Dust Scratch Games is proud to announce its next project: True King, a hand-painted 3D turn-based strategy RPG, due for release on PC platforms in 2017.

Yes, I just released this trailer yesterday in the middle of the night. It’s been a little over 24 hours now, and only about 50 views on YouTube despite Reddit and Twitter links. Not a good sign compared to previous videos.

And it’s probably for the best, I’d rather push for more attention when a better representation is ready. This video was a little rushed: the animated character was only done a few weeks ago, and the environment you see was only started on in September. The trees look a little weird, the castle a little flat. On the other hand, it looks a little more interesting than the non-existent environments of my previous games, and only time will tell if I make big changes to what is seen in the video.

The music is also a little more awkward than previous trailers, because I made it myself rather than hiring a better-suited artist for the sound. This time around, I’ll try to keep the game a limited project, hoping I can put funds to better use in the future. Even still, the music in this trailer was made in a couple days, I hope I can do better with in-game music later on.

I’ll reveal more about the game when more is ready in the next few months. For now, let’s say I’m inspired by games like Fire Emblem and the Tales Of franchise, and the game will have a open-world that lets you explore the kingdom and find towns to “free” in turn-based strategy combat maps. The animation system has been updated in a new way that expands the research I’ve been doing (a new blog post will explain in detail soon), and my Master’s thesis AI research will be put to use in a subtle way. As best I can, I will try to make the game look like a painting in motion, in a way more literal than most other films/games ever reach.

It’s been over a year since my last game was released, and this is how far I’ve come… ah, well. 2017 gives me a twelve-month window, but the sooner the better. My first two games were definitely rushed for the worse, I’ll try not to do that this time, but properly announcing the game publically will help drive me to make more progress.

More information can be found at http://king.fromdustscratch.com/ .