Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Vapourware "Yasumi Matsuno may or may not be surprised his new game is being released" Unsung Story thread

Goi~Yaas~Dinn

Savant
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
786
Location
A derelict.
Then a new developer came along and started building something out of the wreckage, which they're essentially going to give us for free.
Didn't Playdek sell the rights (or was it simply subcontracted?) to Little Orbit?
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
Patron
Joined
Jan 12, 2004
Messages
11,540
Location
Black Goat Woods !@#*%&^
Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Then a new developer came along and started building something out of the wreckage, which they're essentially going to give us for free.
Didn't Playdek sell the rights (or was it simply subcontracted?) to Little Orbit?
I don't remember or care, I'm sure it's upthread. The point is that the backers lost their money a long time ago and whistleblowing this thing with the triangles as some kind of smoking gun is dumb as hell. All Playdek had to do was nothing.
 

Goi~Yaas~Dinn

Savant
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
786
Location
A derelict.
I don't remember or care, I'm sure it's upthread. The point is that the backers lost their money a long time ago and whistleblowing this thing with the triangles as some kind of smoking gun is dumb as hell.
If you're not going to bother with details then why should I? I think they did 9/11 and killed Jean-Benet Ramsay as well.
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
Patron
Joined
Jan 12, 2004
Messages
11,540
Location
Black Goat Woods !@#*%&^
Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I don't remember or care, I'm sure it's upthread. The point is that the backers lost their money a long time ago and whistleblowing this thing with the triangles as some kind of smoking gun is dumb as hell.
If you're not going to bother with details then why should I? I think they did 9/11 and killed Jean-Benet Ramsay as well.
While a complete sentence would have been nice (e.g. Subject scammed object out of indirect object), nobody asked you for details of your brilliant theory. A simple debunking was enough.
 

Goi~Yaas~Dinn

Savant
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
786
Location
A derelict.
Zombra said:
While a complete sentence would have been nice (e.g. Subject scammed object out of indirect object), nobody asked you for details of your brilliant theory. A simple debunking was enough.
Little Orbit scammed the Backers out of Unsung Story. I'd rate you "retarded" if I could, but that'll have to wait.
 

Ninjerk

Arcane
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Messages
14,323
We need to sever the the cables that connect the Eastern and Western seaboards.
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.
Then a new developer came along and started building something out of the wreckage, which they're essentially going to give us for free.
Didn't Playdek sell the rights (or was it simply subcontracted?) to Little Orbit?
thats the point innit

playdek burned the kickstarter money and then sold someone else the mailing list of their failed campaign

if anything this has been a scam for years, except now you get updates to a game you never actually wanted
 
Last edited:

Goi~Yaas~Dinn

Savant
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
786
Location
A derelict.
Then a new developer came along and started building something out of the wreckage, which they're essentially going to give us for free.
Didn't Playdek sell the rights (or was it simply subcontracted?) to Little Orbit?
thats the point innit

playdek burned the kickstarter money and then sold someone else the mailing list of their failed campaign

if anything this has been a scam for years, except now you get updates to a game you never actually wanted

I suppose that's another way of looking at it, sure. I still say it matters just what Little Orbit promised to bring to the table at that point. I mean, I don't recall Kickstarter giving anyone refunds on this (skimmed through every post in the thread, might've missed it, and of course I've slept some in the few days since then). That means, depending on the exact terms between Playdek and Little Orbit, this is still a fully functioning agreement. Despite what is often believed, just because one party pisses away the money that does not mean they are excused from providing a product in return. "Cut-and-run" is not a valid legal principle in the USA.

I realize I prolly come off as some busybody making much ado about things that don't truly concern him (after all, I wasn't a backer, and it's not like I religiously followed this project). But it really rustles my jimmies, the way companies often use Kickstarter. Even Kickstarter itself, to a degree, because they seem more and more reluctant the longer they've been in business to initiate refunds.
 

baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Jan 1 2019

January - Ringing in the New Year
Posted by Little Orbit (Creator)


Dear backers,

I am pleased to announce that we have completed one of the main Kickstarter promises.

Unsung Story has a full original soundtrack.. and it's amazing.

Nearly a year ago, I had the honor of spending a fun evening with Hitoshi Sakimoto discussing why music was so important to Unsung Story. Since then, we have been exchanging notes to outline each aspect of the world that might influence his score. In December, all 26 tracks were recorded and fully mastered at Basiscape in Tokyo.

This month, I'm going to keep it simple.

I can't share everything, but let's ring in the New Year with the first minute of the main theme.



Thank you for your continued patience and support.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott
 

baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Two more updates


February Update - Vertical Slice Part 1
Posted by Little Orbit (Creator)

Dear backers,

January was another very busy month for Unsung Story. The commitment to the Square Grid has unblocked the team on many different levels. There are now so many work streams happening at once, that I'm going to need to pick and choose the elements to focus on in the upcoming Kickstarter updates.

General update and the one bit of bad news.

First, I want to apologize about the lack of backer interaction and forums. I have an unfinished task sitting on my to-do list to get everyone migrated to GamersFirst accounts so they can access the new Unsung Story forums. Things have been super busy, but I plan on getting this finished in February.

Second, here is an update on various parts of the game:

  • We have updated the story board to lock in the first 50% of the game.
  • We have updated the mission layouts / whiteboxes for the first 25% of the game.
  • We are about 15% done building out the character art, heads, hair, and outfits.
  • We are working back through all the abilities (lots of design tweaks based on game testing). Right now I think we have about 20% of the abilities completely done again.
  • Lots and lots of finalized engineering systems related to movement, combat, and AI.
Lastly, the bad news.

