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

[Brayko]

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.

Just wondering though, will exploration be really worthwhile, like will each cave or temple/ruin you explore have its own history or events? And I think instead of focusing on weapons and armor and standard cliche combat shit over-used in 99% video games there should be survival gear like jackets, boots, etc that you could find or purchase. Just my 2 cents.. I mean honestly, a REAL hiking simulator with actual content and interesting stuff to explore is much better than any shit Bethesda puts out.

 

[Railboy]

Just wondering though, will exploration be really worthwhile, like will each cave or temple/ruin you explore have its own history or events?

That's the idea. When you strip everything else away it leaves a huge vaccum that screams to be filled with lore, so that's a major focus. Lore, books, NPC histories and relationships, etc. I'm creating new languages (or rather, I'm working with linguists who is creating them, it's frankly over my head), deep histories, multiple cultures and so on. There's a backstory I've been working on for years and a pretty diverse group of regions and factions.

The hope is that this will all weave into a tapestry that makes the world feel like it has a reality and a purpose that extends beyond your involvement in your tiny little slice of in-game history. When I played Daggerfall I always got the impression that when I turned off the computer, the world was still puttering on in its own little alternate reality. It didn't care about you - you were a visitor, and it made no effort to conform to your behavior. That's the feeling I want to recapture in FRONTIERS.

what the hell Skyrim has, to make it so complex experience?

I'm talking mainly about the artistic complexity. The sheer manpower they threw at it. I could take one of their textured models and use it in a VFX shot without much tweaking. They probably spent more time getting their cheese wheels right than I spent doing all the temp structure textures. They have recorded dialog for every line. Etc. etc. There may not have been a ton of depth by the standards of really solid RPGs, but that shallow lake really was a mile wide.

If the world is diverse enough not to get bored within 5 minutes from exploration

Not only is it diverse - the regions range from arctic to tropical - I place a huge emphasis on change. The world evolves around you in limited but noticeable ways. I haven't playtested the latter stages as much - that'll be a huge focus over the next six months - but the hope is that these little progressions will shake things up enough to keep mechanics from turning into a same-ey grind. (The flipside is, you have to also reward the player for investing their time in the original mechanics, or you feel betrayed and pissed off. Like I said: playtesting will be huge.)

There's also a lot of unseen weirdness in the world that becomes more and more prevalent as you start poking around. What looked and felt normal at the start of the game starts to feel stranger as you piece together what's really happening.

Getting a bit worried about armikrog now,

Me too. I really hope they pull through.

 

[Brayko]

Cool, my interest has rekindled a little bit. Thanks brah.

 

[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.

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.

Dunno why Postal 1 came to my mind. Guess it was after I sa your pre-alpha with all the pew-pew from the top-down perspective.

So, I assume you have some story that span over dozen of hours of the game (otherwise you wouldn't mention stalker, lem, strugacki etc.). How will the game play in the long term? Is it more on the exploration side? story-driven (like adventure game)? Or closer to hack and slash where you always have meat to grind?

 

[Satori4]

Yeah the "pew-pew"... it still the prototype stage, which doesn't give the right feeling. Our bad

Yes, the idea is to make a story driven game in a open world, which would be non-linear and interesting to explore over and over again.

My personal idee fix, however, is the system of random micro events, which would make almost every new game to some extent unique. In other words, if you in game "1" you found "A" - (inctance/object/npc), then in game "2" you may not to find this "A" again, but will find B or F and so on. It's hard to explain it clearly in a few sentences, but it's very a interesting challenge for me)) And I want to make it Frozen State.

The more interesting part that you can add more and more events and set them different probabilities and outcomes they might have)

 

[RedScum]

Alright will probably back Frontiers

 

[Railboy]

Hello! Just dropping back in to let folks know that a (clunky, imperfect) PayPal contribution system has been set up over at the FRONTIERS campaign. (Lots of folks have been requesting this so I'm just letting people know it exists. Make sure to read the FAQ before contributing though! It's not as straghtforward as a standard Kickstarter pledge.)

Alright will probably back Frontiers

*Whew* glad I was able to turn that losing streak around, haha!

 

[Crooked Bee]

In other news, Our Darker Purpose has a pre-alpha demo available now: http://ourdarkerpurpose.com/pre-alpha/odp.zip

 

[Crooked Bee]

Frontiers' new video on paths and stuff:



And an audio interview, too: http://futurilla.com/radio/2013/6/20/doom-ray-special-lars-simkins-frontiers-interview-pt-2

 

[RedScum]

Backed Frontiers, looking forward to see more about the game.

 

[Cosmic Misogynerd]

I initially backed the game (Frontiers) but ended withdrawing my pledge. I know the game focus is exploration, but everything else seems too simplistic. Also: I don't really know if one guy can really make this kind of game alone (or with a little help). I nonetheless wish good luck to the dev. But I'm not convinced.

 

[Railboy]

Fair enough. I hope you'll keep an eye on the project as it progresses.

 

[villain of the story]

I can still remember the first time I played Daggerfall. Yes, it was uglier than a monkey's armpit and controlled worse than a bumper car on a frozen lake.

What a bullshit. Daggerfall's controls are still silky smooth to this day and it isn't even a matter of opinion! And it was far ahead of other 1st person games of its time. Perhaps you were one of the people who failed to find mouse-look in the options? As for graphics, that part is subjective but the game still looks good to me. A coherent art direction is all that matters. I would even make a game that looked like Daggerfall (low resolution, sharp crispy textures, simplistic and stylistic beautiful 2D sprites) if I knew it would sell. Just the right amount of visuals in 1st person that still leave something to the imagination, in my opinion.

 

[Brayko]

Ok, just backed 'Frontiers' at the "Journeyman" pledge level. What sold me? The idea that I get to write a short story in the form of a book in-game, which sounds most excellent to an aspiring author. That's almost worth it in itself, and I'm trusting you Railboy to deliver a playable game and to send out all the tools and lore you promised you would in the FAQ.

 

[evdk]

Ok, just backed 'Frontiers' at the "Journeyman" pledge level. What sold me? The idea that I get to write a short story in the form of a book in-game, which sounds most excellent to an aspiring author. That's almost worth it in itself, and I'm trusting you Railboy to deliver a playable game and to send out all the tools and lore you promised you would in the FAQ.

You'll hopefully manage to refrain yourself form including some horribly obvious Codex references, that would stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[RedScum]

Railboy , will you include some sort of extra "survival-settings"? For example, you mentioned in the PCgamer interview that hunger wont kill your character - but an optional setting for that would be pretty sweet i think.

 

[Brayko]

You'll hopefully manage to refrain yourself form including some horribly obvious Codex references, that would stick out like a sore thumb.

Worry not, for I've never enlisted myself in the Holy Order of Codexian Tranny Knights. However, a more innocent and subtle reference could be do-able considering the fact that I did hear about the game through here.

 

[eric__s]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1002143342/undertale

This game looks pretty cool. It's an RPG inspired by games like Earthbound and Touhou. I'm also getting some major Catamites/Space Funeral vibes too. Going to give to this pretty soon, it looks like it'll be a pretty charming and enjoyable game and it's got a demo out too.

 

[winterraptor]

99 CeeArPeeGees on Kay Es,
99 CeeArPeeGees!
Fund one now,
Spread it around,
98 pieces of shit on Kay Es!

 

[Railboy]

RedScum - There will be a hardcore mode where hunger & thirst kill you. I just made a video about some of the survival elements a few days ago, take a look if you're interested. (FYI, it's a campaign video so I think I may refer to stuff from updates you don't have access to.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di4JitmfCLE

 

[RedScum]

Yeah i actually watched that video yesterday (European time) so thanks mate!

 

[Crooked Bee]

13 minutes to go on Our Darker Purpose, fully funded already: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1750899614/our-darker-purpose-0

 

[Lord Trousersnake]

Good to see some smaller kickstarters having success, like the look of Frontiers.

 

[RedScum]

New video update for Frontiers

 

[Crooked Bee]

Our Darker Purpose is now on Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=147390204

Accompanied by a new trailer: