KickStarter The Iron Oath - turn-based strategy RPG with awesome pixel art

[The Wall]

Aaaaaand we've got our ship mateys. I've got exclusive first footage from the devs to post here on Codex:

*

*Our ship is the one on the right in the harbor...

 

[Zombra]

Really hoping to hit that 85K customization goal. The dream is to have every merc look visually distinct!

 

[sennin]

Aaaaaand we've got our ship mateys. I've got exclusive first footage from the devs to post here on Codex:

*

*Our ship is the one on the right in the harbor...

Damn my animations have gotten a lot better I guess!

Really hoping to hit that 85K customization goal. The dream is to have every merc look visually distinct!

I hope so too! It does seem possible now...I think it's gonna end up being pretty close!

 

[Iznaliu]

This feels very exhilarating, to say the least.

 

[HoboForEternity]

less than 2 days left, and it is unlikely at this point that codex hold a fundraiser, i backed on my own.

was waiting on that, but it will never happen probably.

 

[sennin]

This feels very exhilarating, to say the least.

I'm on 3hrs of sleep atm, but I'm feeling wide awake from this lol

less than 2 days left, and it is unlikely at this point that codex hold a fundraiser, i backed on my own.

was waiting on that, but it will never happen probably.

Thank you

 

[HoboForEternity]

No probs. Always happy to support incline and bright ideas.

The codex team probBly too busy managing pathfinder fundraiser. That thread seems chaotic enough and dont have time for another lol.

Lame, but i understand. Patfinder kingmaker pledges was huge.

Anyway, good luck!

 

[Quantomas]

Man this has been nuts! Our current total for today was basically what we imagined would be our best case scenario, and the day's barely 1/2 done

Finally decided to back The Iron Oath.

If sometime during development you need serious leads on how to do AI, let me know.

Regarding DRM-free distribution, please don't choose Humble Bundle. These guys have been frequently very late with updating games from other Kickstarters and not responding to support requests. GOG has these out on the same or next day.

 

[Zombra]

What? Nobody posted the 24 hour update yet? What kind of monsters are you?

Update #19

Sep 7 2017

Final 24 hours! (+Guild Management pt. 2)

The final 24 hours are upon us, this is it! We’re still amazed by what transpired yesterday. We smashed two stretch goals in a matter of hours and made some serious headway into reaching the $85k goal. We’re excited to see what lies in store for the remainder! A massive thank you to all of our old, new and future backers, we could not have done this without you(quite literally)! We're getting so close to that $85k goal and even the $90k(violent deaths, woo!) is not out of the question, so let's make it happen

Stretch Goal Reveal

We revealed this yesterday but didn’t issue an update for it(didn’t want to spam you guys!). If we manage to reach the $100K stretch goal, we will be adding 2 extra classes into the game at launch, bringing the total up to 14. These 2 classes will be voted on by you (from our list of the 9 other classes). We chose not to add any further stretch goals beyond 100k for the time being, but if we hit 90k we’ll reveal what lies beyond!

Before heading into some more aspects of guild management, I wanted to mention add-ons one more time for those who might not have seen it(and a big thanks to those of you who chose to add-on yesterday, there was a number of you!). If any of the add-ons below entice you and you’re able to jump up, it would help a lot in achieving these last few stretch goals! The add-ons available are as follows:

• Additional Digital Game(Steam or Humble): $15 per copy
• Digital Art Book: $5
• Soundtrack by Alex Roe: $10
• Closed Beta + Private Discord Invitation: $15

Note: The Beta+Discord add-on does not include the exclusive guild flag from the $50 tier.

To add-on to your pledge, click on the 'Manage your pledge' button at the top, and then increase your pledge in the 'Pledge Amount' box. Add the price of the reward you want, and you can tell us later in a survey what you raised your pledge for (do not change the tier that you are currently pledged at).

Choices & Reputation

Alright, let's begin! The choices you make doing the course of gameplay can have various implications for the management of your guild. As mentioned before, making a choice that goes against a character’s alignment can decrease their loyalty and eventually cause them to question you or even leave the guild. But your choices also affect your guild’s Reputation.

