First of all we want to start with a big Thanks to all of you who have supported us so far. All the feedback and comments that we have received since yesterday when we launched the game are the best boost for the team who has been working hard all this period to deliver the game.
We have a quick update for you regarding some bug reports that we received. We are currently working on fixing all the reported issues and there is a new patch planned to be released on Monday that will solve several of these bugs. Below is the list of the main fixes that the patch will include, for your reference. In case you encounter any other issues, please let us know in the comments below.
Also, we are aware of the problems with the Chinese localization. We are very sorry about it and we are working on correcting it as soon as possible.
我们已经意识到中文翻译中存在的问题。我们感到非常抱歉并且会尽快修正。
Character creator issue - seems like it shows English until hovering any stat. Removed dummy text
Video subtitles, while selecting the language there is an option to show subtitles as well
Look at pop-up display time for Chinese will also be fixed
Thank you!
Cthulhu awakes from his endless slumber and raises from beyond the veil!
Cult Brethren!
The moment you all have been waiting for is finally here! Cthulhu has finally awakened from his endless slumber and raises from beyond the veil! Stygian is now officially out!
We are extremely happy to share with you what we have been working on and losing our minds over. Now it's your time to open your mind, embrace madness and delve into the city of Arkham.
We mentioned it before but we must mention it again. Thank you for all your support through the years. It has been a long and difficult journey for us but we loved every single second of it. Stygian for us is a dream come true and we hope that you will enjoy what we prepared for you :) We will not keep you any longer as the doomed journey awaits.... But before you, go take a moment and watch a launch trailer that will get you into the mood for what awaits!
[previewyoutube="TIf2coOset8;full"]
Are you ready to take this forsaken journey? Release time revealed!
We are just one day away from the launch!
Are you ready to take this forsaken journey? There is no going back from this road...
Here is the exact time when you can start your journey (if you are up to it):
10am PT/7pm CEST
City:
London - 6pm New York - 1pm Moscow - 8pm Warsaw - 7pm Tokyo - 2am (27th of September) Beijing - 1am (27th of September) Los Angeles - 10am Rio de Janeiro - 2pm Istanbul - 8pm Prague - 7pm Berlin - 7pm Madrid - 7pm
UPDATE 4 - A Detailed Look at Character Creation and Inventory
We greet you, Blessed of The All-Seeing Ones
You can't imagine how pleased the Old Ones are to see you all gathered around the altar that bear the unimaginable likeless of their immortal aspects. Bang the drums brethren, so they shall resonate to the primordial rhythms of all time and universe and thus precipitate The Awakening, to whose advent we shall dance madly till we shed all that we inherited from that pestiferous thing called “humanity”.
In this update we'd like to offer a brief introduction to character creation. Let’s take a peek at our demonstrative clip:
[previewyoutube="nFP2httGzmc;full"]
Character Creation consists of the following steps:
0. Indoctrination (Optional)
This is the step you say good-bye to your loved ones, shut all your doors and windows, fanatically repeat your "Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh" prayers and fast for weeks until you remove the last traces of your current identity.
1. Gender Selection
The horrors of Stygian do not discriminate based on your character’s gender.
2. Age Selection
In Stygian your character's age is not just a cosmetic element. It plays two important roles. First, your age changes your starting statistics, second it changes the reaction of the world to your character.
[OUT OF TUNE SINGING] I know what it is to be young but you don't know what it is...
3. Archetype Selection
Jungian archetypes or Stygian archetypes?
This where you select your Archetype and its related background. You can have more information on Stygian's archetypes from our campaign page here.
4. Belief System Selection
Think like your character, act like your character.
As you probably know, Belief Systems determine how your character gains her lost sanity in the doomed Arkham along with providing you new ways to role-play your character. You can have more information on them here.
5. Portrait Selection and Character Identity
You'll be able to choose the portraits of some Stygian backers. Devoted cultists they are...
All of our portraits will be available to both genders.
6. Stat Allocation
Please roll three six sided die and write the results to the back of your character sheet.
This is the step you finally get into the fantastic world of numbers and shape your character's attributes and skills according to your taste. Only the skills your background contributes to can exceed 2 points at this stage.
7. Character Summary
At this final step, you'll be able to have a look at all your choices one last time and make the necessary changes if the need arises.
Now let's look at the inventory system that we've designed meticulously to serve the needs and conveniences of the player.
Let's start with a video showcasing the system, and then talk more about its features and our design approach.
[previewyoutube="rrlcfVUgjhQ;full"]
Stygian's inventory consists of the following sections:
Paper Doll - shows all the items the player currently has equipped, including weapons, outfits, artifacts, a backpack and things of that sort. We are pretty sensitive about customization and aim to display the player's choices with as many visual representations as possible. We're also designing unique models for special items such as rare weapons and gadgets. We are keenly aware of the fact that we RPG players love to play with our dolls, preferably voodoo dolls...
Equip your character, in style...
Statistics - shows almost all of the secondary statistics which affect combat and exploration. Potential effects of the items will be displayed as a tool-tip in the form of colored numeric modifiers.
We haven't forgotten you Min-Max scholars
Party inventory- shows all items in the party's possession. Stygian uses a shared inventory system so you won't need to spend time shifting carried items from one character to another. Less item management, more black magic, count us in!
Did we tell you that we're also fans of adventure games?
Item category tabs - grant easy access to all the items you'll need to prolong your hopeless struggle against the shapeless horrors of the abyss. Tabs are divided into the following categories: Weapons and ammo, outfits, consumables, tools and gadgets, artifacts, books and tomes, quest-related items, miscellaneous, and of course the favorites tab, which can be customized by the player.
Quick items - allows you to set certain items to be instantly available during combat and exploration. Don't forget to add your favorite smokes to one of the quick item slots. Cigarettes are essential for reducing stress but remember not to smoke them all because the Cigs have become Arkham's rising currency!
As you can see, we tried to build upon the inventory features typical of western role playing games while balancing convenience and thematic flavor. We also chose to use larger icons for our items in order to include more detail, increase immersion, and show off the efforts of our talented artists.
Until we meet again in the filthy corridors of Arkham Sanitarium.
Team Cultic
The Black Day is Almost Here: Release and the Rewards
Greetings Brethren!
I know this sounds absurd (it definitely does to us!) but Stygian will be out in 3 days...
First of all, we want to send our deepest gratitude for all the patience you have shown towards us through these long years.
We sincerely hope that we were able to create something that was worth the wait. I personally know that each cultist in this team did his / her utmost best in the creation of Stygian. We fought really hard to fulfill all the promises that we made in our campaign, from the Explorer archetype to the Dreamlands quest.
I'd like to share some insight on the scope of the game as well. When I first wrote the script of Stygian, I wasn't aware that its scope would actually be much wider in terms of the playtime than what we envisioned for Reign of the Old Ones. The complete saga that I had written would have lasted around 50 hours to complete but we were trying to achieve a 15-20 hours experience with a lot of re-playability. At some point in the production, I was obliged to make a tough decision (like any good RPG): rushing the last chapter, breaking the pace of the game or complete it on a cliffhanger and leave some space for future installments.
Stygian is not a short game and it definitely can not be categorized as episodic, since it is teeming with content; but I have to state that we won't be solving all the mysteries at the end of this game. Going the other way would have spoiled some really good scenes, characters and situations for the sake of having just a closure. For better or for worse, I thought you needed to know that.
"And under the hoods they fixeth the bugs."
Now on the rewards, everything is ready except the Special Edition Game Tome DVDs. They are patiently waiting for the gold master copy to get printed. We will start shipping all the rewards together and your precious packages will start leaving us right with the release. We'll have completed sharing your game keys by then, so you can enjoy the game while waiting for your atrocious packages to arrive.
Brethren, we'd like to thank you all for giving us this chance and for being a part of the blackened ritual called Stygian. Forgive us for our faults and wish us good-bye for the journey into the unknown that is ahead of us.
It was an unforgettable experience to build something out of just a fragile dream.
But didn't Mr. Lovecraft take a lot of his inspiration from dreams as well?
Until we meet again in the Dreamlands.
Can Oral
Creative Director
Team Cultic
Price revealed - 24.99€ | $29.99!
⚠️Breaking news⚠️
For 24.99€ | $29.99 + 15 % launch discount you will be granted access to the city of Arkham and to the depths of Abyss! Just be careful as this journey is doomed...
Are you ready to open your mind to Stygian and break down the barriers of reality? September 26th is approaching fast!
just like last year we will be once again at Gamescom presenting Stygian to you'll. We are bringing with us some very cool merch that we will be giving away there so make sure to stop by our booth, grab a drink, play the game, win some merch and chat with us :)
Hall 10.1, Booth A20!
Looking forward to see you there!
UPDATE 3 - A Detailed look at Travelling, Darkness and more!
We hail you, Worshipper of The Interminable Desolation
Here we are once again with new macabre tales that are invoked from the realms of endless depravity, where we are cooking the deliciously loathsome meal called Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones. Let's start our journey through the endless bleakness without further ado.
Here in this update, we'd like to start off by talking about how one can travel this damned world of ours.
The map system is an important aspect of Stygian which adds another layer of gameplay to the experience, supported also by some basic survival systems built around it. Whether it's a must-go destination of a quest stage, specific hub or the location of a random encounter, all points of interest in a given instance will be displayed in the maps of the game.
There are two kinds of maps in the game: Area Maps and the Regional Map. A good example of an Area Map is the map of downtown Arkham, which displays various hubs within the downtown area. These hubs will be accessed manually, through regular means of travelling in the exploration screen.
The Downtown Area Map with four different hubs which the party can travel to.
Then there is the Regional Map, which shows the landmarks and hubs in the greater area of the game world. The party is able to travel long distances in the regional map, but in order to do that, the player must acquire the necessary information pertaining to the location and content of those landmarks.
The Regional Travel Map has several features like text log, which displays information that's relevant to all map events and the condition of party members. Other indicators include Kerosene meter (showing how much source for illumination you have left), Health bar, Sanity bar, Resource panel and finally; Rest and Halt buttons.
Here's how the Regional Travel Map looks like during a journey through the suburbs.
There are two types of map encounters: Obligatory and Random. Obligatory encounters are derived from quests and appear at a certain stage during quest progression. Random encounters on the other hand, as their name implies, will appear to the player through other variables and luck plays a big factor. The random encounters might take place as one of the many battle scenarios or as challenges in the style of a "choose your adventure" game, where the player will utilize its skills and stats through the selection of various dialogue options.
Next up on our unwholesomely nourishing recipe, we have some systems that we believe should make the game striking, if not unique among its peers.
Darkness Mechanics
Darkness itself will be one of your adversaries in Stygian. In a dimension without sunlight you'll be needing the company of your good old lantern more often than not and of course this will come at the expense of your precious Kerosene.
If you find yourself in darkness without a light source you'll start losing sanity. If you enter a combat scenario without a party member carrying a light source you'll have serious disadvantages against enemies (especially the ones that can see in the dark; such as Pickman ghouls).
There are two levels of darkness in Stygian: Dark and Pitch-black. Pitch black represents a supernatural level of darkness that drains your sanity, even while holding a light source. Please note that we are not responsible for the strange visions you may see in pitch-black environments. Blame your own dark past for it...
Item Comparison
Are you among those who like to min-max your combat potential? Do you find yourself comparing every little stat out there to maximize the pain you'll induce to your enemies? Then this system is for you! (You'll die anyway...)
Whenever you check the statistics of a weapon, you'll be able to see which stats are higher or lower than your currently equipped weapons, thanks to green and red coloured indicators.
If you like a deeper comparison, you can always see the stats of your equipped weapon with a simple right click and examine both items' properties in detail.
Lastly, let's heed the call of the irrepressible voice that only gets louder with each passing minute in this extra-dimensional asylum. Lo and behold: The Madness Mechanics.
As we emphasized before, sometimes it helps to be mad in a world gone mad!
Mania
Increases Action Points but gives the character a small chance to lose control and attack the nearest enemy unit in combat.
Paranoia
Increases Reaction but gives the character a small chance to attack an ally in combat.
Schizophrenia
Increases Mental Resistance but gives the character a small chance to enter a catatonic state and lose a combat round.
Psychopathy
Increases Critical Chance but gives the character a small chance to lose a certain amount of Sanity after killing a foe.
Until the next update cult brethren!
Continue dreaming the glorious fall.
Team Cultic
Cthulhu will rise from beyond the veil on September 26!
We salute you, Cult Brethren who impatiently wait for our eternal doom!
A date is set finally set for your visit of the town of Arkham. Mark September 26 in your calendars and start preparing your mind for the horrors lurking in the shadows. Please be warned that once Stygian wraps its tentacles around you, there is no going back...
Check out a trailer put together to celebrate that we finally know the day when the eternal doom arrives:
https://youtu.be/o-YaWAaJVd8
We also set a price that your visit will cost - $29.99 USD (24.99 EUR) and of course your soul (if you still have one).
Lasty we will be at Gamescom this year showing the game to both press and public. If you are attending, don't be a stranger and let's talk eternal abyss.
