KickStarter Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy - BG1-inspired low fantasy RPG From the ATOM TEAM

[mediocrepoet]

I should really try the demo since they're looking for feedback. How long is it?

 

[mediocrepoet]

Played it and quit after 90 minutes because I didn't want to spoil myself... filled out the questionnaire though. This thing looks like it's going to be great. There are a few rough edges and QOL issues, but what a great slice of gaming.

I definitely felt the BG1 and general classic CRPG inspirations.

 

[Hydro]

I definitely felt the BG1 and general classic CRPG inspirations.

Wow, this time for real?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atomrpg/swordhaven-iron-conspiracy/posts/4083274

COMBAT SYSTEM + FEEDBACK QUIZ​

Hello everyone!

The last weeks were spent doing a lot of work on a wide array of tasks mainly inspired by your feedback on combat.

We have tweaked the existing encounters that seemed unfair to either your party or the enemies that were too weak. Additionally, combat abilities and weapon damage have undergone the first of many rounds of polish.

While our main goal right now is to eradicate all the kinks in the turn-based system, we have also started working on the Real-Time with Pause mode (RTwP).

A work in progress, this combat style already shows some promise compared to what we had prior to the launch of the campaign.

We're also designing a list of options for auto-pause to grant more control to those who prefer RTwP to TB.

We are planning to make the use of craftable potions a legitimate fighting style for those who prefer it, so offensive potions were always a must.

Last week we began integrating a few fun examples, including an explosive that sets the environment ablaze, and throwable potions with malicious effects ranging from poison to blindness. Once the final animations are in place, these attacks should look spectacular!