After having spent the last couple months with the Square Grid and going through production timelines, it is clear we aren't going to have a finished game by the end of this year.

I absolutely hate having to move things back.

The main problem is the mission art production time. We have 50 missions, and we're using mostly unique assets in each one. Early in the project, we made the design decision not to build some basic tile sets and just re-use those over and over. It takes a minimum of 1 month to fully complete the art for each mission. We are in the process of ramping up about 4 teams to work concurrently. Using those estimates, we have at least 13 more months of production which doesn't include time for cutscene environments, polish, submission, manufacturing and shipping. I will be spending some time to see how well we hold to our time estimates, and then I'll come back with a new date.

Please know that I want to ship this game as soon as possible. You guys have waited far too long already.

Vertical Slice Timeline

The Game Developers Conference is on the horizon in the third week of March. The Little Orbit team will be up in San Francisco doing a series of press meetings near Mascone Convention Centre, and part of those meetings will be spent showing off the Vertical Slice for Unsung Story.

This is super exciting for us, because GDC will be the first time anyone outside our studio has seen what the finished product will look like.

With that in mind, starting this month I'm going to do a three-part series that tracks our progress up to and through those meetings. This month, I'm going to show off a lot of the pre-production. The March update will feature work-in-progression, and the April update will show off the final product.

Before I jump in, you can read the December update features some of Mission #5 as context for the switch to the Square Grid. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littleorbit/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/2358636

Mission #5 notes from our Lead Designer

Hey, everyone! This is Jared from the Unsung Story design team. I want to give you all a quick behind the scenes look at some of the design ideas and goals we had for one of the early missions in Unsung Story. Note: There may be some very minor story spoilers below, but nothing that would ruin any major surprises.

When designing the Branholme Clocktower Courtyard (Mission #5) we had several goals we wanted to achieve. First, we wanted to give players a look at a Branholme exterior location that depicted a more developed urban area. Up to this point in the narrative, most of the combat had taken place in areas that were either building interiors or on the outskirts of the city. Here, for the first time, you will get to see a clear picture of the city's architecture, its climate, and the heavy influence of mechanical technology that has seeped into the many aspects of the culture. Many of those ideas are visible in the concept images and story boards.

The story board images were created back when we were committed to the hexagonal grid. We have since moved to a square grid and so these images are not accurate anymore, but they still do a great job of getting across the major concepts and themes that we want to preserve.

504847ec07be4d3adc4bf378f0ca5a3a_original.jpg

Mission #5 Storyboard
Another important aspect of this level is that it's the first mission in which you will encounter non-monster enemies. The enemies you've battled until this point have been monsters, but here you will need to face off against humanoid characters that are enemy Mercenaries, Archers, and Berserkers - job roles that you will also have access to as you progress through the game. This creates a whole new type of challenge, as these units have a wider range of attacks and skills they can use, including using healing or revival items. From a design perspective, it means that the mission objective (and the level design itself) can afford to be more straightforward, allowing the increased complexity of the new enemy unit types to be the focus.

33c51b08136775ee88c785cb9091641a_original.jpg

Mission #5 white box
The goal of this mission is to save some important NPCs who have barricaded themselves within the clocktower to avoid danger from the invading Saxtel fighters. Luckily you will have the help of Brienze and Sirena in this mission, two important story characters who are welcome allies in a fight. In order to win, all the Saxtel enemies will need to be knocked out, before Brienze, Sirena, or your main player character are killed. You get to control both Brienze and Sirena as playable characters, adding another unique element to this battle. As we continue to build out all the pieces, I think it's shaping up to be a really fun and memorable level.

Mission #5 Final Concept and notes from our Lead Level Designer

Howdy everybody! My name is Jon and I’m the designer responsible for creating the levels in Unsung Story. After we locked in the story board and whitebox, we did a series of concept sketches to pull everything together into a final look.

39df653c51a3969a22af20de46939110_original.jpg

Mission #5 sketch
When it came to developing the initial whitebox for Mission 5, I wanted to explore elements that were missing from the original hex-based grid layout. Primarily, I wanted to break up the playspace and add more discreet segments of gameplay which could only be reached through various routes, giving the player more options and combat settings.

Another priority, was eliminating as much unused space as possible and creating opportunities for a more immersive encounter overall by making the playspace as traversable as possible. The switch to a square grid had the added benefit of enhancing the verticality factor of the levels and introduced the ability to get on top of props in the scene like buildings or go inside of spaces like the pagoda. The structures along the perimeter of the map and the pagoda also provided a new challenge for us to tackle to make sure we could occlude things properly for the player’s camera – this adds depth to our scenes and lets us create a more immersive environment to have fun and strategize in.

In the end we finalized the look of the mission, and it turned out like this.

aeea37076c2b4c1700da00c22d12c585_original.jpg

Mission #5 final
For those of you that purchased the Art Book, you'll get to see the conceptual work on each of the 50 missions.

Building Mission #5 in 3D

Once we have a final concept, we then hand everything off to the 3D art team, who will spend about 4-5 weeks creating all of the pieces.

