Deathfire - Kickstarter Now Live

Couchpotato

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Guido Henkel has launched his promised kickstarter for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore asking for $390,000 to get funded. Here is a recap of the game to get you started.
The Deathfire Vision

“Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore”
is a party-based computer role-playing game with turn-based combat that hearkens back to the Golden Era of fantasy cRPGs. Built upon the power of the Unity 3D engine, “Deathfire” utilizes a first person view that gives the player the feeling of being there. A solid role-playing engine that utilizes over forty visible character attributes, along with countless invisible ones to track behavior. They make up the heartbeat of the game, and allow us to analyze and adjust gameplay on the fly, and react to the player’s actions, shaping the story around these actions and decisions.

Character interaction is another key ingredient in “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore,” as the player will encounter many denizens of the game world and will be able to recruit numerous ones to follow along as non-player characters in the party. Ripe with personality, opinions, phobias and their own little peccadillos, these characters will enrich the game and create unique gameplay twists—as well as many memorable moments, for sure. (Don’t forget to share them with us, when they occur…)

With a variety of large outdoor and indoor environments, the game will offer a rich game setting with party-based gameplay and turn-based combat that allows for tactically infused battles.

Doesn’t that sound like the game you’ve always want to play? Well, it sure is the game we want to play, and that’s why we started building it, and have been working on it for the past eight months.

Key Features In A Nutshell

Just to give you a quick overview of the key specs, here is the game for you in a nutshell

  • Single player, first person Party-based play (four player-, plus two non-player characters)
  • Six races and eight classes to choose from
  • Over 34 unique character traits, plus base attributes
  • Party characters interact with each other
  • Turn-based combat
  • Indoor and outdoor environments
  • Complex puzzles and evolving quests
  • Combine items to build weapons and traps
  • Interactive game world
  • Recipe-based crafting and enchanting
  • Involving, adaptive storyline with many key players and twists
  • Factions for intriguing political set-ups
  • Tons of monsters to battle
  • Dialogues—yes, you will be in awe at our cool and intelligent dialogue system
  • Cheese toast (This is an inside joke for those of you who have played the “Realms of Arkania” trilogy. If you have not, do not worry, “Deathfire” will give you the opportunity to become a member in the ranks of those initiated in the joke.)
More information.
 
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I pledged to those tier with physical copy (55 $). They're better prepared right now, but 390.000 $ (while it's far below 1 million) still seems a bit high. I hope they will succeed this time.
 
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Asking for too much, IMO. But of course more realistic this time than with the last game :)
 
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Maybe someone should of told Inxile and Obsidian they asked for to much. How easily people have forgotten. It seems every new project asking for more than $50,000 is asking for to much lately.:)

He has my pledge and I hope he succeeds this time.;)
 
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Maybe someone should of told Inxile and Obsidian they asked for to much. How easily people have forgotten. It seems every new project asking for more than $50,000 is asking for to much lately.:)
That's because inXile and Obsidian are actual proven companies with a track record, who people generally assume can deliver on a game that's fairly close to what they're claiming it will be. Convincing people to give $500K or $390K or whatever to individuals or unknown companies is asking a lot more.
 
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Maybe someone should of told Inxile and Obsidian they asked for to much. How easily people have forgotten. It seems every new project asking for more than $50,000 is asking for to much lately.:)

He has my pledge and I hope he succeeds this time.;)

While I was talking about they're asking too much I didn't mean this game deserves 50.000 or 100.000 $. I wish every RPG project would collect millions of $. But unfortunately past experiences showed that in order to collect 500.000 or more $ either you must have a powerful brand under the hood, or you must be a legendary developer, or (most important) have enough press support. When Kickstarter revolution was new, there was a lot of attention from the mainstream gaming press. But this trend faded with time. An RPG project with 200.000 $ or more, must take the support from gaming sites other than RPGWatch, RPGCodex, Gamebanshee and RPS.
 
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That's because inXile and Obsidian are actual proven companies with a track record, who people generally assume can deliver on a game that's fairly close to what they're claiming it will be. Convincing people to give $500K or $390K or whatever to individuals or unknown companies is asking a lot more.
See that's were your wrong he is a veteran of the industry, and has worked on a few of the greatest RPG's of all time. ;)

Anyway it all comes down to ambitious games especially RPGs costing allot a money to make. He is asking for a tenth of what it would normally cost for a game like this. It's the old catch 22 here.
A catch-22 is a situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules. Catch-22s often result from rules, regulations, or procedures that an individual is subject to but has no control over.
Regardless I'm not pointing at anyone here just stating an observation based on successful, and failed kickstarters.
 
