Wickerman Games, indie RPG studio by former CDPR devs

[LESS T_T]

http://wickermangames.co.uk/

Another indie RPG studio by former CDPR devs. They say they're making a p&p inspired RPG.

WHO ARE WE?
Wickerman Games is an Independent UK-based game development studio founded by Chris Hardwick and Dan Cordell, in February of 2015, with the goal of making games we want to play that nobody seems to be making.

We are both ex - AAA game dev's who have worked for companies including Electronic Arts, Starbreeze Studios, Codemasters, The Chinese Room and CD Projekt Red (where we met while working on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt). Between us, we have over 15 years of experience in the games industry.

WHERE WE COME FROM:
COMPANY FOUNDING
We are both fans of Pen and Paper role-playing games such as Traveller, World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun and the venerable Dungeons & Dragons, in all its many, MANY forms and wish to marry our love of these games with our passion for creating video games.

SO WHAT’S THE POINT?
Wickerman Games was founded on a few very simple principles:

TRANSPARENT DEVELOPMENT
This means we will be sharing as much spoiler free content as we can during development. Allowing you access to our prototypes for larger systems, our 3D content, time lapse videos of us working - anything we can. Our idea is to give you all a front row seat into the game development process. This will all be done on a weekly basis for free.

A NEW APPROACH TO RPG DESIGN
As we mentioned previously we have somewhat of an unhealthy obsession with pen and paper RPG's and we wish to bring what we love about these games and merge them the things we love about computer games.

The concept of dynamic storytelling and giving the player as much freedom as the ruleset allows is the core concept of what we aim to achieve at Wickerman Games. Layering simple systems on top of one another to allow for some truly emergent gameplay. Choices should matter and have a dramatic effect on the outcome of the plot and as such the game world needs to be built in such a way to accommodate this.

RESPECT FOR BOTH THE CUSTOMER AND STAFF
If we learned anything from our time at CD Projekt Red, it's that treating your customers well, really just makes life better for everyone involved, after all it is your hard earned cash you are parting with. As the old saying goes "if it ain't broke dont fix it" so we shall also be offering content DRM free (where possible) with a substantial amount of post-release support.

By the way, two founders were an additional engine programmer and an environmental artist on Witcher 3, according to the credits.

 

[Jaesun]

Well a love for PnP systems is nice, I don't see any mention of TURN-BASED, so meh...

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, these guys contacted us earlier today, but what was I supposed to do? Tell us what game you're making first.

I'm sure WhiskeyWolf won't mind if I quote him here:

Do they have Polish blood flowing through their vein? If not then they are hardly CDPR devs.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Between us, we have over 15 years of experience in the games industry.

This doesn't really fill me with confidence . But, still, who knows?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Ex-BIG COMPANY NAME devs with years of EXPERIENCE in additional programming and environmental art

 

[Excidium II]

iOS + Android title incoming

 

[felipepepe]

Yay for former-CD Projekt RED devs, Boo for former The Chinese Room devs.

 

[Excidium II]

It's always nice when people say where they worked at but not the position they occupied. They can fuck right off.

 

[garren]

Wee a new studio from the former makers of AAA slop and walking simulators.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Last time we ended up with sunless sea... This can only end badly.

 

[thesheeep]

Last time we ended up with sunless sea... This can only end badly.

What's wrong with you?

Sunless Sea was a pretty good and unique game with a great atmosphere.

 

[ArchAngel]

Last time someone presented themselves like this, they pitched that lesbian KS crap, before that SCL. We have X years of experience from Y AAA studio means shit today.

 

[Ismaul]

We have X years of experience from Y AAA studio means shit today.

It means enough that we have a whole thread where we talk about how it means shit.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Last time someone presented themselves like this, they pitched that lesbian KS crap, before that SCL. We have X years of experience from Y AAA studio means shit today.

Well, there's nothing wrong with saying how long you've been working if it is an impressive number that makes you out to be a veteran. But 15 years shared between people? That means that both began working somewhere around the mid to late 00's which is when the decline was already at full swing and hardly anything of value was being worked on at the time.

 

[Turjan]

So, let's see:

Chris Hardwick
Senior Engine Programmer
CD Projekt Red
November 2012 – January 2015 (2 years 3 months) Warsaw Area, Poland
Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt

Before that: several short stints (less than a year) at Starbreeze, Koyoki Limited, and EA. Before that he spent 2½ years with Codemasters, programming mostly for "Bodycount". Further back one year at Canalside Studios, working on an arena shooter for XBox Live Arcade.
---
Dan Cordell
Environment artist
CD Projekt Red
October 2012 – July 2015 (2 years 10 months) Warsaw Area, Poland
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone

Before that: lots of short stints of a few months (all less than one year) as 3D artist with lots of different employers (The Chinese Room, Digital Arrow, Vex Studios, lots of freelancing).

