Development Info Knights of the Chalice 2: Augury of Chaos Kickstarter soon

[bataille]

edit: I don't like the sound of time based puzzles. Why was this decision made? What is the benefit of having puzzles be time based instead of just letting the player sit down and think as long as they want?

Because it's more challenging and utilizes some otherwise underused player's skills? A great spice for a turn-based game!

 

[Trashos]

The whole point of turn-based games is that the player has time to think.

 

[Valky]

I'm more curious of his usage of the Boost library. At two places I've worked now, I've had to deal with Boost and both times, we came to the conclusion that Boost is massive bloat to the flash space and had to be removed.

 

[glass blackbird]

I don't understand, though, like, if he's finished the game why does he want a kickstarter? Just sell the game to people

No, if he sells it on his own site no one will even bother.kickstarter at least offer aminimum of visibility. Kotc was published like 10 years ago ,most of us forgot about it.The customers are here and the watch, half people here dont like the presentation and its not likely we buy it, then amongst people who can stomach that garbage , half will torrent and the polish dudes cant afford anything anyway.

ok, please explain how selling it on kickstarter is gonna fix that though

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

The question comes to mind: for what bizarre reason the first game never reached Steam and similar services?

P.S. So awkward when your long-in-the-making sequel ends up looking far worse than your original low resolution game.

 

[Farewell into the night]

I think art looks amazing. It's different.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

"Different" is... a way to put it.

 

[Ladonna]

I actually like the way the game looks, and if he is smart, it will be easily moddable. It should be fairly easy to put out new campaigns using those tile sets.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

This is the real deal.

 

[Ladonna]

From the website:

KotC 2 is much more than a CRPG. It is also a powerful, user-friendly set of tools for creating new and exciting OGL 3.5 CRPGs easily. You can create a stand-alone adventure, or you can allow your module to use the Saved Games of a previous module, thereby creating a campaign made up of connected adventures. The 5-5-5 User Module offer: construct a high-quality module and we will split the net sales 50/50 for five years (subject to agreement).

The toolset includes a powerful Creature and Template Editor that allows you to give Class Levels to any creature with a single click of the mouse. Want this Succubus to have three levels of Death Knight, or five levels of Wizard? You can do this very easily with a few clicks. Once created, you can easily place several instances of a monster on the map with just a few clicks. Draw a rectangle around them, click their leader and they will now behave as a group in the game, moving together and fighting together cohesively. Want to change the map and monster graphics? You can do that easily as all graphics are stored within the game's folder as individual PNG files. Want to copy and paste one or several creatures? You can do that easily too. Use the Creature Wizard to create a new Dragon easily by selecting its age category in a dropdown box. Easily create totally new monsters with their own attacks and abilities. Monsters only require a single 2D image, so you never have to worry about creating a new 3D model, model texture and 3D animation set! The only limit is your imagination.

With the integrated Map Editor, easily place animated torches and other light sources on the map, or atmospheric sound sources such as the wind. Easily place dangerous energy pits for characters to be Bull Rushed into. You decide how deep the pits should be and how much damage they should inflict. Set up ledges where the enemy archers can stand on. Create areas requiring the characters to swim, or dangerous lava-filled expanses. Create a beautiful forest with just a few clicks. Easily display or hide certain monster groups, so that multiple encounters can take place in the same location. Easily find out the Challenge Rating of a monster group by mousing over a creature and pressing G to display the Monster Group screen. Left Click on any creature in order to display the creature's Properties Screen instantly, allowing you to alter the abilities, equipment or AI of individual creatures easily. Use a creature's Inventory Screen to specify what items should be dropped and given to the player when the creature is slain. You can also use the Map Editor to create a new Regional Map, City Map or World Map easily. Easily undo the last change by pressing Left Control + Z.

With the powerful Script Editor, easily create NPC-dialogue scripts, monster-tactics scripts and other scripts that control the flow of the adventure. Quickly and easily associate a script to any object, creature or position on the map. Use scripts to set up graphical puzzles, riddles and cryptographic challenges. When your script requires a position, the adventure map is displayed so that you can simply click on the desired position and your script will be instantly updated with the clicked position - you never have to worry about the actual (x,y) coordinates! All tools in the toolset are interconnected. When you want to inspect or edit an object's script, simply click on that object in the Map Editor and click 'view script' to open the target script instantly in the Script Editor.

Using the Weapon and Item Editors, easily create new Artifact Weapons and Armour, new potions, new magical wearable items, new secret messages and new plot items. The toolset also includes a Spell Editor that allows you to create new spells and edit existing ones. Once a new spell is created, you can easily associate it with magical wearable or consumable items that can be activated or consumed by the characters.

 

[Farewell into the night]

Pierre B if you read this know that you are an awesome developer! I wish you the best.

 

[CyberWhale]

KotC 2 is much more than a CRPG. It is also a powerful, user-friendly set of tools for creating new and exciting OGL 3.5 CRPGs easily.

I actually think this is his best selling point. Instead of pitching it only to the regular RPG crowd, he should find more PNP communities that are interested in having a digital version of the OGL 3.5 system on their computers. Maybe even add online multiplayer (if he already hasn't)?

