“You remember that Battlestar Galactica episode called ‘33’?” he said. “Where they have to make a faster-than-light jump every 33 minutes, or else they’ll get blown up by the Cylon fleet?”
In the works at Dodo Games, Divine Space is a science fiction space game with a third-person view, free camera, casual click-n-go controls and arcade action in real time. The platform for the first version of the game is iOS; later versions are for Android, PC, Mac, Linux and likely Ouya. Later – a big massively multiplayer online game (MMO).
Here is the Kickstarter campaign. Behold… it covers alot of detail. ALOT!!!
The $2.5 million that Project Eternity has raised so far through Kickstarter isn’t just paying for the role-playing game’s development; it’s paying for freedom, Obsidian Entertainment chief creative officer Chris Avellone told Polygon today.
In an interview at GDC Online, Avellone explained that crowd-source funding wasn’t just the best option for getting the game made; it’s the only option. One issue is the studio’s resolution to developing the game solely for PC, Mac, and Linux, a narrowly-tailored release strategy that clashes with the multiplatform approach most publishers follow. Moreover, Avellone says that the kind of role-playing games Obsidian creates have fallen out of fashion somewhat.
“It’s really also hard to sell this type of role-playing game in today’s role-playing game market,” Avellone said. “I think the expectations have changed, and I think there’s a percentage of the RPG audience that remembers the Infinity Engine games and likes them, but I don’t know if that’s the zeitgeist of RPGs nowadays in terms of what people expect from them.”
Avellone explained that RPGs are effectively on a gradient: One one side, players have the greater share of control over their character’s every attribute. On the other side — the side many current RPG developers favor — the game’s creators make those kind of decisions for their players.
“I feel like the designers put more of their mark on the characters,” Avellone said. “It’s hard to say. When you’re dealing with Shepard in Mass Effect, you do get customization options with Shepard, but ultimately, at the end of the day, he’s still speaking with one voice, or with the female voice, and that’s who he is. In essence, that sort of sets a level of fan expectation right there that’s difficult to sell a game that’s not like that. Even Skyrim, to an extent, they kind of left their mark on characters with the advertising campaign in terms of his looks and his silhouette that I think people immediately start leaving a mark on him in that respect.
“There are always some elements that you have to design around, you always have those constraints,” Avellone added. “But when it comes to my character, I get a little sensitive about it.”
The effects of crowd-funding the development of Project Eternity have been nothing but positive, Avallone said. The development team is overjoyed to share what they’re working on as they’re working on it, and in turn is bolstered by the community’s immediate feedback. That feedback has come in the form of suggestions for the game’s artistic and systemic design — sometimes even volunteer work on the game’s environment and character art.
Avellone was never worried that their input would evolve (or, as the case may be, devolve) into a sense of funder’s entitlement.
“Their sense of entitlement wasn’t really ‘Oh, you must have this,’ it was more like, ‘Here’s what we feel about this,’” Avellone said. “Like, they didn’t want social tie-ins, for example, and like, if you don’t want that, and you don’t want to back a project that has elements like that, there is absolutely no need for us to put that in. We’re absolutely fine that you’re telling us this now, and not two months before ship, which is normally how people react to things like this with today’s publishing models.”
Aside from that feedback, the team at Obsidian has almost no external input on what kind of a game the studio is going to make. Starting with a clean slate has its fair share of benefits and problems, but before weighing them against one another, Obsidian had to decide what kind of an RPG it wanted to create. That core inspiration, Avellone explained, came down to one question.
“What were exciting RPGs we’ve played, and why,” Avellone said. “We all got together in a room and said, ‘You know what, there are certain things we love about Forgotten Realms, there are reasons that’s appealing to us.’ Not because we want to do Forgotten Realms, but it seemed like wherever you went in Forgotten Realms, there was some cool locale that was waiting to be explored, some dungeon to loot. And from all the D&D days from long ago, that’s what we love about dungeons: Solving puzzles, going through the dungeon crawling experience.”
