KickStarter Unrest: An Unconventional RPG set in Ancient India

[Deuce Traveler]

Sooo the game has been out for about 4-ish hours, and there's been a ton of feedback. I compiled a list of all stuff I could find in a forum post: http://steamcommunity.com/app/292400/discussions/0/45350791297352903/

Interested in hearing what the codex has to say about Unrest! (please be gentle, I'm in a post release emotional void atm)

It also released on GoG and Humble Store, so that's nice.

VioletShadow and I thank you for the keys that allowed us to do our review, sir! What era of India did you most target with this game?

Codex Review: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9544

 

[VioletShadow]

Sooo the game has been out for about 4-ish hours, and there's been a ton of feedback. I compiled a list of all stuff I could find in a forum post: http://steamcommunity.com/app/292400/discussions/0/45350791297352903/

Interested in hearing what the codex has to say about Unrest! (please be gentle, I'm in a post release emotional void atm)

It also released on GoG and Humble Store, so that's nice.

VioletShadow and I thank you for the keys that allowed us to do our review, sir! What era of India did you most target with this game?

Codex Review: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9544

Yes. Thank you! :D

 

[pyroary]

VioletShadow and I thank you for the keys that allowed us to do our review, sir! What era of India did you most target with this game?
Codex Review: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9544

Yes. Thank you! :D

Thanks a lot for that review! It is well thought out, and I found myself nodding with agreement till the end - until the this-isn't-an-RPG bit, of course. We'll agree to disagree on that one

Just one thing I would clarify is that programming two difficulty modes was basically 1 day's work, and it is entirely independent from making more content. Trust me, I would have added more stuff if I could - a team of 5 made this game on a budget on $30k (that's our KS money after taxes etc) over the course of an year while working freelance to pay the bills (hell, one of us worked in Home Depot alongside making this game). Considering that our budget was less than less than a single person's salary in a game studio, we added as much content as we possibly could.

I understand that this isn't an excuse, but when I hear the "lacking content" part, my inner voice is screaming "I did as much as I could, honest!" over and over.

One thing which I do feel was a mistake is to make a few plot changing choices very subtle - for example,

Spoiler

Bhagwan can kill Ranveer, which significantly increases the intensity of the riots and a lot of events and key conversations in the subsequent chapters.

However, doing that requires you exploring the slum area in all "stages" of that chapter thoroughly, which I feel that many players missed out on.

In any case, thanks a lot for taking the time to play the game. I appreciate your review and all the comments I've received from here. Oh, and for the era - Gupta period with a heavy influence from my hometown of Jaipur is the closest thing there is to a correct answer!

 

[VioletShadow]

One thing which I do feel was a mistake is to make a few plot changing choices very subtle - for example,

Spoiler

Bhagwan can kill Ranveer, which significantly increases the intensity of the riots and a lot of events and key conversations in the subsequent chapters.

However, doing that requires you exploring the slum area in all "stages" of that chapter thoroughly, which I feel that many players missed out on.

In any case, thanks a lot for taking the time to play the game. I appreciate your review and all the comments I've received from here. Oh, and for the era - Gupta period with a heavy influence from my hometown of Jaipur is the closest thing there is to a correct answer!

Wanna try that now! I'm planning on a new playthrough and I want to do everything totally different compared to the first two times. By the way, I don't feel that such subtle reactivity is a mistake necessarily. It's very cool when games have high replayablity and even if you missed it the first couple times, the player will eventually find little changes like these after the 3rd or 4th or 5th playthrough

 

[pyroary]

Wanna try that now! I'm planning on a new playthrough and I want to do everything totally different compared to the first two times. By the way, I don't feel that such subtle reactivity is a mistake necessarily. It's very cool when games have high replayablity and even if you missed it the first couple times, the player will eventually find little changes like these after the 3rd or 4th or 5th playthrough

Thank you!

I don't consider it a mistake either, otherwise I wouldn't make a game with this kind of stuff

However this type of thing often gets overlooked in reviews - which is entirely understandable because there's only X amount of time a reviewer can give to a single game. Usually, relatively obscure branches are much better to have with big fanbases, because a large amount of eyeballs means even the most obscure of secrets eventually finds its way to the public (eg. Dark Souls) and everyone says "wow, I didn't know that was possible!". With a small indie game like mine, a very small amount of people will actually take the time to explore every option - which means nobody actually ends up knowing the choices you put ~2 months of work into. This isn't because of any malice on the part of players - it is just a case of more people playing the game = more people playing it differently to find every single bit of content.

