KickStarter Wellspring: Altar of Roots - tactical RPG inspired by JRPGs (formerly Bevontule)

[Jimmious]

Man the fade is FF to the extreme (in a good way actually)

 

[vazha]

Not to hurt dev's feelings, but Bevontule was a weird af name and this one is even worse.

 

[aweigh]

Wellspring isnt that bad. Honestly its about the same (in terms of badness) as Bevontule, though Wellspring doesnt strike particularly as RPG-ish and instead evokes Harvest Moon-like qualities.

Either way I am still hyped!

 

[MTG_Derek]

Not to hurt dev's feelings, but Bevontule was a weird af name and this one is even worse.

Where is the input of people like you when were painstakingly deliberating over the name for weeks at a time?!

Don't worry though, feelings are not hurt. Obviously, changing the title of a game while it's in-progress isn't exactly easy to do, but I'd be interested to know why Wellspring is worse than Bevontule.

 

[Citizen]

Not to hurt dev's feelings, but Bevontule was a weird af name and this one is even worse.

Where is the input of people like you when we painstakingly deliberate over the name for weeks at a time?!

Don't worry though, feelings are not hurt. Obviously, changing the title of a game while it's in-progress isn't exactly easy to do, but I'd be interested to know why Wellspring is worse than Bevontule.

Wellspring is a "Neil Young wannabe" album title, Bevontule is some obscure european folk-death-metal band name. Which is better, I don't know.

 

[MTG_Derek]

Not to hurt dev's feelings, but Bevontule was a weird af name and this one is even worse.

Where is the input of people like you when we painstakingly deliberate over the name for weeks at a time?!

Don't worry though, feelings are not hurt. Obviously, changing the title of a game while it's in-progress isn't exactly easy to do, but I'd be interested to know why Wellspring is worse than Bevontule.

Wellspring is a "Neil Young wannabe" album title, Bevontule is some obscure european folk-death-metal band name. Which is better, I don't know.

I like Neil Young better than most obscure european folk-death-metal bands, so I'm down with your logic.

 

[JarlFrank]

How about: "Root Altar: A Well in Spring"?

 

[MTG_Derek]

How about: "Root Altar: A Well in Spring"?

"Well Springtime for Hitler"

 

[JarlFrank]

I would back that with 1488 dollars on Kickstarter.

 

[aweigh]

Wellspring: Tactics

get dat broad audience with crpg and jrpg appeal two-in-one

#notAJoke

 

[Alienman]

Get a "fantasy" in there also and you are gold.

 

[aweigh]

Bevontule Fantasy: Tactics: Wellspring Archipelago: Root of Numeternity

 

[Alienman]

Perfect.

 

[Abu Antar]

The Elder Wellsprings: Bevontule
Wellspring Age
Wellspring Effect
The Age of Wellspring
Wellspring Wars: Rogues of the Old Republic
Wellspring Souls
Final Wellspring
Wellspring Hearts
Tales of Wellspring
Wellspring: Torment
Wellspring's Gate: Throne of Bevontule
Wellspring Ex: Bevontule Divided
Call of Wellspring: Medival Warfare
Wellspring's Creed
The Legend of Wellspring: Altar of the Wild
Super Wellspring Odyssey

...and so on

 

[Ninjerk]

Bevontule Fantasy: Tactics: Wellspring Archipelago: Root of Numeternity

It needs a celebrity developer name or two like Guido Henkel's Bevontule Fantasy: Tactics: Wellspring Archipelago: Root of Numeternity by Mister Tim Caivellawyer

 

[Delterius]

It needs a celebrity developer name or two

good call

Chris Avellone

 

[Cross]

I'd be interested to know why Wellspring is worse than Bevontule.

I can't speak for anyone else, but when I read 'Wellspring: Altar of Roots', I'm immediately reminded of games like 'Horizon: Zero Dawn' or 'Kingdom Hearts' where the title reads like literal nonsense.

A title should never be longer than is needed for getting its meaning across. For example, Orwell's '1984' doesn't just describe the year the story takes place in, but it also refers to the Party's method of falsifying history books and rewriting the past, meaning that the present time (1984) is the only thing left that's real.