That level of freedom often carries with it a kind of developmental paralysis, as constraints — commonly established by a publisher or the franchise in which a game is set — help focus every single aspect of the game development process. Obsidian is used to dealing with those kinds of restraints, but Avellone says he isn’t worried about Project Eternity getting hindered by freedom.
“I don’t think that our studio is ever in danger of getting lost in the woods when it doesn’t have a franchise parameter around it,” Avellone said. “That’s never really been a problem for us. In some instances, some folks might need those parameters to help them focus, and sometimes having bookends like that helps you design more creatively within the box. But we’ve been doing RPGs for so long, we know what those scope constraints are. Now we get to express ideas that we just think are cool, period, without any sort of obstruction. It has our voice, I guess is the best way to put it.”
That voice belongs to other RPG development veterans like Avellone, includingArcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura project lead Tim Cain, and Black Isle Studios head Feargus Urquhart. Obsidian has put together something of a supergroup of RPG visionaries, and Avellone said that the group hasn’t stopped looking for new members.
“We made a list of people that we want to get to contribute to the project, and we’ve been sequentially asking them one by one if they would come aboard and help us out with it,” Avellone said. “Hopefully, it will bear fruit.”
Source: theverge.com
Recently posted on Linux Gaming News and certainly a fine Kickstarter campaign for Gnome Templar. This is another project well worth paying attention too.
Saga Kingdoms is a revolutionary real time MMORTS, focusing on questing and empire building.
They say it’s what Star Craft 2 could have been (in terms of gameplay).
It will be free to play (as it seems from the rewards), but you can pay for additional content.
Currently the project managed to get ~$8,600 of the $100k goal ,with 29 days to go.
From past experiences it’s very hard to get the funds for “free to play” games and I personally doubt that this project will reach it’s goal (although there is always hope).
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SAGA was designed to show what is possible in an RTS when it is made for the players and not by the big studios who may be too scared to try something new. We asked ourselves questions such as, What if the world never reset? What if we could figure out how to balance not just two or three factions but six? and most importantly, What if every play session enhanced your virtual empire and not just a rating?
Most RTS games we’ve ever played focus on player vs. player combat. This is understandable because creating 10 maps and relying on players to provide variety is much less time consuming than creating 600 quests. SAGA, however, embraces that players love a rich story and while PvP has its place and is certainly not an afterthought in our design, we felt it was a lot more fun going on quests not just alone but with groups of friends.
In Saga Kingdoms each player will control a capital city that will serve as the seat of their power, however we have greatly expanded on this concept by giving each player a full Island as a starting point. In addition we plan to allow players to take over both resources and outposts on the main continent as their empire expands.
Similar to SAGA, Saga Kingdoms will feature hundreds of quests to test your skill. While some quests do have prerequisites that you must best, you can always go back and do old favorites for loot and XP.
The power of our new engine means we can create much grander quests that can be enjoyed by large groups of friends.These epic battles will be much more difficult but we promise the rewards will be worth it.
Players will be able to choose from one of six factions, each with a unique look and play style.
Primary Race: Elves
The oldest of the races, the elves have long ago learned to live in harmony with Gaia – the spirit of the world itself. Through their allegiance and honor of Her, they have learned to master Her powers, and now control the most destructive forces of Nature. As warriors, they possess terrific skill, and have made strange allies in some of the oldest creatures on Gaia, including treants and elementals.
Primary Race: Orcs and Ogres
The orcs and ogres live for war. They have long pursued it, and have fashioned their living around it. They have traded refinement for mass, and like a blunt instrument, will bludgeon the life out of their enemies. Their spells and abilities are targeted inward, purposed with instilling their warriors with greater power in combat. Individually, their warriors are skillful, en masse: terrifying.
Primary Race: Giants and Humans
Noble, powerful and indomitable – the forces of Light are truly magnificent to behold. Their ancient civilization has reached a glorious age of wisdom and refinement, and their armies have long ago mastered the art of war. They are a balanced and formidable force, able to draw on heavily armored soldiers and powerful magic alike to crush their enemies into submission.
Primary Race: Dwarves
Dwarves are particularly skilled in the arts of mechanical engineering. Hidden deep in their mountain hideaways, they have created terrible machines of war and destruction. In all their tinkering though, they have lost the art of magic and must rely on their own ingenuity and cunning.
Primary Race: Dark Elves
The dark elves are the masters of magic. They have studied many dark arts and have mastered the secrets of daemonology, allowing them to conjure up horrible beasts. By tapping into the powers of the Underworld, they have possession of mighty spells, with which they terrorize their enemies.
Primary Race: Undead
When the god of the Undead was all but defeated he called upon his powers to bring to power the newest of the factions to gain a foothold on Gaia. Adept casters, the undead use their powers of decay to manipulate the course of battle and weaken their foes while gargantuan undead abominations rush forth to devour their prey.
We love variety in most RTS games. Trying to find the perfect balance of troops is an integral part of the strategy. As difficult as it was to balance 6 factions, that task was nothing compared to trying to create over 100 distinct troop types. Saga Kingdoms will bring back many of the old favorites and will commit to creating many more in upcoming free content expansions.
Saga Kingdoms is a Free-To-Play Collectible game
Collecting troops was one of the best received and unique features of SAGA. Booster packs which can now be purchased for gold farmed in game will provide a random assortment of troops. Nothing beats the excitement of ripping open a new pack or the exhilaration of finding a dragon as your rare card.
Every aspect of your empire can grow in power. This means that every play session will reward you with some type of progress.
Each unit in your army will be led by a hero as detailed as any character in an MMO. Heroes can gain levels, learn spells and possess a range of abilities and bonuses that they confer to the unit they lead.
We’re also expanding the number of available heroes slightly from the dozen available in SAGA to many hundreds. (OK maybe more than slightly)
Not only will be we able to create items with a larger variety of abilities, but Saga Kingdoms will feature many thousands more magic items since Heroes can equip armor in multiple slots in addition to weapons and trinkets, rather than the limited 2 slots in SAGA.
Since Units in Saga Kingdoms are built around heroes not troop types, you will have much more freedom when designing your units. Each troop type will possess a special ability, allowing you to have much finer control over the type of army you field. For example, if halberdiers grant increased damage to the whole unit and swordsmen grant increased armor, a unit consisting of 15 halberdiers and 5 swordsmen will play very differently than one with 15 swordsmen and 5 halberdiers. Adding a hero who brings its own set of unit enhancements means an unlimited set of strategies.
Using the Unity engine means being able to do battle on a PC, Mac, or even using Linux. While the client will be available for all of these platforms, developing in Unity means that when you’re at work or school and can’t resist checking your empire or doing a quick quest, Saga Kingdoms will also be playable in a browser. In addition, developing in Unity opens the possibility for a mobile version.
We have been working on Saga Kingdoms for over a year. Some of our players have even had a chance to try the Alpha version.
We can field troops, move them around, and cause havoc to our enemies as well as build a city. The funds raised on Kickstarter will help us port the remaining SAGA features, finish our quest design tools and make the necessary changes to magic items and heroes to bring Saga Kingdoms to the next level.
Source: Linux Gaming News
Steam for Linux is set to get a raft of classic gaming titles at launch, if new entries on Valve’s CDR database are anything to go by.
Entries in Valve’s Content Description Record database for Steam have appeared listing native Linux support for a raft of games, giving those looking forward to the digital distribution system’s appearance on the open source OS a hint of things to come.
Held by Valve itself, the Content Description Record (CDR) database is used to distribute information regarding available games to the Steam client software. Access, however, is open, which has led to the development of CDR parserscapable of providing data above and beyond that revealed by the Steam client itself. With games appearing in the CDR database ahead of their reveal in the Steam client, this includes pre-release information – and, in this case, support for an as-yet unreleased Linux Steam client.
According to a community list of Steam games with native Linux versions those taking part in the Linux Steam Beta can expect to play a selection of somewhat outdated games at launch comprising Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Crusader Kings 2, Cubemen, Dynamite Jack, Eversion, Galcon Fusion, Serious Sam 3: BFE, Solar 2, SpaceChem, Steel Storm: Burning Retribution, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, Trine 2, Waveform and World of Goo.
Of those games, native Linux versions have been available for some time making them obvious choices for Valve to test out its native Linux Steam client while it works on improving the performance of its own first-party titles on the operating system. While a good selection of games, the list is but a small percentage of the overall number of games already listed on Steam which have a Linux port available – suggesting that the quantity could grow rapidly at launch.
With Valve boss Gabe Newell personally overseeing the Steam for Linux client development, and vocal in his dislike for Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 OS, the Steam Linux client looks on set for a high-profile launch – just nine years after the service appeared on Windows.
Source: bit-tech.net
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3089 will be a futuristic 3D open-world action role-playing game with randomly generated terrain, items, customizable weapons & more!
After the demons were cleared in 3079, a new, much more dangerous threat was able to organize…
3089 will be a futuristic, randomly generated 3D action role-playing game. It is the sequel of my previous game, 3079. It will feel like a first-person shooter, have the depth of a modern role-playing game & be set in a randomly generated world.
All quests, terrain, biomes, weapons, items, enemies & textures will be randomly generated providing a truly unique gaming experience.
3089 will take inspiration from games like Borderlands, Fallout 3 & Just Cause 2.
I’ve been making open-world action role-playing games for years. I started with 3059, experimented with 3D development on 3069 and most recently made 3079, which went on to sell thousands of copies worldwide.
I’ve also recently created Gentrieve 2, which allowed me to explore better combat mechanics, dynamic lighting systems, visually unique world generation & more. I plan on using many of the learned skills from Gentrieve 2 in 3089.
3089 development has just begun. Much of how the game will work will depend on what type of resources I can raise here. However, core mechanics like terrain generation & physics are already well underway:
Mostly modeling. I will have better models than I did for 3079 & Gentrieve 2, but I would like to have all sorts of robots & characters with limbs that walk over the terrain realistically. However, since this is a 30×9 game, the models would need to be in parts that would be procedurally generated — so characters can be uniquely put together. Getting these parts & texturing them might be expensive!
I’d also like to hire some artists to oversee texture generation & placement. I’ve learned quite a bit during Gentrieve 2 development, but more talent will help!
Nope, I am not. That is because I am serious about making this game and I know every little bit helps. If I only make $1,000, I will make the best of that money. However, with more resources will come more 3089 goodies.
Source: Kickstarter
Ice-Pick Lodge Game Development’s Knock-Knock is a bit of a unique venture into psychosis and horror. The game sees players journeying into a creepy house where they must avoid the not-so-alive inhabitants. The game has joined Steam’s Greenlight and could use a few upvotes.
It’s a bit of a point-and-click puzzle adventure game, but it’s a bit difficult to easily compare it to another game of similar ilk. I suppose Machinarium comes to mind in regards to art-style and perspective, but the play-style is its own thing.
As described on the Greenlight page…
The main character is sick of headache and is tempted to sleep, but he must not: there are unwanted Guests in the house. He has to stay awake until dawn, sitting up and trying not to let the fear drive him out of mind. The light is going out now: once the lamp goes dark it is time to hide. Meeting the Unknown itself face to face may drive him insane right away, especially with his unstable state of mind.
If that sounds remotely interesting and you’d like to see how the game actually plays out, feel free to check the game out in action below.
So how do you win at this game? It’s kind of weird but the object is to bring back substance, thoughts and notions into his world. A chemistry of psychological puzzle-solving is the only thing that stands between pure insanity and a good night’s sleep for the main protagonist…all before the candle burns out, of course.
