The mouse with a lute RPG called Ghost of a Tale has been funded on Indiegogo with one day left to go.

WE MADE IT!!!

That’s incredible! No, really; it is. Why? Because a month ago “Ghost of a Tale” wasn’t on anyone’s radar. No journalist was aware of anything in regard to the project. The campaign was a text-book cold start.

So you can all be proud of yourselves, because you’ve made it happen. In fact from my point of view that is the single most amazing thing about the whole adventure; to see that you, the backers, decided this could be a special little game worth helping. And that you acted on this feeling.

As I wrote on the main page, one of the reasons I started this campaign was to see if there were enough potential players that could be bothered; it was to be a stern (and very public) verdict on the viability of the project itself. And boy did I get a resounding endorsement!

Thank you to each and everyone of you who have contributed to this campaign, whether from a financial or moral standpoint (and often both). As one of you said in a recent message, I shouldn’t think of this success as a heavy pressure weighting down on me as I work on the game, but rather I should think of it as an huge mark of affection for the project. And indeed I very much like the notion!

I will keep posting here any important updates until I can all direct you to an official site and community forums where you’ll be able to keep being involved in the creation of the game. Meanwhile, I am sure all of you will join me in breathing a long sigh of relief… :)

There are still 3 days to go in order to reach the required additional 4.5 KEuro for Ghost of a Tale to get funded. With a bit of help that should be possible.
In the meantime there are some wallpapers of the game you can enjoy.

Yeah I know.... a newsbit on wallpapers?? It is indeed just a trick to lure you into pledging for the game where you get to play as a mouse.

Darkwood is a survival horror roguelike game told from a top-down perspective. The three developers are crowdfunding for money on Indiegogo. Give the project a look.

Also if you're unsure what a roguelike is, don't worry many of us are. Suffice it to say it's all about randomly generated levels, and permanent death.

Darkwood is a top-down, oldschool survival horror set in a procedurally generated, open world. It features RPG and roguelike elements, with intense combat and a eerie atmosphere. It's developed by 3 people from Poland, who like to call themselves Acid Wizard Studio, and is currently in pre-alpha stage.

This trailer features basic barricading and energy / generator management at the player's home base.

Follow us at our blog:
http://www.acidwizardstudio.com

In the recent days four updates were added to the Indiegogo campaign for Ghost of a Tale, which just requires a little of 10 KEuro more to reach its goal of 45 KEuro in the next 7 days. The updates are about the steps that are required to create a crab from scratch.

For those of you interested in the more technical aspects of the game’s development I thought I would present the method I used to create the crab model. As a side note, I’ll have to spread that presentation over several updates, as Indiegogo only allows for one picture per update.

Before starting to work on the model, I always surround myself with visual references (photographs, paintings) and make mental notes of aspects I will emphasize in order to end up with a model that’ll be interesting enough.

It all starts with a simple cube (within Maya), followed by other cubes to roughly represent all the body parts and get a feel for the overall volume of the limbs. As you can see, it’s all very blocky and I do not worry about details at this stage. It’s best to check that everything looks as expected now (in terms of overall morphology), as it will become more difficult to change things further down the line.

Then I start to work on the body parts in Zbrush (bottom picture), simply refining the broad shapes. Again, not caring too much about details yet; just roughing in the main volumes. Note that at this stage I already know I’ll have to open the arms of the creature so I can get a better look while sculpting. But starting with the arms folded ensured that the crab would eventually be able to get into that pose later on.

 

And the result is this:

Ghost of a Tale developer Lionel Gallat, who is currently running a campaign on IndieGoGo, has been interviewed by Rock paper Shotgun.

RPS: Let’s talk in a bit more detail about the game. What sort of game is it going to be, and what can we expect from it?

