Old RPG's did it best, SSI games, EOTB, Lands of Lore etc. They gave you a short intro about why a dungeon was evil and why you needed to go and whoop everything until it was cleansed. Then you went off and did it without having to read page after page of loregasm written by some millennial sat in a starbucks that thinks he can write. I don't mind it so much if I can skip through it. FFT had a LOT of story but I didn't read it and really enjoyed the game anyway. But Banner Saga cockblocks you from moving on unless you read it all.
-
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KickStarter The Banner Saga 3
- Thread starter Infinitron
- Start date
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Banner Saga's writing isn't great, but it's not particularly verbose. Quite the opposite, really.
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It's not just current market. I was just unaware that anyone ever wanted that. Perhaps you should try some Japanese tactical RPGs, like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, there is almost no exploration between battles and the plot can be safely skipped (at least in FFT, I'm not sure about Fire Emblem). Most RPGs are pretty plain when you cut out all the exploration and plot.
I never ruled out exploration, I said "teleported from fight to fight or dungeon to dungeon". Dungeon's are exploration. In my book, they're the best kind of exploration. And pre-1995 that's pretty much what RPGs gave you: diverse party builds, great dungeons to explore, quick and/or challenging combat, and resource management. The Banner Saga only gets combat and party builds somewhat right, the rest it doesn't have at all (at least the first one, my knowledge about the second is all hear-say). So I feel just like anvi: provide an option to skip all the caravan watching, dialogs and CYOA stuff, and I might buy it for relaxing 15 minute battles during a coffee break.
Maybe relative to most stuff, but even that for me was too much. But I am so allergic to it nowadays because I've played so many RPGs and each one I get more annoyed at the dialogue and stories. Banner Saga 1 wasn't too bad, it bugged me but I've seen chattier games. But the second game I spent the first half hour reading stuff and hardly did anything so I rage quit not long after. I don't have any tolerance anymore. When I was young I used to read everything and I usually got into it, but I can't anymore.
There are one or two exceptions though. I quite liked the story in Blackguards. I read everything for the first half of the game and then started skipping stuff but I liked the characters in that game and what they said. Pretty good voice actors too. But mostly I spam ESC frantically trying to shut everyone up. I loved the combat in DoS but the dialogue and story was a constant pain for me. PoE to me was like torture. Replaying older games I feel more or less the same. I think it was even worse back then. I played NWN 1 and 2 recently for the first time in 10 years or something and I couldn't believe how amateurish the dialogue is. Skyrim made me enraged. If I heard one more Norwegian talking about Jarls and shit... I was gonna lose it.
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1799698
First Stretch Goal Hit: Playable Dredge Unlocked!
By the depths, you were victorious! You've funded 3 playable dredge Heroes in Banner Saga 3. Your pledges will go directly into story, animation, sound, special effects, and ability implementation for the 3 dredge below, including the Stonesinger Ally (if he joined you) from the caves of Banner Saga 2.
And what's this bonus reward we see? Why, it's a beautifully sculpted Bellower miniature, originally created for the Banner Saga Warbands board game. It stands 4 1/2 inches tall, and is molded from high density plastic. It looks fantastic as it is, or you can choose to paint it yourself to create an even more striking display piece. It has a standard 2" round base and can be used in any tabletop RPG.
Who gets it? Every backer at the $100 Loot tiers or above. That means if you're pledging any of those 3 tiers, or the ones above it, you'll receive this awesome Bellower miniature with your other loot. If you're pledged at these tiers or above, you'll also be able to order extra Bellower miniatures via Pledge Manager if you so desire. So, if you were thinking about upgrading your pledge to one of these levels, it just got even better.
...
Now, what's next?
Well, we're on to the next Stretch Goal: Banner Saga 3 Survival Mode!
Survival Mode was introduced in Banner Saga 2 and is an exciting way to test your mettle, challenge yourself, and try out new strategies. The best Survival Mode players rise to the top of the leaderboards and unlock the exclusive Survival Mode achievements. For players who love the combat aspect of the Banner Saga, Survival Mode has proven to an addition that provides hours and hours of enjoyment on top of the single player story. If you can get us to $300k, your pledge will enable us to take the time necessary to develop, tune, and balance Survival Mode to a high degree of quality after the single player game releases.
We'll provide another update soon with more information about Survival Mode, but until then please enjoy these photos of an in-progress paint job of Bellower by John Watson, Technical Director of Banner Saga!
Please join us today (Tuesday, February 7 2017), from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM PST for a Reddit AMA! The whole team here at Stoic will be available to answer your questions all day!
Sneaky Seal
Aurum Dust
What do you guys think of their stretch goals? Some find them a bit underwhelming.
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Nothing amazing, but I'm tired of crazy stretch goals that can't be met.
CyberWhale
Arcane
http://www.pcgamer.com/the-story-we..._source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer-pcgamertw
TL;DR retards want to add full voice-over to their game. As someone who actually prefers having everything voiced, even mentioning something like this triggers me to no end - I mean, you guys seem to lack money to actually deliver the game as is, but you want to spend more money on production values. Is anyone still surprised with them wasting all that money from Banner Saga 1 sales? Because I'm not.
TL;DR retards want to add full voice-over to their game. As someone who actually prefers having everything voiced, even mentioning something like this triggers me to no end - I mean, you guys seem to lack money to actually deliver the game as is, but you want to spend more money on production values. Is anyone still surprised with them wasting all that money from Banner Saga 1 sales? Because I'm not.
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What Is Survival Mode?
Survival Mode is a battle-focused gameplay mode, where you face a series of increasingly difficult battles. You start with 6 units available, and can unlock more with renown as you progress. Each battle features one item-equipped enemy, giving you the chance to obtain items through victory. Characters that fall in battle are permanently dead, and you have a limited number of reloads available to make it through to the final, 40th, battle.
As you progress from battle to battle, you travel across the abstract runic landscape seen below. The image contains numerous lore references in runic, iconic form. Can you identify any? Click on the image below for a massive high resolution look at its detail (very large image, may take a moment to load):
The battles are fast-pased and challenging, and use the 'pillage' turn order, which unlike the single player game, does not strictly alternate by teams, but rather is fixed at the beginning of battle and only changes as units are killed, or when turn-order-affecting abilities are used.
Since we launched Survival Mode, over 12,000 players have played it, and we are very pleased with the way it has worked out. The mode has leaderboards for comparing yourself against others, and a series of exclusive achievements.
The new achievements are, in order of left to right, top to bottom:
- The Skirmisher: Survive all battles on Easy
- The Professional: Survive all battles on Normal
- The Berserk: Survive all battles on Hard
The following apply only to Normal or Hard Difficulty:
- A Fallen Few: Survive with fewer than 20 Heroes dying
- Together or Not At All: Survive without a single Hero dying
- No Outsiders: Survive without Recruiting Heroes
- Example to Others: Survive with only female Heroes
- Not Some Fantasy: Survive with only human Heroes
- Quad-Core Hardcore: Survive using only parties of 4 varl in every battle
- On Wings of Ravens: Survive in less than 180 minutes for your total turns
- Inner Fire: Survive without using the Horn for willpower
And this one applies only to Hard Difficulty:
- Krumr's Mentor: Survive Hard Mode without a single reload
If you've played Survival Mode on Banner Saga 2, what was your favorite party composition? What was the hardest battle? Which were the most interesting achievements to unlock?
If you haven't tried Survival Mode yet, please check it out! We think you will enjoy it.
We would love to bring Survival Mode to Banner Saga 3, as well. All the new classes, enemies, and battlefields will make an outstanding addition to the Banner Saga 3 single player game. We'll also take this opportunity to incorporate your feedback directly into the next iteration of Survival Mode to make it even more fun and challenging than before. Help us reach our Stretch Goal of $300k and it will be yours, for free, on Steam and GOG!
You can help us reach our next goals by spreading the word of our Kickstarter campaign, and don’t forget to:
Finally, please check out this game project we discovered on Kickstarter, BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION, an isometric, post-apocalyptic adventure game. It's set in a fresh and evocative environment, a futuristic wasteland you can explore to discover villages, destroyed cities, and uncover the secrets of strange and abandoned technology.
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5000 Backers and our AMA Recap!
This week, we surpassed 5000 Backers!! We’re well on our way to our next Stretch Goal - Survival Mode. Thanks to everyone who is making this happen! We’ll have more exciting news next week.
On Tuesday the Stoic Team had a Reddit AMA and got to field dozens of questions! All of your questions were excellent and we had a lot of fun answering them. Here are just a few examples from the AMA:
------ From AskStoic:
“First of, I gotta give you big shoutouts to the Bolverk-Folka dynamic. It's really cool how their roles in combat match their personalities story wise. Is this something you have in mind when creating the characters for TBS3?”
Drew:
“Really glad you like Bolverk and Folka (be sure to thank (at) Nika Harper for penning an awesome backstory of how these two unlikely comrades met)! We're always looking for ways to sync the story and the gameplay, so you calling out their combat and personalities as a match makes us very happy! We are certainly giving the same amount of care to new (and old) characters for the third game - finding the best ways to integrate their stubbornness or altruism into specific battles or game-changing decisions.”
------ AguilarX:
“Imo, the only thing missing from Banner Saga is great voice overs. It is more expensive but do you guys have something planned either for BS3 or for all 3?”
Arnie:
“We hope to have exciting news about this goal. It is an expensive thing to get in the game for a small studio like ours, but it's something we'd love to offer the community. Can't say much more about it, but if you want to see this someday, please support the Kickstarter that we're currently running! “
------ Nafeij:
“Congrats on the latest kickstarter stretch goal, Stoic!
How did each of you guys hone your skills? So like art for Arnie, coding for John etc. From where did you guys learn them?”
Arnie:
“Heya, Nafeij! I went to the Joe Kubert art school for three years in Dover, New Jersey to learn how to draw comic books. It was a comic book school, can you believe it? Anyway, I left there and went to work for a short period at Rolling Stone magazine. After I got a double contract with DC comics and then worked with Marvel Comics, Malibu, Image...etc. About 8 years later I got an offer to come to IonStorm, a game company in Dallas, to head up a comic book division that was supposed to help market their games. They cancelled that division but kept me as a concept guy, though I had never even opened Photoshop. Whatever, it's easy...worked there for a year then went to Retro Studios in Austin, then Sony, then Bioware and then Stoic. Here I am now. Conversing with you.”
Zeb:
“I cut my teeth as a producer by working in theater. I ran my own small theater company in Brooklyn and on top of performing, was the guy who booked the theater, arranged travel, coordinated load-in, did fundraising and grant writing. I've always loved working on a project from concept to execution - I've got an indie heart. Software development and the video game industry have their own project cycle and vocabulary to learn, but the essential role of scheduling, scoping and executing a project are applicable to many industries.”
------
You can read the full AMA, here on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5smddl/we_are_stoic_indie_developers_creating_the_banner/
And be sure to check out our Banner Saga sub-reddit, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/bannersaga/
Please share the Saga with your friends! And, as always:
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Backer Achievements and more!
Happy Valentine’s Day to our entire community, those who have been with us since our first Kickstarter for Banner Saga 1 in 2012, those who discovered us along the way and played both Banner Saga 1 and 2, and those who have found us during our current campaign to make Banner Saga 3 awesome! Every one of you has given us your support, encouragement, feedback and ideas and made this series of games one of the most beloved. You’ve also made our team feel appreciated - and for that, we love each and every one of you. Today, we’d like to share a few of the ways we love you!
Introducing the Conclave
- A few months ago, our team created the community Conclave - a small group of a dozen of our most engaged community leaders - with whom we chat directly and gather their ideas and insights into gameplay, bugs, and design.
We leave this chat open 24-7 and all we ask of the Conclave members is that they check in from time to time (e.g. 15 - 30 minutes each week) and let us know their thoughts on the games, as well as report any questions community members have, or alert us to outages or bugs.
The Conclave has direct access to members of the Stoic team including Community Manager Katie, Producer Zeb, Programmer John and Artist Arnie. Other team members may join any time if needed. Members of the Conclave share the wider community’s viewpoints and ideas with the team.
You can rest assured that if you have ever posted somewhere about the Banner Saga, Stoic knows about it either directly or through the loving works of the Conclave.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Our Founder and Art Director, Arnie has created this loving message to the community on behalf of the team. We hope wherever you are you have a happy Valentine’s Day today!
AR BA RANG
Introducing Backer Achievements!
We’re super excited to have reached the halfway point in our Kickstarter!! We have reached 150% of our goal and can’t wait to see what Stretch Goals lie ahead… in the meantime, we’re giving our backers another way to earn a bonus in-game item - Backer Achievements!
We’ve created 30 Backer Achievements for you to reach and if the Banner Saga community can achieve any 25 of these, we’ll give everyone their own in-game item - the Troll Ward!
TROLL WARD
Troll Ward - A burning brand which heartens a clan, keeping trolls and other ne'er-do-wells at bay.
Backer Achievements FAQ:
- Q. Where do I follow Banner Saga on Twitter?
