2022-02-02 04:14:43

Hello all!
It has been a long long time since I last posted here. But today I wanted to introduce you to a brand new game, called Port-monde.
First of all, I should tell you that this game is currently available in French only. An English translation is definitly conceivable, but considering the massive amound of text, it'd be a very long term process. That being said, all the game's content is text based, so I thought a translation system such as an NVDA addon could solve the issue for most players. Regarding the quality of Port-monde, atleast I think it's worth giving it a try.
I'm not directly involved in the project, but I'm in touich with the developper, Corax, and I'll make sure to answer any questions you might have about the game.
Ok, warnings and such, done, let's put things in context now.
Port-monde allows you to explore a large, dangerous but stil amazing world, set between others. More than a world, Port-monde is some kind of crossroad between worlds, a place where you'll find an intense, rich and complex commercial activity, as well as a life based on danger and how to deal with it. More than everything, Port-monde is a place of magic, probably the place of magic. The game lets you take part in this world's story by incarnating François Malveine, a human from our world who finds himself transported to this strange, dark and fantastic place of opportunities. Port-monde is currently in public beta stage, proposing a major part of its content, the rest to be released in a few months. The full release will allow you access to three adventgures, each based on a different character, with different objectives, origines and such. Currently two of them are available, the first unlocked by default being François' adventure.
Each adventure has multiple ends, unlocking many achievments.
The game's mechanic is one of an rpg, mixed with elements of deckbuilding and many specific concepts related to magic and how to deal with it. For now the game allready gives access to hours of exploration, quests and surprises.

Port-monde is currentlyh available for mac and windows, and is soon to be released for Linux as wel. All the related download links can be found onItch :

https://le-nid-de-corax.itch.io/port-mondes

Note that the introducing text is in French to, but the download links can easily be identified by following itch's usual pathern.
Also note that the game hasn't been tested using translation addons, I really hope it'll work properly and you'll enjoy this game as I did.
Do not hesitate to ask questions here about the game itself or any rule/background element you may have missed due to the automatic translation; I'll try to answer as well as I can.

Enjoyh!
Best regard,
Simon

2022-02-02 05:28:25

Thank you so much for introducing me to his games.

Sentinel, out.
Contact me via telegram at t.me/velanGL, or through discord as azuremist. Do not pm me without informing me somewhere I need to read them as I do not check them and can't read the email this account is attached to

2022-02-02 06:09:41

Hi all! Can you please tell me if there is a steam version of this game?

2022-02-02 09:02:18

Hi.
Wow it sounds interesting. Is the game free with all this content? I wouldn't mind paying, especially if the game gets translated into English in the future.
Is it a mainstream game which has been made accessible, or is it made spicific for blind people?

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2022-02-02 09:09:36

Hey hey folks!
I'm in a bit of a hurry right now and therefore only took a quick look at the main menu, but that worked quite well with the translate addon for NVDA.
And because it's not that easy to get a current version for it, I'll leave you a link here for all those who need the addon quickly.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8fo5igzx4vkhc … addon?dl=1

2022-02-02 11:56:18

If you have any issues with the add-on (or downloading it like I did,) you can just copy and paste the text into google translate itself and it'll still work. I did have issues with copying the menu, but for the most part, the game explains what it does and most of that you should be able to figure out using NVDA to read the basic bits. Sounds interesting so far. I would definitely appreciate a translation into
English someday though.

2022-02-02 12:41:59

this is actually quite awesome. It feels like a bit of japanese text adventure, mix with untold style of gameplay. I don't understand the challange phase however. The ambiances are great too. haven't find myself in combat just yet though.

2022-02-02 15:13:08

Hi!
@3 nop, the game is on Itch.io only and, atleast for now, I think it's going to last. Nothing to worry about though, it's far easier to download from itch than from steam.

@4 nop, the game is, and will be free to play even when the final version comes out.

@5 thanks for linking the addon, I didn't think about it, myh bad.