Here is a quick shot of how that is turning out.

fcc58413d3a23a5c8c9d61b8f95e6667_original.jpg

Mission #5 3D
User Interface Iterations

Obviously the level art and design for Mission #5 will be the visual center piece of the Vertical Slice. But in order to actually play through the mission, we need a fully implemented User Interface. Months ago we showed some preliminary work in this area, but since then we've made a lot of stylistic changes to lean into some of the classic tactics feel.

Please know that this is still work in progress using placeholder art.

6687524a122bc0b109b4466031b2b08c_original.jpg

User Interface Mockup - Dialog
61738a84e803cb2518996e181550e577_original.jpg

User Interface Mockup - Battle
Character Variation Progress

One of the other important elements for the Vertical Slice is the characters. We want to fully demonstrate all (or at least many) of the variation features we've been talking about for the last couple months. This includes different body types, skin tones, head variations, and hair.

37ef8d89f69459e51524c49267640df0_original.jpg

Human Female Head Designs
083351d43167da672ee877b1ee69fa13_original.png

Human Female head/face combination
3922be97af3db556bffa44133e7b4024_original.png

Human Female head/face combination
Next month, I'll be back with more progress, and I'm hoping to capture some video of our character pipeline.

Thank you for your continued patience and support.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott

March Update - Vertical Slice Part 2
Posted by Little Orbit (Creator)

Dear backers,

We're back with another Kickstarter Update and second in a series about our Vertical Slice progress.

This month, I'm not going to focus on level art, because I want to save that for next month. I think it's important that properly light everything and show off what the final game is going to look like.

Towards the end of last month's update, I said that in March we would show off more progress with the characters. During our internal meetings in February, we thought it would be cool to shift the format of the monthly updates and start doing more video blogs, which can better demonstrate features and gameplay. So bear with us, as our Art Department is still getting the hang of these during our first two attempts.

We'll start with character customization. For this part, I enlisted the help of Craig, our lead technical character artist. Craig is going to show off the Female Human Archer along with some of the body and hair customization features. We didn't get a change to show multiple head swaps or skin tones, but those are also working.



Next up is a video on the user interface. For this part, I asked Jared, our lead designer to walk through those features. This is still work in progress, but I'm very pleased with the direction.



If like this format better than the wall of text that I normally do, let us know in the comments.

Thank you for your continued patience and support.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,982
"We're really keen on making a high quality project, so we're not going to use tiles like every other high quality game of this type has used, but instead hand craft each level separately for no reason at all. It's gonna take like 4 years to finish."

"Take a look at our characters- they're basically Ms. Potato Heads, with slightly different features being swapped in and out onto a template."
 

baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
April Update - Vertical Slice Part 3

Posted by Little Orbit (Creator)

Dear Backers,

It's the 1st again, but I assure you there are no April Fools jokes in this update.

This month we're going to do a quick general update and then wrap up the Vertical Slice series by showing off a first look at what a completed level looks like along with some of our internal level building tools.


New Forums & Account Migration
Months ago we shut off the Little Orbit Unsung Forums thinking that we could easily transition everyone over to the GamersFirst forums. For those that don't know, we bought the GamersFirst.com network back in May 2018. This is now Little Orbit's online portal. However GamersFirst has over 23MM registered players, so it was a lot more complex to bring over the Unsung Story Kickstarter list.

The wait is nearly over. Later this month we will be sending out an email to all the backers with instructions for migrating their account to GamersFirst. This will give them access to the new Unsung Story forums, and eventually their proper backer badges. I apologize that this took so long.

I want to start working with the community a bit more, and Kickstarter is not well suited for a 2-way conversation. We will also be reaching out to the premiere backers to start working on rewards related to art and design.

General Update
At this point there are a bunch of long term tasks that wont really be complete until the game is Alpha, but I'll try to break them up to give a sense of progress.

  • Design is still finalizing the white boxes for all 50 missions. 15 are done and out for conceptual art. 9 are playable. You'll notice that we keep adjusting the play field size on Mission 5 based on play testing. Those changes have been filtered back through other level designs to keep everything consistent.
  • Art is managing the process of working through conceptual art based on the white boxes and then the 3D modeling build out of each level.
  • Development continues to build out class skills and combat mechanics. But they are also building tools for the artists and designers. I'll be showing off the first pass of our Environment Control and Tile Editor below. Right now they are also adding support so that design can script Spawns, Hazards, and environmental events. These elements are necessary to complete the remaining 35 mission white boxes.
  • Development is also building out the Fracture system which our extended game play feature for Unsung Story that allows players to replay levels they have already beaten. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get a good enough write-up for that part of the game, so we'll be walking through it next month.
  • Art has completed work on the Female Human across all class outfits and 3 different body forms. Those assets are still being glued up in the engine, and it was quite a bit more work than we anticipated. Conceptual work is being done on the gender / racial variations to each class outfit alongside various story character designs. They also have lots of continuing work on animation, vfx, and UI.
Vertical Slice Progress
You can see Part 1 here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littleorbit/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/2402978

And you can see Part 2 here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/littleorbit/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/2432294

Before I jump in, it is worth acknowledging that we didn't quite hit the goal of a full Vertical Slice that I had hoped for. The art and mechanics of the level are finished, but other significant elements like final character models with customizations and effects are not. We are also missing most of the post processing polish which includes a better treatment for outlines around characters and depth of field. We specifically did not edit the game play footage, so you can be assured that what you're seeing is all live and working.

We'll start with some stills of the final in-game Mission 5 level art.

These are heavily atmospheric. That is still being dialed in. Also, everything has been modeled at high resolution, but some of the surfaces are still coming across flat. In my opinion the metal bits in the level look the best so far.

bdae2e4c061ad1dad8ef0361903a586f_original.jpg

Mission 5 - Branholme Day
d7688088733c3691f7aa9590b3f8378f_original.jpg

Mission 5 - Branholme Night
And a shot of the same level running on Switch.

9616da5bfba831ad49b35c35ea92bfb0_original.JPG

Mission 5 on Switch
Environment Control v1
Nick, our Technical Artist, got super excited about this system and did a last minute video capture to show off some times of day for you guys to see. I thought you guys would get a kick out of seeing the work in progress.

Here is a quick summary:

  • This system will control time of day, weather, and other environmental factors
  • Mission 5 is demonstrated at noon, night time, and sunset
  • Dynamic lighting and shadows
49698c5fb0228384653b81c15bef68ba_h264_base.jpg
(go to the update page to see the video)
Game play progress
Brandon, one of our designers, took some time to do a play through. All of the sounds are placeholder. Aside from the new addition of all the level art, I feel like the UI polish is coming along. Controls are feeling pretty intuitive at this point.

Here is a quick summary:

  • Temporary Level Selection Screen
  • New 3D level art
  • Working mission objectives
  • Unit Placement phase
  • Optimized Unit move, skill selection, and targeting phase
(go to the update page to see the video)
Level Tile Editor v1
To finish off this month's update, I thought it would also be fun to have Nick demonstrate one of our level editing tools. This is a critical part of our level pipeline, as it allows our artists to work with the levels without disrupting what design has done.

Here is a quick summary:

  • The goal of the system is to reduce the iteration time between art and design
  • We can toggle the white box design elements for designers to be able to create the basic play area
  • Designers can place tiles and rotate / shape them for the needs of the level
  • Demonstrate Branholme biome and an alternate biome example
3deefefb734a3d7dcecc492493812735_h264_high.jpg
(go to the update page to see the video)
As always, we appreciate your continued patience and support.

We'll be back next month.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott

May Update - Inversions and the creatures they spawn
Posted by Little Orbit (Creator)

Dear backers,

This month, we're going to change things up a bit and refocus on design. Specifically we're going to talk about the system we designed for extra gameplay that we originally called Fractures.

Before I jump into that, let's do a general update and a roadmap for the next couple months of updates.

New Forums & Account Migration
Last month, I let backers know we were going to be migrating everyone to the GamersFirst forums.

Those emails went out about a week ago.

If you didn't get one, please contact support@littleorbit.com. The instructions provided a unique code that you can use to link your Kickstarter rewards to your GamersFirst account. This will enable us to get you the proper forum badge when they are available.

Please don't misunderstand. The goal is to get the community back involved with Unsung, and this is our online platform now. However, your information is safely stored with Kickstarter and BackerKit. Even if you don't migrate to GamersFirst, you'll still get your game and other rewards as long as you filled out the BackerKit survey.

Upcoming Kickstarter Updates
Each month I write around 1,000 words (sometimes as much as 3,000), and as hard as we try to make a cohesive update with screenshots and video, I can't always align our internal milestones, and sometimes these topics aren't what you guys want to hear about.

With that mind, we reviewed the comments from the last couple updates, and here are some topics that we will be organizing for the coming months.

  • More music - This has been the #1 request since January. I'm still considering how to do a monthly reveal on some music tracks without giving away everything.
  • Story Characters - From here on out, I'm going to try and include a small write-up from a designer along with the current concept sketch for a single major Story character each month. Just know that the cinematics for the game will be the last items we complete, so much of the conceptual work isn't finished yet.
  • More user interface / user experience - A couple backers requested updates on UI screens like inventory, party, and character management.
  • Character creation - We're making good progress in this area, so I'm hoping this will be next month's topic.
  • More mission design / concept / gameplay progress - This one is always tricky. I'm never sure how much players want spoiled. We did three months in a row of this, so I thought we would focus on different things this month, but backers continue to ask for more detail on other missions, so I'll keep covering it.
Most importantly, these updates are for you. Please let me know in the comments or on our forums, what future topics you would like to see.

Main Topic - "Inversions"
I’m Brandon, a System Designer here at Little Orbit, and this month, I want to give you a small glimpse into the Inversions content system (formerly known as Fractures).

For context, the destruction caused by the 77-year war has taken its toll on the Opus, and the magical schools used to maintain it. Reality is starting to come undone. This has begun to manifest itself throughout the world by way of Inversions; areas where other possible realities have started to seep through allowing chaos to pour into the world and wreak havoc.

This system introduces repeatable, semi-randomized content for players to explore outside of the main storyline. Inversions are unlocked by completing the regular version of the map. Then players can move on to the alternate version of that mission that has different encounters, creatures, starting unit locations, mission objectives, times of day, or weather patterns unique to the region when applicable.

We are still designing these, but here is a quick hypothetical example:

In the main story line, we have a morning mission that involves eliminating all the hostile creatures that threaten your party in the outskirts of Branholme. The story version is fairly straight forward and involves opposing Saxtel army units as enemies.

Once that mission is completed, the player can choose the Inversion. This mission takes place in a what-if alternative history where the enemy attacked earlier during the previous night. This time you must eliminate all hostile creatures without using any Ice-based abilities, and instead of just Saxtel army units, they are helped by monsters known as the "Ancient Ones".

