Game News Serpent in the Staglands sequel Banquet for Fools returns, coming to Early Access on September 30th

[Infinitron]

Tags: Banquet for Fools; Hannah and Joseph Games

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/serpent-in-the-staglands/posts/4203281

What ho everyone!

We’ve been working on the next game in the Serpent in the Staglands world, Banquet for Fools, and will be releasing it next year. We’ll be sending you all keys for your stretch goal when it’s completed, thank you for supporting small artists like us and making this journey possible. The game has been worked on for a while now and is feature complete and we will have it in Steam’s Early Access finishing map content and tidying it up for you starting the end of this month.

If you’re interested in checking it out early we can always use the extra pizza funds, and you can send your second copy to a friend or loved one to discuss solving weight puzzles and how to kill Vol-dracula.

Our exercise for this follow up was to take the atmosphere, vibes and systems from Serpent and improve on all of them through feedback we’ve heard and what we wanted a lot of systems to originally be that we just didn’t have time for or knowledge on how to implement. It should feel very similar despite these overhauls. This is just being made by Hannah and I, but we really pushed ourselves to both stretch our art and tech knowledge and fit into a solid timeline like Serpent’s, with hopefully the added feedback from Early Access to create a more refined experience. We’d love to have you along for the ride again!

If you’d like to check it out early there is a small demo available on Steam. We’re contacting GOG to see if we can be listed there if you’d like a DRM free copy again, and will also be offering it on our site as a standalone with a built-in patcher on release to that end as well.

We’ll update here again around release to let you know how to verify email addresses. If you have any questions please let us know at HannahandJosephGames@gmail.com. We just moved and decided to spruce up the llc, but are checking either email.

If you’re interested and would like us to spam updates and info here over autumn and winter let us know, otherwise we’ll be doing so on Steam and Youtube.

Hope you’ve all been well and wishing you all the best as we move into the spookiest time of the year!

Hannah and Joseph​

 

[Gandalf]

Finally, I was waiting for this to show up in my feed. Artstyle looks impressing and a little prosperian, I think.
Clay (?) style reminds me of Julian Gollop's Magic and Mayhem from the 90's, which is VERY nice.
After Mechajammer situation, I just hope Hannah and Joseph will finally deliver their masterpiece.
Looks like Banquet for Fools might be it. Good luck!

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I thought they were done for after Mechajammer. Glad they are still making games!

 

[roshan]

This looks SICK!!! (in a very good way)

I don't get the graphics though. Some of it looks fixed perspective 2D isometric w/ 3D characters but other parts have 3D graphics?

 

[Falksi]

Serpent in The Staglands is one of THE most wonderfully atmospheric games I've ever played. The aesthetics were perfect and the intro incredible, it just needed a world with more substance behind it and a better combat system to back that up.

This...is different. In it's own way, I kinda like it a bit. But it's not the sequel I wanted and has lost it's pre-order/day 1 appeal.

I'll download the demo and see what it's like, but I'm not optimistic, especially after the fail that was Mechjammer.

 

[Darkwind]

This looks SICK!!! (in a very good way)

I don't get the graphics though. Some of it looks fixed perspective 2D isometric w/ 3D characters but other parts have 3D graphics?

Agreed, I don't mind the mixed 2D/3D it has been done before. 2D backgrounds w/ 3D models is not all that uncommon, so long as it blends well.

9 years between games is a pretty long time though hopefully they learned from some of the issues of Mechajammer which was a great concept but had pretty awful execution. I wish them the best of luck because all indie developers should be successful in this corporate wasteland woketopia we find ourselves in.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

How many art styles this time?

 

[damager]

Looks cool. I like the 2D background and 3D models look. It hits a sweetspot for me. Are these gray little crreatures the only playable race?

 

[MrBuzzKill]

I... well they certainly always surprise with the visuals, don't they? not sure if it's a welcome surprise yet, but at least nobody will be accusing them of self-plagiarism.

Are these gray little crreatures the only playable race?

good question

 

[Contagium]

Hopefully they learned their lesson after the last disaster. I'll wait for some reviews.

 

[Infinitron]

Looks cool. I like the 2D background and 3D models look. It hits a sweetspot for me. Are these gray little crreatures the only playable race?

They remind me of Gelflings from The Dark Crystal.

 

[damager]

What happend with Mechajammer? I have not heard from sense since Serpents in the Staglands.

 

[Falksi]

Demo is fucking awful.

It's a clusterfuck of ideas which try and mesh RtwP combat and console-esq action combat, and which fails badly at both.

My ability to use Keyboard & Mouse was annoyingly overwritten by it defaulting to Gamepad use, so I tried that and it just feels horrible. Not actiony enough to be action, with RtwP trying to fight it's way out.

I unplugged the Gamepad, tried it with K&M, and the tactical element is dire, with no real need for positioning or....well...tactics.

Then you've the fact that it's just impractical, with stuff like the character sheet button only miniscule, as pointed at by the yellow arrow below...

