Sacred Fire - a psychological RPG mixing narrative and tactics

How did I miss this? Like the art, concept seems promising. For voice work I'd recommend contacting some of girls that worked on Interesting npc's project.
Few of them did stand out.

The English voice actress for Calia in the Enderal mod would be a good choice too. She did a good job of conveying emotion.

Thank you for the voice acting tips, keep them coming

@crpgnut I do not blame you. There is only one thing worse than getting excited about a game in development that gets canceled: it's when the game launches and it is completely different as what Peter Molyneux said it would be.

Sacred Fire is the culmination of two decades of honing my skills as a freelancer and working on big cross-platform games, as game designer and scriptwriter at Cauldron.

It represents my life's work and I will do whatever it takes to finish it and be true to the vision I set out to create.

I've seen your trailer a while back and it does look really promising.

I hope you will be able to share materials you're working on throughout the year to share your progress.

Good luck with your project!

Hey, thanks! We sure will!

Upvoted on Steam.

Looks like a really interesting game, so I'll be following its progress and wish you the best of luck with its development!

@groundhog Thanks!

We are getting close to the top 100 in Top Rated All Time on Steam Greenlight Concept. This is far better than we ever expected! Thank you all.

Upvoted. Looks interesting.

What's the release timeframe for this ?

Thank you, you can read about our development roadmap in detail in our New Year's blog post

The next important milestone is a Kickstarter campaign this March, with playable versions coming in 2017 and the full release planned for spring 2018.

Looking for an advice - we have a great voice actor Doug Cockle from the Witcher, who did the voiceover in our trailer and who will narrate parts of the game. Since Sacred Fire is a psychological RPG and inner life in general is a crucial aspect of the game, we will focus on narrating inner monologues. And we're looking for a female counterpart to Mr. Witcher in case a player decides to play with a female character.

What are your tips for well known female voices in RPGs or video games in general? Who would you like to see/hear in Sacred Fire?

Here's our trailer with Doug Cockle, in case you want to hear what we're looking for:

We have been hard at work and have some exciting news - right on track with our roadmap we just launched our regular Steam Greenlight campaign.



Thank you for your feedback and encouragement during our Concept stage. Your reactions were overwhelmingly positive. You’ve become a vital part of this adventure.

“I didn't realize it, til I saw this trailer, but I've been waiting for a game like this.”
-Cypher-D

“Looks (and sounds) awesome. Good luck!”
-Aleonymous

We’ve taken your comments and ideas and used them to further refine our official Greenlight page.

• We’ve added a few juicy gameplay GIFs showing in-detail combat, politics and ambush gameplay
  
  
• Added more details about Combat and Choice Making in Sacred Fire. These are important aspects of the game and deserve more information.
  
  
• And we are particularly happy about a quote from Arnie Jorgensen, art director of Banner Saga.

So now we’re turning to you again to help us to make Sacred Fire a reality.

Head to Sacred Fire Greenlight page now and vote ‘Yes’.

Every single ‘Yes’ vote is appreciated and important. We are always looking forward to when a new comment pops up and we had a blast answering them. Favorite us or follow, so you don’t miss important updates. And tell your gaming friends on Steam about Sacred Fire.

Thank you!

The voting on our Steam Greenlight campaign is going great, thank you all for your support.

Our first update is about Character Creation, as Sacred Fire is all about building a strong personality. You need both inner strength and social influence to guide the story into the direction you want.

Character creation is our favorite part in any RPG. However, more often than not, the choices we make in the character creation screen are often inconsequential in the game once we start playing. We want to get this right in Sacred Fire and have put a lot of thought into how choices in the character creation screen will have a profound impact on every story scene and conflict you encounter.

Our character creation and writing supports multiple playstyles, and lets the player gain an edge with either force, smarts, skill, looks or empathy in every situation. These represent the five conflict resolution archetypes you can mix and match to create a unique character and take your own path trough the story.

The inspiration behind this was Fallout 2, where you had many options how to approach a situation, how to solve a quest, how to acquire equipment or firepower. This is what we support in our writing and design: many ways how to gain an edge, get to wealth, fame, love, influence. You chose what winning means and how to get there.



