KickStarter SKALD: Against the Black Priory - retro RPG inspired by Ultima

[Narushima]

Just git da gaem out already geez

What do you mean?
This is it.
The tweets are the game.

 

[Sacibengala]

Getting a publisher doomed this game.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

I played two seconds of the demo before deciding i would want to experience the full product with minimal exposure. Looks awesome.

 

[Comte_II]

Maybe he can update the art style again

 

[Acrux]

New demo coming out during Steam Nextfest next week. Prologue will be going away.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1069160/announcements/detail/3287088771792102809

Project Update September 2022 - New Demo Launching!

Preface: I’ve been crunching for too long and I’m very ready to take a day off. Forgive the typos! XOXO



Hang on to your helmets! This one’s going to be big!

Holy crap these are exciting times. First of all, I finally get to reveal the new key art for the game:

It just blows my mind how awesome this looks! Here’s the original:

Original is done by Tuandat Phan and pixel conversion is done by MementoMoree.

Hats off for the stunning work!

—News—
New Demo!
Skald is participating in the Steam Nextfest starting Monday October 2nd! This means you get to play the brand new demo of the game! I can’t wait! You will be able to find the demo on the game’s Steam page come Monday!

ON WISHLIST

SKALD: Against the Black Priory
Story RichLovecraftianHorrorTurn-Based CombatDark Fantasy

Wishlist
Coming Soon

Please note this is NOT the prologue page. In fact, as of next week, the prologue will be unavailable going forwards as we phase it out for the new and updated demo.

As for scope, the build you’ll play on Monday, is much shorter than the current prologue. It should take you about 20 minutes to finish and it recycles quite a bit of dialogue content.

However, as Nextfest progresses, we will be adding content to it so be sure to stay posted and follow our development as the demo grows.

Testing
I just thought I’d give a short update on this as well! We’ve invited a small subset of the community to start testing builds and I fully intend to get keys distributed to all the other testers in the coming weeks. I’ve just been so swamped with demo development that it has had to wait.

However, if you backed the game at the Freeman level or up, your key IS coming!

Development
All the following updates are featured in the new demo.

Inventory
Inventory system has gotten a huge update where I converted it to the new UI system. It’s far from done but it’s still a huge update! It looks a bit noisy, but I promise it plays well and feels snappy and responsive.

I’m also going to do more tooltip stuff where you can hover over stats on the different character sheets for explanations etc but didn’t have time to do that as fully as I wanted for the demo so you’ll have to wait a bit to see that feature in action.

Crafting Confirmed!
Yup! I put crafting in the game! For now you can cook stuff and there are just four recipes. The system of course still needs polish as well but it’s technically sound and I love it.

I’m going to delve deeper into crafting and consumables in an upcoming devlog when I’m less sleep deprived. Stay posted!

Stealth
Stealth was very wonky in the prologue. Who knows how it even worked! I’ve updated it now to a more active system, where you can choose to enter “Stealth Mode” Your model then goes transparent and your see a stealth meter. As you move around the meter drains. Having a high stealth skill, wearing light armor, sticking to shadows etc, all influences how fast your stealth meter drains.

All in all it works really well for all it’s simplicity and I’m pumped to see the hijinx it will lead to in the final game!

In Closing
In short: Play the demo on Monday! Keep checking in as we add more content!

I’m exhausted now – this is me looking for a bottle of wine to knock me out!



To stay posted, be sure to follow the Skald Twitter and Discord and wishlist on Steam if you haven’t already!

Cheers,

AL

 

[cyborgboy95]

SKALD at Steam Next Fest!
Development
All the following updates are featured in the new demo.

Inventory
Inventory system has gotten a huge update where I converted it to the new UI system. It’s far from done but it’s still a huge update! It looks a bit noisy, but I promise it plays well and feels snappy and responsive.

I’m also going to do more tooltip stuff where you can hover over stats on the different character sheets for explanations etc but didn’t have time to do that as fully as I wanted for the demo so you’ll have to wait a bit to see that feature in action.

Crafting Confirmed!
Yup! I put crafting in the game! For now you can cook stuff and there are just four recipes. The system of course still needs polish as well but it’s technically sound and I love it.

I’m going to delve deeper into crafting and consumables in an upcoming devlog when I’m less sleep deprived. Stay posted!

Stealth
Stealth was very wonky in the prologue. Who knows how it even worked! I’ve updated it now to a more active system, where you can choose to enter “Stealth Mode” Your model then goes transparent and your see a stealth meter. As you move around the meter drains. Having a high stealth skill, wearing light armor, sticking to shadows etc, all influences how fast your stealth meter drains.

All in all it works really well for all it’s simplicity and I’m pumped to see the hijinx it will lead to in the final game!

 

[Bah]

A little bummed that the new demo ends so much earlier than earlier prologue. Enjoy the new inventory system though.

Did hit a minor issue with kitchen quest.

* Go to cellar first and get cheese and ham.
* go back up and talk to cook 2nd to get quest.
* Keep talking to cook and saying you have ham and cheese for infinite bread.
* Must go back to cellar a 2nd time then exit to make forward progress in quest.

 

[Ladonna]

Keep talking to cook and saying you have ham and cheese for infinite bread.

Nice. They put an Ultima V exploit in there. I still remember scamming a cook in one of the castles 500 times in a row.

 

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.skaldrpg.com/2022/10/project-update-happy-halloween-and-mac-demo-is-live-october-2022/

Project Update: Happy Halloween and MAC demo is LIVE (October 2022)​

Hey everyone and happy spooky season! I for one love this time of year and I couldn’t help myself from sharing some love with the Skald community!

—News—​

Halloween Update for Demo​

There’s now a new area to the demo for you to explore. It even has a creepy little Halloween-encounter in it! And I promise: It’s still very much Skald-themed.

