Vapourware Aledorn (formerly Dungeons of Aledorn) - Realms of Arkania-like RPG

[MicoSelva]

Not going to make it at this rate, even assuming the $7K backer does not withdraw. They need to make at least ~$1500 per day to reach the goal, and they are getting barely more than half of that.

 

[CyberWhale]

People should withdraw their pledges from the Shit Dragon Scamaga and invest everything in DoA. Problem solved.

 

[Musaab]

Why not give money to both? How broke are you Jews?

 

[GlutenBurger]

Yeah, go crazy. Pledge hundreds to both. Chances are you'll never end up having to shell out for either, anyway.

I'm wondering about that $7000 pledge. Whoever did that is effectively giving an extra $2000 over the $5000 tier in order to be listed as an "executive producer." Hopefully that's a corporate entity looking to stick its brand's name in the game's credits, because the only likely alternative is that it's a fake pledge by somebody involved in production.

 

[Musaab]

There was a post somewhere in this thread I believe hinting it was some Second Life millionaire asian chick. I could be mistaken.

 

[GlutenBurger]

Found it in the other Aledorn thread. It was her husband, seemingly, but the information linked to has been deleted, which would imply he wishes to remain anonymous. Seems odd, considering the reward is a credit in the game.

 

[Essegi]

Update #4

Media Coverage and More

So far during the campaign we have already done a considerable number of interviews. Today we bring you a selection of some of the most common and the most interesting questions and answers.

Other Awesome Kickstarter Projects:
We would like to inform you about another interesting project that also fights to be funded on Kickstarter.


Our friends at Whale Hammer Games have launched a Kickstarter for Tahira. Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is a turn-based tactics RPG from developer Whale Hammer Games. Their Kickstarter campaign is in its final run and aiming to hit their main goal, so please be sure to check their game to help them reach the finish line! A turn-based tactics RPG about a princess, set during an age of darkness after the collapse of space faring civilization.

Nefarit had this to say about the project: "The game looks very interesting. The combination of a strong story and tactical battles sounds right."

And now, on to the interviews!


MKD20 - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
Blagoj Chuchanov: Why you decided to go on Kickstarter and is this your first game on Kickstarter?

Team21 (Nefarit): Kickstarter has now become a major phenomenon and very attractive for indie projects. With so many eyes from around the world paying the attention, a successful campaign on Kickstarter will bring you much more than just money. It gives you invaluable advertising and that is exactly what this game needs. There are a lots of titles published, though of course PC considerably less than on mobile devices. Even so, the competition is great and not easy to succeed. Therefore it is ,of course, important to have a good and interesting game, and when you put it on Kickstarter to tell the world,it helps market the game.

The second answer is money. All who are working on DoA, are doing it as a secondary career. Each of one us is doing something else to survive, we can say that most of us involved in the DoA development are part time. Which, of course, strongly inhibits the development. If we manage to get the money together from Kickstarter, it’d help with the basics, like buy food it, keeping the wolves from the door and so on. It would be much easier being able to pour in the time needed to develop such an ambitious title.

DoA is actually the debut title of Team 21, so it is also the first game we’ve taken to KS.

80 level - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
80 level: How do you manage to work with such great quantities of content? Do you use any asset stores or other content delivery platforms? Do you buy content or do you produce everything yourself?

Team21 (Nefarit): We use just a minimum of Unity´s prefab scripts to test things, because our programmer creates scripts on his own, specifically tailored to our project’s needs.

Considering our budget, we couldn’t have started to create everything we plan to include in DoA. We’re aiming at an experience like those from AAA RPG releases, and, therefore what we’re doing is using the best items available from Unity asset stores to get things started, and then we really get to work on the specific content for our game. Models are reworked, new HD textures and lighting is applied, shadows are implemented and so on. By the end, everything in DoA is a completely new asset!

As for animations, it’s a mix of things. Classic animations are bought from the assets store, since they greatly help us to streamline the whole process… but we also create special animations in our own motion capture studio! And then we have the music for DoA, which is being created by our composer in order to make everything come together into a cohesive universe.


Big Red Barrel - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
Rik: Part of the fun of pen and paper RPG’s is that they’re played with friends, will there be a multiplayer option in DoA, or is it purely a single player experience?

