"Pampas", the sequel of Maze of Galious

Dear reader,

A few months ago Nenefranz (Zombie Incident and Who Dares Wins 2) and I started to work on a MSX2 sequel of the mythical "Maze of Galious".

As this sequel has no title yet, we internally call it "Pampas".

Synopsis

35 years after Popolon and Aphrodite defeated the evil Galious, ten demons invaded the castle cursing everything inside.

Pampas and Selene, children of Popolon and Aphrodite, are the ones who have to defeat all 10 demons in order to free the castle from their dark influence and bring the peace back.

Features

The game itself is based on "the Maze of Galious", having a huge castle to explore, a lot of items to find, 10 worlds and 10 demons to defeat. We didn't want to do a different game, but something similar to what we enjoyed when we were children.

Although the base is the same, you'll notice some differences in this sequel:

Main characters

The heroes are Pampas and Selene (instead of Popolon and Aphrodite). Pampas is a warrior (like his father) that will use his weapons against his enemies. Selene, his younger sister, is a sorcerer who will use her magic.

Unlike MoG, Pampas and Selene have different gameplay. They won't use the same type of attacks. Each character has his/her own way to face adversity and will prove better or worse before certain enemies, demons or even the type of room.

Inventory

"Pampas" has an amount of items slightly bigger than MoG, and a F1 inventory where the player can select the character to play with (Pampas - Selene).

The weapon selection is gone. In "Pampas" all weapons and magic are used directly from the keyboard (by pressing a specific key for each one). Thanks to this feature, the player will be able to use the most appropriate spell in each moment without having to enter the inventory and change them.

Besides, the player can navigate on all items, reading their descriptions and finding out what are they for without drawin on the instruction manual.

The inventory also shows the map of the world we're it.

Doors

Instead of spending a key to open a door, the player will just need the item "key". Once it's found, all doors will be open without the need to farm keys.

Worlds

Like in MoG, worlds are spread all over the castle. 

As the goal of the game is to defeat all 10 demons, the player will be able to enter any world and defeat the demon inside in any order. However, some worlds will need an item you won't have at the beginning of the game.

Tombstones

In MoG we used an augmentation glass on tombstones to search for the name of the demon we wanted to invoke. This works different in "Pampas". The name of the demon is divided into 8 symbols. They are all hidden within tombstones spread in the world. By destroying those tombstones the symbols will be freed. Once we have all 8 symbols, the name of the demon will be materialized in our mind, being able to invoke it.

But, those symbols can only exist in their world. If we go back to the castle, they will be erased from our memory. So, we'll have to find them all in a row without returning to the castle or die. Once we have the name of the demon, we no longer will need to search for them.

Current status of the game

Nowadays (29th Dec 2020) we have a PC version (that simulates the game on a MSX2) working with the whole castle done, all 10 worlds, all enemies, items, weapons and all 10 demons working.

We have Néstor Sancho (Stevedore) and César (Guindako) testing the game for us. 

We're also finishing some graphics still to be done (demons, and some enemies)

Last but not least, we still have to do the sound stuff (still don't know if music will be PSG or SCC) and the non-game part (like the main title, intro and ending).

Publishing

It's still too soon to have an exact date, and the current COVID crisis makes it even more uncertain, but we'd like to release the game in the next RUMSX.

The game will need a large ROM, that are more expensive, so the game will cost 40€ to 45€.

Other platforms

For those who don't own a MSX2 and can't enjoy the game in its original version, we're planning to launch a PC/Switch version later. Besides playing it like in an MSX2, it will include the chance to play it in a local cooperative mode with Pampas and Selene at the same time.

Other Galious-like projects

We're aware that Santi Ontañón started "the Maze of Galious 2" project and that he will finish it eventually. In order to prevent any conflict between both projects, we did a story that takes place further in the future. Who know, maybe with the release of "Pampas" Santi will encourage and continue working on his MoG2. ;-)

There's also an incoming patch that brings the original MoG into MSX2. In our case, as all graphics (heroes, monsters, scenarios) are new instead of a porting of the original ones, it won't have any conflict with this patch too.

Your oppinion

The game design is not closed. Our will is to ask for the opinions of fans from MoG about some aspects like gameplay, graphics and others. Besides, we'd like to receive proposals and wishes from the community, and answer any question you may have.