What's wrong with you?

Sunless Sea was a pretty good and unique game with a great atmosphere.

One of the guys (Dan Cordell) is listed as big backer for Sunless Sea, so who knows :D. Anyway, Sunless Sea's combination of an exploration game with permadeath was a bit of a stupid concept. The hype just comes from the atmosphere.

 

[Lhynn]

This doesn't really fill me with confidence . But, still, who knows?

Does anyone ever fall for the X years of experience shtick?

 

[a Goat]

Last time someone presented themselves like this, they pitched that lesbian KS crap, before that SCL. We have X years of experience from Y AAA studio means shit today.

Still better than that gay chinese RPG

 

[Kem0sabe]

What's wrong with you?

Sunless Sea was a pretty good and unique game with a great atmosphere.

No it wasn't, it was simplistic, it suffered from having too many writers and too much writing, it had horrible quality control over the absurd amount of shit text put into it. It was nowhere near good.

 

[LESS T_T]

Story thing: http://wickermangames.co.uk/blog/historical-archive-2

<--- Historical Archive Begins --->

.>>/ Excerpt from the personal diary of Erik Lindstrøm - Swedish atmospheric scientist.



.>>/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS

OCTOBER 4TH, 2131
Final calculations have been completed. Initial analysis of atmospheric projections discouraging - double checking, further details needed. Need sleep, I’m exhausted.

OCTOBER 5TH, 2131
It's going to be too late - things look bad. Bradley convinced me we should run the simulation again. Feel we must double check, the outlook is terminal. Checking codebase there must be a bug… I’m sure.

OCTOBER 10TH, 2131
Simulation up and running. Haven’t slept in three days … So tired … Bradley monitoring results.

OCTOBER 18TH, 2131
Simulation completed! Bradley re-checking calculation. Initial findings show outlook is still terminal, things have to change - or this planet will become a barren hostile rock.

OCTOBER 20TH, 2131
Results conclusive - terminal outlook if things don’t change. There is a window, but the requirements are extreme. The governments of the world have set us upon this path - for over 100 hundred years, despite rising sea levels, and more extreme weather, the economic needs of nations - has always - lead to climate issues being buried and not addressed. Hopefully presenting our findings will be convincing enough. If not things are going to only get worse.

How has humanity done this to itself? Poisoning the planet!? POISONING OURSELVES! Knowingly! Despite over a century of evidence indicating that our way of life needs to change. The tipping point for the biosphere is close, there won’t be a way back… We’ll all be doomed, everything will die.

NOVEMBER 25TH, 2131
Arrived in New York City this morning. Tomorrow is the big day - we’ll be presenting the findings to the world. It may take some time for our results to be corroborated, but we’re confident that the community will come to the same conclusion as us.

Hopefully it's enough to turn the world's governments around.

Protests in New York have turned violent, becoming full-scale riots. People are struggling to eat the world over - supply just isn’t meeting demand. Things are already bad, they’re only going to get worse.

The rioters were subdued by privatized police using extreme prejudice, hundreds injured, and estimation indicate 7 fatalities.

NOVEMBER 26TH, 2131
We delivered our findings - and were met with a resounding silence in the auditorium. The shock of our reported findings were instantly apparent on the faces of the attendees, some burst into tears - some began to react angrily, no less than three individuals upped and left before we could even finish delivering all the information we’d gathered.

Media outlets have gone wild, it’s been reported across the world, stirring up fear and chaos. Protests and Riots have broken out across the world’s in major cities. The death toll is unfathomable, it’s being violently oppressed across the world. Am I responsible for this? Should I have kept things to myself? Was I wrong to give this information to the world?

NOVEMBER 27TH, 2131
Things are tense. I’m held up in a tiny hotel on the outskirts of New York city. Far as I can tell from the TV media things are getting pretty violent, footage from all over the world, LA, Vancouver, London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo... Violence and death in the streets. Am I responsible for this? I can’t be sure. I need to get back to the lab. Can’t seem to get ahold of Bradley, left a message for Sandra - his wife.

NOVEMBER 28TH, 2131
I received a phone call from Sandra early this morning from the lab, it’s been ceased by the authorities, and she has been unable to get in touch with Bradley. She seemed very afraid, terrified, weeping hysterically.

Attempted to remotely connect to the labs computers, but couldn’t manage to access it hopefully they don’t think to check the access logs.

Desperately need to

.>>/ Excerpt from Top Secret Military Communique



.>>/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS

TOP SECRET
USAF 26 TT 2364 TOP SECRET 4NOV 2153


From OI OB

The use of strategic asset codenamed “Sabre” has been instrumental in capturing and destroying target enemy locations, allowing our forces to roll in and take the objective with the minimum of effort.

