KickStarter The Banner Saga

[CrustyBot]

http://www.indiegamemag.com/ex-bioware-devs-announce-the-banner-saga/

Arnie Jorgensen, Alex Thomas and John Watson are names you probably won’t recognise, but they have just spent half a decade working as lead developers on Star Wars: The Old Republic – a name you should be familiar with. Let’s get away from that part of their history though, just as they have.

Based in Austin, Texas these three men decided to put together what funds they could scrape up between them and make their own game studio. Consequently, Stoic was formed and its experienced developers were out to make the kind of game they really wanted to play. “We appreciate good art, thoughtful design and engaging story and think there are plenty gamers out there who agree”, it reads on their official website.

Their game, The Banner Saga, is described as a mixture of sorts but an interesting and unique one at that: “role-playing meets turn-based strategy, wrapped into an adventure mini-series about vikings.” The appeal of The Banner Saga is to mature gamers who appreciate strategy, a good story and some lovely animated art; a glimpse of which proves an impressive presentation.

“It will include BioWare-style dialog, exploration of gorgeously painted landscapes, and turn-based strategic combat,” John Watson told us. “The story is compelling and epic, and your choices will dramatically affect the outcome of the story.”

Turn based combat? Actual C&C? Looks like it has potential.

(I also like the screenshot, looks stylized though to be honest, it's a little reminiscent of traditional Japanese art. I could be wrong though, I'm not 1eyedking.)

So, Codex: or ?

Which is more likely and why?

DISCUSS!

 

[Comrade Goby]

“It will include BioWare-style dialog,

It depends on what this means.

Is it wheel style ANGEL/EVEEEEEEEL 3 choice dialogue?

Plus Tortanic isn't exactly the most promising of backgrounds to come from.

It may have brotential though

 

[laclongquan]

Fuck that! Viking is underused so this worth a look at.

 

[octavius]

I just hope "good art" and "vikings" don't translate into those usual retarded helmets with cow horns...
Although it looks promising so far.

 

[SuicideBunny]

sounds like a turnbased patapon...

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

This better ain't a shot of the ingame graphics.

 

[Fens]

I just hope "good art" and "vikings" don't translate into those usual retarded helmets with cow horns...
Although it looks promising so far.

even better... they dropped the helmets and the horns come out of their heads now:

also: orang arms

 

[Kruno]

Another casual game for a casual audience. I guess we now play the waiting game.

 

[Menckenstein]

If TOR is shit this will be the greasy anal snot that accompanied it out.

 

[Phelot]

The appeal of The Banner Saga is to mature gamers

Uh oh...

"Did you just hear what I just heard?

"I most certainly did..."






MATURITY FUCK YEAH

 

[Metro]

It's turn based strategy not turn based RPG combat.

 

[Random]

Holy shiste, they're based in the very city I'm living in right now?

Wait, does that mean TOR was also developed in Austin?

EVERYTHING I KNOW IS A LIE!

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Holy shiste, they're based in the very city I'm living in right now?

Wait, does that mean TOR was also developed in Austin?

EVERYTHING I KNOW IS A LIE!

Dude, you living under a rock? Everybody knows BioWare Austin created TOR from it's very inception in 2005.

 

[Random]

No... I knew that on some fundamental level. I have a feeling I forgot it on purpose.

 

[Average Manatee]

The fact that they broke off from TOR before its release and inevitable nosedive speaks well for them, so this could be promising.

 

[gromit]

Combat screenshot... how this moves will make it either pretty or ugly.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Meanwhile, current Bioware employees work on the Bannu Saga.

On a serious note, the combat screen immediately reminded me of Dofus. That's not really a bad thing.

The armored enemies look like they're from Zelda. Kind of clashes with the normal looking soldiers, but the hero looks cartoonish so I dunno.

 

[gromit]

Zelda? I guess I can see it w/ the big guys. As a whole the characters strike me as "vaguely Bluth-y" and there's an obvious the old-school Disney influence in the landscapes.

 

[laclongquan]

Comic art is a bit of a turn off, but I can ignore it, I think.

 

[Shannow]

Looks like the DA:O-facebook-game.

 

[Aldebaran]

That is an interesting use of foreground, but I wonder how it looks in action? A fifth of your screen being blocked by scenery, no matter how strategically it was chosen, could get very annoying after the novelty wears off. In the format of a still image, though, I will admit that it looks good. Not too fond of the character work.

I wonder how the UI looks? It would seem to be a pop up menu. Hopefully it is half way functional instead of having big, friendly buttons which lead you through mazes of other big, friendly buttons as I think an indie might be tempted to do. That, or have no UI.

 

[Ulminati]

Might be decent.

Probably won't.

Will give them the benefit of doubt until a playable demo is out.

If it turns out awful I may just have to revive the partially-completed TBS I have lying about in fragments on my HDD, in which you rape & pillage the british isles with bands of angry vikings.

 

[villain of the story]

When I read vikings and saw the Disney-influenced but otherwise reasonably realistic art, I hoped for a moment for a reasonably realistic game in its depiction of vikings and their history but judging from that combat screen, I think it will be just another shitty fantasy crap with ancient evil bullshit with stupidly simplistic combat devoid of depth.

This is what 10+ years of anti-TB policy of mainstream publishers does to the mindset of people: when they somehow decide to go TB, they shoot so low.

DA:O Facebook game sums it up well, I guess.

And a pity, I like the art.

 

[octavius]

Except for those rather stupid horns I like the art style. It's not the usual 3D and is different from the traditional western CRPGs, and it's thankfully not anime.
The combat screen reminds me of Heroes of Might and Magic. Hopefully combat is a bit more complex than that, though.

 

[visions]

The horns and bad guys look stupid. Seems more fantasy than mythological/folkloric/historical, which is a shame. And cheesy fantasy at that.