Sovereign Syndicate - isometric narrative RPG set in steampunk fantasy London

[Isaac (Crimson Herring)]

Hi Everyone! My name is Isaac and I'm the founder of Crimson Herring Studios, developers of Sovereign Syndicate. Here to answer your questions if you have them.

Thanks so much for sharing news of the game and keeping up on the latest developments. Apologies that I missed this thread, I was contributing on a recent news article one but somehow missed this one entirely.

Yes, were super excited about the recent funding announcement, really helps us deliver the best game we can for the community an provides our dev team some stability. Hopefully it opens doors for more opportunities down the road but we're trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves. Really focused on finishing up the demo right now, should just be a few more weeks.

Couple of comments I'll pull in to keep the conversation going, happy to chat more about the game if you have questions.

What I'd like to know is whether the different tarot cards would lead to a spread of qualitatively different outcomes in a way that rolling a d20 wouldn't. Something besides success/failure/critical failure, something thematically related to the card drawn. If so, that sounds like it could be interesting (and tough to create). If not, it's just a cosmetic change.

We're using it similar to how one would use dice with some variety in outcomes based on numeric cards drawn from the minor arcana deck (critical failure / failure / success / critical success.) But we're going be using the major arcana deck too, with each card having two different effects (drawn right side up or upside down) that affect your next skill check and that you only get to draw when you have a critical success or failure. We think it provides for some interesting strategic choices, and prevents the desire to savescum as there is a potential reward for failing.

We're also discarding the cards that have been used until the deck gets re-shuffled so there's an interesting dynamic difficulty vs. dice depending on where you are in the deck and what cards you have left. Again we think this provides some interesting strategic choices and replayability that players will enjoy.

Disco arcanum and magick obscura

Lol, Thanks! Yes we're heavily inspired by both games. I really enjoy how arcanum reacts to your choices, even simple things like vendors not wanting to buy all of your junk is just so refreshing.

Thanks again everyone for your time and support, look forward to chatting with you.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.crimsonherring.com/devlog-5-7-months-ago-we-were-denied-cmf-prototype-funding/

DEVLOG #5: 7 MONTHS AGO WE WERE DENIED CMF PROTOTYPE FUNDING

Game development is a stressful but rewarding experience, as we’ve found out over the past 2 years. Development on Sovereign Syndicate is progressing very well, but as with any project not every day has good news. As we’ve discussed before now, we had gotten some funding from the Canada Media Fund to the tune of $15,000 for conceptualization of the game and we even overshot the normal expectations of what they define as conceptualization. In short, our teaser demo is a polished experience, but obviously still very early.

Following conceptualization, we applied for the Canada Media Fund prototyping stream which has an upper limit of $250,000 that would help us finish a proper Steam demo and with any luck net us a publisher or further funding to complete the game and take it to market. Back in July 2021 though we got the bad news, we were denied by the Canada Media Fund.

The feedback on our application was a bit hurtful, with the major issues identified primarily being that we are a new studio with no commercial releases to our name. We took that personally because we really care about this project but decided that we needed to just put our noses to the grindstone and keep working. As it turns out, you can apply for this funding stream twice for a particular project, so development continued, and we applied for that funding stream again in October 2021.

As you know if you’ve been reading these updates, we announced on January 30 that we were selected for prototype funding, and we couldn’t be happier. Now it’s time to make that push to complete the demo and get it up on Steam where all our fans and followers can finally play a solid vertical slice of our dream. We hope you enjoy it.

– Tarmack

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Who buys concept art of all things? I'd imagine you make those up first before you start implementing game art.

 

[Infinitron]

Crimson Herring Studios is pleased to announce that we were selected for $250,000 in prototype funding by the Canada Media Fund for our first game Sovereign Syndicate. Isaac and Tarmack talk about the new funding, what it means to the team and where we will all go from here.

 

[Serus]

Crimson Herring Studios is pleased to announce that we were selected for $250,000 in prototype funding by the Canada Media Fund for our first game Sovereign Syndicate. Isaac and Tarmack talk about the new funding, what it means to the team and where we will all go from here.

Government money? In today's Canada?

Maybe i'm wrong.

 

[Isaac (Crimson Herring)]

Who buys concept art of all things? I'd imagine you make those up first before you start implementing game art.

We respect the artists IP and the work they did, think it fits really well with our world and thought it was best to purchase the assets directly from the artist.

They're a little more than 2D concept drawings though, they come with modeled 3D assets in blender that are going to be fairly straightforward to integrate in to our existing art pipeline; helps us accelerate development of in-game environments.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Teasing some new UI and a new environment for #screenshotsaturday this week. Public playtest coming soon!

#RPG #madewithunity #gamedev #IndieGameDev https://t.co/gLDz0kI1FE

 

[Tyranicon]

Getting big Disco-esque vibes from the writing.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Re-working our Steam page assets for the upcoming playtest, thought this one came out looking really good!

 

[Infinitron]

Demo coming soon:

Keep an eye on our steam page over the next few days for a playtest of our upcoming playable demo.

Sovereign Syndicate is an isometric steampunk RPG inspired by games like Baldurs Gate, Disco Elysium, Arcanum and Divinity Original Sin. The game is currently in development by Crimson Herring Studios, a Canadian developer based out of Edmonton, Alberta.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Looks decent will keep my eye on this.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1674920/view/3212763528594718294

Sovereign Syndicate Playtest Live Now!​

Hi Everyone!

It's been a couple of months since our last update. Lots of exciting changes, let's get to it.

You may have noticed we've done a Steam page refresh, adding new screenshots and a trailer that shows off more gameplay and the new UI. We're really excited about all the fresh content and feature changes.

