The game is being sold directly through Pyrodactyl’s website or through Desura. The game has a full/standard edition for $2.99 and an Extra Cheese With Lightning Bolts edition for $4.99. Think of the latter as the mode with all the DLC one will ever need. The blog states that “ECWLB buyers will get everything full edition people get, along with new content, short stories and scenarios that we plan to add shortly. Also, ECWLB buyers will get a chance to try new features we add  to the game engine.”

As with all indie game releases, I ask: have you played A.Typical RPG already? Do you want DIYGamer to write an in-depth review of A.Typical RPG?

Aside from the atypical art style, the game promises various atypical scenarios from every day life as backdrops for story arcs and battles. How much HP does a class exam have and how much XP will defeating/passing it yield? Gamers may soon know the answer. Also innovative is the complex conversation system, outlined here in the preview.

The art still looks vibrantly pleasant.

Fans can pre-order the game for $2.99 (or $4.99 for the Extra Cheese With Lightning Bolts Edition) from either Desura or the Pyrodactyl web store.

Find the pre-order and free demo download links here.

While the latter is more innovative, both require quick hand-eye coordination and comprehension, making the game a little more twitch-responsive than the stereotypical turn-based RPG. The soccer field demo purposefully never ends; it exists primarily for gamers to sample the types of gameplay. The demo features one audio track that begins as an endearing tune but loops for far too long. The fight scene unfortunately did not have a fun track to break up the music.

The fight mechanic is simpler to explore than the conversation. There are two modes: offense and defense. In offense, the player must time one’s input correctly to inflict damage on the enemy (in the below picture, “Pat”).  The cues scroll across the arrows and eventually line up over Pat’s head, with the cues finally turning gold. At that moment, the player must hit the correct cue. In the case below, it was the left arrow.

After several cue presses, the defensive round starts. The player must again time correctly when to press the space bar, waiting for the hero’s head to align in the counter position.

For the other demo’s aspect, the player can approach “the girl” for an introduction to the elaborate, almost overwhelming conversation system. In the demo, the player has a few seconds to respond. One must read the girl’s disposition above her dialog and the dialog itself to decide how to respond. The girl’s disposition is that she likes sunny weather and is a calm person. Since the girl asks, “Do you like the weather right now?”, one must realize the background weather is in fact sunny and agree with her. Since she is a calm person, answering calmly also would boost the player’s rating. The game doesn’t seem to punish or lower the hero’s rating if he responds negatively, however.

Arvind Raja Yadav elaborated on the conversation mechanics:

“The conversation in the demo is a bit on the tough side compared to what you can expect in the game. We imposed a time limit because that way you don’t know the ins-and-outs of the character’s personality in a single dialog – the more you talk to them, the more you learn about them. It’s a bit like talking face to face – you don’t have all day to choose an answer, and you can’t figure out people just by talking to them once or twice. The story will provide multiple opportunities to talk to the characters.”

Understanding the creator’s approach illuminates the conversation gameplay. Perhaps Pyrodactyl can weave this description into the game’s narrative so gamers don’t get frustrated with the speed; rather, they will know they have to speak to someone several times to learn about their speaking partner’s habits.

Desura users can pre-order the game for $2.99 for the standard game. The game is available to those users on March 24, 2011. Those who want the game two days early can pay $4.99 for a limited edition, which will include deleted scenes, alternate dialog, and special bonuses from the team. The Desura pre-orders list PC as the only available platform.

While the audio hasn’t won me over, the colorful art, the game’s reaction-based fighting and conversation mechanics, and purported atypical school scenarios still hold my interest for the next demo and final game.

Demo | Desura pre-order

The interactive dialogue seems pretty interesting and is exemplified in the photo below. Players are given the characteristics of their interlocutors (speaking partners) and use those to influence how they should respond. There are buttons such as “angry” and “sarcastic” below the dialogue box to determine how the player will respond. The listeners’ stats correspond to how they feel towards the player and will change depending on how well the response ties with the listeners’ personality. Mathematics tells us that when there are four buttons, the combination of responses we can give is 4! or 16, as the developer confirms in the video.

Speaking of the developer, Arvind Raja Yadav has a solid rap sheet of past programming experiences. He’s worked on Half Life 2 mods Dystopia, Neptune, Guard Duty Source and Star Trek Enterprise : Temporal Cold War. His company’s mission via Facebook is admirable: to make the best games humanly or demonically possible. I hope to interview Pyrodactyl’s resident demon soon. Check out his newest adventure below:

Pyrodactyl stated they will be releasing a demo of A.Typical RPG shortly and starting pre-orders soon. Pyrodactyl Games’ blog reports that the release date of March 1, 2011 was a bit too optimistic. The developer said that hopefully the delay will be no more than three weeks. He is currently sorting out digital distribution possibilities. IndieDB lists the platforms as Linux and PC.

Arvind was kind enough to follow up with a demo, so expect preview impressions soon!