KickStarter SKALD: Against the Black Priory - retro RPG inspired by Ultima

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I was correct that those fell hogs were the last fight. My PC was L6 but the two NPCs I picked up were only L1. I went and did a bit of grinding to get them to L3 (and PC to L7) and the hogs fell. Demo was basically over after that. Disappointing. There was a nice bow I found immediately after the battle, but when I went and fought some random encounters with it, the damage was still unimpressive despite my PC's high Dex.

I enjoyed the demo, though I'm surprised at how short it was given the development length. I will play it when released, but I will largely forget about it until (if) it does.

Pros:

• Good adventuring. Nice use of old school tropes (torches, pickaxes, rations, resting routines, etc.)
  • Secrets off of the beaten path, with plenty of hazards for the curious.
  • Night/darkness matters. Caves and unlit interiors are actually dark. This has mechanical impacts.
  • Decent mechanics. The attribute system and feats are good. System is straight-forward without being shallow.
• Good difficulty curve. Healing isn't easy, and combat rarely leaves the player unscathed, even if victory is certain.
• Writing. Dialogue is believable. Emotion is conveyed and scenes described without being overly wrought.
• Area design. Places serve a purpose and aren't cluttered. Quests are woven through them to get good utilization without too much backtracking. Nor does it feel like a theme park.
• Enemy AI seems adequate. While the breadth of enemies was narrow due to plot, they do more than just "attack nearest".

Cons:

• Forcing the player to manually click through every step of every combantant's actions. If a crab moves 8 tiles, you will click "continue" or press 1 that many times. Now if you're fighting 8 enemies....ugh. Heinously bad design choice. Kill it with fire.
• Lots of false choice in dialogue/text sequences.
• Magic, thus far, is weak and unimaginative.
• Possibly due to weapons available, but ranged combat is disappointing.
• Very few non-combat skill usage or checks.

Indifferent:

• Presentation. Retro graphics help me suspend disbelief and have a certain charm, but don't do much for me otherwise. I live very little nostalgia for the era. They are good for what they are though. A harsh and stormy island with desperate conditions was well conveyed.
  • Pixel graphics make the player map almost unreadable.
  • 8-bit music is meh in both terms of composition and quality. 8-bit sounds are forgettable and don't add much. The ambient weather sounds are decent though.
• Interface. While serviceable, leaning on old school sensibilities hurts it. Containers could benefit from drag & drop.
• Quests. Garden variety. Not contrived nor tedious, but nothing memorable.

 

[Tweed]

At this rate Unknown Realm will be out before this thing.

 

[Infinitron]

Just noticed the developer on the game's Steam page has changed from Scape-IT to "High North Studios AS": https://steamdb.info/app/1069160/history/?changeid=16782455

Seems that it's just renamed or different company owned by SkaldRPG, although he's still posting from Scape-IT on Twitter: https://twitter.com/scapeit_no

 

[Morgoth]

I enjoy the demo very much. Will this enter EA limbo or will it released as a proper full v1.0 game?

 

[Acrux]

It's supposed to be released as a proper v1.0. He has a group of beta testers from crowdsourcing who get additional updates from the demo, and he's been using that feedback to avoid EA. But, since he signed on with the publisher, who knows what they'll decide.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

It's supposed to be released as a proper v1.0. He has a group of beta testers from crowdsourcing who get additional updates from the demo, and he's been using that feedback to avoid EA. But, since he signed on with the publisher, who knows what they'll decide.

Full voice acting will be announced any day now.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.skaldrpg.com/2022/12/project-update-have-some-class-december-2022/

Project Update: Have Some Class (December 2022)​

Greetings all! It’s update time!

I try to get one update out per month and this one was slated for November but the weeks are just flying by. You’ll have to forgive me and rest assured the time not spent writing this was well spent elsewhere!


Human models are now slightly taller. I love the more natural proportions.

If you’re reading this and somehow don’t know what the game is about yet, check out the Steam page and demo before reading on:

—News—​

Rawcember DEMO​

We’re doing a major update to the demo around the 20th of December as part of Raw Fury’s Rawcember promotions.

This means a bunch of new demo content including a character creator, a new recruitable NPC, several new map areas and… *drum roll*… a special Rawcember contest:

The Hunt for The Santa Fury​

Uncover cryptic clues and mysterious leads as you embark on a quest for the mysterious missing vessel the “Santa Fury”.



If you uncover the secret at the end of the puzzle, you are eligible to enter into the Skald Rawcember lottery and compete for three Steam gift cards!

We’ll be dropping another devlog update when the demo goes live and you’ll find all the details in there!