To get some additional player feedback and show off all the latest content we've also launched a public playtest in preparation for our full demo release. If you're interested in playing please click on request access and you'll be immediately accepted in to the playtest.

We're looking forward to getting a lot of feedback to help make the game as good as possible so don't be shy about sharing your thoughts, or telling your friends about the playtest. Feedback can be submitted directly in game from the pause menu feedback option.

We've also applied to be in several game festivals this year, so hopefully you'll see us at some of your favourites. We're planning special content and some additional announcements for these, so keep an eye out for us.

As always you can catch us over on Discord if you want to chat and stay up to date on all the latest developments.

https://discord.gg/vrVrE3vBSx

Until next time, Take Care!

 

[MicoSelva]

Played for a bit. It's basically a combo of Disco Elysium (gameplay) and Carnival Row (theme). It oozes Victorian era mood in the interface and mechanics and has quite a lot to explore in the initial area.
It seems that there is a branching path at the start, but I wasn't able to get through the locked door on the alternative path - not sure if you can find the key at this point (and I couldn't figure out how), or if it is a dead end.

EDIT: One of the devs confirmed to me on Discord that this is an alternate path, so I must have just failed to get through it.

 

[Tyranicon]

It looks text heavy. How's the writing quality?

 

[lukaszek]

It looks text heavy. How's the writing quality?

go read 1st hand impressions https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/sovereign-syndicate-playtest-available.142587/#post-7873096

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1674920/view/3289329155864790681

Development Update
Hi Everyone!

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to play our recent playtest. We had over 500 players and we’ve been overwhelmed and humbled by the quality and quantity of feedback we received, and the passion and excitement from our community for the game we’re building.

We also crossed a significant milestone recently with over 10,000 wishlists! Thank you for supporting us and sharing our content. We can tell that we’re on to something here that people are really excited about and we’re committed to making the best game we can for you.

As I mentioned our playtest generated a lot of great feedback, both positive and constructive, and we’ve spent the last month reviewing this feedback and creating a plan of action to move the game forward. Here’s an idea of what we’ll be working on over the next few months.

Adding character customization options:

While we don’t think a full blown character creator is appropriate for the game we’re building, we do think we can do more to allow players to choose their starting stats, back story, and tarot cards. We have some interesting ideas on how to do that that we’ll be iterating on.

Improving flow and readability of dialogue:

We’re working on some improvements to the dialogue panel. Increasing text size, font and colour changes, improving overall flow, and adding additional context to skill checks and dialogue results.

Game systems design improvement and simplification:

While people were intrigued by our character sheet and the combination of phrenology, skills, humours, and tarot cards, the initial design was somewhat convoluted and confusing. We’re working to simplify our approach and make the systems work together in a more cohesive and easily understandable way. Here are a few examples to give you an idea of where we’re headed.

- Removing the underlying skills and focusing on the brain regions / internal voices
- Utilizing humours as experience gauges to level up associated brain regions
- Associating dialogue choices and card decks with specific brain regions
- Using colours to thematically draw these elements together better
- Simplifying tarot card draws and moving Major Arcana to a separate mechanic

We’re excited about these changes and look forward to having the community do another playtest in the coming months. As always, you can catch us over on Discord if you want to chat and stay up on all the latest developments.

https://discord.gg/vrVrE3vBSx

Until next time, Take Care!

 

[cyborgboy95]

Some new concept art for #screenshotsaturday. What do you think of this attic apartment?

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1674920/view/3352385893572311712

New Playtest Launches Today!
Sovereign Syndicate Development Update August 2022

Hi Everyone!

It’s been a few months since our last major update. We’ve been hard at work on the game, incorporating all your great feedback from the last playtest.

We launched a new playtest today with all the latest changes. Head over to the Steam page and download the latest, or just update it if you kept it in your library from last time. The playtest is public and doesn’t require a key.

As I mentioned our last playtest generated a lot of great feedback, both positive and constructive, and we’ve spent the last few months reviewing this feedback and taking action to move the game forward.
Here’s an idea of what you’ll see in the latest version.

- New character creation and customization options
- Simplified skills and character sheet
- Improved tarot card mechanic
- Improved flow and readability of dialogue
- Improved communication of changes to your character, inventory, journal, and tasks
- Improved loading times and framerates

We’re excited about these changes and look forward to your feedback! As always, you can catch us over on Discord if you want to chat and stay up on all the latest developments.

https://discord.gg/vrVrE3vBSx

Until next time, Take Care!

 

[cyborgboy95]

Our new character creation screen for this week's #screenshotsaturday. What background will you choose?

 

[Bigg Boss]

Getting big Disco-esque vibes from the writing.

If the world is bigger than three screens I will not have a huge problem with that. I will pretend I am playing a Sunless Sea RPG or something. I do like the Tarot as the character creation. I agree with comments that if they do not know how to do combat they should not even try, so maybe this is the best of a bad situation.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.terminals.io/games/sovereign-syndicate/news/3747

August 8th, 2022 - Edmonton, Canada - Crimson Herring Studios is gearing up to take their Steampunk Tarot RPG, Sovereign Syndicate, to gamescom later this month where they will be debuting a brand new demo for the game. While there's been a publicly available playtest on Steam for the game for some time now, this demo will show off all the progress that's been made over the last few months thanks to feedback from the Sovereign Syndicate community.

In just a couple of weeks players will be able to grab the demo and sink into Sovereign Syndicate's complex narrative take on a Steampunk Victorian London, laden with mythological creatures and guided by the tarot.

 

[Volourn]

Three shitty characters and no character creation? Fukk off. The lady better show tits and ass. Lmao

 

[Echo Mirage]