It's hard to decide exactly where to begin. Do I talk about what Untold Lore is currently? What it's intended to become? What inspired it? Who it's for? The underlying technology? Who's creating it? What's coming next? There's too much. So instead, I'm going to keep this brief and incomplete under the assumption that starting is the most difficult part of most projects. (We are going to conveniently ignore the fact that the ACTUAL most difficult part of most projects is finishing, not starting.)
Untold Lore is what I wished a tabletop RPG campaign could be. Not just the swashbuckling and escapades, but also the more grounded, slower, slice-of-life aspects that are hard to capture when you can only get together with friends for a few hours every week (if even that). It's a personal tabletop campaign with World of Warcraft RP servers' community. It's Kenshi's unforgiving world with Valheim's cozy base-building. It's Rust, but without the mandatory toxicity.
My name is Rowan. I've been stuck working in the startup space for almost ten years. This is the project that has kept me sane (more or less) for that time.
Untold Lore has had many, many iterations, each of which has gradually built towards what UL is now. Most of the dross that spilled forth from those efforts can be safely disregarded, but the two pieces that have stuck around are Ogham (a UI framework for Rust applications) and Lorekeeper (the game engine on which UL is built). Both of those will feature occasionally in devlogs as new functionality gets added, but at a high level...
Ogham
- Rust-based reactive UI framework.
- Heavily influenced by a love of web development's ergonomics and a severe dislike of web development's underlying technologies (JavaScript was a mistake).
- Uses a DSL inspired by TypeScript and React.
Lorekeeper
- Rust-based general-purpose game engine in early development.
- Supports single-player and multiplayer games.
- Mostly handles infrastructure: window management, rendering, networking, input, etc.
What currently works in Untold Lore?
Lots of functionality that is missing connective tissue.
You can survive — stay warm, catch and cook fish, drink from a well, craft items to support yourself such as fishing rods and hammers. Magic works: you can channel energy into glyphs to fly, create light, electrocute people (the essentials). Procedural mesh generation for buildings exists. NPCs can stand around and talk, players can host or join servers, you can play through a CYOA backstory creation process (a bit similar to Mount & Blade, for readers who are familiar). Skills exist and can be leveled up, ability points dramatically shift how competent you are at a skill, and so on. Inclement weather can get you damp and cause you to freeze to death — campfires warm you up. There's honestly a lot of building blocks here already.
What's missing is any reason to care. That's my next priority.
Your home has to be comfortable, not just functional. There has to be treasure to find out in the wilds. Characters need to have relationships and provide benefits. If bandits can attack your village, you have to genuinely be hampered by the blacksmith getting killed in the raid. The world has to feel alive and give you a reason to be personally invested in its continued existence. We have all these building blocks; now we need to assemble them in a way that makes them a compelling playground to play pretend in.