Aside from the fun, Inversions are an exciting source of additional puzzles, experience, and new character items. Players can repeat these missions to experiment with different jobs and skill loadouts before attempting the next story mission.

The core of the storyline in Unsung Story focuses on the 77-year war between the Alionne and Saxtel forces; a battle between different ideologies. Inversions give us the ability to step away from that war and explore other aspects of the world including … more of the creatures.

The Ancient Ones

Not all chaos or creatures are evil. For the Saxtel Empire, some are worshipped as Gods.

03a9982fd6189df91ec9f34801ad32de_original.jpg

Frost Ancient One
The Felidae Tribe

Back in September and October last year, we showed off Lionus Maximus, one of the indigenous creatures of the Alionne Kingdom. The Felidae are their tribal relatives that players can explore in some Inversions.

e6aa274faa1ba60a53997b2cc34a9701_original.jpg

Felidae Tribe
Kanlong

Lastly, are the Mana-infused Kanlong that inhabit the Lethanor region. These sleek dragon-like creatures are formidable enemies.

c3b875cf958dfce6ef21818faf75daa9_original.jpg

Kanlong
And finally, I'm going to finish off this month with our first Story Character bio.

Sir Leonardo Vensel
Age: 24

Home: Branholme, Alionne Kingdom

The renowned knight Leonardo Vensel came from humble beginnings. Born in the frigid climates of the Jelamond territory to a poor farming family, he was raised on the gallant tales of the 'knights of legend' and dreamed of one day becoming a knight himself. As he grew into adolescence, he left home to train at the Hodh School of the Divine to become one of the revered Echo Knights. Gaining a reputation for his dedication and discipline, he achieved his dream of becoming an Echo Knight at an uncommonly young age.

Upon the completion of his training, Sir Vensel said goodbye to his family and moved to Branholme, capital of the Alionne Kingdom, where he would become part of the kingdom's royal guard. Serving with dignity and humility as a royal knight, Vensel would befriend Prince Dragus Walraven, heir to the throne of Alionne. The two men formed a brother-like bond that would last for decades.

After a short time, Vensel took a temporary leave from the military to travel the world as a knight-errant, seeking to help those incapable of helping themselves and discovering more about the world beyond the borders of his kingdom. Sailing across the Jakeos Sea to the kingdom of Curia, he had many memorable exploits of bravery and chivalry, making a name for himself there as a hero among the common-folk.

On one such adventure, he rescued a beautiful young woman from a lone kidnapper. This woman was Giovanna Luestra, the princess of Curia, and a romantic relationship developed between her and Vensel. In the end, their budding romance was cut short, as Vensel was summoned to return home to his duties in Branholme. The two parted ways, hoping to one day reunite.

Returning to Branholme, Sir Vensel discovered that his friend Dragus had become King of Alionne. Vensel, having the trust of King Dragus, was appointed to Knight Captain of the Royal Guard. Vensel thrived in his new role and felt a satisfaction in fulfilling his duty to his kingdom, but part of him still longed for the love he left behind in Giovanna. Would he ever see her again?

Vensel's exploits and deeds as Knight Captain would garner great prestige, but there is one specific event that would eventually elevate him to the same legendary status as the knights he heard tales of as a child… an event at the heart of the Unsung Story itself.

But for that, you'll have to play the game.

c61c8254cf3a105a33d0fced28c9d0d3_original.png

Sir Leonardo Vesnel
As always, we appreciate your continued patience and support.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott
 

baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
I wonder if the people that wanted this game even remember or care about it now.

since everything (art, devs, game system) from the kickstater has changed, not a lot of backers would care about this. As someone said in this thread, Little Orbit bought a mailing list and are just making their own game;
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
Patron
Joined
Jan 12, 2004
Messages
11,540
Location
Black Goat Woods !@#*%&^
Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
since everything (art, devs, game system) from the kickstater has changed
More than anything mentioned above, what's really changed is the gaming landscape. Even if the finished product matched the original kickstarter pitch exactly, it would take a lot to get me excited to play it. Five years is a fucking long time, and let's face it: we have a zillion options for tactical RPGs, JRPGs, and everything in between nowadays. This isn't a bad thing! but it means that anything that was once special about this project has simply been buried by the sands of time.
 

80Maxwell08

Arcane
Joined
Nov 14, 2012
Messages
1,154
Oh hey I just realized I can still edit the title. I should remove Matsuno's name to start with. Any suggestions?
 

Goi~Yaas~Dinn

Savant
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
786
Location
A derelict.
since everything (art, devs, game system) from the kickstater has changed
More than anything mentioned above, what's really changed is the gaming landscape. Even if the finished product matched the original kickstarter pitch exactly, it would take a lot to get me excited to play it. Five years is a fucking long time, and let's face it: we have a zillion options for tactical RPGs, JRPGs, and everything in between nowadays. This isn't a bad thing! but it means that anything that was once special about this project has simply been buried by the sands of time.
https://yourbias.is/the-sunk-cost-fallacy
 

baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
since everything (art, devs, game system) from the kickstater has changed
More than anything mentioned above, what's really changed is the gaming landscape. Even if the finished product matched the original kickstarter pitch exactly, it would take a lot to get me excited to play it. Five years is a fucking long time, and let's face it: we have a zillion options for tactical RPGs, JRPGs, and everything in between nowadays. This isn't a bad thing! but it means that anything that was once special about this project has simply been buried by the sands of time.
https://yourbias.is/the-sunk-cost-fallacy

It would be the sunk cost fallacy if people still cared, which doesn’t seems to be the case
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,514
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
UPDATE #95
September Update - Sitting down with the Player Hub
8e88d5827cbbf037144622c8f7c9ff8f_original.jpg

Posted by Little Orbit
CreatorSeptember 1, 2019
Dear Backers,

August is always a challenging month for me due to yearly tradeshow commitments. This year I spent more than half of it working in Europe out of our UK office south of London, then doing a week at Gamesom in Cologne, and then I took a small vacation in Amsterdam. All total I walked more than 120 miles in the last 3 weeks. Fortunately some of that was drawing inspiration from the amazing Rijksmuseum and the canals in Amsterdam which are similar to what we have planned for Lethanor.

