KickStarter Witchmarsh - indie action RPG set in 1920 Massachusetts

[Daemongar]

Also, there does not appear to be a single goddamn thing this game has in common with Baldur's Gate.

It's right there on the front page of the Kickstarter

An action RPG set in 1920s Massachusetts.

 

[Zombra]

I guess I should read it more thoroughly before bitching but why the fuck does it look like a sidescroller? By "RPG" do they mean "Castlevania style game" or what?

Looks to me like it is a sidescroller. Without wanting to get into "what is an RPG", I wasn't aware that RPGs are required to be top-down isometric or first-person 3D.

 

[Roguey]

Good setting and art ruined by "game designers." Name-dropping Baldur's Gate and Wizardry for their Kickstarter campaign was terribly shameless too.

 

[Baron]

With the Baldur's Gate comparisons they mean one of weapons will be a sword.

I guess they did say shooting will be affected by your skills/stats, so RPG elements. Still, what do I care, I never understood the hours devoted to forcing a game into a single genre box. Looks fun, great concept. Would buy for $3.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Is this being developed for IPhones/IPads?

 

[Zombra]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1027299776/witchmarsh/posts/850811

So how is this even remotely like 'Baldur's Gate' or 'Wizardry'?

Yipes, elephant in the room! We've been asked this a lot, so I'll do my best to give a clear answer.

One of our goals when we started Witchmarsh was to blend Classic RPGs with modern RPG titles.

Like in Wizardry, you'll create your own team using a combination of Character types, Skill Points, Abilities, and Attributes. Then you'll lead them into the game world, doing battle, talking to NPCs and further configuring them as you level up.

The secret item system will also function a little bit like Wizardry 8's, with stat rolls being used to discover hidden loot.

As with Baldur's Gate, there will be branching dialogue, factions to side with and unique in-game events depending on how you've constructed your party. If you walk into a certain area with an Innkeeper for example, a series of events may trigger which relate to her storyline.

 

[Ninjerk]

...and Baldur's Gate is the comparison they use to promote "branching dialogue, factions, and unique in-game events..."

 

[Decado]

That is some weaselly bullshitting. I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror after a round of that nonsense.

 

[Rahdulan]

Just once id love to read about the awesome new rpg game that is actually released and not some December 2015 release kickstarter or some half baked early access demo

I'll take what I can get, though. I just wish they went for more advanced visuals over this ever-present pixel art look most indies go for, especially compared to something like Darkest Dungeon where the art style immediately pops and makes the game stand out. Even though their £130k stretch goal brings in another artist it's just to speed up development.

 

[sser]

Finally, a super spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and Wizardry. If you hadn't told me it was called Witchway Lost in Boston I wouldn't have known any better!

 

[Zombra]

Got an update email today and wondered why there was no active Codex thread ... so here you go.

Update 25
Teething Problems + New AI and Ranged Combat
Hey everyone,

We're still here and putting our all into Witchmarsh! Progress has been solid on the environments, interface, story, and animations, but certain aspects of the code have been giving us trouble.

We've also been trying to tackle the issue of communication within the team. Poor communication has resulted in several setbacks, including some confusion over the handling of updates.

Both of these issues, we feel, are now behind us, and we can get down to the good stuff; building lots of content.

AI and Ranged Combat Systems

As mentioned in a previous update, friendly AI and ranged combat have been the primary dampers on progress. We thought we had them checked off, but as we progressed with development, the two systems proves less than watertight. Rather than apply a few bandaid solutions and press on, we decided to remake the systems from the ground up.

In between working on other aspects of the game, these new systems systems have finally been implemented. Here are the main changes:

• More responsive ranged combat, especially when swapping between melee and ranged.
• Several bugs which occurred in the old system have been eliminated.
• The big one: rather than hitting the closest enemy, shots can be aimed at a specific enemy target, bypassing enemies you don't want to hit. This allows for more strategic encounters.
• Friendly AI system allows for more commands than attack and follow.

[Video 1 Link - Follower commands and AI]
[Video 2 Link - New Ranged System]


The friendly AI system is now more responsive and gives the player greater control over commanding their computer allies. Although this looks similar to the old system, under the hood it's much more efficient and flexible.

Delays?

Because of the issues we've already touched upon, a release date delay is starting to look probable. Rest assured the project isn't in any danger of being cancelled. It might take longer than we expected, but we're more determined than ever to bring Witchmarsh to life.

Item Icons!

Finally, we've increased the item icon size to 30x30 (up from 25). This allows for more personality and detail in the swag you'll be pulling from the pockets of bootleggers, and hollow tree stumps.

Thanks for sticking with us on this difficult road to release. With our communication and code problems straightened out, we know that we can make this game happen. Thanks for your patience!

Stay tuned.

- Inglenook

 

[Doktor Best]

I guess I should read it more thoroughly before bitching but why the fuck does it look like a sidescroller? By "RPG" do they mean "Castlevania style game" or what?

Looks to me like it is a sidescroller. Without wanting to get into "what is an RPG", I wasn't aware that RPGs are required to be top-down isometric or first-person 3D.

Sidescroller perspective simply makes worldbuilding quite difficult as you are trading the second axis of top down perspective which you can create actual areas with for a "height" axis which is pretty useless to build settlements/cities etc. Basically your whole world is onedimensional, spun like beads on a chain with extreme walking distances if you dont implent quicktravel or build your world very platformy.

It CAN work for games like castlevania, which i consider as a mixture of metroid and a typical dungeoncrawler, but a real crpg which claims to be influenced by baldurs gate or wizardry? I remain sceptical.

 

[Crooked Bee]

This looks pretty great. Looking forward to it.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Developers have been quiet for months and some of the backers seem to be unhappy about state of the project.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1027299776/witchmarsh/comments

about 1 hour ago
If they won't release the game before december i will ask for refund (if they won't answer fast - i will probably sue them) who is with me?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Yeah, this one has been a bit too quiet lately. Too bad, it looked pretty cool.

 

[duanth123]

Zombra

So what did it say?

 

[Zombra]

Said who with the what now?

 

[Ninjerk]

Said who with the what now?

What did it say?

 

[duanth123]

Said who with the what now?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1027299776/witchmarsh/posts/1726246

Update #31 For backers only.

Nov 2 2016

Apologies and Status Check
27 Comments
43 likes

For backers only. If you're a backer of this project, please log in to read this post.

Previous update

 

[Zombra]

Ah.
<------- Not a KS backer. I only get updates if they send them out to the mailing list.

 

[Zombra]

Annnnnnnd they emailed the slacker backer update this morning

Hi Witchmarsh backers,

If you're reading this, it's because you backed Witchmarsh via the late backer/paypal link on our Kickstarter page. As you've probably noticed, we haven't been keeping up with our update schedule.

We'd like to apologise personally to all of you, and to warn you that there may be delays to the promised release date of Witchmarsh, currently set for December 2016.

If you've backed Witchmarsh after August 31st 2016 and would like a refund, please write to this address using the email address you backed the project with.

We do hope you'll stick with us, however. We'll do a better job of keeping you in the loop from now on.

Anyway, here's yesterday's update:

Message to backers, 2nd November 2016

A thousand apologies. We left you in the dark, again. Any frustration and disappointment you’re feeling is fully justified, and we’ve shown a genuine lack of courtesy by keeping you out of the loop. Six months between updates is not acceptable, and we're addressing the problems which led to this situation.

Despite how bad we’ve been at communicating, development is still going strong. Witchmarsh is an ambitious game to produce, more so than we originally anticipated. In short, we had no idea the project was going to take this long.

We're now confident the worst of the technical issues and content re-dos are behind us, and that we’ll be able to supply you with a more frequent alpha very soon.

The bad news is the release date may be pushed back once more, we’ll let you know when we’re certain of this, hopefully sometime in November. For the time being we’ll be pausing late backer support until we know for sure.

We hope you’ll stick with us, because despite how badly we've let you all down, we firmly believe that the finished product will speak for itself.

Character Creation Revamp


The updated Character Creation - first look at the new skills tab (click to see full size).


Like the new dialogue system, the game’s revamped character creation system is an improvement over the old one, which was unwieldy and hard to decipher. Unfortunately it’s taken longer than we anticipated, which is is the main reason behind the lack of new alpha builds. We wanted testers to have control over their party’s composition, in addition to more content. Once we've finished balancing the skills, talents and abilities, the alpha will commence with version 0015.


Lester, the streetwise, tap-dancing recluse.



Oscar the rowdy, musical traveling salesman.


Until then, we’d like to hear your suggestions as to what you’d like from us as development progresses (besides not letting the project go dark). If you have any suggestions for updates, regular features, events, or anything else you’d like to see, just let us know in the comments section [Note: Late backers can email their suggestions to Witchmarsh@gmail.com]. You’re the ones who allowed this project to happen, and we haven’t forgotten that.

Best wishes,

Inglenook

 

[Ninjerk]

tap-dancing

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

So they still haven't given up.
Though I suspect that sidescrolling real-time party based RPG is just an idea that can't be implemented well.
My first encounter with that kind of abomination was Dragons of Flame in C64.

 

[anus_pounder]

They couldn't be arsed to post some sort of "srry bros, found micro-issues, release delayed, game still alive bbl" update in the last 6 months?

Anyway, looks decent...ish. Might as well .

 

[almondblight]

For any decently managed project it should be insanely easy to shoot off a weekly update. Most KS projects don't post regular updates, either because their management is a mess or because they struggle with even the most basic communication tasks.