Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: The Banner Saga, 2D Turn-Based Strategy RPG

[felipepepe]

Their goal is pretty low at $100k (I'm assuming they completed a lot of the game already) so I think they shouldn't have much trouble doubling their goal.

I'm relieved they played safe, asking only $100,000. To have a project like this failing by taking Kickstarter for granted and not reaching the goal, or even by a donation burnout on the audience would be a great loss. But now I think they might be underplaying this...Just how many crests are going to be ingame? o_O

And that poster is fucking gorgeous...I was gonna go for the $25 tier, but that made me unsure...

Will units be able to equip items/runes/doodads/whatever to modify their stats/grant new/different attacks/abilities?
If so, will every unit be able to do this or only some? Can you give a concrete, statted item that might be in-game?

I expect this to play a huge part in the game, like in FFT. Even the KoDP reference screams for something like this, to have a Powerfull/Cursed weapon found in a random encounter with some guys on the road, or taken from a sucesfull raid. Or even a anrgy warrior leaving the caravan and asking for his weapons back.

 

[ghostdog]

Bee, you've brought incline in the codex with your excellent interviews. Many thanks.



And keep it up, it's the first time in a long time that this place is starting to feel a bit like it did in the older days. With the hopeful indie projects and with codex actually acting as a prestigious magazine, we're finally getting somewhat away from the bitter/edgy/emo/GD mood. This site first caught my interest due to certain editorials and interviews I read and we haven't had those here for a long time.

 

[Aeschylus]

I pledged a bit, I will probably put in more as my frugality is overcome by optimism.

I like the way gaming is heading these days. Thanks again for doing the great interview.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Bee, you've brought incline in the codex with your excellent interviews. Many thanks.

Dawg, thanks, but you're giving me too much credit. This was (mostly) my interview, yes, but all the recent interviews were a collaborative effort. The Michael Stackpole interview was MMXI's as well as mine, and I didn't write any questions for the Brian Fargo or Ian Frazier interviews. Hail the staff as a whole, not me personally.

 

[Trash]

As a strategy nerd they got me already with the mention of Dragon Pass being a mayor influence and that awesome art style they use. This interview just cemented the deal. Pledged $25*.

*And only that because I spend most of my chump change on Wasteland 2.

 

[Zed]

Pledged 10. The game will be episodic and I couldn't find an estimate how much big one episode is. So 10 it is.

 

[Marsal]

I'll wait for answers to the Ulminati's questions, but I can see combat becoming banal, shit, boring™ quickly. I doubt there will be any variation on battleground size or unit count. HoMM combat + emo story, with none of the charm. I'm not giving a cent until grandmaster mondblut gives his blessing.

 

[Azalin]

So is every developer going to jump on the kickstarter bandwagon for a quick cash influx now?

 

[felipepepe]

So is every developer going to jump on the kickstarter bandwagon for a quick cash influx now?

I prefer they doing it to releasing a half-finished game due lack of money. If only Troika could have done the same...

 

[Zed]

So is every developer going to jump on the kickstarter bandwagon for a quick cash influx now?

Besides sounding a bit exploitative - what's really wrong with it? A low-tier pledge includes the game (digitally), so it's basically like buying the game, cheap, while also providing direct support for the developer..
It's 100% customer responsibility: you get to judge whether or not you think it's gonna be a success - if it will be worth pledging for.

I fucking love kickstarter. And digital distribution. Without the latter, the games industry would be even worse today, and the former seems to actually be improving it from its current state.

 

[Trash]

I prefer them jumping on the crowdfunding bandwagon rather than seeing marketing suits and corporate thinking ruin gaming for another decade.

 

[Cenobyte]

It's 100% customer responsibility: you get to judge whether or not you think it's gonna be a success - if it will be worth pledging for.

With the notable issue that you support a still unfinished product, with the final product possibly being vastly different from the one you originally imagined and supported. That's a risk one should be aware of.

 

[Spectacle]

It will be interesting over the next year or two to see how these crowdfunded games develop. I predict there will be at least one spectacular failure.

 

[Zed]

It will be interesting over the next year or two to see how these crowdfunded games develop. I predict there will be at least one spectacular failure.

That Hardcore Tactical Shooter was a pretty big failure.

 

[felipepepe]

It's 100% customer responsibility: you get to judge whether or not you think it's gonna be a success - if it will be worth pledging for.

With the notable issue that you support a still unfinished product, with the final product possibly being vastly different from the one you originally imagined and supported. That's a risk one should be aware of.

Kickstarter it's already based on the reputation the developers have, with time the high and lows will end up revealling more of who really is behind making good games.