But the claim "Our exercise for this follow up was to take the atmosphere, vibes and systems from Serpent and improve on all of them through feedback" is just bollocks, because the atmosphere here is absolutely nothing like the original Serpant in The Staglands. Yes, there are lots of dead things, the above screen shot for example, but the vibes aren't remotely gothic or foreboding. You squish bugs as you walk over them too, which gives you an example of the stupid type of woman-humour implemented here.

This is what happens when you let a woman lead the project Johnathan.

Genuinely gobsmacked that it's deemed to be related to the original in any way, shape or form.

 

[damager]

Oh god I was already afraid it would be RTWP when I saw the sphere looking kinda spell, but than I thought they shurely wouldn't shit the bed like this and it must be turn based.

 

[Sensuki]

I posted my demo playthrough and feedback here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-access-on-september-30th.107262/post-9148563

I don't think the demo is horrible. I quite like the art style and the exploration feel. I concur that the combat does not currently feel fun, and needs some tweaking but I don't think it's *too far* off. The demo is also extremely easy, which means you can just simply keep using the same attack for every action and win. I think there needs to be some tweaks to how you enter and stay in the action select state, and also to switching between party members, but I think otherwise the general feel of the engine is good.

It does look like this game is intended to be for PC and Consoles, which doesn't surprise me too much considering they've mentioned liking RPGs that were on the Playstation from the 90s/00s.

 

[Drowed]

I'm getting the same vibe I got from Staglands: incredibly atmospheric, a peculiar setting, art in a very unique style, but mechanically it seems really boring. I never managed to get very far in Staglands for exactly this reason - I absolutely love the game's style, but playing it was extremely tedious.

Who knows what will happen this time. But from what Falksi commented, I'm not very optimistic, which is a shame. The game really looks amazing, at least.

 

[Sensuki]

While the previous game doesn't inspire much confidence, anecdotally the original Diablo was apparently not very fun until not long before release when they ditched the TB system for real-time instead. Does that mean it will be the case here? No, but I think the potential for improvement (into the realm of enjoyable) is there.

 

[Hobo Elf]

How many art styles this time?

Hopefully zero since the one in the trailer is fantastic and unique.

 

[Haba]

But is there enough hair to fund the development of this game?

 

[buffalo bill]

SitS was such a cool looking game.

Really a shame they aren't using these ALREADY DEVELOPED art assets to make a game with decent mechanics.

SitS had some cool ideas, like polymorphing into a bat to go into a tree to explore, or creating slaves by using some sort of evil soul magic, or spellcasting requiring continuous concentration from casters, but ultimately the game was not that fun to play. The combat just kinda sucked.

I really wish the art and atmosphere from SitS could be married to an actually fun game. I'm glad H&J are trying again, but sadly my suspicion is that with this new game we'll once again get another unplayable mess that barely gets completed after many delays, and will look much worse than SitS (just as Mechajammer looked much worst than SitS).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

But is there enough hair to fund the development of this game?

It's years since mechajammer, I think we're adequately provisioned in that department.

 

[mondblut]

I... well they certainly always surprise with the visuals, don't they?

Yeah. Monthly.

 

[Hydro]

Yeah I remember the Serpent looking great, but mechanically pretty dull. I’m also not a big fan of overly stylized art direction.

 

[Falksi]

SitS was such a cool looking game.

Really a shame they aren't using these ALREADY DEVELOPED art assets to make a game with decent mechanics.

SitS had some cool ideas, like polymorphing into a bat to go into a tree to explore, or creating slaves by using some sort of evil soul magic, or spellcasting requiring continuous concentration from casters, but ultimately the game was not that fun to play. The combat just kinda sucked.

I really wish the art and atmosphere from SitS could be married to an actually fun game. I'm glad H&J are trying again, but sadly my suspicion is that with this new game we'll once again get another unplayable mess that barely gets completed after many delays, and will look much worse than SitS (just as Mechajammer looked much worst than SitS).

Absolutely mental. Take that excellent foundation, use the lessons learned, and just build a game with better content and combat. Simple.

These devs have just lost the plot.

 

[Morality Games]

Tried the demo. Mixed feelings, but mostly positive.

- I agree the old art style shouldn't have been abandoned but what's provided has an undeniably unique sensibility. Infinitron's comparison to the Gelflings is pretty much valid, it seems to be an entire world populated by Not Humans like the Hylians/Gerudo/Kokiri/Sheikah from the Legend of Zelda mythos. I remember the original Serpent in the Staglands was the same way and it imbued the setting with an eerie and alien feeling that isn't entirely without appeal. I believe that remains the case here.

- it's difficult to judge the combat because the demo PC is a pre-made swordsman and has skill scores that seem to be end-game level (300 in Longsword, 190 in Short Sword but only 13 in Morphing and other magic-based skills). So, you basically slaughter everyone you meet with the Long Sword you start with. You are clearly supposed to have dialogue options but they haven't been added yet.