Combat aside, we are also adding pictures to all the items in the game that previously didn't have them. As much as it would be easy to leave some items as simple bags, that's just not how we roll and probably not something that you want to see from us!

~~~

There is more work 'under the hood', of course, but that's all that we are ready to reveal at this point. So stay tuned for more news in the near future!

Additionally, we want to thank each and every one of you for backing Swordhaven. We are THIS close to reaching the goal, and that's all thanks to you!

By the way, you can help us even more by doing a little quiz. Please fill it if you played the demo, it’s super small, but it could nudge us in the right direction.

Swordhaven Demo (Player Feedback Form)

Stay awesome,

Yours forever,

Atom Team

 

[Robber Baron]

gif compression really gives the game le olde 90's feeling
I actually like it a lot, I wonder if there's a reshade filter for this kind of look

 

[Jinn]

Pledged! I know you guys won't have trouble getting over that finish line, but I thought I'd throw my support in here near the end. There is no ATOM Team project I haven't bought, and there likely never will be, so I might at well get in right on the ground floor again. I will almost never give money to a kickstarter project these days, but you guys have earned my trust.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

It finally reached basic funding goal.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atomrpg/swordhaven-iron-conspiracy/posts/4087458

FUNDING COMPLETE + FIRST STRETCH GOAL​

Greetings, friends!
We are happy to announce that Swordhaven has been fully funded thanks to your generous donations! We are incredibly grateful for the support our new project has received, and we are committed to delivering the BEST game possible to reward your trust!

In other exciting news, with a few days still left on the campaign timer, we are thrilled to announce our first stretch goal. Stretch goals are additional features for the game that were not initially included in the project plan, but will be added if we surpass our funding goal before the campaign ends.
The first of such stretch goals is something we call the Improved Player Base.
We always planned on giving you the ability to eventually purchase some property in the city of Swordhaven—for resting, crafting, and storing trophies. However, if we reach this stretch goal, we promise to make owning your own place even better by adding:

• New side quests, that will come with the base;
• A wider array of characters that will inhabit it, including hireable cooks, guards, craftsmen, etc;
• A bigger location—what was initially planned as a house in the city will now become a whole manor;
• Customization options to make it truly your own;
• More activities to enjoy—from exploring the basement of your new property to starting a herb garden, and more.

We have also reached another Social Goal, so here's a little preview of the new hairstyles and facial hair that were the reward for reaching 6 Goal Coins. The next goal is the secret lore friendly Kickstarter Easter Egg.

Keep on rockin',
Yours truly,
Atom Team

The Wall don't look at the upper left hairstyle... Looks like they have Scholars in this...

 

[The Wall]

Pretty poorly led Kickstarter campaign. They could have gathered much more money, much faster. Look at other mambo-jambo JRPG trashy looking games from first time Devs that have ongoing Kickstarter. 200k € in first 10 days. Swordhaven managed in 30+ days less then 40k €. How? Good question to ask


Also Atomboy is nowhere to be seen for 2 weeks during Kickstarter. What happend? Trying to help

 

[The Wall]

Also you announced first stretch goal as part of your update yet it's nowhere to be seen on campaign webpage nor how much would it cost nor what are the others, at least next two. I mean, WTF this is Joe Biden level of not giving a fuck

First week was alright. Since then, feels like Devs forgot they even have running Kickstarter campaign

 

[Alienman]

I agree, it felt a little too off-handsy. Glad not to get spammed with stuff, but yeah. Anyway, glad that they made it, at least.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I wouldn't be overly dismayed about how they've handled Kickstarter. To me that signals they are actual Devs and not marketers. They aren't going to live and die by how this Kickstarter pkays out. These people have made successful games before.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I wouldn't be overly dismayed about how they've handled Kickstarter. To me that signals they are actual Devs and not marketers. They aren't going to live and die by how this Kickstarter pkays out. These people have made successful games before.

It only raises eyebrows because this ain't their first rodeo. Crom knows they did it before.

 

[BruceVC]

Played it and quit after 90 minutes because I didn't want to spoil myself... filled out the questionnaire though. This thing looks like it's going to be great. There are a few rough edges and QOL issues, but what a great slice of gaming.

I definitely felt the BG1 and general classic CRPG inspirations.

Great positive feedback, good to know

This game looks very promising

 

[Readher]

