I wrote a review of the recent Shadow Warrior for TruePCGaming. http://truepcgaming.com/2014/01/10/tpg-second-look-shadow-warrior-2013-review/ 

http://thepathofshadows.com/ 

Seems like it'd work best as a short play rogue like with situations, exploration and permadeath, rather than a scripted story you just play once.

You just described Routine perfectly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaZqV0o7EW4 

been following it for a while. It would be an upgrade-worthy game IMO. 

yeah sock that looks great. you know, I kinda wish I had more time in life, I think I'd seriously consider making my own indie game. It'd be first person, mix of a shooter and puzzle-adventure, maybe in a fantasy type setting. But with some unique aspects to it. Probably with the source engine because it's easy, although it's not the prettiest. and sell it on steam.

was just looking at idtech5 games today and see Brendon Chung is making his own game with it. He used to make Quake2 levels before going off and creating standalone titles with id's engines. his levels weren't even that great.

You should do your own game sock, you definitely have the artistic talent. your last couple of levels in a modern engine would be great. 

Started to think more about it... anyone looked into Unity engine? http://unity3d.com/

Looks pretty great, full AAA graphics and capabilities. In fact on the games list I recognise of those developers names - Ninja Theory (DMC, Heavenly Sword), Obsidian Entertainment (New Vegas). It does cost ($1500 all up or $75 a month but there's also a free version), but it looks like you can just about create your own game without any actual hard coding, what with all the assets (1000s) available. There's even full gaming kits for FPS or RPG's so the game structure is already built.

3D models for instance, there's 5000 you can purchase, mostly well under $100. You could purchase an entire games worth of creatures and characters for easily under a $1000. Which is what I'd do. ie check this out, fully animated, only $10 https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/13626

Then I'd just need to hire a freelance coder or team up to do all the AI, but all the levels I'd build myself.

Unfortunately I can't be fucked learning a 3D modelling program to build all the levels, gave 3dsmax a go and hated it, though maya looks way better. But just don't have the time but if I were 18 instead of 33, I'd do it, it would be such an awesome opportunity to build your own game (though if I was young 18 I couldn't afford any of the tools anyway). 

For unity I would be all over it 

Same. Maybe they could integrate it somehow, one day... 

At work. 

I'd elaborate more but now I need to go to work, to use Unity. 

Yeah just browsed all the threads on here that mention it and see you use it, and Kinn's building a game in it. How's your game going Kinn? 

http://www.sixbysevenstudio.com/wp-flexible/project/probuilder-for-unity-3d/ 

I have priveliged information about [Unity's] corporate structure that morally compels me to avoid it.

to be frank, they are thieves, spies, and saboteurs. in keeping with stereotypes of 1980s movies about corporations. but, game engines. 

Well, our financial situation went tits in a quite hilarious way pretty quickly, so I've been making stuff for a proper company again to pay the bills.

Not for long though! I'm leaving the industry for good in six weeks, in order to manage a small music festival with my bro', and (more importantly) arse about with Quake again :}

Unity is the dog's danglies though. I'll make a proper post about what I've made so far in it (at some point). 

Well, our financial situation went tits in a quite hilarious way pretty quickly, so I've been making stuff for a proper company again to pay the bills.

Snap! 

"snap" as in "oh, snap!", or as in "lol, same here"...? 

Snap as in the British kid's card game. 

Is a powerful engine that removes most of the barriers at beginner and intermediate level.

Once you start trying to push it to do things it wasn't designed for it gets more complex. Manually writing shaders is also a pain in the arse, but has the benefit that you don't have to precache anything.

There is a package that allows you to generate shaders as well.

the amount of packages and stuff available is pretty impressive - there's tools to do most stuff that might cross your mind.

And it's multiplatform, including all major consoles, devices and web browser. 

That does look good spiney 

It's a DayZ / Minecraft thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_qTqZaMkn8 

You dudes gave me some decent ideas before. I ended up playing quite a bit of Torchlight 2 which was fun. I did have issues with steam's offline mode, game updates, and a load of other shit and I think eventually the game simply couldn't update nor start, and I ended up uninstalling it and steam in frustration.

So....I need similar advice to last time: Low-ish spec (or scalable), easy to control RPG / RTS / action games, NOT totally old-skool, and ideally NOT requiring Steam nor any other online system. I had a brief look at Drakensang which might be an option. I'm open to other ideas....