Having said that, I've only just returned on Friday, so if this month's update seems a little thin on progress updates, it's because I haven't had a lot of face time with the team.

General Update
In August we continued to push various systems (programming, 3D art, UIs, etc) forward while doing more revisions to the Storyboard and Game Design based on implementation feedback.

This round of design changes focused on trying to identify areas where we aren't serving the game. It's easy to design everything on paper, but once the gameplay is there, I feel it's critical to go back and figure out what is working and what isn't.

At this point, I'm very happy with Chapter 1. One part of the team is working through the rest of the chapters, while the rest of the team is continuing to iterate on the first 7 missions and making sure they can each be played beginning to end.

Community Questions/Comments
Next, I want to take a moment to address some comments from the community after last month's post.

A couple backers asked about the platform for the Chapter 1 release. At this point, we can only support Windows because there are limitations putting up incomplete content on XboxOne, PS4, and Switch, and supporting Linux and OSX at this stage would be a bit too much for the dev team.

kliqIMB accurately pointed out the lack of opportunities for community involvement and the missing features / content in the new forums. For context, I decided to switch the Unsung Story forums to our GamersFirst.com portal to consolidate everything and allow our moderators to be more involved. However, there was quite a bit of customization in the old Wordpress forums that doesn't exist on GamersFirst for allowing Art and Design waivers and to link in badges based on backer level. We have also had a problem re-populating the old threads because some of the users haven't yet signed up on GamersFirst. I'm still hopeful we can pull all of these things across soon, and more importantly, I am committed to getting you guys back involved at a deeper level.

Mr. Sixes asked if Singed will be available upon replay in Chapters 1 and 2. Yes. Future releases (and the final version of the game) will allow players to select Singed from the start, and players who get Chapter 1 now will have the ability to go back and replay that chapter with Singed units once they are complete.

Scott expressed from reservations about the chapter by chapter release, and while I agree with his evaluation of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, I don't think that's a good comparison. Matsuno's original design for the Unsung chapters had them as entirely discrete stories. We have since integrated them a bit more, but with the exception of Chapter 1 and Chapter 5, each of them has a proper beginning, middle and end, so I feel they make for good staggered release candidates.


The major topic for this month is the Player Hub.

We had a couple questions about leveling units, picking jobs, and customizations, so I thought I would walk through the design and some of the recent decisions to change how this system is implemented.

The Player Hub
The Player Hub is where you purchase items and equipment, level up, get extra quests, add customizations, and more. It is a critical part of any tactics game where players will spend hours fine tuning their units.

In Unsung Story, there are 8 distinct NPCs in the Player Hub that help with various functions. Each will have a unique character design and personality. It is our hope that you guys will enjoy getting to know them over the course of the game.

1. The Weapon Vendor

This character is very knowledgeable about weapons. He has studied both modern and ancient weaponry and is willing to help your cause by offering to sell you some of the weapons from his personal collection. The player can uncover more weapon information through course of the game that can be 'stored into the Opus' to expand this character's knowledge of weaponry and unlocking new items for sale.

Players can buy weapons from this NPC that can be used by specific job types. These weapons should be categorized by type or job, such that sorting through the options is made easier with sorting. Players can see details of each item before buying, to see what stats or abilities they provide. Players can also sell their weapons to this NPC for currency.

In addition to selling weapons, this NPC houses many of the functions of the weapon advancement / leveling system. This NPC allows the player to take excess weapons and convert them into weapon XP for other weapons that they want to use. The NPC also allows the player to slot in the weapon relics into empty weapon relic slots on their weapons.

2. The Armor Vendor

This is the armor counterpart of the weapon NPC. He recognizes that good armor can turn the tide of battle, so he offers to provide you with his service of providing the best armor he can find… for a price. Again, new armor and accessories can be discovered and unlocked by progressing through the story.

Players can buy different types of armor and accessories (any non-weapon equipment) from this NPC. These pieces of armor can be sorted/filtered both by equipment slot (helmet, chest, boots, gloves, etc.) and by any job restrictions (heavy armor, light armor, etc.) Players can also sell their armor to this NPC for currency.

3. The Item Vendor

This character is an item vendor. He makes a living by providing various curatives and chemical catalysts to both the scholars that work at the various Schools and to the Schools' visitors. New item types will become available for sale as you travel to new regions and unlock them.

Players can buy items (consumables) and various other miscellaneous item types from this NPC. The items in this UI can be sorted by type (healing items, status removal items, offensive items, etc.) They will also sell varieties of the consumable bag equipment item that determines consumable slot quantity.

Players can access their consumable bag slots system through this NPC as well. The player's party will have a consumable bag that has slots for items to be equipped into. When the player uses the Item command in battle, only the consumables equipped into bag slots will appear as options of items that can be used. This NPC will allow them to access the UI where they can slot the consumables they want into those bag slots. Players can also sell any of their items to this NPC for currency.

4. The Recruiter

The Recruiter provides a special service to you; they can scout out other capable adventurers who you may wish to add to your party ranks. They charge a fee for their services, but they promise to find only loyal and qualified recruits for you - other potential 'unsung' heroes.

They also have contacts who trade in restorative magics capable of reviving heroes who have gone unconscious in combat. This aspect of the game works different between the permadeath and non-permadeath modes of the game.

Players can use this NPC to 'recruit' new units into their available roster from a list of available units shown through this NPC UI. Each available unit will have a random predetermined name, gender, appearance, job, level, etc., which the player can view prior to recruiting. The jobs available will be based on which jobs the player has unlocked through leveling their party members, and the levels of the units available will be within a randomized range, skewing towards most units being slightly below the level of the player's highest-level units.

Players can preview the details of a unit before recruiting them for a currency cost, which increases when recruiting units of higher base level and/or who have more job levels.

In permadeath mode units die when they lose all their health. When this happens, the Recruiter will generate a comparable character available to recruit. For example, if the player has a level 40 Echo Knight (with some levels in Physician and Sage) die during a mission, returning to the HUB they can find a unit available to be recruited that is a level 38 Echo Knight (with some levels in Physician and Sage as well). This makes it so that units can permanently die without the player losing an enormous amount of character progress, and they can catch-up by spending gold to recruit this similar unit.

In non-permadeath mode units go unconscious when they lose all their health and need to recover. When the player has a unit in the Unconscious state at the end of combat, that unit cannot be used in missions until they have recovered. By paying the Recruiter, they employ their restorative magics to restore your unconscious characters. Characters brought back this way are set to the lowest Fatigue level and may need to sit out a mission or two before they are good-as-new.

5. The Job Captain

This character oversees providing the basic training necessary for accomplished adventurers to change jobs for those they are qualified for. They will be given training to understand the most basic skills and abilities required for their new job, as well as being given basic equipment (a starter weapon). They will also register the character in the roster as their new role, providing a bit of a bookkeeping role for the party. In exchange for this service, the Job Captain will charge a nominal fee to the party, once a job change has been confirmed.

This NPC houses the various job/skill related game systems that are required to outfit your characters for battle, the most prominent of which is allowing a unit to change their Primary or Secondary Job assignments. Players can preview job changes to a unit, but once they are confirmed, a small gold fee is charged. Units are always given baseline equipment, so that they can be taken directly into a mission and still be able to attack and use basic abilities, etc.

This NPC also houses other systems related to getting your characters ready for combat:

When a unit levels up, it may be able to unlock new skills or passives. In this NPC's UI, players can view the level pre-requisites for each skill and passive they unlock. When a pre-requisite is met, they can pay a gold fee to learn that ability from this NPC.

Through this NPC's UI, players can assign their job skills and passive abilities for both their primary and secondary classes. Changing skills/passives has no cost and can be done at will.

Each skill has a multiple tiers of 'mastery' that can be attained by using the skill during combat. In this UI, players can view the mastery progress of each skill on a character (probably displayed as a progress bar with numbers). There would be 3 'mastery tiers' for each skill: Basic, Expert, and Master. Learning a new job skill would have it start at Basic tier. Once a skill reaches the Expert tier, it can now be used as a Secondary Job skill. (The first skills unlocked as the baseline job skills would start at Expert.) Reaching the Master tier will allow the skill to be upgraded, improving its potency, but also increasing it's Focus cost to use in battle.

Players will be able to view the prerequisites for jobs that are 'next in line' from jobs the character currently knows. For example, a baseline character that has earned a level in both the Mercenary and Physician jobs would see the unlock perquisites for the Guardian and the Archer, (both of which are unlocked by leveling up Mercenary) as well as the Priest and Elementalist (unlocked by leveling Physician). In this way, they can prioritize building characters certain ways to unlock future jobs.

6. The Stylist

This NPC is very fashion and appearance conscious. They might come across as humorously vain or self-centered at times, but their heart is in the right place. They are focused on outward appearance and will let you make cosmetic changes to the characters in your party roster.

This NPC allows the player to change various cosmetic aspects of their character. This includes determining the color scheme of the player's team (primary, secondary, and tertiary colors), as well as individual unit customization options such as choosing a character's hairstyle, body size, hair color, eye color, skin color, etc. They also grant the ability to rename the unit, with a custom manually-entered name or select a random name from a predetermined name list.

The player will start the game with a set of basic customization options, and they will get more the further they progress through the story and perform side objectives.

7. The Bounty Agent

The bounty agent operates as a work contact for the mercenary groups of Lasfaria. They work as a liaison between the groups and potential clients as a sort of living bounty-board. Perspective clients can contact bounty agents when they need something done (anonymously or not) and can offer a reward or bounty for the task. The bounty agent will then contact the mercenary group they feel might best accomplish the task and present them with the opportunity to take on the contract. Bounty agents are often viewed as a little shady, both because of their role as a middle-man who assumes little risk but shares in the rewards, but also because some agents are less scrupulous and are willing to deal in contracts that subvert the law or are downright illegal.

The player can visit the bounty agent in order to take on semi-randomized tasks called 'Bounties.' Completing the bounty will allow the player to return to the bounty agent to redeem the reward.