Team21 (Nefarit): This is obviously true, I think the most important part of these games. However, for Dungeons of Aledorn we decided to embrace the fight mechanics rather than the interaction between players. Multiplayer is definitely not planned. The game is not suitable for it. Maybe with a few large modifications it could be done, but then it would be a totally different game.

To players who want to play something similar in multiplayer I can only recommend one thing. Get up from the computer and go play a game at the table. In my opinion no computer game is better than most RPG desktop variations.

TGG - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
Jonas: Will there be classical monsters like vampires or werewolves? Love that stuff. P.S: not the twilight stuff. P.S2: can you become one?

Team21 (Nefarit): I can say only that much, that we have both monsters in our game. In the world of DoA werewolves resemble more to the wolf’s with extra deadly powers. On the contrary, vampires are extremely rare in this realm, but will be also one of the most powerful enemies you’ll cross (see the pun?) in our game.

Both types of enemies are part of side quests and it isn’t necessary to defeat them in order to finish the game. Being a werewolf or vampire is currently not possible.

IGM - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
Bonnie Burgette: The main character is described as an alcoholic bastard son – there’s a back story to that introduction, right? Can you tell us a bit more about him?

Team21 (Nefarit): This binds one interesting story, back when we (Daniel, the producer and level designer of the game and I) were discussing in the pub. At the time, Daniel still wasn’t too clear about the story, so he asked to have more on the background of the player. Like the majority of old-school dungeon RPGs, I wanted to have, more or less, an anonymous party of adventurers. Daniel liked the anonymous idea, but protested that in the present time, there has to be the main character – the player will somehow be incorporated into the plot – basically so that the player could identify with the character. Well, as part of the main story of saving the country, it would be good to have them develop a deeper relationship with the country land. For example, if you were the son of an Earl, this is because it would be boring for the players – to have money for everything within the game, and have the advantage of having the very best in weaponry and armor from the start.

That is why we created this alcoholic-bastard


PUSH - START - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
Push - Start: Any stretch goals in mind for your Kickstarter? Or if successful where you would like to see Dungeons of Aledorn go in the future?

Team21 (Nefarit): Our stretch goal list is, of course, prepared and it’s been ready for some time already. For now we can say that there are both minor and major game-changing features in it. From those minor ones, we’ll mention the possibility to creating your own magical equipment or a little extra item for our backers, which will definitely please all munchkins. There are also stretch goals adding more content such as side quests, bigger towns or voice acting of all the game dialogues (not only of the currently planned main plot dialogues).

For major ones, we’d like to point out the so called “living-NPCs” stretch goal, which would add a day cycle to all our NPCs (like Skyrim has) or an extra huge dungeon stretch goal, that would expand the game by around 20%, on top of its currently planned size. The biggest and final stretch goal would be the possibility to play the game as the “bad guys”- the Orcs. It actually adds a completely new campaign; where the player’s goal is to defeat the group of adventurers that’s threatening the interests and very existence of your nation.

We already have ideas for the future, in case that our game succeeds, to find its fans. We plan to publish two major expansions packs that will build on the mechanics and partially also on the story of the original game. We would also like to add another campaign that would bring a significant amount of extra playable content for our fans.

Invision Game Community - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
IGC: Before creating your game, what game influenced you and why did they?

Team21 (Nefarit): In a bad sense, it was mainly the Gods Lands of Infinity. The fact is that I always loved dungeon crawlers, but there were only a few new ones published in 2000-2012. As I was playing the Lands of Infinity, I had to ask myself constantly, how it´s even possible to create such flawed mechanics. Then it dawned on me, that there is a terrible lack of good dungeon crawlers on the market, which was at that time confirmed by the success of Legends of Grimmrock. That was the last impulse I needed to set me onto the trail to create a dungeon crawler of my own.

The game itself draws a lot from Betrayal at Krondor and Shadows Over Riva. Some mechanics were remotely inspired by Fallout, Might & Magic, King’s Bounty series and our Czech D&D equivalent, Dragon´s lair.

RPG Watch - (Click at the link for the complete interview)
Couchpotato: Will your funding goal of $60,000 be enough to cover all the costs of development?