Besides extensive visual customization (10 outfits x 10 faces x 10 hairstyles x 10 paint styles) you can choose valuable appearance traits.

Traits like a “Melodic Voice,” “Fragile Figure” or “Vivid Gestures” make everything you do more memorable. They also evoke specific reactions. For example, “Fragile Figure” evokes the instinct to protect and you are less likely to be perceived as a threat.

Beauty helps you win people over but also evokes envy. Menace helps you intimidate opponents and can prevent them from attacking.



The personality and beliefs model represents a mature and nuanced take on the “good” and “evil” meters seen in some games. The goal is to bring over the pen & paper role-playing experience where a Game Master rewards you for staying in-character.

For example, processing failure is easier if you have a strong belief that there is happiness possible in life. But the same belief makes it harder for you to risk your life. Forgiving is easier if you believe there is goodness in people, but you may be prone to being played.

Believing you have the favor of a divinity can make you both courageous and arrogant. Ideals may be impractical in times of war, but being selfless helps you gain allies.

Mood plays an important role in how effectively your character controls emotions and uses skills and judgment under stress.

Mood depends on stress and comfort. Danger, pain from injuries, relationship conflicts, and traumatic memories can all raise your stress. Comfort and safety comes from powerful allies, a trusted blade in hand, luxury items and strong convictions.

Having a high mood helps you win both combat and story confrontations, as it makes you more resistant to Fear and Anger. On the other hand, stress and discomfort make you prone to Fear and Anger.



Using fighting, healing, crafting, and relationship skills develops both them and the associated Attributes: Agility and Strength, Intellect and Empathy, Beauty and Menace. The more intelligence you have, the faster they progress.

Living through both success and failure creates positive and negative memories. It’s up to you to save up enough willpower to process the negative memories and use them to make you stronger.

Story choices strengthen or weaken your beliefs. The pros and cons of positive and negative beliefs are balanced. The goal is to give the player the possibility to freely express different beliefs and explore their consequences.

Authority expresses the inner strength of your personality. It’s the sum of memories, beliefs, skills, and attributes. Gain enough authority to level-up and:

- Strengthen your willpower
- Choose traits like “6th Sense,” “Unstoppable,” or “Stoic” affecting gameplay
- Unlock ideas that represent your fundamental beliefs like “You Are(Not) on Your Own,” “Things Happens for a(no) Reason,” or “There is(Not) Enough to go Around.”

Please let us know what you think!

We took the Steam Greenlight voting by storm - we currently have 1,050 YES votes and we are thankful for each and every one of them.



We still need some more to get Greenlit, so if you like what you see, please consider helping us to get the word out, either by reaching out to friends, admins, bloggers and influencers, or let the people know on reddit or social media. We appreciate all the help we can get, thank you.

We just made it into the top 100 games on Steam Greenlight. It took less than 3 days - you guys are awesome, thank you all!

Let's see how far we can keep climbing.

There is a thread on reddit about us, your upvote can help us reach even more fans, thank you: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/5r0oag/steam_greenlight_sacred_fire_turnbased/

We woke up to a nice surprise today, we are already #75 in the Steam Greenlight. Thank you all for your continuous and unrelenting support.

It's the first time we are making waves, well maybe ripples , on Reddit as well.

We basically need one last push to get to the top 50 where the Greenlighting happens.

Who will be the hero to save the day today?



This scene shows why relationships in Sacred Fire matter - they can be literary the difference between life and death.
Of course not all relationships are friendly and how you manage the hostile ones is equally as important and affects also combat encounters difficulty.

Thanks to you all, our Steam Greenlight is well underway. On day 6, with almost 2,500 votes, we are getting close to being in the top 30. That would be quite a feat for us and our community.

In the meanwhile, we would like to ask what you think about the voting that happens on our site:



More than 500 of you voted at https://www.SacredFireGame.com/#voting for their favorite character to raise the NPCs in-game influence.

You can choose between characters that want to vengefully crush Rome, or those who want to survive Rome and build a nation. This way you can have a powerful, like-minded NPC ally inside the game.

As a player character you are always free to choose your own path. It just makes things easier if an NPC has your back, or harder if you fight alone.

