KickStarter SKALD: Against the Black Priory - retro RPG inspired by Ultima - coming May 30th

[Melan]

Several years of development time, 10 hours of gameplay, physical stuff Maybe Some Day, but hey, at least we get a live action trailer out of it.

Budget well spent.

 

[agris]

I will never understand the quantity over quality mentality. Is it the same crew that always watches director’s cuts and uses cut content patches?

Editing for tightness can make a mediocre piece of entertainment enjoyable, but overstaying its welcome is a sure fire way to take something enjoyable and turn it into a slog.

 

[Infinitron]

I never pay much attention to these developer gameplay time estimates because when I play the game it always takes me longer. 10 hours? Nah, it's gonna be more.

 

[notpl]

I will never understand the quantity over quality mentality. Is it the same crew that always watches director’s cuts and uses cut content patches?

Editing for tightness can make a mediocre piece of entertainment enjoyable, but overstaying its welcome is a sure fire way to take something enjoyable and turn it into a slog.

I would like both, personally.

 

[Alienman]

Sure, but 10 hours though. That's barely out of tutorial island in any other RPG.

 

[Melan]

I will never understand the quantity over quality mentality. Is it the same crew that always watches director’s cuts and uses cut content patches?

Editing for tightness can make a mediocre piece of entertainment enjoyable, but overstaying its welcome is a sure fire way to take something enjoyable and turn it into a slog.

None of the classic CRPGs had gameplay measured at 10 hours. Not even Eye of the Beholder, which was on the short side, was 10 hours. That's just tiny. You need to have quantity to have certain kinds of quality (complexity, CNC, exploration, substantial character-building, etc). One advantage to games which do not have massive AAA budgets is that once the game's core works, extra content is not hard to create. You just build new levels / convos / monsters from your limited amount of assets. Ultimas could do much with a small tileset.

SKALD had a strong working demo around the Kickstarter. The mechanics were there, the engine was there, some graphics were there. What does it have to show for the extra years of development? Fancier rain and fog effects? This dorky intro?

I will be happy to be proven wrong after release, but so far, it seems we are getting a massively downscaled game compared to the original concept, while we get a little more visual polish for a game that didn't really need it beyond what the demo already had. That's a bad trade-off.

 

[Tyranicon]

Wasn't the 10-hour estimate from a while back? Maybe it's longer now. I haven't seen any new play length estimates from the dev.

Either way, if the original plan was for a 10-hour RPG, then that's what the dev had intended. And for this price point, it fits.

I don't mind. If the game is bad, then I didn't waste that much money, if the game is good, then I'll look forward to a sequel.

 

[agris]

One advantage to games which do not have massive AAA budgets is that once the game's core works, extra content is not hard to create. You just build new levels / convos / monsters from your limited amount of assets. Ultimas could do much with a small tileset.

yet if the game isn’t better for it, what’s the point? It’s just filler.

Comparing old studio-made games to modern indie dev/solo dev doesn’t really illuminate anything

 

[Strange Fellow]

Seems to me like the effort has primarily gone into bespoke content like dialogues and quests, as well as more complex combat and character development systems. Whether or not that's a good thing in a game like this remians to be seen. A 10-hour Ultima would be small, but this looks a lot more advanced than an Ultima clone now.

 

[Butter]

Age of Decadence can be beaten in less than 10 hours.

 

[newtmonkey]

Solo developers, without the benefit of a publisher, were able to make massive, satisfying RPGs like Realms of Antiquity and Nox Archaist in recent years. If Skald is short but very replayable like Fallout, I'll be impressed... though to be honest, I don't think this will be the case at all. I know he is playing to the Twitter audience with cute graphics and animations, but it makes it seem to me like all he has been doing since getting a publisher is changing (imo degrading) the graphics.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

$15 is a solid, affordable price. Especially if like people said, the planned play length is around 10 hours.

Is this just main story or is there optional stuff to explore?

 

[Melan]

One advantage to games which do not have massive AAA budgets is that once the game's core works, extra content is not hard to create. You just build new levels / convos / monsters from your limited amount of assets. Ultimas could do much with a small tileset.

yet if the game isn’t better for it, what’s the point? It’s just filler.

Comparing old studio-made games to modern indie dev/solo dev doesn’t really illuminate anything

The studios from the age SKALD and its ilk are emulating were a handful of programmers and a few sales people / accountants. They also had to be tech firms to develop a lot of the basic stuff that's now supplied by Unity, etc. Except for 1990s era Origin, they were not larger than modern indie studios.

Nox Archaist also says Hi.

 

[Jinn]

If Scald is short but very replayable like Fallout, I'll be impressed... though to be honest, I don't think this will be the case at all.

This. Length in a CRPG is directly tied to a sense of character progression, which is one of the most important points of satisfaction in the genre. It's what gets the brain working and planning ahead if progression is meaningful and done well. Alternatively, if there is a great deal of replayability ala AoD, then it gives you something to consider for future playthroughs, and in that instance, it's all based on the assumption that character progression is so tightly designed that every minor choice is impactful and satisfying.

This is why a CRPG's length matters to me at least. If it's a one-and-done experience, then 10 hours just isn't going to feel like a satisfying adventure to me. If I'm alright with the game being over at that point, it's because it has done something wrong along the way or there's a couple more unique playthroughs waiting for me in the future.

 

[agris]

One advantage to games which do not have massive AAA budgets is that once the game's core works, extra content is not hard to create. You just build new levels / convos / monsters from your limited amount of assets. Ultimas could do much with a small tileset.

yet if the game isn’t better for it, what’s the point? It’s just filler.

Comparing old studio-made games to modern indie dev/solo dev doesn’t really illuminate anything

The studios from the age SKALD and its ilk are emulating were a handful of programmers and a few sales people / accountants. They also had to be tech firms to develop a lot of the basic stuff that's now supplied by Unity, etc. Except for 1990s era Origin, they were not larger than modern indie studios.

Nox Archaist also says Hi.

maybe the dev for Skald isn’t very good at making games. not sure why you’d want more of it, then.

 

[Krivol]

The game is called Skald: Against the Black!

It's a D1P!

 

[Swen]

Game looks amazing. Larian should hire him

 

[Sotomonte]

Wasn't the 10-hour estimate from a while back? Maybe it's longer now. I haven't seen any new play length estimates from the dev.

Either way, if the original plan was for a 10-hour RPG, then that's what the dev had intended. And for this price point, it fits.

I don't mind. If the game is bad, then I didn't waste that much money, if the game is good, then I'll look forward to a sequel.

Lurking for the Steam forums we can read that the developer said if you did all the side quest and explore all the maps he estimated the length of the game to be about 20 hours:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1069160/discussions/0/3113656428097449754/

 

[Krivol]

Fallout 1 main quest was about 10 hours long...

 

[Ysaye]

Wasn't Magic Candle(one of the inspirations for this game) supposedly about 10 hours long if you knew what you were doing?

 

[Jinn]

Lurking for the Steam forums we can read that the developer said if you did all the side quest and explore all the maps he estimated the length of the game to be about 20 hours:

This seems like a good length. Knowing developer playtime estimates, it'll probably be closer to 25-30 hours.

 

[Abu Antar]

The live action trailer was a "great" investment.
https://twitter.com/SkaldRpg/status/1783040739896680912

Ahh yes: Marketing! This is traffic to the game's homepage. April 4th is the release of our lovingly crafted and heavily supported live action game trailer that we spent 9 months on. The bump on April 22nd is a random devlog update I spent 20 minutes putting together

 

[Tyranicon]

The live action trailer was a "great" investment.
https://twitter.com/SkaldRpg/status/1783040739896680912

Ahh yes: Marketing! This is traffic to the game's homepage. April 4th is the release of our lovingly crafted and heavily supported live action game trailer that we spent 9 months on. The bump on April 22nd is a random devlog update I spent 20 minutes putting together
View attachment 49055

Sometimes that's just how it is.

Why do you think the most successful modern YouTubers shit out 15 videos a day instead of better produced, high quality ones?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[MerchantKing]

I like the game already

BTW, when does it come out?