[Kickstarter] Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness - Austrian isometric RTwP CRPG [Funded]
Kamigoroshi
Member Posts: 5,870
Lookie what I just found on kickstarter: Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness by GrapeOcean Technologies
https://youtu.be/J2nlTJXtDms
Looks pretty sweet for a game from Austria, huh? I also dig their portrait styles!
Black Geyser's funding goal is €50.000 and has already reached over €2.600 within its first few hours. Given that the campaign will be on for 35 days, things seem more than likely that we'll see the game released in August 2019 on Windows, Mac and Linux. Both for Steam and GoG at that!
According to their official website, players will be able to choose from 5 playable races (humans, dwarves, elves, ice elves and something called 'Rillow' when the first stretch goal is reached). As well as 4 base classes (Warriors, Outlaws, Priests and Wizards), plus each of them will get 2 to 4 kits/archetypes.
The main game mechanic called 'Greed' makes this game especially interesting, given that it can affect simply everyone in the game world: be it your companions, righteous paladin-like Templars, to merchants, to even common farmers.
They also currently offer an Early Bird tier where backers can get a digital copy plus bonus items for €16 instead of the standard pledge of €19. True, not that much of a price difference. But nevertheless kind of nice to have.
https://youtu.be/J2nlTJXtDmsLooks pretty sweet for a game from Austria, huh? I also dig their portrait styles!
Black Geyser's funding goal is €50.000 and has already reached over €2.600 within its first few hours. Given that the campaign will be on for 35 days, things seem more than likely that we'll see the game released in August 2019 on Windows, Mac and Linux. Both for Steam and GoG at that!
According to their official website, players will be able to choose from 5 playable races (humans, dwarves, elves, ice elves and something called 'Rillow' when the first stretch goal is reached). As well as 4 base classes (Warriors, Outlaws, Priests and Wizards), plus each of them will get 2 to 4 kits/archetypes.
The main game mechanic called 'Greed' makes this game especially interesting, given that it can affect simply everyone in the game world: be it your companions, righteous paladin-like Templars, to merchants, to even common farmers.
They also currently offer an Early Bird tier where backers can get a digital copy plus bonus items for €16 instead of the standard pledge of €19. True, not that much of a price difference. But nevertheless kind of nice to have.
Post edited by Kamigoroshi on
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Comments
Also @Ardanis, somewhere I read that they were a bit unhappy that KS was displaying their graphics at a reduced quality than what it actually is.
(and backed it). The world needs more IE-inspired games. For an indie game, this looks great.So Linux and Mac are supported at launch!
1) Basic moddability is guaranteed: the game aims to be as user-friendly as possible (you don't need to be a programmer to understand it), but at the same, there will be no powerful toolkits provided by default.
2) Advanced moddability: a new, easily reachable stretch goal that does not change on existing stretch goals, and will provide you a small useful toolkit. We will add this stretch goal soon, and mention it in the upcoming Update as well.
3) High-level moddability: this is a lot of work to implement, so it is planned to be a higher-level stretch goal that will be revealed after the existing goals are reached. It would too early to talk about it.
Modding, folks! Native support of Black Geyser modding is guaranteed! And there will also come a stretch goal for introducing a toolkit as well! Things just got seriously awesome! xD
In a way, Sword Coast Legends was supposed to be that - a framework to make D&D-inspired isometric adventures for people to enjoy. But the company is dead. If this game comes to life, I can see a new flow of user-created cRPG isometric adventures coming our ways
But even more interesting is the fact that they've updated their €100.000 stretch goal once again: when unlocked Black Geyser will boasts of a brand new (and currently top secret) playable spellcaster class!
It also has been confirmed that the length of the base game can be around the 80 hours mark with an throughout playthrough. As well as future plans of creating at least two major DLC's. Looks like there's more where that came from!
We have received several requests for an add-on that includes all future DLCs and expansions (one digital download from each). A great idea! We have just added it:
€15: All Future Expansions/DLCs as Digital Downloads (included in tiers €100 and above)
If you want this add-on, just add €15 ($18) to your existing pledge. For example, if you have chosen tier €16 (early bird download), set your pledge to €31.