Pretty poorly led Kickstarter campaign. They could have gathered much more money, much faster. Look at other mambo-jambo JRPG trashy looking games from first time Devs that have ongoing Kickstarter. 200k € in first 10 days. Swordhaven managed in 30+ days less then 40k €. How? Good question to ask


Also Atomboy is nowhere to be seen for 2 weeks during Kickstarter. What happend? Trying to help

It's honestly baffling how many Kickstarter campaigns are poorly managed considering you can literally just copy what the successful ones did for free.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Pretty poorly led Kickstarter campaign. They could have gathered much more money, much faster. Look at other mambo-jambo JRPG trashy looking games from first time Devs that have ongoing Kickstarter. 200k € in first 10 days. Swordhaven managed in 30+ days less then 40k €. How? Good question to ask


Also Atomboy is nowhere to be seen for 2 weeks during Kickstarter. What happend? Trying to help

It's honestly baffling how many Kickstarter campaigns are poorly managed considering you can literally just copy what the successful ones did for free.

Are there any overly successful Kickstarter campaigns these days in the video game space? Like, I don't even look at Kickstarter for the most part anymore and wouldn't normally back any. This project interested me more than most so I figured I may as well, but it's a far cry from what I'd have been willing to pony up for ten years ago.

 

[Readher]

Pretty poorly led Kickstarter campaign. They could have gathered much more money, much faster. Look at other mambo-jambo JRPG trashy looking games from first time Devs that have ongoing Kickstarter. 200k € in first 10 days. Swordhaven managed in 30+ days less then 40k €. How? Good question to ask


Also Atomboy is nowhere to be seen for 2 weeks during Kickstarter. What happend? Trying to help

It's honestly baffling how many Kickstarter campaigns are poorly managed considering you can literally just copy what the successful ones did for free.

Are there any overly successful Kickstarter campaigns these days in the video game space? Like, I don't even look at Kickstarter for the most part anymore and wouldn't normally back any. This project interested me more than most so I figured I may as well, but it's a far cry from what I'd have been willing to pony up for ten years ago.

There's some japslop from literally whos that's already at 200k Euros (almost 500% of the goal).



They funded it in less than a day, while this took almost a month.

 

[Alienman]

Played it and quit after 90 minutes because I didn't want to spoil myself...

I keep reading this as soil.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Played it and quit after 90 minutes because I didn't want to spoil myself...

I keep reading this as soil.

Huh. I didn't see my typo before.

 

[Atomboy]

Lordy, lordy, look who's thirty! And by thirty I mean thirty eight thousand buckaroos, and the answer is Swordhaven! We finally got that baby backed! And despite being crippled by the deadly coronavirus for the last 6 days, I celebrate and flail around with all the strength available to me!

Why do you give these cursed boots to us backers?

Because they make you go fast! Like Sonic, the icon of gaming!

red shoes rly? happy coincidence you picked a symbol of international elite pedophilia lol

I'm pretty sure that's the purple spiral, not red boots!

I am going to support this Kickstarter because I loved ATOM, I greatly appreciate the homage to Baldur's Gate – up to the font design in the dialog box – and I am more than happy to give the dev team some extra money.

I am however (still) not totally enthusiastic about this game. I haven't played the demo personally, but from what I saw till now the setting and lore feel a little too similar to countless other “generic fantasy” works. I really hope the final product will contain more original ingredients, something comparable to that wonderful post-Soviet atmosphere that ATOM had.

Thank you for the support! It sure will stand out. In hindsight we did a really shitty job showing it instead of telling, but now that we ALMOST have time and money to make the "distinct" part of the game, it will become clear!

Big fan of the Atom franchise here, I'm doing my part to contribute to the success of the kickstarter campaign for Swordhaven, besst of luck guys!

Thank you!

I just hope it’s going to be playable unlike Atom (and less cringe). Best of luck.

You just haven't updated in a while. ATOM is very playable and very not cringe! Though Swordhaven will be an upgrade in most things.

Backed at 20 Euro. Good luck buddy. With 29 days left I would assume base goal or maybe 1 stretch goal would be viable to get

Thank you! We did it. Hoping for the first stretch goal too, I wanna make a spooky norman manor.

Atomboy, wouldn't it be good to throw a campaign update at least every few days? Some ideas about update topics to keep the campaign more lively:
- Different environments. Village/forest are great but lack variety. Would be great to see a still image of a city environment/fancy building, a mine of the Balta ore (glowing or inetersting in another way?), snowy terrain, mountain terrain, etc. Without too much spoliers, would be good to see more variety.
- Comparison between basic and improved animation, being a big KS goal.
- The type of encounter that could be added with KS funds. Trigger conversation, enemy party setup, customized location, etc.
- Details of an enemy type/creature that could be added, planned abilities, some art.
- A clip with an interaction without voiced line and with the same line voiced. Would have to be very high quality. How some voice acting improves the game, etc.

I couldn't reply in a timely manner, but your post inspired us to do just that. Though I got sick and failed, but I hope what came out was better than the prev updates.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atomrpg/swordhaven-iron-conspiracy/posts/4076845

IN-GAME NOTE INFORMATION​

Hello, everyone!

Today we’d like to tell you more about the “Write an in-game note” reward, available for the Duke pledge tier and above.

Nova Drakonia is home to many secrets, plenty of which are transferred from person to person by means of writing. During your adventure there will be many occasions when you will stumble upon a cryptic riddle hinting at some buried treasure, a mysterious book disclosing the location of an ancient jungle temple, a map fragment showing the route to a barbarian village, a manuscript detailing a hidden combat technique, or even something as mundane as someone’s hundred year old grocery shopping list.

With the In-Game Note reward you will be able to pen something like this… or something entirely different! It’s all up to you.

If you are eligible for this reward, it means our writers will contact you soon after the campaign ends. Together you will brainstorm its contents. While general rules of the setting and its lore should apply—you will be otherwise free to let your imagination run wild!

Worldbuilding side by side with our players and backers has always been a priority for our crew, and we hope to do a lot more of it through this reward.

Stay tuned for the next update, where we will delve into more details about Swordhaven’s development and showcase some cool new content!

Yours humbly, Atom Team

This kind of shit never ends well. Don't allow the unwashed plebs to inject their shit writing into your game. That crap was horrific in Pillars.

Pillars is exactly why this is a note, not a dialogue. They just made their backers like... Say stuff for people to read in an oddly colored font. Some were pretty cool as far as I remember, but most I skipped. With the note, however, we invite the guy to make a short, fun thing that will lead the player to a bit of questing or what not. I'd use mine for a shaggy dog story though in the iconic stylings of Norm McDonalds, rest his soul. These are the best!

They should just do the typical graveyard thing where all the morons who want their name in the game get it on a tombstone.

We thought about that, but then again, notes sounded better in our brains!

Don't go overboard with crafting please

That remains to be seen, though I really hope we won't.

Atomboy, how do you plan to balance crafting with items you can find in the world or buy from stores? Will crafting be limited in what you can do, e.g. you can't just build a new weapon from scratch or perhaps only early game weapons? Or will crafting powerful items require unique/extremely rare resources? I ask because often enough in games that add crafting it either ends up as a pointless chore or is overpowered enough to devaluate exploration rewards. What is your vision for the role crafting should play?

Several people with differing worldviews are making crafting rn, so it's more or less the middle ground. There is rarity to some crafting items, but there are no unique ones. You will be able to make weapons from scratch. Rule of thumb right now is that a crafted weapon made of a certain metal is 10% better than the worst ready-made store bought weapon made out of the same metal but worse than a very good for-sale weapon of the same metal. Like, a crafted steel dagger has +1 damage over a store-bought steel dagger, but -1 damage compared to a Really Cool Steel Dagger. But a really cool steel dagger is a rare item rarely for sale. It's kind of balanced that way. However, we're planning on making craftable weapon mods too, like lighter grips, heavier grips, leaner blades, fatter blades, I haven't even started thinking about balancing those. All in all, seeing how you can also craft meds and potion buffs, crafting will be a good thing to have, but I'll try to save it from being OP. More of another path a player can take.

Backed at €20 . Good luck!

Thank you!

I should really try the demo since they're looking for feedback. How long is it?

3 hours for me, up to 7 for others who provided feedback!

Played it and quit after 90 minutes because I didn't want to spoil myself... filled out the questionnaire though. This thing looks like it's going to be great. There are a few rough edges and QOL issues, but what a great slice of gaming.

I definitely felt the BG1 and general classic CRPG inspirations.

Really glad you liked it! More to come!

Pledged! I know you guys won't have trouble getting over that finish line, but I thought I'd throw my support in here near the end. There is no ATOM Team project I haven't bought, and there likely never will be, so I might at well get in right on the ground floor again. I will almost never give money to a kickstarter project these days, but you guys have earned my trust.

Thanks man!

Pretty poorly led Kickstarter campaign. They could have gathered much more money, much faster. Look at other mambo-jambo JRPG trashy looking games from first time Devs that have ongoing Kickstarter. 200k € in first 10 days. Swordhaven managed in 30+ days less then 40k €. How? Good question to ask


Also Atomboy is nowhere to be seen for 2 weeks during Kickstarter. What happend? Trying to help

I got pretty sick and that partly derailed my attempts at marketing. Oh well, c'est la vie. Also, as that one colorful JRPG has shown, the META just ain't on our side. Eh, still pulled through though, allegedly.

I wouldn't be overly dismayed about how they've handled Kickstarter. To me that signals they are actual Devs and not marketers. They aren't going to live and die by how this Kickstarter pkays out. These people have made successful games before.

Not marketers is right... And some day it might just become the end of us. But dang, the whole experience of trying to promote has lead me to uncovering the big secret at least. One would think this is all you have to do:

Pretty poorly led Kickstarter campaign. They could have gathered much more money, much faster. Look at other mambo-jambo JRPG trashy looking games from first time Devs that have ongoing Kickstarter. 200k € in first 10 days. Swordhaven managed in 30+ days less then 40k €. How? Good question to ask


Also Atomboy is nowhere to be seen for 2 weeks during Kickstarter. What happend? Trying to help

It's honestly baffling how many Kickstarter campaigns are poorly managed considering you can literally just copy what the successful ones did for free.

But no! The real difference between a quick and easy campaign and a slog (not counting lightnings in bottles) are brand awareness, attached names, and the surprising amount of $$$$$$$$$$$ that needs to be poured into media people and PR firms. We lack all three, but hey, we did it in the end, and it feels like an even bigger victory than the one you pay for getting. Not that paying for a victory is bad, I'd do it without even thinking if I had the JINK-JINK.

That being said, the fact no marketing exp, horrible bowel shattering diseases and many backstage hurdles like this one build of unity glitching our save system for a week more than a thousand people found us and supported us means we have like, top notch quality people on our side. Folks who read the codex, folks who take interest in new crpgs on their own (because god knows we are limited in our ability to inform the world about our doings) folks who follow us on their own because they liked our previous games, people like that. That's the best kind of people we wanna hang around fo sure no cap ongod fr fr onliinohio in other words u guys go harder than baby gronk. Now I will finish my healing process and get back to it!

 

[The Wall]

ATOMBOY! I'm glad you're back in good spirit and health! But what about updating campaign webpage on Kickstarter with stretch goals table or infographic, now that you are 100.1% funded? Also, could you try to answer these comments, more like game design philosophy loud thinking of mine:

Atomboy What new/novel feature or system will you implement with Swordhaven? There don't need to be many, just one system that shows your power as RPG Studio. Black Geyser tried with Greed System, where amount of loot and bribes taken would lead to World being consumed by madness of greed. Door of Trithius implements Stalker like faction system where animals, monsters and Human factions battle for turf and expand their zone of control which you can influence with money ala Majesty style or by doing quests. Oblivion tried radient AI NPCs, real Fallout 3 should have had competing groups of adventurers doing your quests, meeting them in same Vault where you're both hunting for same Old World artefact and so on...

With advances in AI, and programming output getting easier for experienced programmers what game system or world simulation, maybe even mini-game are you planning for Swordhaven?

I hope at least World simulation is on higher lvl and connected to role-playing gameplay - birds flying, wolves attacking sheep, pigs shitting, peasants shoveling shit, trade caravans moving on the road, ships entering and leaving port of Swordhaven, barbarians raiding villages, Empire sending penalty excursions into deep forest, children running, drunkards singing and ...

---

I also hope backgrounds unlock new play styles and game systems. For example: as bandit you can loot caravans. As noble you can command few low lvl village NPCs to follow you on most important quest, given to You by Emperor personally. As merchant you can invest into caravans and deposit all excess loot into your shop that brings you nice profit. As Nomad you can fire arrows while on horse and also get pet eagle to unveil fog of unknown to You

Stuff of such nature, something more exciting than mere +5% better prices

 

[Atomboy]

ATOMBOY! I'm glad you're back in good spirit and health! But what about updating campaign webpage on Kickstarter with stretch goals table or infographic, now that you are 100.1% funded? Also, could you try to answer these comments, more like game design philosophy loud thinking of mine:

Atomboy What new/novel feature or system will you implement with Swordhaven? There don't need to be many, just one system that shows your power as RPG Studio. Black Geyser tried with Greed System, where amount of loot and bribes taken would lead to World being consumed by madness of greed. Door of Trithius implements Stalker like faction system where animals, monsters and Human factions battle for turf and expand their zone of control which you can influence with money ala Majesty style or by doing quests. Oblivion tried radient AI NPCs, real Fallout 3 should have had competing groups of adventurers doing your quests, meeting them in same Vault where you're both hunting for same Old World artefact and so on...

With advances in AI, and programming output getting easier for experienced programmers what game system or world simulation, maybe even mini-game are you planning for Swordhaven?

I hope at least World simulation is on higher lvl and connected to role-playing gameplay - birds flying, wolves attacking sheep, pigs shitting, peasants shoveling shit, trade caravans moving on the road, ships entering and leaving port of Swordhaven, barbarians raiding villages, Empire sending penalty excursions into deep forest, children running, drunkards singing and ...

---

I also hope backgrounds unlock new play styles and game systems. For example: as bandit you can loot caravans. As noble you can command few low lvl village NPCs to follow you on most important quest, given to You by Emperor personally. As merchant you can invest into caravans and deposit all excess loot into your shop that brings you nice profit. As Nomad you can fire arrows while on horse and also get pet eagle to unveil fog of unknown to You

Stuff of such nature, something more exciting than mere +5% better prices

Thanks! Damn, I always miss some posts when I do my iconic mass reply mega post... These are some good ones!
Concerning the first one: Atom and Trudograd were heavily scripted, but in Swordhaven we were thinking of adding some sort of world simulation on the settled locations. At best it will make interacting with the local peasantry a bit more interesting, at worst it will bring out some ridiculous situations akin to Oblivion (which isn't that bad). And at the VERY worst it will have no impact on the gameplay.
Class differences will also play some role, maybe not as drastic as making it a complete game changer with unique mechanics for every role, but voice lines, certain quests, certain character attitudes, availability of some quests even, might depend on who you are at the start. We will be adding a lot more of these backgrounds compared to the demo, hopefully to do just enough to make some people replay the game a couple of times, but not as much as to leave people lacking hours of content because they chose one class over the other

edit: by the way did anyone know oblivion had a goblin war mechanic that spanned the whole continent? Now that's something I'd try... Or not

 

[The Wall]

How much AI models like Co-Pilot for code writing and DALL-E and similar AI art tools help you in your game development? If not at all, do you expect in future AI tools to be great helpers in making Devs' Vision materialize on the computer screens much faster and increase weight of Devs bank account?

You're one of my indie GameDev GOATs. 4 Real

 

[Shadenuat]

Pretty poorly led Kickstarter campaign. They could have gathered much more money, much faster. Look at other mambo-jambo JRPG trashy looking games from first time Devs that have ongoing Kickstarter. 200k € in first 10 days. Swordhaven managed in 30+ days less then 40k €. How? Good question to ask


Also Atomboy is nowhere to be seen for 2 weeks during Kickstarter. What happend? Trying to help

It's honestly baffling how many Kickstarter campaigns are poorly managed considering you can literally just copy what the successful ones did for free.

Are there any overly successful Kickstarter campaigns these days in the video game space? Like, I don't even look at Kickstarter for the most part anymore and wouldn't normally back any. This project interested me more than most so I figured I may as well, but it's a far cry from what I'd have been willing to pony up for ten years ago.

There's some japslop from literally whos that's already at 200k Euros (almost 500% of the goal).



They funded it in less than a day, while this took almost a month.

The weeb one has by the book trailer and much more appealing 3d grafix while this one looks like jank everywhere and kinda less atmospheric than any IE game
Your game may be fun but if you don't invest heavily into looks don't expect ppl to notice it.

 

[The Wall]

Also, BRING ON world simulation. Not too much, but some for sure. Stronghold Crusader with all the animated inhabitants of Castle going, working and plausibly in-setting goofing around your stronghold brought immersion level skyhigh. Anyone who played that Game remembers it till this day. Power of charm

That's probably more scripted world simulation then compared to let's say original Stalkers and Rimworld world simulation. Maybe some happy medium? With a pinch of rare Oblivion's accidental silliness