While traveling throughout the world there will be numerous encounters where you will need to make a choice, the result of which can affect how the rest of the world sees your guild. Perhaps you helped some citizens fend off some bandits or wild animals? Such a deed would have a positive impact on your reputation within that area. However, come across an unprotected trade cart and choose to rob them blind? An action like that would not go over well with the faction of which the cart belongs.

If you continually assist a faction and make choices that benefit them, your reputation with them will increase. This can be very beneficial to your guild(such as reduced prices within their cities) and it will open up a variety of mission possibilities(like aiding them in wars through smaller tasks) once you’ve gained their trust. However the choices that please and benefit some, may anger and harm others. If your reputation with a faction falls too low, opportunities for missions from them will become few and far between, and even traveling within their borders may eventually prove risky.

Traveling & Missions

Traveling takes time, and time is money. Since your characters expect payment every month, it’s important to carefully consider your travel route and choose the right missions to accept and complete.

At the beginning of the game, everyone in your guild will travel in one caravan, with the exception of those who are injured and stashed away at a city infirmary. There is a little less planning to be done in this fashion but it’s still an important consideration. However, once you’ve gotten a grasp on things and have enough coin, you be able to purchase a guild perk that will enable you to send out multiple parties from your caravan to complete your missions. The caravan has a radius that your parties will need to stay within(further upgraded with perks), so you won’t be able to send them halfway across the world.

There can be some downsides(or risks) to doing this however. A party you send may arrive at their destination without incident(allowing you to begin the mission), but it’s also possible for an encounter to trigger on the way. Perhaps you are within the borders of an enemy faction and your party is set upon by their soldiers. Combat ensues and concludes, but not without injury, and now you will need to decide whether or not to send them back to the caravan or continue on towards the mission.

With the $65k stretch goal, the sea will now be another way to travel. Each major coastal city will have a port where you can secure passage for a cost and avoid otherwise long travel times. Not all ships will be equal. Some may be cheaper, but take a little longer to arrive, so you’ll have to decide what is right for you in the moment.

Thanks to the $70k stretch goal, with enough coin you will be able to purchase your own vessel. The ship behaves as a separate unit from your caravan, and you can order it around the map anywhere you wish. Its crew can complete various tasks for you while your guild is away, like ferrying passengers between cities, or smuggling supplies across trade routes. You can choose your captain, a crew(all with their own expertise rating) and spend money on upgrading your ship to increase its seaworthiness. And if you so desire, you can take it out to sea and stalk trading lanes, boarding and fighting on the decks of other ships and earning notoriety as pirates.

Guild Council

We’re thrilled to be including the Guild Council in the game as it was one of our favorite stretch goals. A lot of this info is stuff we already mentioned in previous updates, but there's a bit we haven't shared yet.

Guild Council members can be recruited from all over the world, but not all will be equal in ability. Each member will offer you advice and has a number of tasks that they can perform for the guild.

The Master at Arms is in charge of your warrior classes, and he or she is able to train them in the art of war and other aspects of combat. You can assign each of your characters to study a subject under them by selecting one of the existing categories available. Each category has a number of traits attached to it, and over time as the student learns, they will acquire some of these associated traits. The ability rating of your Master at Arms will play a part in how effective, and how fast they are able to teach students. In addition, you can also send your Master at Arms on journeys to various destinations to find promising new recruits. The Archmage functions in the same fashion as the former, but is instead charged with your mages.

The Emissary is your guilds chosen representative for improving your reputation with other factions. When assigned, they will slowly increase your reputation over time with the targeted faction. In addition, they will bring a variety of missions to your attention that the target requires assistance with, allowing you to further increase your reputation and get rewarded in the process. If you wish to improve relations with an enemy faction, it may be best to start by sending your Emissary, but this is not without risks(will continue on this below..).

The Master of Intrigue is your main advisor and functions as your eyes and ears throughout the world. They will bring important matters to your attention that you may otherwise never hear about(such as a plot to kill a liege) in addition to any unsubstantiated rumors that may be worth looking into. They also have the ability to disrupt relations between factions of your choosing, potentially providing the spark that leads to an all out war.

For most tasks there will be some sort of risk involved for your Council members. For example, by sending your Master at Arms to recruit warriors in a region that is hostile(either because they dislike you or because it is at war), there is a small chance he may be killed. Your Adviser has a chance to get killed while trying to uncover plots or disrupt relations between factions. Your Emissary could fail at improving relations, and instead their head gets returned to you courtesy of the faction of which they were assigned. As mentioned, positive outcomes can result in mission opportunities, but negative outcomes can too. If any of your council members are killed during a task, this has a chance to trigger a retaliatory(if you know who was responsible) or an investigative quest that you can choose to undertake.