- A. Right here: https://twitter.com/BannerSaga/
- Q. Where do I Like Banner Saga on Facebook?
- A. Right here: https://www.facebook.com/BannerSaga/
- Q. Where do I follow Banner Saga on Instagram?
- A. Here: https://www.instagram.com/bannersaga/
- Q. Where do I subscribe to Banner Saga on YouTube?
- A. Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/user/StoicStudio
- Q. Which Tweet do I Retweet to add to the total for that achievement?
- A. This one! https://twitter.com/BannerSaga/status/823909838107254784
- Q. Which Facebook Post do I “Share” to add to the total for that achievement?
- A. This one! https://www.facebook.com/BannerSaga/posts/1448992228465948
- Q. On which YouTube video do I comment to add to the total the achievement?
- A. Right here: https://youtu.be/TPApGhsf-lM
- Q. What is the "KS Live" of which you speak?
- A. Arnie and John will be holding a KS Live session to answer your questions, sometime in the next couple of weeks and we'll be announcing more details soon!
DramaticPopcorn
Guest
I know nobody cares but I dropped by their kickstarter to see if they bury themselves in stretchgoals again to complain about it later, they seem pretty tame so far.
But what isn't tame is the absurdity of "community engagement":
To me, it looks like a list that a bored exec came up with in a brainstorming session and nobody had the courage to dissuade him.
Very few of those "challenges" carry a practical role to either the dev or the community, many of them are a hassle or inconvinience to the backers and all in all just seem like an overestimation of the fanbase in general. A little sad, tbh.
But what isn't tame is the absurdity of "community engagement":
To me, it looks like a list that a bored exec came up with in a brainstorming session and nobody had the courage to dissuade him.
Very few of those "challenges" carry a practical role to either the dev or the community, many of them are a hassle or inconvinience to the backers and all in all just seem like an overestimation of the fanbase in general. A little sad, tbh.
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Combat in Banner Saga 3 - Into Darkness
Hi, everyone! I’m Matt Rhoades, Lead Designer at Stoic. I’m excited to share some of the new combat designs we have in store for you in Banner Saga 3. Hopefully this will answer some questions as well as serve to start more discussions in the community about what’s to come.
Our unique Strength-versus-Armor dynamic has always been the hallmark of the Banner Saga trilogy, but Banner Saga 3 will utilize new combat-focused features that we haven’t been able to implement until now.
Battlefield Variety
In Banner Saga 2 we had destructible props, such as barricades, but in Banner Saga 3 we want to create more dynamic battle boards that can change and evolve over the course of a fight. Picture a flaming urn that, when struck, tips over and ignites a line of oil on the ground, creating a wall of fire with which your enemies (or your heroes) have to contend!
Enemy Minds (Updated AI)
We’re improving enemy Artificial Intelligence to make enemies feel smarter and more dangerous! We’re enhancing ‘pathfinding’ to let the enemy be attracted to or repelled from certain areas. This will let us tether enemies to make them better at defending objectives and also better at avoiding dangerous areas of the battle board (like fire pits). As a side effect, we will also be able to create battles that incorporate more hazardous terrain, which will make movement a more tactical choice for players.
We’ll set AI target priority in a more granular way, which will allow us to do more interesting attack/defend scenarios, and tell stories through our battles with a higher fidelity. This will lead to more organic behaviors and new strategic opportunities for players who want to build a plan around anticipating enemy’s actions.
Fighting in the Darkness
There’s a growing Darkness overtaking the world, and we’ve been crafting new mechanics that differentiate these battles from what you’ve seen before. I’m not going to say TOO much, but I will tell you that you can expect a replacement for the war horn and a press-your-luck element. This should have even our most experienced players torn while trying to decide what to do.
Lastly, I want to mention our “Alpha Access to Game Battles.” This will be your chance to try some of these new mechanics, including new bosses, in story - free battles that will help us gauge difficulty, fine tune some of our numbers, and, of course, make sure things are FUN! We’re looking forward to sharing these battles with you and we can’t wait to get your feedback on the backer forums.
Between these improvements and lessons learned from the previous games, I’m really excited about what we will offer you during battles in Banner Saga 3. We’ll still have plenty of straight-up Viking brawls, but you can look forward to more crafted battles that will challenge you to switch tactics and new enemies and playable units that… well, we’ll reveal that in the coming months! Thank you for your support!
Announcements
And don't forget to:
- Find out what inspires one of our creators in tomorrow's Kickstarter “Happening” newsletter. Sign up here:http://kck.st/2lTbk4n
- Arnie and John are doing a KS Live next week from DICE - so watch for us to announce the time on Thursday, February 23!
