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KickStarter HellSign (formerly Hellhunter) - procedurally generated ghost hunting ARPG

Jrpgfan

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Feb 7, 2016
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I think the concept is pretty interesting but it's probably gonna fail miserably in execution.

Btw, a little off topic, but this thread reminded of a Sega Genesis game called Haunting where you were a ghost and had to scare the tenants out of a house. Used to love that game back when I was a kid but couldn't play it too much because it belonged to a friend who moved away shortly after I started playing and took it with him. After that I could never find the frigging game for sale/rent anywhere where I lived which made me really sad.
 

Infinitron

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I don't think it's really just a ghost hunting game:

journal.jpg
 

Leocruta

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I'm suddenly intrigued. This seems to be a game where you collect clues in an effort to identify which supernatural entity you're hunting, then setting traps and preparing for a showdown. I hope they actually make it somewhat difficult to discern what creature it is, and if you deduce wrong you're screwed.

If so, this is what I wanted from witcher 3's monster hunting. Comparing clues to your bestiary, rather than "follow the red trail and have Geralt tell you what it is."
 

Ismaul

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If so, this is what I wanted from witcher 3's monster hunting. Comparing clues to your bestiary, rather than "follow the red trail and have Geralt tell you what it is."
Yeah, that screen also reminded me of the Witcher. The one that did monster hunting and prep good, the Witcher 1. Learn about the monster, discover its weaknesses, exploit them by using the right tools. Play it if you haven't.


Otherwise the game looks promising, we'll see if it holds up.
 

Lhynn

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Yeah, and RNG makes more sense now, because you truly have no way of knowing what you are facing other than investigating.
 

Neki

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Jul 30, 2016
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It actually looks good, but shooting ghosts with guns is wrong in so many levels...

I don't know if i like procedural generation or not.
 

Hoodoo

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why use guuns when can have wacky paranormal guns smh
 

Jrpgfan

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Really liked the investigative stuff. It has the potential to be a very unique game.
 

agris

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Svartberg

I liked the pitch, was straight forward.

Do you plan to sell early access if/when on steam? Will you unlock the cursed items for higher tier backers to everyone at some point? Our crytonomicon, do we gradually unlock its contents as we complete mission or is it given to us in a complete state?

Backed, good luck. :salute:
 

Svartberg

Ballistic Interactive
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:)

Svartberg

I liked the pitch, was straight forward.

Do you plan to sell early access if/when on steam? Will you unlock the cursed items for higher tier backers to everyone at some point? Our crytonomicon, do we gradually unlock its contents as we complete mission or is it given to us in a complete state?

Backed, good luck. :salute:

Thank you so much man, glad you liked it so far!

Regarding selling early access, actually I had some experience with other games I worked on, we really want to avoid if possible .. instead beta access to backers only will lead for a healthier better game imo and will be mint.

Hah I didn't even mention it but you nailed it! Yes, although you start with basics you will have to buy farther page/excrepts to the Cryptonomicon, as Ismaul said that was my favorite part of Witcher 1 as well .. a shame they scraped it for the sequels (guess the torch passes to us) ;)
Also been talking to several cryptozoology researchers & writers, if all goes well I want to have extra info for the left page on each monster .. but again yet to be decided as we're knee deep on the campaign atm.

I'm suddenly intrigued. This seems to be a game where you collect clues in an effort to identify which supernatural entity you're hunting, then setting traps and preparing for a showdown. I hope they actually make it somewhat difficult to discern what creature it is, and if you deduce wrong you're screwed.

Really liked the investigative stuff. It has the potential to be a very unique game.

Thank you kindly, it's a relief to hear interest as we were very uncertain of the reception to the open ended investigative element.
There's no flashing arrows that tell you where to go (*cough*), you can't brute force it, and no real way to know the conclusion of your investigation until you're face to face with the enemy (gotta say .. seeing players get the wrong enemy ... it makes us feel so warm & fuzzy inside :D)
 

hell bovine

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Thank you kindly, it's a relief to hear interest as we were very uncertain of the reception to the open ended investigative element.
There's no flashing arrows that tell you where to go (*cough*), you can't brute force it, and no real way to know the conclusion of your investigation until you're face to face with the enemy (gotta say .. seeing players get the wrong enemy ... it makes us feel so warm & fuzzy inside :D)
It does sound interesting - from a game mechanics point of view, that is. But I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to ghost stories and I like my monsters with backstories of their own. Why does a ghost hunt this house? Is it a monster praying on little children? Is it seeking revenge? A demon summoning gone wrong? It would be nice if that was part of the supernatural investigation too, beyond the "find out what it is, kill it" thing.
 

