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K'NOSSOS - classic point-and-click deep space adventure inspired by The Dig and Primordia

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
4,045
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/533772585/knossos-a-classic-point-and-click-sci-fi-adventure

https://svarunentertainment.com





K'NOSSOS, a Classic Point-and-Click Sci Fi Adventure Game
K'NOSSOS is a cold surreal adventure game about a man traveling the unknown cosmos, and the things he uncovers on his journey.

About this project



K’NOSSOS is a classical science fiction point-and-click adventure game which follows the story of a lone passenger aboard a huge interstellar colonization ship traveling the unknown reaches of the cosmos, and the things he uncovers on his journey.

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This dark sci fi adventure game lets you explore an alien and foreboding universe, taking the player on a journey across a vast and unknown solar system down to the surface of a sunken planet. The endless oceans of this world hide in their depths an enigmatic metropolis without people, an ancient city which at its heart keeps a terrible secret – a secret which will turn your perception of this story on its head. The dark finale will pit the player against a bizarre and unfathomable force, an eerie presence which lurked in the dark the entire time.

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K'NOSSOS Prologue, Screenshot
K’NOSSOS is a project which is very close to the hearts of the team who are working on its development. The seed funding for the game has not come from any investors or publishers, but out of the dedication and hard work of all the people involved with Svarun Entertainment group. We have got to the stage where to fully realize our dream we need a level of funding to assist us, in delivering the game which we can clearly see through the prism of our mind’s eye.

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To share our vision with you, our backers and future players, we have prepared a fully completed Prologue of the final game in English which you are free to download via this direct link. The release trailer for the Prologue is available on YouTube.


You may download K'NOSSOS Press Kit via following link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9YkFAaql848WGhBTG96R0dVU3M

K'NOSSOS Trailer may be downloaded from following link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9YkFAaql848S21mX0t5TEtKOEU

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Following the trajectory set by navigators at its port of origin, a huge interstellar colonization ship has approached the outer reaches of a vast debris cloud set at the outskirts of an unknown solar system. With maneuverability impeded by its construction and dimensions, the ship relied on the reinforced hull to take the brunt of the impact. This confidence was ill-placed, however, and the structural integrity of the vessel has been severely compromised.

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You take up a role of the lone passenger aboard who has been awakened from cryo-sleep to address the damage. Following the repairs made across the vast interior of the vessel, the passenger learns that it was almost in vain as the collision with the asteroid has rendered the vital power systems all but useless.

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K'NOSSOS Prologue, Screenshot
By directing the ship’s long-range scanners towards the star of the system, the man succeeds in locating a faint power signature radiating from the surface of the second planet from the sun. With hopes of finding the replacement power cores on a distant and unknown world, the lone passenger directs the vessel towards the star and returns to cryo sleep once again. Seventeen years later, the giant spacecraft approaches the dying star.

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Protagonist of K’NOSSOS is a lonely man gliding through the infinite darkness of the vast cosmos, destined for either glory or disaster as he mans the automated Extrasolar Long-Reach Exploration and Colonization Vessel #074 searching for an inhabitable planet as means of aleviating their homeworld’s population crisis. Who exactly is this man? What is the city we see him in during the short episode portraying his seemingly idyllic family life? What was his motivation for applying for a mission which would prevent him from seeing his loved ones ever again? As much as the game world itself, the protagonist himself is a mystery, an enigma hard on the surface, reluctant to give away its secrets easily...

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A distinguishing feature of K’NOSSOS is the utility Orb that hovers along as player character explores the game world. The Orb is a non-sentient and silent companion providing four functions for the player to use while solving problems: heating things up, melting metals and other materials, cutting anything that can be cut, and finally welding two or several items together into a single object. As pretty much anything in our story, the simple Orb is not at all what it seems and it is up to the player to reveal the true nature of this advanced handyman’s fantasy.

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In its essence K’NOSSOS is a progeny of ideas expressed during the golden age of adventure game genre, with gameplay reminiscent of such classic point-and-click titles as Beneath the Steel Sky, Chronomaster, Primordia and The Dig. The game puts equal emphasis on characterization, atmosphere and storytelling on the one hand, and problem solving and challenging puzzles on the other.

