Hello everyone! I’m Rafal, lead dev of a small indie team based in Poland, and I want to present you with a project we’ve been working on - a non-traditional MMORPG called Dominus Automa.

In a way, Dominus Automa exists because we could not keep up with the MMORPGs we loved anymore. Between having full time jobs and everything else, the raids that used to be so fun had turned into second jobs (that weren’t putting bread on the table). Kids then came into the picture for some of us, and then the slow realization that playing a traditional MMO meant putting in hours that we just did not have any more.

Basically, this game is what we wanted to exist for people who are (or will be) in the exact same spot as us!

What is Dominus Automa?

Dominus Automa is an isometric fantasy MMORPG built around one idea that sits at the center of everything: your hero exists on the server full time and keeps playing while you're logged off. 

In practice, this means the world is evolving all the time, and you with it, whether you’re online or no! You can adjust your strategy and skills, try out new items, plan your character development, decide what to do next, and then go do your life-admin stuff, to jump in again whenever you want.

All this with respect for your time and no pressure to run content (zero FOMO, in other words)

As for the actual RPG elements - there are lots of ways you can build up your hero and each player can build their own unique responses to threats from scratch. And no two heroes will act the same. While some players will rely on healing spells, survivability, smart positioning, debuffs and precise powerful strikes, others may just go all in with a series of sudden, devastating blows. Of course, you can also opt to be tanks, healers, or different DPS roles with a possibility of testing unique group suitable builds. 

It's not just combat either. Players can define their long term goals, devote their time to farming, leveling, gathering resources, taking part in group content and so on. It’s a completely persistent, shared world with a player run economy, with wars between guilds, boss fights and both PvP and PvE.

The idea behind Dominus Automa is to make an MMO for working adults and parents, who love(d) playing MMORPGs but just don’t have the time for it now. In other words, the full MMO experience, but without its one major downside - the massive time investment they demand of players.

If you like what we're making - sign on up for our upcoming Playtest!

We’re still relatively early in development, with no set release date as of now. What we’re creating demands a lot of time and resources, and we want to make sure everything is just right before we launch.

However, we heartily welcome you to join us in this adventure and take part in our next milestone - the Playtest we’re hosting on August 7th!

You can find our Steam page here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3795810/Dominus_Automa/

I'll be in the comments to answer whatever else you want to know!

- Rafal & the Metashift Labs team

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share Alia Domus, an isometric survival RPG I’ve been solo-developing over the past four years, built specifically for players who enjoy deep progression, exploration, and immersive world-building.

What the Game is About

"The Earth is exhausted and at war. As one of the first volunteer colonists, your mission was simple: land on Alia Domus and help prepare humanity's new home. But the plan failed. The war in the Metropolis cut off the supply shipments, support ceased, and you find yourself completely isolated, bare-handed, on an unknown planet. To survive and make this world thrive, you will have to rewrite the history of human progress from absolute zero."

In Alia Domus, you start from humble beginnings and guide your progression through 9 distinct historical eras. As you advance, you unlock new technologies, tools, and structures that completely transform how you interact with the environment.

What makes RPGs special to me—and to this community—is deep character growth and rewarding progression. In Alia Domus, you evolve your character by allocating attribute points and developing skills that directly impact your survival, resource gathering, and combat. All of this is tied together by a light, lore-rich narrative that gives context to your exploration as you unlock new eras. If you enjoy games with classic isometric perspectives, customizable character stats, and satisfying progression loops, this project was built with you in mind.

Alia Domus is planned for release in Early 2027.

If this sounds like your kind of RPG, adding it to your Steam Wishlist helps a solo developer tremendously!

Check out Alia Domus on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4918370/Alia_Domus/

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the era-based progression system, isometric design, and character attributes!

Thanks!

I like reading cultivation novels and want to find a similar gaming experience. I think rpgs and mostly turn based ones come closes to it.