This makes it easier for large developers to justify adding lots of stuff like this to the game, and heavily discourages super small developers from doing the same thing. (Ironically, what often ends up happening is the exact opposite.)

I'm adding the recipe for my above spoiler here, just in case it is *too obscure* - so don't click it unless you want heavy gameplay spoilers:

Spoiler

Recipe for Dead Ranveer:

Enter the slum alley (where the naga were in Asha's slum chapter) with medicine as Bhagwan and be ambushed by the thug. Be reasonable with the thug and give up the medicine - not too frantically or he’ll assume you’re reasonably intimidated and take your stuff - while alluding to your misgivings about Ranveer. He’ll tell you to come back after reporting to Ranveer, and you’ll get a journal prompt reminding you.

Drop by, have a chat with Kanika, take the knife (at this point it’s practically impossible NOT to get the knife), and in the final confrontation with Ranveer you’ll have numerous points where you can pull it out and threaten him.

 

[VioletShadow]

pyroary Didn't click the spoilers! Wanna find out myself :D
And yeah, I see what you mean with more obscure choices being missed by the majority of players, which is but hey this is Codexia. We know replay.

 

[pyroary]

pyroary Didn't click the spoilers! Wanna find out myself :D
And yeah, I see what you mean with more obscure choices being missed by the majority of players, which is but hey this is Codexia. We know replay.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Maybe...

I did replay the game again and i did not see any major changes, its possible im blind. The ending overall other then (i think) a few lines are new. If you can call it a ending. You talk and in the middle of the conversation its "the end" roll credits.

Are there any more endings other then 1?

 

[GlutenBurger]

Is it possible for the mercenary captain to quit and take his mercenaries with him, instead of just quitting as captain of the mercenaries? I had intended on doing that in response to their pay being cut, but I seemed to be forced to commit the troops to battle. I was going through on mortal difficulty, so wasn't able to try the end dialogue again.

I don't know why he would have to quit by himself. They could of course refuse to go with him if they dislike him enough, especially those who had been recruited from Bhimra since the coup but they're supposed to be his men and I'd think he'd treat them as such.

 

[pyroary]

Are there any more endings other then 1?

The scene for the ending is the same, but what is being said can change based on events in the game.

Is it possible for the mercenary captain to quit and take his mercenaries with him, instead of just quitting as captain of the mercenaries? I had intended on doing that in response to their pay being cut, but I seemed to be forced to commit the troops to battle. I was going through on mortal difficulty, so wasn't able to try the end dialogue again.

I don't know why he would have to quit by himself. They could of course refuse to go with him if they dislike him enough, especially those who had been recruited from Bhimra since the coup but they're supposed to be his men and I'd think he'd treat them as such.

This is a tricky one. The situation in the city is that:

Spoiler

(a) There are riots starting when the mercenary captain hears news of the payroll cut, and a majority of his men are already positioned along the places where they're going on. Getting the news to his troops and preparing/mobilizing them to basically walk out of the city would take days, if not weeks. He can't exactly radio his troops to drop their spots and leave, he would need to get several messengers and trust them to (be loyal)/(not die) when relaying his message.
(b) The palace guards (the ones in yellow) are not mercenaries, and the city is not entirely protected by Shyam's men. There could easily be fighting between the palace guards and mercenaries, assuming all of the mercenaries are loyal to Shyam. Ranveer's faction may complicate matters too.
(c) The mercenaries know that Vijay is the one paying them, even if Shyam is their leader. If Shyam decides he's had enough and decides to withdraw his men, Vijay may make a counter offer to a lieutenant to kill Shyam and take his place, with more pay.

Note that this is just off the top of my head, I have been busy with feedback and stuff so this may not be 100 percent accurate. But otherwise yeah, a lot of factors make Shyam and his entire troops walking away very impractical.

