Dustgrave: A Sandbox RPG Windows game

Combat is a very important part of RPGs; we’re designing Dustgrave’s combat system to be satisfyingly deep and challenging, giving you lots of tactical options to engage your enemies. Let's explore the foundation of Dustgrave's combat system in this Dev Diary.

We focused on three key objectives:

• Give unique value to all equipment pieces, instead of only increasing numbers;
• Allow players to experiment with different combos and reward out-of-the-box thinking;
• Create a deep system capable of supporting long playthroughs.

To achieve that, we created 7 different Action Templates accessed by equipping different weapons, armors, or other items. Each turn you’ve got 2 Action Points; some of the following actions take just 1 AP, while the most powerful ones takes 2, taking your whole turn to complete them.

Fast Attacks and Strong Attacks are given by weapons, and they represent the most basic action of most RPGs: using a weapon to attack an enemy. Fast Attacks only cost a single Action Point, allowing a character to move before or after using them. Strong Attacks have more powerful effects but require two Action Points to be used.

Quick Spells and Empowered Spells follow the same logic, providing two different ways of using magic in combat.

Dashes are used to move across the battlefield. Some allow characters to avoid opportunity attacks, others let slow characters move and strike a target with a single AP.

Armors and Shields give access to different Guards. They are defensive Actions used to protect a character from incoming attacks, or to provide specific buffs.

Shouts are linked to a character’s Personality Attribute and scale with its value. They are useful for boosting allies’ morale, but several Skills can transform them into offensive Actions.

This is a classic longsword, providing two attack Actions.

Those two Attacks have their unique stats, influencing how many enemies they can target, how much they can penetrate armor, and how deadly they are.
In Dustgrave, you will be able to use those Actions as they are, but our unique twist is that you will also be able to combine the Skills you unlocked with them! This is how a Skill can interact with the sword’s Fast Attack.

The resulting Action deals more damage and better penetrates armors, but will be less precise, meaning it will be easier to miss and harder to land a critical hit.

Repelling Strike adds the Status Effect Push to the attack, allowing the character to move opponents and possibly allowing allies to land Opportunity Attacks on them.

Skills change or override certain values, so choosing the right equipment for every character is fundamental. Acquiring new items will open new possibilities and unlock new and potentially deadly combos.

The same concept applies to all other Action Templates. In this case, we have a Skill from the Occult Magic tree, which applies to all Shouts.
While the standard Shout applies to allies and bolsters their morale, the modified Action affects enemies and applies a powerful debuff to their offensive capabilities.

This unique concept will let players experiment with the wide variety of items included in the game. Actions hitting multiple targets are ideal for applying Status effects, while precise attacks can be used to easily trigger Critical Hits.

We are so eager to let you all play with Dustgrave and break the game in ways we didn’t even think possible. Stay tuned to learn more about the game!