About the translation itself, I'm afraid yhou'll have to wait for a while, it would be a really hard work and, for now, I'm the only available translator. I hope the addon will allow you to play anyway.
For those of you who have difficulties understanding some of the game's mechanic, I'll write down qsomes basics here to help you get started.
some commands first : the escape key gives you access to a game menu regrouping all relevant submenus, such as quests, equipment, inventory and so on. Nearly all of them can be accessed with shortcuts though :
a help menu, q: quest menu, i : inventory, e: equipment, d: deck, s : situation (a sumary of your current status including effects, toxicity...), p : character, there you'll find your caracteristics, effects too... select a stat to read its description as wel as how it's calculated.
A word abnout the deck now :
in Port monde, your deck represents your character's ressources, on a physical and mental point of view. Those are spent when using magic of course, but also when having to make a physical effort. This is because magic depends on all your habilities, your body as wel as your mind. Stil because magic is probably the most influent thing in port monde, your ressources are devided into the four emotrions on wikich magic relies to focus and create energy: passion, compassion, hatred and anger. Those are the main ressources you'll have in deck. Other cards, negative ones, will find their way into it too, these cards represents the fact that your ressources will be affected by exhaustion, poison, sickness and such.
When you have to engage into a challengingf activity, no mather if it's difficult or not, you'll have to test you caracteristics against the challenge's difficulty. This is mostly done in trhree different ways :
a test : in this case, the relevant caracteristics is used toi reduce the test's difficulty, then a dice is rolled. Your result must be above the test's difficulty for you to pass it.
-a physical challenge : there you'll be asked to draw cards, thgere is a maximum, based on the challenge's difficulty, but yhou can easily adjust the amound of cards you wish to draw by using left and right arrows. Evenif you can't draw more than the authorised max, you can however draw less than asked if you want to spare your ressources and you think you don't need so many energy. As you may have noticed, each card has a value on it, indicating its power. In a physical chaqllenge, the game will add the values of the drawn cards, which will define how many dices are rolled.
-magical challenge : in a magical challenge, your character is asked to focus and to use its magical energy to pass the test. The draw phase is exactly the same, except that this time, the cards' value will simply be added together, forming a set result, more predictible than dices.
All those tests, as well as spellcasting, will slowly drain your energy, emptying your deck. When your card stock is empty, and your cards have been discarded, the game makes a deck reconstitution. All you ressource cards instantly return to your pile, except for some (usually three) which will be consumed, replaced by exhaustion cards. These cards have no effect except a small one in combat, but they bring you no energy when drawn. This way, slowly but surely, your deck represents the fact that the more you do without resting, the more you get tired.
Other deck mechanics exist, but I'll let you discover them along the game. Try to read the different topics in the help menu if you're in trouble, and don't hesitrate to ask here if you're stil confused.


Best regard,
Simon

2022-02-02 16:00:38

This game surpassed Untold for me, which is an achievement lol

If you want to contact me, do not use the forum PM. I respond once a year or two, when I need to write a PM myself. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Telegram: Nuno69a
E-Mail: nuno69a (at) gmail (dot) com

2022-02-02 17:01:28

Hi!
@9 glad to hear it! I definitly agree, this is mostly why I thought the translation potential issue would be a minor disadvantage compared to the originality and quality of the game itself.

Best regard,
Simon

2022-02-02 17:26:58

Well, I'm already at the inn. Playing with translator is super slow shit but I think the story is worth it.

2022-02-02 17:57:51

Hi,
@11 Keep in mind that if you're using nvda's addon, it'll reccord each translated sentence during a same session, so if you're internet connexion is slowing down the process, soon you'll only encounter this in storyline and in new areas, every item/action you've allready met will be instantly translated.

Best regard,
Simon

2022-02-02 18:14:44

@Arkandias: Hey hey!
Oh, I'm happy if I can be of any use!
I am not sure if this is the latest Version of this addon.
Maybe someone here can help with a more recent version?

2022-02-02 18:20:25

When do you think the story will be translated? is it an audio game? videogame? was made accessible from the start? was inadvertently accessible? was implemented later?

2022-02-02 18:29:11

Do you need to do something to get the addon to work?
I've installed the addon, and downloaded the game, but all the text is still in french.

is there something I need to do to get the addon to work? I got the impression from the addon's help page that it should be automatic, if slow.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2022-02-02 18:32:21

@Dark: You have to press NVDA-control-shift t to activate and deactivate the addon.

2022-02-02 18:40:07

I have some stuff no mention
1; Some sounds are not normalized, and so some are so loud that my TTS is too quiet for reading!
2; When I reload the game, the log for previous session stays in the status bar. I think that the log should be either cleared, or the log of the save should be presented instead.
3; The game seems disturbingly linear for now. I haven't encountered any side quests nor anything. The city seems to be rather empty, no NPC to speak, ETC. I hope that's just because I'm a random newcomer who doesn't know magic yet.
4; The game is honest. If they tell you "Don't go to the sewers" then listen to them. Even stupid rats could kill me easily.
5; I love this game sooo fucking much.

