Update:
Lot more details from the Spearhead Games newsletter.
Original Post:
There's not much to the announcement yet, with Spearhead mainly talking to folk in-person about it at PAX South this weekend, but there are a couple details out there so far. A Kickstarter for the game will also launch sometime this year.
PAX Pamphlet
Lot more details from the Spearhead Games newsletter.
As you might have seen on social media and several websites, our new sandbox RPG, Project Witchstone, has been officially announced.
For the unveiling at PAX South, we showed a video montage (screenshots below) of what we currently have in the game, 4 months into pre-production. The goal here was to raise awareness about the game for our upcoming Kickstarter campaign, which will begin mid-2019.
Project Witchstone is a living world sandbox RPG.
Living world:
The world you explore is alive, meaning that characters that inhabit this world go on with their daily lives and move around following a routine (from their workplace to their home, for example). They also own properties, have personalities, friends and enemies, likes and dislikes, appreciation towards you, allegiance to factions, perception of their surroundings, etc.
Sandbox:
Using actions common in RPGs (dialogue, combat, spells, abilities, stat checks, stealing, etc.) and less common ones (stealth, influence interface, etc.), you can interact, manipulate, and shape this world as you see fit. Our goal is to give you the freedom to live the adventure you want. No overarching pre-defined main story thread, you get to decide how you want to proceed.
Want to frame an NPC for theft or murder? Want to join a faction, become their leader, and destroy the other factions? Want to destroy the factions but scheme in a way that they never know you're responsible? Want to become a treasure hunter instead? Maybe the best solution is to blow everything up?
All of this is possible in our sandbox.
How?
With our systemic approach to narrative, tailored events will occur based on your previous actions. All crimes will result in law enforcement running an investigation and attempting to arrest the suspect. Any violent act committed against a faction will result in retaliation. Taking over someone's house will work fine until the previous owner's relatives or friends come to visit.
These are some examples of the ripple effect you can cause in this world. And how you deal with the ripple effect will determine what happens after.
Witchstone F.A.Q.
PAX attendees were super enthusiastic about Project Witchstone and had many questions for us. I've compiled them here with answers.
Is the game going to be single-player? Multi-player?
Single-player. The focus is on customizing and living out your adventure in this world. You will be able to recruit characters in your party though and we are keeping multi-player in mind as a potential feature in the future when we build the game.
So you've all been working on this for 4 months now, what are your plans for the future?
We want to have a playable version to showcase at PAX East (which is happening at the end of March) to build momentum for a Kickstarter campaign starting mid-2019.
Why a Kickstarter campaign?
As you can imagine, Project Witchstone is an ambitious endeavor which will require a few years to complete and require a lot of testing and fine-tuning of our systemic elements. So we need your support to make this dream possible and help us along the process. Backers will have access to builds of the game, which we'll use to gather feedback and learn more about what narratives players are building with the game systems.
Have you ever done a Kickstarter before?
We haven't but we do know many fellow developers in Montreal who have successfully completed Kickstarter campaigns before. We will be enlisting their help and support.
On what platform(s) will the game be available?
The main focus is to get the game on Steam Early Access (so PC). It makes it easier for quick and regular updates and get the feedback loop with the players going. We'll talk about ports to consoles and other stores once we are done with the Early Access process and have a full, solid game.
How big will the world be?
For the PAX East demo and Kickstarter version, we'll be focusing on a town with 2 competing factions and a dungeon. The goal is to start small and figure out the permutations of the system and gameplay time possible then scope up the game based on that. From that point on, we will regularly add content (more towns, more dungeons) to fill up this island. The focus is more on density rather than scale.
Is Witchstone going to be the name of the game?
Maybe. We've been using the name internally. Witch stones (also known as adder stones) are believed to possess magical powers and this fits well with the setting of the game. The name might stick or we might find something better in the future - we'll see.
This game seems very different from your previous games. What made you want to build a sandbox RPG this time?
It is different but at the same time it isn't. We've actually been building towards Witchstone since Stories: The Path of Destinies, which started out more like a traditional RPG. Ever since we've been exploring the significance of decisions in video game narratives, how can choices impact characters and the world. In Omensight, we've even programmed AI that behaved differently based on player's decisions.
So for us, Witchstone is the next step in our exploration. What if basic gameplay actions were a decision? What if how the player deals with situations dictate how their story continues?
Can I play as another race than human in the game?
Yes. We've been focusing on gameplay and the whole living world aspect so we've only been showing the base character model in the game. In the key art shown at PAX South, you can see an elf and a dwarf. But we'll also be adding anthropomorphic beings in the future as well.
What game engine are you using?
We've been using the Unreal Engine 4 since Stories: The Path of Destinies and we're going to keep working with this engine. It makes it easier to transfer over tech and assets that we've built for our previous games.
Original Post:
There's not much to the announcement yet, with Spearhead mainly talking to folk in-person about it at PAX South this weekend, but there are a couple details out there so far. A Kickstarter for the game will also launch sometime this year.
PAX Pamphlet
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