Game News The Wayward Realms coming to Kickstarter in May

[Infinitron]

Tags: OnceLost Games; Ted Peterson; The Wayward Realms

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1685310/view/4166466695861827399

Hey friends! In case you haven't heard yet, The Wayward Realms is coming to Kickstarter Spring of this year (2024).

We plan with the help of this incredible community and a successful kickstarter, we can go into full time production for 1 year & launch an early access build of The Wayward Realms sometime next year.

Of course, you may be asking why Kickstarter?

We have been working on The Wayward Realms for a few years now, and until recently, our aim was to go a traditional publisher route for funding. However, the Games Industry has been on a downward trend lately, with many studios being shuttered, and many publishers becoming much more hesitant to fund ambitious projects.

The Wayward Realms is one such project, with game design that has rarely been seen in recent decades and complex systems that require a lot of work. It makes publishers a little more demanding when it comes to a proof of concept. While we could continue at our current pace, working as a volunteer team, and eventually reach a state that would make us a more sure investment, we don’t really want to spend the next several years in early development. So, we are turning to our community for help to speed things along and give you all an opportunity to shape the game as we know it.

We have always made a great effort to include the community in the creation of the game. From taking ideas from the community very early in the project’s life, to listening to feedback on systems and worldbuilding, to letting the community decide on names for characters and places, we have always wanted the community to help bring the game to life. Kickstarter offers another avenue for us to do just that.

Your funds will not only allow us to hire our team members full time, but, depending on the tier, also give you the chance to give feedback on the gameplay, and even create items & characters that could go on to be featured in future games.

We do want to make it clear though that our aim with your pledges is to fund full-time development for a year in order to produce an early access build. We would release this early access build to the appropriate backers, and take feedback as we continue to update it, however, we also aim to take this early access build to publishers to seek out further funding to complete the entire game. This Kickstarter will allow us to get our systems far enough that we remove any doubt from publishers, but also prove that there is a demand for this type of game.

We hope you'll consider supporting us on Kickstarter. You can pre-register now at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oncelostgames/the-wayward-realms

To be among the first to know when we go live.​

 

[Luzur]

Well, ok, looks good.

i'll hold off any cash til i get some good gameplay videos

 

[Kruyurk]

Not interested in The Wayward Realms Beyond

 

[Mortmal]

Interested but not believing in it , and got scammed too many times on kickstarter so :

 

[Tyranicon]

This Kickstarter will allow us to get our systems far enough that we remove any doubt from publishers, but also prove that there is a demand for this type of game.

Yet another "please fund our kickstarter so we can go begging for publishers" kind of deal.

Also, there's clearly a demand for first-person open-world RPGs with lots of lore. Even grandmas have heard of Skyrim.

It's not the genre, it's the studio. It really irks me when devs pretend like the whole reason they can't get money is because nobody likes the super-popular "niche" they work in.

 

[Ivan]

is this that one project Indigo was attached to?

 

[ADL]

Definitely looks better than I expected, which isn't saying much. I've been a part of their Discord since the start of the project and they totally lost me. They'll need to show off incredible gameplay for me to buy in at this point.

 

[jaekl]

Is there anything more despicable than buying a game and then finding out it was kickstarted when you run into a bunch of weird, tonally inconsistent nonsense that was added by "backers"? It's always either a giant empty area with nothing but little messages all over, such as a graveyard, and exploring it does nothing but waste your time. Or else there will be a bunch of shitty characters all over the place that have nothing to do with the game whatsoever. I want to round up all these backers, tie them together with chains and drop them into the middle of the ocean.

 

[Shin]

They'll have to improve on that pitch.

Our game is a "first of a kind" "grand RPG", where your choices matter, in a massive open world. We're gonna bring "classic RPG" values such as C&C, "scope" and "roleplaying" to our game. We've turned to "classic RPG design philosophies", such as "deep and complex systems" and also Unreal Engine 5.

Give some examples of C&C, what are the "deep and complex systems" supposed to do?
Better yet, show a little gameplay slice to get the audience an impression on what they're backing.

Right now it seems all very vague. I'm a nostalgic fan of DF, but this doesn't impress or excite me.

 

[Crispy]

1:49 shows climbing animations

FINALLY!

 

[mediocrepoet]

I knew this sounded familiar. Uh. Thanks. No thanks.

 

[udm]

This Kickstarter will allow us to get our systems far enough that we remove any doubt from publishers, but also prove that there is a demand for this type of game.