If you want to contact me, do not use the forum PM. I respond once a year or two, when I need to write a PM myself. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Telegram: Nuno69a
E-Mail: nuno69a (at) gmail (dot) com

2022-02-02 18:44:00

Hi!
@14 The game was originally made for the blind and visually impaired , though it contains some graphics to make it a little more comfortable for sighted people. As mentionned in my first post, it is to be translated someday, but considering the size of the project, it may take years before we're done. In the mean time I'm pretty sure automatic translation will allow you to understand nearly everything. It worked for japanese games, I'm quite convinced French and English have much more in common.
@15 I don't know if we're using the exact same addon, but with the one I'm using you have to enable translation with n v d a shift t to get it to work, the same command disable it when you want to go back to normal mode. I think you don't need to configure the source and target language as you had to with previous versions, but if it stil doesn't work, try looking for a related menu in you preferences, it should contain all the required settings.
In case, here is the link to the version I'm using. For those of you who uses an addon requiring one input for each translation, I suggest that you take this one in staid, you'll gain a considerable amound of time.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rl85or89leldz … addon?dl=1

Best regard,
Simon

2022-02-02 18:49:41

@ 17:
There's an options section in the start of the game (it might be in the main game too under menu, but not sure). You can change the settings for sound and music volume there. I know just what you mean about the sound being too loud at times; I had the same problem at first.

2022-02-02 18:51:46

Will it be for android one day? the game is in python but who knows...

2022-02-02 18:55:39

@Nuno :
the game is definitly honnest with you. Look at it as a classical table top rpg, the gm is allways honnest with you. Not that he tells you every existing truth. But tghe few he says, you'd better believe it. Keep in mind that these rats aren't just rats, they grow live and survive in the sewers of a city of magic, experimentations and general chaos. A wizzard should have no big trouble with them, but that's the thing, you're not exactly a wizzard for now.
About the ambiance/music, don't forget you can adjust global and specific volumes in the option menu by pressing escape and going to option or pressing o in game. Another trick, what I did in the arena for example, is to temporarily allow NVDA to adjust the volume of other apps when talking, with NVDA shift d.
I wouldn't say the world is empty. Keep in mind you only find new places by exploring. Besides, as you very well said, you currently are magicless, unable to use even the most basic tool a common wizzard would handle without thinking about it. Another thing : port monde and the port itself are two very different things : the port is the most populated district, regrouping most of the commercial and industrial activity, and protected from monstrers by powerful spells. But the port is one of manyh district in Port Monde, which is actually composed of many dimensions, specific environments, each with its own timespeed and structure. Trust me you stil have many many things to discover in the first, but especiallyh in the second adventure.

Best regard,
Simon

2022-02-02 19:06:53

P.S. I have a problem with understanding the cards system. WHen I decrease the number of them I want to take, the number for succeeding actually increases which couldn't happen IMO lol.

If you want to contact me, do not use the forum PM. I respond once a year or two, when I need to write a PM myself. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Telegram: Nuno69a
E-Mail: nuno69a (at) gmail (dot) com

2022-02-02 19:29:06

Hi!
@Nuno That's perfectly normal. The number of cards you draw also impact the number of times the relevant caracteristic is deducted from the original difficulty. The apropriate helpfile, dedicated to tests and challenges shou!ld explain it better than I, but for physical challenges, the number of cards you draw determine the number of rolled dice, but also how the difficulty is reduces by the tested stat. See it as a bundle of tests. A simple dexterity test for example would imply one dice, and the test's difficulty would be reduced by once your dexterity, with a minimum of 1 for the difficulty, and a maximum of 6. This way a test allways has a chance  to be won or lost no mather how strong you are in this caracteristic. In a challenge, you'll find the same process multiplied by the amound of drawn cards.
A magical challenge however will simply add the different cards values, trying to reach a stable difficulty level.

Best regard,
Simon

2022-02-02 22:56:31

The game looks great, and thanks for the tips on the addon it's working now, though I've found even when turning the music down to %10, for some reason it was still rather loud, I'll likely need to mess with the options to get it to work correctly, but the game does look pretty awesome.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2022-02-02 23:36:43

Hi!
@Dark, you may have missed the confirmation button in the option menu. If you simply go bhack after your modifications they won't be saved. I don't know how the addon will translate it, but there must be a back button and a confirm button.
Oh and one command I should mention, pressing b during the game will switch you alternativly to the two displayed status, one displaying your health and magical proteciton if relevant, the other displaying your magic potentials or intensities (depend if you're in combat or not of course).
Best regard,
Simon