- Look on the main Kickstarter page (just below Stretch Goals) to see updates on our Community Achievement Goals!
- Today we should hit an amazing 6,000 backers for Banner Saga 3!! Thank you!!!
DramaticPopcorn
Guest
Infinitron why are you moving posts from news to this? What's the point?
prodigydancer
Arcane
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- 1,399
This combat update sounds very promising. Survival Mode will be fun with the increased encounter variety.
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1810423
$300k Stretch Goal Reached - Survival Mode Unlocked - Eternal Arena Announced!
Posted by Zeb L. West
You did it! You unlocked the next Stretch Goal - Survival Mode!
Every player will now have the ability to test their battle skills with more than 40 Heroes, new classes, enemies, and locations of Banner Saga 3 included! See our “What is Survival Mode?” update for more information.
The Relics
And what bonus do we discover in the chest? A pouch full of wondrous, powerful relics! These 3 new, unique items will be available in Banner Saga 3 as a brilliant commemoration of your incredible support reaching this stretch goal.
And to top it all off, all backers at the $100 level or above will receive these items automatically when they start the game. It is as if, during the intervening moments between the close of Banner Saga 2 and the opening of the final act of Banner Saga 3, our heroes were busy securing support and materiel for their struggle.
This bonus is in addition to the awesome Bellower miniature that has already been added to the $100+ tiers.
Next Stretch Goal Revealed!
The next stretch goal is $350k - “Ubin Lives” and we’re now on our way to unlocking that. You'll get a chance to experience the culmination of the Scrivener's storyline and take the venerable varl warrior onto the battlefield for the first time, to devastating effect. Stay tuned for an update that delves into more detail about Ubin!
In addition, we have uncovered the $400k Stretch Goal - ETERNAL ARENA!!
ETERNAL ARENA is a new game mode that we have devised, which pits your best combat tactics against quick-play challenges. Participate in weekly tournaments to prove the superiority of your tactics, and use the sandbox-style options to test out your wildest ideas, different gameplay rules, and alternate turn order mechanics. Unlock new Eternal Arena achievements to gain access to more units, more ranks, and more items, and more fun! We have heard your requests for something like Eternal Arena, and we will be happy to bring you a new mode that will satisfy some new gameplay angles.
KS Live Session Thursday, February 23
John and Arnie will be having a Kickstarter Live session on Thursday, February 23 with an exciting announcement. They’ll be taking your questions from the Live Chat, so come prepared with your questions! It will also be your chance to complete the Backer Achievement of 200 KS Live chat viewers, so be sure to tune in and tell your friends!
Community Achievements Progress
Since we announced the Community Achievements, you’ve been making amazing progress toward many of the goals! We are currently at 3 / 30 completed, including:
Be sure to share the achievement goals with your gamer friends so we can open up the in-game reward for everyone!
Shout Out!
Our shout out today goes to the folks at Spiritwalk Games, who currently have a Kickstarter for Shardbound - a Tactical Collectible Card Game that gives streamers and their viewers exciting new ways to interact and play together on Twitch!
Be sure to check them out, here:
Shardbound
And don't forget to:
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Come say hello to Arnie & John tomorrow!
Posted by Zeb L. West
Greetings bannerfolk!
Arnie and John will be streaming on Kickstarter Live tomorrow from DICE in Las Vegas. Submit your burning questions now using the link, and we will do our best to answer all questions during the stream. Tune in at 1:00 PM PST to find out all those things you’ve been dying to know about the game! Visit the KS page or follow this link to get a reminder when the stream goes live!
John and Arnie show their Viking off!
Community Achievements
We’re getting close on many of the Community Achievements! Remember, once you complete 25 achievement, we will give every player the Troll Ward in game! So share, tell your friends, and keep those pictures coming! Many thanks to Ratatoskr who posted this adorable “riding a (y)ox” picture to complete that achievement!
Yox Riding
Shout Out!
Congrats to our friends Manny and Nate at Mind Bottling Games, who have just two days left on their hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for Dice Throne! Dice Throne is a game of intriguing dice, tactical card play, powerful heroes, & unique abilities! Be sure to pledge while there’s still time to get all the sweet rewards and stretch goals!
Dice Throne
And don't forget to:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1814891
Exciting Twitch Announcement!
Hello Bannerfolk!
