What we know about Windchaser
Hello, everyone.
What we know about the forthcoming is very few.
Basic information: The Game and the Company
The game has a German-language site
www.windchaser-game.de , an English-language forum
www.anaconda-games.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=117 and will be released during May in 2008.
There has been recently started a thread in the official forum entitled „Do you have questions for the developers ?“ From the answers posted at the first of February, 2008, I'll compile and translate a list of informations on the game (further down).
The developer is a small start-up company from Munich, Germany called Chimera. They have a web site, too:
www.chimera-entertainment.de
Chimera won the German „LARA Startup Award“ in 2007. The Lara Award is a German prize of the gaming industry.
www.lara-award.de
The company itself is very young, and was „founded by graduates of MDH Munich and ML Enterprises“.
Windchaser is so far their first game. It began life as the final work of several students who received so good resonance that they decided to make a full-blown PC game out of it. So they founded „Chimera Entertainment“, with the name being symbolic to the mix of elements found in „Windchaser“.
What do we know about the game ?
The game is taking place in a world with a Steampunk setting. An ancient war had devastated most of the old world, and with it all technology. The descendents developed a rather non-technical, spiritual way of life. Technology of this „old world“ (as I call it) is very, very rare – in form of rare Artifacts.
The „Windchaser“ is one of a number of flying ships – they drift in the air above the vast „grass oceans“ and they act as kind of bases for certain Guilds. One free Guild is led by Ioan, and its base is the „Windchaser“.
The story begins with „religious differences“ and competition among Guilds.
Technical features
The game itself is described as a „real-time tactical game“. I was reminded of Jagged Alliance, but in the official forum one of the developers rather referred to Disciples. I'll comment on that later.
Since the informatiuon I found is rather sparse, I present them in a list (a part of it is directly translated):
- In the above mentioned thread about questions for the developers alex_chimera told the community that the whole game can be paused at any point – but
not within the conbat which is implemented as real-time. This means that good, tactical planning is needed.
- The group/party the player controls consists of up to 5 members. This is also the number of people the player can control during a fight.
- During the game the player will be able to control up to 4 different parties.
- Every unit has an active special ability, and a special „leader(ship ?) bonus“.
- „Heroes like Ioan will be able to change their abilities during the game“ (whatever this means).
- There are levels and classes: Units will be able to level up up to 6 levels. They will be able to change several times into „stronger classes“ and continue to earn experience there.
- The answer to the question „will it be rather strategy or role playing ?“ says that „during the missions no far-reaching strategies will be needed, only short, tactical decisions and preparations for each skirmish. Also, the character development is always in the foreground.“
- Playing time is estimated for about 20 hours for the main story – plus additional time for side quests and treasures apart from the main story line.
- The game has three types of landscape: plains, deserts, and „a third, very bizarre setting at the end of the known world: The Rift.“
- The camera perspective is freely movable, and has several levels of zoom „from the iso perspective to the being right in the middle than being just a spectator“. (This reminds me of Spellforce, for example.)
- Question: „With which game would you compare Windchaser ?“ Answer: „We don't know any title to compare it with, but it has elements of 'Heroes of Might & Magic', 'WarCraft III' and 'Rise of Legends'.“
- There will be no option for different levels of difficulty. alex_chimera writes that the difficulty increases during the game, but „[it] gives beginners enough possibilities to try harder sections with different tactics. Profis will additionally find several very crunchy (?) challenges. Following the motto: 'Easy to learn, hard to master !' “ (He actually wrote the motto in English language. This is NOT translated !)
- After these answers were posted, I asked in this thread whether the game used elements of Jagged Alliance, because the „levels“ and „classes“ reminded me of it.
chris_chimera replied that the class system (of Windchaser) couldn't be compared with Jagged Alliance, but rather with Disciples 2, where units also do level up „from time to time“ and one can chose the branch the unit will take from there on. I must admit that I have never played Disciples II, so I can't judge this. I know some kind of „branching“ from Wesnoth, however.
- As a side-note, chris_chimera admits in another place in the forum that his avatar picture „represents one of the strongest disciple classes the player can train in Windchaser, the Warmaster: When he leads a fighting group, he [also] brings a critical advantage for the morale into the fight.“ His profile (including the picture) can be seen
here.
- From this remark I deduce that the figure presented on the front of the official game web site also presents a class of the game.
- harry_chimera (Profile including avarar picture
here ) writes at another point that his avatar picture represents another „disciple class“ (like the Warmaster) : The „Ironclad“, which has a strong shield and a thick armor.
- He also answers two questions. Question 1 : „How does tactics work ? Is it possible to counter enemies ?“ (The word „counter“ was actually used in the original question, not translated.) Answer: „Yes, one can counter enemies. This is one of the deeper reaching tactical possibilities. With the right timing one can even counter an enemy extend the own skill !“ (Whatever this mrans: I must admit that I have almost no clue which „own skill“ is meant – apart from the „counter“.)
- Second question: „Can I save at any time and anywhere [with]in the game world or is there a save-point system?“
Answer: „You can save any time, there are even comfortable autosaves which save the game before important events – that's a service
!“
Other answers to more questions are scheduled to follow in the next time.
After translating all this I found an article (in German language, again, since almost all info I have is presented only in German) explaining the game much more. It can be found here (including screenshots)
http://www.gamezone.de/specials_detail.asp?id=168&page=1
There are additional bits I can take from this article and the interview on the second page of it:
- The game is rather an „RTS with RPG elements“, but features a new and unique mix of styles and genres.
- Dynamedion, who made the soundtrack for Parawoeld and Gothic 3 develops the soundtrack of Windchaser as well.
- The ship called „Windchaser“ acts as a base which can be upgraded during the game.
- The game focuses on the characters and the story. The characters are not omnipotient, all-knowing super-heroes, but rather normal people who can't see everything important and might even decide wromg.
- The main philosophy is that the game must be fun to play, above of it all.
- The interface reminds the author of the article mentioned above of the interface of Paraworld. There seem to be some similarities.
The article also states additional points:
- No buildings will be built during the game. All the party (the Guild, to be exact) has, is the ship „Windchaser“, home of a free Guild.
- It also acts as a „recruiting bureau“, for leveling up of unitsa and characters and storage room for artifacts.
- The perhaps most interesting element of the whole game (sorry that I list it so late) is that that of the so-called „scout points“.
This means that an area must be „secured“ by units and charscters from the ship BEFORE the ship can fly to these new areas – the whole base-ship is just „too valuable for just exploring new areas“. As I understand it is like this: You send a group forth into a new area -> secure it through them (through fights, I suppose) -> they give the Windchaser somehow signal to follow or so. With this system, the maximum of protection for the Windchaser is achieved.
- The main game just focuses on this: the „scout points“ and the „securing“ of areas. For the Windchaser to follow.
- Even the story seems to be partly told by this system: I could imagine, for example, that a certain area must be „secured“ for gaining a special artifact, which might be important later in the story. This is a scenario I could imagine.
- The characters/units have their own goals and minds. Each one has his or her own personality.
- A demo is likely to be released shortly before or after the release of the full game.
So far this is everything that I can say about this game.
As a conclusion, I must admit that the more I learn to know it, the more I'm intrigued with it. This might perhaps become a very interesting game !
Although it's for me – personally – too early to judge. The amount of information bits is just too small.
Alrik
