Walthros: Renewal - Now available

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Walthros: Renewal - Now available

Post by The Wobbler »

We're live!!

Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1317 ... s_Renewal/
Itch.io - https://super-walrus-games.itch.io/walthros-renewal

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Trailers:
Walthros: Renewal Trailer - Embark -
Walthros: Renewal Trailer - Watching TV -

It's time to go back to where it all began. Renewal is a full remake/reimagining of the original Walthros and is intended for release in 2022, the 20th anniversary of the DOS release of the original title. This new title will take the characters and themes of the original game and give them a new twist, introducing a world that's both familiar and new to players who enjoyed the original game. This is a story intended for both newcomers and people who played the first Walthros and will feature traditional turn-based RPG game play with a variety of selectable difficulty levels.

- Story -

Walthros is a world filled with floating fish, dashing dinosaurs, and suave seals, creatures with culture not so different from our own but in a world conspicuously devoid of human beings. Renewal follows two parallel stories: In the modern day we follow Bob, a Walthrosian Fish working as an excavator at dig sites unearthing old artifacts for his boss, archeologist Dr. Pescado. Bob unearths a piece of machinery that broke off of an ancient vessel thousands of years ago and gives him glimpses into the past where another story shows us a desperate battle for the survival.

- Characters -

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Many of the original Walthros characters return, but the playable cast has been cut down from 18 to a more unique set of 10 heroes, each with their own specialization. Some characters are entirely new, and some are very different takes on the existing cast. While there will be a handful of additional, temporary party members and familiar faces playing NPC roles, Renewal's story focuses on this core set of 10. Here are a few of our lead characters:

Bob - Fish. Curious and kind but absent-minded. Bob is an excavator working for archeologist Dr. Pescado. Mostly focused on making ends meet and having a good time, Bob becomes more and more fixated on solving the mysteries of his world after he makes contact with a strange relic. He's the party's healer. Fights using a staff.

Salom - Seal. Close friends with Bob, Salom is a private detective having trouble finding clients lately. Would love to be a singer, but he's not very good at it. Joins up with Bob early in the game. He fights with a lance and can dive on enemies from above. Uses physical attack skills.

Suwanee - Goose. Lives on the fringes of the town of Bayswater. Suwanee is a gothy goose who shows extreme loyalty to her friends and family. She works at a convenience store. Uses knives and is the party's primary debuffer. Can poison enemies.

Amber - Frog. A member of a tribe of swamp witches, Amber kept her town safe during an apocalyptic event by using illusionary magic to hide it from the rest of the world. Uses hexes to cause status effects and summons powerful monsters. Her summon spells have charge times.

- Design -

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The game's flow is broken into four acts, with each chapter of the story opening the world up in larger ways. There will be no random encounters and players will be able to save at any time. In the early game, the party will be predetermined by the story, but later on players will be free to build their own parties. There will be a series of extensive side stories to help flesh out each party member and to put together odd pairings of personalities.

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The game features a traditional looking world map, but without any encounters. There are plenty of places to explore and find hidden goodies!

Graphics, writing, and game design by Paul Harrington. Music by Mr. 8bit.
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Post by Mogri »

It looks fantastic so far. What's your distribution plan? Are you putting it on Steam again?
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Post by Nathan Karr »

I am absolutely looking forward to this. Walthros still holds up some but you've definitely learned a lot and the engine has grown so many new and powerful features in the meantime that this remake is going to be well worth it.

Some of my favorite playable characters are probably going to be absent, but culling the cast is absolutely a good move. I look forward to meeting the newcomers as well, since your character writing always shines so brightly.
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Post by The Wobbler »

Mogri wrote:It looks fantastic so far. What's your distribution plan? Are you putting it on Steam again?
Thanks! Focus will be on Steam, I'm not sure if I'll bother with a mobile release this time.
Nathan Karr wrote:I am absolutely looking forward to this. Walthros still holds up some but you've definitely learned a lot and the engine has grown so many new and powerful features in the meantime that this remake is going to be well worth it.

Some of my favorite playable characters are probably going to be absent, but culling the cast is absolutely a good move. I look forward to meeting the newcomers as well, since your character writing always shines so brightly.
Thank you, and assuming you mean the mice most of them are in the game but in non-playable roles. Two of them are important to the story.
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Post by The Wobbler »

Amber: First draft for the frog witch.
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Post by TMC »

Wow, a full remake, not just another spinoff! Just a week or two ago Nathan was talking about Walthros and Walthrus and I realised it's been about 15 years since I played it; I feel motivated to revisit some of those old games. Was one of my favourite OHR games back then especially because of the detailed story. The remake will be good, I'm sure.

Also a week ago I happened to notice that you'd created a entry on CP for the Walthros remake already 15 years go. Didn't think I'd see it :)
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Haha, this is the third attempt at this project, but this time I actually think I'm going to finish it. That one from 2004 was really terrible and got abandoned quickly. I'll update it to link to this post instead.
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Post by The Wobbler »

Some dudes
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Post by TMC »

This looks like a very light-hearted game, or else Bob's grin is excessively silly!
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Post by The Wobbler »

Suwanee: First draft. A gothy goose who uses knives. This one needs more work, but here's her general concept. She was first introduced in Surlaw Armageddon in 2004; I went back and replayed it and it is utterly terrible!
TMC wrote:This looks like a very light-hearted game, or else Bob's grin is excessively silly!
I'd say more light-hearted than the original game, but also more bitter? At the very least, more thematically coherent.
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Post by Nathan Karr »

The Wobbler wrote: Thank you, and assuming you mean the mice most of them are in the game but in non-playable roles. Two of them are important to the story.
Strangely my favorites only included two of the mice (Blueberry and Rice), but also included Dinosaur Giant and Sombra (it's been a few years, I'm remembering the moon-dwelling samurai cat's name right, right?). Sombra was more "Cats and samurai are cool" for me than anything else since being one of the endgame characters he didn't have much time or space to get a lot of characterization.

There were a lot of characters I strongly gravitated to but for each one of those, there was generally at least one more who didn't have room narratively or whose gameplay features just didn't quite gel. I'm currently running on the assumption that Dinosaur Triple will, like the mice, be relegated to a non-playable role if present at all; this, I feel, is a very wise decision.

I can even spell out a list of what characters I remember from the original Walthros sorted into tiers. (Sometimes the Walthrus corruption was so funny it made me like a character more just because of association with them making me laugh in other games.)

Looking forward to seeing how Amber and Suwanee feel in the remake; I didn't play Surlaw: Armageddon so the latter will be a completely new character to me. I also really like the change of Bob from a sword guy to a staff guy - feels more fitting in a way, like in the original he used a sword more or less because he was the main character?
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Post by The Wobbler »

Eli and Alana: Two companions who will keep Bob safe in the earliest parts of his adventures. They're excited for a chance to experience a real adventure!

Dr. Pescado: Bob’s boss, Eli's dad. Spends his time researching artifacts Bob recovers. A reasonably nice guy, but doesn’t pay Bob quite as well as he should, stressing the value of the experience Bob is getting on his journeys.
Nathan Karr wrote: Strangely my favorites only included two of the mice (Blueberry and Rice), but also included Dinosaur Giant and Sombra (it's been a few years, I'm remembering the moon-dwelling samurai cat's name right, right?). Sombra was more "Cats and samurai are cool" for me than anything else since being one of the endgame characters he didn't have much time or space to get a lot of characterization.

There were a lot of characters I strongly gravitated to but for each one of those, there was generally at least one more who didn't have room narratively or whose gameplay features just didn't quite gel. I'm currently running on the assumption that Dinosaur Triple will, like the mice, be relegated to a non-playable role if present at all; this, I feel, is a very wise decision.

I can even spell out a list of what characters I remember from the original Walthros sorted into tiers. (Sometimes the Walthrus corruption was so funny it made me like a character more just because of association with them making me laugh in other games.)

Looking forward to seeing how Amber and Suwanee feel in the remake; I didn't play Surlaw: Armageddon so the latter will be a completely new character to me. I also really like the change of Bob from a sword guy to a staff guy - feels more fitting in a way, like in the original he used a sword more or less because he was the main character?
Blueberry has a minor role in the story as an NPC, I haven't found a place for Rice yet. Sombra will have the same basic design but be a completely different character and appear earlier this time. I want to have more cats hanging out in general instead of the "cats are a hidden society" thing from the first game.

I'm actually planning on making Dinosaur Triple a bigger part of the story this time instead of cutting them down to temporary party members. Maybe that's not the best idea but I find them funny enough to keep around.

Yeah Bob only used a sword in the original because he was the main guy. It never fit his move set, which was all about healing and summoning. He won't have summons this time, that will be part of Amber's spells.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Super Walrus Man yet. He had his own show for a time. I imagine he's coming back? Woo the rabbit? She seemed pretty important. Of course, we also need Yuk, even if he's just an NPC this time.

I remember liking Surlaw: Armageddon, but I also haven't played it in a while and may have different opinions of it today. I do remember liking the Lonnie character, though. I'm hoping he drives a tour bus, makes a wrong turn along Route 66 out west somewhere, and ends up in Walthros somehow.

Regarding world map versus map-to-map travel, I think either can work, but I also think you've hit a solid story-to-gameplay formula with Kaiju and the gone but not forgotten VP:TVG, and Walthros's new aesthetic seems like it would make great use of those styles.
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Post by The Wobbler »

Super Walrus Man's back and he has a regular name now (it's Hank) but still uses that superhero title when he's feeling spicy. The original game had a lot of flipping back and forth between whether he was a bombastic, fun loving guy or a sad Eeyore and I actually want to play into that as a legit part of his personality, rather than just inconsistent writing.

Woo's about the same as ever, I want to try more fun options with a random spell using hero. She was tough to make useful in the original game.

Armageddon's problems:
-Most maps are either large with nothing to interact with except a door or two, or are straight hallways that are very long. Most don't have any enemies or treasures or flavor items, it's just vacant.
-Battles are designed around grinding up MP to use spells, so lots of time's wasted using weak attacks over and over before you can use a fun move.
-The dialogue is almost entirely exposition and every conversation goes on 4-5 times longer than necessary.
-The tone makes no sense at all. It's just an edgy collection of every book I was reading and game I was playing at age 20.

I was super proud of it before, but going back, yeesh. I was way happier going back to the original Walthros, even if it has problems too.
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Post by Nathan Karr »

Pepsi Ranger wrote:I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Super Walrus Man yet. He had his own show for a time. I imagine he's coming back?
To be fair, the only reason I didn't mention him as one of my favorites was just because I took it for granted that everyone loved him.


Woo was another character I liked, really looking forward to her getting some good random effects options so she's actually good in a fight. (And if Dinosaur Triple are there, looking forward to an upgraded Dinosaur Micro as well.)

Yuk Deluxe didn't really have much personality, but I did use him in my party a lot because there's not really ever any time where "Good pile of combat stats and the Attack option" isn't a good safe bet to have around. Unlike say, Scotty, Grape, or Mustard I could always know he had exactly what I expected him to contribute.
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