Vapourware Unforetold: Witchstone (formerly Project Witchstone) - "living world" sandbox RPG with turn-based combat - CANCELLED

[drgames]

I guess the success of Divinity Original Sin inspires many of these indie studios to do their "dream" RPGs.

All the more reason to hate Divinity Original Sin. That shit game will ruin possible decent RPGs.

 

[OldNorseSaga]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XRpbrJy1SE&feature=youtu.be&t=4586

 

[LESS T_T]

Steam page:



I guess Kickstarter is coming soon?

 

[LESS T_T]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1064120/announcements/detail/1655546286024491774

I'll have full details about the Kickstarter and Early Access when we are close to PAX West (August).

 

[CyberWhale]

Art-style aside, the game does look better than D:OS. Less bloom, blur and other unnecessary shit that makes me dizzy whenever I look at the screen. Seems awfully generic, tho. It always boggles my mind how people like this seem to get the funding. Has any of these guys actually read a fantasy comic/book that wasn't WOW derivative trash? I guess the answer is no.

 

[mondblut]

Meh. Looks like a disney tie-in shovelware.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Curratum]

God, this wants to be D:OS so fucking much, it's a little sad.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[LESS T_T]

Q2 2020:

Project Witchstone, the living world sandbox RPG from Omensight and Stories: The Path of Destinies developer Spearhead Games, wanders to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Q2 2020 alongside the previously-announced PC version.

Drawing inspiration from classic pen-and-paper games, Project Witchstone offers unmatched freedom and opportunity to roleplay in a vibrant, reactive world. Every move adventurers make ripple outward into the environment, opening new doors and closing others, as dynamic systems intertwine to produce a one-of-a-kind experience tailored to the player’s actions.

Spearhead Games will be showcasing Project Witchstone at Gamescom and PAX West this August. For press inquiries, please contact press@spearheadgames.ca

 

[Turuko]

so in 8/9 months? nah

 

[Infinitron]

Wasn't this supposed to come out on Early Acesss? They'd have to release it pretty soon if so.

 

[LESS T_T]

Kickstarter this Fall:



Direct competition with Solasta.

 

[vortex]

This looks good.

Hoping the writing won't be loose like in D:OS1.

 

[Infinitron]

No longer a Project, Kickstarter in October, Early Access in Q1: https://rpgamer.com/2019/08/witchstone-pax-west-2019-impression/

Witchstone PAX West 2019 Impression

Ultimately, the goal of Witchstone is to provide players the ability to build their own world where consequences drive the narrative. It’s a lofty goal.

Spearhead Games is an example answer to the question of what would happen if a D&D group from Montreal got together to make a game. Formerly known as Project Witchstone, the studio’s newest game takes cues from lauded titles such as Baldur’s Gate and Divinity and blends it together with the developers’ past experience in narrative titles. The “project” has been dropped and the upcoming title is now known simply as Witchstone.

The setting is classic: two factions are locked in a brutal war, ravaging the land and populace in their paths. Fleeing from the violence, many are forced by geography to board ships and sail to a new island, away from either faction. These new lands are filled with dinosaurs, power stones, and more mysterious loot. By combining together this new magic source with existing and emerging technologies, the islanders are able to fight off the two warring factions and live a life of relative peace. However, humanity being what it is, new factions soon spring up to spar on the island and war may not be so far away…



The game begins with character customization, where pen-and-paper RPG players will find plenty of comforting sights. Stats, races and classes are familiar enough to those who’ve played a session or two of any kind of tabletop roleplaying system. With both multiple races, multiple classes, and the ability to multi-class, every adventure can be a little bit different. Once a party is formed, their actions and the consequences stemming from them will dictate the flow of the game.

For those needing a little direction, quests are available, though the world is fairly open to letting players simply wander through. Meeting a local farmer being abused by three members of a newly formed faction, I had many options. My party could side with the villager, attacking the faction members; alternatively, the group could ally with the faction members and beat up the farmer. A third option would be talking down the faction members… hopefully having enough charisma to do the task. Finally, players can simply ignore the situation and let it resolve however the AI chooses. No matter which is chosen, there is a consequence — reputation with the associated members will rise or fall, affecting options later in the game.



