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KickStarter SKALD: Against the Black Priory - retro RPG inspired by Ultima

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,965
From Steam forums:
An in regards to random encounters: the way they work currently is the absolute most crude way possible: It just spawns 4-6 enemies of a given type. This is because I didn't have time to tweak it at all. HOWEVER the game has a pretty nifty difficulty calculator built in that assesses relative powerlevel between the PC and mobs so it's very possible to tailor encounter levels to player power-level - I just haven't gotten round to it. The game also supports level scaling so it's also possible for certain mobs to have their level scales to fit the PC. In other words I have a plan and I will look into perhaps rushing it forward a bit.

SkaldRPG Please try to find some other way than Level scaling. Now as you mentioned earlier the main quest is 10 hours or so with a lot of sides, and due to the side quests making the main questline too easy you may need to take certain measures, but does it have to be level scaling?

How about you only incorporate level scaling for the main questline, but not the side quests at all?

Also, the best way to handle it would be to make character generation frontloaded; that is PCs start out as capable and competent, but rise in power very, very incrementally and slowly. So while we get plenty of feats and such, their ability to boost combat effciency is very incremental. That way you can still have regular advancement in the game but power levels won't rise drastically. Another great thing would have been no attribute increases after char gen and hitpoints remaining fixed, aside from a specialized feat or so. This is how The Dark Eye RPG (tabletop) does it and it works great. But I guess its too late to change this now.
 

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,965
Ok he explained further regarding level scaling:

Glad you like it! Level scaling will only apply to certain mobs and within certain ranges. For instance, in the demo, Reavers would scale by adding levels to their class so they range between a set level range to match you. In the prologue they might range between level 1-3 to account for players spending varying amounts of time exploring. At the same time you'd never see them scale in a way that breaks immersion. No going back to start and finding level 30 rats.
 

Luzur

Good Sir
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
41,385
Location
Swedish Empire
Ok so, i just installed and tried out the demo from GOG, and well i wasnt allowed to change name apparently, i typed in a new name on my char and when i pressed ENTER nothing happened, so my char is named ____ now LOL

Also a way to lower the music volume would be nice, its kinda loud.
 

Vitor

Novice
Joined
Jun 29, 2015
Messages
5
I loved the prologue! I really like it! I like the combat, art, choices, story, difficulty, ultima´s vibe... This is an open world game like Ultima, right? Can´t go wrong.

Is there a way to flee? I like hard games and I like it on Skald a lot but I wish I knew how to flee to make it more immersive. Like in the end of the prologue in the battle against the dogs. You can go stealth, attack or throw some food. I was low on food so I decided to go stealth and I failed. In the middle of the combat I saw that my party was too weak to win but I didn´t know how to try to flee. It was cool to load to throw the food but I think it´d be more immersive if I could try too run. Does anyone know how to flee or if it will be on the launch?

Sorry for my english. Thanks!!
 

SkaldRPG

High North Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
119
Location
Norway
Ok so, i just installed and tried out the demo from GOG, and well i wasnt allowed to change name apparently, i typed in a new name on my char and when i pressed ENTER nothing happened, so my char is named ____ now LOL

Also a way to lower the music volume would be nice, its kinda loud.

Yeah I need to add volume controls for sure :)

The name bug tells me you're playing the unpatched version. Did you download on GOG? They won't upload the patch till they get back in the office on Monday.
Steam is up to date so if you're playing there, just make sure you've updated your build :)

ONCE YOU GET IT UP TO DATE: Make sure the main character is selected, press tab (opens consoles) and enter "{setCharacterName|Luzur}" (sans quotes and minding the case) to change your name to Luzur.
 

SkaldRPG

High North Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
119
Location
Norway
I loved the prologue! I really like it! I like the combat, art, choices, story, difficulty, ultima´s vibe... This is an open world game like Ultima, right? Can´t go wrong.

Is there a way to flee? I like hard games and I like it on Skald a lot but I wish I knew how to flee to make it more immersive. Like in the end of the prologue in the battle against the dogs. You can go stealth, attack or throw some food. I was low on food so I decided to go stealth and I failed. In the middle of the combat I saw that my party was too weak to win but I didn´t know how to try to flee. It was cool to load to throw the food but I think it´d be more immersive if I could try too run. Does anyone know how to flee or if it will be on the launch?

Sorry for my english. Thanks!!

Hey buddy! Glad you liked it! There won't be a way to flee from all encouters. It will complicate scripting too much. HOWEVER, I'm going to make sure that it's always possible to try to sneak past random encounters before combat launches so you can avoid them. I also try to make sure that any encoutner you're REQUIRED to solve, will have several ways of bypassing. Finally I'll be adding auto-saving every time you enter a map so that will hopefully cause you to lose less progress if you do get ambushed and die.
 

SkaldRPG

High North Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
119
Location
Norway
Ok he explained further regarding level scaling:

Yeah scaling will be used very sparingly and almost only on the main quest (or adjacent to it). If you do chose to grind up to max level, you should be able to feel super powerful. THe scaling is more a question of smoothing out smaller discrepancies such as accounting for if the players are level 2 or 4 as they enter Horryn in act one. There will be no meeting level 20 rats in the game.
 

Luzur

Good Sir
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
41,385
Location
Swedish Empire
Ok so, i just installed and tried out the demo from GOG, and well i wasnt allowed to change name apparently, i typed in a new name on my char and when i pressed ENTER nothing happened, so my char is named ____ now LOL

Also a way to lower the music volume would be nice, its kinda loud.

Yeah I need to add volume controls for sure :)

The name bug tells me you're playing the unpatched version. Did you download on GOG? They won't upload the patch till they get back in the office on Monday.
Steam is up to date so if you're playing there, just make sure you've updated your build :)

ONCE YOU GET IT UP TO DATE: Make sure the main character is selected, press tab (opens consoles) and enter "{setCharacterName|Luzur}" (sans quotes and minding the case) to change your name to Luzur.

You should have your own download site for this game though, STEAM and GOG all demands one to install their browser stuff just to let me dl and install your game.

Also real big box, registercards and ads for upcoming games and a thick manual (like a bible), fullsize bodypillow and trinkets and real gold coins would be nice aswell
 

Vitor

Novice
Joined
Jun 29, 2015
Messages
5
I loved the prologue! I really like it! I like the combat, art, choices, story, difficulty, ultima´s vibe... This is an open world game like Ultima, right? Can´t go wrong.

Is there a way to flee? I like hard games and I like it on Skald a lot but I wish I knew how to flee to make it more immersive. Like in the end of the prologue in the battle against the dogs. You can go stealth, attack or throw some food. I was low on food so I decided to go stealth and I failed. In the middle of the combat I saw that my party was too weak to win but I didn´t know how to try to flee. It was cool to load to throw the food but I think it´d be more immersive if I could try too run. Does anyone know how to flee or if it will be on the launch?

Sorry for my english. Thanks!!

Hey buddy! Glad you liked it! There won't be a way to flee from all encouters. It will complicate scripting too much. HOWEVER, I'm going to make sure that it's always possible to try to sneak past random encounters before combat launches so you can avoid them. I also try to make sure that any encoutner you're REQUIRED to solve, will have several ways of bypassing. Finally I'll be adding auto-saving every time you enter a map so that will hopefully cause you to lose less progress if you do get ambushed and die.

Nice! I really like what you´re doing with the encounters. Thanks for answer me!!!
I don´t mind to lose progress in games in general (In fact I like it.. I love dark souls, Resident Evil, UO and etc.). But in crpgs we save all the time so autosave can be good. :)
 

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,965
You have a real winner on your hand SkaldRPG ; I am personally also liking the dark elements of the setting and the cutscene artstyle. Hope to face many abominations, especially ones with tentacles, and other horrors in the final game. Will be a D1 purchase for me...I won't be able to hold back purchasing EA so please have the EA version be fully playable from start to finish if possible.
 

