Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: The Banner Saga, 2D Turn-Based Strategy RPG

[felipepepe]

Great idea! I'll buy all the 14 remaining $800 tiers, so I can make many levels of strap-ons, from a simple leather belt to a fully awoken dick-tentacled chutulhu! I'll turn this casual game into Codex's GOTY!

 

[Ulminati]

That's the spirit BRO! Can I has one of your 14 framed landscapes since I gave you the idea?

 

[felipepepe]

That's the spirit BRO! Can I has one of your 14 framed landscapes since I gave you the idea?

Humm....I was going to put all them on eBay for $800 each, but that may not be a viable strategy...I'll just give you one, keep another and sell the remaning ones for $900.

EDIT: In B4 someone actually do something like that....

 

[Aeschylus]

Truly, the codex is a fickle beast.

 

[felipepepe]

Truly, the codex is a fickle beast.

Yeah, but to a good side too, as developer-shivering and non-scaling as we are, most non-Skyway poster will actually hear both sides of the conversation and make their own jugdments...unlike what is said, the Hivemind atitude here is way weaker than in most forums.

BTW, there is this quote from Stoic:

We will also be putting up concept art, class designs, stat info, game mechanics, lore, gameplay videos, a store and more on our soon to be supported site

You guys think those bad ass posters and landscapes will be for sale later? I would love one...

 

[Antares]

felipepepe Yeah because you wouldn't wanna "be putting up concept art, class designs, stat info, game mechanics, lore, gameplay videos and more" before the kickstarter ends - that would be stupid ...

only in it for the oh-so-so-pretty-poster myself. The game most probably will be endless bioware-dialogs about my feeling and everyones elses feelings and how we felt yesterday and how we gonna feel tomorrow interrupted by some battle chess and one animation of a tribe of vikings going over a hill wearing my banner (if I payed 80$) - but I'm really hoping I'm gonna be so totally wrong about that.

so the question really is do I play it cool and take a chance on the poster being for sale in the upcoming store or play it safe and fork out 60$ now? - propably the later ...

 

[Jaesun]

New update with 6 hours to go:

Won't porting to consoles dumb down the game, compromise the UI or take more time away from working on the game?
We started the game with the intention of porting to as many places as possible, which we say in the video and on the front page. Something that we could have messaged better is that we won't be porting anything until after chapter 1 is complete sometime at the end of the year. We're not doing simultaneous development, so we won't have anything to port until we have a finished first release. We do apologize about not making this more clear.

As for dumbing down the game or making the UI worse, we don't think that's true. The game as we pitched it is going to be the same on PC, Mac, Linux, iPad and consoles, the same as we originally envisioned it (at this point, better). The UI will be developed to work on our first release - PC and Mac - and then have to be converted for other platforms in the porting process.

Why did you structure your goals music, then porting and content, then cities? I had to support something I didn't want to get something I did.
We set out the goals based on what would affect the most people. Music is something everyone will hear, ports and content are something a lot people requested, and the cities are for multiplayer. We needed to frontload the things we couldn't ship without, and cities are something we could add in later as funding becomes available. Our stretch goals were just that - extra - so rest assured nothing about them has changed the game we're already working on.

Can you explain more about the cities? I thought this was about a traveling caravan, not building a city.
Like we mentioned in the last update (but regrettably failed to mention in the video), the player-owned cities are part of the multiplayer game and don't affect the single-player story, which is about staying on the move to escape doom. As the multiplayer is largely about building a huge roster of characters, forming teams and fighting other parties in battle, building your own headquarters is a perfect fit, and something we've always been excited about. Both of these scenarios take place at the same time in the game and will make perfect sense within the context of the story when you see it!

Implementing a new system is never a small task, though, and we're trying very hard to be realistic about what we can handle. Additional funding lets us get hired help to make it happen. Unlike porting, if we meet this goal we're hoping to get this content in the game at release!

