The Stoic Studio trio, Arnie Jorgensen, John Watson and Drew McGee, managed to reserve a 15 minute slot on Twitch's E3 broadcasting schedule on the last day of E3, to give us a short look at the upcoming Banner Saga 2. You can watch the archived stream here:



Despite their apparent distaste for hype, the Stoic guys turned out to be about as extroverted as one might expect a game developer to be. Important takeaways include:

• A more systemized approach towards caravan management, where you have to make a choice between promoting your clansmen to warriors, or leaving them to generate more supplies and Renown.
• An increased emphasis on cinematics, including "in-engine" scripted scenes during combat.
• More variety in combat, including the addition of destructible barricades on the battlefield.
• A significantly different campaign experience depending on the outcome of the big choice made at the end of the first game.

In addition to talking about the game's new features, the Stoic guys also had a lot to say about their experiences with creating the series' signature rotoscoped animations, about working with the high tier backers, and more. Near the end, they reveal that the game is due to be released "in winter". It's unclear if that means December 2015 or if the game might be delayed to next year. In any case, it's an impressive amount of development time for a same-engine sequel to this sort of game, so I've got high expectations.