Code of the Savage, a single-player RPG being developed by one Geoff Jones, is not something that’s been covered here on the Codex to date, and that is an unfortunate oversight indeed. Billed as “a classic style western RPG that’s inspired by some of the great role playing games of the golden era of gaming” (which, in this case, means the 1980s and 1990s), it was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter back in July and August of 2018. Since then, it has progressed through a few alpha builds, the latest of which was released in July of 2020.

The developer describes his motivations for creating Code of the Savage thusly, and name-checks Ultima in the explanation:

Since I was a kid, it has been my dream to create an RPG of my own. I started very early on making RPG’s on paper (which I still have hidden away in a box somewhere). These were very crudely made but had complex tables, charts and rules. I was hugely inspired by the early Ultima games and the SSI gold box D&D series. 

When I was about 10, I taught myself how to code with Commodore 64 BASIC for the sole purpose of making an RPG. I eventually figured out enough to make a very crude and simple RPG which used ASCII characters to represent trees, and buildings etc (it wasn’t pretty)… Sadly these games have been lost to time.. Oh how I wish I still had the floppies so I could go back and have a look.

And you can definitely see this gaming and coding experience reflected in the description he offers of what Code of the Savage is:

Code of the Savage is a tale of vengeance and survival. After escaping a slave ship, you have found yourself in chains and washed ashore on the island Kingdom of Daneth. You must find your way in a brutal and unforgiving world where nothing is black and white. 

Deep and disturbing quandaries underpin the driving force of the game.

Code of the Savage is a no-holds-barred classic western style RPG. Inspired by the greats from the 80-90’s with a modern flair. There is a strong emphasis on player freedom through social and moral interactions… Will you choose to firebomb the brothel, the church… Or both? Will you do it for money, glory or just because?

I think a problem with many of today’s RPGs is that they expect you to know and care about their lore and backstory before you even take your first steps. In Code of the Savage, you and the main character are totally new to Daneth. So I don’t want you to know the lore and backstory straight away. I want you to discover these things on your own terms as you play the game and interact with its inhabitants.

I wanted to create a role playing game that brought me back to my gamer days as a child on the C64 and MS-DOS PC. There is just something lacking in today’s RPG’s that I miss. Tired of micro-transactions, and randomly generated worlds; I am creating a world that is handcrafted with purpose. Essentially, I am creating the game that I want to play.

So, what does this translate to, in terms of game features? Here’s a list:

– Open world – A large open, seamless, non-linear, hand-crafted world for you to explore. Including day and night cycles, and weather.
– Exploration – Discover towns, cities, hidden caves and dungeons. Unravel the rich lore of Daneth.
– NPCs with depth – Meet a rich cast of NPCs with a dynamic branching conversation system. NPCs remember your name and react differently depending on the situation.
– Dark themes – I don’t hold back on what some may consider offensive content. If you’re easily offended, Code of The Savage is probably not for you… This is not a “slay the dragon” and “save the princess” RPG.
– Player freedom – There are various ways to progress through the game, with no right or wrong answers. Morality in Code of The Savage is not black and white. You decide what’s right, and you decide what’s wrong.
– Adventure – Battle giants, undead and other creatures, hunt to gather resources, or go on a murderous rampage, the choice is yours.
– Combat – Fast-paced dynamic combat system which is a mix between turn based and real time. Combat encounters happen in real time, without loading to a separate combat screen.
– Inventory – An intuitive and easy to use inventory system. Any equipment and armour the player is wearing shows on their avatar.
– Controls – Smooth grid-based movement. Easy and intuitive mouse and keyboard controls.
– Roleplay– A familiar old school RPG game mechanic. Cast spells, hack, slash, level up, upgrade gear and kick ass!

There’s no ongoing crowdfunding campaign to allow you to further support development of Code of the Savage, but you can sign up for email notifications at the game’s official website. The developer recently had a cancer scare, which put him off of developing the game for a few months. But he has since resumed working on it (as of May of this year), and also resumed posting gameplay videos to his YouTube channel (the latest of which is embedded above).