Combat is turn-based, with small QTE-style events to keep the player on their toes. For example, if a swing from the warrior knocks down an enemy, a QTE window pops up to do additional bonus damage. However, these additional actions are limited, so should be saved for when they’re the most useful; enemies that are already close to dead will run away, so players may not necessarily need to go all out to ensure an attack finishes them off immediately. Much like other titles, taking items from inside people’s chests is not necessarily recommended, as they’ll get upset by having their goods stolen. However, there are many ways to get at such goods. Resolutions for taking these items can include intimidating the owner, offering to pay or barter, talking it over, or just going the brute force method and attacking them. Alternatively, by being sneaky a player can loot as much as they can snag without being seen.

Unsurprisingly, charisma plays a heavy role in Witchstone. As a character increases their charisma level, the number of words or phrases they can use to convince and cajole increases, as well as their success chance. These silver-tongued party members can even recruit NPCs, though this has inherent risks and rewards. Including the local blacksmith in a party means taking the things in his shop is no longer stealing, but if the man dies during combat, there will be no one to create new weapons in the area.



Ultimately, the goal of Witchstone is to provide players the ability to build their own world where consequences drive the narrative. It’s a lofty goal — one many other games have strived towards with a mixed level of success. Spearhead Games plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign in October 2019, with Early Access on Steam planned for Q1 2020; the game is expected to launch not only on PC, but also PS4 and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch version being considered once those are completed.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Combat is turn-based, with small QTE-style events to keep the player on their toes. For example, if a swing from the warrior knocks down an enemy, a QTE window pops up to do additional bonus damage.

QTE's really are the seasoning on turn-based combat. IIRC this has been tried before, and in that game, which I don't remember, you could deactivate it in the options.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.shacknews.com/article/114209/rpg-meets-sandbox-in-project-witchstone

RPG meets sandbox in Project Witchstone
We talk to Spearhead Games about the difficulties of balancing two larger-than-life genres.

Our own Gregory Burke interviewed Phil Tam, designer and community manager at Spearhead Games about their latest title, Project Witchstone. Heavily inspired by old school role-playing games, Project Witchstone describes itself as a living world, with “its inhabitants acting with purpose.” Players will have a wide range of control in their legacy and moral pathway. In the interview below, Tam speaks about how the developers balance to major genres.

Project Witchstone sets out to marry classic RPG gameplay with a moldable sandbox world. Project Witchstone’s official website boasts the idea of “unlimited possibilities.” Players can frame others for crimes, join/destroy factions, and run as wild as they choose. There will be a lasting visible impact based on the players actions.

As previously mentioned, Project Witchstone leans heavily into old school RPG tropes. This is evident in the classes available. Wizards, healers, and fighters are all classes that fans of Dungeons and Dragons may recognize when jumping into Project Witchstone. As players progress, they will have the opportunity to double up on classes as well.

Project Witchstone is still very much in development, in fact “Project Witchstone” is still a working title. Spearhead will be soon taking the game to kickstarter with hopes to release in 2020. Project Witchstone is currently confirmed for Xbox One, PS4, and Steam. Spearhead has also expressed interest in bringing the game to Nintendo Switch in the future. Subscribe to the Shacknews and GamerHubTV YouTube channels for more exclusive interviews.

 

[LESS T_T]

Another interview talking about its sandbox RPG ambition: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...replicate-the-freedom-of-dungeons-and-dragons

Wonder if Kickstarter is imminent.

Project Witchstone: The indie RPG trying to replicate the freedom of Dungeons & Dragons
Spearhead Games' Malik Boukhira on how the game will enable players to "just fuck around" more than they ever have before

Interactivity is at the heart of video games' appeal, but that interactivity has its limits -- especially when it comes to the narrative of an RPG.

Players are inherently constrained to the mechanics that developers give them, and even the most exhaustive branching structure can only tell the story scripted into the game. But Montreal-based indie Spearhead Games believes it can change this with the upcoming Project Witchstone.

The studio's co-founder and creative director Malik Boukhira offers Skyrim as an example of the genre's limits: you can walk into a village, kill everyone in sight, then proceed to the next village where there will be no consequences for your actions. Spearhead wanted to make a game "where everything is driven by consequences."

