Information Kickstarter Round-up: Frontiers, Unrest, Frozen State, Our Darker Purpose

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Frontiers; Frozen State; Kickstarter; Our Darker Purpose; Unrest

There have been some smaller RPG projects seeking (all of) your money on Kickstarter lately that I don't think require separate newsposts but still may be of interest to some of you, so I'll do one of our irregular round-ups instead.

Frontiers: Explore - Discover - Survive
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/railboy/frontiers-explore-discover-survive/



First there is Frontiers, an exploration-focused first person RPG inspired by The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall. And when I say "exploration-focused", I mean it: the game claims to be almost exclusively about exploration and exploration-centered character building. The $50,000 it has for its funding goal should help the man behind the game assemble a small team to finish the project, which is currently in alpha.

Unfortunately the developer wasn't clever enough to upload a Youtube version of the pitch video so I can't embed it here, but I do encourage you to watch it -- it gives a much better idea about the game than the text of the Kickstarter pitch, in my opinion.

Unrest : An Unconventional RPG Set in Ancient India
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/698883673/unrest-an-unconventional-rpg-set-in-ancient-india



Next comes Unrest, "a story driven RPG set in ancient India in the midst of an uprising" which has you "play as ordinary men and women struggling for safety, freedom, food for their children, and a chance at peace." The main attraction of this game seems to be the conversation system it promises to implement, as well as the approach to combat it takes:

Combat in Unrest is focused on one versus one duels - fast, decisive, brutal and always a last resort. Instead of meaningless combat encounters with dozens of enemies in every area, combat encounters will be few and unique, such as a knife fight for food in an alley, a duel between homeless humans and Naga (and more!) in a style similar to Sid Meier's Pirates. Importantly, violence will have consequences on the state of the world - too much bloodshed and you might just tip the city over the edge.

Conversation is an art - be it debate, negotiation, intimidation, flattery or bribery. The branching narrative of Unrest coupled with the detailed conversation system aims to reflect that by providing depth and freedom to the player.

Every person in the world will have their opinion of you - some might despise you simply because of your birth or caste, some might admire you if you are a priest of the religion they follow, or some may be indifferent to your fate. We measure all these possibilities using 3 values for every character - Friendship, Respect and Fear. This system enables the game to portray a number of nuanced relationships that are not fully conveyed with a single "opinion" value.​

Unrest has already well surpassed its humble goal of $3,000, and has 3 days left to go. (P.S. Brian Fargo tweeted about it so it must be worth supporting!)

Frozen State
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1683973133/frozen-state



Russian comrades want you to support Frozen State, "a survival based horror RPG, set in a Siberian, post apocalyptic wasteland":

It is a survival based horror RPG, which will immerse you in a Siberian, post apocalyptic wasteland. The game takes place in a secret Soviet city,which was partly destroyed. You will get by, side by side, with vicious alien hybrids, ruthless bandits and other survivors like you, who haven’t lost hope. Exploring new areas, scavenging and fighting for your life, you will be making hard choices between greater good and your personal goals, which will lead you to different outcomes.

Our inspiration comes from many sources: games like Fallout 1 and 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl, Metro 2033, Half-Life 2, Resident Evil; films The Thing, Alien(s),Prometheus, The Road, The Myst; our favorite writers Isaac Asimov, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Stanislaw Lem and many others.​

Seeking £60,000, Frozen State currently sits at just barely above 1/6 of that. There is some alpha footage in a video on the KS page, in case you'd like to check that out.

Our Darker Purpose
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1750899614/our-darker-purpose-0



The fourth project that caught my attention is Our Darker Purpose, a "fiendishly difficult" roguelike/action RPG set in a high school (no it isn't Japanese, why do you ask?):

When her teacher stepped out of the classroom a month ago, Cordy never imagined he would be gone for good. Now her fellow students have turned on each other as the school descends into chaos. Cordy must battle feral classmates and dangerous creatures as she ascends to the cruel Administrators’ offices atop the Edgewood Home for Lost Children.

Our Darker Purpose is a top-down, rogue-like action RPG that combines the ingenuity of genre-defining classics with the expansiveness and accessibility of modern day action adventure games. The gameplay is steeped in a variety of influences ranging from A Link to the Past to The Binding of Isaac to Diablo. We love games with great mechanics and awesome, bizarre storylines, and that’s what we’re creating with Our Darker Purpose.​

With just 8 days left to go, however, there's no guarantee Our Darker Purpose is going to reach its $40,000 target. If you ask me, I believe the $15 for a digital copy, a somewhat steep-ish price for a Binding of Isaac-like roguelike, is to blame for scaring away some of the potential backers.