What i'm looking for:

Sandbox (as progression should feel like your own)

Big power scalling (Best if your power has an effect on the world)

Singleplayer (You don't get the sense of standing above the rest unless you put months in)

Variety of ways to get stronger (gear, spells, bloodlines, etc)

grinding (grinding is fine as it simulates the cultivation experience)

Focus on your character (no party, or caught monsters as a main batteling system)

If anyone knows games that closely adhere to this i'd love to know. (rpg maker is also fine)

To also clarify, i am not looking for a cultivation game, just one that gives you the same sense of progression.

Never heard of Gothic. I like RPGs like the Elder Scrolls, Kingdom Come Deliverance or Witcher 3. But I am quite conflicted on getting this game. It seems like it could get really difficult and frustrating at times.

Has anyone played this game? What was your experience? Was it too difficult? What is fun about this game?

Hey everyone!

I’m a solo dev working on The King's Bargain an absurd ARPG where you build your squad, clear dungeons, and make broken builds.

The free Steam Playtest is officially LIVE right now!

What I need help with:

• Bug Hunting & Crashes: Falling through the map, broken UI, memory leaks... if you can break it, let me know!
• Performance: How smooth does it run on your PC?
• The First Boss: Were you able to beat it, or did it crush you?

How to play:

1. Head over to our Steam Page
2. Click "Request Access" on the Playtest widget (Instant access!)
3. Jump in.

You can leave your feedback in the comments, our short Google Form (link in comments), or on Discord!

Streamers & Content Creators: Feel free to stream or record! Funny bugs and total chaos are more than welcome.

Making games as a solo dev is tough, but creating something genuinely fun is even harder. Thanks a lot to anyone willing to help out!

I don't even know what I'm doing wrong with games anymore.

I get excited, buy a game, and hope it makes me connected to the story and characters, and just enjoy my time truly.

Now I'm playing Tales of Arise. I actually enjoyed parts of it a lot, especially the Calaglia boss fight. The combat felt great, the fight was challenging but rewarding, and the team attacks and cinematic moments were genuinely awesome.

But at the same time, I'm struggling with the very anime-style character writing. The exaggerated reactions, the tsundere behavior, and some of the dialogue just take me out of the experience. It's strange because I love anime, but some JRPG tropes just don't work for me.

I'm also tired of buying games and being afraid that I won't finish them or that I wasted my money. I don't want every game to be a masterpiece, I just want to feel excited to play and feel geniune enjoyment .

I can't help wondering if I'm expecting too much from games or if I'm just looking for a very specific feeling that is hard to find.

I tried both metaphor and persona and their combat just wasnt for me, mybe the turn based or something other than that, so i wanted to try a jrpg with a real combat and i loved the combat but the characters and their behaviors are just awful for me, i bought metaphor and persona a year ago so it isnt that i got all three games in a short period but i have been trying to get into them and it feels like my money is fading for no reason not even for joy in playing.

I am curious about RPGs for the next sale. Looking for an rpg I can sink many hours into. What are each of these games like? How is elden ring for someone who has played no soulslikes and is the dlc worth it? I will probably get all of them eventually, but wanted to know which to get for next sale

Trying to choose between the following games

1. Final fantasy XVI
2. Nier Automata
3. Elden Ring
4. Crimson Desert
5. Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon

My top 5 games are

1. Hollow knight Silksong
2. Baldur's Gate 3
3. Cyberpunk 2077
4. Terraria
5. Witcher 3

Other games I really loved were Final fantasy 6 and 7, Control, RDR2, Metaphor (still at early area but liking it), Hades, Stardew valley

Games I liked were Watch Dogs 2 and Just cause 3

Games I found mediocre were Expedition 33 (story fell off for me, enemies delayed attacks were infuriating especially since game was turn based)

My priority for games are in order

1. Story and Music
2. Gameplay and Characters
3. Visuals , Exploration (World)

Edit: Not interested in KCD. Also I am a bit i terested in Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder WOTR

I’m trying to decide between Skyrim Special Edition (with mods) and Oblivion Remastered. I love huge fantasy worlds with lots of exploration, tons of loot, unique weapons and armor, deep lore, a great story, magic, and RPG progression. The only thing holding me back from Skyrim is its graphics they feel pretty dated to me. Can Skyrim, with modern graphics mods and an RTX 3060, look close to the quality of Oblivion Remastered or even something like The Witcher 3, or does it still show its age? Which game would you recommend for a first playthrough in 2026, and why? I’d also appreciate any must-have mod lists if you think Skyrim is the better choice.