Project Witchstone is perhaps unremarkable to look at: a top-down RPG in the vein of Neverwinter Nights et al in an original fantasy setting. While it's not open world, Spearhead promises multiple locations that are both large and brimming with possibilities.

There are some handcrafted quests to be completed, but many of the tasks doled out to players are dynamic, based on the needs of the various characters in the area or the goals of the factions vying for control. Boukhira claims there is no predetermined narrative in the game, but "one that is built dynamically around whatever the player does."

"In a way, we could say that in this game every player action is a decision," he says. "We don't have these branching points, like the classic approach. Instead, every character in the game has an AI that will output reactions; there are events that can happen, factions with agendas, things like that. All of that is dynamic. Then based on the player input, things are going to shape out in one direction or another."

Spearhead openly declares that tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons are a major influence, and even claims it will offer "the fun and freedom of a pen and paper campaign." But this must surely be technically impossible -- tabletop players can perform any action they can imagine, whereas gamers are restricted to whatever developers have coded into the game.

"So you're right," Boukhira acknowledges. "You can't do anything in terms of actions. That's something we have to provide. So we give you a bunch of [systems]. You can stab people, you can sneak around, you can steal. You can disguise yourself. We create as many as we can basically. But where it becomes really free is that all these actions can be used freely in a way that creates reactions in the world."

It's best explained with a gameplay demo. Boukhira begins in a village caught between two warring factions where he discovers soldiers harassing a local man. This is not a scripted event -- it occurs when soldiers of one faction encounter a supporter of another. Players can intervene or just let it play out. Boukhira opts to persuade the guards to leave the man alone and, in almost Telltale-like fashion, the victimised man will remember that.

A further example comes when Boukhira tries to give another person flowers and they run away. "That's because he's afraid of me and I forgot," he says. "People have memory of what I did to them.

"Even the small events have a consequence later. So the town knows I helped that guy [earlier], which his friend might like it, but his enemies might not."

Where Spearhead really steps up is the dialogue system. While there are, of course, pre-written options players can select from, there is also the ability to give your own commands via a series of drop down menus with a wider range of verbs. Boukhira demonstrates by potentially asking another villager to kill a specific character or meet him at a specific place. And, as with tabletop RPGs, a dice roll will determine whether the person obeys.

Players are also able to set themselves objectives or challenges. Boukhira decides to infiltrate one faction's nearby garrison and assassinate the leader, showing off the stealth mechanics as he goes. If he fails, and doesn't get cut down by the guards, he will have to live with the consequences.

Because it's a demo, Boukhira naturally breeze through, but here he faces another moment of wider opportunity.

"I could plant evidence at the crime scene to blame this on someone else," he says. "I didn't steal anything relevant for that, but that's one of the possibilities. So that's what we mean with the freedom of the system. There is not a single output with what we have. I can stab him, I snuck around, I could plant evidence. I can talk to people -- I could have bribed the guard maybe to get in. So even though there is a limited set of actions, they are very open in how you use them."

Giving players a range of systems to utilise is only half the challenge; Spearhead need to somehow predict how they might be used. They need to imagine what players might plant at the scene of a murder and then ensure the appropriate repercussions are felt across the game. Boukhira says this is handled to an extent by the AI behind the NPCs and how its programmed to react to things. Characters are even given personality traits and goals that might affect their reactions to introduce more variety for players.

"The biggest challenges is not having things react, but having things react in an interesting way that creates a consistent story," he says. "It's an RPG and we want to build toward something."

But with so many systems at play -- the dialogue, the factions, the dynamic events -- is there not a danger players could abuse this freedom in a way that locks off much of the content. It sounds like murdering everyone in this village would be much more detrimental to adventurers than it would in Skyrim.

"I'm really not worried about that for two reasons: one, if they broke it, they did it on purpose and it was their [idea of] fun. Second, if you try to murder everyone, there will be consequences, of course.

"You roleplay through your choices. If your adventure is going to be that you're a mass murderer and you're the most hunted guy in the area, then that's going to be your adventure. That's what you tried to do. You enter a village and everyone will flee and guards will rush at you and you'll have to deal with that. Maybe you'll join some terrorist faction and that will be your story and we're fine with that."