Gallat: You play as a little mouse. This mouse gets to an island and this island is populated by undead rats. Something has happened on the island that is not normal. You came to the island for a reason, though, and you have a quest, which is to get to the tower of Periclave, which is the name of the island itself. That’s the underlying struggle. When you get to the island you start to discover what had happened there, and why it happened. I think it will not be too much of a spoiler if I say you are going to meet a ghost. You are going to help him, somehow. It’s really about exploration, about discovering things, and it is not at all focused on combat. In the alpha trailer there is a moment where you get some kind of a weapon and start whacking at the rats, and that was fun to do, but it does not reflect the gameplay that I have in mind. It is about stealth. The mouse is not powerful at all, and it is engaged in a very dangerous adventure, it is perilous, and so it is really a game about exploiting this fact, not about fighting through enemies that are twice your size.

RPS: Can you talk about those gameplay mechanic ideas at all?

Gallat: Well there will be puzzles in the sense that you need to find your way through the island. There will be some mechanics and mechanisms which involve discovering things that are not of use at first sight, but when you look, really look, you find out their purpose. There is also going to be a good deal of stealth, and avoiding of confronting enemies directly, because that is not going to work. Indirect methods of confronting enemies will be important. We will have quests and objectives of course, but I think of it more like an adventure than like a Dark Souls or something.

IndieGameMag has a new interview on Ghost of a Tale. We posted another interview earlier also. Both offer new information so be sure to read both.

If you search for the name “Lionel Gallat” on IMDB, you’ll find the name attached to a number of animated feature films: animation director for The Lorax, animation director for Despicable Me, supervising animator for Shark Tale, and the list goes on.

But more recently, Gallat has stepped away from animated feature films, and started developing a video game…on his own. The game is called Ghost of a Tale, and with one look at a screenshot it is easy to see that Gallat’s artistic skills have easily transitioned into the video game. Ghost of a Tale looks beautiful.

“As an animation director I was responsible for the animation of entire movies, leading 60+ [person] teams,” Gallat explained to IGM. “I was longing to go back to the nitty-gritty of creation; writing, modeling, painting, rigging, programming and… playing. I’ve already been in a position where I mostly tell people what they should do (and it’s probable [that] one day I’ll go back to that position) but today I’m having a lot of fun doing things myself for a change!”

Gallat, who is in the middle of promoting the funding campaign for his debut title Ghost of a Tale, chatted with IGM for a bit about his experience transitioning from Hollywood to the game development scene, his woes with Kickstarter, and why Ghost of a Tale deserves your support.

IGM – What inspired you to start working on a game, and move out of the animation industry?

Gallat - It was a good time for me to do so. I’ve always loved games and I’ve always enjoyed writing stories, creating models and animating them. But I also love programming (I’ve written tools used in production in several studios). So it wasn’t really that far-fetched for me to put the two together.

As an artist who programs I can get lost in a coherent game world and get to look everywhere I want, and interact with things that I created. In a nutshell it’s a lot of fun. I feel like a kid again, when I was programming moving sprites (an achievement!) in Microsoft Basic. It’s a huge amount of work obviously, but so rewarding.

IGM – So if the game isn’t fully funded…is that it? Would Ghost of a Tale cease to exist?

Gallat - Yes, probably. Several people have asked me that same question recently. I’ve been working on Ghost of a Tale full-time for more than a year (that includes changing engines), funding everything from my own pocket. So if I can’t remain financially independent and get a modest budget to pay for a handful of collaborators I’ll have to pull the plug at some point. Although let me tell you in all honesty it would hurt like hell, since I love this project with all my soul; I’ve poured so much time, energy and love into it.

If the campaign isn’t successful I would still try to keep working on the project for as long as I could afford it. But at some point my savings will eventually run out. I’m not complaining though; it’s the risk I took so I’m the only one responsible.

I also have to be lucid on the fact that if there aren’t enough backers maybe it means that there simply aren’t enough people interested in a game like Ghost of a Tale. That’s what frightens me most.

The Ghost of a Tale campaign at Indiegogo has still 2 weeks to go (the duration was increased recently with one week) and is currently at 27K€ out of a requested 45K€.

In the meantime an article style interview showed up at Venturebeat with developer Lionel Gallat.