As a bonus, and a sort of reward for managing to keep a character alive until their retirement, you will be able to offer them a position on your Council. Perhaps they had a very high Charisma rating, and you feel they would make a good Emissary? Or their martial prowess was unparalleled and they would make an excellent master at arms? Whatever the case, if their Loyalty to the guild is high enough, they will most likely accept the position.

There’s a bit more I could have covered as I wrote this up last night, but I had been running on fumes and required some much needed sleep! There are still some more content updates we want to share with you too such as ‘Overworld Encounters, Events & Simulation’ and ‘World Lore, Regions, Houses & Factions.’ The former is already mostly written up and we’ll likely get it out sometime this weekend!

A big thanks again to all of our backers and supporters. This campaign has already surpassed our best expectations and we’re so thrilled to have so many of you along for the ride; your enthusiasm for the game has been nothing short of amazing. Thank you!

 

[sennin]

I think that multiple factors contributed to the success of your campaign. Some of them are thanks to your efforts and strategy and some could be labeled as luck though even those wouldn't happen if it wasn't for all the effort you put into this campain. First and foremost - entire campaign was conducted masterfully and you maximazed your odds in current climate where 'gaming jurnulist' are avoiding Kickstarter like plague (unless it's some big name dev) and gamers are highly sceptical towards platform (I'm sad it has come to that but you can't say there aren't reasons which have led to that). Your 'social goals' were well thought out and not too optimistic (many make mistake and overestimate people's willingness to participate in them) though I have to say I'd gladly swap the reward for 20 goals with one for 12 or even 16. What will happen with content planned as rewards for social goals which won't be reached during Kickstarter? Oh, also you have surpassed 2000+ followers on Twitter and are very, very close to having 1500+ backers in single week (I did calculations aided by Kicktraq and it's almost certain you'll have them by tomorrow). Upvotes on youtube trailer are currently 618/700 so that one could be reached too. That makes it 12. Too bad rewards behind 16 and 20 are highly unlikely to be reached.

Now one more factor which helped you a lot is I believe that while you were nearing the finish line of your campaign (when there is usually surge in backers anyway) big boys entered the scene and campaigns like The Cyanide & Happiness Adventure Game, Scorn Part 1 of 2 : Dasein and CULTIST SIMULATOR: BEHOLD OUR END not only entered Kickstarter but also brought legions of fans and backers alongside them. Now did majority of them back your project too, probably not but I'm quite sure many of them once they backed your game took a look at what else was interesting on Kickstarter and I believe quite a few saw your project and backed it too. There are also shoutouts (by Pathfinder and InExile devs etc.) and all of that combined with your social media reach led to this.

Oh, I must have skipped over this post, your POTC video distracted me! There was certainly a lot of luck involved with all of our plans working out how we had hoped(imgur posts, messaging big companies like inXile & Owlcat - though inXile actually found the game themselves which makes it even more special to us). Ya it's too bad the 16 and 20 social goals won't be reached, both are things we still want to do if we can find the time and budget(the character portraits especially is something I'd like to outsource). The 1500 backers in a week goal was just for the first week of the campaign, but regardless it looks like we'll be hitting 12

Ya I think the other big game campaigns helped a lot(Alexis from Cultist Sim also gave us a shout-out which was great). We were kind of worried that we would get overlooked once we saw Scorn and Cyanide launch, but it definitely seemed to have the opposite effect, so we lucked out in that regard too!

Oh and one more, small, almost negliable thing: actual game, it's premise, idea, what it strives to achieve and how was presented might have convinced a backer or two, I dunno... :D

Haha :D

I think you should make a course named: How to lead successfull indie Kickstarter campaign in time when that is increasingly impossible. I'd recommend it to Demiurgos devs especially but to other devs who also had good games but failed to catch the attention of gamers too. No, really, write a manual or something cause making all the right moves and avoiding all the bad ones can't be sheer luck. This was handled really well and everything we're now witnessing is well deserved. Oh, and did I mention that today they also got most backers, most comments and most money compared to any other single day in campaign (according to Kicktraq) and day isn't even over yet.

