Cat writes, "The spotlight of N4G is beaming down on an indie Kickstarter project from new development team, Shadowforge.
"Shadowforge and their open-world fantasy RPG are among the indies being featured here in July, and it seems fitting to pair the event announcement with a mini feature on their studio, game, and Kickstarter.
"Here's some words from Ryan on the studio, game, and crowdfunding."
Cat writes, "In the second part of my interview with Ryan Lamb, Shadowforge Programmer we talk about his background in the Army, weapons customization, the role of loot and....platforms."
Cat writes, "As a teaser to this July's Month of Indies at N4G we're taking a look at a new indie, Shadowforge, and their launch title, Blood and Snow. An open-world fantasy RPG with real-time combat, I'm a bit taken with the game and want to share with you guys more details about Blood and Snow and its development. "
Really? Looks quite janky and sparse, even though this is like pre-alpha. I don't know why developers show videos like this. Best foot forward and all that.
They're going to upgrade the game to Unity 5 when that comes out. That's when it's going to look real good. The interview we did with them talked about the combat which also very interesting especially for a 2D Isometric RPG. There's actual physics involved rather than something like Diablo.
Cat-
1 - Are you working on this title personally?
2 - I recommend that the player models are increased in size or the camera zoomed up a tad bit more. If there are alot of enemies on the screen at once, a player may lose track of their characters place/status.
3 - Consoles could always use more hack and slash! If this game "does" come to consoles via a stretch goal, will it have split screen co-op?
I am not! Not in my skill set :) (and I would disclose that sort of thing to you guys) just became interested in the title and the guys have been great to work with. I *am* a backer of the KS. :D
Edit: see Shadowforge reply below!
Hey everyone! I ran out of bubbles last time so I'm going to try to respond to all of you in one message. I'm sorry if that's hard to read but I want to be able to get to all of you!
HacSawJimThugin: We are currently developing for PC/Mac/Linux and we would love to go to PS4 and Xbox One with it as well. We're looking into that now and trying to break into those markets. It's a long and involved approval process full of pitfalls and subjective gatekeepers so we'll hopefully overcome all of that to release on consoles.
Omegasyde: You'll be able to use camera controls to zoom in and out on the fly so that you can adjust the camera to the situation. So you'll be able to zoom out and enjoy the scenery and take long ranged shots and then zoom in close for melee action. We've anticipated the problem you're referring to, especially since we plan on having several mob-based enemy types. As far as split-screen coop, like Cat said, that's been in the design from the beginning! We're working on a cool camera system that let's people who are playing coop (up to 4 players) break their own camera off from the group if they get outside of a certain range of other players. Otherwise, you'll all share the same camera. This should avoid the hassle found in old-school games like Double Dragon or Contra where you had to move with your friends and it also means bigger viewing area for all players when you're in the same vicinity.
Skate-AK: Thanks! We're excited as our art style will get more and more refined as the build iterations continue. As mentioned above, Unity 5 is really going to boost the art as well as we'll have environmental shaders that will let us put some more realistic touches on our environment and characters.
OnlySP: Shadowforge’s Blood and Snow game is shaping up to be quite a hefty project.
Large, sure. But huge? When there are games out now that are much much bigger its hard to call this one huge.
I wonder if any open world game could duplicate to sheer amount of fun and love for exploring that Skyrim gave me.
FUEL to me was dull and mediocre, yea it was an impressive feat creating such a huge world but whats the point when there is no purpose, dont take my word for it almost all reviews out there say so as well.
Ha FUEL, enjoyable how? There was nothing to do in that game, at all. And 20km by 20km for a 2D isometric RPG is actually quite large.
Sound's great. I really enjoy these Diablo type rpg's. Another was the baldurs gate games on ps2. Would love to see some more of them made for consoles.
I'm not really a fan of that style of RPG but I'm glad to see some more veriety than we've had for years
i love the look and feel of the trailer (or whatever you want to call it), but i noticed that it's called an action RPG. does this mean ARPG in the sense of something along the lines of loot-driven stuff like Diablo? i love the idea of open world, quest-driven RPGs, but the thought of mind-numbingly boring loot grind fests and just mindlessly fighting through waves of enemies saddens me.
Matt,
Thanks for the question! Loot is certainly a part of Blood and Snow but it's not loot driven. The story is what drives the main quest line in this game and loot is the reward we give for exploration and quest participation. There's much more of a focus on breaking down what you find and making your own gear than there is in grinding for new gear. We want the player to be able to totally immerse themselves in their characters.
Wish it was coming to Wii U, but it looks really awesome and I hope you guys meet the goal!
I really like the teaser! Looks very promising and I'm hoping you guys meet your goal as well (I even contributed a bit myself).
This game looks great. It's about time we get a good RPG that lets the player really get involved and customize things they way they want. I'll definitely back this!