Antharion - Indie, TB, party-based Kickstarter

I think it looks quite decent even without walking animations if they make the camera smooth scroll. Some nice lighting and other effects can be seen. I think it looks about as good as the latest Spiderweb games overall, if not better. Sure, some aspects are worse (like the per tile camera movement), but others are better and overall it's solid.

Having funny looking graphics with serious themes in the story is nothing new to video games. Warhammer anyone? Or games in general even. Lots of funny pen and paper RPG art around. Same for all the wargames using super deformed art style for the unit figures. Adventure games also often look funny with serious stories. Serious or not it's the text that will give off most of the mood when the graphics are this low-fi.

Anyway, it looks like they've already developed a lot of the game. Their Kickstarter page has lots more information than those bullet points too, they mention having 20 cities, 100 dungeons, NPCs with daily schedules and AI that has them report you to guards or attack you when appropriate, loads of already implemented spells in three different schools, hand crafted everything rather than generated environments, etc.

I know, liked all that:)
 
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It is!
I just didn´t like the perceived notion that my superinsightful comment might be irrelevant since the game is not finished yet :).
I read the "But it could also be that the game isnt finished you know.." bit as a "let´s rather not offer any feedback yet", which it seems was an unfortunate misinterpretation.
Sorry if I read too much into your post and/or came off as too snarky.

Nah, maybe i came off snarky. What i meant is that people shouldnt be too judgemental at this early stage.
 
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I like the cartoonish graphics, at least it has a style. Backed.
 
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Hey guys, Im the lead dev of Antharion.

Thanks a lot for you feedback, it's very very important to us because, after all, Antharion is a niche game and you guys are its target audience. Lots of complaints about big heads so we are considering scaling them down and/or making them more serious looking - luckily this would take almost no work on our part as heads are drawn separately from bodies/equipment. Before we launched we spent several days implementing an idle animation (maybe it's not too clear in the video because of the pace) and we are considering doing some kind of walking animation that wouldn't affect core gameplay too much. Let me just reiterate that Antharion is a work in progress and we're very nimble with implementing quick mods, so keep the suggestions coming!

Thanks,
Ari
Antharion Team Leader
 
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Hey guys, Im the lead dev of Antharion.

Thanks a lot for you feedback, it's very very important to us because, after all, Antharion is a niche game and you guys are its target audience. Lots of complaints about big heads so we are considering scaling them down and/or making them more serious looking - luckily this would take almost no work on our part as heads are drawn separately from bodies/equipment. Before we launched we spent several days implementing an idle animation (maybe it's not too clear in the video because of the pace) and we are considering doing some kind of walking animation that wouldn't affect core gameplay too much. Let me just reiterate that Antharion is a work in progress and we're very nimble with implementing quick mods, so keep the suggestions coming!

Thanks,
Ari
Antharion Team Leader

Cool, great to see you on the forums and welcome:)

Keep coming back and talking any more info is more then welcome.
 
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Thanks for coming along, Ari.

I think it looks quite decent even without walking animations if they make the camera smooth scroll. Some nice lighting and other effects can be seen. I think it looks about as good as the latest Spiderweb games overall, if not better. Sure, some aspects are worse (like the per tile camera movement), but others are better and overall it's solid.

I agree - earlier Spiderweb games had this lock-step movement and it worked fine. Nethergate works like this and is one of my favourite games. This has much better lighting and effects, I think, and I love some of the features like the open and fully-interactive world.

Though the heads could do with a change.

Backed!
 
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Yeah, not sold on the look (mainly the slightly cartoony sprites, really), but the gameplay looks excellent and the planned feature-list sounds awesome.
Totally backing this one.

Dhruin said:
I agree - earlier Spiderweb games had this lock-step movement and it worked fine. Nethergate works like this and is one of my favourite games
Amen!

Edit: actually, some of the creature design is pretty cool. Maybe all is needed is some head shrinkage: ;)
 
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Thanks for coming along, Ari.



I agree - earlier Spiderweb games had this lock-step movement and it worked fine. Nethergate works like this and is one of my favourite games. This has much better lighting and effects, I think, and I love some of the features like the open and fully-interactive world.

Though the heads could do with a change.

Backed!

I like you again. ;)
 
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Suggestions

Hey guys, Im the lead dev of Antharion.

Thanks a lot for you feedback, it's very very important to us because, after all, Antharion is a niche game and you guys are its target audience. Lots of complaints about big heads so we are considering scaling them down and/or making them more serious looking - luckily this would take almost no work on our part as heads are drawn separately from bodies/equipment. Before we launched we spent several days implementing an idle animation (maybe it's not too clear in the video because of the pace) and we are considering doing some kind of walking animation that wouldn't affect core gameplay too much. Let me just reiterate that Antharion is a work in progress and we're very nimble with implementing quick mods, so keep the suggestions coming!

Thanks,
Ari
Antharion Team Leader

Glad to see your post! I think my strongest suggestion is to be sure you are including great music into the game as it looks like you have mostly everything else covered. The old 80's RPG's had great music to make up for the lack of what the graphics could convey and I think it still applies. The trailer had music but I think that was just trailer music. Also that trailer music is fine for a trailer but not for in-game. I'm thinking it needs music that sets a good mood for wherever we are like the early Ultimas or Alternate Reality, among others. It doesn't need to be real instrumental music per se, just a good tune that sticks in the head and that we can immediately associate with the game.

