In a week where there’s been all kinds of Kickstarter controversy, there’s good news for RPG fans as After Reset easily makes its funding goal.
When Black Could Studio pulled their Kickstater last year it was disappointing. After a funding goal rethink the Kickstarter was relaunched with a less ambitious goal of $35,000. All the funds have now been secured in only ten days and now they’re looking at reaching the stretch goals.
The original goal of $900,000 was a massive amount to raise on Kickstarter so the team decided that instead of creating a massive RPG right out the box they would scale the project down. Now they plan on creating a Prologue which will enable them to get the game on Steam and GOG Early Access. A logical solution I think you’ll agree.
Looking ahead the stretch goals there’s a cinematic planned and with regards to a alpha/beta test they want to take this approach…
First we use a sandbox simulation for the game’s AI. I used to program that earlier for Newerwinter Nights’ Persistent World “Baldur’s Gate” that I hosted. The idea is that there won’t be static quests except for the main storyline. NPCs could be out of the area when you are there, or they could go chill, or they could not be in the mood to give you some quests, or they could die doing their routine that is not connected with your adventures… anything could happen.
Therefore, side storylines will work much like random encounters in Fallout 1 and 2. When you touch the main storyline then your previous choices will rise to the surface with interesting and unexpected results. My objective there (as a director) will be to make the line between main storyline and side storylines indistinguishable.
Second is a big final stage of development. It will take the same amount of time as it takes to develop one chapter, but it will be completely devoted to adding extra locations (some with small quests) for random encounters. These won’t be revealed in the beta, so when you get to see them they’ll be fresh experiences even if you participated in all of the other chapters on SEA. This should also increase gameplay time by about 30%.
In summary, I believe After Reset RPG should bring your personal story to life and still support replayability even if you’ve participated in each stage of development.
Why should After Reset get your attention? It’s a post-apocalyptic RPG influenced by classics such as Fallout 1/2 and Plansescape Torment with hardcore mechanics. Black Could Studio expect the prologue to release is by October 2014. Definitely worth a look.