 

[felipepepe]

Now that makes a load more sense...this part is also intersting:

Can you talk more about the additional content?
There are two main things we want to expand with additional content: one is the variety of events that happen during travel. We've mentioned in a few places how this will be reminiscent of King of Dragon Pass. For example, a group of warriors in your caravan may approach you and demand more food than the farmers. Depending on your response you may upset the warriors or the farmers, cause one or the other leave or turn into an unexpected fight. Or you might diffuse the situation and move on. Additionally, we want these events to have some repercussions. You might tell the warriors to back down and think the thing is settled, only to discover that two days later they steal supplies and run off while you're sleeping. We'd like to add a much larger variety of these events and give them more variables.

The other thing is the finale. We're putting an equal amount of effort into the game as a whole but we'd love to put more effort into the finale to 1) make it a longer event and 2) try to account for more variables. We were excited about the ending we were planning to do, and this will let us make a better one. You've already hit this goal, and we're psyched about the ability to work on this!

so the question really is do I play it cool and take a chance on the poster being for sale in the upcoming store or play it safe and fork out 60$ now? - propably the later ...

It seems that both os us will follow the later path, Drog/Andharia/New Poster....

 

[Havoc]

Stoic has appeased the beast!

 

[felipepepe]

Stoic has appeased the beast!

We may have took an arm, but I'm back to pledging $60...

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah I upped my pledge as well.

 

[Antares]

felipepepe bah ni är ändå norrlänningar allihopa (antiandahira-drog proof)
apparently I will become a soulless console-gamer in exchange for a pretty poster
at least I'm not alone

Havoc never really understood that codex-thing: first rabid uncontrollable rage, then when you get a reaction and some lame excuses, bending over begging to be fucked once again?

"For example, a group of warriors in your caravan may approach you and demand more food than the farmers. Depending on your response you may upset the warriors or the farmers, cause one or the other leave or turn into an unexpected fight. Or you might diffuse the situation and move on. Additionally, we want these events to have some repercussions. You might tell the warriors to back down and think the thing is settled, only to discover that two days later they steal supplies and run off while you're sleeping."

Is this really fun gameplay - maybe it is? Looks more like everyday-life 2012 to me ...

As a player I want to experience wild adventures, taking huge risks and be rich as a troll so my character can afford Gold Balloons just like Brian fargo!

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I think it's safe to say that this game is going to be less unrelentingly hardcore than a lot of you guys think , since he generally expected warm responses from announcing music and porting etc

if he doesn't see that announcing those might give danger signs to some then he doesn't see those things as danger signs in games he himself enjoys period, so there's the personal game design philosophy here, seeing as how he announced porting as a possible future goal in the first place, come on that was on his WISHLIST bros how much do I have to lay it out for you
contrast with fargo saying that consoles are seriously not gonna fit at all

bros perhaps a mistake being made here is seeing the developer word his responses in such a way that they are amenable to this site's community and then extrapolating "oh, he mentioned king of dragon pass stuff and ff tactics and mount and blade, and all the awesome I know about in those games I am fo defs gonna be seeing here in banner saga, a game by the people for the people"

well didn't bethesda mention The Road and the first two games as a strong inspiration as well for fallout 3

look at the budget, now think, how much of these elements from the games mentioned are going to come in here

let's say they throw all of the team and the budget into just one of those three, how far can they get towards being a good spiritual sequel?
now divide the developer attention into combat, setting/story and c&c scenarios/management overlay

what you'll probably get is homage to such games via design reference from a distance, not exactly the clambering on their cumulative unbroken backs that you'd like to think because some guy is not saying the usual newshit PR speak for once to the codex, like the kingdoms of amalur interview that was also received warmly recently, so you really want to believe this guy really gets it and is focused like a beam of light on incline, and you pledge for the sweet ass poster because you are really going to love the game THIS MUCH when it's released

seriously bros I don't think you are going to get underdog TBS rpg jesus here

they probably want to make a good game to suit their purposes but it's not the true codexian developer's uncompromised blazing middle finger beacon at the newshit decline that would satisfy everyone here

 

[Ulminati]

sgc_meltdown

Stoic says:

Hello! Thanks for the message. Though I was pretty clearly irritated (lots going on right now) I'm not so annoyed as to never appear on codex again. Ive been involved in a lot of game forums and know how they can get. I think codex might be a lot more hardcore than our game, and do think people there could be disappointed by its emphasis on story. Its hard to message "deep tactical gameplay" because what it impossibly difficult for a casual crowd might look like checkers to a forum like codex. We think we'll run somewhere on the mid-high range for complexity. Still, if we cant appease the codex crowd, and I suspect we can't, I would rather not stir the hornet's nest any more at this point. We'll be releasing a free multiplayer standalone soon. If codex enjoys it we'll be happy to continue posting there, if not we'll just go our own seperate ways knowing it's not their cup of tea. I'll probably respond with something like that soon. Thanks again, hope you enjoy the game!

Stoic have been quite forthcoming about this game in all likelyhood being too casual for our tastes. I can appreciate the honesty, which is why I maintained a $10 pledge (rather than upping it or dropping it altogether). Consider it a small gamble that I might end up pleasantly surprised. They have also repeatedly stated that the multiplayer component will be released for free. I think the HonoraBRO thing to do here is accept that the game probably won't be for us, give the free bitz a fair chance to prove us wrong and throw our jewgoldz at them in supplication if they do. Or made snide remarks from the sidelines if they don't. This is Codexia after all. We have a reputation as unlovable internet trolls to uphold.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Stoic have been quite forthcoming about this game in all likelyhood being too casual for our tastes.

yeah I wouldn't say they're bad people or acolytes of the gaider-todd-laidlaw triumvirate or what have you

if the guy thinks we aren't quite the audience for the game, we probably aren't the kind of fan community he had in mind and feels comfortable with in the first place

let us look forward to much drama on the forums about whether it is acceptable to like it when it is released

 

[Johannes]

The biggest WTF with the console ports to me is, that it doesn't really have anything to do with the Kickstarter. The rewards don't include console versions, would you like to support the devs porting the game to Xbox after you've gotten your PC version so that you can buy said Xbox version?

I don't see any reason why the devs wouldn't just take money from the actual sale profits to make that happen, people who want the console versions will have to wait no matter what. And the devs would do it because well, they'd potentially make still more money from the porting than the costs.

Rather use the money from the Kickstarter to make the original PC game better, which does not necessarily mean bigger, be it orcherstas, make more awesum death animations or whatever, whatever, things that actually have some effect on how the end product is on the game you're offering as a reward here.



But I'm content that our raging got a reasonable response, now I know a bit more about the game after these clarifications. Though I don't like the idea of persistent cities in multiplayer, that's ghey shit, I prefer 1-off battles on equal ground.

 

[felipepepe]

felipepepe bah ni är ändå norrlänningar allihopa (antiandahira-drog proof)

Makes sense bro, but I'm brazilian.

they probably want to make a good game to suit their purposes but it's not the true codexian developer's uncompromised blazing middle finger beacon at the newshit decline that would satisfy everyone here

Agreed, but I don't even expect a intense hardcore game anymore.

I'm thinking more as Legend of Grimrock now, a modern take on a "dead" genre, that manages to be interesting, well-done and pleases both old players and newcomers alike. It's not fucking Dungeon Master or Chaos Strike Back, but I had a lot of fun playing it, and if Banner Saga reaches that sweet spot, my money is well spent.

 

[Havoc]

Antares did you equip the ring? You need to to get enlightment.

 

[Jaesun]

Yes Bryce. We get it.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Good answers from chewbot etc. I still think they are cool guys, there was just 1 user who called them con men (which was inappropriate), for me it's just a huge dissappointment that they are making a casual (or better mid range casual) game, after it had sounded so much better when they started.

 

[Burning Bridges]

EDIT: I'm just the first to call them con men, not the only one. I'm just ahead of the curve.

I also think the "con men" was inappropriate, although we seem to be on the same side concerning other things. Just saying.

 

[Ulminati]

Someone is trying too hard

 

[Burning Bridges]

Have a brofist for your feelings, against meta posting and cock sucking becoming the new fashion. even if it's too late.

If you're really Drog, you have already done more for RPGs/Arcanum than anyone in this thread. Just keep control over the egoshow, and all will be fine

 

[Ulminati]

Stop putting words into my mouth, Drog. I don't want you to join the hivemind; I want you to die in a fire.

 

[Jaesun]

Ever hear the term, don't feed the shitposter?