hurt.
The glossary
I added a classic lore-explaining glossary to the journal. This way, the player can quickly learn about the setting if they feel lost in their journey. After all, it can be difficult to introduce all this information organically in an RPG with this amount of freedom.
As the game grows, I find more ways to make its rules transparent and the events easier to follow. I still have to redesign the quest journal and I hope to simplify some of the rules after I thoroughly test the game in its entirety, but I believe that Roadwarden successfully adapts to its new environment. : )
Thank you for taking a look at this devlog, for your support and kindness! I hope you’ll agree the changes seem promising, and that they explain why the work takes me so long!
See you in the wild, Roadwardens, if you dare!
Until the release of Roadwarden, stay healthy, and stay tuned!
We are featured in the ‚Big Adventure Event 2022‘ by Hitcents and Jordan Taylor
Thanks to Publisher Hitcents and Host Jordan Taylor, we’ll kick off the year with a celebration singularly dedicated to the Adventure genre, and we are happy being part of this amazing event!
🧭 ‚The Big Adventure Event‘ will take place starting January 20th until January 24th on Steam!
Additionally, Roadwarden will get amazing company by Assemble Entertainment! You can also find the following Assemble games being featured during this year's BAE:
Sci-Fi Noir Adventure Lacuna
Cyberpunk adventure ENCODYA
The upcoming text-based RPG Roadwarden
And never missing any party: Larry Laffer and both of his recent Wet Dreams adventures Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry and Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Dry Twice
Mark the date:
The BAE will start January 20 and end on January 24!
Lacuna devs Digitales Interactive will host an exclusive developer livestream on January 23 at 8pm CET.
'Embracing the RPG Side' - Roadwarden Devlog + Demo Update
(Originally posted by Roadwarden Developer Moral Anxiety Studio: https://moral-anxiety.itch.io/roadwarden/devlog/282995/embracing-the-rpg-side-roadwarden-devlog-demo-update)
Greetings, travelers! The new demo (available on Steam within the next 7 days) showcases the massive changes that the game went through over the last year and a half. Better writing, visuals, sounds, UI, mechanics, new activities... I’m so excited to share it.
I also keep adding new areas, dialogues, and quests, and updating the systems that were a part of the game since early 2019. I can say with confidence that Roadwarden IS an RPG now, not just an adventure game with RPG elements. I seek new ways to support the experience of being a lone traveler exploring a dangerous world, balancing these efforts with not making the game too complex.
Massive rewrites
The demo-related parts of the game are now after their second draft. People not experienced with writing may be surprised to learn that this process didn’t add much volume to the text, quite the opposite.
As I grow confident and learn more about English, I convey just as much (or more) information in fewer words. I put more trust in the way I express myself or describe objects, gestures, and places. The game’s illustrations don’t need as much explanation as they used to, and the new ambient sounds also help.
NPCs have more personality and quirks, with much less nodding, head shaking, smirking, and fist-clenching. There are also more role-playing choices and freedom when it comes to playing through various interactions.
Updated Attitudes
Attitudes were among the first ideas introduced to Roadwarden - a set of icons that are active whenever a PC encounters a new character or a group. They open new dialogue options and slightly alter how the protagonist is perceived, unlocking / hiding specific information and / or impacting the mood of the conversation.
The issue was that for 99+% of the playtime they are deactivated, covering a corner of the screen with ugly shades of gray. The “unlocking” animation was easy to miss, and in some cases player simply didn’t notice they had an option to select them.
Now they can’t be omitted as the icons show up only when they’re relevant, and the screen is more tidy. This change also covers the special class skills:
New Armor system
The system of having the Armor on a 1-3 lvl scale has been replaced with a 0-4 scale, and the player doesn’t have to *remember* the status of their Armor since it’s always displayed.
In the old system, lvl 1 gave no advantages, lvl 2 reduced the incoming damage - though usually only once, or slightly. Lvl 3 worked better, but needed a significant investment, and could also be reduced.
In the new system, lvl 0 offers no protection, lvls 1-2 offer slight wound reduction, and lvl 3 offers significant protection. Lvl 4 is locked at the start of the game and can be unlocked in at least two different ways. Fixing armor is much cheaper, but its lvl gets lowered more often.
Lvl 4 now adds a small modifier during combat and other physical challenges. There’s also going to be three NPCs that offers armor-fixing services, instead of one.
The player can decide to save money by purchasing a special item that allows them to fix their armor wherever they are, though they need more time (and experience) to efficiently use it.
Reworked Hunger system
I disliked the original version for a long time. A PC could be either hungry or full. Sleeping while being hungry would reduce their HP by 1 (or they would recover 1 HP less). There was a cosmetic difference between having a simple meal or a luxurious one, but it didn’t mean anything stat-wise, and no matter how satiated the PC was, they would get hungry after every night.
The new system uses the 0-4 scale, just like HP and armor. Sleeping reduces it by 2 and different meals offer customized amounts of Nourishment points. A baked fish or a few fruits will give you 1, a food ration or a simple meal - 2, a luxurious meal - 3 or 4.
Having 0 or 1 Nourishment points won’t “damage” the character while sleeping, instead negating any sort of HP gained during the night - what in most cases is a lighter penalty, but in others is much more severe.
Having no Nourishment points makes physical struggles more challenging, while 3 or 4 points adds bonuses to dice rolls, especially in combat. This way, there’s value in not only avoiding the lower numbers, but also maintaining the higher ones.
Updated combat
For some time now, combat results were linked to various statistics and items. Higher HP or better weapons were the obvious ones, but as the time went on, more details have also been added to the list.
Taking into consideration Nourishment and Armor levels allows a player to plan ahead and prepare themselves before traveling to a dangerous spot, which will often mean spending more time and money. It adds to the previous preparations - improving one’s HP points, gathering information from the locals, and purchasing or finding new equipment.
New Appearance system
Being on a 0-5 scale, the Appearance either hinders interactions with NPCs or allows a PC to get more from them. It adds penalties and bonuses to friendship and reputation levels and alters prices of bought or sold equipment and merchandise, especially one that’s on the pricier side.
The appearance level considers a few factors. The level of cleanliness, the condition of PC’s clothes (which can be either damaged or not), having the outfit covered with blood, and being either strong and healthy, or weak to the point of exhaustion.
There are various ways to wash oneself and adjust one’s clothing, but it takes time. I hope to build a system which encourages players to get familiar with various bodies of water in the game and use them to get nice and tidy even before they reach various settlements, so they can make a better first impression.
There are also items which can be used to manipulate the effectiveness of various cleaning spots.
To unlock the highest possible level of appearance, a PC will have an option to buy a fancy set of clothing. Its price will be reduced by various factors, but in general, it’s meant to be an investment, not an obvious must-have piece of equipment. I also consider giving the fancy outfit (which can be either a tunic, a robe, or a dress) an ability to ignore the regular “torn” or “bloodied” statuses since there’s the understanding that a PC switches between it and a regular outfit depending on where they are.
While the game uses Appearance mostly to influence other numbers, in the future I hope to use it to alter dialogues by giving NPCs small comments on PC’s clothes and, for example, smell.
The core goal of the Appearance system was to give a player more perceptible results of actions that involve dirt and struggles, and to support the idea that a PC can gain an advantage by manipulating others - just as with lying and Attitudes.
Updated Bestiary
It used to be that a PC had to pay a lot of money to unlock the Bestiary during a conversation with a special NPC, but after adding many more creatures to the game it turned out that the player was suddenly hit with a lore dump. In the meantime, various creatures are mentioned by NPCs, rarely giving any explanation on what they even are since, in the game’s logic, a PC should already have a shared knowledge. The new Bestiary, with its “basic” lore, is available from the start of the game, while additional details and tips on how to defeat specific monsters are added during various interactions and conversations. The NPC who used to unlock this section of the game now only speaks about the new stuff, making their tales brief and to the point.