If the game sounds remotely entertaining and you’d like to see this sort of thing gracing the Steam store one day, feel free to pay a kind visit to the Official Greenlight Page and a pass an upvote and a kind word the way of Knock-Knock.
As one of Wolfire games developer/designer admitted today in the IRC, Receiver is about to come to Linux soon! The game uses the Unity game engine that debuted in Linux through Rochard and it seems that more and more games are about to come through that portal too.
Receiver was created for the 7-day FPS challenge to explore gun handling mechanics, randomized levels, and unordered storytelling. Armed only with a Colt 1911 A1 and an audiocassette player, you must uncover the secrets of the Mindkill in a building complex infested with automated turrets and hovering shock drones.
Receiver is focusing in being a realistic first person gun simulation. This sounds weird, but what it means is that you don’t simply press your left mouse button and the gun fires. You will have to load the gun by removing the magazine, slipping individual bullets in it, turn off the safety and then pull back the hammer etc.
All this combined with the realism in the movement of the character, provides a strangely huge dose of quality for a game that has been under development for 7 days only. This didn’t randomly happened of course, as the people that develop the amazing upcoming Overgrowth are behind Receiver too.
Recently, Studio Evil, contracted Linux Game News regarding their new title, “Syder Arcade”. A retro style, free scrolling, multi-directional shoot ‘em up game, hopefully coming to linux. That all depends on you. As of this moment, Syder Arcade is only available on Mac OSX and Windows.
However, the team at Studio Evil want to make sure to include linux in the list of available platforms. And yes, that also means Syder Arcade is available onSteam Greenlight.
Anarchy Enterprises just confirmed Linux and Ouya support, bringing their title “Devils Core” to both platforms.
I just happened to come across the following post on IT News Online and rather intrigued:
Anarchy Enterprises conjures up their new adventure game “Devil’s Cove” and invites players to join the development by supporting it through the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The project is live now and ends October 31st – Halloween Night – under the full moon when devils and monsters are roaming the streets!
Devil’s Cove is an old school, classic point-and-click adventure for the PC, MAC, Linux, iOS and Android. The game centers around a sinister Plague Doctor who is wreaking havoc in a cursed harbor town. Players will return to the golden days of adventure gaming as they uncover ghastly horrors and even contribute their own diabolical ideas to the gameplay.
By making a pledge through Kickstarter, players receive the finished game (for ALL platforms!), and get to be a part of the development process. Players will get to help shape the game by playing beta versions and giving direct feedback. They also get a backstage pass to see how Anarchy Enterprises makes games.
For only $15, players get a digital copy of the game along with lots of bonus materials and behind-the-scenes access to the development process. Additional rewards are available at higher tiers that include a bounty of swag – unique game props, signed original game art, limited edition game collectibles, listings in the game credits, and the opportunity to become an actual character in the game!
“Anarchy Enterprises has always been a small, indie studio,” said Alex Jamiesonof Anarchy Enterprises. “We’ve always wanted to be directly connected with the players, and now we have a tremendous opportunity via Kickstarter to make that happen!”
“The new golden age of adventure games is upon us. Adventure games like Double Fine and Broken Sword kicked the door down, and revealed that players are hungry for the kinds of games that us developers have been dying to make again, but that publishers didn’t want to take a chance on. Now we’re ripping the doors off our walls and welcoming the players into our development process. The making of Devil’s Cove will be an amazing experience for everyone involved and we hope that you will join us!”
As a personal note, I would recommend the $20 package at the very least. It comes with everything the $15 comes with, plus: Download of the Collector’s Edition of Devil’s Cove for all supported platforms: • An in-game Strategy Guide • Bonus gameplay • Additional game locations • Alternate endings depending on decisions you make during the game • (not available in the Standard Edition)
Here is the introduction from the Kickstarter campaign…..
