It’s time for a new SKALD-update! Fueled by a diet of running and prog-rock, development on SKALD is going great! Currently in the Alpha stage of development, the focus is on adding features to the game and engine. If I manage to keep up the current rate, the game will enter the Beta stage of development by end-of-year (right on schedule) and the focus will shift to adding content to the game.
This little gem has been running red hot for the last week.
Alpha Demo Update: Boat Edition
A new version of the alpha demo is ready for testing (use the link I gave you). This one adds a bunch of new features:
You can now construct the “main” character in a basic character creator (though it’s still very crude)
The interact prompt (‘Q’ key) highlights whenever there is something to interact with
F5 turns the music on/off
You can now “talk”, “trade / steal” or “attack” all friendly NPCs
NPCs belong to factions that react to your actions
Pressing “M” on the overland map opens up a larger map
Added a day-night cycle
Inventory is now icon- and grid based
Added mouse-movement on the overland
You can now board a boat and sail around (though there’s not a whole lot to see)
As always, adding new features means the game enters a rougher and less stable state as the new features mature through testing. There’s also not really a lot of new content but that’s not really a priority until we near Beta-testing.
For now, you playing the demo is my best source of play-testing and I would appreciate any feedback you have!
Hot Kickstarter tip: “Through the Moongate 2”
If you supported SKALD on Kickstarter, chances are you’re gonna love this as well:
Through the Moongate is the ambitious two-volume comprehensive history of the Ultima series, Lord British, and Origin Systems at-large. Part I was successfully Kickstarted on October 16th, 2018 and covered Richard Garriott’s humble beginnings up through Ultima VI. Part II covers Ultima VII to Portalarium and includes Wing Commander and other important Origin titles.
That’s it for now. Hope you all have a great fall and that you’ll keep engaging with the project. As always I would love it if as many of you as possible joined the SKALD Discord to discuss, and stay updated on, the SKALD project and all things RPG-related in general!
Finishing the Kickstarter with 450 backers and at 262% it’s safe to say that “Skald: Against the Black Priory” is a hit. The campaign has been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work, and I’m looking forward to spending more time working on the game again.
“…And there was much rejoicing!”
The scheduled release for SKALD is June 2020 with physical rewards coming in August 2020. Up to that point there is a lot of work to be done in developing the game and feelies and honestly, I can’t wait!
The Demo
For backers who payed to get access to the alpha-build, that will be made available in July. I’ll still take a few weeks to polish it a bit so be patient! The alpha-build is in no way representative of the finished product. It serves as a short proof-of-concept and a way to start developing some shared language for discussing the project.
In particular, complex features like character development and advancement will be placeholder systems in this demo.
Discord
We already have a pretty good community on Discord and I would like for it to become much larger! Join us on Discord today!
We’re having some pretty great discussions regarding SKALD and game development in general. So if you want a say in how this game turns out, Discord is the place!
Late to the Party?
Didn’t get to back the game? Well, first of all, the actual game and digital assets (manual etc), will be available for sale on Steam and a select few other stores.
As for the feelies, we will do a limited run of big-boxes and zip-lock bags. More information on that will follow.
That’s it for now! Thanks again for all your support and be sure to subscribe to this devlog to stay up to date!
The SKALD Kickstarter has reached its third stretch-goal and we’re now adding a third major area to the game: Urban carnage in the the city of Adler’s Helm!
Even better: We get to have a go at a fourth stretch-goal (140.000 NOK / 16.000 USD)! And so, without further ado:
Vile Volumes
To celebrate SKALDs tabletop RPG background, we’re already making an awesome manual and campaign-guide for SKALD: Against the Black Priory!
SKALD has strong tabletop-RPG roots!
The manual will explain the rules and gameplay, whilst the campaign guide will serve as an introduction to the SKALD universe with an emphasis on the Gallian Empire and the Island of Idra with its locations and surroundings.
If we make our fourth stretch goal, we get to be a lot more ambitious with the manual / campaign guide! We planned to ship with approx. the equivalent of 3 pages of illustrations. If we make the mark, we’ll up that to the equivalent of 6 pages in a 32+ page manual! This means we get to flesh out the city of Adler’s Helm as well as add hand-drawn maps for locations and a fully illustrated bestiary of monsters!
Furthermore this also means we can afford to pay a professional editor to give the book the polish it deserves!
I would love for the manual / campaign guide to be an homage to old-school D&D modules! “The Sinister Secrets of Saltmarsh” seems a good source of inspiration!
The goal has always been for the campaign guide to serve as a hint booklet but ALSO allow you to use the setting in a tabletop RPG campaign (after all, the Imperator edition ships with custom dice)! Reaching this goal will allow us to make the campaign guide all the more AWESOME!
