An in-depth look at the Shaola series

Five years ago, we got together and started our research on parallel universes in fiction such as Middle-Earth, Neverland, Elfland, Discworld, and the rich worlds of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), The Witcher... as well as the great storytelling of Japanese fiction, notably manga and role-playing games. Afterward, we decided to write about the great stories in the world of Shaola.

With that approach, we focused on creating hybrid games that combine our favorite aspects of old school RPGs and JRPGs, while at the same time, removing those things some players didn't like, like random encounters and time-consuming grinding.

The Shaola project is the product of that research and ideas. Our games are not a copycat clone, which borrows ideas from old games, or games with a cheap nostalgia effect. This project is about utilizing some of the best ideas, features and characteristics from the oldies, remix and refine them, then combine and create a new and different type of enjoyment in a modern gaming era.

Shaola is a long-term project. It is a process of telling great stories about many appealing characters in different kingdoms and regions in Shaola. The gameplay in Shaola games will be based on the distinct story, characters, settings and environment of each title.

Hidden behind the beautiful high fantasy theme is the cruel world of medieval politics, as each character and faction has different motives and conflicts. Who can you trust?

Leonardo’s adventure is not a carbon copy of the Tolkien-esque RPGs in the 90s where you go on a heroic mission. You meet orcs, wizards, trolls, goblins, hobbits, and then you defeat some Dark Lords and win the game.

In this adventure, you are kidnapped into a foreign kingdom. You meet an unsecured prince, who is scheming to dispose of his own brother. The dark side of medieval politics comes out in full force.

We focus on blending historical fiction and medieval realism with epic fantasy.

A common theme in folk tales and mythology is the battle between good and evil, which does not always mirror the medieval world.

Old-time writers tend to oversimplify the struggle between good and evil into stereotypical clichés.

The Shaola series brings a measure of harsh realism to high fantasy. They introduce gray tones into a black-and-white universe.

Two permanent characteristics in every game in the Shaola series are: I. Fun gameplay that is easy to play. II. Advanced storytelling and building your enjoyment to the fullest. The story in each game will be enjoyable and on par with any adventure game or Visual Novel.

While this game is an RPG, one could say that it is an uncategorized game. It could belong to every subgenre out there, while you wouldn’t be wrong if you said it belonged to no subgenre at all.

It is a combination of many fun things that we’ve loved since childhood from our very first video game experience. The Shaola series is simply a tool to share the fun, excitement, enjoyment and delightful experience with you.

Eric Truong,
Smiling Dragon RPG Studios

Heated battles in the crazy world of Shaola

Some battle actions in Heroes of Shaola have been compiled and uploaded to Youtube.

Full game released!

Beta testing has ended and the game has been released!

The stable build of the full game is now live, ready and available!

You can now play the full Heroes of Shaola, a unique crossover between Zelda-like, Diablo-like action RPG and Final Fantasy-like turn based battle mechanics.

It brings back childhood memories of those good old games in the past. It resembles the familiar look and feel of Middle-Earth and other fantasy worlds in Game of Thrones, Elder Scrolls, Baldur’s Gate, The Witcher etc.

A big Thank You to our patient supporters and everyone who stays patient, follows and supports this project from the beginning and helped make this game possible.

As always, any commentary, suggestions, bug reports, anything you want to say in public network or support@rpgfaction.com is really appreciated and will be noted and answered accordingly.

Again, huge thank you for your encouragement, feedback, and support. And if this is the first time you hear about the Shaola series, here is a warm hello to you and I hope that this first game ignites your interest.

We’ve made the game for you, not just for “nerds” and fantasy fanatics, but for everyone. Anyone can enjoy a good story.

Thank you again, everyone. Your support means a lot to us. Thank you for your support and enjoy the world of Shaola!

Steam Greenlight page is up!

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's really a headache writing this game. But now we're proud to announce that the game is almost finish and available for voting on Steam Greenlight. Please vote for Heroes of Shaola if you like it.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768541821

"The Magnificent Five" of Shaola

“The Magnificent Five” is an unofficial title given by the common folks to the top 5 world-class undefeated fighters. People have been calling them "The Magnificent Five" out of respects.

New files available for download

As much as we would wish to go on updating new versions and uploading new files, we would like to concentrate on finishing the games. So, Heroes of Shaola v0.2 and Shaola v0.4 are the last updates until the full games are completed.