Here's to even bigger moneyz tsunami tommorow!

I'm planning to write a postmortem later this month that will go into detail for everything we did to prepare(starting from a year ago!), hopefully it will help other devs succeed on Kickstarter too!

What? Nobody posted the 24 hour update yet? What kind of monsters are you?

Haha, thank you for sharing it, I was busy making breakfast

Finally decided to back The Iron Oath.

If sometime during development you need serious leads on how to do AI, let me know.

Regarding DRM-free distribution, please don't choose Humble Bundle. These guys have been frequently very late with updating games from other Kickstarters and not responding to support requests. GOG has these out on the same or next day.

Thanks for backing! We appreciate the offer too, we'll let you know if the need arises! Thanks for bringing that to our attention, I admittedly don't use Humble or GOG much at all so that wasn't something we were aware of. We were planning to get onto GOG anyway eventually, so we can easily just send GOG keys instead if people would prefer that

No probs. Always happy to support incline and bright ideas.

The codex team probBly too busy managing pathfinder fundraiser. That thread seems chaotic enough and dont have time for another lol.

Lame, but i understand. Patfinder kingmaker pledges was huge.

Anyway, good luck!

Thank you! A fundraiser would have been cool but honestly the support from Codex has been amazing enough as is

 

[Zombra]

Gonna hit $85K Visually unique mercs, here we come!

 

[The Wall]

Also 90k stretch goal which adds unique death animations (and ties it to gameplay, which is really neat) seems to also be almost certain considering that they have over 17h left and at the time of writing this they are missing 300$ to hit 85k goal.

Not to forget Backers in one week and Total backers social goals have also been achieved and Like the trailer one (700+) is really close. If we can't reach the best reward, the one at 20 goals maybe we'll unlock one from 16. Reward for 12 social goals milestone should already be achieved.

Overall - great. Every time I see incline such as this brought into this world it makes my whole month if not year that much more cheerful. Who knows, maybe the reason why we don't see such things happen more is balance and that good things would then be too OP. I always suspected Josh Sawyer was God's son...

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I cannot back because I never do, but I will probably buy immediately.

 

[DemonKing]

Come on slackers...I want me some violent deaths...

 

[Iznaliu]

I cannot back because I never do

Why is this your policy? Money troubles can't be it, since you said you'll buy immediately.

 

[The Wall]

First, I didn't know that Backers in one week social goal was related only to first week of campaign though I was suspicious of that. Dunno, it should have then said Backers in first week instead, to avoid confusion. Youtube trailer currently sits at 688/700 likes so with 6h left that should be doable. Quick, use all of your spare accounts you usually use to log into your alt profiles on Codex to like the trailer! :D

Will progress toward reaching remaining social goals continue to count once you launch your BackerKit? Hope it does, those sweet enlarged portraits and mystery class are really intriguing me.

With The Iron Oath just reaching 90 000$ what can else be said except: Either double your funding goal or go home! Preferably go with over doubled your funding goal home, as they will.

P.S.

Almost forgot...

Update #20

Sep 8 2017

$85K stretch goal achieved and 12 hours to go!

We didn't expect our momentum to carry over into today but you guys made it happen and we've unlocked the next stretch goal! Multiple skins, hairstyles, helmets and races(+racial traits) will be added into the game! This was a pretty popular goal among you all, so there should be some happy backers out there Let's take a look at the updated stretch goal chart and see what's next!

Violent Deaths is within reach, and we've just now revealed our final stretch goal at $105K which will increase the length of the game's soundtrack. Alex will already be composing a 60-minute soundtrack, and this goal will allow us all to hear even more amazing music from him Be sure to check out his BanditCamp if you haven't yet!

The 12 hour mark is now upon us, so if you have been considering upping your pledge or adding-on, now is the time to do

Social Goals

I've updated the social goals graphic and we're very close to a few more targets being reached. You can head to the main page of this campaign to check it out and see how you can help!

So, this is it guys! If there's anyone you haven't yet told about the game, we encourage you to let them know! Thank you again for all of your amazing support, we'll be publishing our next update once it's all over tomorrow. See you on the other side

 

[Suicidal]

Kinda forgot about this campaign for a while and when I came back from work today, what do I see? It's funded and there are 23 minutes remaining so I threw in my $15 as well.