SkaldRPG

High North Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
119
Location
Norway
You have a real winner on your hand SkaldRPG ; I am personally also liking the dark elements of the setting and the cutscene artstyle. Hope to face many abominations, especially ones with tentacles, and other horrors in the final game. Will be a D1 purchase for me...I won't be able to hold back purchasing EA so please have the EA version be fully playable from start to finish if possible.

Nice! I really like what you´re doing with the encounters. Thanks for answer me!!!
I don´t mind to lose progress in games in general (In fact I like it.. I love dark souls, Resident Evil, UO and etc.). But in crpgs we save all the time so autosave can be good. :)

Thanks for the kind words, feedback and support! As a solo developer I really appreciate the community support!
 

soulburner

Cipher
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
809
Just tried the prologue. I thought it will be a simple launch, take a look, uninstall type of game... but it isn't. I'm hooked. I love the CRT effect! Can't say much more, because my character just woke up on the beach, but I liked every second of what I've seen so far.

And it runs on my toaster laptop, which is not such an obvious thing, because so many "retro" games require an octa core CPU, 16 GB of RAM and an RT capable GPU ;)
 

SkaldRPG

High North Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
119
Location
Norway
Just tried the prologue. I thought it will be a simple launch, take a look, uninstall type of game... but it isn't. I'm hooked. I love the CRT effect! Can't say much more, because my character just woke up on the beach, but I liked every second of what I've seen so far.

And it runs on my toaster laptop, which is not such an obvious thing, because so many "retro" games require an octa core CPU, 16 GB of RAM and an RT capable GPU ;)
Fantastic to hear! What are your laptop specs (ballpark)?
 

soulburner

Cipher
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
809
Just tried the prologue. I thought it will be a simple launch, take a look, uninstall type of game... but it isn't. I'm hooked. I love the CRT effect! Can't say much more, because my character just woke up on the beach, but I liked every second of what I've seen so far.

And it runs on my toaster laptop, which is not such an obvious thing, because so many "retro" games require an octa core CPU, 16 GB of RAM and an RT capable GPU ;)
Fantastic to hear! What are your laptop specs (ballpark)?

It's not as bad as I may have made it sound, but many recent games refuse to run acceptably on it, even if you'd think they should, based on their graphics and stuff. It's a Thinkpad X230, Ivy Bridge i5-3320m, 8 GB RAM. I was surprised to find your game uses Unity - it takes a while to start up, but works fine. Most Unity based games run at 10 to 15 fps, have a big lag reacting to button presses and make the CPU reach the highest temperatures I have ever seen - that includes a few "retro" games I tried. So while Skald is not a 60 fps type of game, it's still quite an achievement that it doesn't melt my laptop ;)
 

SkaldRPG

High North Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
119
Location
Norway
Just tried the prologue. I thought it will be a simple launch, take a look, uninstall type of game... but it isn't. I'm hooked. I love the CRT effect! Can't say much more, because my character just woke up on the beach, but I liked every second of what I've seen so far.

And it runs on my toaster laptop, which is not such an obvious thing, because so many "retro" games require an octa core CPU, 16 GB of RAM and an RT capable GPU ;)
Fantastic to hear! What are your laptop specs (ballpark)?

It's not as bad as I may have made it sound, but many recent games refuse to run acceptably on it, even if you'd think they should, based on their graphics and stuff. It's a Thinkpad X230, Ivy Bridge i5-3320m, 8 GB RAM. I was surprised to find your game uses Unity - it takes a while to start up, but works fine. Most Unity based games run at 10 to 15 fps, have a big lag reacting to button presses and make the CPU reach the highest temperatures I have ever seen - that includes a few "retro" games I tried. So while Skald is not a 60 fps type of game, it's still quite an achievement that it doesn't melt my laptop ;)
Funny you should say that because I use Unity in the most minimal way possible. I don't use the unity object system and all the texture baking (such as making the tile maps) is done in a custom "internal" engine. I mostly just use Unity for the cross compiler etc. This means that the "meant for 3D" overhead that is always present in unity (evenfor 2d games), is minimal.

Once skald launches, I'll be looking into migrating the engine to Godot instead of continuing using Unity. I don't really ever see myself going full on 3d.
 

asper

Arcane
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
2,207
Project: Eternity
Hey SkaldRPG, a few small bug reports
No idea if these are fixed in the new version - playing the GoG version here

- The icon for a "hat" shows up as a bag in the inventory
- Equipping and unequipping items in the inventory is not really consistent. Sometimes I right-click, and the item does not color yellow to show it's equipped
- One time had a weird effect when the my whole screen was divided into four small screens with the menu on one and game on other

- Small typo:
in the caves underneath the lighthouse, after using the pickaxe:

By the way, any chance of adding a keyboard shortcut "i" for opening inventory?
 
Last edited:

SkaldRPG

High North Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
119
Location
Norway
Hey SkaldRPG, a few small bug reports
No idea if these are fixed in the new version - playing the GoG version here

- The icon for a "hat" shows up as a bag in the inventory

- Small typo:
in the caves underneath the lighthouse, after using the pickaxe:

By the way, any chance of adding a keyboard shortcut "i" for opening inventory?
Hi and thanks for reporting!

You can remap the buttons and set I to inventory no problemo :) escape -> options -> game play -> key bindings if I'm not mistaken!
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.skaldrpg.com/2021/06/prologue-patch-and-experience/

Prologue Patch and Experience

Greetings all!

The Skald Prologue has now been live for almost a month. It’s gotten tons of praise and been a wellspring of vital feedback. In other words, it’s safe to say it’s been successful.

What better way to celebrate, than with a new patch and a mini post-mortem of the demo launch!


Skald got its first fan-art (that I know of)! I’m so happy to see people nerding out over my game!

Thank you so much to all of those who’ve played, rated and offered feedback on the game so far! If you still haven’t given it a go, I highly recommend you check it out!


Note that patch 2.0 will likely not be live on GOG till over the weekend:


Here is a brief overview of Patch 2.0 and some of my experiences with launching the demo:
Patch 2.0
Patch 2.0 has focused on fixing bugs and typos as well as adding quite a few new features that focus on Quality of Life improvements.

The biggest job, by far, has been reworking the save system. Save-times are now pretty fast (around 0.5 second) and this allows me to be a lot more generous with having the game auto-save often (a much requested feature).

The only drawback to this, is that the patched game will no longer be able to load old save-files. I’m sorry for the inconvenience this causes but I hope you’ll take the opportunity to perhaps try a new character-build. Keep in mind that the game also allows you to skip the intro and start directly at the shores of Idra if you don’t feel like playing the intro again.

Another highly requested feature that I found time to put in, was “Windowed Mode”:


Did I mention that “UFO” is amazing?

This should make the game a bit easier on the eyes for gamers with big screens and you can now even play it discreetly at work.

Thankfully, I managed to fix the dreaded “broken screen” bug that caused the game to look like this on certain set-ups:


Kill it with fire!

This bug was the source of the game’s only negative Steam review so needless to say, I’m relieved I managed to fix it.

I’ve also spent some time trying to find better ways of offering feedback in combat. I’ve done some experiments with hovering text and I feel optimistic for it:


Try it out and let me know what you think!

Under gameplay options, it’s now also possible to ajust how much feedback you get in combat; making it as fast or as slow as you want.