It's also an interesting feedback to our casting/writing. What do you think?

The voting is based only on first impressions of the characters, as it represents the experience of your player character in the very beginning of the story - the only person your character knows is Wid, the others are new to you and you have to decide whom to join support or fight on critical decisions. If you play it smart you will soon gain insights into who the NPCs and their true motives truly are. The question how to go about the war with Rome should be more clear.

What I find interesting is that the the faction hell bent on making Rome pay is not winning. I feel like there may be some hope for humanity after all If people are willing to look past the cruelty and revenge and wish to leave behind a better world for their children. Do not get me wrong, the patriots will still need to lead a very real resistance war, but the objective is to save as many of their own, instead of watching Rome burn even if it means to burn down with them.

But then, players haven't felt the cruelty of Rome first hand yet. But what do you do once evil touches your live? I think this is a question that defines a person very deeply. This is the kind of questions we want to explore.

From a developer's perspective it's good feedback on how people like/dislike the characters you envision as a writer at first sight. And than we can take it from there in many different directions, who the characters truly are.

I wanted also to expand on the description of the NPCs in the voting pool. It list traits like Diehard, Leader, Genius, Intoxicating and Likeable. We call them elite traits and there is 5 of them and they define your playstyle, as they predispose you to solve conflicts in a certain way. Be it force, skill, smarts, looks or empathy. You can pick 2 in character creation and thus create your unique playstyle. Here are the descriptions:


Diehard - Your body is relentless, always ready to fight, to endure and to prevail. With this Trait you can go further, climb higher and fight harder, carving your own legend.

Leader - People feel drawn to you, as you have a natural ability to lead, inspire and achieve great things. Although there is no party of NPCs to lead, this Trait gives you power over yourself and others

Genius - You have the gift of insight. Your mind can walk paths no one has taken before. No matter where you start with your abilities, with this Trait, you will ultimately triumph

Intoxicating - You posses the gift of a unique, almost otherworldly beauty. This Trait will bring you Affection and Renown, but also Envy and Hate

Likeable - Authentic and graceful, you naturally attune yourself to others and easily win people over. Winning people over can take you further then any other talent


Btw. this morning was a nice surprise: we made it into the top 20 on Steam Greenlight, with over 3,000 YES votes, we reached #18.
Thank you all it shouldn't take long now, but we appreciate every fan, so if you like what you see, please please vote for us now.

Upvoted. Will be keeping an eye out for the KS in March. Looks like a surefire winner to me.

beldurax said:

Upvoted. Will be keeping an eye out for the KS in March. Looks like a surefire winner to me.

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Thank you! I appreciate your support.

Last week the guys from 11 Bit Studios came to our town to talk about the writing of This War of Mine, an indie game about surviving as civilians in a war. If you never heard about the game, you should totally check out their trailer, I’m still having goose bumps watching it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxf1seOpijE. It’s a masterpiece.

We share with our friends at 11 Bit Studios a similar vision that a good video game should make an impact on people’s lives. Sacred Fire will be an engaging and fun game but it’s designed to make you reflect on what is the right thing to do in a complex conflict and then see how things unfold.

I’m switching back and forth between an utter panic that there’s still so much to do and a feeling that everything will be fine because we’ve been preparing for this for months and people like the game wherever we go. Yes, it’s Kickstarter time! Mark UPDATE: March 15 in your calendars and let’s talk about the most fun stuff: What kind of Kickstarter rewards you would like to see?

I’m so excited about this: We are discussing a bunch of rewards involving Doug Cockle, the voice of the Witcher, who is working with us on voiceovers.

We have a few reward ideas, but we turn to you with an irresistible offer: Tell me what is your dream Kickstarter reward. Would you like to get your own voicemail greeting narrated by Doug? Or how about a nice dinner with our team and Doug? What would be an attractive backer reward for you involving Doug? How much would it be worth to you?

And one more thing. We’re working hard on our Kickstarter project page and I want to get your feedback on it. Let me know if you’re willing to be a part of a small group of fans who will see the preview.

Also, we’re still on Steam Greenlight! We’ve hit the #12 spot recently. But it seems that we need a final push to get greenlit. You can help us here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843790587