Doing the 'word: colon: more words' thing is fine if its used to express something specific. 'Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura' describes the conflict between technology and magic taking place in the game's setting Arcanum, even using different styles of vocabulary to express that conflict in the title. On the other hand, 'Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning' is a bad title because a reckoning taking place in some kingdoms is something general and non-specific. Similarly, a wellspring connected to an altar, even one made of roots, is an incredibly vague concept.

That being said, I still don't know what a 'bevontule' is supposed to be.

 

[Infinitron]

We recently updated the cloth physics in our tactical, turn-based RPG Wellspring : Altar of Roots--as is sometimes par the course with Unity, we went with an Asset Store solution instead of the built-in cloth. For #screenshotsaturday, here's a quick video of me running around seeing how Bodom's cape reacts to movement and making sure that our framerate doesn't get wrecked. Key takeway: Obi Cloth beats Unity Cloth.

 

[santino27]

I don't mind the Wellspring change. Altar of Roots feels like a big, fat, nothing to me, but to be fair, most game titles are dumb.

Also, an update that answers what Bevontule even was:

As it turns out, one of the crucial takeaways from our Kickstarter campaign is that Bevontule isn't exactly the best title. For a variety of reasons (marketing/visibility, pronunciation, spelling, etc.) we've decided to change the title to Wellspring. For background, the reason we chose Bevontule is that... well, it's a made-up word with no real-world meaning (wish we had a cooler background story.) In-game, however, Bevontule actually refers to an enigmatic, yet crucial location within the plot, so it'll stay in the game in that capacity. Lore-wise, a Wellspring, however, refers to the name of a forbidden 'pool' of energy, of which many can be found scattered across the continent of Onich. These are vitally important to the plot, so the name doesn't exactly come out of left field. And hey, it's way easier to pronounce and spell than Bevontule.

Know that this wasn't an easy decision, by any means, and in the interest of transparency, we want to make it clear that this name change is, by no means, an attempt to 'bury' this Kickstarter. On the contrary, we still made it pretty far and we'd incredibly proud of what we have accomplished. We wanted to make this post to address any future concerns that might arise during the eventual relaunch.

We've been a little more quiet than lately, but know that we're still dedicated to this project! We've had to spend quite a bit of time as well rebranding: changing our logos, social media handles, et cetera--fun stuff.

And of course, we also needed to change the branding on our demo itself--doesn't help too much to have that floating around with the word Bevontule still, does it? We also took this opportunity to update a few things, optimize a few other things, and of course--squash a lot of bugs, some more elusive than others.

We had a lot of great feedback during our campaign, particularly as it pertained to the demo, and we're always hungry for more! If interested, we'd love for you to try it out and let us know what you think! Specifically, we'd love to know how it runs, how it plays and what changes you'd like to see in the future! You can download it from one of our game pages below:

Download from Steam

Download from Gamejolt

Download from Itch.io

For the full changelog, keep on reading!

Important
As a result of changing the title from "Bevontule" to "Wellspring", old save files and configuration data will not automatically work. To fix this, do the following:

• Find the AppData folder for Bevontule--this is usually found at C:\Users\<your_user_name\AppData\LocalLow\Multithreaded Games\
• Run "Wellspring_Demo.exe" and close it before choosing configuration options from the built-in Unity dialog
• There should be a "Wellspring" directory in the same directory as the previously-mentioned Bevontule folder
• Open the Bevontule folder and copy all of its contents into the Wellspring folder--make sure to overwrite anything if prompted
• Run Wellspring_Demo.exe as normal!

