Game News Bloom - "Action adventure with a dose of RPG" on Kickstarter

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Tags: Bloom; Studio Fawn

UPDATE: The Kickstarter campaign has been relaunched with the $50,000 funding goal: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1376061185/bloom-memories-one-of-a-kind-action-adventure-rpg. The new artwork is pretty sweet.

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Yet another Kickstarter. I'm not complaining if it means more games, but it's getting harder to choose what to pledge for.

This time the Kickstarted game is Bloom, and the head developer Dani Landers (of Studio Fawn) describes it as "an isometric action adventure game with a dose of RPG elements. Set in a rich fantasy world caught in in the midst of an epic battle between nature and the re-emerging technology of the past, Bloom strives to create something truly special."

From the combat update:

First, the core functionally of how a player interacts with the world is broken into 3 categories.

1) Archery - The primary tool your character has is a bow and arrow. This is a rather weak attack in itself, but more so functions as the main tool with which you can interact with the world. You are also able to attach both enchantments and / or items onto your arrows in order to deliver them around the playing field.

2 ) Items - These are items you have on you, or find around you. From different types of plant seeds, to a crystal which can absorb an ambient enchantment effect, to just a rock sitting on the ground. You may either fire these to points on the field, or have your character directly place / interact with them. After they are on the playing field, they can then be further interacted with to create various effects (such as growing a plant from a seed on the ground).

3 ) Enchantments - This is Blooms form of magic. Enchantments are various effects you can find naturally in the environment or even learn and use yourself. They can be placed onto items, arrows, a portion of the playing field, or even yourself and enemies / creatures. Enchantment effects range from the ability to cause growth, to slowing time, to reversing forces, to causing darkness, or even calling upon small animals in the area to congregate at a certain place.

The Kickstarter page has a pitch video up and a couple of early updates on combat and rendering tech. They have 36 days to scrape together $150 000.

This project has been running for more than a week already and they've got only 65 (one of them being me) backers and $2,781. Their chances of making it are insignificant.

No thanks.

I thought it was an Oblivion mod.

Not to mention this is their third attempt. You'd figure they would have just given up by now.

Main issue is probably that you need to give at least $30 to even get the game.

Moar pipe dreams. Meh.

This is the first time they contacted the codex about it... Has the pitch changed anything from previous attempts?

Hiya, I ran across the thread so thought I would jump in and clear up some things

This is our first attempt at kickstarter. I'm not sure why you think we tried before? We do have friends who have tried kickstarter in the past (such as the Blur movie that just got funded)... but nothing associated with us.

We knew we were coming out of nowhere and no one would have heard of us outside of the industry, so we set the campaign time a bit longer than normal (45 days instead of the normal 30). So far things are going great and every day more and more people are coming to the campaign page. Of course, we still have a long way to go, so help spreading the word is definitely appreciated (and thanks to RPGcodex for posting it here).

Then, the reason we are releasing for xbox and ouya is because our engine is unity3d (which, makes multi platform support extremely easy). Don't worry, this won't affect the game or the graphics (if you watch the overview of some of the technology we use, actually it is pretty light to handle with some amazing results... so can go onto a less robust system like the ouya fine). We are first developing it for PC and any adjustments that need to be made for other systems (if any) will be made after we have locked in the PC build.

The reason we put 30 dollars at the game reward tier is because...well... we are pretty small. Kickstarter for us isn't simply a store-front where you can buy extra early pre-orders. It is giving us the chance to get the resources we need to make something really special (that we wouldn't be able to do otherwise, at least not to the level we plan to do with the campaign amount. If kickstarter fails, we go back to working full-time and working on the project when we can... 20 hours a week max compared with 100+ we could do with the money).

So, offering rewards that cut into the donations can really destroy a business (there are some articles of this happening to some other companies... where after raising 50k+...they ended up with only 2k actually going to the project...). This is really about helping a tiny indie studio create something new and exciting.

Hope that helps some Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer them as best I can

I hope you have a really thick skin, or you may join the long list of developers that couldn't cut it on the 'dex, not even a whole week. With that out of the way: Welcome to the Codex!

Now for a few questions:
1. How do you plan to raise the profile of your project, because at the rate it's going now, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of making it.
2. I see that you have some really good artists, because the pictures you posted on your project page are quite nice, but how about game design and implementation? Is it going to be turn-based/real-time with pause/real-time? The perspective is going to be top-down/isometric/over-the-shoulder third-person/first-person? What is going to be the balance between adventure and RPG? Are they going to be equally balanced, adventure-heavy and RPG-light or RPG-heavy and adventure-light?
3. How did you decide on the $150k funding goal?
4. Are you past the pre-production stage/do you already have a (tentatively) working build? Right now I'm seeing just art and some gameplay mechanics in the combat update...
5. Is it going to be DRM-free?

Isometric action adventure with decent art style? Sounds good to me.

All I need to know is: will it be awesome like Cadaver or lame like Little Big Adventure?

Thanks Oh, don't worry You can't be a professional artist without thick skin ~_~

1) The strategy right now is simply continued pushing of the project. Last night I put an order out for a press release to be sent through Europe. Every week (so two now), I send out press releases to sites which haven't covered us (and if you google studio fawn bloom, you will find a bunch of articles that are starting to spring up). Basically, it is going fine so far, slowly more people are picking up on it and hearing about it. Hopefully we can also get some fan support in spreading the word and tipping off their favorite forums and game websites or tweeting about it to build support.