Adventure Game Codex
Finally, since I know there's quite a few adventure game fans on the Codex, I'll briefly mention the ongoing adventure game projects of note. These are:

• Armikrog, a new claymation game from the creator of Neverhood.
• Harvest, a dystopian graphic menu-based adventure inspired by Snatcher and Phoenix Wright.
• Alum is just your good old point-and-click adventure "with the same feel and vibe as some of the classic games we love (Quest for Glory, Roger Wilco, Monkey Island, etc..)" that doesn't look too bad, really.
• Nelly Cootalot, a full-fledged sequel to a pretty nice and charming (and free) point-and-click'er; really rooting for this myself.
• Deus Ex Machina 2 is something... extremely weird. Starring Christopher Lee.

If you know of any other (more or less) interesting projects, especially RPGs, that I haven't covered here, let everyone know. Browsing the Kickstarter category listings is a pain in the butt.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Crooked Butterfly?

 

[FuelBlooded]

I'm thinking of backing Unrest.

 

[RedScum]

Frontiers looks kinda interesting.

 

[Brayko]

Yeah I'd go with Frontiers, stretch goals seem kinda iffy but a combat-lite exploration-themed game with ancient ruins and secrets and shit sounds bueno. Daggerfall reference also ++

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Seems Kickstarter has ran out of steam and now only guys in their basement with unfeasible projects are left.

Start with something small, gain credibility and experience, and then try to make your wet dream game.

 

[Brayko]

Well considering their reputation is at risk, and most of them have shown some stable gameplay in their pitch videos, I don't think gambling a few bucks to something that looks interesting is going to hurt too much.

 

[Rake]

The one i'm most interested in is Frozen State. Pity it's the most unlikely to happen

 

[Gurkog]

Frozen State is definitely the one that captures my attention the most, but the others all look interesting as well. I hope everyone reaches their funding goals so I can buy them off gog some day.

 

[Brayko]

Yeah I think the average Codexer would probably see Frozen State as the best candidate.

 

[eric__s]

Seems Kickstarter has ran out of steam and now only guys in their basement with unfeasible projects are left.

Start with something small, gain credibility and experience, and then try to make your wet dream game.

I disagree with this assessment. Every month or so, a new project comes along that proves lots of people are still willing to give large amounts of money. The common thread among the hugely successful RPG projects was that they came from established developers and that they aren't promising anything new. Project Eternity, Torment 2, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns are all extremely safe remakes of earlier games - Baldur's Gate, the original Torment, Fallout and Wasteland, the console Shadowrun games. They will not deviate far from established mechanical or narrative concepts, which is what people want.

These games do not have established developers and are doing very new things. The people funding RPGs on Kickstarter don't really want new games, they want to re-experience and repackage old games. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm looking forward to all of the games in progress, but it makes it harder for people who want to do new things with RPGs.

I think all of these games look very interesting, especially Unrest, and I'm as excited for them as I am for bigger titles.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Backed Unrest. Still unsure about Frozen State, I kinda don't trust our developers.

 

[Satori4]

Hey guys! I'm one of Frozen State developers. Thank you that some of you have found our project interesting. If we not get funded, we will return to our basement, to work harder on our wet dreams and will come back again with a playable beta.

So far you could check our new video, with a bit of progress that we have managed to do over the past week. Keep in mind it's still a prototype, we are going to start working on enemies' AI in two weeks.


If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Alex

 

[JANKOhrp]

So will you continue development of the game regardless of the final outcome of the campaign?

 

[Satori4]

Yes we will, but we will have to continue working on it in our free time, as we did before. It will take us longer,maybe 2-3 years to finish, but we love this game and we will never drop it.

I have to admit that our kickstarter presentation is a bit messed up. We have made many mistakes, which put off some potential backers. But to be honest, it's great experience! Among concepts on Greenlight, Frozen State has 98% of YES's , we're getting many offers to help us with the game development from many different people.


Unsuccessful kickstarter campaign it's not a failure, it's a lot of motivation and a signal to work more on the game

 

[JarlFrank]

Frontiers looks gorgeous - makes me more excited than all the big kickstarter RPGs. Sounds like explorefag heaven, and I'm a gigantic explorefag.

 

[Railboy]

Start with something small, gain credibility and experience, and then try to make your wet dream game.

You're right of course, but FRONTIERS isn't nearly as 'big' as it comes across at first blush. I think when people see the trailer and hear 'inspired by Daggerfall' they immediately fill in all these blanks and imagine this rich, super deep RPG experience. That's largely my own fault because I'm using TES as a touchstone. But it's nowhere near that complex - it's entirely focused on exploration, which frees me up to take all kinds of shortcuts.

I compare it to building a medieval village with legos vs. constructing one to scale and populating it with actors for a Renaissance fair. Building a city with legos is impressive on some level, and it's fun for people to look in all the windows and marvel at how many blocks were used. But it's nothing compared to the craftsmanship and skill it would take to recreate a village properly.

TL;DR: FRONTIERS is a lego village. Skyrim is a Renaissance fair village.

 

[Overboard]

You're right of course, but FRONTIERS isn't nearly as 'big' as it comes across at first blush. I think when people see the trailer and hear 'inspired by Daggerfall' they immediately fill in all these blanks and imagine this rich, super deep RPG experience.

Pledged!

TL;DR: FRONTIERS is a lego village. Skyrim is a Renaissance fair village.

You're saying your game is worse than Skyrim? Pledge cancelled!

 

[Railboy]

Well, a Renaissance fair village would have live animals. So what I'm saying is: Skyrim is like stepping in poop all the time.

Whereas FRONTIERS is like stepping on Legos.

Wait... I think I just made it worse.

 

[Brayko]

I was seriously considering backing but you just completely ruined it lol

 

[Railboy]

I was seriously considering backing but you just completely ruined it lol

Sigh. One of these days I'll learn to keep my fat mouth shut.

 

[mikaelis]

Railboy Yeah, I got confused as well. So, what the hell Skyrim has, to make it so complex experience? Quests that you can hardly speak of? You mentioned quests as well, but it is hard imagining more dull quests than in TES games. Exploration? Well, 60 sq km is big enough. Complexity of Skyrim character progression? That was a joke, so whatever you come up with, no matter how nerfed, it still must be on par at least.
If the world is diverse enough not to get bored within 5 minutes from exploration (the main theme of your game) it should be fine for what it is. Don't kill your game with retarded PR!!!

Satori4 Looks like Postal 1 perspective-wise, is it going to be fixed camera (as it is now)? Or you plan some freedom with regards to that. Any skills, perk, traits, character progression? Like leveling, XP etc? Or you stick to Stalker formula (weapon and gear upgrades, shops etc.)? I backed you guys for what its worth but would like to know a bit more.

 

[Modron]

Getting a bit worried about armikrog now, it has been consistently getting money each day but I don't know if it has a 200k last couple day push in it.

 

[Cosmic Misogynerd]

Getting a bit worried about armikrog now, it has been consistently getting money each day but I don't know if it has a 200k last couple day push in it.

Yeah, that's my sentiment too. I really want this game to succeed, but it seems that it won't reach its goal.

 

[Satori4]

Railboy Yeah, I got confused as well. So, what the hell Skyrim has, to make it so complex experience? Quests that you can hardly speak of? You mentioned quests as well, but it is hard imagining more dull quests than in TES games. Exploration? Well, 60 sq km is big enough. Complexity of Skyrim character progression? That was a joke, so whatever you come up with, no matter how nerfed, it still must be on par at least.
If the world is diverse enough not to get bored within 5 minutes from exploration (the main theme of your game) it should be fine for what it is. Don't kill your game with retarded PR!!!

Satori4 Looks like Postal 1 perspective-wise, is it going to be fixed camera (as it is now)? Or you plan some freedom with regards to that. Any skills, perk, traits, character progression? Like leveling, XP etc? Or you stick to Stalker formula (weapon and gear upgrades, shops etc.)? I backed you guys for what its worth but would like to know a bit more.

Thank you for supporting us)

Hmmm... Postal is the most unusual comparison I've heard, so far))) everyone sees it differently


The camera is always top dow, but you can zoom in/out and rotate it 360. Though no switching between 3d person or first person view.
Every character has some skills, which are more developed than the others, it depends on his/her previous occupation. The traits are random every time you start a new game, also physical constitution of your character has influence on some obvious things like maximum amout of begs you character can carry, how much food does he/she need to be fed, how visible to the enemies he/she is and some other factors.


You will be able upgrade, fix and craft armour and weapons. Right now, we discuss the possibility of mastering the skills and picking up new traits during the game. However there will be no leveling system or XP grinding that's for sure.