Well done guys, I'm happy your project made it. More turn-based RPG is always a good thing. Now don't fuck it up!

 

[Infinitron]

Congrats!

 

[sennin]

Thanks for the congrats everyone! We've really appreciated all of your support over the last few months here, we'll do our best to live up to your(and our) expectations for the game Just waiting on getting something confirmed by the BackerKit folks, but we should get our wrap-up update out sometime today and we'll let everyone know what's happening next.

First, I didn't know that Backers in one week social goal was related only to first week of campaign though I was suspicious of that. Dunno, it should have then said Backers in first week instead, to avoid confusion. Youtube trailer currently sits at 688/700 likes so with 6h left that should be doable. Quick, use all of your spare accounts you usually use to log into your alt profiles on Codex to like the trailer! :D

Will progress toward reaching remaining social goals continue to count once you launch your BackerKit? Hope it does, those sweet enlarged portraits and mystery class are really intriguing me.
With The Iron Oath just reaching 90 000$ what can else be said except: Either double your funding goal or go home! Preferably go with over doubled your funding goal home, as they will.

Yea, I should have specified first week. An oversight on my part, but hey we got to 12 anyway

Social Goals are Kickstarter only, but funding from BackerKit will go to stretch goals. The 2 remaining social goals are things we'll try to do if there's enough time/budget. If not they'll come out as free DLC post-launch

 

[The Wall]

The 2 remaining social goals are things we'll try to do if there's enough time/budget. If not they'll come out as free DLC post-launch

You haven't even finished your first game and your attitude towards customers is light years ahead from many industry veterans. Impressive! Or not so much, considering how low the bar is set. Still you could have easily decided to sell those two social goals as mini dlcs (not to be confused with Bugthesda's totally not paid mods). It seems that you're not very good at making bad decisions, so far.

Congrats and I hope everything else in your future will be as successful as this Kickstarter campaign. After Demiurgos recently failing hard I lost almost 98% of faith in crowdfunding. You have given me large portion of that faith back. Good luck!

 

[Zombra]

Of course, enticing pixel art and a great pitch don't necessarily add up to great results ... I will expect a high level of communication on project progress, in keeping with your great comm during the campaign. Once a week is the platinum standard ... once a month is the minimum. Updates don't need to be spectacular development showcases - we already bought the game - but they do need to be there. Nobody wants to hear "We're well intentioned, we'll try to post more." Again, one update a month is the minimum to not get backers pissed off at you. I think you'll agree: that's not too much to expect for $90K.

OK, enough tough love. Looking forward to your next post sennin

 

[Iznaliu]

With The Iron Oath just reaching 90 000$ what can else be said except: Either double your funding goal or go home! Preferably go with over doubled your funding goal home, as they will.

I don't think funding goals can be changed mid-campaign.

 

[The Wall]

With The Iron Oath just reaching 90 000$ what can else be said except: Either double your funding goal or go home! Preferably go with over doubled your funding goal home, as they will.

I don't think funding goals can be changed mid-campaign.

Where did I imply that was the case or possible? Maybe I expressed myself poorly. By double your funding goal I meant reach amount of pledges which exceed funding goal twice, in other words 200% of the sum you initially asked for.

The Iron Oath ended up with 210% of funding goal. That's not something you see everyday in the age of Kickstarter decline for video games.

 

[HoboForEternity]

congrats! now the real challenge begin!

 

[sennin]

Thanks everyone

Of course, enticing pixel art and a great pitch don't necessarily add up to great results ... I will expect a high level of communication on project progress, in keeping with your great comm during the campaign. Once a week is the platinum standard ... once a month is the minimum. Updates don't need to be spectacular development showcases - we already bought the game - but they do need to be there. Nobody wants to hear "We're well intentioned, we'll try to post more." Again, one update a month is the minimum to not get backers pissed off at you. I think you'll agree: that's not too much to expect for $90K.

OK, enough tough love. Looking forward to your next post sennin

Our plan has been to issue a monthly update on Kickstarter. Any more frequently than that would take away too much time from development(each update thus far has taken me a couple hours to write). We'll have more frequent posts on Twitter if people want to see what we are working on during the time in-between