Today we have a huge announcement from our friends at Twitch and Versus Evil!
From February 23-28, everyone who has Twitch Prime can get Banner Saga 1 free! Then next week, from March 2 - 7, all Twitch Prime subscribers can receive Banner Saga 2 free! (Oh, and if you have Amazon Prime, you totally also have Twitch Prime automatically)
We need your help! Twitch wants to help Banner Saga 3 be awesome too, so for every player who downloads and plays each game during their featured week, Twitch will give us $1.00 toward development! Even if you already own both games you can download them again for FREE or introduce your friends to the series, and everyone who downloads and plays will be helping us fund development of Banner Saga 3! If you have questions, we've put some more info in our FAQ
Don't forget that you need to actually launch the game (not just download it) for us to get the contributions from Twitch - so please launch it!
Check out the full details on Twitch.tv
KS Live today at 1:00 PM PST! (Right now!)
Arnie and John will be coming to you live today, right now, streaming through KS Live from DICE in Las Vegas! You can watch the KS live and submit your questions, here: KS Live with Arnie and John! (If you miss it, a recording of the broadcast will stay up on the site!)
Shout Out!
Today's shout out goes to our friend Dango whose campaign for Hollow Dice was successfully funded in just 8 hours! To get your own beautiful and unique set of Hollow Dice, head over to their campaign before March 16 to back them!
Hollow Dice
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Who is Ubin?
Quick note about Kickstarter Live hiccups! So sorry for those who had technical problems during our KS Live (it's why the replay is so short too). There was a Kickstarter Server hiccup that threw a wrench in the works. But we plan to make it up to you by streaming AGAIN next week from GDC!
Ubin the Scrivener
Ubin, called the Scrivener, is one of the oldest living varl. The Saga begins with his voice, and follows his caravan into Strand.
Ubin is tasked with collecting taxes from the cities residing under the influence of the varl king, Jorundr. Strand is the largest of the trade cities on the varl-human border, and it will be last stop before Ubin and his caravan return to the varl capital, Grofheim. At the point of Ubin's arrival into Strand, the sun had only been stopped in the sky for several days, a dire omen that leaves everyone unsettled.
Ubin is present through much of the Saga, following Hakon's caravan through Ridgehorn to Grofheim, and joining Rooks' caravan in Einartoft. As a very old and thoughtful varl, he often provides valuable insight and advice to the heroes.His role is to catalogue and record the events he witnesses, and his immense wisdom commands respect from everyone he encounters, varl and Human alike. He takes great pleasure in his reputation, and his easy demeanor and great patience make him a valued friend to many.
Although much of his long life has been spent as an accomplished warrior, he prefers to live out his days in the service of the varl king as a chronicler of the events surrounding his dying race. The varl were each created by the god Hadrborg as a combination of Yox and Human, and unable to reproduce.
With the death of the gods, and Hadrborg with them, no new varl can ever be created. As each varl's life ends, the race is one step closer to extinction. Ubin's hope is to be the last varl alive, and to have the honor of writing the final chapter in the books of their race. Only Krumr and Snorri are older than Ubin, and Snorri likely perished in the destruction of Grofheim. This means that these varl witnessed, either directly or indirectly, the creation of every other varl by the hand of Hadrborg.
“We are the children of Hadrborg. From the ice and earth we were formed, and to the ice and earth we return. You know that the cycle of life leads to death. And for every other living thing, death paves the way to new life. Our kind are the only exception to that rule" -- The Gift of Hadrborg
Throughout the game, Ubin's voice is delivered by the accomplished Icelandic actor, Jóhann Sigurðarson (wiki). The signature opening dialogue of both games are Ubin's, as are the voice over when approaching Vedrfell, Ridgehorn, and Grofheim.
Jóhann is one of several Icelandic voice actors that contributed to the game through the excellent Studio Sýrland (facebook). During the earliest production of the game, we had planned on doing all of our voice acting in Icelandic, and using English subtitles on-screen. We ultimately went with a hybrid approach; start in Icelandic and cross-fade into English. While we were working on this update we found an old audio clip of Jóhann doing a voice test for the intro video, completely in icelandic: (soundcloud). Take a listen, and enjoy!
Jóhann is a multitalented actor, and his skills extend to singing. His deep, rich voice provided an indispensable part of Austin Wintory's soundtrack, appearing in several godstone folk songs, the funeral scene, and the final scene of Banner Saga 1. We have a great clip of Jóhann performing takes of one of these cues in a video here: (youtube).