The goal is to create a "Pampas" as close as possible to the game we all wish.

We're doing our best, and we're doing it with great enthusiasm.

Thank you for your lecture!

UPDATE 24th April 2021

The porting of the game to MSX assembler started a couple of months ago. 

So far the following stuff have already been inserted and are already working in the MSX version:

- the entire castle and worlds

- Pampas is moving and attacking

- quests

- shrines and shops

- inventory screen and castle map screen

- top UI

- around 10 types of enemies.

Besides, Gryzor87 (the composer of the OST) has already started to create the SCC versions of the themes for the game.

So, we can say that the development is progressing quite well.

Still to do in the MSX version: 

- Selene and her attacks

- insert the rest of enemies (there are A LOT)

- bosses

- main menu

- intro and ending of the game

- all sound effects.

UnMetal and the Publishers

Greetings my dearest players,

It's been already a month since UnMetal was supposed to come out on Steam. I'm really sorry for that, and I'm going to explain the reason to you:

VISIBILITY

7 years ago, when Unepic was released, Steam was a digital store where everyone learned about your game. Only 6 new games were released every week. Publishing a game was enough to let everyone know about it, let the magazines talk about it, and have a decent number of sales.

After the removal of Steam's selection filters such as GreenLight, and the massive usage of Unity, a big amount of games started to come out. Nowadays, the average of new release on Steam is 20 games every single day. 

As a result, we now have a massive saturation of indie videogames that makes visibility barely impossible. Anything published on Steam is practically unseen. Just publishing is no longer enough. In fact, the 80% of games on Steam barely have any sale. Not because they're not good, but because nobody gets to know them.

STEAM SUMMER FESTIVAL

To help incoming videogames, Steam created a "demo festival" with the purpose of grant some visibility to those games through their demos. UnMetal participated in order to take advantage of this opportunity. The demo was going to be known and played!

The outcome of that demo festival was a disaster. It was so overcrowded with demos that even people who was searching for UnMetal on purpose were unable to find it. People wrote me asking why UnMetal was not there.

What it was supposed to be a festival to help indie games with no marketing was nothing but a reflection of the main store: games with a lot of whishlists were forever on the main page of that festival in the featured list the whole week, while other games kept buried without a chance of being features a few hours to be known by players.

Besides, technical problems made the situation worse. In my case the demo was visible 24 hours later and, no matter how I insisted, I was never Fable to broadcast my game. In the end I had to broadcast from Youtube instead of Steam losing any advantage from the store.

CHANGING COURSE

I was aware that if I didn't invest on marketing, UnMetal was going to be sold in Spain, but it would be unknown abroad.

Then, on June, one of the best indie publishers contacted me. They told me they liked the demo, and they would possibly publish it.

It was just what I was looking for! That was the great marketing campaign I needed. I accepted. For the first time in my life I was going to launch a game through a top publisher instead of publishing it by myself.

THINGS GRIND SLOWLY

We kept in contact on June and July, asking me for material and information. They wrote me every 2 weeks to ask something to me. In the end, at the end of August, they told me that after dwelling and debating it internally, they were not going to publish it.

That was so sad. Not only I lost that great publisher but also wasted two months.

THE SEARCH FOR A PUBLISHER

Due to that fact, I pitched the game to the 5 top indie publishers and 15 days later, 3 of them replied telling me that they were interested on it. They loved UnMetal. That were great news!

After spending the end of September and October talking to them, I'm now about to make a deal with the one I consider is the best.

I'd loved to make an agreement before, but dealing with companies is sometimes slow. Every step was followed with a week of waiting. But looks like this is about to reach a happy end.

I wanted to have the publishing stuff sorted out, so I could tell who is going to publish UnMetal. But as this is taking longer than expected and we're already a month late, I have decided to explain to you all why UnMetal did not come out in October as it was scheduled.

THE MARKETING CAMPAIGN

All publishers I talked to have something in common: they need at least 3 months to carry out their marketing campaigns before the game is published. That means that, unfortunately, UnMetal won't come out before February or March 2021.

Good news are that all versions (PC, Switch, XBOX y PS4) will be released at the same time, no consoles won't have to wait longer.

And that's my story of today. Thanks for reading!