Way back in that forgotten year of 2011, I discovered an indie CRPG by the name of Frayed Knights: Skull of S’makh-Daon. While it looked *very* indie and had a funny name, I found myself attracted to the turn-based Wizardry-esque gameplay after only a few minutes within it. The charming characters, the snappy dialog, the humor, the deep combat system, the challenge…it was a lot more complex than the typical indie games you were seeing back four years ago. I always felt the creator deserved to hop onto this recently constructed gravy train of indie success and wondered if he’d ever dip his toe into Steam or Kickstarter.
Well, looks like he has done the former, since Frayed Knights is now on Steam.
Boasting lots of modern-age achievements and a very affordable price for such a complex 20+ hour CRPG ($10, I paid 20 back in the day), Frayed Knights’ sales will go towards the creation of the sequel, which is slated to be the second part of what is eventually going to be a trilogy.
For those like me who wonder if anything about the game has changed or improved in the last three years, his blog goes into detail about what’s different in this new release:
- The changes are small, but (IMO) significant:
* Change to the Search skill. When there is a hidden treasure within range of the skill, you will get a message to that effect even on a failed check – just no indication of range. There is no change to searching for traps.
* Weapons with spell effects on impact (for example, the Spear of Concussion and the Axe of Fiery Microdoom) now may cost additional stamina when the spell effect lands. These are generally pretty low-level spells so the endurance cost isn’t major, but it does help balance out the otherwise quite impressive effects of these weapons.
* The Endurance cost modifier for the Demotivate spell has been increased from 3 to 4.
* Fixed a bug when attempting to cast directly from a scroll onto a friendly party member – the casting dialog would sometimes have scrambled information.
* Some minor dialog changes, mainly for typos.
I suspect that the change to search will be the most well-received, with the average response being something to the effect of, “It’s about time!”
His aforementioned blog is an excellent place to learn about the history of the CRPG genre and see what the brainstorming process is like for an up-and-coming indie developer. I’ve been reading it for years and find myself often sharing many of the same views he expresses in his posts. If you feel the same, then take advantage of the 15% off launch sale for Frayed Knights on Steam and help fund his next project.