At least two major DLCs are planned. We call them expansion packs, because they will offer brand-new content (areas, NPCs, quests, stories, items etc.) with up to 15-20 hours of playtime.
To put this into perspective, these here are likely going to be the shop prices for when Black Geyser shows up on GOG/Steam:
The devs just released a new video, featuring Black Geyser's take on combat~!
In other news, Black Geyser has surpassed its initial funding goal of €50.000 today thanks to 1.622 backers. There are still 18 days to go. And according to kicktraq, Black Geyser will finish somewhere around the €100.000 mark.
Gotta love that extra race and spellcaster class once the stretch goals are smashed.
But if not for my initial interest, this would have alerted every red flag I have for Kickstarter projects. For one, the budget is incredibly low for game development (I know they have outside investors, but still ... $60,000/€50,000 is a low budget). Another is planning on having the game out by 2019. I hope it happens, but based on almost every other game-development project, I have my doubts.
In regards to stretch goals, I'm half bummed and half glad that the Kickstarter won't reach too many of them. Yes, they would be cool, but I've seen too many projects get bogged down with too many extras. In a perfect world, the stretch goals wouldn't add to the development time, but they do, so I'd rather see a finished game sooner, with the proposed stretch goal content as possible expansions.
But fear not: the kickstarter funds do not reflect their overall budget for creating Black Geyser. As you know, GrapeOcean Technologies has worked on the game since around April 2015 now with the help of private investors. Which by 2019 adds up to 4 years of video game development. The current crowdfunding campaign is simple to ensure their sponsors that people are interested in their work and thus worthy of further investments.
They also mentioned it on their kickstarter page:
A successful Kickstarter campaign is now required, a proof of interest to our investors that will secure their final round of funds. These funds, combined with the money raised on Kickstarter, will ensure the completion of Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness."
Anyways, here's to a successful Kickstarter campaign and a (relatively close to) end of 2019 release!
Black Geyser is curently at €78.253, or 156%. Meaning that we have smashed another stretch goal: the Rillow race will become a reality.
The devs further revealed that the rillows are inspired by indian elephants with a small pair of tusks, thick limbs and leathery skin. Making them quite possible a humanoid elephant beastfolk race. Depending how much influence the elephants had on the developers.
(again tagging @Vallmyr along for this exotic race)
In other news, backers also smashed three social media stretch goals. This has entitled us to the following features:
- Companion Romances
- Pets/Familiars (confirmed were a dog, cat, guinea pig, a lizard and some unknown, exotic pet from the lands of rillows)
- Kendall the Blacksmith NPC who can reforge/upgrade arms and armors in exchange for coin.
Next facebook goal will be at 750 shares and involve a female NPC under the name of Ay'eda the Mystic.But that will not be the end: GrapeOcean Technologies has enabled Slacker Backer pledges via paypal for the sake of meeting further stretch goals. The next being at €125K under the name of Gardens of Delight. A pleasure palace of the rillows where greed and corruption are rampand.
All in all I can say that this kickstarter campaing has been VERY successful. Given that this is a new indie game studio and all.
The gist of it: backer beta has been pushed back. But we at least now get to see how the Rillow actually look like.
Not a beast race as I initially hoped for. But they are sufficiently different enough from the all too common Tolkien fantasy race rabble.
Also: The Rillow companion got a lovely portrait as well.
In other news: We finally have dates! The Backer Beta will be ready around November 2019.
The release date of the full game is expected to be ready by April 2020.
Oh, and have a foretaste of Black Geyser's OST:
Two things first:
On a more entertaining note, GrapeOcean shed some light into their Stronghold system: specificly the Wizard Stronghold known as Locus and its plant-like structure.
Am I the only one who gets a flashback of the Planar Sphere but with an exotic fairy-ish flair to it? Me gusta!
On the good side, the extra time allows the developers to make the beta both bug-free and enhance the visuals even further.
Some sneak peeks: