''Nowhere Prophet'' is a

roguelike deck-building game A roguelike deck-building game is a hybrid genre of video games that combines the nature of deck-building card games with procedurally generated randomness from roguelike games. Gameplay aspects Most roguelike deck-building games present the pla ...

developed by German developer Sharkbomb Studios and published by No More Robots. The game was first released in

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for

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, and

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in October 2017 on

Itch.io Itch.io (stylized in all lowercase) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie video games, indie role-playing games, game assets, comics, zines and music. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 1,000,000 ...

. The game was fully released for these platforms in July 2019. A version for

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and

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followed in July 2020.

Gameplay

In ''Nowhere Prophet'', the player takes on the role of a prophet and attempts to lead a convoy of outcasts through a hostile,

procedurally generated In computing, procedural generation is a method of creating data algorithmically as opposed to manually, typically through a combination of human-generated content and algorithms coupled with computer-generated randomness and processing power. I ...

environment in search for a mystical, safe place. On this journey the player has to manage resources and to battle through enemies and bosses. This combat is resolved with a

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with ''Magic: The G ...

-based system, where the skills of the prophet and the members of the convoy are represented by cards. During the journey the prophet can improve their skills and the convoy can grow, giving the player access to a wider card pool from which to build their decks.

Development

''Nowhere Prophet'' was designed and developed by Martin Nerurkar over a five-year span. The development was begun in 2015 under the working title ''Burning Roads'' and was supported with public funding from the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. During development the combat system was completely changed from a system involving multiple party members to the grid-based combat it ultimately released with. According to an article from developer Martin Nerurkar, the game's First Access release on Itch.io sold 136 copies in the first five weeks, eventually growing to 450 copies over the next six months. During this time the game was featured in articles on ''Rock Paper Shotgun''.

Reception

''Nowhere Prophet'' has an aggregate score of 73/100 on

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, described as "mixed to average reviews". Some of the issues noted by critics were the high difficulty and the AI behavior. Matt Cox of ''

Rock Paper Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' is a British video game journalism website. It was launched in July 2007 to focus on PC game, PC games and was acquired by Gamer Network, a network of sites led by ''Eurogamer'', in May 2017. History ''Rock Paper S ...

'' called the game "worth exploring for its world and its storytelling", but criticized the combat, calling the AI "wonky". ''

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'' rated the game 50/100, comparing the combat to "playing against an opponent who overturns the table when they win". Miguel Solo of ''Meristation'' rated the game 7.8/10, calling the combat innovative and the game itself heavily replayable, but also saying that the progression was unclear and it could use maps with more alternative routes.

Awards and accolades

References

External links

*{{Official site, http://www.nowhereprophet.com/ 2019 video games Digital deck-building card games Fictional prophets Indie games IOS games Linux games MacOS games Nintendo Switch games No More Robots games PlayStation 4 games Roguelike video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Germany Video games with Steam Workshop support Windows games Xbox Cloud Gaming games Xbox One games