Boukhira emphasises that you would "have to kill everyone" in order for there to be nothing to do in Project Witchstone -- and even if you did, there are still dungeons to explore. The dynamic quest system means every character can potentially give you a task to carry out (although he warns that players who kill all main quest givers may find themselves spending hours catching chickens for peasant farmers).

"That's your fault for killing every one of importance. But it would be very difficult for you to do that. Faction leaders have guards, for example. So it would be an achievement in itself to successfully murder everyone.

He concludes: "Our goal is to support just fucking around, because people just sometimes love that. They don't care about the story, they just care about playing in a world that reacts to them, and they have their own fun and we're fine with that. We don't want to restrict someone who wants to be a murderer hobo or whatever."

 

[Rahdulan]

Having recently played through their Stories: The Path of Destinies with its actual 20+ endings, changing on your sequence of events and decisions, I'm almost ready to believe these devs can deliver. Still that was a short game built on replaying the same half dozen stages over and over and over again with different narrative bits to freshen it up while Witchstone appears to be an actual RPG with everything that entails. I should probably check out Omensight first to confirm my first impression regarding these developers, though.

 

[Harthwain]

Art style aside, I am interested if they can deliver on their promises of simulation and "freedom of a pen and paper campaign". They do have a strong starting point - focusing on the game's systems, rather than on scripting everything. I will keep my fingers crossed, because I think we need more games with that kind of approach.

 

[LESS T_T]

Ah yeah this. KS has been delayed to early next year it seems. Recent newsletter: https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=3533a72c174f5e970996c26b7&id=c55f52f390

PAX South is from January 17th and East is from February 27th.

December Newsletter Help us build a world!

Greetings Friends,

Happy Near-Holidays from everyone here at Spearhead!
As we head into the heart of Winter itself, we’re working harder than ever on Project Witchstone. We’ve made a lot of progress on fleshing out core systems, as well as diving deep into the lore and worldbuilding that will help make the dynamic world of Witchstone truly feel like a place that exists in its own right.

One of the things we’re trying to really do well with the world of Witchstone, is to emulate the feeling of a richly populated world that is just awaiting exploration, but is in fact going about its business before the player arrives instead of waiting in a static state until discovered.

In a tabletop roleplaying game like Dungeons & Dragons, the Dungeon Master can change and adapt the world based on player actions long before they’ve arrived in a location in a way most video games have never been able to capture. With the dynamic and systemic approach, the “ripples” created by player choices go on to shape places before the player ever arrives, or even change if a place exists at all based on the state of the world as it reacts to player actions.

We’d love to hear from you what kind of worldbuilding you find the most engaging, if you could answer a quick poll we’re really interested to hear your opinions:

“What kind of story and worldbuilding are you the most engaged by?”

A) In Video Games (Baldur’s Gate, The Witcher, Fallout, etc.)
B) In Tabletop Games (Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Gloomhaven, etc.)
C) In Literature (Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc.)
D) In Media (Star Wars, Game of Thrones, MCU films, etc.)

Witchstone Production Update

Speaking of worldbuilding, Genese Davis (who also wrote on Omensight) has been coming up with plenty of great ideas for the lore and setting of Witchstone. The name of the island-continent where the game takes place is now called Kalsundia. Those of you who played the demo might know it by its former name, Sillicar.

Here's a brief description of the past and present of Kalsundia:

For many millennia, the island-continent of Kalsundia remained uninhabited. Nicknamed the “Isle of Beasts”, its unforgiving wildlife and harsh environment scared people away from its shores.

However, as a never-ending war raged on between two empires, refugees and settlers tempted their fate and set sail to Kalsundia. There, at least, they could be free to start a new life and build a better world.

But imperial troops soon followed and the island-continent became yet another battleground in their pursuit for global domination. The settlers did not stand idly by and rose up to push these invaders out. Aided by the newly-discovered magical witchstones, their fight for freedom was a success!