We also hope to be able to feature some fan fiction in the booklet so if you would like to write short pieces of fiction set in the SKALD universe, you might want to keep an ear to the ground (for instance by subscribing to this devlog)!
In SKALD: Against the Black Priory you create a single character and then recruit the rest of the party as you go. The game uses classes, numerical stats and feats combined with level based advancement to flesh out its characters. Creating a robust and balanced system for character development is challenging (and immensely rewarding) and I’m going to take my time getting it right.
In other words, this blog-post is a rough draft where we exploring how the character system might look for SKALD: Against the Black Priory.
Nothing wrong with some good old fashion D&D-style classes!
Design Goals and Pillars
As with any design task, it’s always a good idea to set down a few basic pillars and goals to guide the work ahead.
The primary goal for the character system might be something like:
“Character creation and development allows players to express themselves creatively whilst making interesting mechanical choices concerning their character.”
In other words: A player should be able to envision a character (within the games setting) and then create and play that character in-game.
Pillars of Eternity made a lot of interesting design-choices for character development. Some less successful in my opinion.
For design-pillars I’ve chosen these for now:
Balance: Each class should be equally playable. There should be no “dump-stats” or skills. The game should accommodate a wide range of builds and each ability should have something to offer each class.
Transparency: The player should have access (preferably in-game) to all the information required to make meaningful decisions when making, and developing, a character.
Narrative Impact: The choices the players make in character creation should matter in-game. There must be plenty of opportunities to use skills and abilities, and your class should matter in the narrative.
Scalability: The level system should have no “hard” upper level cap. That is, no upper level limit beyond which the system breaks. That’s not to say that the system won’t have a “sweet spot” level-range, within which play is particularly enjoyable. It just means that the system is not mechanically upward limited.
At the moment I’m working with five ability scores:
Strength: Physical strength and brawn. Affects your ability to do melee damage and your skill in athletics (jumping, climbing, swimming etc.).
Agility: Speed, reflexes and finesse is determined by agility. Affects dodging, initiative, hit-chance and fine-motor skills like thievery.
Fortitude: Physical and mental toughness. Affects willpower, hit points and resistances.
Intellect: Mental faculties. Affects several skills as well as spell-casting. Might also affect how many skill-points you get and perhaps an XP-bonus.
Presence: A measure of your attention to your surroundings and your place within them. Affects your ability to interact with people and animals as well as your perception and attention to detail. Also affects leadership.
Bard’s Tale 3
There is a tendency for “physical” abilities to become overly powerful (especially at lower levels) in RPGs due to combat being prevalent, with the mental abilities becoming dump-stats for many character builds.
As a result I chose to go with five abilities as opposed to the more typical six. I find that three physical and two “mental” abilities seem more balanced whilst still allowing for a range of expression. Furthermore it’s a easier to make each ability relevant to every class with fewer abilities.
Post character creation, ability scores advance very slowly.
Classes
I want SKALD: Against the Black Priory to feature basic classes that are recognizable enough to provide a foundation upon which to build the character you want.
Beyond that I want a lot of flexibility as the game progresses with few (if any) class-exclusive skills or feats. Classes should encourage certain builds, but I like the idea of not imposing too many limitations.
Did someone say min-max? Good thing that Charisma is set to 19!
The six classes in “Against the Black Priory” are as follows:
Warrior: Soldiers, sell-swords and mercenaries. They excel at combat, dealing large amounts of damage (often to multiple targets).
Rogue: Thieves, assassins and swashbucklers. Rogues are stealthy and excel at using skills to perform tasks. In combat, rogues are more based on maneuvers than soldiers are: backstabbing, flanking, ham-stringing, disarming and all round fighting dirty.
Cleric: The holy men and women of the Empire draw upon their devotion to channel the divine power of their deity. From ascetic monks to armored battle-priests, clerics play different roles on the battlefield: Healers, support-casters or front line fighters.
Wizard: Chartered Imperial Wizards or rogue hedge-mages. Wizards harness the corrupting arcane energies of magic. A wizards magic is powerful and devastating (sometimes to friend and foe alike).
Skald: Part of an ancient, dying tradition, skalds are the wandering bards and storytellers that preserve the lore of the myriad cultures assimilated by the Empire. A life spent roaming the breath of the Empire and beyond, makes the skalds jacks of all trades. They excel at inspiring their allies in combat and bolster their party with both magic and a strong sword arm.
Captain: In “Against the Black Priory”, captains are the smugglers, pirates, merchants and officers of the Northern Isles. As expert sailors, leaders and skilled fighters, they make an invaluable addition to any group adventuring in the north!
