KickStarter Sacred Fire - a psychological RPG about romance, loyalty and revenge - now available on Early Access

[poetic]

Lexxx20 Sure thing I did, but thank you for the reminder. I contacted them via their form on their site and I also updated the existing forum threads over there.

 

[poetic]

And here is the RPG Watch newsbit: https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/newthread.php?do=comments&f=10&ref=10&cid=37282

 

[Lexxx20]

Great!

 

[udm]

Backed at $90. All the best!

 

[HoboForEternity]

the number is pretty great so far. i've done my part and it's up to the rest of the people to get this flying.

 

[poetic]

Thank you all for your generous support! I agree, We got to 30% in 48 hours, so thanks to you guys, the start went pretty well. Thank you for spreading the word on reddit, it helps a lot.

We have another 'news from the trenches' update.

The Community Goals unlocked 2 more characters:

In case you missed it, to see how the game plays out, check out this 10 minutes developers' commentary video:



If you like what you see, go get your Early Bird reward now!

Thank you for your support.

 

[poetic]

There is already 500 people who decided to fund Sacred Fire in the first short 4 days. This is amazing!

We are happy to reveal our last 2 characters:

Early Bird rewards will be gone in a few hours

Please, let your friends know and use this last opportunity to upgrade to a higher tier for an Early Bird pledge.

Today I also celebrated my birthday with my family and my friends. It was a great moment to appreciate all the support I have in my life.

Thank you for being part of that.

 

[udm]

Qn: Are the character art pieces hand-drawn or 3d-modelled, then passed through a filter?

 

[RK47]

 

[Merlkir]

Qn: Are the character art pieces hand-drawn or 3d-modelled, then passed through a filter?

They look like Poser models, possibly with some minor post processing.

 

[poetic]

Qn: Are the character art pieces hand-drawn or 3d-modelled, then passed through a filter?

They are DAZ 3d models, rendered in an physically biased / artistic renderer in Cinema 4D and post-processed and hand retouched in Photoshop. Of course the important thing is the detailed hair, fur and cloth animation, that simply doesn't exist in the Poser hobby league and sets us apart. For the cloak animations we use the award winning Korean fashion designer software Marvelous Designer. So we are also digital tailors, go figure The good thing is this method gives us a lot of room how to raise the visual quality once we have the resources to do so, without the need to painstakingly redraw everything.

As we are not going for the photo-realistic look, some people love what we do, some don't. We don't mind as we are content that Sacred Fire looks good enough for the Art Director of Banner Saga, Arnie Jorgensen go "Very cool looking game you've got here, I look forward to seeing more!" See his reaction on Banner Saga forums.

And good enough for 550+ backers to back us in the first few days.
Thank you everyone.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[poetic]

We reached 50% with almost 20 days to go! Thank you all, this is going really well!

While we all may have grown accustomed to stories about Kickstarters that blast past their initial goal on day one and reach more and more stretch goals, we truly appreciate what we have here. This is all I could have hoped for, a steady stream of backers who help us spread the word because they like the look, the characters and the innovation in Sacred Fire.

We have also published our first update focused on design, explaining how Sacred Fire connects story and gameplay, by adding challenge to choice making and connecting story branching to renown won in battle.

Thank you for your support. This race is just getting started and we are preparing more juicy updates about combat, character creation, replayability and more.

 

[poetic]

We are back with an in-depth update on combat in Sacred Fire

We are happy to have leading RPG designers and writers fighting on our side to make this campaign a success!

Larian’s Swen Vincke, Chris Avellone and even Robert Kirkman's Skybound tweeted about our campaign rallying the fans to support.

With more than 750 backers, as we are approaching 60%, we are starting to think about revealing our first stretch goal. We have a few value-adding production expansions of Sacred Fire in mind, but we want to hear your thoughts: what would add the most value to you?

What should be the first stretch goal at $60,000 in your opinion:

1) More character customization: more variety in male and female outfits, faces, hair and paint styles, more jewelry for female characters and more awesome beards for male characters.

2) Localization: based on countries of our backers as of now, reaching the stretch goal would bring a translation to German, French and Slovak language.

3) More voiceover: the base goal includes Doug Cockle as the Narrator adding voiceover to the intro, key story branching moments and the endings. With the stretch goal reached, we would add voiceover to the inner voice of your player character. Supporting our inward design, a male and female voice actor would narrate the inner dilemmas of the key story choices.

Thank you for letting us know and if you like any of the stretch goals, please keep spreading the word about the Sacred Fire Kickstarter campaign.

 

[agris]

poetic man, i've followed your game since the first post, but I agree with Excidium II's chat log above. All the characters have this blase 'meh' face, despite being in the act of hacking people to death and defending against mortal blows. I think that's why a lot of game art chooses a more emotional 'resting' face when there isn't specific face art per action, so that it doesn't look so.. incongruous.

my stretchgoal advice? add emotion to faces at $60k. I don't intend this as edge-lord feedback, and I like what you've outlined about the game, but the porcelain-doll look has bothered me since the beginning and I think it could hurt you long term. If you're skeptical, reach out to some of your luminaries that have provided quotes for your campaign - ask them point-blank what they think about the faces in context of what I've said above.

 

[DeepOcean]

We are back with an in-depth update on combat in Sacred Fire

The art is mostly okay, you just need to change the positions and the faces a little, when you swing a sword you don't look where the sword is but where your enemy is, both the hobo guy and the legionaire should be looking at each other. The base face is too neutral here, just make the characters frown a bit, make their eyes more expressive to imply the effort they are applying on those swings.