Instead of publishers just creating new studios and naming them "BioWare XXX" to ride on their faceless brand, we will go back to having "developer heroes" that you enjoy, like Sid Meier, Roberta Williams, Tim Cain, Brian Fargo, Will Wright, MCA, Tim Schafer, Miyamoto...and new ones will be able to rise to fame! I approve this.

 

[Spectacle]

It will be interesting over the next year or two to see how these crowdfunded games develop. I predict there will be at least one spectacular failure.

That Hardcore Tactical Shooter was a pretty big failure.

Nothing spectacular about it though. No money has changed hands, so everyone will just forget about it and move on. Spectacular failure would be cancelling development after taking money from the fans, or releasing a game that's nothing like what was originally promised.

 

[Achilles]

I guess that the long-term viability of Kickstarter projects will become apparent once the first few big games (like Schafer's adventure and Wasteland 2) get released. If those games live up to expectations and the people who funded them are satisfied, then I can see it taking off. If one of them is terrible, it may shake people's belief in this new system.

That said, I fully agree with what Zed said earlier. Without Kickstarter and (especially) digital distribution, we would be royally fucked.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Pledged $25 solely because he posted in this thread.

If Chewbot answers Ulminati 's questions I'll up it to $50. How about that for some incentive.

 

[Mrowak]

The end is nigh, people.

First, real quality articles start appearing on Codex. Then Bioware fucks up royally with ME3. Then new ambitious projects are kickstarting from left and right. Of all the people former Bioware employees want to start their own turn-based strategic RPG project. This is too good to be true. This is like someone trolling us with good stuff just before pulling out the plug.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Yep and also AoD demo is about to come out any day now. In before Grimoire release date announcement.

 

[felipepepe]

$18,661 pledged of $100,000 goal

I'm a little worried...as kickstarter projects become more and more common, the media attencion will surely slow down. Fargo already got way less articles than Schafer, and I haven't seem much coverage for Banner Saga...while I do believe that Banner saga will reach 100,000, we may have very good projects lost in the void, due the fans not even knowing about it.

 

[Ulminati]

$18,661 pledged of $100,000 goal

I'm a little worried...as kickstarter projects become more and more common, the media attencion will surely slow down. Fargo already got way less articles than Schafer, and I haven't seem much coverage for Banner Saga...while I do believe that Banner saga will reach 100,000, we may have very good projects lost in the void, due the fans not even knowing about it.

If developers have any sense, they'll wait another 3-4 months until Tim Schafer makes some bigass Majestic update on his project, then launch theirs on his wave of media attention after peoples wallets have recovered.

Still. 20% of what they wanted in a day. That's pretty sweet.

 

[Trash]

$18,661 pledged of $100,000 goal

I'm a little worried...as kickstarter projects become more and more common, the media attencion will surely slow down. Fargo already got way less articles than Schafer, and I haven't seem much coverage for Banner Saga...while I do believe that Banner saga will reach 100,000, we may have very good projects lost in the void, due the fans not even knowing about it.

That's also due to the devs knowledge of pr. Fargo basically pimped his project by releasing all sorts of interviews and statements to get the media interested already days before starting the kickstarter. Lots of other projects don't seem that sharp. I mean, I love these guys giving an interview here but for real interest and brand recognition you'd be better of starting earlier and by trying to get sites like kokatu to interview them. Getting the crowd interested is a mayor part of crowd funding and not all have the big name to get instant recognition.

Anyway, this seems to be going well. Already over 20.000. Hey, if FTL can do it so should this*.

*Not saying anything negative about FTL. I think it looks brilliant. It is however incredibly niche.

 

[Krraloth]

It's 100% customer responsibility: you get to judge whether or not you think it's gonna be a success - if it will be worth pledging for.

With the notable issue that you support a still unfinished product, with the final product possibly being vastly different from the one you originally imagined and supported. That's a risk one should be aware of.

Yes, but at least you know full well that what you are pledging doesn't go into bribes and dark rooms in order to test the reality of cartain promiscuous romances.

 

[almondblight]

People might start to tire of dropping $250 on a project, but the other side of Kickstarter is just a glorified pre-order site that will give little known indies some exposure. As long as the lower tier isn't too much, I think a lot of people won't mind dropping $10-15 if they think the game looks interesting, they'll get a warm and fuzzy feeling for being a backer, and going for one of the higher tiers if they really like it.

Also, I think Kickstarter takes 5% and Amazon another 5%? I've heard Steam takes about 30-40%, so more money will be going to the developer through Kickstarter (anyone know the breakdown with Desura?).

Digital distribution is the way of the future, and though Kickstarter isn't a silver bullet, it's one more tool for developers to use. I don't see it becoming overloaded anymore than I envision Steam becoming overloaded (except for the higher tiers, of course).

And don't forget to support/spread the word about the indie developers that have been with us for a while (ITS, Basilisk, KoTC, etc.).