path, which bills itself as a “storytelling engine,” is a toolbox that allows players to create a complete digital world for their role-playing games, from landscapes to settlements, and then play through it. Launched on Kickstarter earlier this month, it already has blown exceeded its funding target.
It was developed by NOG, a small game studio that usually specializes in Unreal Engine stuff and real-time graphics, and has worked with companies like EA and Ubisoft. Here, however, the whole thing is her idea and her work, and NOG promises that path lets players build worlds up to 60 square miles in size. Here is a trailer:
Say STILL path works like this: First you build the game world, either through procedural generation, with manual brush tools or a combination of both. Then you do the same for castles, dungeons and townships. Then you can import 3D models and “2D assets” for your characters and other objects (or use some pre-existing templates), put everything together, enter or download some rules and get started either online or locally.
It of course loses the tangible joys of tabletop gaming by going all digital, but also hopes that the level of customization and possibilities its toolkit offers more than makes up for it.
Interestingly, NOG advertises path as something that is free to download and use, as it is hoped that the attached marketplace where players can sell everything from custom rules to character models (and from which NOG will take a cut) will generate enough revenue, to keep the light going .
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As such the kickstarters– which asked for A$67,000 and was at A$272,000 at the time of publication – doesn’t really give you anything pathbut an escalating line of limited edition items like D20s and fancy character models. Visit the Kickstarter page for more informationwhich also includes information about things like a closed beta and some of the finer technical details of how it all works.