And finally, some shout outs to a great artist and his work!
James W. Cain, the accomplished digital sculptor (@JamesWCain) (website), has created an amazing 3d sculpture of Ubin back in 2014 (article). We loved it so much that we ordered a 3d print of it for our studio. 3d printing a sculpture of this size and detail is quite expensive, but very worth it.
For this Kickstarter campaign, we worked with our partner Megacon games to see about bringing this sculpture to life for everyone. By utilizing the same high quality printing process used for the Banner Saga: Warbands miniatures (website), we could create a metal mold for the sculpture and then print a large number of them using high-density plastic injection. There is a minimum run of 1,000 which would be quite expensive if only a few of them were demanded. In the future, we'd like to offer a pre-order system on these so that once we hit a set threshold, we pull the trigger on the order. We'd probably need to pre-sell about 200 of them in order to make it worthwhile. If this is something you'd be interested in later on, please say so in the comments!
Shout Out!
Today we're sharing a fellow Kickstarter being done by our friends at Caveman Warriors - beautiful 2D world in which you can play solo or team up with up to 4 players! Play with the characters special abilities to advance in the game.
Please check out their Kickstarter and pledge if you can!
Caveman Warriors
And don't forget to:
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1817843
The Incredible Fan Art of Banner Saga
The Banner Saga community is incredibly supportive, and recently Gabe and Tycho at Penny Arcade showed just how supportive they can be! Scroll to the bottom of this update to see their incredible "Banner Saga 3 Promotion Thingy" and a link to their video.
Banner Saga Fan Art
Another beautiful way our community shows their support is through their creativity. We have so many talented artists and musicians who pay homage to our world. We’ve chosen some of our favourites to share with you in this Fan Art Update!
The artists featured in this update are:
1. Nikola Odic
2. Igor Artyomenko
3. sukreih
4. Gregory Sujkowski
5. James W Cain
6. Lekso Tiger
7. kad
8. Akogare
9. yokaiy
10. Shalizeh
11. Lili Ibrahim
12. EternalAnomaly
13. AnatoFinnstark
One of our Artists, Igor Artyemenko shared views on what inspired him about the Banner Saga:
“I was in awe of how a small force can create a very stylish and beautiful graphics. For me, the Banner Saga has become the benchmark of good taste and design.”
Igor spent several hours demonstrating his artistic talent live, on a Twitch stream during which he created a beautiful, Banner Saga inspired scene. You can view his time-lapse video, here:
Igor Artyomenko
Also, artist Angela Bermúdez (@AngelaBermudezA) recently did a live art show while Austin Wintory (@awintory) inspired her with his music! You can see the final results, here:
Angela Bermúdez
And check out this incredible speed painting of Bolverk, done by fan Sebastien Annoni (@annoniart):
Bolverk by Sebastien Annoni
Shout Out!
We just can't thank Tycho and Gabe at Penny Arcade enough for their Banner Saga 3 Promotion Thingy. It's poetic. It's beautiful. It's incredible.
You can watch the Promotion Thingy Video here on YouTube:
Gabe and Tycho Promotion Thingy
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1819904
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1821068
Next KS Live, Achievements & Upgrades
It’s our FINAL WEEK of the Kickstarter campaign! We’ve come so far and are so grateful to everyone who has pledged, shared, and supported the team for the past 5 weeks. We have more than 6,700 backers, we’ve unlocked 2 amazing stretch goals and are close to unlocking a third (#SaveUbin), and we’re more than halfway to finishing enough Community Achievements to give every player a free, in-game special item!
KS Live from GDC Tomorrow!
Tomorrow - Thursday March 2, at 1:00 PM we’ll be having another KS Live from GDC! Several of our Stoic team members are attending this year so you never know who might show up to answer your questions!
Stoic Team
Make sure you subscribe to the Stream so you’ll be notified when we go live!
Community Achievements
Once 25/30 of *any* of the Community Achievements have been completed, EVERYONE will get a Troll Ward in the game, whether they’re a backer or not. This is our way of sharing our thanks with all supporters of the game and who have made this community so incredible.
Community Achievements
As you can see, there are several achievements that require just a few people taking pictures and submitting them with the #BannerSaga note in the image! Don’t be shy, show us your Viking, your pet, show us 4 or more of you sharing a drink together. Sing us a song or play us a tune! Share your passion for all things Viking to the rest of the Banner Saga community and help keep the pesky Trolls away.