Other things I'd suggest:

  • Smooth scrolling movement (camera is already locked onto player, good!)
  • A resolution and aspect ratio scaler for different configs
  • Whatever level of modding support you can implement

The game already looks very intriguing and the trailer along sparked genuine interest in me. Congrats and good luck!
 
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Backed after watching the video again, i really like the style and the different environments. I don't mind the big heads, it will allow the characters to have more features (very important, i dont want generic / featureless faces on characters), and it doesnt look too over the top, imo. I really hope it'll make it to iPAD.
 
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Reminds me more of The Magic Candle and maybe the SSI Gold Box games than any of the ones listed. Though slightly improved, graphically, of course. 15k is just a couple months salary for one programmer so I assume somebody is developing this just for fun and is hoping to make a little cash on the side. Nothing wrong with that. People forget that what made yesterday's classics into classics was that they were fun and charming, though. There's no secret formula, other than to hire people that are as obsessively creative as the people who made those classics in the past. It's frustrating seeing so many would-be developers trying to mimic what worked 20 years ago. All the industry needs is some folks that are just as good at what they do as the big names of the past were, making modern games for today's market. Instead, we have... whatever this industry has become... the equivalent of Hollywood movies being made by the folks who shoot commercials, maybe?
 
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Backed at the 15$ level. I sure hope walking animations are added thats my biggest complaint.
 
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Nice little update thanking rpgwatch and the codex on there.
 
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Reminds me more of The Magic Candle and maybe the SSI Gold Box games than any of the ones listed. Though slightly improved, graphically, of course. 15k is just a couple months salary for one programmer so I assume somebody is developing this just for fun and is hoping to make a little cash on the side. Nothing wrong with that. People forget that what made yesterday's classics into classics was that they were fun and charming, though. There's no secret formula, other than to hire people that are as obsessively creative as the people who made those classics in the past. It's frustrating seeing so many would-be developers trying to mimic what worked 20 years ago. All the industry needs is some folks that are just as good at what they do as the big names of the past were, making modern games for today's market. Instead, we have… whatever this industry has become… the equivalent of Hollywood movies being made by the folks who shoot commercials, maybe?

Yes this project has been driven 100% by passion, but at the same time we believe there's a market out there to make it work financially. I'm the programmer/creator and have the spent the last year building it from scratch.

The SSI Gold box games were a huge inspiration for us. Couldn't agree more with respect to the old games, those games had charm and more importantly very solid underlying gameplay mechanics.
 
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Hey guys, he added a new 30 dollar tier that gives you access to the beta.
 
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By the way, no animations for me beats bad (well, I should say unpleasant based on one's taste, they could be good technically) animations so maybe let me turn those off, helping make everything an abstract representation for my imagination to fill in the blanks, just in case! The heads could be an option as well. I'm not attached to them but I may feel it's worse if they're smaller since the whole style was meant for that size.
 
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Looking very interesting! Two thumbs up!

First impressions after watching the KS video:

The Good:
- Turn-based combat. A big plus!
- Skill-based system (at least so I gathered). Sadly the skill selection seems to be combat centered (if you count the magic skills as combat skills too). Would love to see a few more non-combat skills added in, like Speech/Persuasion and some Lore skills.
- Nice lighting effects and good variety in environments (snowy, desert, lava, etc.).
- Love the paper doll (and how it also seems to translate to the avatar as well).
- Go-anywhere-you-want design with no level scaling.
- Taking inspiration from the "Good ol' Greats of CRPGs".

The Bad:
- Jerky scrolling.
- Lack of walking animation and the party moving in lock-step line. (I can live with this, as I lived with it with the old Avernums etc., but it still bothers me. Especially as the characters have a breathing/idle animation, so why not moving animations.)
- A bit too "cute" graphics (but this is not a biggie, not even the over-sized heads). Had it been anime-style, I would have objected more heavily.

OK, a few questions (if you're ready to talk about the game system a bit):
1. How will you implement resting and recovery in Antharion? Will it e.g. require a special place (like an inn) or can you rest anywhere where it's (relatively) safe? Will resting require food or can you do it without a cost in consumables? How fast will it be - a night's rest heals you fully or just a lesser amount (based on Constitution/Health etc.)?

2. How does armor function in Antharion? Will it offer points of protection (that are deduced from incoming damage) or will it offer you a greater chance of avoiding an attack (like AC in D&D)? Will there be restrictions to armor use or can anyone wear any armor?

3. Will there be conversations where skill or attribute level is a factor (not counting Mercantile here, which I presume is bartering)?

That's all for now. Godspeed to you on this great endeavor!
 
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Grue, those are some great questions. He mentioned to me he had some ideas for crafting alchemy as well as a farm idea where you could plant and grow things.
 
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Hey guys, more than happy to answer any question!

Currently you can rest in safe areas (though your rest can potentially be interrupted by monsters etc.). I've been toying with the idea of having to use inns for resting but haven't made the decision to switch just yet. Resting won't require consumable, no. A night's rest will heal you fully (the actual resting interface works similarly to the elder scrolls resting.

Amor essentially mitigates incoming physical damage (so yeah, point protection). Anyone can use armor but there will be penalties for casting spells and (possibly) for using bows.

Let me stress that our current skills are not set in stone and it's very likely that some will be added/modified. I personally love non-combat skill, it's just that we only wanted to demo what was fully functional on KS. A persuasion or persuasion/mercantile skill would be cool and could definitely be used to extend dialog branching (something I'm all for personally). We'll also probably add alchemy and possibly even a crafting system.
 
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