—Development—​

In preparation for the upcoming Rawcember demo I’ve been doing a lot of work on the character creator. It was noticeably absent in the latest demo builds but it’s coming home for Christmas.

Even though only a few of the character options (classes and backgrounds) are playable at the moment, we’ll be showing them off in the demo to at least give you an impression of what we’re aiming for in the final game!



Classed in Skald are each tied to one of five archetypes which, in turn, are tied to on of the five primary attributes. Behind the curtain, each archetype conforms somewhat to the classic tank / DPS / support trinity

Archetype	Attribute	Associated Class	Role
Warrior	Strength	Officer, Veteran, Armsmaster	A resilient combat workhorse and tank.
Rogue	Agility	Thief, Duelist, Assassin	Uses the backstab ability to deal large amounts of damage. Also brings important adventuring skills to the party (traps and locks).
Magos	Intellect	Battle Magos, Inquisitor, Guild Magos	Ranged damage dealers and crowd controllers.
Wandere	Fortitude	Skald, Ranger, Augur	Varied support class that bring a variation of support spellcasting and important adventuring skills to the party.
Cleric	Presence	Champion, Hierophant, Hospitaller	Healers and buffers.

Note that the archetype role is a rough guideline. The different classes may vary greatly in how they actually play. I’ll say more about the individual classes as we go so stay posted for this in the upcoming devlogs.



Backgrounds are much lighter than classes and help flesh out the character in the context of the world. They will add bonuses to skills and may affect starting condition (such as starting gold and equipment). I also intend to use these to provide world interactivity as certain NPCs may react to your background in dialogue etc.


Say what you want about the UI but if it doesn’t give you a retro vibe, I don’t know what does!

As for attributes you’ll of course be able to edit these as well in the character creator. I’m doing my best to keep the rules as transparent as possible and visualizing the interrelationship between the attributes helps a bit. Note how updating a primary attribute causes the rest of the sheet to update etc.

Some players might be a bit off-put by the wall of numbers but we’ll try to add options for them as well (maybe an “auto complete” function?).

In general however, I think RPG fans enjoy a bit of rules crunch and I intend to deliver that.


Customize your characters appearance or let fate decide! Note the the portraits are place-holders!

Finally, here is a peek at the character editor. Nothing revolutionary here but I am proud of how modular the character models are. You can pretty much edit any aspect of them and this carries over to any outfit you might equip etc. It’s a small thing, but I think customization is a pretty big deal to a lot of players.

—In Closing—​

Be sure to check out the updated demo as it drops December 20th! I’m excited to see it any of you manage to learn the fate of the Santa Fury!

To stay posted, be sure to follow the Skald Twitter and Discord and wishlist on Steam if you haven’t already!

Much love,



AL

At this point SKALD looks like a 1990 RPG. Very little of the 80s 8-bit look is left.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'm expecting the full release

L O L

who cares about the full release? we're all expecting the next demo at this point

barricade called it. It's not cynicism if you're correct.

While I'm curious about the character creator, I probably won't bother. The demo was setup to demonstrate a pretty finite section of the game. If they're adding in a few more areas to that as a new development, then it means that this is absolutely vaporware. We're looking at a hobbyist who got financing.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Hmm... somehow I find myself totally uninterested in this game at this point. If it gets released tomorrow I don't know if I'd even have the motivation to try it. Strange, I was very much looking forward to Skald - but that was quite some years ago. It's basically the same I feel with Lawless Legends: If you wait long enough, all the initial magic (the one that made you spend your money for financing the project) begins slowly to melt away. You won't notice it first, but over the years it's both unavoidable and - as I fear - irreversible that that initial enthusiasm evaporates. Anway, still hope it gets a real release someday.

 

[Sacibengala]

At this point SKALD looks like an early/mid-1990s RPG. Very little of the 80s 8-bit look is left.

Can't wait for when it will look like the 2000's rpgs and I just don't care about it anymore.

 

[agris]

At this point SKALD looks like an early/mid-1990s RPG. Very little of the 80s 8-bit look is left.

Can't wait for when it will look like the 2000's rpgs and I just don't care about it anymore.

newly leaked shot of their upcoming graphics update

Spoiler

 

[Morgoth]

Everything about the presentation is perfect, except the font. Needs to be slightly more readable.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.skaldrpg.com/2022/12/season-of-giving-demo-and-contest/

Season of Giving: Demo and Contest!​

Ho ho ho!

That special time of year is descending upon us and uncle Andy’s coming in hot with red cheeks and smelling vaguely of Christmas schnaps. He’s also bringing gifts!

DEMO UPDATE​

By the time you’re reading this, we should have updated the demo online. This is a pretty chonky update that more then doubles the amount of content. It includes a bunch of never before seen areas and narrative content as well as a new recruitable NPC.