Yet another "please fund our kickstarter so we can go begging for publishers" kind of deal.

It is also a red flag as to how the game will turn out. Name me one game that has tried the backer funding route to appeal to investors, that didn't end up screwing the backers over in some way. Elite Dangerous had always online DRM, Phoenix Point baited-and-switched the art style, Shroud of the Avatar was abandoned, Underworld Ascendant was never fully realised, etc.... I'm not saying that investors necessarily had anything directly to do with the direction of the games, but it strongly hints at the modus operandi of these developers.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

The title of the game rings a bell. Wasn't the guy who put this together a young idealistic game designer who hired some veterans to get together at a retreat or something and sketch out a design and the veterans would only work a very few hours a day then relax the rest of the time while the energetic and naive game designer continued working non-stop? Kid had spunk. Veteran game designers hate spunk.

 

[BruceVC]

I wonder if this game will support mods like all similar Bethesda games, I hope so

 

[SharkClub]

Lost me with all the talk of choices and consequences and how it'll impact the main quest and all that. Yes, Daggerfall's main quest has optional stages and orders you can do things in but it was never the focus of the game or why people like it. This just reeks of biting off more than they can chew, if that wasn't obvious enough already. Guessing that it's buzzwords for marketing and if the game ever materializes it probably won't have choices and consequences, but if not and they actually plan on trying to implement some sort of complex story to an already complex style of game they're going to have some trouble.

What people want in a Daggerfall successor isn't the main quest anyway, that is like the last thing on the list. People want a lot of dungeons, a lot of sidequests, a lot of roleplaying opportunity for the player ranging from character creation customization to different guilds/factions to join up with and a fuckhuge world to find somewhere to set up shop in. Macro world simulation elements. You only need to look at the mods that Daggerfall Unity offers to know what the Daggerfall playerbase finds compelling (more guilds, more roleplaying, more world detail), almost none of them deal with new quests that are anything beyond the level of the procedural sidequests of vanilla, let alone stuff with choices & consequences. If they had any sense they'd hype up world simulation and interfactional politics or something, not some compelling C&C-filled main quest.

I wish them luck, I will not be backing it unless they produce a demo later down the line that delivers on the promise of a Daggerfall-like. If something ever does end up coming out I'll probably at least try it. I completed Underworld Ascendant, for the record.

 

[Tavernking]

If this game gets funded after all the controversies it's had, then all my future games will have Kickstarters

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Name me one game that has tried the backer funding route to appeal to investors, that didn't end up screwing the backers over in some way.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

 

[KafkaBot]

Name me one game that has tried the backer funding route to appeal to investors, that didn't end up screwing the backers over in some way.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

 

[udm]

Alright you guys got me there

 

[Maldoror]

I'll be honest, this game probably isn't going to be very good.
Indigo Gaming controversy aside, the development team of this game did a contest amongst themselves where they each tried to play through Daggerfall's dungeon, privateer's hold. Only one person survived it, and only one or two people out of the 5 or 8 devs had even played Daggerfall. Not counting people like Julian and Ted, of course.
What does that tell you about the way that shit is run over there? They seemingly just hired a bunch of junior developers who were willing to make assets and basic systems for them and who didn't even have any passion for / experience with the very thing they're seeking to replicate. Not a great fucking sign.

Nonetheless, yeah, I want it to be good. I might even throw $20 their way. But that'll be $20 I'll have to accept might just go down the drain.

Concept art all looks really cool, though. Some great atmosphere in a few of them. Back when I used discord I joined their server right after they made it, and quit after a year or so. So many retards pitching them retard ideas.

 

[taxalot]

I'll get it when it's on sale at -80%.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

I'll get it when it's on sale at -80%.

It still won't even be worth that much.

 

[luj1]

At least (at last?) you can see a glimpse of the gameplay lol

Looks like Daggerfall, but I'd still add just a pinch of style (to not look absolutely generic)

I doubt anything remarkable will come out of all this, but the seed/subseed system for dungeons sounds great (only thing that caught my eye)

 

[TheDarkUrge]

After people supported larian's kickstarter we got BG3 soon after, the CRPG of a decade. If we support this I think we'll get daggerfall 2 next and it will be CRPG of the century.

 

[mediocrepoet]

After people supported larian's kickstarter we got BG3 soon after, the CRPG of a decade. If we support this I think we'll get daggerfall 2 next and it will be CRPG of the century.

Sounds good. Kick a few bucks in for me too, won't you?