Finally, I’ve tried to make the game a little bit more balanced by having random encounters scale in difficulty and giving the option of attempting to flee or sneak away if you’re keen to avoid the encounter alltogether:


In summary, here is an (in)complete overview of changes made:

Features
  • You can now play in window mode
  • Random Encounters now scale in difficulty dynamically
  • Simple volume controls
  • The game auto-saves whenever you enter or leave most maps or camps
  • Pressing SHIFT now highlights interactable objects
  • Combat info is now shown as floating text on the screen
  • damage ranges for melee are now slightly more compact with the strength bonus now added as a flat modifier
  • Added 1 more point of movement to all characters
  • The rogues back-stab ability now triggers on flanked opponents as well (not just stunned or surprised opponents)
  • You can now choose to see or not see combat results for the player or opponents in the Options -> Gameplay menu
Bugs
  • Trying to select a spell from an empty spell-list would lock up combat
  • The game sometimes booted with the UI elements small and shifted to the lower left corner of the screen
  • You can no longer assign character points to the “header” during the “Stats” screen in character creation
  • FIxed bug where you couldn’t flip pages in inventory
  • For certain models, weapons would blink in and out of existence
  • The sword/bow target icon should now correctly show as a bow if you have a ranged weapon or a sword if you have a melee weapon equipped
  • Resolved a performance issue that caused frame-rates to drop as you gained more items in your inventory
  • Dozens of minor bugs
Launching a Prologue: A Mid-Mortem
Launching the Prologue has been pretty time-consuming and demanding at times. Nonetheless, I’m incredibly happy I did it and here are some key take-aways:

Launch the demo as a standalone Steam/GOG application before the main launch: This as opposed to having the demo build be part of the main (already launched) application.

“Backbone” has become a recent case-study for this strategy with their highly successful prologue. Data seems to indicate that having the demo as a standalone application, increases wishlisting, and post-launch wishlist conversion-rates for the main game.

It also means that it’s possible for players to offer reviews and these seem to go a long way towards driving interest for your game as well as insulating the game from any negative feedback from the demo.

Finally, you should consider how long (if at all) you let the demo live after the main application launches. It’s fantastic to have a demo out before the main game launches. Once the main game goes live however, you should certainly consider if it’s better to perhaps take down the demo. Remember: Steam’s generous refund policy will basically allow players to test your game even if it’s not free.

Double your time estimates: Steam reviews all applications before launch. It can be hard to predict if they will approve or not and you might need to make changes. Each cycle of changes can add 2-3 day of waiting for review. The take-away is to submit the game well ahead of your planned launch date.

Drink from the community firehose: If you’re lucky, people will care enough about your demo that they offer feedback. I truly believe that this is pure gold for any game-developer. Especially if you, like me, don’t really have access to professional testers and QA people.

The silver lining with handling feedback in a good way, is that it’s also a fantastic way to make people feel invested in your game in the long run. My experience is that gamers who end up seeing their feedback being taken seriously, tend to become life-long fans.

This is a topic for a whole post in and of itself, but note that “listening to feedback” doesn’t mean implementing every change suggested by the community. To me, it’s about having the mentality of trying to assess feedback objectively and trying to see the case from the user’s perspective. I try to make a general rule of not defending my decisions publicly. I may offer my rationale for a certain design, but if you find yourself arguing with users over their feedback, take a step back.

Consider how long the demo should be: This is a difficult but important decision. The question you need to ask is “will this demo leave the player wanting more?”. You don’t want players to “eat their fill” with the demo and forgo playing the main game.

At the same time, you need to show enough that the demo feels like a good representation of the main game and offers enough of an experience that players feel invested in the project.

This point becomes even more important if you intend for the demo to be available after the main game launches.

In closing: Launching a demo as a stand alone application, before the main game, is a great dry run if this is your first rodeo. It’s also a fantastic way to build a community and provides valuable play-testing and publicity.

Feel free to reach out if you’re a fellow game-dev and have questions!

But for now: Go play the prologue (and remember to leave a review if you feel like it)!

As always, get in touch via the Discord or Twitter for all things Skald-related (I guess now you can also use the Steam and GOG forums).

AL
 
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Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
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Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
Keep getting this mixed up with Black Geyser.
 

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