However upon returning to friendly forces, Sabre severely injured ██████████████████████, after having a heated discussion. Medical Officer Hopkins said the wound was so badly lacerated, that, and I quote “hadn't seen tissue damage like this since my brother in law was ███████████████ ”. This lead to Hopkins having to ████████████████ leg and █████████ to be sent back to home soil to recover, Sabre hasn't been seen since the incident and is considered AWOL.

I have my doubts that subjects from project █████████ are completely under our control and willing to follow the chain of command. I have heard ████████████████████████████████████████ who are making use of these assets. While they may be instrumental in fighting back against the enemy, are we so sure they won't turn around when all is over and █████████?

T O P S E C R E T

(END OF USAF ITEM 26)

.>>/ Excerpt from Internet Historical Archive
.>>/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS

*** Welcome to #ShipWatcher ***
* 5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e has joined #ShipWatcher *
[19:31] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> : GUYS they launched another one!!!!!111!!!! WTH are they up to!
[19:31] <ElectronicCodebook> : the 15th this month already.
[19:31] <ElectronicCodebook> : which is a bit worrying.
[19:33] <CompactBlowfish> : Yeah, they are supposed to be exploration missions, but I bet my money on it being an alien invasion! THE SQUIDS ARE COMING!
* MASSIVEPENIS555 has joined #ShipWatcher *
[19:33] <MASSIVEPENIS555> : LEAVING YOUR WOMAN UNSATISFIED IN THE BEDROOM? BUY NEW MEGA-V1AGRA, KEEPING YOU HARDER FOR LONGER SEND YOUR CREDIT CARD DETAILS AND PIN NUMBER -http://tinyurl.com/qgqms6l
* 5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e has banned MASSIVEPENIS555 #ShipWatcher *
[19:34] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> : Fucking spambots. Who buys into that crap still? WTF - Don’t click the link!
[19:34] <CompactBlowfish> : I mean why would you need to send that many to “explore”
[19:34] <ElectronicCodebook> : lets be honest, they arent there to explore, they are desperate to fuel the war
[19:35] <ElectronicCodebook> : its probably why they have been trying to get as much metal as they possibly could, they've been tearing down skyscrapers and arcologies for years
[19:35] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> : Blowfish. This AGIAN!
[19:35] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> : Always “space aliens” with you. How about you lay off the weed!
[19:36] <CompactBlowfish> : IM TELLING YOU THE SQUID PEOPLE FROM MARS ARE REAL!
[19:36] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> : Seriously man, everyone knows that the martian colony failed coz o’ technical issues, there int nothing special there. Just rocks and skeletons
[19:36] <ElectronicCodebook> : woa…
[19:36] <ElectronicCodebook> :check the news guys, all reporting the same thing.
[19:44] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> : HOLY FUCKBALLS!?!
[19:45] <CompactBlowfish> : No way this can be right…
* MrJellyfishlings has joined #ShipWatcher *
[19:47] <MrJellyfishlings> : wub-a-lub a dub-dub guys! anything fun happening - Seen they just launched another one, do you know anything about it @5ky?
[19:47] <ElectronicCodebook> : CHECK THE FUCKING TV!
[19:47] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> :This is a joke? oh fuck, it can’t be realz
[19:48] <MrJellyfishlings> : You guys know I don’t have a TV, that shits how the government mind controls you!
[19:48] <ElectronicCodebook> :well check the fucking newsfeeds then
[19:48] <MrJellyfishlings> : FINE.
[20:03] <MrJellyfishlings> : FUCK
[20:03] <MrJellyfishlings> : ME
[20:03] <MrJellyfishlings> : YOU
[20:03] <MrJellyfishlings> : COCKSUCKERS!
[20:04] <CompactBlowfish> : Wait wait wait, so those ships…
[20:04] <MrJellyfishlings> : Yeah, looks like nobody’s in charge anymore.
[20:04] <MrJellyfishlings> : All the people with money and power already left.
[20:04] <ElectronicCodebook> : things can't be THAT dire right
[20:04] <5KyWa7cH3r_3Li7e> : Looks like they have a few more ships that they are doing a social security lottery with for places. Told ya that it was worth having a social security number Jelly.
[20:04] <MrJellyfishlings> :FUCK THAT, why do you think I have this bunker! You wannacome join me EC ;-)?
[20:05] <ElectronicCodebook> :Never, not even if you were the last man alive.

<--- Historical Archive Ends --->

Whalenought's Copper Dreams, Basilisk Games' sci-fi blobber, Vince's generation ship RPG, and this. Now all indie RPG developers want to make a sci-fi RPG, huh.

 

[Bubbles]

This will never be released.

 

[Volourn]

"If we learned anything from our time at CD Projekt Red, it's that treating your customers well,"

FUCK OFF.

*thrown into junk pile*

 

[WhiteGuts]

 

[LESS T_T]

http://wickermangames.co.uk/blog/historical-archive-3