Download and play the new Halloween-demo here:

We’ll be expanding this area quite a bit further in the time to come as we try out and test “new” features (more on this below) so keep checking in.

Mac demo is finally live on Steam​

This is criminally overdue, but it’s finally here: The Skald Mac demo! To all my awesome Mac fans, I’m so sorry for the wait and hope this makes it up to you!

Once again, check out the demo here:

—Development—​

Some “New” Features​

The new area that we’ve added to the demo will be used as a little sandbox for us to add in all the secondary mechanics that need to be (re)implemented. For now we’ve added in trading and leveling up, and next on the list is the character builder and camping mechanics.

New Biomes​

Quite a bit of dev-time the last few weeks have gone into redrawing tilesets for some of the biomes that feature in the new demo content.
Caves are a staple of any self-respecting CRPG:

… and this part of the game features a lot of costal areas so costal cliffs and shore lines are a must as well:

I’ve done some work on making the submersion into water look all nice like but the GIF above has too low FPS to do it justice. You’ll just have to see it yourself in the demo.

Next Weeks​

We’re spending the next three weeks fixing bugs and reacting to feedback as well as increasing the size of the current build to be as big (or bigger) than the prologue.
Some of this might be featured in the demo (though we might keep it shorter than the old prologue) and all of the content will of course be available to testers.
Still waiting for your tester’s key? It’s coming once I get Halloween out of the way.

—In Closing—​

Keep playing the game and as always feel free to reach out to me at any time. Note however: The last weeks have been insanely busy and I’m behind on all my social media. I 100% indend to catch up though so please just be patient with me.
To stay posted, be sure to follow the Skald Twitter and Discord and wishlist on Steam if you haven’t already!
Love you all,

AL

 

[Sacibengala]

Can't wait for the release date of 2024

 

[barricade]

Can't wait for the release date of 2024

yes that seventh demo is going to be great

 

[Ysaye]

Can't wait for the release date of 2024

Is that an actual release date of 2024, or the 2024 date on which they announce the date of release?

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I downloaded the demo. I cleared the first two areas and am now Level 3. Thus far, I'm enjoying it. Lots of charm, and good mechanics. I like the stats and feats. Spells are OK. Just a variety of direct damage at the moment. Given the game's inspiration, I'm expecting the full release to have much better magic. Exploration is both rewarded and punished in an old school manner. So while there are great rewards, you're going to need to choose your battles and not overextend yourself. I only really have 2 complaints.

1. Manually clicking through every step of every combatant's actions. I gets old from the very first combat.
2. Not being able to target with the mouse. I'm playing a mage, and being able to select any enemy with the mouse rather than cycling through would be great.

 

[barricade]

I'm expecting the full release

L O L

who cares about the full release? we're all expecting the next demo at this point

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'm expecting the full release

L O L

who cares about the full release? we're all expecting the next demo at this point

Ah, so this has gone the way of Examina. Maybe I should stop playing the demo then. I don't want to be bitter about 2 games not getting a proper release.

 

[notpl]

I have no doubt that this game is going to come out at some point, it's just going to take awhile. Thankfully the dev hasn't indicated he's going to do the early access thing at any point. I'll take a 1.0 that takes 5-6 years over a game that enters .01.2c and then never goes anywhere like exanima or stoneshard any day.

 

[skeletonmeister]

I remember playing the demo last year and enjoying it. It will probably go into my "to play list" so release time isn't an issue to me.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Kept playing anyway. Found some things I hadn't cleared in one of the areas. I think MC mage is now level 5. I had to put a point into strength because my encumbrance limit was too low. There is only really 1 or two merchants (for plot reasons), adn they don't pay very well. Having found decent items though, my mage now reliably does more damage in melee with 12 STR than with spells using 24 INT. Very disappointing, especially considering how mana intensive spells are. Found two other NPCs, a warrior and a cleric. The cleric uses Presence for spell casting and has more interesting spells (more than just damage). I think I'm nearing the end of the demo. Trying to fight 3 "Fell Hogs" that are giving my party some trouble. I plan to rest up to full strength and come back to fight them.

The resting mechanics are good too. Similar to Pathfinder: Kingmaker. Activities are Rest, Watch, Forage. Camp routine is in 2 hour increments. Character only recover HP and MP when resting, so staggering will be important when not in a safe zone. Rations matter and now that I have a party they go much quicker. I'm finding that I have to be mindful of them now.

 

[V_K]

Well, at least he releases something unlike certain other retro-RPG.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Over a year since SkaldRPG has posted here. Why hath he forsaken us? (I think I can guess)

 

[CyberWhale]

Over a year since SkaldRPG has posted here. Why hath he forsaken us? (I think I can guess)

The retardation of General Discussion should have become obvious after a year, so ejecting himself out of Codex after two was probably done once the game become popular enough that associating with this forum is not only unnecessary, but more of a hindrance. Not the first developer that has done so, and unfortunately not the last, either.

 

[Lyre Mors]

The retardation of General Discussion should have become obvious after a year, so ejecting himself out of Codex after two was probably done once the game become popular enough that associating with this forum is not only necessary, but more of a hindrance. Not the first developer that has done so, and unfortunately not the last, either.

I think the publisher deal factors in as well. They may have "urged" him to disassociate with this place. I understand, but it's such a shame when we lose direct communication with developers.

 

[Modron]

Doubt most publishers even know what the codex is.

 

[Mortmal]

Over a year since SkaldRPG has posted here. Why hath he forsaken us? (I think I can guess)

Was same for mechajammer developpers active at the beggining then not a word. They could stay chat and listen to our feedback during development, maybe they could have avoided the disaster.