Development Info Old School RPG Kickstarter Update: Name and Gameplay

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Brenda Brathwaite; Kickstarter; Loot Drop; Shaker; Tom Hall

Tom and Brenda's Old School RPG now has a name! It's Shaker, or rather Shaker: An Old School RPG. The new update also has some gameplay basics:

Shaker: An Old School RPG is a first-person perspective, sci-fi/fantasy game set in a Bridge world between the future and the very distant past. Taking the role of operative James Connelly, an employee of Shaker Corporation, you are called upon to set right a deadly chain of events that began millennia ago. You must be deployed to Antera, a medieval world in the distant past, to unearth the very beginning of a horrible chain of events and avert it, or the universe we know today will cease to exist in a mere 100 years.

Read more about Connelly here in Update #2 and Shaker Corporation in Update #4.

You have free-movement and viewpoint through the world as you do in any modern-day, first-person shooter until you enter combat.

YOUR PARTY

Shaker: An Old School RPG features a six-character party - you and your 3 crew as well as 2 recruitable player characters. You begin the game as James Connelly, though you may customize him any way you like (including changing his appearance and gender). Next, you create 3 different Shaker operatives to join you on your Antera mission. Traveling back through time and space to arrive on Antera, you may recruit two locals to work on your crew.

YOUR CHARACTERS AND CREW

All characters and recruits have key statistics as quantified by Shaker Corporation: Strength, Vitality, Agility, Quickness, Intelligence, and Psy. The values of these attributes determine what Profession you qualify for. Your characters are also born with a specific BioTrait pattern. Similar to “race” in old-school games, a character’s BioTrait pre-disposes gives them certain strengths, weaknesses and powers. Recruiting locals (which you can, of course, fire) will help you to balance your party.

We are in pre-production at present, and want to give you an early look at the core Bridge Professions and how they map to Professions on the destination worlds.

Your characters grow in skill and stature and gain experience level-by-level, allowing you to allocate points as you earn them, and grow more experienced with spells, skills, weapons and other talents.

Speaking of weapons... stay tuned for our next big update on combat!​

Read the full update here.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Sounds interesting, backing for minimal pledge.

 

[Bladderfish]

Should have launched with this stuff. They are making it up as they go along, greedy for money. I don't know how people can support this pitch tbh.

 

[thesheeep]

I agree, if they had started with what they have now, I'd also be a lot more favorable.
This seems like they are fleshing out the very basic concepts during the campaign itself.. this practice really isn't something I want to support.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

Should have launched with this stuff. They are making it up as they go along, greedy for money. I don't know how people can support this pitch tbh.

This.

Sad story. Why did they draw that sample character sheet in 10 minutes with Photoshop? I could have done it for them in 5.

Sad. Make an effort.

 

[nihil]

I'm not entirely sure it's just greed. I think they might just be very naive. The story sounds fun in an innocent, old-school way, and it does seem they know more than they presented. But man, the video is so discouraging. Nonetheless, I'm giving it a chance. If further updates sound cool, I might actually raise my pledge a bit.

By the way, Cleveland, isn't your Kickstarter late?

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

I'm not entirely sure it's just greed. I think they might just be very naive. The story sounds fun in an innocent, old-school way, and it does seem they know more than they presented. But man, the video is so discouraging. Nonetheless, I'm giving it a chance. If further updates sound cool, I might actually raise my pledge a bit.

By the way, Cleveland, isn't your Kickstarter late?

Even worse, it's not on Kickstarter. It's going to be launching on IndieGoGo in the next 3 days.

 

[nihil]

Even worse, it's not on Kickstarter. It's going to be launching on IndieGoGo in the next 3 days.

If that's worse, why did you opt for it? Glad to hear it's coming, though.

 

[HobGoblin42]

I guess, since Cleve is living in Australia he can't start a project on KS by himself.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I agree, if they had started with what they have now, I'd also be a lot more favorable.

Started with what? A list of classes?

Well, let me give them a hand.
...
An Old School RPG is a first-person perspective, sci-fi/fantasy game set in a Bridge world between the future and the very distant past. Taking the role of operative James Connelly, an employee of Shakers Corporation, you are called upon to set right a deadly chain of events that began millennia ago. You must be deployed to Antera, a medieval world in the distant past, which is currently under control of Movers Inc, a rival corporation.

You will face the following enemies employed by Movers Inc: Fighter, Ninja, Doctor, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (a deadly female demolition expert), Mind Fucker, and Gadgeteer.
...
Now they will clear a mil in no time.

 

[thesheeep]

Well, by now they do have a bit more than that list of classes

It's still far too vague, and I'd certainly not support it, BUT at least they do keep updating and adding infos.
If they just did all of this planning and thinking before they started the campaign.

