KickStarter INSOMNIA: The Ark - dieselpunk sci-fi action-RPG set on a decaying space station

Agreed.

I was kinda hopeful, based mostly on the screens shown earlier, the one with all the weapons and so on.

I hope they didnt use this vid as a promo in their plea to get more monies. Or maybe it is a threat: give us more money or the combat will be like this.

This looks pretty hopeless.

 

Looks a lot like another Action RPG: Avencast.



Not really a good thing. If they wanted Dark Souls, they really need better animations & flow. Right now it looks clunky as fuck.

 

I can deal with a lot of sub-par combat in an overall great game, but that looks like shit. Jungle diarrhea level shit.

 

Yeah, no way to defend that crap.

 

Well, I backed it, and as long as the promised c&c is in I don't really care about the combat (if it's not frustrating that is).

 

did you watch the video?

 

OK so I no longer have to pay attention to this one.....

 

Combat being shit was a fact known from the beginning. I'm still convinced that this kind of a game (and perspective for that matter) would benefit most from being turn-based and having a complete squad under your control, but this kind of action-y system is still miles ahead of a jerky single-player RTwP. So yeah, still going to play the shit out of it if I ever get the chance to do it.

 

You mean apart from the lol-dodge-roll sequence every (literally) one second? Or, by extrapolating, what said concept will mean to your poor hand after ten minutes of gameplay?

 

Dodge-roll isn't (or wouldn't be) a problem if they tied it to stamina, and stamina to a certain attribute. Doubt they're gonna do it, tho.

 

reminds me of afterfall

 

Looks like they didn't put thought into this. Rolling because other games have rolling. What a shame.

 

You can see in the video that it's tied to stamina, though it seems like it uses a very small amount.

They'll probably re-balance it but the whole video screams "we have no fucking clue what we're doing in terms of making an ARPG" so they might not.

 

I don't either, but it looks boring and tedious. The enemy had a ton of HP, an uninteresting attack sequence, and the PC's options seemed to dodge-roll then shoot or swing. Repeat ad nauseum.

I actually enjoy Gothic 1 and 2's melee combat system, if that helps with the context.

 

49
Vote: veteran item-set and returning backer discounts
Posted by Studio MONO (Creator)
Hello everyone! We are steadily approaching to launch of our subsequent Kickstarter campaign for InSomnia, and while there are still some actions we need to perform for a perfect launch we would like to know your opinion on a few things.

Veteran item-set
As we indicated before the development process of the game never stopped and now our team is ready to show you one of the in-game rewards that was promised for everyone who pledged $25 and above. Basically this update will give a quick look at two versions of Veteran item-set so you can make yourself heard and tell us which one looks better (click on images to watch short demo videos):

Option #1 (the gun is not a part of the item-set)
Option #2 (axe is not a part of the item-set; the shield is though)
As you can see the main difference between these two sets is colour scheme and the only extra item that is currently a part of the set is a shield. So what we would ask you to do is to vote for the option you liked most and tell us your ideas on extra items (weapons, shields... nothing?) you would want to have with this set.

Returning backer discounts
We haven't brought up this question "officially" in any of our previous updates but certainly there were talks regarding this topic in the comments for a while now. Some of you were interested in privileges that will be available for returning backers in terms of our next campaign for the game.

One of the things we always wanted to do is to give you the opportunity to upgrade your pledges, so combining these two things made us think of a proper way to thank anyone who will be generous to support us once again in this final step to the finish line. So basically the idea is to give a 30% discount to any returning backer who would want to upgrade an existing "old" tier no mater how much money he or she pledged initially.

Tier visualization for the new campaign
Example: you had pledged $5 for the "Uniter" tier during the original campaign but really wanted to have an early beta access that was available for $25 tiers and higher only. To make this happen you would have to pay additional $20, but with the30% discount we provide you (in this particular case this makes it $6 less) this amount will decrease down to $14.

The higher your tier upgrade is, the bigger amount of money are being saved and more rewards you get!

How this will work: for this new campaign we will also have a minimal tier that will cost about $5. To upgrade your existing tier you will have to pick this one and pledge the difference between your old tier and the "new" one. Using the example we gave you above it would be $14 (we will publish a detailed info on how much it will cost you to upgrade from all kinds of tiers to the other ones including the discount).

Next step - contact us via Kickstarter and let us know about your intentions! We will add a note near your name inside our system and whoala - you've successfully upgraded your tier.

Any other ideas? If you know how to make this discount process work easier or you have any other ideas or opinions regarding this - let us know in the comments!

A general bonus for all returning backers
We can imagine a situation when you wouldn't want to upgrade your existing tier and just throw a few additional bucks to show your support. This is totally fine in our book and we are thinking of the way to make it count as well.


In our new campaign we are planning to use similar tiers and rewards but will slightly improve them one way or another which means that some of you will get additional freebies (shirts anyone?) even if you do nothing at all! However if you do support us again we would like to give you something in return. So what would you want this to be?

We will be ready to launch the new campaign next month so there is still some room for improvements and changes.

Some other cool stuff we've been working on
Yes, this shield actually exists in real life now thanks to our handy smith!
A work in progress model of custom weapon for one of our backers (you know who you are!)
...and another custom weapon for a very creative backer (WIP)
Until next time!

 

So they are giving 2 copies of the game for original backers?
Not bad really, if the game is ever released.

 

Oh lol.

UK£ 12 500 = 1 182 955.8 Russian rubles. If we're to believe their studio page, they are based in Samara. It's a big city, but definitely not Moscow or St. Petersburg. Going by hh.ru (a popular job listing site), in Samara average experienced programmer's salary is ~100 000 RUB (1 536.3$). It can be less, it can be more, depending on a company, of course. OK, so they seem to have three programmers listed on their kickstarter page, and four 3d-artists. Also one sound designer. Studio Mono is independent, or so they claim, but they seem to have a sponsor. I wonder if they hired all listed on kickstarter page as full-time employees, as opposed to contracted specialists. Kinda weird for an unknown indie company. Also going by provincial levels' salaries, they either pay their employees/contractors kinda too generously, and/or they don't have an accountant. Or maybe there is some money laundering involved.

 

Hm I need to check Panama papers.

 

I wonder if it's the right Studio Mono: 1, 2. If yes, then their registered capital was 229$, lol. If that's them, then they are at least probably evading taxes like there's no tomorrow.

 

It's a russian dev, no?

 

Gotta check that demo.

Have to give it to them, that campaign is one of the most well laid-out KS campaigns I've seen, the trailer's also very appealing (except for the combat, I need to try it out for myself). The game looks brilliant, although they did take a risk moving to UE4 and pulling the camera down during scenes - that's simply expensive.

 

I've tried the demo [direct link] for a couple of minutes because it crashed and ... I think the game has potential.

Now, there is nothing new I can say. Combat is still shit but at least the controls are for PC and not a pad. I wish they would do TB combat but it's probably too late for this game.

On the other hand, the world and atmosphere are good. The art direction is quite special.