Changes in Shaola 0.4:

- We now have a more advanced jumping system for Eli. As long as he wears the Spring Boot, he can jump anytime and anywhere. Press A to jump. Running and jumping at the same time will enable him to jump farther.
- As a result of the newly implement advanced jumping system, many more secrets and treasures have been added.
- New items and potions have been added.
- Dialogues have been improved.
- Minor enhancement for graphics, icons, music and sound effects.
- We have re-installed the diagonal movement mechanics that we took out in the last version, due to the incompatibility with the mouse controls system.
- Many bug fixes and small improvements have been made.

Changes in Heroes of Shaola 0.2:

- A lot of characters and battlers’ graphics, icons have been enhanced.
- Major tweaks to the monsters, the spoils, and game balance.
- Energizer's value and effectiveness have been raised.
- Guns are much more powerful, like they should be. This explains why the factions on the other side of the Great Desert are so afraid of the Aquilon Republic.
- Minor changes and improvement to the text and dialogues.
- Some sound effects have been added and/or improved.
- All known gameplay bugs in the Demo have been fixed.

You can download the new files under "Heroes of Shaola latest files" and "Shaola latest files". Enjoy the games!

Heroes of Shaola v0.1.7 Public Release

Changes in version 0.1.7:

• New potions and monsters have been added. Now you’ll have to face even more haunted mushrooms, with each kind specialized in one type of offense.
• Now you can sell things to the Inns after you completed their quests.
  
• Small enhancement to the Bestiary.
  
• Many grammar errors have been fixed. The dialogues have been enhanced.
  
• Most bugs and glitches have been fixed.

You can download the new version under "Heroes of Shaola latest files". Have fun playing!

Heroes of Shaola v0.1.2 - Public release

Hello again all! A new version have been released. There were some bugs that slipped through the last play tests, I've played through myself and fixed it up. There will probably still be a few glitches here and there.

This release has nothing fancy, just good old-fashioned bug fixes and minor enhancement in graphics, dialogs, stats and gameplay.

Changes in version 0.1.2:

- We removed the Game Over graphics, thus, completely eliminated the Game Over factor from the game. Game Over is completely removed from the game!

- New monsters have been added.

- A lot of stats have been tweaked to balance out the game.

- Most bugs and errors have been fixed.

You can download it here:

Version 0.1.2

Mirrors

Heroes of Shaola - The Story Demo is out and available to download!

Hi everyone, I'm glad to announce the official release of the Story Demo.

What are the differences between the Tech Demo and the Story Demo, you might ask?

The Tech Demo contains a short side-story for demonstration purpose and to introduce the theme and the basic mechanics of the game. Its contents won't be in the actual game.

The Story Demo contains the beginning part of the alpha version of the actual game. Everything begins with the disappearance of Leonardo, the sole heir of the Sutherlands, one of the top four noble families in the Zenman Empire.

Other changes included a different and uncommon Game Over mechanics. You won't lose your progress on Game Over, even when all main characters are injured.

The graphics are brighter and clearer. It possesses much better battler graphics and animations, especially the opponents and monsters. In addition, many bugs and issues have been fixed.

You can download it here: HOS_StoryDemo.zip

Republic of Aquilon

It can also be called "Aquilon Republic". The Aquilonian is the most civilize and technological advance nation in the world.

They are located in the far north, on the other side of the Great Desert (commonly called "The Desert"), the largest desert in the world. The north generally has hot weather, due to many natural factors, but with their great technology, the Aquilonian has air-conditioner systems that no other civilizations have had.

The other side of the Desert used to be a big secret, until the Iron Eagle's agents successfully crossed the desert and found out many things on that side. They went on to scout the Aquilon and eventually found out a horrible truth: The Aquilonian has tools that can kills quickly and easily from far away. They called it "gun" and "bullet"! They also have other inventions for warfare like bombs, stun guns, fire guns, electrical knives, electrical whips, artificial animals, artificial monsters, etc.

After realizing that the Aquilon Republic is so far more advance than the rest of the nations on the other side of the Desert, the Iron Eagle's scouts tried to return home but only one of them survives. Most of them are killed by the Aquilonian guns, some of them are killed by the Sahara Tribe on the desert.

