KickStarter Vigilantes: neo-noir, turn based tactical RPG

[anus_pounder]

Voted for Greenlight, I'm looking forward to capping some fools. Lone (well kinda, with a few other hands) Guy takes down Crime bosses. This is basically wish fulfillment at work. :3

 

[Timeslip]

Thanks anus_pounder - making a bit of progress in the Greenlight again today. Cheers for the help!

 

[Timeslip]

Hi all. I've been looking around on Kickstarter, and the stat page shows pledges from RPGCodex are the third highest of all sources (facebook being #1, and all pledges from locations they couldn't identify being #2) with 13.82% of the total. It's difficult to say how it will go, there's certainly a strong chance, but I'd probably be curling into the fetal position about now, if it weren't for your support. Thanks a lot guys!

 

[HoboForEternity]

have you tried reaching out to youtubers/bloggers?

 

[Timeslip]

Yes. Some smaller channels have covered it but not many. The fact it's on Kickstarter/is alpha might be off putting for some, and maybe some will cover it later when it's on Steam, but finding it really hard to get coverage.

 

[Bubbles]

Even Masquerada has been struggling to get coverage, and they've had a budget of roughly $1 million. I guess that's the reality of the market.

 

[Timeslip]

It's pretty much par for the course. Supply for games has increased much more sharply than demand over the past few years, and there's only so many articles that can be written in a given day. Even though Vigilantes looks quite a lot better and is a deeper game than my first, it feels like it's had less coverage, though I suspect a lot of press sites/let's players focus on games which are available on Steam.

 

[Timeslip]

Hi. Looking for opinions on a matter of storytelling in Vigilantes. Each of the allies you encounter has a secret, for some, like Elena Furey, it's fairly obvious. For others, in particular Cuda, likely to be the next voice acted character, the current plan is to have only the slightest hints as to what this secret is. I'm considering two possibilities for Sam, the protagonist. I have worked on his backstory, and have a set of events in life which both make him capable of and inclined towards vigilantism. The first possibility is to, as delicately as possible, reference these events throughout the game. Perhaps not enough to fully flesh it out, but enough for people to build a theory on. The second is not to give any indications of his backstory at all, to effectively let the player decide who their version of Sam is.

I'm leaning more towards option 1 right now, but would like some views on which might be the better option. Thoughts?

 

[ArchAngel]

Or you can do it like some other games. Let him meet old friends that ask him questions that he can give different answers to and let players decide their character history

 

[Lhynn]

Make the protagonist a blank slate character, no one wants to be Sam. Let the player name him and build him however they want, this goes a long way to get the player involved in whatever story you want to tell.

You could give the player the option of picking a motivation/reason to do what he does out of a number of them, each option changing some missions and encounters, and maybe an extra final mission to solve their own story.

 

[norolim]

Subtle, ambiguous hints, that can encourage player speculation in a certain general direction is the better of the two options, imo.

 

[Timeslip]

Or you can do it like some other games. Let him meet old friends that ask him questions that he can give different answers to and let players decide their character history

Make the protagonist a blank slate character, no one wants to be Sam. Let the player name him and build him however they want, this goes a long way to get the player involved in whatever story you want to tell.

You could give the player the option of picking a motivation/reason to do what he does out of a number of them, each option changing some missions and encounters, and maybe an extra final mission to solve their own story.

Thanks. You've just given me an idea for a pre combat encounter!

 

[Timeslip]

Subtle, ambiguous hints, that can encourage player speculation in a certain general direction is the better of the two options, imo.

Would be my leaning too. I enjoy the mystery of, and being able to speculate on, parts of books/movies/games where everything isn't spelled out.

 

[anus_pounder]

Well...I didn't really want to say it, but Lhynn already did so I'll just second him and say I want to name Sam myself.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Blank Slate plis.

 

[Timeslip]

Well...I didn't really want to say it, but Lhynn already did so I'll just second him and say I want to name Sam myself.

Blank Slate plis.

Thanks for the feedback. I initially gave the Sam a name because I was considering getting voice acting done which specifically references his name. I'll look into allowing the name to be changed. I'll look into the possibility of supporting both options, but depending on the amount of work required, it may not be the best way to spend the time.

 

[Timeslip]

On steam, Vigilantes is currently 93% of the way to the top 100. There's a good chance if we can land in the top 100 by the next time Steam greenlights a batch of games, that we'll get through in that batch. I'm aware that voting on greenlight is a pain if you aren't logged in on your browser (have to authenticate) and if you open up Steam, you have to search for the game. I've found a way to open the steam client directly from a link, and set it to bring you to a particular page - this is just a simple php file that tells steam to open and sets the page it should open to - so in case you think Vigilantes deserves to be on Steam, but haven't yet exercised your democratic right because you couldn't be bothered jumping through hoops, here's the link: http://timeslipsoftworks.com/vigilantes-greenlight.php

 

[Excidium II]

Voted

It's good to favourite/follow too so other people see on your activity.

 

[Timeslip]

Voted

It's good to favourite/follow too so other people see on your activity.

Thank you Excidium II !

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is there any time-limit or other failure state in campaign?
For example: if player concentrates all effort to take out mafia and the cult then Survivalists might become too strong to deal with.
Or something like that.

 

[Timeslip]

No time limit, but what you described can happen. The gangs will recruit members, their members will level up, and they will gain better equipment over time. Taking out higher experience members will prevent them from levelling further, and taking out facilities will reduce their equipment level.
Also, crime rates will increase in tiles, as the gangs strengthen their hold on the area - this will likely result in buffs and/or having to face a greater number of enemies. The majority of this is mechanically in place (albeit with no balancing/testing yet) - but it will be tweaked and the detail will need to be worked on. One thing I should mention is that there's no scaling to player level or rubber banding - if you let one gang get too powerful, you'll have to face the consequences.

Additional: It's not decided yet, but a setting may be added to allow companions to be permanently killed, rather than just wounded - this could give rise to an unwinnable game scenario.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Sounds excellent.

 

[Timeslip]

Cheers

 

[Jimmious]

So if I get it right, the AI gangs will have static members? Meaning, if I meet some rival gang dude and somehow he survives, I can see him later in another battle/mission and he'll be leveled up and stuff?
If that is the case...it's fucking awesome! :D

 

[Timeslip]

At the minute - it records the character level, character type for each character in each tile. Name isn't stored, but it wouldn't be a big deal to do that. Right now, you're either going to take out the gang members or they take you out. It's likely the player team will be able to retreat and was considering having it so that gang members could try to run away - but this would have to be done carefully as too many enemies running away would be frustrating. It would be interesting to increase their level if they do get away. If this ends up being added (which would be nice for atmosphere) there would likely be a coward trait which some gang members would have that could be triggered given certain situations. I can't say for certain if this will be added though - going to have to see how things go.