Visual updates
Every time I’m convinced I’m done with it, I find new ways to update the game’s presentation. I started with taking to heart the criticisms of the game’s title screen:
It made the original random quotes appearing at the top of the screen too jarring, so I moved them to a special box that appears whenever the game is launched. They can also be turned off in the game’s settings.
The more advanced menu changes are difficult to show. In general, the sections now properly fade in and out, gently shifting between various modes instead of using rapid transitions.
Some traveling illustrations were altered. They rarely use the world map icons, now more often using cute little pictures that I love beyond logic:
And since it was important to keep PC’s mana points displayed at all times, I found a way to present the character class skills as a part of the UI, even though the “Attitude icons” are now gone.
I also added a silly splash screen to make it clear that the game is launching. It helps me during development, but there’s a chance I’ll remove it before the full release.
Working on the vocabulary (part 2)
Another SPICY set of game’s world updates. : P This time related not so much to spirituality and magic, as it is to the setting’s politics. The game’s fantasy setting, Viaticum, has finally received a massive update! (nerd alert)
the city -> Hovlavan (a butchered version of Hebrew words standing for “White Coast”)
As the game got larger, keeping the city’s name vague was getting more and more awkward. I also added Hovlavan to the journal, gathering any city-related details that the player either discovers during their journey or sets as “facts” whenever they are asked about it by NPCs.
Empire (the state) -> The Ten Cities
Empire (the land) -> The Dragonwoods
province capitals -> cities
townsfolk -> cityfolk
Imperials -> cityfolk (loyalists to The Ten Cities), the Northerners, the Northern Tribes
Middle Mountains -> The Growing Mountains
There were also other changes, but let’s keep them a secret. ^^
Other advancements
The new alchemy system for scholars was recently reworked for the 3rd time, and I believe each version is an improvement.
The new fishing system allows the players to gain an unreliable source of fish (which can be baked for food or sold to some NPCs) by setting up traps at various bodies of water, which then can be checked on during PC’s patrols. I wouldn’t call this a minigame, but these tiny interactions add both to the “living off the land” vibe and to the “getting used to the familiar roads” progression.
The new settings now take a bit of scrolling, but explain things clearer:
The temporary notifications that show up on the screen are now added to the game’s Archive. Both the small textboxes and the stats-change animations:
The game’s Credits are now prettier:
I’ve learned how to use the custom saves outside of the player’s view, so the “respawn” options are now bug-free:
In general, I keep learning how to properly use Ren’Py, so I turn blocks of code into more convenient, automated processes, hopefully making them more reliable.
---------------------------------
Thank you for taking a look at this devlog, for your support and kindness. I think it was a good one, even if a bit long. You can also find me on socials, and the game the game has Steam and GOG pages on which you can add it to your wishlist. Have a great day! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/
Assemble Unveils First Details Ahead of Gamescom 2021 Participation!
Today, we are happy to announce our presence at Gamescom 2021, the world’s largest video game industry expo. Besides many great new titles from the Assemble portfolio, Roadwarden will be present!
As an official partner of Gamescom, we will present our current portfolio of indie titles, including two world premiere unveilings.
The entire Assemble Entertainment line-up will be available in the Gamescom Now content hub and two popular titles will participate in the Indie Arena Booth 2021.
More details will be revealed on August 25, 2021, including all official Gamescom streams, events, and panels that we will participate in.
If you are part of, or own a media, or you are an influencer/content creator and are interested in our upcoming games, please feel free reaching out to us via press@assembleteam.com
View the complete list of Assemble Entertainment’s Gamescom 2021 Line-up:
Unannounced Title (3D- Action Adventure/Zelda-like) by TinyRoar
Unannounced Title (Text-Adventure) by RobotPumpkin Studios
Endzone – World Apart: Prosperity by Gentlymad Studios
For the latest news and updates about our titles, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, “like” us on Facebook, and join our official Assemble Discord server.