When the player visits the bounty agent, they will see a list of available bounties they can undertake. They will see the bounty request (narrative) along with information about the specific bounty objectives and the potential reward. Players can undertake any bounty by selecting it (there is not cost to taking on a bounty) until they have reached their bounty cap. The number of bounties that can be undertaken at a time will scale up over the course of the game.

For example, the agent might give the player a task like "Defeat 10 Croakenmires" or "Complete 3 Fracture Missions with an Archer" that are tracked in a Bounty/Task UI that the player can access both in and outside of missions. The player can complete these tasks over the course of any number of missions. When they have completed all the objectives of a bounty, they can turn the bounty in to the bounty agent to receive the predefined reward.

Players can also abandon any bounty/task by returning to the agent and selecting to abandon a bounty that is underway. There is no penalty for doing this.

After the player has completed a Story Mission or Fracture Mission and returns to the hub, the bounty agent's list of bounties will refresh, and they may offer new bounties to the player.

8. The Historian

The Historian specializes in studying the past and collecting lost accounts of history to record them into the Opus. They're not an archeologist going out to find relics of history; they're more like a museum curator that collects and studies the uncovered history. They ask the player to turn over any relics or accounts of history they might encounter on their adventures, so that they can be recorded and studied.

For the heroes to be successful, their deeds can't be directly recorded by the Opus. Instead the Historian will curate what information can be safely added into the Opus and what gets recorded privately for The Unsung group's records.

Unsung Story has a narrative mystery at its core. The player's units are traveling back in time to collect pieces of information they can use to fix the situation. When the player discovers one of these, they can 'turn it in' to the historian by talking to them. This will bestow the player with some reward. This will also unlock pieces of narrative content, story pieces that the player can read at their leisure to learn more about the world and its history. The Historian will work as a sort of 'log book' UI, that the player can access to read each lore piece and story summary that they've unlocked.

This NPC also serves the purpose of sort of 'catch all' info person:

  • Part of this NPC's UI will be a 'monster manual' cataloguing information about the various enemies the player has encountered during the game (able to see the monster's name, stats, abilities, lore, etc.).
  • Players will also be able to view a world glossary, able to look up details about certain story characters, locations, details about the world, important dates and events of the war, etc.
  • And lastly, they serve as the way for player to access gameplay information, such as re-watching the games cutscenes, or accessing previously unlocked tutorial information for players needing a refresher.
Player Hub Iteration
Next, I'm going to walk through some of the initial design and subsequent changes for this part of the game.

Since our game involves space and time travel, the units move around a lot. As such, one of our core thematic problems was finding an appropriate location for the hub. Every tactics games approaches this problem differently. Final Fantasy Tactics keeps the hub as a series of game menus and a formless room outside the world.

Initially, we put the hub inside the Opus, which acts as the narrative device we use to travel in. This way it was always accessible to the player, and we didn't need a story explanation. However, further definition on how time travel works with the Opus made this solution not feasible.

Next we designed the idea that the hub would be different locations, each with its own 3D map for each chapter. This provided a great story reason as we move from city to city for adding and removing bounties and items. Furthermore, we designed small story-based changes to the hubs that made them feel more interactive and populated. For instance, one of the chapters involves a significant natural disaster that slowly escalates over a series of missions. We thought it would be cool to make changes in this chapter's hub to reflect what was happening to the city.

Ultimately, as cool as this idea was, it quickly became apparently we had bit off more than we could chew. Having 6 different hub locations required a lot more 3D art, and it introduced all kinds of narrative problems for chapters where we start outside of the major city or back-to-back missions that didn't return to the city in each chapter right away. That meant the hub would be unavailable unless we added extra cutscenes, which in turn also increased the art budget. This design stayed around for a long time, but eventually was discarded due to cost vs. impact. As cool as some of these subtle touches would have been, I'm not sure the player would have appreciated them.

Last month, we finally arrived at the approach we're going to use.

The Player Hub will be an in-game 3D campsite that follows the player on their journey. This means it will change slightly based on the region or chapter you're in, but for the most part it will use the same 3D map all the time. It has the least art requirements and allowed us to cut a lot of extra cutscenes we didn't need.

I look forward to showing off this new approach once the art is ready.

As always, we appreciate your continued patience and support.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
Patron
Joined
Jan 12, 2004
Messages
11,540
Location
Black Goat Woods !@#*%&^
Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Nothing to see here, but I was excited to coin the phrase "transparent vapor".

UPDATE #96
October Update - Clearing the pipeline

Posted by Little Orbit
October 1, 2019
Creator
Dear Backers,

This is going to be a shorter update this month.

I committed to transparency when we took this project on, and in keeping with that promise, I want to be upfront that the majority of the team got pulled into shipping one of our two other existing development titles. We're nearly through the crunch there, and then we'll transition resources back to Unsung.

I am very aware that everyone has waited a very long time for this, and we are still targeting to release Chapter 1 as soon as possible as an early beta. But I feel it would be unfair (and blatantly lying) if I tried to pretend that we made good progress this month.

I know this move will be met with a good deal of concern and skepticism, and I think that's okay. I'm not here to sugarcoat these updates. You guys get the real time updates, warts and all. We are small studio, and we do have limited resources. Unsung has seen a lot of excellent development progress over the last 2 years. We just needed to direct our focus elsewhere for September to keep the train rolling along.

I'll be back next month for another update.

Sincerely, Matthew Scott
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom