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Game News SKALD: Against the Black Priory, a retro RPG inspired by Ultima and Gold Box, now on Kickstarter

Infinitron

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Tags: Scape-IT; SKALD: Against the Black Priory

There have been a bunch of Ultima-inspired RPG Kickstarters recently, such as Code of the Savage and the tragically vaporous Unknown Realm. There's something timeless about that style, I guess. We don't post about every retro RPG we come across, but Scape-IT's SKALD: Against the Black Priory is another one that's too cool not to mention. SKALD combines classic Ultima-style exploration with the more complex character and combat systems typical of the Gold Box games, but it also has more modern elements such as scripted narrative sequences with dialogue trees. The game has been in development since the beginning of 2018, starting out as an RPG engine simply called SKALD. The actual Against the Black Priory campaign was first unveiled at the end of 2018 and in March creator Anders Lauridsen announced his decision to bring it to Kickstarter, which he did today. Without further ado, here is SKALD's rather brief pitch video and an excerpt from its campaign page:



SKALD: Against the Black Priory is a tile and turn based roleplaying game where you lead a party of up to six characters on an epic and perilous quest.

The game features:
  • Vintage graphics using the glorious Commodore 64 color palette
  • Complex level-based character development with abilities, skills and features
  • Grindless tactical combat
  • "Choose-your-own-adventure" system and dynamic, tree based dialog.
As a party based RPG, SKALD puts heavy emphasis on both roleplaying- and mechanical interaction between party members.

The current leader of the party can be swapped by the push of a button and the skills and abilities of the current leader will influence interactions with the game world. But be warned: Managing the party can be challenging with members having private agendas and motivations.

Combat in SKALD is turn- and menu-based. This leads to fast and grind-less combat (that can be automated). The design emphasis is on having interactions between abilities, tactics and situational circumstances create unique and challenging combat every time.

The game will feature a rich and highly interactive world with both scripted and systemic ways of interacting with the hundreds of NPCs, items, objects and plot points. The game will allow for, and encourage, a large range of player expression and roleplaying.

Interacting with the world takes place through tree-based dialog, "choose-you-own-adventure sequences", combat, tile-based exploration and interaction with in-game systems.

SKALD: Against the Black Priory will feature level-based character development with both numerical stats and special abilities. I also intend for roleplaying choices to affect character development by taking a leaf from classics such as Fallout 1 and 2.

As a game of dark, gritty fantasy, magic is a huge part of the world building. It will play a huge part of the game and designing a system that is both mechanically and narratively appealing is a challenge I can't wait to dig into! More on that down the line.

The game will release on PC (Windows) first with releases for Mac and handheld devices down the line. NOTE: Backer rewards are PC only.

Estimated release date is June 2020.​


SKALD: Against the Black Priory can be yours for a mere 99 Norwegian Kroner (about $11) with alpha access available at 199 NOK (~$23) and beta at 349 NOK (~$40). The game is well on its way towards its very attainable 70000 NOK (~$8000) funding goal and is scheduled to be out next June. Check out the official website for more details.
 

Aeschylus

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Saying something is inspired by Ultima and the Gold Box games strikes me as sort of like saying something was inspired by French and Italian cuisine ... Sure they're both good, and share a few basic similarities, but I'm not so sure what to think about them in combination.
 
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You know, maybe it's just me, but when I say "I wish there were more old school RPGs like they used to make them", the visuals/tech/UI are pretty much these areas where I would be absolutely fine with improvements.

Can't really say I have a strong sense of nostalgia for 16-colors graphics.
 

KeighnMcDeath

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Good thing i love nostalgia. I do think there should be some variation in the animation. Everyone is either doing their squat routine or has very bouncy legs like they're made of springs.
n5MSGLM.jpg

You see. They out Jazzercised that rat.
 
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MRY

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Matteo is pretty bold pandering!

Game looks great though, even with the headbanging idle animation.;
 

Bumvelcrow

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Ultima-style exploration with the more complex character and combat systems typical of the Gold Box games

Now this is what I was hoping Unknown Realms would do instead of just taking the limited mechanics of Ultima out of its time and hoping it would still work.

Vintage graphics using the glorious Commodore 64 color palette

But not the resolution limits of multicolour mode by the look of things. This is good, but if you're not going to go full 64 then why go halfway? The 64's colour palette was distinctive but not exactly a selling point. The PC VGA (EGA?) style of Ultima 5 was much more attractive.

Anyway, looks like I'm backing it.

:negative:
 

V_K

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Saying something is inspired by Ultima and the Gold Box games strikes me as sort of like saying something was inspired by French and Italian cuisine ... Sure they're both good, and share a few basic similarities, but I'm not so sure what to think about them in combination.
Have you played pre-Goldbox SSI games, like Demon's Winter or Shard of Spring? Or Magic Candle series? They're basically the same kind of combination.
 

Luzur

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Saying something is inspired by Ultima and the Gold Box games strikes me as sort of like saying something was inspired by French and Italian cuisine ... Sure they're both good, and share a few basic similarities, but I'm not so sure what to think about them in combination.
Have you played pre-Goldbox SSI games, like Demon's Winter or Shard of Spring? Or Magic Candle series? They're basically the same kind of combination.

I own all of them CIB, so yeah that is correct.
 
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Saying something is inspired by Ultima and the Gold Box games strikes me as sort of like saying something was inspired by French and Italian cuisine ... Sure they're both good, and share a few basic similarities, but I'm not so sure what to think about them in combination.
it actually does seem to have Ultima based world/adventure and movement mode and then gold box type battles from the brief video I saw
 

KeighnMcDeath

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I'll wait for it to be on steam or GOG. Im backing 3 things atm and no more will i put on the stove. Actually, if the music is rockin and in sync then the bouncing is fine. Its certainly different.

One thing i've noticed that this or mm3 type animators seem stuck on is either 1-3 frames. Ultima 1-2 had 1 frame early on, 3 had 2 frames, 4 had 2-4 frames (towns folk had 2) for most and 5 had ... shit I don't know 6, 8, 16? Ultima Codex wiki.

Water, lava, early energy fields (say ultima 3) had 16 frames or it just scrolled down a pixel and replaced to top line pixels with the bottom. Thus it makes the water look like its moving i guess.
Ultima4_Animation3.gif

I can see why static images or 2 frames because drawing 4+ is god damn annoying.
 

MrBuzzKill

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Wait, the "tragically vaporous" Unknown Realm? The game gets an update occasionally. Have I missed something?
 

Bladderfish

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Pledged. Looks like some quality retro shit to me, and brings back memories of Ultima 5 and 6.
 

KeighnMcDeath

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Saying something is inspired by Ultima and the Gold Box games strikes me as sort of like saying something was inspired by French and Italian cuisine ... Sure they're both good, and share a few basic similarities, but I'm not so sure what to think about them in combination.
It seems this is used a lot even in the online game I play. But I just saw it mentioned in the older KS Code of the Savage. I guess this tagline is popular. All three games look like something I'd definitely try. Lord knows I download the various freeware ones.
 

hpstg

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I've reached the point where I don't know if something looks like it's from 30 years ago because the art is so good, or because it's so bad.
 

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