It also adds in a lot of new features, like the option to build your own character. We only have a handful of the classes, feats, portraits and backgrounds available yet but this still adds a lot of variety so go nuts!



Needless to say, we’ll be adding a ton more of everything in the final product so no need to worry.

THE QUEST FOR THE SANTA FURY​

Adventurers and treasure hunters have been searching for her ever since. None have succeeded. Lately however, a rumor has begun to spread in dockside taverns and brothels:

The Santa Fury has been located. The rush to recover her is on. Will you partake?

---

Yes we hid an entire ship in the latest demo and you get to go on a real treasure hunt FOR REAL TREASURE!

How to enter​

• Download the demo and start playing. You’ll soon enough find someone who’ll tell you the legend of the Santa Fury and you’ll be off!
• Once you find the treasure and see the phrase “amorphous shape of eyes, mouths and tentacles” take a screenshot.
• Amble over to the Skald Discord and DM the screenshot to our lovely community person, Fiona (Discord name “Feeona#0001″) . Do NOT post the screenshot in one of the public channels.
• Contest is open until January 9th and once it closes we’ll draw five winners who’ll receive a free key to a game of their choice from the Raw Fury catalogue!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL​

I’ll be lurking a bit and seeing how the contest is going but I’ll also try to take a few days off. In other words, I’ll see you all on the other side of the year in what will surely be the year of Skald!

I’m so grateful to have been given the opportunity to pursue my passion and I hope this is a project that will bring joy into people’s lives for years to come. Be kind to each other and please be mindful of those who find the holidays difficult. A kind word or gesture might go a long way.

What remains is to wish you all a very happy holidays and good luck on the hunt for the Santa Fury.

Love you all,

AL

 

[notpl]

Big lol at most of the classes still not being implemented. Maybe next demo!

 

[Daemongar]

I like the Ultima style but someone needs to tell these folks that less is more with retro graphics. There is just too much misc detail to each tile. The first picture with the path and the grass and the empty area in the middle of the path. Less is better - this is just too saturated with pointless detail. The path has green dots, and brown dots, and horizontal dots. The grass has a shit-ton of green dots of different lengths.

I can barely stomach the image below. It takes away from the game, and doesn't add anything. It's a morass of green dots. I think the excellence of Ultima was due to the limitations of the platform they worked on - absent these limitations, well, you get the image below. If you want high detail, make the game in high detail. Don't try for retro high detail. Doesn't work.

I don't want to sound like I have OCD, but I don't know if I could play a game this. Maybe if they made the tiles below green and had sparse black dots - but maybe it's just me.

 

[Morgoth]

I love this fucking game. And I say that as someone who never got into the late 80s/early 90s RPGs. It's the "less is more" mantra put into practice.

 

[Tyranicon]

Is there any kind of projected release date in 2023?

I dont know why, but I expected this game to have a short development cycle, especially since the developer seemed to be really active early on.

 

[Sacibengala]

I love this fucking *demo*.

 

[Acrux]

I was really interested in this game...three years ago.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Another demo? Ok. Thanks, I guess.

 

[Luzur]

So still no release?

egh.

also im ok with the retro high detail as long as it doesnt hamper developement into Tamriel Rebuild levels of years

 

[Luzur]

At this rate Unknown Realm will be out before this thing.

anyone know where that is going? All i find is "Send more cash please " even though they got like 126k dolares in kickstarter

 

[Ladonna]

I like the Ultima style but someone needs to tell these folks that less is more with retro graphics. There is just too much misc detail to each tile. The first picture with the path and the grass and the empty area in the middle of the path. Less is better - this is just too saturated with pointless detail. The path has green dots, and brown dots, and horizontal dots. The grass has a shit-ton of green dots of different lengths.

I can barely stomach the image below. It takes away from the game, and doesn't add anything. It's a morass of green dots. I think the excellence of Ultima was due to the limitations of the platform they worked on - absent these limitations, well, you get the image below. If you want high detail, make the game in high detail. Don't try for retro high detail. Doesn't work.

I don't want to sound like I have OCD, but I don't know if I could play a game this. Maybe if they made the tiles below green and had sparse black dots - but maybe it's just me.

Yeah, I was pretty excited for this when it looked like it wasn't far off, and looked like this:



Since then, and the publisher entered the equation (after a successful kickstart lol), it seems to have entered a never ending phase of "improvement".

 

[Ladonna]

By the way, was the developer insulted here? Or just vanished after a while (or after getting a publisher)? I remember he was super active in this thread a couple of years ago, rallying people for his kickstarter, and then boom, gone.