2) Thanks, actually all of the artwork you see is mine. It is what I do, I'm a professional artist (and have worked on various movies / games over the last few years here in Hollywood). My art background (and experience in composting and other production methods) is a huge asset to the project (I bring a unique way of seeing and doing things to the game). Combine this with a great grasp on development (along with the programmers I am working with), and we are really breaking a lot of "rules".

For example. You know that tech overview video I did? Basically, we are able to produce a picture of a large section of grass as a flat image (which is normal for a background). BUT, because of how we handle the compositing of the render layers (normal maps and height maps), your character can actually walk through the grass (and the blades which should be in front of your foot will be). Even in a fully 3d game, to have billions of blades of individual grass would be impossible....but because of my unique skillset and bringing that into the design (with the help of my programmer) we can go beyond anything you have seen before.

Also, we have a great deal of resources in terms of talent (remember, I'm a professional artist). I am in constant contact with the very best of the best in the games and movie industries. This industry is pretty small, we all tend to know each other (and see each other various events / lectures / whatnot). So, I'm not alone... any problems we run into, we will have plenty of resources to take advantage of.

~~ The perspective is going to be isometric.
~~ It will be real time with pause
~~ We are focused more on adventure, we don't want people sitting listening / reading long texts. There will definitely be a story and other RPG elements, but the way we tell it will be a lot easier to take than a lot of RPG's do. It won't be all fighting though, there will be a lot of challenges outside of just fighting.

3) We decided on the $150k funding goal by looking at our savings, seeing how much we would need for living costs and hardware /software costs (since I have 5 computers I use already for work, it isn't much). I want to be full-time on the project (basically covering my living costs), and my programmer is free to work part time (so will be looking for extra help in the programming department). We also have a lot of offers of people who want to help (those with established jobs and experience in the industry, who just want to be a part of something creative like Bloom).

In addition to my art training, I also have an accounting degree...so the financials were worked out pretty ok

4) We have things running in our engine (testing some of the code for what we will need to establish the look with), but not a working demo. Our first step once we get funded is to finish up a demo and get that out to people. We will refine the look, get the composting layers in place (how the 3d and 2d can work together), and work out some other features (like creating weather effects off of the normal and height maps we already have in place). After the demo is completed, all that is left is to fill out the world with content and extend it into the rest of the game.

Really though, the game is not that complex. It is (at its core) an isometric game. Simply we approach some of the combat / interactions in a different way which allows for a greater variety of effects and intractability.

For example, most people would design a blowing attack to simply check an area for enemies and push back effected creatures X pixels (fast, easy, boring). We will just be adding in a 0-10 weight value and assigning the blowing attack a force value...then check that against the position of the two characters ~which are already being tracked anyway~, and finally throw in a falloff variable to calculate the pixel movement affect). It really isn't that complicated, it just takes a few seconds of extra consideration and the desire to take things a few steps further.

5) For PC we are planning to use steam (since it is such a great distribution platform, and will increase visibility of the project). I believe that needs to have DRM (not our choice, simply that is what steam demands) box360 is the same way. We aren't sure what Linux will need yet.

But, honestly, we want people playing the game and having fun. We will be giving out free copies, and other promotions to make getting the game as easy as possible. We aren't trying to milk money out of the players... our business philosophy is direct and honest, making a very high quality product and getting it into the hands of people who want to experience it.

Does the game have enough of it?

Another one for the "Phrases that Lost their Meaning" book that I plan to write. Oops, already there, Peter Molyneux got you.

Anyway, the screens look beautiful but I think there just isn't enough material to show to people when asking for $30 minimum to get the game in digital form. You may have the hugest experience in movies or whatever, but this doesn't mean a lot for most gamers. Games are a different beast and because you are neither Double Fine nor Obsidian you need to show something more than just ideas and tech overviews.

I hope you give some more solid data on the game(especially the gameplay and the setting) and finally succeed in your funding.

This. The first tier of any of these things should be the game. I'll never understand why they have lower tiers that give you absurd things like wallpapers or decals or whatever. If you only need $150k it's foolish to put the actual game tier at $30.

Why the hell RTwP? Isn't this something like Zelda?

I really didn't consider people who would be donating as simply consumers. Instead, I see people who donate as those who want to become part of the indie game community in supporting unique / exciting projects.

We aren't trying to sell you the game for 30 dollars. It will probably be way cheaper when / if it comes out. The 30 dollars is about supporting the project because you want to see something new that you won't see out of a larger company.

There is a huge difference between a company like Obsidian and Studio Fawn.

Donating to our project is about deciding if the company itself continues or not (though, that is a little dramatic. The company will be around, but we will be working full-time as well... and the project will likely get hacked up and simplified into something a couple a people can do in their free-time after work. Like most indie games end up being.).

It is how indie games go. They need money to happen, especially if you want something like Bloom. Even just a game like Fez was done starting with a hefty grant ~_~

The combat system is more complex and strategic than Zelda. It also offers a lot more customization in how you play and develop the character.

One of the key aspects in Bloom is the way different abilities / items / enemies will all react with each other. It adds a great amount of intuitive exploration in how you approach enemies (or the environment). When you come to an enemy, it isn't simply "hit it with a sword till it dies then move on and do it again".

I don't know...I think constant pausing kinda ruins the flow of combat. But I'd have to see it in action.

You shouldn't need to pause all the time. It is just there as an option so you can collect yourself a minute or carefully target something ...or to look at a map... or to just get up and go to the restroom

I'd pledge if it were a text adventure. Because you know, irony an' shit.