 

[CyberWhale]

The whole point of turn-based games is that the player has time to think.

I don't think that adding timers to puzzles is necessarily a good match, but hybrids like Worms/Hogs of War also have a particular niche to fill.

 

[Mortmal]

I don't understand, though, like, if he's finished the game why does he want a kickstarter? Just sell the game to people

No, if he sells it on his own site no one will even bother.kickstarter at least offer aminimum of visibility. Kotc was published like 10 years ago ,most of us forgot about it.The customers are here and the watch, half people here dont like the presentation and its not likely we buy it, then amongst people who can stomach that garbage , half will torrent and the polish dudes cant afford anything anyway.

ok, please explain how selling it on kickstarter is gonna fix that though

More visibility on Kickstarter means selling it outside the codex and the watch, maybe even touch pen and paper and board game communities.

 

[aratuk]

Yeah, I don't recall having seen a Kickstarter for a product advertised as already finished. I'm curious what the pitch is going to sound like.

Kickstarter has a list of prohibited items. One of them:

Projects that share things that already exist, or repackage a previously-created product, without adding anything new or aiming to iterate on the idea in any way.

Now, KotC2 is something that has already been made but not ever yet released, so I'm not sure if it qualifies in this regard. But, the primary element of a Kickstarter campaign is to describe how the money being raised will directly facilitate the project. It will be interesting to see how this project is described, considering it has already been facilitated without Kickstarter money.

Maybe the developer plans to write further first-party modules beyond the one he has finished? Maybe he plans to develop an online multiplayer capability for people to share their modules? But he does specifically mention multiplayer as being one of the things "KotC2 is not":

KotC 2 is not intended to be an online multiplayer game. It is a single-player party-based RPG.

If he does intend merely to use Kickstarter as a pre-sale platform… he shouldn't have told everyone that he already finished making the game! I'm not sure Kickstarter will allow it.



(If they do, by the way, I'm going to back it.)

 

[The Glitterdust Golem]

JUST RELEASE IT

 

[Valky]

I believe the kickstarters' purpose is to allow him to make more campaigns with the already finished game for us to play. I could be incorrect.

 

[glass blackbird]

Yeah, I don't recall having seen a Kickstarter for a product advertised as already finished. I'm curious what the pitch is going to sound like.

Kickstarter has a list of prohibited items. One of them:

Projects that share things that already exist, or repackage a previously-created product, without adding anything new or aiming to iterate on the idea in any way.

Now, KotC2 is something that has already been made but not ever yet released, so I'm not sure if it qualifies in this regard. But, the primary element of a Kickstarter campaign is to describe how the money being raised will directly facilitate the project. It will be interesting to see how this project is described, considering it has already been facilitated without Kickstarter money.

Maybe the developer plans to write further first-party modules beyond the one he has finished? Maybe he plans to develop an online multiplayer capability for people to share their modules? But he does specifically mention multiplayer as being one of the things "KotC2 is not":

KotC 2 is not intended to be an online multiplayer game. It is a single-player party-based RPG.

If he does intend merely to use Kickstarter as a pre-sale platform… he shouldn't have told everyone that he already finished making the game! I'm not sure Kickstarter will allow it.



(If they do, by the way, I'm going to back it.)

He can do a kickstarter for physical disc releases of it or something like that (people do that with RPG books, for example), but no, you're not allowed to just sell a digital product.

He could also say the KS is to pay for fees for Steam etc and do it that way. Or, as mentioned, say it's for further development, more campaigns, etc, which is also fine.

 

[aratuk]

I believe the kickstarters' purpose is to allow him to make more campaigns with the already finished game for us to play. I could be incorrect.

Okay, yeah, on the message boards he does refer to completing work on the "prologue adventure," and he talks about adding another character class as a stretch goal, so he definitely plans further development.

He is taking his project to a much greater degree of completion than most Kickstarters do before the campaign. I shouldn't fault him for that.

 

[bataille]

Well, he still hasn't done beta testing, so it's not finished yet. The need for a budget to hire beta testers is more than understandable for a single developer.

 

[aratuk]

Do any indie devs (especially 1-person teams) actually pay for QA testing? From what I've seen, free testers are simply drawn from among the most enthusiastic fanbois supporters, or else things don't get fixed until post-launch because the first customers are the beta testers.

 

[deuxhero]

Really hiring external beta testers and (hopefully) real artist for a done game would be perfectly acceptable use for crowd funding.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I actually like the way the game looks, and if he is smart, it will be easily moddable. It should be fairly easy to put out new campaigns using those tile sets.

I think it being modable is a huge reason he made the game and I believe the idea is users will make all sorts of modules and adventures with the tools which is why I am not that concerned about the initial graphic set

 

[Latro]

if it's moddable to the point where we can see full-blown custom campaigns, i don't really care what it looks like

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

he should do a kickstarter saying its to get new art assets and the ones currently shown are just place holders, that would solve a lot of issues at one time. Even if the money was used to simply buy those already made art assets for fantasy games that exist all over the place and which include many high quality examples it would be an improvement and also make the kickstarter 'legal' (I think)