A turn-based tactical game about assembling an expedition deep underground- adventuring, exploring and fighting hostile denizens of the underworld along the way set in a medieval fantasy world without magic.
Background Story
Ages ago, two vastly different civilizations made for unlikely allies, the people of Wesnor, with their large and powerful armies, a shining beacon of military might and the Gaians, brilliant inventors and engineers who lived far below the earth.
As their kingdoms traded and cooperated, Wesnor grew and expanded, and the Gaians gained knowledge and resources they could never have access to otherwise. Together, they stood firm against many foes and disasters.
However, tensions grew when the Gaians discovered the forbidden and heretical secret of immortality. Trade has stopped, and in time, the path to their world was sealed.
But now there are rumors of a strange plague… a pestilent calamity that threatens to destroy our kingdom of Wesnor. And thus, five hundred years after the sealing of the underworld, with no other choice, the king and his royal council have created the Netherguild, a guild for exploring far underground in the hopes of finding some sort of solution or cure from our ancient allies.
Gameplay Details
In Netherguild you command an expedition with the goal of going far underground in your search for the ancient kingdom of Gaia- which means commanding different characters with different skills or specializations, interacting with certain objects or people of interests along the way, fighting together and feasting alongside your companions around bonfires.
Netherguild features turn-based gameplay, somewhat inspired by games like XCom, Darkest Dungeon and Battle for Westnoth. What makes it unique is it’s focus on resource management, randomly generated levels, isometric perspective, comprehensive background system with different character personalities and skills, and the fact it ditches chance based combat for its own type of strategy- where your abilities are certain but the terrain and enemy composition aren’t.
Key Features
- Turn based combat that gets more intense the further you delve.
- Oddities: Different oddities you encounter underground will present you with various choices that may affect your expedition and the game world at large.
- Bonfires & Food: Construct campfires underground, rest and eat next to them. The food items you consume affect your guild members and the rest of your expedition, with passive effects, permanent changes and more.
- Roguelite with Persistence and Story: Keep your characters at the end of each expedition (if they survive), equip them with powerful items and level them up over time. Netherguild’s story progresses the more you explore and find out about the secrets of its world.
- Replay Value: Random equipment, random character backgrounds with different skills each playthrough and procedurally generated levels every time you descend underground mean that playthroughs feel different every time.
- Original fantasy world: Low fantasy with no magic, but not grimdark!
- Cute & Unique Voxel Aesthetic
Planned features: - A lot of different areas to explore filled to the bream with story, adventures and different enemies to fight!
- Additional classes and more randomly generated loot for further customization.
- Different factions which provide bonuses for allying with them and consequences for angering them.
About The Developer
Netherguild is developed by David Vinokurov, a solo indie dev from Israel. Before Netherguild he gained development experience while working as a freelancer for a few years on games and various small projects like his later world map generator.
David has been developing Netherguild since January 2018.
In his free time David runs tabletop RPG games for his friends (think D&D), in which wild and unspeakable shenanigans occur.
Release date & platforms
Netherguild will launch in Steam Early Access for PC & Linux, in Q3-4 2022!
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