First off thank you for taking the time to check out our Kickstarter project. Anarchy Enterprises has been developing independent games for over a dozen years. Our first retail game Moon Tycoon came out way back in 2001, but this is our first crowd-sourced project. We are extremely excited to be able to work more closely with you – the people who actually play our games!
Sometimes game development feels like working behind closed doors. When working with a publisher, us developers can get isolated from the people that are most important to the game development process – the players. Game developers tend to have to deal with publishers, distributors, hardware techs, lawyers, corporate middlemen and a myriad of others that will never end up playing and enjoying the games that are being created. Anarchy Enterprises has always been a small, indie studio that tries to stay directly connected with game players, and now we have a tremendous opportunity via Kickstarter to make that relationship even closer.
Devil’s Cove is a classic point and click adventure that we are making for the PC, MAC, iPhone, iPad and Android Phones and Tablets. The adventure takes place in the cursed harbor town of Devil’s Cove where a series of heinous crimes have been committed. The sinister Plague Doctor is wreaking havoc and the town is cowering in fear. Even worse, the local authorities appear to be complicit and have silenced all who have tried to stop these tragedies. Time is running out – and you are the only one who can solve the mystery, discover the darkest secrets of Devil’s Cove, and banish the evil forever.
That’s a great question. The number one reason we have decided to make our new game a Kickstarter project is that we can cut out all the middlemen and work directly with you – the game players. Financing video games is usually done through publishers who can have an important role to play, but also their funds and support can come with some very big strings attached. Many times important gameplay decisions get made to satisfy corporate suits and lawyers which can severely compromise both the player’s experience and our artistic vision. We want our new game to be free from those strings. To make the most enjoyable game possible, we only want to be held accountable to you! If it works out, it opens the door for us to make more games this way.
Special treat
Get ready to meet the Plague Doctor, we’re working on some new renderings and will soon give you some tasty bits about his ghastly horrors. Here’s a shadow, just to tease you…
Linux Support
We understand that there is a sizable group of gamers running Linux and we definitely want to get the finished game into your hands.
We are using Unity3D to develop Devil’s Cove. There are many great reasons for why we are using Unity3D, but probably the most important is the ability to publish to so many platforms. Good news – the next release of Unity3D (version 4) promises to support Linux!
OUYA Support
We are very excited by OUYA – it has to the potential to be really huge, especially for indie developers like us! Since we are developing in Unity3D and will already be publishing to Android we feel confident that a OUYA version is a strong possibility!
Languages
We plan to release Devil’s Cove in English, German and French, and are looking into releasing other languages as well. We have also received some inquiries from backers about a community supported localization system, where backers would be able to contribute to localizing the game. Do you like this idea? If so, we’ll set it up to expand the number of languages included when Devil’s Cove launches – so let us know what you think!
Thanks again you all of your support, and please help us spread the word! Here are some links you can use:
Short link to our project on Kickstarter.
Facebook (be sure to like us!)
Twitter (follow us!)
Tumblr (follow us!)
Source: Kickstarter
The Linux gaming scene is continuing to look more promising, and recent news reinforces this. Except for some negative opinions aboutSteam for Linux. What do you think?https://plus.google.com/+NixiePixel/
The most recent indie bundle, Humble Bundle 6, is full of great Linux games and recently added 4 more indie games to the bundle. With Obsidian adding Linux as a stretch goal to Project Eternity, and more Steam for Linux news, things are looking great for Linux gaming!
Sourced: os.alt
Valve has been working on a port of the Steam client for Linux for quite a while, going public with the project in April this year. Since then we have learned that Valve intends to release Steam on Linux before 2012 is over. However, it will initially only be supported on Ubuntu 12.04. The first Valve game to run on Linux,Left 4 Dead 2.
Posted on September 26, 2012 by Valve Linux team
Things have been going well. We will be having an internal beta starting next week, and a private external beta for 1,000 users sometime in October.
The private external beta will include:
- Steam
- One Valve game
- Support for Ubuntu 12.04 and above
It will not yet include:
- Big Picture mode
- Additional Valve games
For existing Linux users, the external private beta is a good release for seeing where we are in running our games on Linux. We will be using a sign up page for the external beta. Information about the sign up will be announced in a future post.
For those new to Linux, we recommend waiting for a subsequent release where more features are implemented along with improvements to the user install experience.
The reason for the external beta is because Valve want to test Steam on a wide variety of hardware configurations to work out the bugs. They also want to keep access to the external beta as fair as possible. You won’t get preference for owning any Valve games or for already using Steam. Instead, a sign-up page will appear in the coming days or weeks where you can make your interest in participating known. Valve will then choose 1,000 people based on some unknown criteria.
The beta won’t include the recently launched Big Picture mode or support any Valve games beyond L4D2. You’ll no doubt have to run Ubuntu 12.04 for it to work properly, but owning L4D2 seems unlikely. Valve will probably just make it available to beta testers for the duration of the external beta.
There will be no shortage of Ubuntu users eager to take part in the testing of Steam on Linux. So the server running the sign-up page is going to be hammered. As soon as it goes up we’ll let you know.
Old-school RPG from Black Isle Veterans joins the ranks of most funded campaigns
Obsidian entertainment has joined the crowdfunding hall of fame today, raising over $2 million from fans for the creation of an old school RPG dubbed Project Eternity.
So far few projects have reached such an exalted threshold, and to be numbered among the likes of The Double Fine Adventure Game, Ouya, Wasteland 2, and the Occulus Rift is high honors indeed.
History aside, the $2 million mark bears its own significance for the future of Project Eternity.
Once the initial goal of $1.1 million was reached, as series of “stretch goals” which promised new content at higher levels of funding were gradually ticked away.
With the latest goal met player houses have been added, and should donations reach $2.2 million Obsidian promise to add a new region, faction, and companion, and provide French, German, and Spanish translations.
The campaign currently stands at $2,022,000 with 47,000 backers and twenty days remaining.
Source: develop-online
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Spycraft Studios has launched Papier Adventure for Linux on Kickstarter to support the development of an imaginative story-driven adventure game. The target date for achieving the funding goal is October 13, 2012.
Papier is set in a world of paper, sketches and ink with a unique visual aesthetic for the 3D environments, and detailed attention paid to the characters and story. Being developed in a cross-platform manner, Papier is set to provide an exceptional game experience for a variety of gaming platforms.
Papier is a boy who lives in a world of paper. After receiving a mysterious letter he discovers the legends of the Arcane Library and its books that cause everything to exist. Each person has a book that tells their life story and most of the pages from his book have been stolen. He sets out to find these pages before his powerful foe can destroy them, and page by page – he discovers his true destiny.
The gameplay is a combination of adventure game and RPG elements, with a focus on straightforward controls and employing unique interaction for casting of magical powers and specialised puzzles.
“Each person has a story. Their own, that defines who they are, who they were, and who they will be. In this world of paper, a person’s story is bound to the pages of just one book. Each person and all things have a book that defines them and tells their story, without which they would not exist.”
Citing cross-platform publishing, media management, and the upcoming character animation features of the Unity toolset as major drawcards for streamlining the development process, Matt McArdell from Spycraft Studios had this to say, “Unity allows us to provide Papier to gamers without the usual platform barriers. We recently announced support for Linux, made possible by leveraging the Linux publishing capability in the upcoming Unity 4. The sum total of the features in Unity allows us to focus on creating our own unique game world and mechanics, rather than reinventing the wheel by spending a year developing a core rendering engine and supporting tools.”
Spycraft Studios are providing project backers with access to developer journals and a beta version of the game during the development period.
About Spycraft Studios
Spycraft Studios is a mobile development studio based in Melbourne, Australia with expertise including mobile games, applications, web, and enterprise solutions.
Source: Linux-Gamers