Team21 (Nefarit): Yes, the lowest target will allow for us to finish the game at a bare bones level. The majority of the team are actually working on the project part time and the money would allow us to afford the opportunity to pour in more of our time. And would also, more or less, allow us to contract more freelancers. The previous two years we have financed all freelancers from our own resources, and the budget we ask for is wage for these freelancers (dubbing, graphical assets etc...) and for the studio. Please remember that wages in the Czech Republic are far less than in UK or USA. The tasks that we need to finish, before the game is done, are in majority of cases certain jobs of which does not generate continuous work for the contractors. What i am trying to say, is that we do not need to pay people on monthly basis and spend a lot of money on employees. All members of the team are paid task by task on the contract and that is making all game cheaper than you think.

 

[LeStryfe79]

RPG WATCH?

 

[Team 21]

So RPG Codex also prepare questions, and I would have no problem with the interview. If you collect all the questions here on the forum, it certainly puts together a reasonable number. And send it to me for example on team21@aledorn.com.

Nefarit

 

[4249]

That particular Watch interviewer really needs to find an editor for his interviews. I've read a couple of his and they've all been riddled with grammatical errors. And he uses the term RPG games a lot.

Also, what kind of a question is this supposed to be?

Will the game have the standard character customization options, stats, and abilities offered in most modern RPGs nowadays?

 

[MicoSelva]

RPG games, FPS shooters, RTS strategies. Aal Izz Well.

 

[Alchemist]

Looks like they succeeded in getting greenlit on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406908315
Congrats Team 21 !

Now lets get that Kickstarter funded people!

 

[AbounI]

Wow, that was fast.If I'm correct, the greenlight campaign started since 6 days.If only they could have raise funds within the same dlay, but unfortunatly, that's not the case.

However, the fact that the project is already greenlighted is a huge success.Now, raise funds Team 21

 

[Snorkack]

did the devs already state what they'll do if the kickstarter fails? Judging by their claim that the funding is solely needed for a Unity 5 port, I'd assume the game is already feature complete and will be released no matter what.

Edit - Also, am I blind or what? I thought pitching without any stretch goals is a big no-no.

 

[Cadmus]

somebody interview this guy, please...
I can't think of any questions, though

 

[Zed]

somebody interview this guy, please...
I can't think of any questions, though

Will post an interview soon. Maybe even later today.

did the devs already state what they'll do if the kickstarter fails? Judging by their claim that the funding is solely needed for a Unity 5 port, I'd assume the game is already feature complete and will be released no matter what.

Edit - Also, am I blind or what? I thought pitching without any stretch goals is a big no-no.

This is one of the questions answered in said interview.

Stay tuned!

 

[Darkzone]

did the devs already state what they'll do if the kickstarter fails? Judging by their claim that the funding is solely needed for a Unity 5 port, I'd assume the game is already feature complete and will be released no matter what.
Edit - Also, am I blind or what? I thought pitching without any stretch goals is a big no-no.

They seem to be very far in the development, so most probable they will release it even without the ks. The ks offers them a good chance to improve the assets, add some nice effects from Unity 5 and through the ks they have free advertisment.

 

[Maelflux]

They should just get Garriot to hand some golden unicorn helmet in SoTA for backing this, and Musaab will back this until it's funded.

 

[Maelflux]

On a more serious note, I am wondering if they made to big a gap from Early Bird(9$) to Backer(15$), seeing there are 500/500 Early Birds, and only 34 Backers at 15$ (out of 680 total currently).

I'd happily back this for 15$, but I can't help but wonder if people think that the increase is too high at more than 50%?!?

 

[Zed]

Our interview is up now. You'll find it here.

 

[hemtae]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...aledorn-old-school-hardcore-rpg/posts/1170167

Successful Greenlight + Game Mechanics Part 2
First, we would like to inform you that we have been Greenlit by the community!. It took us six days to get Dungeons of Aledorn approved, which makes us incredible happy. We owe it to all of our backers who have supported us here and who voted YES! at our Greenlight page.

Thanks a lot!

Successful Greenlight !!!

Before we dive into the explaining some of the mechanics in the game, we would like to show our support for other Kickstarter campaigns currently seeking your help.


Once Bitten, Twice Dead is a new first-person action game set in an open world with a serious zombie problem! Fight the undead along with and chat to a maximum of 100 other players simultaneously. If funded, the game will be released on Wii U, PC, Mac and Linux.


Next up we have Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse, an action/adventure game with a unique survival twist. You play as Lathe, a teenage woodling and an avid inventor. During your adventures you are accompanied by a stone giant named Roguard. Together you must fight back hordes of wooden zombies, better known as "The Deadwood" and stop the curse from spreading through the land of Knottington.


And the last project for today is Ralin: Dwarf Wars, a hack and slash RPG that is offering single player, multiplayer and local co-op for gamers. Be sure to check it out and show them your support!

------------------

And now, we want to continue talking about the game mechanics in Dungeons of Aledorn. Today we introduce the GUI and outline several situations that you might encounter. At the end of today's update is another of our short interviews, this time with programmer Martin "Arbiter" Mikš and with game designer Ladislav "Nefarit" Štojdl.

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Analysis of mechanics one by one in...first person GUI
As you play our game, you’ll notice that within each GUI, there’s the possibility to do various activities and these are utilised by the player to interact with the game.

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Clicking on objects
The player, by browsing an environment, will be able to click on most things. Depending on how the object will react, the play is given feedback. An "Active character”, a player can arbitrarily change the active figure during the game.

If the player clicks on an object, like a container for example, options appears; open, explore, search for trap and this option will be further developed, according to the player's progress with an obstacle. In library, a player can find books, depending on the active character. Of course searching the library by one of the active figures will not empty the inventory of the room. If the library is explored by one character, it can then be explored also by the others.The library may well be an illusion or a magical trap or even can be cursed. Also, a secret entrance can be hidden within it. So it’s wise to not miss the opportunity to "explore it with whole entourage," of course, there is a risk of activating a trap and as such, exploring in advance with characters that have higher skills of perception will be necessary.

If you click on an NPC player, this will then invoke the appropriate response based on each character that appeals to them (active characters). An NPC may also be a manifested party composition. See "distribution center" below. Some characters can react only to certain professions or race and some simply do not have any reaction, if there’s a specific race or profession nearby.

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IIt is also possible that we will assign more control mouse buttons. e.g. the left mouse button will perform the action as described above, while the right will always be search. It basically means that there will be one less click for the player to remember. These proposals will be addressed in the first alpha testing phase, which should be done, according to the schedule, during Q2 2016.

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Buttons in GUI
Clicking on a character

This will select the active figure. Active figure will actually follow the cursor, meaning that when the player clicks on something that the action is carried out by the currently active character.

Double clicking on a character

Displays character sheet and inventory. Here, the player will have a personal inventory of selected characters and of the character attributes. The reason for this is that the player can see an immediate change in the secondary (in some cases even primary) attributes and could better select the best equipment for your character.

Double click at character by right mouse button

Displays the character sheet and shows a detailed description of attributes, skills, knowledge and perks chosen characters; however, inventory will not be present.

Diary

GUI diary. There will be the players logged quests in it. Divided by classes to the main line, side line and peripheral tasks. There will be also lists of achievements, knowledge about the world of DoA, bestiary, and many other pertinent information. There will also be the chance to write your own notes.

Menu

GUI menu. Of course there’s access to control audio, video, game. Options LOAD and SAVE. An important element of the GUI settings, where a player can freely change the settings of GUI in all modes, so that it is best suited. Zhan the settings are saved and the player sees the game as set.

Skills

Displays the list of active skills of active characters. Double click on the skill applied skill and passive skills are not shown here for purely for clarity. This is actually about the actions that a player can use outside of combat and these actions will naturally move onto the hot key bar.

Magic

When a player goes to GUI spell book, they can then double click on spell and cast that spell with a given probability. Probability can be customized when using concentrating on magic but this will cause the spell to have a longer casting time, but chances of success is increased..


Map

The left button goes to the local area map and it will have automatically placed notes. Likewise, the player will be able to create their own notes. The right mouse button displays the global map of the island, where is the player located.

Use

This goes into the inventory and the player then double-clicks on the object to use it.

Hot keys

Displays the GUI to set hot keys. Hot-keys mean that the player will be able to place spells, items and skills on specific keys and these will be different for each character. The added hot keys can be also lockable, so the player can not accidentally erase it. The game automatically has two hot keys assigned for the player from the start, one being the hot key battle and the second is to explore hotkey mode.