Maybe some interviewer dares to ask them what they were thinking, coming up with a campaign with that little info to start with and then demanding 1 mil.
Why didn't they ask for 6,000$ so that they sit together for two months and come up with an actual plan and then do a campaign based on that?...

That bottom of that page where they have those out-of-context quotations from Notch and other devs of fame is the most funny part, though.

 

[thesheeep]

I guess, since Cleve is living in Australia he can't start a project on KS by himself.

That and KS isn't that good, actually.
Only for US citizens. I mean... there are ways around that (many people have trustworthy friends in the US, etc.).

But the real killer is that they only accept credit cards.
In their completely egocentric world perception, most US citizens are not aware that a credit card is something very uncommon in Europe. And despite the current crisis, Europe still is where the money is.
They do exist, but most gamers in Europe do not have one. I didn't have one before that Shadowrun KS motivated me to go through the hassle of acquiring one.
Debit cards are the usual way to go here.

And IndieGoGo AFAIK supports most payment methods anyway. Just as Gambitious does.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, by now they do have a bit more than that list of classes

No, that's pretty much all it was. The rest was some pointless trivia. Whether or not Shaker has 806 or 1806 or just 186 employees or whether or not it started as a graduate student lab will have no effect on the so-called game.

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, they certainly get my support for doing a first person blobber in the vein of Wiz8 whiich is set in a campy scifi-fantasy-mix setting.

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

Well, I'm actually getting more inclined to support this as it progresses. I love those campy sci-fi/fantasy mixes we've seen before in the likes of later Wizardry, the Might and Magic series and the likes. it's a shame we don't get those anymore. The thing is I have very little in the way of disposable income, which is the reason i haven't donated to anything else. Even though I've always thought something like "we'll see if I can justify spending money on a game that might not even be developed when the drive is about to end". So again. We'll see. Got so much other stuff I really should be saving for, like getting a driver's license and upcoming christmas spendings. Kickstarters for me at this point are really hard to justify unfortunately. So we'll see.

 

[evdk]

The question is whether they are actually making anything.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

They are making it up as they go along

"Well, guys...first off let's be clear: we are making a GAME. Right? A game. And you can be sure it will contain alllllllllll your favorite old-school game elements such as: graphics, text and most importantly....GAMEPLAY. That's right, folks! This game will have gameplay! Want to pledge?"

 

[DalekFlay]

Shake shake shake
Sheak shake shake
Shake your apathy
Shake your apathy

 

[Stabwound]

They are making it up as they go along

"Well, guys...first off let's be clear: we are making a GAME. Right? A game. And you can be sure it will contain alllllllllll your favorite old-school game elements such as: graphics, text and most importantly....GAMEPLAY. That's right, folks! This game will have gameplay! Want to pledge?"

You're forgetting that it has CRPG elements, like experience points, equipment, dungeons and a battle system!

This is easily the shittiest and most shady big-name kickstarter I've seen outside of Hardcore Tactical Plagairizer.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

This is easily the shittiest and most shady big-name kickstarter I've seen outside of Hardcore Tactical Plagairizer.

I know. It's like people aren't even fucking trying anymore. Even Obsidian's KS came out of the gates like:

"Huuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, trust ussssss....olllllllld schoooooooollllll....."

 

[Father Walker]

The game.

 

[getter77]

I just don't understand how, following the numerous other examples of relevant Kickstarter projects that they are obviously well aware of, that things along these lines were not available earlier in the project's timeline of doings---even if it has only technically been a few days in the grand scheme of things? One would almost have to willfully make an effort to have it wind up on such an anemic info trickle----even the Fargoal II Kickstarter covered the initial bases better.

I'd obviously prefer it shape up and be successful and well done as it goes, but come on.

 

[Dorateen]

This has got to be a joke, right? What kind of Old School party-based RPG makes you play a pre-generated main character?

But... but... you get to play James Connelly! (Who can even be a woman!)

Bah! I'm pulling all previously mentioned principled support.

Harumph!

 

[Wizfall]

Well it is truly an awfull kickstarter but i'm just replaying Wiz 8 after a long time.
The game design is still awesome, the story still very good and NPC dialogues excellent.
Brenda wrote the story and dialogues all alone according to the credit.
She is also credited as being one of the four game designers.
So for all the enjoyment Wiz 8 gave me, for the respect i have for the job she and Sir-Tech have done with this incredible game (obviously a labor of love) i'm gonna pledge.
But only for this reason and no other.

 

[FeelTheRads]

That's a fucking creepy face and expression.

Also, already did the shake weight joke.