Zokang Kingdom and Green Kingdom

Zokang Kingdom and Green Kingdom (common usage: Greendom) located on Everland, an island on the Eastern Sea, on the southeast of the continent.

They have unique culture and custom. The islanders dress differently from the mainland people. Therefore, the mainlanders called them The Weirdoes of the Far East.

Zuda Kingdom & Kazen Kingdom

Together, these two small kingdoms formed an alliance called "Southern Double Alliance". They feed of each other and watching each other back. Both kingdoms stand side-by-side next to each other and located in the far south at the bottom of the continent, just below the Ankania Kingdom. The northerners have been calling them "Twin Dragons of the South".

New domain name

From now on you can visit rpgfaction.com to access this website. I think the name is easy to remember. Our games will have a lot of factions fighting against each other, anyway. So, I think this is an appropriate name that fits our concept really well.

Amazail Kingdom

Amazail Kingdom is located in the southern and central region, on top of the Ankania Kingdom and just below the Zenman Empire. Among the factions in the world, Amazail is the strongest. They quietly surpassed the Zenman for dozen of years now. However, only the sharp scholars and intellectuals have notice this trend and realizing this unique situation: This vassal state actually is stronger than the declining central empire and even surpassed it.

Amazail has great balance, is strong and deceptively powerful. They don't have any aspect that can be call "the best", but they are great in all aspects: Politic, military, offense, defense, economy, culture. They are the most well rounded nation and have the most talented human resource. They have no weakness. None.

Ankania Kingdom

Ankania is an old kingdom that formerly a rival to the Zenman Empire. In fact, they are among the oldest kingdoms in the world. They used to be one of the only two empires who ruled the land along with the Zenman. Ankania is located in the south, below Amazail Kingdom and above the Southern Double Alliance (Zuda Kingdom and Kazen Kingdom).

The Ankanian former glory came to an end when the Veronas revolt and attacked the capital, Brinsbourne, then destroyed the Imperial castle and slaughtered the royal family (the Dimakoses). One of the emperor's bloodline eventually fled down to the south and built a new capital called "South Brinsbourne". The loyal officials served him as the new king. This long march killed most of their talented generals and warriors in the effort to fight off the enemy. Some died out of hunger and diseases.

Martia Kingdom

Martia is a nation of war and violence. It's located in the north, above the Zenman Empire and below the Great Desert. The country is torn with warfare and internal conflicts.

The kingdom is led by King Ahmad, son of King Victor the Conqueror, and the military leader: Sir Hogan Guillen, Minister of War.

In common academic schools, children is required to learn military skills, magic and martial-art along with academic skills.

Mother nature rewarded them with riches of metal mines, including the best quality of steel and iron in the world. They have better weapons than any other faction. Most of magical metals and powerful magical weapons that was using in other nations actually came from here. The Martian has made a fortune out of selling metals and weapons.

Zenman Empire

Zenman is the largest and one of the oldest nations in the land. It’s located in the central region. The empire is surrounded by many vassal kingdoms and independent factions.

Each year, the vassal kingdoms must pay a tribute with gifts, weapons, food and gold. Sometime they are required to send princes and princesses to the Zenman.

The Zenman has ruled the land for thousands of year. This country has the largest population and army. Their army is led by Francois de Gaulle, Minister of the Military.

Other than Romanowski, the royal family, there are four powerful noble families that help protected and managed the capital, Zalumi. Those four families are: the Sutherlands, the Pantelakos, the Totens and the Rileys. However, the current emperor, Louis II, son of Emperor Louis the Great, is a young man who some people have described him as a good person, but not a good political leader.

Shaola - Story Characters

Eli

Eli is a young herbalist with a pure heart. He does not like to study magic and is afraid of violence. His life is filled with hardships, ups and downs. The only thing that keeps him going is Love.

He wishes to stay in his village forever. But many unforeseen circumstances push him into a world of wars and chaos. It also forces him to “grow up” over time. At the end of the journey, he had transformed into an alpha male, a champion, a great leader.

But before he reached that status, he must face countless challenges. He got set up and framed by a person that he trusts with all his heart. He became the #1 public enemy. He fights and defends himself against other so called “heroes”. All he does is trying to survive.

Naomi

Naomi is a beautiful priestess in Paula Village. When the villagers think of beauty and kindness blends together, they think of Naomi. She and Eli are childhood friends. Pure and gentle, she helps her team by casting amazing defensive magic.