Another thing, this is already on nitpicky territory but the gladio was a short sword meant for stabbing, it is weird a character using both hands for trying to use the edge of the blade on a sword that is so short. The legionaire would bumrush the hobo to stab him on the guts while he plays with his fancy axes. The dodge move should be the hobo trying to keep his distance.

 

[V_K]

All the characters have this blase 'meh' face, despite being in the act of hacking people to death and defending against mortal blows. I think that's why a lot of game art chooses a more emotional 'resting' face when there isn't specific face art per action, so that it doesn't look so.. incongruous.

I actually like the understated expressions, I think they go well with the slo-mo animations, giving the game a sort of eerily melancholic, contemplative atmosphere. Feels right for a game concerned with "inner life". Not everything has to be "painted for the back row", so to speak.

 

[V_K]

As for stretch goals, I'd go with localizations.

 

[poetic]

agris Hey, no worries man, I appreciate the feedback. I agree there is room for improvement, no need to persuade me. Facial expression are one of the hardest things to get right, just look at Mass Effect Andromeda. So we will be addressing this no matter what, there is no need for a specific stretch goal.

V_K Thank you for your feedback, that's an interesting observation. It just underlines the issue, that it's easy to do 'too little' and easy to do 'too much' and that there will always be people who will fall at different parts of the spectrum with their subjective perception of what's the right 'strength' of facial expressions is. Thank you also for your feedback on stretch goals preferences.

just make the characters frown a bit, make their eyes more expressive to imply the effort they are applying on those swings.

Yes, that makes sense and will be the way we will go and see how that looks.

 

[poetic]

With 10 days left, we are working hard to prepare a big ending for the campaign and preparing more update and perks to spicy up the rewards.

The first thing is, based on feedback from our backers, we have revealed our stretch goals in our last update:

One of Sacred Fire’s strengths is its unique visual style and focus on character creation. It’s the deepest and most thought out design aspect of Sacred Fire, as it allows you to develop your own playstyle and create your own hero. So our first stretch goal expands this fundamental part of the game and gives you even more self-expression options with focus on variety of:
- colors, outfits and hairstyles,
- faces, scars and paint patterns,
- jewelry and more awesome beards.

The design of Sacred Fire is oriented inwards, exploring the motives, emotions and conflicts of the protagonist. In key story choices, you lead an inner monologue detailing your thoughts and motives, why you made a choice and how you process the consequences.

To support this design, this stretch goals adds narration of inner dilemmas to immerse you deeper into your role. What’s interesting, we have some of the most distinct voices in gaming showing early interest in joining the Sacred Fire team (on our indie budget!), as the male and female voice of your character.

Based on your suggestions, we realized things don’t have to be black and white. While we can’t promise full voice-over for our varied cast, we can use it in character defining moments to make your favorite Sacred Fire characters come alive and immerse you deeper into the story. This stretch goal ads partial voice-over for the 10 main story characters: the 8 potential allies and the 2 powerful villains.

REDDIT

To help us reach these stretch goals, we have also prepared a list of short videos https://imgur.com/a/qoylG to post on reddit, for example at /r/gaming/ or your favorite gaming reddit. Just select a 'Submit a new link' and into the url field enter the video link (on imgur right-click the video and select copy video address) and add a short fun description in the title, for example "Have fun smashing an axe in political debates in Sacred Fire".

PRAISE FOR SACRED FIRE

Sacred Fire caught the eye of another game writer and we got a nod from Rhianna Pratchett:

I invite you to have a look at what my peers find so interesting and decide for yourself. Check out our campaign now.

 

[daveyd]

I think / hope you can get to all the stretch goals. Probably lots of people clicked the 48 hr reminder star with the intention of backing last minute.

Once funded will you open up some pledges on Paypal for people that are unable or unwilling to pledge on KS for whatever reason?

 

[poetic]

daveyd Thank you, yes we are looking into PayPal, it's good advice. We have some great news:

We got covered by Kotaku by Nathan Grayson!

The article stayed above the fold for many hours and strong traffic is still coming in. So here we are, approaching 75% and 1,000 backers. How great is that?

With 8 days still to go and other big sites picking up the Kotaku article, we are trending way past our base goal. Kicktraq even lists us in the top 10 on their Video Games Hot List.

So if you like the premise of Sacred Fire, now is a good time to support us and help us reach all the customization and voice-over stretch goals.

 

[Tigranes]

This is always the lowest-pledges lull, the last few days before the final countdown. I think you guys will make it, and I stand ready to up my pledge at the end as well.

On the subject of facial expressions, I can see both agris and V_K's points. I'd also vote to err on the side of understated in this case - even if not realistic, I think it's more stylistically appropriate to see sombre and even uncanny calm, as if these were actors in a mute theatrical piece, or even masked actors of the Furies or whatnot in a Greek play, in slow motion. I expect agris wasn't arguing for massive hulk smash rage, either.

 

[Brutan]

I backed this because it's seems pretty original. I have to say that 18/20$ for a digital copy is pretty steep. Anyways, how long will a play-though be according to estimates?

 

[daveyd]

Well, if I'm not mistaken Poetic has said earlier here that they will work on adding facial expressions. Looks great currently (especially for pre-alpha game) but I agree adding expressions would improve the look... especially considering the combat is all about emotions.

Can anyone think of any other (currently released) RPGs that are in some ways similar to Sacred Fire? I 'm hitting various forums to promote this KS and trying to think which fandoms this game would most appeal to.