Hi guys, thanks for your (upcoming
) support!
To answer all of your questions:
"looks rough but gameplay looks great": Absolutely. I have done most of the work on the game myself, and I am definitely a developer not an artist! The focus to this point has been on building gameplay systems, so there's the fun stuff like the turn-based combat and environment interactivity, but the environments themselves are still looking pretty sterile. For a megadungeon under a swamp, it should be a lot more grimy/damp/decaying and full of... stuff! This is all coming, and the funding from (modest) Kickstarter goal will go mainly into 2D and 3D art, with some on engine licensing, animation and a few required programming frameworks. So if the funding is successful, I hope to start showing significant graphical improvements and general polish improvements straight away.
"Looks suspiciously like D&D": Yes, it is D&D. I am using the Open Game Content (OGC) from the Wizards of the Coast, under the terms of the Open Game License. The OGC is an openly-licensed version of D&D 3.5e. As forgottenlor said, this is what Pathfinder is based on, and as Hastar said, what KotC used as well. I strongly considered using Pathfinder actually, as it's just a whole lot of improvements on D&D 3.5e, but the licensing terms weren't as clear, and it still wouldn't be well-known to a wide segment of the potential Subterranea-playing community. Under the terms of the Open Game License, I:
* Cannot mention officially that my game is in any way associated with D&D, WotC, D20, etc, though forum posts are OK I think! It is pretty obvious though, so that's OK
* Cannot use any trademarked D&D IP, like "Forgotten Realms", "Elminster", "Beholder", etc.
* I must expose all of the rules of the game in human-readable files (XML in Subterranea's case), that are read in by the game at startup. This is following the normal open licensing concept where any additions/augmentations of the content you create should be also made available for others to use. In relation to a CRPG, one immediate benefit is that it makes the game very moddable. I did a post a few weeks ago mentioning this, in regard to being able to change the "playable" flag for all monster races to true to be able to use them as playable races in-game, if you wish:
http://cloudninegames.net/dev-diary-1-enemy-customization-playable-races/
If you were determined enough, you could even convert Subterranea to use the Pathfinder ruleset! If you're interested in what's in the OGC, here's a great online resource that displays the contents of the "System Reference Document" which is the set of documents from WotC that describe the OGC:
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRDystem_Reference_Document
"NPC interaction": Yes, there will be a lot of this. My main inspiration for the game was the original Pool of Radiance, in which I loved the political intrigue when dealing with the council of Phlan. There are parallels in Subterranea when dealing with the (sometimes competing) agendas of the cabal of merchant-lords who rule Gimlet Town.
I've had a huge amount of very helpful advice from Craig Stern of
http://www.indierpgs.com In my original teaser trailer, I had a scene in the swamp after the party had returned from the sunken temple megadungeon where a merchant-lord was demanding that the party stick to their agreement to give the cabal first rights to purchase treasure recovered from the temple. The PC party leader attempts a Bluff, which fails a DC check, angering the merchant-lord. However Craig's advice was that the teaser trailer and Kickstarter pitch should be streamlined (they were too long), and that scene was one that got cut.
You'll see plenty of information on the KS page though about deep, branching dialogue and choice and consequence. You've given me a good idea for an early KS update though - NPC interaction. Thanks!