 

[Agesilaus]

Okay, turns out the game autosaved, so I reloaded and finished it. I liked it a lot because it felt like I was making decisions and affecting the story like AoD. That said, I only played once, so I don't really know if I actually changed anything. I think the most important thing would be to make sure the content is there so that my impression is a reality; if I played this again and found out that it ends the same way no matter what, then... yeah no thanks.

Also, I never experienced any combat until I was dumb enough to follow the messenger as Shyam, and even then it was only a dialogue-combat that ended instantly.

 

[pyroary]

Agesilaus Thanks!

Oh, and my writer wrote a postmortem of the game, containing fun and juicy facts like how much money we made (hint: less than 500 bucks a month, and this was the most paid guy).

Check it out if you're interested in how a Kickstarter funded game might end up being made: http://pyrodactyl.com/2014/07/29/unrest-honest-postmortem-kickstarter-success/

 

[Stainless Veteran]

I backed this when it was on a Kickstarter. Haven't played much since release, but so far it looks decent, if not very RPG-ish. Reminded me more of a branching VN. It's not a bad thing, mind you. The setting is very interesting, and I really want to see other games made in it. For example, Darklands-style RPG in this medieval fantasy India would be awesome.

 

[sea]

Missed out on the Kickstarter but I just chucked some cash your way for a copy. Congrats on release guys, your game is really unique and has an original perspective and goal that I think is admirable. And, after reading Ruts'/Adam's post-mortem I was even more impressed at what you accomplished and the circumstances in which you did so. Best of luck and I hope you guys move on to make more, even better games in the future!

 

[pyroary]

sea and Stainless Veteran Thank you!

On an unrelated note, can I interest the codex in some Unrest avatars? :D

 

[Deuce Traveler]

sea and Stainless Veteran Thank you!

On an unrelated note, can I interest the codex in some Unrest avatars? :D

Heck yes! If you or someone else posts them to the avatar thread, within the correct size, the staff will decide whether to add them or not.

Avatar thread: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/avatars.5138/page-57

 

[victim]

I picked this up. Its good, although not an RPG in the "wander world, mash monsters" sense. I think that the Naga could've been done as humans but like the Huns (ie freakish disfigurement/deformity)

On the third part I kept refusing just to see if the game would do what it kept intimating it might. It did.

 

[pyroary]

On the third part I kept refusing just to see if the game would do what it kept intimating it might. It did.

Glad you liked it!

 

[sea]

Finished it just now. Really liked some of the subtlety in the reactivity the game has and enjoyed how the story really had a good sense of momentum towards the end where everything felt like it boiled over. There's a certain element of chaos in the story - all the characters you play as really kind of reinforces everyone's trying to do what they think is best, and even some of those with power and influence ultimately can find themselves losing for reasons completely beyond their control. I'll probably go back and play it totally differently again just to see what happens.

 

[Starwars]

I think that was the greatest thing about the game. The character switching was surprisingly effective in how it actually did show off the different views on the situation. It did great in showing off how different people would view the events transpiring.

 

[pyroary]

Thanks sea & Starwars . The multiple characters were used for exactly what you two describe

 

[JarlFrank]

Good game, but short. Expected it to be longer, some characters only seem to have one chapter to them? You should make an expansion or a longer sequel, it was disappointingly short for me, but a good game nevertheless, I like what you did with the concept.
What are your plans now? I'd like to see more like this done by you.

 

[pyroary]

What are your plans now? I'd like to see more like this done by you.

I will definitely make another Unrest-like game. Whether it will be Unrest 2 or Unrest: subtitle or something in an entirely new setting, I haven't decided yet. Will have more details in maybe a month when the dust from Unrest settles.

Thanks!

 

[Drax]

Late to the party.
Congratulations on the release man!

I'll check it out as soon as I have some spare monnies, right now I'm still covering the mafia-loan caused by PoE, TToN, Star Citizen's kickstarters...

 

[Infinitron]

RPS review: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/06/wot-i-think-unrest/

I wish it were more literary or theatrical in its presentation and style, but perhaps that would distract from the aspects that I admire. A fair few people have reacted to the brevity and lack of resolution by suggesting that the game is unfinished but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. It may be a little rough but Unrest is deliberate in its approach to the idea of playing roles and even though I don’t entirely approve, I will defend to the death (or mild shouting) Pyrodactyl’s attempt to introduce new elements to the conversation.