- Joined
- Jun 17, 2012
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I am saving up money for the Kickstarter
-
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Vapourware That Which Sleeps - Vaporware Strategy RP
- Thread starter Kem0sabe
- Start date
Love this response - let me tackle it and give you an idea of our thought process, how we ended up at the current design, and where we would ideally like to be at.
Hide behind the meatshield is a fantastic way of putting it, the idea was to simulate the "disposable impediments" that heroes often encounter when pursuing their foe - specifically minions. Of course, in our game minions are also key to being able to perform challenges, manipulate the world, and accomplish your goals so each loss should be somewhat painful. I'm glad you feel the approach makes sense, I think that people will appreciate it more when the game is in their hands.
Oh yes, there are Agents that are pure "hero hunters", including a certain Hound who can see every hero within X POIs, and if he has "injured" a Hero he can see him anywhere on the map. If you are pursuing certain one-sided strategies like pure military, it often makes sense to sacrifice some of your strategy and recruit these hunter type agents to target an area you have ignored - like a powerful wizard who has learned to create portals, or one who has journeyed to your ruins and learned your identity.
Agents don't play together well, they gain penalties when in the same square (some events can negate this, and they can fight together on your home POI) - when they do the heroes divvy up and their are, in essence, separate battles (arrows next to the portraits let you shift between which battle you are watching but they play out concurrently). This happens rarely, takes significantly more time to play out due to the complexity, but really highlights those epic moments where a true showdown occurs. We originally had them all on one battle, but it ends up being just a confusing mass of minions and agents - separatin them seemed thematically appropriate and also evoked those epic multi-stage boss battles (like in FFVI).
Each minion has a "Command Rating", and each agent has a "Command Skill" - you can create up to your command skill. So maybe you have one amazing Minion, or several mediocre ones - another aspect to strategy. Being annointed or embued by the Old One will enhance Command, as will winning significant victories or increasing your fame.
So on the layout of the battle map - we went through a LOT of iterations and while the strategy game itself has been locked down to the fundamentals for monthes combat is constantly in flux. Our currently approach which will with only at most minor changes be the final, originally did NOT have a large Hero portrait on the left. Instead the Agent loomed over the entire battlefield, and the hero icons were themselves larger to represent Traits, Items, and other attributes. The problem was that their CAN BE so much information for Heroes, especially late game, that it was a clusterfuck of confusing icons - tooltips or no tooltip it was still very hard to understand, even for testers who had been playing the game for a year. So we added in the Hero portrait, which pops up on mouseover.
The Grid is functionally irrelevant, though the logic of placement tries to put "Guarding" people in front of "Guarded" people. I didn't want their to be any logic to placement for gameplay, as it adds complexity and thought that I didn't want to bog down the already complex gameplay - and it separates from the "abstract" idea of what combat is supposed to represent. So to answer your questions, any unit can make a melee/reach/ranged attack - the type changes the effect of your attack (melee get counterattacked but can distract/overwhelm the heroes, ranged no counterattack but no distract, reach the best of both worlds). Minions are VERY important components of strategy, but they are purposefully left simple. They don't have stats, they AUGMENT the stats of the agent - similarly they don't have the range of abilities an agent or hero does, at most they have two (one of which is almost always a basic attack variant, the other is generally either a battle-altering passive or a non-attack based support ability). Similarily, they can't have multiple damage types, a Minion does Physical or Fire or Arcane (etc) and can't have 3 points of physical and two points of fire like a hero or agent. Their SPECIAL stats are for the strategy map, granting Traits to Heroes that make them much more useful/powerful.
I know that adds inconsistency to the battle, especially given that Minions and Heroes look exactly the same - but it becomes a very quick thing to accustom oneself to, and I believe that given the amount you need to read about the heroes before making your moves it becomes a benefit to have minions relatively more static (an Orc Raider is always an Orc Raider). In fact, in an early combat build the Minions were simply "new abilities" you had, that either could be used to shield you, attack an enemy, or sacrificed for a more powerful effect.
Only one of each Agent, if that agent dies that "agent type" is dead forever - It's confusing because we refer to them generically, it was meant to evoke the idea of common villain archetypes. There's always a corrupted peddler, there's always a madman hermit, a defrocked priest, a nobleman who indulges in profane rites... etc.... you CAN name them in the game by clicking on their name in their stat screen. I have to say that our naming schema, which I thought made good sense theme-wise, has led to a LOT of confusion about if these are unique people or units you recruit.
Right now I only have an army burning a city down in the trailer - we anticipated making a "war" video towards the end. Partly I find it hard to represent it visually because the majority importance of armies in That Which Sleeps is to have them position themselves strategically, and then tie down eachother while they fight over multiple turns. Even the more interesting elements, such as deploying elite troops or sieging enemy cities, are primarily represented through Event/Challenge type choices with troops being a consumable element and elites representing advanced tactics.
If you have any questions about the military part, I'd be happy to answer - and if you can tell me exactly what you're looking to see maybe I can throw together a quick "watch me fight a war" video next week. No promises though, KS launches Monday so depending on response we may be swamped - but hey, on the plus side if no one pledges I'll have plenty of time to make a military video.
haha yes, the ANime art... 20 dollars got me enough anime art to have a UNIQUE PORTRAIT for EACH HERO - that's kind've crazy, but of course it looks absurd (though the minions look decent surprisingly). So the "quality" of art that the Heroes will receive depends on funding, no KS = no Hero Art whatsoever, we'll get rid of the "whole portrait" and keep the anime heads, probably apply some filters to dull them down and look more in line with what we have today. Hit our base goal = 10 portraits for heroes, 3 for each AI tier (Sage, Adventurer, Leader) and one basic for The Chosen. If we get past Minion Art tier, we'll have 3 for the Chosen One based on which archetype he follows, if we hit the Religion and Gods tier we're going to up it to 5 per AI Tier which covers the main 15 classes (outside of Guild specialities) as well as introducing the Priest tier with its accompanying classes.
We actually realized after the fact that based on Unity Asset pricing and similar marketplaces we could have had reasonably attractive heroes, minions, and agents if we went with 3D as opposed to 2D - the problem is I really don't think 3D models look stylish enough unless you have a AAA budget, so though everything would have "Blended" better to a single art style we would have had a more generic look overall.
That little orc avatar has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, fear his 128x128 resolution. He's actually from OpenGameArt, most of our early placeholder art was and he may be the ONLY OGA asset left, I'd have to re-audit to check. All of the map assets (heroes, armies, agents) will be redone with our base 12k Kickstarter goal, if we reach it.
Hide behind the meatshield is a fantastic way of putting it, the idea was to simulate the "disposable impediments" that heroes often encounter when pursuing their foe - specifically minions. Of course, in our game minions are also key to being able to perform challenges, manipulate the world, and accomplish your goals so each loss should be somewhat painful. I'm glad you feel the approach makes sense, I think that people will appreciate it more when the game is in their hands.
Oh yes, there are Agents that are pure "hero hunters", including a certain Hound who can see every hero within X POIs, and if he has "injured" a Hero he can see him anywhere on the map. If you are pursuing certain one-sided strategies like pure military, it often makes sense to sacrifice some of your strategy and recruit these hunter type agents to target an area you have ignored - like a powerful wizard who has learned to create portals, or one who has journeyed to your ruins and learned your identity.
Agents don't play together well, they gain penalties when in the same square (some events can negate this, and they can fight together on your home POI) - when they do the heroes divvy up and their are, in essence, separate battles (arrows next to the portraits let you shift between which battle you are watching but they play out concurrently). This happens rarely, takes significantly more time to play out due to the complexity, but really highlights those epic moments where a true showdown occurs. We originally had them all on one battle, but it ends up being just a confusing mass of minions and agents - separatin them seemed thematically appropriate and also evoked those epic multi-stage boss battles (like in FFVI).
Each minion has a "Command Rating", and each agent has a "Command Skill" - you can create up to your command skill. So maybe you have one amazing Minion, or several mediocre ones - another aspect to strategy. Being annointed or embued by the Old One will enhance Command, as will winning significant victories or increasing your fame.
So on the layout of the battle map - we went through a LOT of iterations and while the strategy game itself has been locked down to the fundamentals for monthes combat is constantly in flux. Our currently approach which will with only at most minor changes be the final, originally did NOT have a large Hero portrait on the left. Instead the Agent loomed over the entire battlefield, and the hero icons were themselves larger to represent Traits, Items, and other attributes. The problem was that their CAN BE so much information for Heroes, especially late game, that it was a clusterfuck of confusing icons - tooltips or no tooltip it was still very hard to understand, even for testers who had been playing the game for a year. So we added in the Hero portrait, which pops up on mouseover.
The Grid is functionally irrelevant, though the logic of placement tries to put "Guarding" people in front of "Guarded" people. I didn't want their to be any logic to placement for gameplay, as it adds complexity and thought that I didn't want to bog down the already complex gameplay - and it separates from the "abstract" idea of what combat is supposed to represent. So to answer your questions, any unit can make a melee/reach/ranged attack - the type changes the effect of your attack (melee get counterattacked but can distract/overwhelm the heroes, ranged no counterattack but no distract, reach the best of both worlds). Minions are VERY important components of strategy, but they are purposefully left simple. They don't have stats, they AUGMENT the stats of the agent - similarly they don't have the range of abilities an agent or hero does, at most they have two (one of which is almost always a basic attack variant, the other is generally either a battle-altering passive or a non-attack based support ability). Similarily, they can't have multiple damage types, a Minion does Physical or Fire or Arcane (etc) and can't have 3 points of physical and two points of fire like a hero or agent. Their SPECIAL stats are for the strategy map, granting Traits to Heroes that make them much more useful/powerful.
I know that adds inconsistency to the battle, especially given that Minions and Heroes look exactly the same - but it becomes a very quick thing to accustom oneself to, and I believe that given the amount you need to read about the heroes before making your moves it becomes a benefit to have minions relatively more static (an Orc Raider is always an Orc Raider). In fact, in an early combat build the Minions were simply "new abilities" you had, that either could be used to shield you, attack an enemy, or sacrificed for a more powerful effect.
Only one of each Agent, if that agent dies that "agent type" is dead forever - It's confusing because we refer to them generically, it was meant to evoke the idea of common villain archetypes. There's always a corrupted peddler, there's always a madman hermit, a defrocked priest, a nobleman who indulges in profane rites... etc.... you CAN name them in the game by clicking on their name in their stat screen. I have to say that our naming schema, which I thought made good sense theme-wise, has led to a LOT of confusion about if these are unique people or units you recruit.
Right now I only have an army burning a city down in the trailer - we anticipated making a "war" video towards the end. Partly I find it hard to represent it visually because the majority importance of armies in That Which Sleeps is to have them position themselves strategically, and then tie down eachother while they fight over multiple turns. Even the more interesting elements, such as deploying elite troops or sieging enemy cities, are primarily represented through Event/Challenge type choices with troops being a consumable element and elites representing advanced tactics.
If you have any questions about the military part, I'd be happy to answer - and if you can tell me exactly what you're looking to see maybe I can throw together a quick "watch me fight a war" video next week. No promises though, KS launches Monday so depending on response we may be swamped - but hey, on the plus side if no one pledges I'll have plenty of time to make a military video.
haha yes, the ANime art... 20 dollars got me enough anime art to have a UNIQUE PORTRAIT for EACH HERO - that's kind've crazy, but of course it looks absurd (though the minions look decent surprisingly). So the "quality" of art that the Heroes will receive depends on funding, no KS = no Hero Art whatsoever, we'll get rid of the "whole portrait" and keep the anime heads, probably apply some filters to dull them down and look more in line with what we have today. Hit our base goal = 10 portraits for heroes, 3 for each AI tier (Sage, Adventurer, Leader) and one basic for The Chosen. If we get past Minion Art tier, we'll have 3 for the Chosen One based on which archetype he follows, if we hit the Religion and Gods tier we're going to up it to 5 per AI Tier which covers the main 15 classes (outside of Guild specialities) as well as introducing the Priest tier with its accompanying classes.
We actually realized after the fact that based on Unity Asset pricing and similar marketplaces we could have had reasonably attractive heroes, minions, and agents if we went with 3D as opposed to 2D - the problem is I really don't think 3D models look stylish enough unless you have a AAA budget, so though everything would have "Blended" better to a single art style we would have had a more generic look overall.
That little orc avatar has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, fear his 128x128 resolution. He's actually from OpenGameArt, most of our early placeholder art was and he may be the ONLY OGA asset left, I'd have to re-audit to check. All of the map assets (heroes, armies, agents) will be redone with our base 12k Kickstarter goal, if we reach it.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2007
- Messages
- 14,960
MRY
Wormwood Studios
This game seems awesome and original. I'll be backing on day one!
tabacila
Augur
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Messages
- 326
Thanks for your wall of text to my wall of text.
The combat "grid" and UI make a lot more sense now that you explained how minions work and how agents don't work together. I was confused mainly because you used the same UI element (the disk with the character avatar) for both heroes and minions and that seemed to put them in the same category. Perhaps you could use a different UI element for the minions, although I don't think that's very important. After playing their first combat I think most people would get the lay of things.
As for agents not working well together, I guess that's the price of working with chaotic evil types.
I assume that most agents will be able to blend in and travel through foreign lands without attracting the notice of the authorities/heroes unless they have high fame. Otherwise one agent per agent type and permadeath will make the game a bitch.
I think I'm getting an idea of how armies will work from the way you described agent/heroes encounters. Hope to see it covered in the Kickstarter video/updates.
As for the art if, the Dark One forbid, you fail your KS goals I hope you will leave yourself space to grow and have the possibility to add these updates through addons. Look at Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis and their metric shit-ton of DLC.
Good luck with your Kickstarter!
The combat "grid" and UI make a lot more sense now that you explained how minions work and how agents don't work together. I was confused mainly because you used the same UI element (the disk with the character avatar) for both heroes and minions and that seemed to put them in the same category. Perhaps you could use a different UI element for the minions, although I don't think that's very important. After playing their first combat I think most people would get the lay of things.
As for agents not working well together, I guess that's the price of working with chaotic evil types.
I assume that most agents will be able to blend in and travel through foreign lands without attracting the notice of the authorities/heroes unless they have high fame. Otherwise one agent per agent type and permadeath will make the game a bitch.
I think I'm getting an idea of how armies will work from the way you described agent/heroes encounters. Hope to see it covered in the Kickstarter video/updates.
As for the art if, the Dark One forbid, you fail your KS goals I hope you will leave yourself space to grow and have the possibility to add these updates through addons. Look at Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis and their metric shit-ton of DLC.
Good luck with your Kickstarter!
Johannes
Arcane
Will the game feature tasteful rape?
KingDinosaurGames are these minions you show in the combat video (the various orcs) the ones that were originally not going to have art?
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As per your suggestion - so if the Kickstarter fails because people hate the minion portraits I'm coming to sleep on your couch while I finish the game.
Seriously though we did a quick POC after your suggestion with a 20 dollar "monster art pack" and we thought it looked pretty good - so we put in about 15 to represent archetypes. They actually COULD be used in the end launch I think they look fine, but we do have a 2.5k stretch tier (the first one) to replace them with more atmospheric art. We want to draw the contrast between the high fantasy elements like the orc raiders and such, and the more eldritch inspired "things from beyond" that dominate your more obscure Old One's campaigns.
Edit: also of note, this is why the Heros and Minions have the same portrait holder - we just repurposed them. Our plan is to replace the generic holder with one of three types for the minions to give you a quick impression of their type.
It actually has no in-game wording beyond a symbol and the graphical indicator, and we vacillate a lot on what we refer to it as. I was calling it "Overwhelmed" for most of development but we decided against it, then I was just calling it "Tapped" which I clearly want to avoid using. At one point we had the minion icons appear on top of the Hero portrait, obscuring their face, and we were calling it "Swarmed" but that's back when minions were simple abilities you could use.
Game Development is filled with so many little odd things like this, such as word choice - the proper word actually does "evoke" the theme and make the game more fun.
I have a really strong feeling there is a perfect word for this, but can't quite think of it. A lot of games use something like entangle or ensnare which isn't right for your situation.
Fake edit: I thought of it while typing, pin/pinned.
Fake edit: I thought of it while typing, pin/pinned.
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
- 10,092
I dunno, pinned sounds more like something you get from machine gun fire, not some orc rushing you down.
Also KDG, surely you must refer to it in text in some tutorial message or manual or such?
Kickstarter, where?
As much as I have a hard-on for tooltips, I swear that no word for that exists anywhere in the game itself. Ok there is a variable for it in the code, but it's affirmed by the negative "IsReady == false."
Manuals are for the weak, you need to wade in to this game and be shocked and surprised by everything it does. We do have a tutorial, but we never extended it to cover combat - I suppose at that point we would need a term. I'm not a fan of pinned but really because it makes me think of the meaning in Chess.
Kickstarter is coming today - we didn't realize the payment method had to be fully authorized to launch so we had to make a bunch of calls over the weekend, need to wait for the validation amount to post on our company account today then we're good to go.
Manuals are for the weak, you need to wade in to this game and be shocked and surprised by everything it does. We do have a tutorial, but we never extended it to cover combat - I suppose at that point we would need a term. I'm not a fan of pinned but really because it makes me think of the meaning in Chess.
Kickstarter is coming today - we didn't realize the payment method had to be fully authorized to launch so we had to make a bunch of calls over the weekend, need to wait for the validation amount to post on our company account today then we're good to go.
P̤̤͉͙͉͡h̜̝̙̯͕'͓̳̺̺͖̥ͅn͖̗̥͓͟g͏̥̳̼̝̘ͅlu̪̲̳͎̘̗̝i̢̞̭͈̜͇̹ M̶̬̫̭̼̗gl̟̮ẃ̜̠'͙̲̯͍̩n̛͔̼à̤̬̖̹̩f̧̯̝̗̙̯̗ͅh̞͉͙̗̟͜ ͈̪̩̯͖̝Ki̲̳̖͚n͓͍̫͎g̳̪͎Di̮͈n͈͕̖̭o͕͎̤̺s̶͓͙̝͓̪a̳̮͢u͔̺͈̠̟͜r͈̱̞͘G̼͔̪͕͓̟̻͡a̸m͈̜̜̥̯͙e̸̹̦̱̰̜̜̫s̶̺͇ ̱K̛̠͖i͏c̩̝̗͡k̖̦̯͚̖̪ș̙t̳͎͈̰̭̘͘a͍̮͘r͚͓̫͈t̘̙͙̤͚͍̩͟e͖̻̖̩̘ͅr̗̝̪ ͈͙̹͞ͅw̼̥̖͓ͅg͉̙͎͉a̴͎̟̤̠̼̦ͅh̯̙̮̀'̘͇͖́n̵̮̱̪a̻̝̦̖͎͈̘gl̪͙̙͓ ҉̩̳̩̘̪̺̼f̺͎̝̖͔h͉̼̜̫̝̦̀t͖͈̦͎́a̶̤g̢̝̣̗͍̻̩̱n͍̙̮ͅ
̫
̺̦͜I̧̖͈̪̤͚̮̥a͍̹̯!̤͖̖͕͈̞̮ ̛͓̪̣͈͍̗Ia̝̱!͎̙ ͔̫͈̻͡K̪͖̣͙͔͜ị̸n͍̳͈̲g̙͓̳̳͝D̤̰̻͜ị̦̲̦̙̞̣no͈̟͇̗s̯̫͕a̳̠̼̪͖̫̲u̹͓͞ṛ̹̘͍G̥̲̖̗̹̥̪a̛͉̻̫̗̻̺ͅm̴̠e͉̲͝s͓̘̯͍͎̳͘ ̝̬̥͓̜̭͉f̸̳̤̰͔̰̖̜ht̼͚̘͉a͏g̖͠n̖͓̳!̸̤̭̜ͅ
While we wait for th ekickstarter to go live, how about spoiling what KS tiers are going to look like? Is my hookers&blow account going into overdraft this month?
̫
̺̦͜I̧̖͈̪̤͚̮̥a͍̹̯!̤͖̖͕͈̞̮ ̛͓̪̣͈͍̗Ia̝̱!͎̙ ͔̫͈̻͡K̪͖̣͙͔͜ị̸n͍̳͈̲g̙͓̳̳͝D̤̰̻͜ị̦̲̦̙̞̣no͈̟͇̗s̯̫͕a̳̠̼̪͖̫̲u̹͓͞ṛ̹̘͍G̥̲̖̗̹̥̪a̛͉̻̫̗̻̺ͅm̴̠e͉̲͝s͓̘̯͍͎̳͘ ̝̬̥͓̜̭͉f̸̳̤̰͔̰̖̜ht̼͚̘͉a͏g̖͠n̖͓̳!̸̤̭̜ͅ
While we wait for th ekickstarter to go live, how about spoiling what KS tiers are going to look like? Is my hookers&blow account going into overdraft this month?
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We are up!
Greenlight - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=316173232
Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingdinosaurgames/that-which-sleeps
Agents ALWAYS go first in combat, it's an important design decisions that lets us get risky with how powerful the heroes are. NPC factions actually don't play out on the battle map or even a simulation of one, they have a basic attack and defense value that it checks against so both sides receive "relatively appropriate" damage with wounds chances. Same thing with when heroes are adventuring, the danger level of the event is checked and the result happens.
Greenlight - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=316173232
Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingdinosaurgames/that-which-sleeps
Agents ALWAYS go first in combat, it's an important design decisions that lets us get risky with how powerful the heroes are. NPC factions actually don't play out on the battle map or even a simulation of one, they have a basic attack and defense value that it checks against so both sides receive "relatively appropriate" damage with wounds chances. Same thing with when heroes are adventuring, the danger level of the event is checked and the result happens.
Brotherman Bill
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2009
- Messages
- 6,933
That's cool, but how's your marketing? Marketing is hard as an Indie. You should talk to Vault Dweller about it, he's an indie too.
Edit: Also, Codex please, for the love of God, don't insert any shitty Cleve memes into this one. I'm counting on you.
Edit: Also, Codex please, for the love of God, don't insert any shitty Cleve memes into this one. I'm counting on you.
MRY
Wormwood Studios
Backed!
My only quibbles are that (1) while some of the naming has a solid Glenn Cook ring to it, some of it (e.g., Aventura) is less compelling; and (2) the same is true for the art: mostly I like it, but some feels too cartoony/anime. Game would really benefit from a look more like Disciples, though I realize that costs/resources make that impossible at the moment.
My only quibbles are that (1) while some of the naming has a solid Glenn Cook ring to it, some of it (e.g., Aventura) is less compelling; and (2) the same is true for the art: mostly I like it, but some feels too cartoony/anime. Game would really benefit from a look more like Disciples, though I realize that costs/resources make that impossible at the moment.
Marketing as an indie.... it ate up a LOT of my developer time. I went into it somewhat arrogantly thinking I could maintain the original dev load but in all honesty I am behind at least a month work over the course of two and a half months which at this point can only be recouped by the worth of the succesful kickstarter. We fail there and I am in a place where if I had "not marketed" I could be starting to market with an up to date demo to show off.
Ok so Aventura.... I can't even be objective about the name - it was used as a base for one of DND Campaigns many years ago and we developed an entire board game around it involving a Siege. So many good memories, so hard to rationalize it as a poor name. The ART on the other hand, the cartoony art is meant to go - the majority of the money from this KS would go to creating a more artistic version of those illustrations and animations. We still aren't going to go "full animation", I don't like crossing a threshold that makes putting additional content in difficult, but we do think there is a middle ground for a stylized yet dark sprite/vector based effect with limited animation.
Disciples is an interesting choice for comparison, we had that in our Samples section for... almost 7 months. When we got around to budgeting based off estimates.... well... let's just say if we hit all of our stretch goals and threw all that money at the art we would still not be able to have the diversity in units/agents/heroes that we have now. Fortunately, we found several other styles that were much more reasonably priced. Most remarkably to me was the price for portrait art, incredibly cheap for a high level of quality.
Last thing, wanted to let you guys know that we have a special addition planned for everyone that's been commenting on this thread (we also did it with the Bay 12 guys) - nothing major just a little "thank you" integrated into the beta release. If the KS succeeds I'll be collecting emails of the people that are willing so we can make sure everyone is accounted for.
Ok so Aventura.... I can't even be objective about the name - it was used as a base for one of DND Campaigns many years ago and we developed an entire board game around it involving a Siege. So many good memories, so hard to rationalize it as a poor name. The ART on the other hand, the cartoony art is meant to go - the majority of the money from this KS would go to creating a more artistic version of those illustrations and animations. We still aren't going to go "full animation", I don't like crossing a threshold that makes putting additional content in difficult, but we do think there is a middle ground for a stylized yet dark sprite/vector based effect with limited animation.
Disciples is an interesting choice for comparison, we had that in our Samples section for... almost 7 months. When we got around to budgeting based off estimates.... well... let's just say if we hit all of our stretch goals and threw all that money at the art we would still not be able to have the diversity in units/agents/heroes that we have now. Fortunately, we found several other styles that were much more reasonably priced. Most remarkably to me was the price for portrait art, incredibly cheap for a high level of quality.
Last thing, wanted to let you guys know that we have a special addition planned for everyone that's been commenting on this thread (we also did it with the Bay 12 guys) - nothing major just a little "thank you" integrated into the beta release. If the KS succeeds I'll be collecting emails of the people that are willing so we can make sure everyone is accounted for.
It's a shame DarkUnderlord is selling USB trolls instead of fundraising for the Most Prestigious Order of the Krusading Knights of Kodexia.
In the meantime:
HOPW ROEWUR NE!
I may end up bumping it to 300 depending on how close we get to procedurally generated maps.
In the meantime:
HOPW ROEWUR NE!
I may end up bumping it to 300 depending on how close we get to procedurally generated maps.
Last edited:
MRY
Wormwood Studios
Kill your darlings!
Aventura is a double problem: it's the kind of name that screams, "This is just a game setting!" in a game that otherwise conveys a literary, serious streak. But it's also basically the same name as The Dark Eye's main continent.
Brotherman Bill
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2009
- Messages
- 6,933
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