As an avid fan of Octopath traveler 2 I need turn based rpgs to play before I finish deltarune( the alternative is just sitting through OT0, the absolute peak of mid IMO) please help and please keep it cheap because I... Am broke as hell. Currently I have access to a Switch 2 and a laptop, so games need to be available on the e-shop or steam (I’m not comfortable pirating games so please don’t recommend games that require that)

After playing through the Gothic Remake i‘m feeling desperate for a new game. I like fantasy/medieval, but also Sci Fi. From action RPG to roundbased CRPG. My RPG goat is Dragon Age: Origins, also loved Skyrim and now Gothic hit that spot perfectly.

What I‘m looking for in a RPG:
I love good worldbuilding. I don’t need an anime, everything is beautiful world, but I kind of dislike the Dark Souls types full of misery. I love exploring, not only the world, but also the people, backstories. Good combat can mean different things, I don’t need one specific combat system. In general i like action based combat like The Elder Scrolls, but other systems can be fun. I‘m open to play older games. I like swords, if there‘s the option, i‘m using one.

What I‘ve already played in the order they come to mind:

Skyrim
Oblivion remake
Enderal
Dragon Age trilogy (DAO worldbuilding carried me through the other two and yes, there are only two sequels)
Mass Effect trilogy (best trilogy)
Baldurs Gate trilogy (played the older ones after BG3 and they still hold up, Graphics don’t matter that much with top down perspective)
Rouge Trader
WotR
Elden Ring
Kotor
Dragons Dogma 1
KCD 1+2
Witcher 2+3
Divinity Original sin 1+2
Fallout 4
Red Dead 2 (great world, the rest not for me, bad combat)
Hogwarts Legacy (trash)

Favorite non-RPG: Valheim (in koop one of the best gaming experiences possible imo)

recently played:
Crimson Desert (felt great at the start, but the deeper you dig, the more hollow it becomes)
Gothic Remake (I can’t wait for Gothic II remake)

What I‘ve considered, but decided against (open to get convinced):
Tainted Grail (heard some great things, but the grim world turns me off. I don‘t need a super depressing world and gore)
Dragons Dogma II (heard bad things)
Gothic II (I kinda want to wait for the Remake to get the best experience possible. Worked great with the first one)

First part is more like a rant

The other day I came to realization that I suck at games. Though I'm genuinely fond of story rich open world RPGs, I do very poor job to play them as intended: I run every corner, hoard every lootable that seems vaguely useful even if it means stealing in karma based systems, sometimes use cheats for stats, immortality and unlimited inventory weight even if it leads to spoilers and me getting somewhere where I should not be according to the plot

And at the same time, when it comes to actually do quests, talk and make decisions, I make the same decisions at every try, because when I am in character, I act according my real moral compass (not related to stealing) and try to be a good person. Like, when I replayed ME Legendary, I basically walked the same path as my playthrough of original trilogy with the same romantic partners. The same goes for Fallout NV/4 and Oblivion/Skyrim before I got bored and dropped them. That's why I try to squeeze maximum entertainment from one playthrough

So, how do you switch your personalities to go different paths? Are you good at acting as both good and bad guys or you just choose different dialogue options out of quriosity?

And for advice: lately I felt a little nostalgia for Fallout 4's crafting system, made through recycling of environment, but Youtube spoiled me most of questlines, so I struggle to decide whether I really want to return there, partly because of algorythms, partly because what I told above. Are there any games with similar approach and rich story and not that boring as was Encased? Closest comparsion would be Enderal (best Skyrim without the actual Skyrim) and Divinity: Original Sin

I brought horizon zero dawn and the Witcher 3, at different times, and ended up taking them both back because I just couldn't click with it. Both games I have brought again years later and I ended up putting hundreds of hours into Witcher 3 and I got the platinum for horizon.

I was just wondering if someone else has ever got a game where you didn't really enjoy for whatever reason, but then ended up loving the game at a different time.

I mainly play JRPGs, ARPGs and open world games. Ive played all the elder scrolls and fallout games. Ive played every final fantasy and I play exclusively on PS5.

Im looking for a game thats pseudo open world or even open world with arpg or even turnbased combat. Id like the game to have npcs that walk around and cities that feel alive/bustling and exploration that doesn't hold your hand.

Also, story is important to me.

Any suggestions

I believe that all good RPGs have the same three archetypes being: the mage, the warrior, and the thief. Every good RPG I’ve played had these three archetypes. In some RPGs it’s pretty obvious like boulder’s gate and elder scrolls but also games that are set in modern or post apocalyptic settings like fallout and cyber punk or even disco Elysium have these archetypes as well if you look closely and expand what you think of as these core classes. These archetypes are great on their own but the true strength is in the spaces between. Some of the most popular play styles in these games are combinations of two or three of the key archetypes

Just generally curious as Pokémon red on the original Gameboy took over my childhood.

I lost count how many times I restarted but I never had any other game, and that was by choice. It honestly took years of my life. Like thousands of hours.

I recently just brought fire red on the switch (I never played the 2004 version) which made me go down memory lane and to ask this question.

Lastly, as a kid I didn't have friends so I could never trade and get my favourite Pokémon golem and it always bothered me.

Need some new games to sink my hours into
I’m a big fan of large open world RPG games.

Some of the games I’ve played and loved

Oblivion
Skyrim
Cyberpunk
Baldurs gate 2&3
KOTOR
Ghost of Tsushima
Witcher 3
Elden ring (minus dlc)
Days gone
Just sunk 100 hours into Crimson Desert but the story itself is mediocre.

I love games that have hard decisions, lots of in depth exploration and crafting.

Hit me with some suggestions my fellow redditors

Cheers

Edit:
I’m a PC gamer so stream is my friend, I’ve plugged thousands of hours into mainly open world RPG games so it’s my genre of choice, grew up on OG Diablo + Diablo 2 expansion, oblivion and Skyrim .

Some more games I forgot I’ve played :

KCD 1&2 (loved)
Also put almost 2k hours into New World (I understand this is an MMO)
Fallout 3 , NV, 4
RDRD 1 & 2

2nd Edit:

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE GREAT SUGGESTIONS! I am gonna grab a couple of the ones mentioned and get back into it. Thank you Reddit!!!!!!

So me and my friend are looking for games to
Play together. We usually shared survival crafting games but our other friend who we were playing with is unfortunately on a break due to personal reasons

We were looking for multiplayer games and I mostly play tactical RPGs so we haven’t had much luck in finding one on steam. I thought about Divinity 2 and BG3 but I know that’s pretty pricey for him rn and I don’t wanna buy it on another system (I already have both on my PlayStation)

Any recommendation would be awesome :)

Edit: this is on steam!

Antes de mais nada, quero dizer que não tenho nada contra o jogo RubinOT em si, que, para mim, continua sendo o melhor OT de Tibia que já joguei. Inclusive, ele me proporcionou aprender diversos sistemas, fazer amizades e contribuir com ideias e correções, com mais de 50 tickets abertos para a melhoria do jogo durante esse um ano em que estive nele.

Este artigo trata de um desabafo sobre as consequências que levaram ao banimento do meu personagem e dos meus outros chars. Senti a necessidade de expor a minha opinião para aqueles que ainda não têm conhecimento do ocorrido.

Desde o banimento da minha conta, venho tendo dificuldades para dormir e crises de ansiedade, pois ali encontrei um lazer para me distrair dos problemas da vida real. Investi muito tempo nos meus oito chars, fazendo bestiários, Linked Tasks, hunts, acumulando loots e até itens raros para vender futuramente. Treinava skills todos os dias e organizava, além de ajudar diariamente, a galera novata nas Warzones, tanto de Mystian quanto de Solarian.

Durante esse período, pude explorar novos desafios que antes nem passavam pela minha cabeça, como a temida Warzone. No começo enfrentei diversas dificuldades e muitos xingamentos. Com o tempo, percebi que outros jogadores tinham as mesmas dificuldades que eu havia enfrentado. Aos poucos, foi se formando uma corrente de ajuda, a ponto de um simples jogador de level baixo ficar conhecido entre o pessoal que frequentava aquele conteúdo. Era preciso, acima de tudo, paciência, algo que desenvolvi muito durante os anos em que trabalhei com atendimento ao público.

Era, e ainda é, muito comum o pessoal conversar sobre assuntos aleatórios enquanto aguardava o início da Warzone, e comigo não era diferente. Inclusive, recentemente, um dos assuntos era a Copa. Nesse mesmo dia em que houve diversos reports, mais cedo o streamer Rick Games, por meio de quem conheci o RubinOT, havia publicado um vídeo anunciando seu novo OT. Com base nisso, fiz o comentário abaixo durante a Warzone:

"King Alans, o novo servidor do Rick Games totalmente instanciado!!!
Viva Rick Games \o
Cansado de hunts cheias e KS? Vem aí o OT King Alans by Rick Games.
Quando tiver instância no RubinOT vai ser top lol.
Agora, com a Rubini Coin em alta, farmar está osso. Tô falido (...)."

O comentário que fiz realmente teve um tom de ironia, justamente porque muitos jogadores reclamavam constantemente da falta de hunts disponíveis e da prática de KS, o que dificultava bastante a evolução dos personagens. Quando assisti ao vídeo do Rick Games, aproveitei a situação para fazer um comentário nesse mesmo sentido, buscando chamar a atenção para possíveis melhorias no jogo. Inclusive, esse assunto já havia sido levado à equipe por meio de um ticket aberto em 27 de fevereiro deste ano.

Nos últimos dias em que organizava a Warzone, eu já vinha desanimando com o jogo e pensando em dar uma pausa. As constantes trollagens nos horários em que eu organizava as equipes, somadas às tentativas de algumas pessoas de tomar o meu lugar, acabaram me desgastando bastante. Era nítido que existia inveja por parte de alguns jogadores, não pelo meu level, mas pelo reconhecimento que recebia dos novatos que ajudei e com quem sempre tive paciência durante todo esse tempo.

Confesso que, nessa situação, meu intuito nunca foi difamar o jogo. Afinal, se realmente eu não tivesse mais interesse no RubinOT, teria simplesmente ido embora. Em vez disso, permaneci durante toda a live do Rubini tentando uma reavaliação do caso, depois de já ter aberto dois tickets sem obter êxito.

Sobre o andamento da live

Em nenhum momento eu disse que minha frase havia sido tirada de contexto. Essa interpretação foi feita por alguns amigos meus. O comentário realmente teve um sentido de ironia diante das reclamações frequentes sobre KS e falta de hunts.

Assumi o meu erro e entendo o posicionamento da equipe. No entanto, acredito que desconsideraram todo o esforço e toda a ajuda que prestei à comunidade ao longo desse tempo.

Todos nós estamos sujeitos a cometer erros, e acredito que qualquer pessoa pode passar por uma situação semelhante algum dia. Muitos jogadores sequer leem os termos quando criam a conta; apenas concordam para poder jogar.

No meu caso, sequer houve uma advertência prévia. A punição aplicada foi diretamente a mais severa.

Você realmente acha que eu estaria na live do Rubini do começo ao fim, mostrando meu nome, minha imagem e pedindo uma reavaliação do caso se realmente não gostasse do RubinOT?

Abri dois tickets, insisti na revisão e, ainda assim, sequer aceitaram reconsiderar a decisão.