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We took great care to make sure our puzzles are seamlessly integrated into the narrative as to avoid the sense of artificial barriers put up solely to hamper the player’s progress. Most of all, we aim at building an aura of uneasiness and low-intensity dread that comes from being stranded in an alien place without being sure exactly what to do or how to digest all the weird sights and sounds that surround you. The art direction we have chosen is designed to fulfil that very purpose.

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K'NOSSOS Prologue, Screenshot
Mechanics-wise K'NOSSOS plays like most of the classic games of the genre. PC, viewed from 3rd person, traverses the locations presented in side-view.

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Using a classic third person interface, the player is able to interact with the world through a player character (PC) avatar. Left mouse click is used for moving and interacting with devices, objects and characters and the right mouse click is used for examining anything in the game world further.

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K'NOSSOS, Screenshot
To make progress on his/her quest, the player will operate numerous devices collect usable items and apply them on objects in game world or inventory scour the vast locales of spaceships, orbital platforms, surface structures and the titular city submerged in planetary ocean engage in dialogue with machines and living creatures as well as solve diverse puzzles whose difficulty ranges from simple to challenging - but fair!

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Even though we mostly work online we try to meet up as often as possible and keep those creative juices flowing in real life as well. This is how it was during one of our serious meetings held in Weatherspoon's in Manchester:

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Nikola and Jonathan discussing serious indie adventure game stuff over a pint
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First of all, a big "THANK YOU!" to all the guys in game journalism and press - without you, us indies would be like a whale stranded on a beach. That said, check out some of the impressions K'NOSSOS Prologue left on people who tried it out and wrote about it...

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Please take a look at the rewards and options we offer on the right side of our project page. We are confident that there is something for everyone there.

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Our main goal for making our dream possible is 8000 GBP. But this is not the end. We have a lot of ideas how to improve K'NOSSOS to deliver a much deeper experience. We would love to do more graphical improvements, full voice over, add more languages, additional platforms and much, much more.

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As to how exactly we would spend the funds entrusted by you, here is a graphical breakdown of the allocation of funds:

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Allocation of Funds
Risks and challenges
There is a well-known saying in the world of software development, and that is: “Anything is possible, if you have enough time and enough money.” People usually focus on the first part of the statement and forget the second, but that’s where all the problems sit.

Our project faces the same challenges, and investors suffer from the same risks as pretty much every software project on Kickstarter, and that is the translation from our dream to the reality of a software delivery which you, the player, can enjoy. In truth, we consider ourselves to be in a very strong position to mitigate these risks due to the following factors.

Collectively we have many years of experience in delivering complex software products and other related assets to significant commercial customers. Through our rigorous planning and fanatical devotion to the avoidance of scope creep we have managed to flesh out a secure development path, and thus a very firm framework surrounding those things we can control.

However, there is certainly a question of how are we going to respond to those things we cannot control. The first thing to state is that we have deliberately structured our project in such a fashion as to minimize the impact of events we cannot control. This approach has been born out of necessity, as the seed funding for the project has come from the individual team members who have been working on a pro-bono basis. This means that, irrespective of almost any event, we are confident that we have full capacity to pull the project back on track relying solely on the strengths and assets we possess in house at all times.

What happens after the project has been funded, provided that it does of course? Are we going to fall into the trap and allow our ambitions to soar so that we end up harboring the thought of releasing a title with AAA production values? As creative, but serious and realistic people, we are well aware that this would lead us into a downward spiral and in the end bring the whole project to ruin. We have great ideas for many more games to come – we wish to fund and finish K’NOSSOS, release it for the world to enjoy and then move on to our next project, another instance of fruitful collaboration between us, the developers, and you, our wonderful players.

As far as our stretch goals are concerned, in case we do get sufficient funding to carry any of those out, then each of these goals is closely costed and risk assessed and will not impact adversely on the production schedule.