Skills
Skills are learned and improve over time (whereas abilities are more innate).
The trick with skills is including many enough to provide granularity and range of expression whilst still having few enough that each skill gets screen time!
So many skills – some more useful than others!
I’m currently considering the following six skills:
Athletics
Diplomacy
Lore
Stealth
Survival
Thievery
The total score of a skill is calculated by adding up ranks in the skill with the score of one or two ability scores. Ranks are purchased as you gain levels.
Note that the game also contains secondary abilities as well. These include stats like “Base Attack”, “Dodge” and initiative. They may look a bit like skills but they cannot be improved by spending skill points. In stead, they must be improved by using feats.
Feats
Feats are selected at certain intervals as you gain levels and allow you to customize you character by adding special talents. Think perks in Fallout. Whilst skills and abilities add numerical values to you character, feats allow you to break rules (in a sense).
Many feats are combat related but there are also other types like adventuring feats (consume less food, ability to swim, more carry capacity) or narrative feats (guild memberships, special allies, access to more equipment etc).
Races and Backgrounds
Character creation in Ultima 4
At this point in development, the SKALD universe is human-centric. Demi-human do exist, but they are few and far between. As such humans will likely be the only race available in “Against the Black Priory”.
As a way of adding more definition to your character however, I intend to offer a selection of backgrounds. The backgrounds offer a small mechanical bonus and will, hopefully, tie in to the narrative as well.
More on that down the line.
That’s it for now!
It’s worth repeating that this is a work in progress and it might look very different a year from now.
Fantastic! The SKALD Kickstarter just reached its second stretch goal (105.000 NOK / 12.000 USD) and we’re now adding a sixth class to the game: the captain!
Even better: That means I now get to announce the third stretch goal for when we reach 120.000 NOK / 13.800 USD!
The Port of Adler’s Helm
Adler’s Helm is the northern-most Imperial provincial capital and the seat of Imperial power in the north. It’s also the jumping off point for the expedition to Idra and the Black Priory!
By adding Adler’s Helm to the game, I now get to make the game a three act piece: from the bleak isle of Idra, to the streets of Adler’s Helm and the frozen hellscape of the high North!
So if you want to see SKALD: Against the Black Priory become the game it’s meant to be, now is the time to back the game and spread the word!
As the SKALD Kickstarter finishes in July, backers get access to the alpha-demo. This demo comes complete with it’s own awesome chiptune soundtrack by the amazing Surt Romanus!
As a courtesy to all SKALD fans, backers and supporters we’re now releasing the soundtrack for free!
This means we get to explore what Lovecraftian horrors lie hidden beneath the eternal ice of the high north: “Mountains of Madness” style!
It also means that it’s time for another stretch goal!
105.000 NOK: The “Captain” Class
SKALD: Against the Black Priory is intended to ship with five “canonical” classes (more on that soon – I promise). If we reach 105.000 NOK I will design a sixth class: “The Captain”. The Captain is a combat based class with strong leadership skills and expert maritime and navigational skills.
This should make for some interesting combat gameplay as the Captain combines his excellent swordsmanship with his keen tactical sense, allowing him to inspire and coordinate the rest of the party.
As a game with a strong maritime component, the Captain should also add plenty of opportunity for adventuring as you explore the game world by sea: Trading, smugling and daring the dangers that inhabit the black depths of the ocean. The game will also include a recruitable NPC with the Captain class. Have an amazing weekend!
SKALD: Against the Black Priory is coming to Mac! Spread the word to the Mac-based CRPG community and have them check out the Kickstarter!
Due to the game engine SKALD is built in I always intended for this, BUT I simply didn’t have time to do my technical due diligence before launching. Now I have, and SKALD is going to be coming to Mac!
This means that all backers will get a choice in the backer survey, choosing between a Windows and a Mac build.
There is one caveat: The ALPHA demo and BETA version will only be available on Windows for now.
The adventure extends beyond the isle of Idra, into the icy hellscape that is the northern polar regions. Its hostile climate, cyclopean ruins and eldritch horrors will test your mettle as you sail into the eternal night of the high north!
Wouldn’t this be cool to explore? Illustration art by Ivan Laliashvili
The high north will significantly extend the game’s overworld size and will add hours of gameplay intended for higher level characters. I love to dip into source-material like HP Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness”, John Carpenter’s “The Thing”, or the brilliant TV-drama “The Terror“. The motif of polar expeditions finding impossibly old things in the ice and going mad has always appealed to me (must be a Norwegian thing).I really want to make this so let’s make sure we reach that 90.000 NOK stretch-goal!