Two generations later, witchstones have led to an industrial revolution. But most of the land still remains hostile. Disputes among the settlers are dividing society further and further apart -- leading to rival factions to one up each other, openly and secretly. And when will the imperial troops make their return?​

Any RPG, and especially an RPG with so many different possibilities, requires an insane amount of dialogue lines. Thankfully, we've built ourselves an easy-to-use dialogue editor to add and edit lines for the player and NPCs. During dialogue, the correct lines are dynamically picked according to the World Query System, described in October's newsletter. This ensures that their jobs, personality traits, appreciation for the player, faction membership, etc. can all be taken into account during a conversation with anyone.



Ouch... That's going to hurt.

As we want to push for a more cinematic feel in combat, finisher and assassination moves will be highlighted by the camera to make them more visceral. Each weapon will have their own set of painful moves

Spearhead Games @ MIGS 2019

It’s always nice to be able to show at a convention that’s close to home, so MIGS was a treat. As always getting hands-on feedback from players at events is one of the most valuable ways to adjust based on how the game plays in a real environment, and we got a lot of positive and useful stuff from everyone who took the time to check out the Witchstone Demo.

What's Next for Spearhead Games?

The whole team is looking forward to the Holidays, as we head into the new year we are looking at a very busy beginning of 2020, so a bit of time to recharge before we buckle down even harder to get Witchstone ready for Kickstarter will be a great short rest! (Ha! D&D Jokes.) We’re enormously proud of the project so far, and are so excited as we get closer to the next major step to making Witchstone a reality.

As always, stay in touch on Facebook, Twitter, and Discord.

If you haven't already done so, please help us out by adding Project Witchstone to your Steam wishlist.

Speak to you again in 2020! Take care!
Phil from Spearhead Games (@philiptam)

Also October newsletter, shows a bucket of divine and original inspirations they took from the Belgian pioneers: https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=3533a72c174f5e970996c26b7&id=3e426515ff

Spoiler

Hey Everyone,

It’s that time again: Spearhead Newsletter engage! We’re chugging along over here on Witchstone, and have had some pretty exciting things coming together.

Oh also, no big deal but it’s also our anniversary on the 10th. Just kidding, it’s a huge deal to us! We’ll be celebrating seven years of being a studio, which is an accomplishment we’re all so proud of. We founded Spearhead with high hopes for being successful enough to keep making the kind of games we were passionate about, and to be able to make them how we wanted to. Now that we’re looking back over the last seven years of doing just that, it means so much that we get to continue working at those goals.

Tiny Brains, Stories, Omensight, and now Witchstone are each a labor of love we’re so proud of. Every time we see the reaction of the community when we release a title, the support and appreciation for our work is the best feeling in the world. We’d never have been able to make it to where we are without the support of each and every one of our fans, so really this anniversary is also an appreciation for each of you, and the ways you’ve helped us continue living our dream, and making games that we believe in.

We have high hopes for the future, and with Witchstone we’re tackling our most ambitious project yet while still following the core design elements that have always made a game quintessentially a Spearhead game. The horizon looks bright, and we’re all excited to share what’s on the other side with all of you.

From everyone here at Spearhead, thank you for all of your support over the years, and we’re excited to keep pushing to do new and exciting things to repay it.

Witchstone Production Update
We’re really excited about our new area in the game. This one is a small commercial hub town with a port and a train station. The fun part: it is located next to a haunted forest. What mysteries lie hidden there besides g-g-g-ghosts?

The team’s been having a lot of fun with our new in-game item editor. As you can see, you’ll be able to equip items that you wouldn’t normally think you could. Feels very sandbox-y, right?

And finally, on a more technical side, we’ve finally implemented a critical system for the living world aspect of Witchstone: the World Query System. This system will be used by pretty much all our features (dialogues, banters, systemic events, quests, etc.) to check the current state of the game and determine the right output for the player.

For example, when you'll initiate a conversation with an NPC, the World Query System is used to determine the correct dialogue lines to display. Criterias can be, or a combination of, ‘is the player a friend?’, ‘does the NPC have a quest to give?’, ‘is there a systemic event happening?’, ‘is the Sheriff investigating a crime’, etc.

Neat, huh? At least, I think so.

What's Next for Spearhead Games?

