Deathfire - The Nemesis System

[Couchpotato]

Guido Henkel has a new post on his blog about his failed kickstarter game Deathfire, and writes that the Nemesis System from Mordor was similar to his game.

I have to be honest. I did not follow the development of “Shadow of Mordor” at all. As you may recall, after it turned out to be impossible to get a viewing of the game during this year’s E3 despite my hour-long wait, I lost interest in the game altogether.

Now that it has been released, a lot of coverage has been given to one of the game’s innovative features, the so-called “Nemesis Feature,” which creates pseudo-intelligent opponents that follow certain social orders and appear to populate a living and breathing world that gives every entity the player encounters in the game world goals and purpose. Hmmmmh… I thought to myself when I first heard about this. That does sound very familiar to me!

If you may recall, a year ago we were trying to fund a game project called “Deathfire” through Kickstarter. It was a traditionally-based role-playing game, much in the vein of the award-winning “Realms of Arkania” cRPGs I have been working in the past, with an exceptionally strong focus on characters. Everything in the game was designed around the charcaters in the game and the emotional response you get from their interaction. Not only the player characters, but all the characters in the game world, including your opponents and the monsters. As you may recall, the system we outlined and had begun to develop for the game was called the “Psycho Engine.”

More information.

 

[Morrandir]

For short I was very excited when I read "Deathfire", only to be disappointed again.

Just make a new game!

 

[Couchpotato]

For short I was very excited when I read "Deathfire", only to be disappointed again.

Just make a new game!

I don't think he can as he was looking for a job on Facebook, and Twitter this year after Deathfire failed on Kickstarter. I wonder if anyone hired him.

Also sorry about getting your hopes up, but the news was about Deathfire.

 

[Morrandir]

Not blaming you, and also not blaming Guido. I think making a game is just the thing he absolutely WANTS to do.

 

[Couchpotato]

Not blaming you, and also not blaming Guido

Never said you blamed me I just replied your reply.

I think making a game is just the thing he absolutely WANTS to do.

I agree and hopefully if it's another kickstarter the third time will be a charm as they say.

 

[you]

Not sure if third time will be the charm as it seems that not many games are getting 'big' bucks this year. I could see Larian doing a million dollar kickstart since D:OS was very enjoyable but I doubt xile or doubletrouble could get in the 1 million range today (but I could be wrong).

Never said you blamed me I just replied your reply.
I agree and hopefully if it's another kickstarter the third time will be a charm as they say.

 

[Damian]

It sad that people who remember RoA will most likely not fund his games as they are stuck in the mindset that they will only pay for the final game and not pay for the starting cost. Maybe since wasteland is selling for 40 dollars on steam now is reason for some to start funding now though. Maybe we need to do one of those competitions for Guido like we did with Divinity:OS with RPG codex.

 

[rjshae]

Most of the big successes in CRPG Kickstarters have been nostalgic, party-based games where you have tactical control of individual characters on the screen. I'm just not drawn to the old M&M-style where you just get a panel of portraits representing the party, so I haven't plunked down any money for the likes of Lords of Xulima. Granted, the latter has been built for much less than PoE, W2, D:OS, or T:ToN.

 

[getter77]

It is too bad, but it is looking like Guido just doesn't see where things can head in the world of games as far as his involvement goes to have a proper, sutainable go of it—-especially no faith in KS.

From the end of the campaign, and the last possible avenues I could reckon from the last day or so in light of the fresh reminder of this blog post, I've thrown the feasible-seeming pivot ideas out there to him with a pleasant back and forth on Twitter—-just none of it seems liable to happen anytime soon barring some massive change of heart or the gaming landscape.

 

[forgottenlor]

I just don't see it happening, Guido wanted 1 million then 400k, and very few studios have made that much. Even recently funded kickstarters have had very modest funding.

 

[Falchor]

I love RoA. In fact, Star Trail is still one of my all-time favorite cRPGs. And Guido had a huge hand in its development. He also had a lot to do with Planescape: Torment, as I understand it. So, I think he shouldn't give up.
But, unless he's willing to get hired on someplace as a designer (and maybe he is, I don't know) his best bet would be to start small with something small of scope but broad in capabilities (like a kind of dungeon crawler on steroids). Get the game up on Steam, get his new company in the press, THEN do a KS... maybe.
Just some ideas... I want a new RoA game so bad that I'd be willing to get on board with funding anything he works on.