To conclude, so far we have put absolute faith into the commitment of the principals to seeing the project completed, and for this very reason we have something to show for it a bit over a year since we’ve started our work. Funding will make the dev process easier for us and will bring us to the finish line much earlier than it would happen should we rely on our private resources alone. Challenges are and will be numerous and we will gladly tackle them; risks – we will approach with caution but in the end emerge victorious. We see the backing you provide as material manifestation of trust put into our effort and it would take hell freezing over before we put any of that in jeopardy.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
In its essence K’NOSSOS is a progeny of ideas expressed during the golden age of adventure game genre, with gameplay reminiscent of such classic point-and-click titles as Beneath the Steel Sky, Chronomaster, Primordia and The Dig.
:love:
I've been really impressed with this game whenever I chatted with the developers. I like the way they're drawing on, and reworking, mythology.
 

bertram_tung

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2012
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Sunco Gasoline Facility
Insert Title Here
In its essence K’NOSSOS is a progeny of ideas expressed during the golden age of adventure game genre, with gameplay reminiscent of such classic point-and-click titles as Beneath the Steel Sky, Chronomaster, Primordia and The Dig.
:love:
I've been really impressed with this game whenever I chatted with the developers. I like the way they're drawing on, and reworking, mythology.

I am just happy to see your game listed as a peer among such classics. Well deserved
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
There has been quite a string lately of such astonishing comments, between this, Neofeud, Jacob Janerka saying that Primordia set him on the path to Paradigm -- I guess maybe it's a sign that Primordia's getting long in the tooth, old enough to have had some kind of impact like that. It makes me really happy, cause those guys are likelier to make it over the finish line to a great game than I am. :)
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-and-click-sci-fi-adventure?ref=project_tweet

It may not make it over the line, but I think it looks pretty neat. I'm biased because they like Primordia, but also because this picture is so different from the standard indie game developers:
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Guy on the right reminds me of a grandfather. In fact, his bio is a little reminiscent too:
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Maybe people could throw a few bucks their way.
 

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
4,045
Last edited:

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,232
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
:rpgcodex: Somebody should have started a thread before this so more people could learn about the game while the campaign was still running. Thread-starting shyness is dumb! Hope the dev launches a preorder site.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
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Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
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Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
update is long and rare in between but it seems steady progress were made. the art style and graphics looks pretty good.
K'NOSSOS moves past Chapter II and enters Chapter III!
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Posted by Nikola VetnicCollaborator
0 Comments6 Likes
Hello everyone!

It's been six months since our last update - quite a while it might seem but when working on a project of such magnitude as K'NOSSOS half a year flies by almost unnoticed.

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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II Section Start Screen
What energy we saved from talking and posting we put into developing. What has been done in these six months? We're close to wrapping up CH2 at this point - all the graphics are in and we are now building and fine-tuning the gameplay.

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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Entrance
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Entrance
Content-wise CH2 is as heavy as CH1 and yet somehow we managed to do it twice as fast - at all times we are thinking about how we could optimize our pipeline further.

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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Corridor
CH2 takes place on the Space Elevator Station and the main objective is to descend the cable and make planetfall.

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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Room #2
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Room #1
Puzzles are not as difficult here as in CH1 or the Prologue, but it is the first section of the game where we had a chance to show you some of the lore of the world in which K'NOSSOS takes place - there are two crew cabin's available to explore, each to be filled with non-mandatory items to read and examine, just so you better understand the people who built this orbital structure.

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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Central Bay #1
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Central Bay #2
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Research Center Top Deck
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Research Center Reactor
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Research Center Reactor
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Research Center Recharge Station
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Research Center Bottom Deck
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Research Center Monitoring Apparatus
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II - Research Center Amalgam Printer
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K'NOSSOS, Chapter II Map
But wait, that is not all... While the fine-tuning of CH2 is taking place, the graphics intended for CH3 are already in the works! And so, to end this update on a high note, here's the CH3 Section Start Screen:

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K'NOSSOS, Chapter III Section Start Screen
And finally, the first site featured in the game to have genuine, heavy, all-natural gravity:

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K'NOSSOS, Chapter III - Bronea, Access Islands
Til next update, sincerely yours

Nikola, Jonathan, Biljana and Michael
 

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