RPGWatch Feature - Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness Interview

Farflame reached out to David Zakal to talk about Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness, for which a Kickstarter campaign has started today.

RPGWatch: You revealed a story about evil forces that repeatedly tried to destroy the world until they came up with a scheme based on greed and destruction from within. Some people would probably say it is a common fantasy story while others would see some parallel to our world in it. So how would you describe it? Is it mostly based on common fantasy tropes or is it mostly allegory? Or is it more complex than it seems?

David: In the Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness backstory, spreading greed is indeed a new plot by dark gods to infiltrate, turn, and eventually wipe the world of mortals. Mortals have learned to cope with fear and evil, but have not learned to face their own weaknesses such as envy or greed. While fear from an external force makes people stick together, envy and greed silently divide and turn them against each other. As you said, it is destruction from inside. Another interesting point in the backstory is that one of the dark gods requires this scheme because she would cease to exist otherwise. She fights to keep a long-time status quo: her eternal life. The status quo and establishments have changed throughout our real history, and those who were interested in keeping the status quo did not hesitate to use the most subtle and ruthless methods to stay in power. Therefore, this is another point where people may find an allegory to the real world, but I would like to state that our game is purely fantasy and any similarities to real-life events are coincidental. We want to make a game our players love and enjoy.



RPGWatch: How does the skill system and character progression work? I noticed that classes have unique skills but are there also common skill trees for everybody? Some perks? Pets?

David: Your characters gain experience points during gameplay and combat. When they collect enough experience for a level-up, the game indicates this, and you can finalize the level-up by allocating various things (e.g. skill points). There are three general skills that are available to all classes: Bargain & Persuasion, Learning & Research and Brewing & Drying. Of course, the maximum points you can allocate may be different for each class (a Fighter will never brew as well as a Druid or research as well as a Spellweaver). Additionally, there are a few weapon skills as well (such as Throwing) that are available to all classes.

The closest equivalent to perks I can think of are special abilities that characters may receive at level-up or after special, rare events. In terms of activation, these work like spell-like abilities and behave in the same way as spells in terms of re-memorization. For example, Thunderclap Berserk and Prolonged Berserk are such abilities for the Fighter class.

Pets and familiars are planned to be a Kickstarter stretch goal.

More information.

Thanks Farflame for the interview and success to the Black Geyser devs with the Kickstarter campaign

Campaign looks good, still unsure about the greed thing, but willing to back it and see how it plays out.

Good luck Devs, hope you reach your goal.

Thanks for the interview!

And backed of course.

Thanks Farflame and David!

Backed! And I plan to breed chaos everywhere

Very good interview. Bravo. I also just backed it.

I have also backed. The kickstarter page is well set up with lots of useful information. Please make sure you keep the updates coming to help keep momentum!! (if any of the devs are reading this).

I also backed. I think its an interesting experiment, regardless of whether it turns out to be a great game or not.

I suspect they've set the target too high. To hit 50k you need to appeal beyond the very tolerant hardcore, and I don't think it will. The pitch video is pretty dire. I don't know why they used loads of terrible, low res, badly-compressed CGI, and the section with the "creative consultant" was painful.

Not one that I'm keen to sponsor, but I wish them success. Great interview by the way, excellent questions.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I suspect they've set the target too high. To hit 50k you need to appeal beyond the very tolerant hardcore, and I don't think it will. The pitch video is pretty dire. I don't know why they used loads of terrible, low res, badly-compressed CGI, and the section with the "creative consultant" was painful.

I think it will be close. They are at 14% with over 300 backers (so no artificial boosts by a couple of big backers), which is by no means bad at less than 24 hours. Most of the projects I have backed that were successfully funded had more than 15% in the first 24 hours. Things with less than that often failed. 40-50% by the halfway mark is also the breaking point.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I suspect they've set the target too high. To hit 50k you need to appeal beyond the very tolerant hardcore, and I don't think it will. The pitch video is pretty dire. I don't know why they used loads of terrible, low res, badly-compressed CGI, and the section with the "creative consultant" was painful.

On contrary, I think it might reach its goal considering it's only 50k. I won't be contributing since I think the pitch isn't good enough, but I like some of art directions (quite like the quaint look of the vineyard).

Edit: BTW, nice interview @Farflame

Backed. Not sold on the pitch but good enough for me to give them the benefit of a doubt.

I backed it - I think it could be quite fun if it all pans out. They're already at almost $10,000 (out of $60,000) after just 2 days, with 33 left to go. Sounds doable? I'm quite positive about KS again, after losing interest for awhile.

Originally Posted by booboo
I backed it - I think it could be quite fun if it all pans out. They're already at almost $10,000 (out of $60,000) after just 2 days, with 33 left to go. Sounds doable? I'm quite positive about KS again, after losing interest for awhile.

Definitely doable. The main thing they have going for them is that it looks exactly like other popular games, which will get them some takers. I just find the whole thing so unconvincing that I'd be surprised if that many people buy into it, and I doubt the results would be good.

Typical

Yes well we all know Rippers opinion about this game from the other thread. I personally think it has a good chance to get funded as it still has 32 days left.

Frankly speaking this will be the first game in two years I backed on Kickstarter.

Bitching about low res compressed cgi is a new one though. But hey they were warned not to attempt the Kickstarter. I think the Devs could themselves a big favor and steer clear of RPGWatch

I wish all the best for the developer. I think it has a good chance to meet the kickstarter goal, and even though I'm skeptical, I'd rather they prove me wrong and produce a decent/fun game. The whole "greed" concept sounds like it will be fun (especially if you want to play evil/greedy PC) if done/executed right.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
Bitching about low res compressed cgi is a new one though. But hey they were warned not to attempt the Kickstarter. I think the Devs could themselves a big favor and steer clear of RPGWatch

And you are bitching/whining as well….