Upgrades & Add Ons
Many of our backers have already upgraded their reward tier level - thank you so much! If you would like to do the same, now is the time. Once the campaign ends, you will not be able to change your reward tier level, however, you will be able to select some add ons during the survey process, prior to fulfillment (in PledgeManager). As always, the best deal is to get it inside one of the reward tiers for the most savings!
Varl Loot Items
If you have had your eye on one of the awesome reward tiers but have not yet selected it, we suggest you do so before next Monday, March 6. And just a reminder - all backers at the $100 tier reward level or higher will receive *every* bonus loot item as well!
Twitch Prime and Banner Saga 2
Starting tomorrow, Banner Saga 2 will be *FREE* to all Twitch Prime members from March 2 to March 6. Head to http://twitch.tv/versusevil for more details!
Banner Saga 2 on Twitch Prime
For every person who DOWNLOADS and PLAYS Banner Saga 2 at least once during this promotion, Twitch will donate $1 to the development of Banner Saga 3!
Head to Twitch.tv now to find out more!
Shout Out!
Legion 1917
Our Shout Out today is for Legion 1917, a story-driven turn-based strategy that takes players into the heart of 1917 Russia, when a once mighty empire is crumbling.
If you enjoy immersing yourself in epic history games, you will love Legion 1917!
Be sure to check them out, here!
Thank you so much for your support! Don’t forget, please:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1821068
KS Live today! Banner Saga 2 FREE on Twitch Prime!
KS Live Today!
Reminder that we're having a KS Live with the Stoic Team from the Versus Evil Loft at GDC in less than two hours!
Join us for the Live chat at 1:00 PST here! Have your questions ready!
John and Arnie KS Live
Banner Saga 2 FREE on Twitch Prime
Banner Saga 2 on Twitch Prime
From today until March 6, Banner Saga 2 is FREE for all Twitch Prime members! Read more about this here, on the Twitch blog.
Shout Out!
Anew: The Distant Light
Today's shout out goes to Anew: The Distant Light by Resonator. An open-world action game for fans of single-player adventures. Battle, puzzle, and explore an exotic alien landscape.
Check them out here on Kickstarter!
See you at the KS Live today!
Thank you so much for your support! Don’t forget, please:
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Final three days.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1822894
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/1822894
The Audio Experience of Banner Saga
Michael Theiler, Kpow Audio
Kpow Audio
Hello I’m Michael Theiler, Sound Director at Kpow Audio. Since Kpow began working with Stoic on the Banner Saga series so many years ago, we have grown as a company both figuratively and literally. Through Stoic’s vision paired with the amazing talents of Austin Wintory, we were fortunate enough to contribute to this multi-award winning series. Our growth is in many ways directly due to their trust in us bringing the world of Banner Saga to life. It allowed us to dive into this rich, deep, and fully-formed world populated with interesting characters. The team at Stoic created this world and gave us the freedom to give it an audio identity, and this freedom has been one of the greatest gifts - one we have been determined not to squander!
Into Darkness
Close Travel
One of the aspects the Banner Saga world introduced in Chapter 2 is The Darkness. It appears as a presence in the distance, but is obviously getting closer. Indeed as you play through Chapter 2 you see it covering more of the map until later in the game it becomes its own character. Getting the sound just right for this presence was an interesting journey. It was such an important part of the world of the game that it needed something fairly iconic, but would be used in many different scenarios. The audio needed to be layered, and still be recognizable and have impact at different audio levels.
We achieved this by using three layers of sound:
When these were combined it created a kind of womb-like, surrounding tense pressure that was not too overpowering but felt fairly claustrophobic. It was the type of sound that gave you relief when it stopped.
- a growling bass loop
- a paired loop which also had some bass to it (but was a spatial gritty mini-explosions type vibe)
- a high frequency uncomfortable shimmer
World Travel
This is just one example of a combination of sounds that worked well for Banner Saga 2! As we start work on Banner Saga 3, we will need to add sophistication to our Darkness library of sounds. And we can’t wait…
Shout Out!
Gameband
Today's shout out is to fellow game-lovers: FMTwo Game Inc. They've created a powerful Smartwatch with a built-in upgradable MicroSD drive, gaming design and exclusive content.
Gameband is compatible with iOS and Android, and will have access to iOS and Android Phone based Companion Apps to help manage your Gameband. We think it's pretty awesome that it will let you take all your data with you and play anywhere!
Be sure to check them out in the next 2 weeks!
And please remember to share these links with your friends:
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