“All those influences, just being able to put some cute animals … into a situation where they have to really face danger, but also find empathy in the player, so that the player can care a little bit about the characters and understand, even though they don’t look human,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to do. To be able to show that even though they don’t look at all like us, we can really understand [them].”

“I’m just trying to do something that’s charming, sympathetic, but I’m not shying away from violence or danger or stuff like that,” he added.

There are two new updates for the Ghost of a Tale campaign on Indiegogo. It is a fixed campaign, so you will only be charged if it succeeds and it is currently at 16K€ of an asked 45K€ with 22 days to go.

The first update is on simplicity:

I just would like to quickly address the topic of simplicity, since I mentioned it on the main page. It is quite common to see game projects flounder because of over-ambition. Sometimes, in the hope of raising as much money as possible, projects try to cater to too many audiences and end up disappointing a large chunk of their backers. It is my wish to try and avoid this as much as possible.

So let me make something clear: if as a player you MUST have deep statistics and number crunching, then chances are you will be disappointed in “Ghost of a Tale”. I can’t stress this enough: my goal is to create a game that’s beautiful, charming, fun, accessible and straightforward in its approach. This should not however be necessarily construed as “dumbed-down” or shallow; after all you can build fairly complex architectures with simple stones.

Finally here’s a short turntable video which shows the main character you’ll play in-game. It’s the first of a series of videos which aim to give you a better look at some of the characters that were only glimpsed in the alpha trailer…

 

And the second on the Undead rat

Here’s a better look at one of the undead rats that was seen on the video. This is one of the more heavily armored ones. They’re not very fast, but they can kill you with one well-adjusted blow (as opposed to what you see in the video). Let’s not forget that compared to your small mousy self they are indeed towering giants!

Again, this is simply the game asset directly within Unity, as it appears in-game. No fancy CG makeup.

Keen-eyed ones among you will no doubt notice the royal sigil of the Rat King painted on the shield. Although it’s seen better days. Too much salty water if you ask me… :)

Incidentally, the character’s pose is the one used for the figurine available on the campaign page.

 

An interview for Ghost of the Tale, currently on Indiegogo (currently at 1/3th of the asked 45K Euro) can be found at The Verge.

In order to keep the project manageable, Gallat is making Ghost of a Tale relatively small. There will be exploration, combat, secrets to uncover, and even some role playing game elements, but don't expect a game on the scale of Skyrim. You'll explore a haunted island as opposed to a vast world. "My goal is to craft a small yet beautiful game with environments that look a bit like movie sets and characters that have a sense of stylization in their design, while retaining a certain simplicity and immediacy as far as gameplay is involved," Gallat explains.

He began development on Ghost of a Tale last year after a lengthy career as an film animator, starting in 1996 with Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt and ending with 2011's The Lorax, where he served as animation director. "The set of skills needed to make a game or a movie are virtually the same," he explains. "So for me it doesn't really make a big difference. I feel what I have learned working on movies is absolutely relevant to Ghost of a Tale."

Even still, the process hasn't been easy, mainly due to the fact that — as Gallat explains it — he's not a "real" programmer. Progress was slow early on, and Gallat says that he struggled for close to a year trying to wrangle his ideas into a particular game engine. Eventually he switched to the Unity engine, a popular game creation tool among smaller studios, and things started moving much faster — the alpha was built in just two months, and that includes the time he spent learning a new programming language.

In addition on his Indiegogo page he explains why he went to fixed funding instead of the commonly used flexible funding campaigns.

Lately I’ve been asked about the campaign type for “Ghost of a Tale”. As you know, Indiegogo offers the option to keep whatever money has been pledged, even if the goal is not reached by the final deadline. But as I said on the main page, this is not the case for this campaign. If it is not successful, the project will not get any money at all. All the money that you guys have pledged will be refunded to you in its totality.

Why did I do it this way? Because I couldn’t morally justify the “flexible” approach. If I set a budget goal, it’s because that’s what’s needed to complete the game to a suitable standard. So if the campaign only gets to, say, a third of the budget, I don’t want to go “Oh well, too bad. I’ll take that, bye!”. What would it then mean for you backers? Your money would be taken away and then what? You would have basically paid for a product that won’t be made? Anyway, I’m just speaking for myself and for “Ghost of a Tale”; I’m sure in some cases flexible funding makes perfect sense.

The Indiegogo campaign for Ghost of a Tale is currently at €13.7K out of an asked €45K and with more than a month to go it should be able to reach that goal. There were some updates in the recent days, one is that the game is currently in the concept section of  Greenlight. the other updates cover 3 interviews with the developer.

Gamasutra

"Which brings me to the second point: Time. Animators in video game studios are rarely allowed time to learn, to refine, to improve their skills. So they mostly get better at being faster, more efficient. Which is important of course, but only the first half of the journey."

It's these two factors that can potentially bring video game animation down, Gallat believes. "As an animator it truly saddens me of course when I see bad animation in a game (truth be told it often ticks me off)," he adds. "But as a professional I understand the reasons behind that."

Analog Addiction

You mentioned this game being a combination between an action/adventure and an RPG. As such, will the game feature more of an open-world environment, or will it be more linear?

Well, the term “open-world” environment definitely seems too big for this game. The game will happen on the Island of Periclave, which is not very big, but that’s the price to pay for not having a big team of developers. All I can say is topography will be consistent. Which means that all the different locations share the same unity of space and time. The game will also be linear story-wise. There is a progression towards a goal. This is not going to be like ‘Skyrim’ where you can spend hours wandering through a huge world with 50 quests going on at all time. Which is why I always emphasize the “small” aspect of the game.

And there is this podcast at Et Tu, Gamer?

In the latest update for Ghost of a Tale (curretnly at 10K out of an asked 45K, with 36 days to go), Lionel shares his thohughts on combat.

In this update I'd like to focus, mostly, on combat.

But first of all a few words about the plot of the game: at this moment I am purposely keeping the story under wraps. Not because I don't know where I'm going, but because I wish to maintain a sense of genuine mystery. In a manner of speaking "Ghost of a Tale" will be the opposite of "Skyrim" (which is a game I love by the way). "Skyrim" is not about an intimate, compelling story; it's about a huge world where you play a nondescript character that you can mold entirely to your liking. "Ghost of a Tale" on the other hand will be infinitely smaller, with a set story in which you play precisely the character of the mouse and none other.

Now many people have asked me about combat. The most common question being: is it going to be like "Dark Souls"? The answer is no. "Dark Souls" is heavily focused on fighting with dozens of weapons, shields, armors, damage modifiers, various attacks, parrying techniques and offensive strategies, character classes etc... "Ghost of a Tale" can NEVER expect to compete on those grounds: it will be a much simpler game. In fact, combat (as far as the player character is concerned) is still very much uncertain.

Let me explain: as a player, I enjoy pressing a button to make my character attack monsters. It's a very basic, yet satisfying, game mechanic. But as game-designer for "Ghost of a Tale" I am less and less convinced that's the right way to go. By now it has been established that you play as a mouse who (obviously) isn't a warrior and who is thrust into a very perilous adventure. So I may in fact tone down combat A LOT to emphasize the helplessness of the mouse. Which of course means I will have to find fun and interesting alternatives to monster-bashing. This is important, so please let me know what you guys think!

There are many more things I would like to say, and points I would like to address but I'll keep that for a next update! Finally here's just a quick WIP screenshot (no set-dressing yet) that shows a new hood color scheme for the mouse, which makes the character stand out better against the earthy natural environment.

 

Lionel Gallat, a former Dreamworks animation supervisor and given direction to the animation on "Despicable Me" for Universal is also working on a game on his own named Ghost in a Tale. This game is on a fixed funding campaign at IndieGoGo, so he only gets the money when the game is funded. It is currently at 5.821€ of an asked 45.000€.

Here is the video:

And here is the press release:

Former Dreamworks Animation Supervisor Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for Unique Adventure Game "GHOST OF A TALE"

PARIS, France - April 2, 2013 - SeithCG is launching an Indiegogo campaign to help fund the development of its first action-adventure game "Ghost of a Tale". The game is developed by a former Dreamworks supervising animator who more recently directed the animation of Universal Studios' "Despicable Me".

"Ghost of a Tale" follows a little mouse as he sets out on an adventure into a medieval world populated entirely by animals. The mysterious Island of Periclave, which has long been a disputed outpost for the Army of the Rats, is abandoned now, and reputed to be haunted. Of course tales are told of a fabulous treasure hidden high up in the Tower of Periclave, but it would be folly to try and get there, even for a mighty warrior - and the little mouse certainly doesn't look like one. The island is a mystery, rewarding the little mouse's curiosity and bravery in combat with the discovery of great secrets.

"Ghost of a Tale" is past the stage of a mere concept, however, and footage of a playable demo can be seen on the campaign's page. Remarkably, this project is being developed by just one person, yet it strives to combine a visual quality usually seen in big-budget AAA titles with the craftsmanship and emotional resonance more commonly found in independent, experimental games. Its developer, Lionel Gallat, is finally able to bring his years of experience working for Hollywood studios to bear on his passion project in order to deliver a product of the highest quality, and great beauty.

The Indiegogo campaign page for "Ghost of a Tale" can be found here.

About SeithCG
SeithCG (www.seithcg.com) is a one-man studio founded by Lionel "Seith" Gallat, based in the south of France. SeithCG's website offers animation tools that have been used in production by many studios around the world, including "poseLib" and "retimingTool". Gallat has worked in the movie industry for more than 15 years, first at Dreamworks on several movies ("The Prince Of Egypt", "The Road to Eldorado", "Spirit", "Sinbad", "SharkTale", "Flushed-Away", etc...), and more recently as the animation director for Universal Studios' "Despicable Me" and "The Lorax". He possesses a wide range of skills rangin

Kerberos has updated their Indiegogo campaign for Swords of the Stars: The Pit ($15k/$60k, 5 days left) with the Alpha demo:

Download The Pit Alpha Demo (130M) from the following locations;

[mirror 1]
[mirror 2]
[mirror 3]
[mirror 4]

More links will be added regularly, as new hosts pick up the demo.

This Alpha demo of The Pit provides you with an introductory tutorial and a chance to fight your way down into the first 5 levels of the game! But there’s still a lot more of the game that will only be found in the full version;

• 2 More Characters to choose from… the Marine and the Pilot, each with their own unique advantages!

• Level your character up as you dive down into 25 more levels, each one bigger than the last!

• Dozens more enemies drawn from the SotSverse!

• Dozens and dozens of additional weapons and armors with a variety of special effects, including flamethrowers, rocket launchers, plasma cannons and powered Brawler armor!

• Randomized augmentation effects to make each game unique

• Crafting Mechanics, which let you make special items from bits and pieces of your enemies!

• 50 more items to discover, ranging from the familiar to the ancient exotic tech.

• Dozens of room types containing a host of exotic devices to help and hinder the player

• A fully rendered soundscape engineered by the pros at Power Up Audio!

• And while the demo will try and kill you in many fiendish ways, the final game will also include poisoning, disease, traps, radiation, and more!

A couple of updates showed up this weel on the Indiegogo page for the campaing of Sword of the Stars: The pit. Amongst others the Security Bots are monster of the week and they show what a Liir council chamber looks like (whatever that is). They are also quite pleased that they are approaching their goal.

Here are the bots:

The Pit facility is filled with lifeforms taken from across the galaxy, many of them sentient beings who are extremely intelligent and clever in their own right. Nothing ruins a battery of tests like the specimen getting out of its cage, and so the Bloodweaver has installed extensive security throughout his lab in the form of an army of robotic drones.

Security Drones come in a multitude of configurations suited to dealing with the wide variety of hostile lifeforms kept in the Pit. Ranging from small, fast-moving fliers to hulking, tank-like killing machines, the drones maintain order in the Pit with lethal efficiency.

MONSTER STATS
Name: Security Bot (Light)
Height = 1.3 M
Weight = 50 Kg
Armor = Moderate
Resilience = Low
Speed = Above average
Special notes: This small, wheeled security bot uses to arms that mount small calibre weapons. The standard models use ballistics but there are rumors of a laser variant as well.

MONSTER STATS
Name: Security Bot (Fast Response)
Height = .8 M
Weight = 10 Kg
Armor = low
Resilience = low
Speed = Very High
Special notes: This very high tech, anti-grav security drone designed to respond quickly to alarms. It carries laser weaponry as well as a stun device in order to restrain subject till heavier and better armed security bots arrive.

MONSTER STATS
Name: Security Bot (Medium)
Height = 1.7 M
Weight = 150 Kg
Armor = Moderate
Resilience = High
Speed = Moderate

Check out our Gallery for all the Animated Gifs of our Robot Friends!

Security Bot Concept Art

Kerberos, the makers of Sword of the Starts: The Pit start the week with some screenies and a video from the tutorial level.

Hey folks! Many thanks to those who joined up to support the campaign over the weekend! We are starting the new week with some fun new media from the Alpha Build of the game. :)

We’ve added five screenshots taken last week and a new video, which is basically a quick walk-through of the game’s Tutorial level.

For those who wonder about the personality of “Sergeant Gunny”, your instructor engram…you might notice that his eight-bit portrait looks a bit familiar!

Yes indeed, “Sergeant Gunny” uses an avatar based on Edward Alton MacKenzie, the third Director of Sol Force, former Legator of Ground Forces, and widely known to be the Baddest Space Monkey of All Time.

Happy Monday, and please Share our new goodies. We will also post images and links to the game’s website. :)

The Indiegogo campaign for Swords of the Stars: The Pit is showing several updates, like a monster animation and stats, the first weapon description and adding perks to pledges.

On Indiegogo an update appeared for Sword of the Stars: The Pit we reported about before. In this update a bit more gameplay information is given:

How do the game controls work?

Movement is keyboard-controlled, with standard WASD for directional control, and the spacebar to interact with objects. You use the mouse to control other parts of the GUI.

How does crafting work?

As you collect items, you can craft them in two ways: either transform them or combine them. When you take a hunk of Raw Meat and put it into the portastove to make nice safe-and-edible Cooked Meat, you are transforming the item. When you take the bits and pieces you have ripped off of destroyed enemy machinery and make yourself a Sonic Grenade, you are combining items.

Will there be an Infinite Dungeon Mode with procedurally generated levels that get even more harder (like, how deep can you get?)?

If you ever manage to get to the bottom and find the cure it will open up an infinite mode, but rest assured…we are going to make that very very hard! ;)

What’s the difference between the Marine, the Engineer and the Scout Character?

The Marine is big on brute force. Sol Force Engineers are trained to use finesse, and to work well with machinery and high-tech devices. The Scout is a hybrid, cross-trained to have a wide range of basic skills.

We have gotten word that you can now pledge for Sword of the Stars: The Pit at Indiegogo. This should explain what type of game it is:

Sword of the Stars: The Pit is a fun, fast, light-hearted action RPG, in the tradition of Rogue and other old school dungeon-diving games.

The game will include the following features on release:

• 3 Characters to choose from…Marine, Pilot and Engineer!

• Go up levels and improve your skills as you try and find a way to survive the depths.

• 30 Levels of ancient evil science between you and the cure!

• Dozens of enemies drawn from the SotSverse!

• Over 30 weapons and armors with a variety of special effects including flamethrowers, rocket launchers, plasma cannons and powered Brawler armor!

• Randomized augmentation effects to make each game unique

• Crafting lets you make special items from bits and pieces of your enemies.

• Over 60 items to discover, ranging from the familiar to the ancient exotic tech.

• Dozens of room types containing a host of exotic devices to help and hinder the player

• Many fiendish ways to die including poisoning, disease, traps, radiation, starvation and of course…MONSTERS.

The Pit is currently in Alpha phase, and slated for Beta release in November. The completed game will be available for download in the first quarter of 2013.