We're also working on a new Ability Editor to easily and quickly create spells and status effects, and them to characters and items. Hopefully, I can show that next time.

As for the Kickstarter campaign, we've been pretty quiet about it lately. And that's for a good reason. We've been working really hard on our side with people outside the studio to make sure we deliver the highest-quality campaign. You'll know as soon as we know when the campaign will start.

And speaking of Kickstarter, congratulations to Solasta: Crown of the Magister for smashing their campaign goal!

 

[Contagium]

I'm slowly coming around to this one. Fabulously optimistic.

 

[LESS T_T]

Newsletter from last week. They decided to take more time on the game before Kickstarter: https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=3533a72c174f5e970996c26b7&id=1a61ead0e2

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to 2020, we’re really excited about what the new year brings, not the least of which is a trip to Boston to see some fans!

Project Witchstone @ PAX East 2020
That’s right, Spearhead is hitting the road and heading south to Boston for PAX East. We skipped out on PAX South this year to focus on Project Witchstone, but with how great it is to see people play our games hands on, you know we had to go. We’ll be bringing our show-exclusive Witchstone Demo, and are really looking forward to getting more in-person impressions of the project from fans and media.

If you’re attending PAX East, we’ll be at booth #8026, we’re on the leftmost wall of the con floor right next to the Team 17 booth. Here’s a handy map to guide your quest:

Attendees who play the Witchstone demo and sign up to this newsletter shall receive 1 free Steam key for either Stories: The Path of Destinies or Omensight. Please tell your friends about this very special offer!

Also, we will be selling our previous Pinny Arcade pins at the booth! Get them while supplies last!

And the Survey Says...

In our previous newsletter, we asked about the kind of story and worldbuilding that engaged you the most.

And the overwhelming majority of respondents answered... In Video Games!

Thank you for participating in our survey and giving us a better idea on the narrative and overall direction of Project Witchstone. We will keep poking you all with our questions, so stay tuned!

A Few Words about the Kickstarter Campaign

You may have noticed that there hasn’t been much talk about the Kickstarter, so we’re here to tell you the good news. After sitting down as a team to figure out how we want for Witchstone, we decided that the only way to go is to make sure we’re putting the quality of the game above hitting a date.

We wanted to take our time on the project, and felt like if we moved into the Kickstarter phase as originally planned for early this year, we weren’t going to feel confident about the state of the game and our ability to deliver all of the awesome systems and dynamic gameplay on that timeline. So instead of rushing, we’re taking the time that we need to make Witchstone the game we know it can be before we go to any manner of Kickstarter.

You’re probably asking what does this mean for you the player? Well the biggest thing is that you can feel confident that when we’re ready to Kickstart, we’re at a place where we are comfortable with all of the core systems and gameplay, and are sure they will deliver the experience we’re promising. Instead of rushing to hit a date and possibly running into timeline problems afterward, we’re taking the time beforehand to really iron out the wrinkles in all of the systems before bringing it to the fans at all.

We appreciate all of you, and all of your support over the years, so we wanted to be responsible and smart about how we go about working on our games out of respect for our fans. We want to make sure that when we tell you it’s going to be great, it’s going to be GREAT!

Witchstone Production Update

It's been a very productive month since our return from the holidays. The game is coming together nicely.

For this newsletter, I'd like to highlight what we call Milestones. In Project Witchstone, Milestones are major world-changing events that happen based on the player's previous actions and the current state of the in-game world. Murdered almost everyone in multiple towns and helped some cultists move into those empty towns? A Milestone about the cultists raising an undead army and going for world domination would trigger. Do you join them or fight them at this point?

Milestones are also used as act (or chapter) changes. The stake of what the player has to do is upped when Milestones are reached. We want to make sure that fetch quests aren't as prevalent when an external invasion is underway

Of course, the fun part is adding as many Milestones as possible to cover gameplay styles, repeated actions, chain of actions, etc. This is where your feedback and requests will come in handy!

What's Next for Spearhead Games?

Now that the majority of the core systems are in place (dialogue, quests, combat, event tracker, etc.), the whole team is moving ahead with creating content for the game!

We can't wait to show you our progress on Project Witchstone in the next newsletter.