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I kicked into this one as well. I think they should mention that the guy produced Torment like, a thousand times on the site, that could really bolster pledges. It certainly couldn't hurt.
 
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I know who he is, but he doesn't have an established company backing him up right now. As far as I know, "G3 Studios" has never released any product.
 
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I know who he is, but he doesn't have an established company backing him up right now. As far as I know, "G3 Studios" has never released any product.
I bet if Chris Avellone formed his own studio and pitched a new kickstarter pledges would pour in. It's about talent not just how well known your studio is.

Anyway seems my view is in the minority as many promising kickstarter games fail just because of what you pointed out.
 
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Backed as well. While the gameplay might be comparable to exiting games like grimrock and MMX, the story, factions, and character customisation will be superior to these.
 
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I bet if Chris Avellone formed his own studio and pitched a new kickstarter pledges would pour in. It's about talent not just how well known your studio is.

Anyway seems my view is in the minority as many promising kickstarter games fail just because of what you pointed out.
I agree with your view, I always give to anything that looks promising regardless. I was one of the first 2 or 3 backers of Deathfire as soon as the KS went up. But still, I gave a lot more to the projects that are nearly guaranteed to release good products, because of the established studios involved: Wasteland 2, Project Eternity, Torment, and Divinity: Original Sin.
 
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I will definitely back this and I'm sure to tell all my gaming friends about this KS. Design and concept look fun to me.

this game could easily become one of those indie hits :)
 
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This one certainly does look promising!! If this KS succeeds then there will be 3 RPGs I will be looking forward to within next year or two!! I have to admit though, this will be my least favourite RPG of 3 I'm looking forward to (PE, Torment and this one).

I just don't like the 1st person RPGs... I'm ok with ME series like 1st person, but not like TES first person. I can't really get the feel of where things are... (like how far or close they are etc). Also... never played turn based RPG (besides Pokemon, but I guess that one doesn't really count!)

Anyway, good luck to Guido and this project :)
 
$500 Nethermancer pledge level that gets you an Exclusive Class outright and totally is a terrible idea unless it is just terribly communicated and means something else.
 
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I bet if Chris Avellone formed his own studio and pitched a new kickstarter pledges would pour in. It's about talent not just how well known your studio is.
You do realize that this statement is pretty.. naive? Or did I not get it?

A good name in many cases beats anything else. All those game we hope for right now (Wasteland 2, Torment, etc.) have shown nothing except ideas and concepts when starting.
This works only because people have trust in the developers, because they have proven themselves already. If someone is unknown or well.. "little known" as I think Guido is, this is not enough.

One of the first things you learn as a developer is that everyone has good ideas (from time to time). How many ideas for gameplay improvements or game concepts did you have in recent years? Many, I'm sure. We all have those. :)
The problem is not coming up with ideas, it is making them real. And people know that. This is why many KS, etc. campaigns fail. Because they show only ideas and no proof of capability to realize them.

Don't get me wrong, I like the concept and think that the devs know what they are doing here. I want this campaign to be successful, but I would not be shocked it does not succeed.

Chris Avellone is not living from a reputation built up in years gone by. He's been very active and communicating all the time. What bells does the name Guido Henkel ring for anyone outside fans of the old RoA games, which were always nothing but a niche, and probably a bit more known in Germany? I don't even know what he did in recent years, except that failed last Kickstarter attempt. As I'm following RPGs rather closely, I do not think whatever he did had anything to do with desktop RPGs.
 
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What bells does the name Guido Henkel ring for anyone outside fans of the old RoA games, which were always nothing but a niche, and probably a bit more known in Germany? I don't even know what he did in recent years, except that failed last Kickstarter attempt. As I'm following RPGs rather closely, I do not think whatever he did had anything to do with desktop RPGs.
He worked at Black Isle for a while, was involved with Fallout 2, PS:T, and NWN. Nothing since then of any interest.
 
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I backed at $55 also. That makes 6 RPGWatchers to pledge or promise a pledge so far of the 10 posters in this thread. He'll probably hit his goal tonight ;)
 
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Well, I backed it. To me it looks excellent.
 
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