WhiteGuts

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Basically like in TW3. I'd like it too, but I dunno if it'd mesh well with the procedural generation.
 

Svartberg

Ballistic Interactive
Developer
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62
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Cryptozoology Central
It does sound interesting - from a game mechanics point of view, that is. But I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to ghost stories and I like my monsters with backstories of their own. Why does a ghost hunt this house? Is it a monster praying on little children? Is it seeking revenge? A demon summoning gone wrong? It would be nice if that was part of the supernatural investigation too, beyond the "find out what it is, kill it" thing.

Lovin' this so much

The story missions will obviously be more heavily written to accompany the narrative, but it's gonna be fun finding a way to give the side missions some of that TLC ;)
 

hell bovine

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Basically like in TW3. I'd like it too, but I dunno if it'd mesh well with the procedural generation.
Not necessarily. A lot of the folklore on supernatural monsters explains why such monsters appear, and often this is connected to unnatural or sudden deaths. In this case the cause of death (of the unlucky house owner whose house you are investigating) could be both a clue and the reason they got turned into a monster at the same time.

Consider vamps for example: the most popular trope is that you get turned into one if you drink their blood, a.k. the supernatural equivalent of an STD. But the actual folklore is far more interesting; there were a lot of beliefs about why people returned as undead monsters to hunt the living. One was when someone was born with two souls. During baptism only one soul would get christened, so when that person died, that other soul would remain and animate the body. Apparently, in ye olde times, this superstition sometimes led to people trying to trick priests to perform a second baptism (e.g. by going to another village), when they suspected the kid was a potential vamp-in-making.

Another reason might be getting revenge for some wrongdoings. E.g. there is folklore on humans capturing kelpies and forcing them to work for them. Again, in this case finding clues to the presence of a kelpie also could hint towards why it has murdered the house owners.

It's just that usually game designers prefer to use the same old (and safe) tropes.
 
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WhiteGuts

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I know there's some sweet source material out there to draw from, what I meant was that it would require a good amount of handcrafted content, which seems at odds with the procedural generation that's going to be a core mechanic in the game.
 

hell bovine

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Depends on how the content is generated. If these are just side missions, then the main content might be predetermined. But I could see both random maps & clues working - a bit like Diablo, only with monsters leaving random clues instead of dropping items. :lol: As for the monsters themselves, no idea, maybe a randomized enemy encounter list, each with a unique backstory?
 

Svartberg

Ballistic Interactive
Developer
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
Messages
62
Location
Cryptozoology Central
Depends on how the content is generated. If these are just side missions, then the main content might be predetermined. But I could see both random maps & clues working - a bit like Diablo, only with monsters leaving random clues instead of dropping items. :lol: As for the monsters themselves, no idea, maybe a randomized enemy encounter list, each with a unique backstory?

The clues are not only to find the enemy type, for example atm you need to find the scene of the original death of the creature, which will help you determine where it appears.

Since it's not a clone, what took us most of the time was just getting the game loop down to the point it was actually fun.
From that point it's a very flexible loop that can be expanded on endlessly

And regarding the background, we had this idea brewing where each enemy will have added personality traits.
So for example imagine cross referencing clues you find against say, newspaper articles.
But as we're not writers, part of the Kickstarter is to get proper one and push this onwards.

Depends on the number of uniques vs the number of encounters. If you fight the same X for Y times, it can get old. It's a tough problem. Dwarf Fortress procedurally generates werecreatures (weregiraffes, wereanteaters, werewhatever and some creatures are worse than others) but lycanthropy mechanically works the same always.

It's tricky, but we'd rather try introducing a fresh new gameplay to the somewhat stale state of games nowadays.
Once a basic game works, it can be built upon and expanded.
We're doing something sadly no triple A studio will ever try, with very limited budget so we have to prioritize things while paying the bills :)

And btw mad props on Krondor ... damn I played that game to the bone, but like a true noob I never managed to find the final piece of that unique sword at the end haha

I know there's some sweet source material out there to draw from, what I meant was that it would require a good amount of handcrafted content, which seems at odds with the procedural generation that's going to be a core mechanic in the game.
The procedural bit is simply to prevent the player from knowing the outcome of the investigation right away, which would break the entire game loop.
That's especially important as there's a single persistent save (ala dark souls), accountability is a must for us.
 

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