Improvements

• Removed references to "Bevontule"--new title is "Wellspring: Altar of Roots"!
• Improved cloth performance by up to 80%
• Increased Bodom's field movement speed by around 10%
• Reduced enemy AI calculation time up to 10x in some cases (most noticeable with the Drone enemy)
• General graphical optimizations
• Tweaked a few enemy battle formations so that they were closer to allies
• Rebalanced certain enemy attributes, skills and drop rates
• Reduced 'ghosting' (motion trails) on characters when moving
• Significantly reduced the chances that an enemy might move slightly out of its movement radius in combat
• Removed Kickstarter references and replaced with newsletter signup

Fixes

• Fixed issue where Voltaic Whelp could fail to land on the ground
• Fixed rare issue where Voltaic Whelp battle could lock up the game
• Fixed issue where highlighted collectibles could become 'frozen' when entering combat
• Fixed issue where scene fade-ins could trigger twice in a row or not trigger at all
• Fixed audio volume issues
• Fixed excessive sliding for skills that cause targets to be knocked back
• Fixed issue where minimap wouldn't appear after first cutscene if the pause menu was opened
• Fixed issue where minimap could sometimes be opened during cutscenes and battle
• Fixed issue where Klyph would require 20 more iron to see the 'black market' if the player exited the current scene and returned
• Fixed UI issue where right-clicking to cancel, when hovering over a character panel, would fail to work
• Fixed UI issue where EP/AP costs would sometimes disappear in the Skills menu
• Fixed issue where Blightculler could not be used to attack in certain circumstances
• Fixed issue where Bodom's passive skill Risk and Reward was applied to items as well
• Fixed issue where Moroch's passive skill Tourniquet applied to items as well
• Fixed issue where characters could sometimes be revived in battle to full HP instead of just 50
• Fixed issue where revived characters would not be placed on the ground until moving
• Fixed issue where area projection for line-based skills was displayed incorrectly
• Fixed issue where certain characters would orient themselves improperly when using skills

 

[Bohrain]

I think changing the name was good simply because Wellspring sounds like proper English unlike Bevontule. The latter has that kind of awkward weeb feel where you are not really sure how you are supposed to pronounce it.

 

[vazha]

Not to hurt dev's feelings, but Bevontule was a weird af name and this one is even worse.

Where is the input of people like you when were painstakingly deliberating over the name for weeks at a time?!

Don't worry though, feelings are not hurt. Obviously, changing the title of a game while it's in-progress isn't exactly easy to do, but I'd be interested to know why Wellspring is worse than Bevontule.

Because it sounds like stupid JRPG nonsense? Go for something coherent, stylish, emphatic and ideally something that offers insight into the game's lore. Neither Wellspring, nor altar of roots (unless your game is a wildlife simulator) don't do that for me.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Not to hurt dev's feelings, but Bevontule was a weird af name and this one is even worse.

Where is the input of people like you when were painstakingly deliberating over the name for weeks at a time?!

Don't worry though, feelings are not hurt. Obviously, changing the title of a game while it's in-progress isn't exactly easy to do, but I'd be interested to know why Wellspring is worse than Bevontule.

Because it sounds like stupid JRPG nonsense? Go for something coherent, stylish, emphatic and ideally something that offers insight into the game's lore. Neither Wellspring, nor altar of roots (unless your game is a wildlife simulator) don't do that for me.

i dont see anything wrong with altar of roots and wellspring since it is about sentient plan invading

 

[JarlFrank]

Wellspring itself is a decent name, I'd say. But I seriously, sincerely hope that the game actually has an Altar of Roots somewhere in the world which plays a role in the story and can be visited by the player.

Because if not, it's a shit title.

Make sure there actually is an Altar of Roots.

 

[Viata]

Make sure there actually is an Altar of Roots.

It's the only place you can save your game.

 

[vazha]

Not to hurt dev's feelings, but Bevontule was a weird af name and this one is even worse.

Where is the input of people like you when were painstakingly deliberating over the name for weeks at a time?!

Don't worry though, feelings are not hurt. Obviously, changing the title of a game while it's in-progress isn't exactly easy to do, but I'd be interested to know why Wellspring is worse than Bevontule.

Because it sounds like stupid JRPG nonsense? Go for something coherent, stylish, emphatic and ideally something that offers insight into the game's lore. Neither Wellspring, nor altar of roots (unless your game is a wildlife simulator) don't do that for me.

i dont see anything wrong with altar of roots and wellspring since it is about sentient plant invading

I take my words back then. Turns out it's not just the title, but the whole premise of the game that is retarded. Whats the story about? The second coming of Ents?