On The Rocks Productions' Upcoming Diablo-Like RPG: Legion of Amon
posted March 9th, 2009 7:54 AM EDT by arn in Exclusives, Upcoming Games
On The Rocks Productions has released to TouchArcade exclusive details of their upcoming Diablo-like RPG iPhone game called Legion of Amon. The game is described as an "action packed RPG" with a large variety of weapons, enemies, traps, collectible items with "a great story which will keep you playing until the end."
A pack of cultists built a giant mecha to summon Amon into it to control him and his Legion. Something went horribly wrong and you now have to battle through the cultists and Amon's Legion to get to him.
The company has been around for 3 years as a film and commercial house, and they have just launched their games division 6 months ago and are heavily focusing their resources into iPhone game development.
While they are proud of their initial iPhone gaming release TiltaFun [App Store], they fully admit that that was just a "fun" game to get their toes wet with the App Store process. Their upcoming titles include Thor, Cardio and finally Legion of Amon. While Legion of Amon is the furthest out, it will fulfill the "action RPG" genre that is clearly in demand based on the superficial response to iDracula.
Despite just having concept shots to show at this time, On the Rocks reports that the game is very much in production with significant work already done.
On the Rocks is ambitiously planning on a variety of environments, side quests and weapons with incremental upgrades.
The game, of course, will rely on a touch-screen interface that allows you to select and control your character as well as "assistant androids" that can help fight, heal, fetch objects, and draw enemy fire. On the Rocks is also planning an extensive story-line with more traditional RPG elements outside of fighting including character-character interactions. The exact details are, of course, subject to change, though the scope of this iPhone-exclusive title seems massive.
Concept Gameplay designs:
is it just me or in the first picture; the robot in the middle and the left look like the gray iron man robot and the one in the middle as the giant iron made robot the bad guy uses at the end?
I'm loving these concept shots.
Definitely one to keep an eye on for me, I'd love a game like this.
p.s. quite liking the tron style blue highlights they have got going on.
Yeah, dannys95, you're right. They also have Legs and Arm. Nope, the Rest doesn't even look nearly the same. Well, they are robots, or wear robosuits, but that's all that's similar imho…
BTW, this thing can get huge. I'll buy it if it doesn't suck big time.
If it plays as well as it looks then it should do great.
As much as these Diablo clones are interesting, if it doesn't have the Blizzard polish, it can't be considered a real competitor. If Blizzard were smart, and they are very smart, they should release the original Diablo for the iPhone. The thing has plenty of memory and power enough to handle it. They might even be able to get away with charging $9.99 for it. It would probably be single player or over wi-fi could add one more player but that's all I would shoot for.
Either way, this looks interesting. To me it looks more like StarCraft in Diablo form. If that makes sense.
already had the dev on track
let's wait and see
Looks more like Appleseed's "robot armor" to me.
Anyway, I'm sold already
For those interested, here is a larger version of the Splash image.
http://www.ontherocksgames.com/media/legion-splash.jpg
We respect your opinions and we will be looking for all and any suggestions, wishes from you guys. If there is anything that you really want to see in Legion of Amon let us know.
One on the right reminds of one of Samus's suits in Metroid Prime 2. Anyway like the idea. Lets hope it comes together.
Brynjar Gigja, will there be randomly generated rare items? If so, this is mine!
some additional environment and weapon sketches here
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=123416&postcount=27
arn
@Aylmer: We didn't count for "randomly generated" but there will be plenty
of rare items, both guns, ammo, upgrades and such. Those we plan on giving out
through quests/missions and at hidden places you might find.
Brynjar, I'm not sure if this place is the best to let you guys know about suggestions or your website, but since you asked…
The most important thing for me would be a good, well-thought-out character progression. This should ideally be very diverse by ways of different character classes, levelling up, skills you can develop, attribute points to assign and equipment with all sorts of modifyers to collect. If you can pull that off, this is going to be a success as an action RPG.
Look at the amazing combination of modifyers items can have in Diablo 2. Legion of Amon doesn't necessarily have to be as complex as that, but it sure would be fun. +percentage of this, +skill to that, etc.
Good luck making this a fun, addictive game!
Taking on a Diablo-Like game is going to have to meet a lot of expectations. I'm really excited to see if a game like diablo can be pulled off on a hand held. Looking promising on the visuals but pictures still don't tell me much.
this is what i meant earlier.
the robot on the pic above on the left looks like iron man mark i: http://www.thebitbag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/im_mk2.jpg
the one in the middle looks like the giant robot the old guy uses to try to fight tony stark:
http://www.thebitbag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/im_mk1.jpg
Not an RPG fan usually, but a sci-fi theme would probably win me over. Good luck with the project!
this game is looking slick. lets hope this is what it really looks like. and also lets hope it plays well
This looks… kinda awesome *suppresses urge to yell victory cry*
Looks like it is a lot more fun and has a lot more depth than iCrapula!