Beginning of the fight

This switches the player in combat environments and this button is only available in "action parts of the game" – so, in towns and and dealing with NPCs, the button will be gray.

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Collecting herbs
For this action, it is necessary to have the appropriate skills in at least one member of the group. At the beginning of the game, the character will have just a basic knowledge of herbs. These herbs can seen normally in the game and will be possible to collect them. Herbs that are unknown to the character will be invisible and not possible to collect. To see these herbs, it will be necessarily to know them and this even includes the alchemical herbals or NPC herbals.

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Finding the trap at the object, removing it, open the lock, robbing
The active figure uses passive relevant skills -> fatal success, success, failure, fatal failure. Different consequences depending on the obstacle, so when the player clicks on an object that has a trap, then the active character will "roll mindfulness" If successful, than the trap will be visible and then, it’s possible to solve the situation. A failed roll means that the trap’s activated and the character damaged.

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Searching, founding of the hidden objects
The skills of characters determine whether or not the objects are visible, or not. Skill will also affect the time of the search and at the same time, even if a character with low skill looks in the right place, they will not find anything, because they're not sufficiently experienced or skilled!

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Visit urba interiors
Inn

Here is what the player will be able to do via different activities. Activities can be described best as a graph drawn for one Innn.

• Sit down by the free table – services of the pub
• Sit down with chums – gossip
• Sit down with friends – minigame "finding of treasures“
• Speak to courtesan – "services“
• Speak to barman – gossip
• To rob someone

Markets

Several options. Like in the pub, you can do all sorts of activities depending on what market you are. Here we summarizes most of them.

• Buying/selling
• repair
• Identification
• Learning magic
• Bewitched
• Robbing
• Learning
• Healing
• Use area (spas, stew, and so on)

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Dialog with active NPC
Depending on the active character, various dialog options will be open and during the dialogue it will also be possible to use public speaking skills. Depending on the selected options, and successes or failures, there will be different outcomes of dialogue. Dialogues in the game are almost exclusively branching and very often it will be possible to achieve a variety of endings that can affect further actions in the game.


Some NPC may also react differently, depending on the composition of the group that speaks to them. Although the active character is suitable for dialogue, the presence of unsuitable characters may disrupt the course of the dialogue.

Group division

Sometimes you will need to divide the group. The player will be able to divide the group into many smaller groups (logically a maximum of as many characters that’s in the party). Actively, will be able to control only one part of it, whilst the rest of the group will wait. In the fight, it will be possible to control all the characters, with certain limitations, eg. with the distance of the groups. But more on that next time.

TEAM 21

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Short interview with programmer and game designer

 

[Morkar Left]

On a more serious note, I am wondering if they made to big a gap from Early Bird(9$) to Backer(15$), seeing there are 500/500 Early Birds, and only 34 Backers at 15$ (out of 680 total currently).

I'd happily back this for 15$, but I can't help but wonder if people think that the increase is too high at more than 50%?!?

I could have get the game for 9$ but decided 15$ is a more fair pricetag. Seriously, if you want the game paying 15$ should be doable. It's a fair price for support.

 

[Alchemist]

Now that's how you do a game mechanics update! Certain other Kickstarters could learn a lot from these guys. I'm really getting a feel for how the game will play and what kind of things we'll be able to do. Well done Team 21!
Also there is a lot of good 1st-person exploration footage within those sometimes awkward interview videos.

Thinking of putting even more money into this...

 

[udm]

Dat beard

Anyway, great update Team 21. I like the concept art pieces too. Will you all be using hand-drawn portraits in place of the 3D ones shown in screenshots?

 

[GlutenBurger]

On a more serious note, I am wondering if they made to big a gap from Early Bird(9$) to Backer(15$), seeing there are 500/500 Early Birds, and only 34 Backers at 15$ (out of 680 total currently).

I'd happily back this for 15$, but I can't help but wonder if people think that the increase is too high at more than 50%?!?

I think it's more that they allowed too many of them. The early bird spots only filled up today, a full third of the way through the campaign. Now that early bird is no longer possible, more people should be going for the $15 spot.

There are still 73 early bird boxed copies available, however. That might be a problem if the project gets funded. I've got a feeling the overhead on boxed copies is going to kill them if they don't start selling a lot more.