An Ask me Anything chat will be hosted on Reddit this Sunday for CivCraft, the game that has just reached it's goal on Kickstarter.

As we're at the end of our campaign's start, we're very excited to see the steady stream of backers and people who like our concept.

In the meanwhile, we want to give you the opportunity to ask us any questions, so we're hosting an AMA chat (Ask Me Anything). You can ask us about us, CivCraft, game development... well, you can ask anything you'd like.

So see you at Sunday 10am (Pacific time), at https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/ (We will post the exact link when the AMA will start).

And about being funded:

We're Funded! Thank you for your pledge and support, we've reached our initial goal in four days!

The last four days have been a roller-coaster, as we didn't know what to expect. We can now announce that Siege Weapons and cavalry are unlocked and will be added to your Early Access.

Since you are the first comers, every one of our backers (who were with us when we reached the initial goal) will receive a unique living and talking magical sword to help you on your adventures in Ellaria!

And so, our next stretch goal is the espionage pack, as the espionage pack brings a true meaning to "Win the Battle Before It Has Begun". There will be times when you'll have to decide when to go to war, and when to eliminate your opponents before they have the chance to win you in battle. In the espionage pack, you will be able to recruit spies In your tavern and send them to spy on your opponents, as well as to assassinate dangerous opponents. The espionage pack will also introduce a new "Stealth Mechanism". This mechanism will allow your character go to stealth mode and sneak past guards, climb walls and infiltrate to dangerous areas. We will post an update about the espionage pack very soon

A new poll was long overdue, so here is one to check if you are excited about the prospect of a new Original Sin game.

AngryJoe and OtherJoe preview the upcoming rogue-like, turn based strategy game Bedlam:

Kit Goodliffe (IGR) has reviewed the tactical sci-fi RPG Halfway:

Halfway – What We Think:

Halfway’s story is set in a future where interstellar travel has been achieved through the invention of a faster the light drive technology. Unfortunately ships are starting to mysteriously disappear while using this advancement and it’s beginning to look like something strange is happening when vessels are in transit. You control a group of people onboard a starship which encounters this phenomenon. You must lead them in a fight for survival whilst unraveling the truth of what is happening to ships during their long distance journeys. [...]

Halfway manages to craft an engaging scenario within which its action can take place. The combat itself is enjoyable and while some may find the difficulty to be a little bracing the challenge is well-balanced. Supported by some impressive art and music, Halfway’s survival story aligns neatly with its gameplay and makes for a worthy entry in the turn-based tactics genre.

Rating: 4/5

Hard West has a succesful Kickstarter campaign and is now close to completion as it is schedule for release this fall. I had the opportunity to visit the developers during Gamescom and this is what I wrote up about that visit.

Hard West is a turn-based tactical game that takes place in the wild west with supernatural powers, satanic cults, arcane rituals, spirits and demons. The game had a successful Kickstarter campaign and I got the game explained to me by Kacper Szymczak, Lead Designer at Creative Forge Games.

A video was shown in which we were informed that the Grand Inquisitor destroyed the secret order. He hunted down and killed every last member. All to proof his allegiance. There was only one loose end, a witch named Cassandra who is now running for her life. She was captured and about to be hanged, but as she could see the future, she knew that this day was not her last one.

In the 46th update for Torment: Tides of Numenera we learn that there will be a Classic RPGs Forever panel at PAX:

First and foremost, if you happen to be attending PAX Prime in Seattle in a few weeks, be sure to check in on the CLASSIC RPGs FOREVER! Panel on Sunday, August 30th at 11 AM in the Sasquatch Theater. It will feature not only DoubleBear's Annie Mitsoda, Obsidian's Josh Sawyer, Harebrained's Mitch Gitelman, and Larian's Swen Vincke, but also our very own Design Lead Adam Heine! Don't miss it!

The Sgus Clff content:

Beyond being rich in content, Sagus also has a high degree of reactivity. It is a a very work-intensive area to write and implement but is a strong depiction of just how weird and wondrous the Ninth World is. We’re about halfway through its writing, but because of the interconnectedness of much of the content, it can’t yet be played through as one complete area. Over the next several weeks, we looking forward to having enough content complete that we can experience the city of Sagus Cliffs and begin iterating on its design content.

User interface:

As conversations are the core of TTON’s gameplay, the first interface we developed (around a year ago) was the Conversation UI, as seen in the First Glimpse video. We began creating our interfaces using a popular and powerful interface plug-in known as NGUI. Leading up to Unity 5 (late last year), Unity released an improved native user interface layer, UGUI. We assessed it at that time and determined that UGUI would solve several technical obstacles we had encountered, so we decided to switch over. Currently most of our interfaces use UGUI, but our Conversation UI remained with NGUI, while our engineers focused on support for Crises, animation, and various other features required by the team. (In fact, at least the first Alpha Systems Test will be released with this NGUI version of the Conversation UI, but we have plans for an even better one.)

And narrative character creation:

In the first Torment, character generation was unusual for a CRPG at the time, especially one in the Dungeons & Dragons lineage. When you hit New Game, you were given 9 points in each stat plus 21 additional points to distribute as you desired. That was it. You didn't do anything else before jumping into the game – no class, feats, talents, or alignment. Everything else was either predetermined (name, gender, appearance) or determined through gameplay (class, skills, and alignment).

In Tides of Numenera, we are taking that even further, handling as much character generation through gameplay as we reasonably can. The results so far are pretty cool, but it's a challenging for a couple of reasons.

First, TTON has a lot more to teach than PST. This is a challenge because it's hard to teach rules and systems through conversation, especially without breaking the fourth wall (which we are loathe to do). And while many players knew at least the basics of AD&D before playing Planescape: Torment, we have to assume that a larger portion of players won't know Numenera's rules.

Second, TTON has more starting choices to make than PST. Although both Torments have three classes, Tides of Numenera offers many additional choices in the form of your Descriptor and your Focus (more on these later).

The patch version 1.2 for Wave of Darkness has gone live and brings us five new quests and some fixes:

• Nils' Quest #1 - Forest Bane
  We have added Nils' Quest #1 - Forest Bane to the game. NPC for this and few next quests is shared so that is also completed. Starting location is being prepared for this. Scripting, rewards and everything else is completed.
  
• Nils' Quest #2 - Carcass in the Woods
  We have added Nils' Quest #2 - Carcass in the Woods to the game.
  
• Nils' Quest #3 - Wild Hunt
  We have added Nils' Quest #3 - Wild Hunt to the game.
  
• Nils' Quest #4 - Smash and Run
  We have added Nils' Quest #4 - Smash and Run to the game.
  
• Nils' Quest #5 - Dark Sisters
  We have added Nils' Quest #5 - Dark Sisters to the game.
  
• Forgotten Temple map icon
  Forgotten Temple [932,1213] location had wrong map icon. This has been fixed.
  
• Mass Sepultre map icon
  Mass Sepultre [1472,122] location had wrong map icon. This has been fixed.
  
• Wooden Bridge map icon
  Wooden Bridge [202, 413] location had wrong map icon. This has been fixed.

The Escapist has put together 8 suggestions for the upcoming Kickstarter RPG
Divinity: Original Sin II:

8 Do's and Don'ts for Divinity: Original Sin II

Without question, Divinity: Original Sin was one of the best RPGs of 2014. Developed by Larian Studios, the Kickstarter-backed game launched in late June, and was soon receiving solid reviews from around the internet. This morning, Larian announced a sequel, and although the first game was quite good, we do have a few suggestions for them on how to make the second game even better.

1. DO: Add a Little More Guidance
2. DON'T: Lose the challenge
3. DO: Get Rid of the Rock-Paper Scissors Conversation Game
4. DON'T: Abandon the humor
5. DO: Make the quest journal clearer
6. DON'T: Be Afraid to Take Risks
7. DO: Fix the Inventory System
8. DO: Keep the mod tools