The painted look is really a nice graphical touch and gives the game personality just in screenshots. If this is a full game, I'd be willing to pay full game prices with multiplayer, a bunch of items/upgrades, hours and hours of gameplay, enemy variety etc.
Right now the App store is filled with great minigames and time diversions but this looks like it might be one of the very first full game experiences for the iPhone.
The value market is essentially the what drives the iPhone economy, its time some games that are at the $10+ mark arrive and allow bigger and better experiences. I'm seriously hoping this game is one of them.
3 years ago, we produced a mobile A-RPG on J2ME and the biggest task was a good balancing and lots of random armor/weapon drops. It took us 2 years to complete. I am looking forward to give this a try, but don´t underestimate the fine tuning of games with Diablo scale.
The two most important things, in my opinion, will be online multiplayer (something sorely underepresented in the app store) and a sufficiently lengthy playtime. I probably won't bother otherwise.
I agree that comparing yourself to Diablo raises expectations, but the art looks good so far. Glad you didn't make this fantasy, I'm getting tired of elves and orcs, although robots and aliens are getting old as well. Next game consider steampunk, along the lines of Girl Genius or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Also agree that random modifier items would be a big plus in this game. It gets monotonous when all you pick up are the same weapons, ammo and armor. Give us a choice to increase certain stats or abilities like in Diablo, which would also let us customize the game to fit our style of playing.
Looking good…
@dannys95
"is it just me or in the first picture; the robot in the middle and the left look like the gray iron man robot and the one in the middle as the giant iron made robot the bad guy uses at the end?"
Umm.. NO! You might be the only one thinking that. Anyway this game looks great. I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully it's really as good as they say it is. I like the idea of assistant droids. I was actually suggesting that kind of concept as a sort of new "weapon" for iDracula, maybe like a bear or some animal that will assist you. I'm praying they consider it and they could include it in a future update. But back to Legion of Amon… keep up the good work guys! Looking good!!!!
Offering this game as Diabloesque makes me wonder about the extensiveness of the loot system. If Legion of Amon doesn't end up on par qualitywise with Diablo, it won't surprise me – expectations are so high, reviews will probably strike this area first. If replayability value is high and the loots are diverse enough, all is well. (Hellgate:London got it all wrong with the wrong kind of weapons and add-ons – didn't look at all as varied as it should have.) Keep up the good work!
RPGs in the appstore doesn't have any "umph" into it there is minimal or none customization of the character. if you really want this to be a hit RPG add attribute points, skill points and random items and environment then it would be a great RPG and im already a customer.
imo even the attribute points and skill points will be enough so there wont be a single build for all
the graphics doesn't look as nice as iDracula. One important thing is i hope the control aren't crappy. If it's like iDracula then it's good. I hope the gameplay aren't crappy too. Hope for some video gameplay soon.
multiplayer with this would be awessome
Yeah.I dream for the multiplay mode.that will extend the entertainment of any game,especially RPG.
IMO iDracula is less like Diablo and more like a Robotron 2084 or other arena shooters. I don't know if they were attempting to make a Diablo Clone, but what came out seems more like an isometric Geometry Wars. It may be closer to Blizzard's gem in theme and subject, but the gameplay mechanics are much closer to arena shooters, there being a fixed "arena" area that you cannot escape. I don't think this is a bad thing, though. I'd love to see more arena shooters on the itouch and I really like iDraculas controls.
Legion of Amon seems more like Diablo in that (I suspect) you aren't limited to a single area and there is actually some plot depth. I hope it delivers; this platform is really looking to be one where games such as these can succeed.
Requirements for me would be the following if possible
1. Skill trees like in WOW
2. Champions of Norrath type character development and classes
3. The ability to team up with mates with different classes
4. THE BIG ONE " Playability on par with Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath"
5. 20 hours plus of mandatory gameplay plus unlimited optional and randomly generated quests and dungeons
6. If this is not enough then various skill levels like PSO to triple or even Quadruple the playing time.
Guys if you can do this I would pay £25.00 for this, no worries
A free version to try would be a given, as should be on all games on the App store, if it's any good then the people will buy.
Thanks
Paul
All your request ( and others ) are logged and we will keep them in mind.
Thank you and all of you for your opinion and requests!
@Brynjar Gigja
hey, is this gonna be somewhat similar to Too Human (xbox360)??
i love diablo and been playing Too Human a lot lately… hope it's a mix of these two..
I would love to get skills up on this game, and have online play.
The higher the skills the better your character gets (wepons ect)
just played iDracula lite and i think it sucks, it's insanely hard and then i tried iDracula on my friend's iPhone and it still sucks. it looked like diablo, it may have monsters that look like it was spawn from diablo but it sure as hell isn't diablo.
This game looks like tron but if the request here at met. Badamn man. i'll get myself some cash and buy it. i've been waiting for a game like this one and when i said waiting i mean hoping. I hope bigger games will be added just from this soon-to-be-played-by-me app