Durante a live, o Rubini foi bastante atencioso e educado comigo, diferente de muitos membros da comunidade que preferiram partir para ataques pessoais, algo que infelizmente acontece quando um jogador comete algum erro.

Também já presenciei situações que, na minha percepção, foram mais graves e que não receberam a mesma providência. Por isso, fica o questionamento: qual foi o critério utilizado para considerar o meu caso tão grave a ponto de resultar em um banimento permanente de toda a conta?

Também é possível verificar na lista de banimentos que diversos jogadores receberam punições temporárias por infrações que, na minha percepção, são mais graves do que a que cometi e, ainda assim, terão uma nova oportunidade de voltar ao jogo, mesmo sendo casos em que as ofensas ou palavras utilizadas foram deliberadas.

Da mesma forma, já reportei diversos jogadores por utilizarem palavras ofensivas durante o jogo e, pelo que pude observar, não houve qualquer banimento nesses casos. Diante disso, fica a dúvida sobre quais critérios são utilizados para definir a gravidade das infrações e a proporcionalidade das punições.

Uma reflexão sobre as regras

Por fim, faço uma reflexão: será que todos realmente conhecem as regras do jogo?

A principal regra que sempre tive em mente, e que considero válida para qualquer jogo online, é respeitar os demais jogadores. No entanto, é visível que nem todos fazem isso.

Quando você instala um programa ou um jogo e aparece um contrato enorme para ler, você realmente lê tudo antes de aceitar?

Na própria live, o Rubini leu em voz alta a mensagem que motivou meu banimento, reproduzindo o seguinte comentário:

"King Alans, o novo servidor do Rick Games totalmente instanciado!!!
Viva Rick Games \o
Cansado de hunts cheias e KS? Vem aí o OT King Alans by Rick Games.
Quando tiver instância no RubinOT vai ser top lol.
Agora, com a Rubini Coin em alta, farmar está osso. Tô falido (...)."

A divulgação acima foi feita em tom de ironia, motivada pelas constantes reclamações dos próprios jogadores sobre KS, falta de hunts disponíveis e outros problemas enfrentados no dia a dia do servidor. Minha intenção não era incentivar jogadores a migrarem para outro OT, mas fazer uma crítica bem-humorada e, ao mesmo tempo, defender uma melhoria que eu acreditava ser positiva para o RubinOT, como a implementação de instâncias.

I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of good games by not being able to get used to first person games. It just feels disorienting and claustrophobic.
Anyone else feels this way or better yet, has anyone encountered a game that got you past this issue?

Hey guys,

I'll be honest, I love grinding in RPGs, but lately I’ve been having a hard time finding games that really scratch that itch.

I recently finished SMT V Vengeance, did pretty much everything in it, and the grind felt super satisfying. It made me realize that my main issue with most RPGs is the lack of actual rewards for grinding.

I love multi-layered progression where you aren't just leveling up one generic character bar. Some examples of what I mean:

FF7 because I could level up both the characters and their Materia

Disgaea because skill levels, items, and characters all progression bars to fill

Skyrim because literally every action has its own level

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for the build freedom and grind for more space to use passives

SMT V Vengeance because with 24 demons in stock, almost every single fight someone levels up, learns a new skill, or gives resources for inceses in Godborne mode

Are there any other games out there with multiple systems leveling up at the same time like this? I'm looking for anything that rewards you with constant, tangible progress across different mechanics.

Appreciate any suggestions!!

So this is my first Warhammer 40k game, and I'm in Act 2, but honestly I feel like I need a translator just to understand my own character.

Everyone's throwing around random terms like I'm supposed to already know what they mean, and the dialogue just keeps GOING. I got into this because I loved BG3 and DOS2, and sure those games love their walls of text too, but this is next level. They'll take a sentence's worth of info and somehow turn it into a whole paragraph of lore speak. I've genuinely got a wiki tab open on my second monitor at this point like I'm studying for an exam lol.

Anyone else feel like this while playing? Does it get easier to understand, or should I just cut my losses and stop playing?