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.”

It seems Plan B for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore has been cancelled. Here is the news straight from the website. I'm very disappointed right now.

Thank you for all your support

It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this today, because the news I bring are not good. As of today, we have cancelled the development of “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore!”

I know that very many of you will be very disappointed, and I want you to know that I am every bit as disappointed as you are. Perhaps even more so, because we had invested one entire year of work, sweat, effort, hope and money into this project. It has become a dream project of sorts, the kind of game you really want to make, because you know that in the end it would have all the hallmarks of becoming a classic genre title. But alas, it was not supposed to be!

It is not a decision we have made lightly, and the fact that we tried to fight for the survival of the project tooth and nail is, I think, evidence of that. However, the way the project has shaped up and the way things have developed, we feel that we can no longer safely guarantee the completion of the game, and it would be entirely unethical to take your money and spend it without any real hope of ever completing the game.

Despite the fact that we are within reach of the $50,000 mark we had outlined to get started on the development of Chapter 1, the notion behind this has always been to see if we can rally enough support outside of Kickstarter to generate a steady flow of backers who could help us raise the necessary funds over time. This attempt was not a Kickstarter-like campaign, and it was never so much about reaching the actual amount of $50,000 in a fixed amount of time, as it was to see how support shaped up and whether the project had the ability to generate a sustainable flow of income that would guarantee its safety.

As our data show, the continuous stream of backing is simply not strong enough to support the development. While we had fairly good initial momentum and a number of high-prized backers that brought the amount to a good level very quickly, for a project to sustain itself over the long term, we were mostly looking at how many low-tiered backers would join us. It shows us the general level of interest and visibility, as well as the potential to get these backers to increase their pledges over time as they see more of the game and get more excited about it. They are the lifeblood of an ongoing project and this level of backers has been low and very unsteady, telling us that very quickly we would eat up the $50,000 we raised as base funding, without any hope of replenishing the funds at the level that is required in order to guarantee and to pay for the actual development. This puts the entire project in serious jeopardy from the very beginning, turning it into a huge and dangerous gamble!

In the next post-funding update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore we get information that the backer portal for Plan B is ready.

The Deathfire Backer Portal has arrived!

If you have not yet backed “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” on our official website yet, please allow me to remind you that with the close of the Kickstarter campaign, all Kickstarter pledges have been voided. Therefore, if you wish to support us and help us bring the game to life, please consider supporting us on our website where we now accept pledges through Paypal - both through Paypal accounts and credit cards.

But on to the real reason of this update. The first version of our Backer Portal is now live on our website, which allows backers to link their Paypal account and their original Kickstarter name with their Deathfire User Account. If you do not yet have one, no worries, the system will allow you to create one very quickly.

Once you went through the sign-up and activation process, you will be able to see your pledges on the screen, showing you exactly the amount with which you have so generously backed our project. It will also show your current reward tier. If the displayed reward tier is not the one you had selected or desire, we will give you the ability to select and chose your proper reward tier shortly.

If you have provided and backed us during our Kickstarter campaign, we will double-check your information and then approve your Founder status within a few days. By that time the word “(Founder)” should appear next to your user name.

Note: The system will not display any Kickstarter pledges. When our campaign ended, all Kickstarter pledges have been automatically voided by Kickstarter! Your Kickstarter name is used only to verify that you did back us on Kickstarter so that we can give you “Founder” status.

Because this is a very early version of the Backer Portal no further functionality has been included at this point. We simply wanted to make sure you can see all your payments, so that you can feel safe, knowing that your money has been received and has not been lost in digital limbo.

Over the coming weeks we will expand this Backer Portal and add a lot more functionality to it. As pointed out above, you will be able to select your reward tier, but we will also give you the opportunity to make upgrades and payments directly through the portal, along with a series of other features that will help you manage your pledges, rewards, add-ons, etc.

Paypal payments will take about 24 hours to process and show up in our Backer Portal. If you do not see your pledge straight away, please come back after 24 hours and check again.

Thank you once again for your support.

The Deathfire Team

The Matt Chat Blog has a new article about what it takes to achieve kickstarter success, and uses Deathfire as one example.

I don’t want to give the impression that I think Guido did a bad job or didn’t deserve to meet his funding goal. Heck, I pledged the highest to his project than any so far. I really liked the project and was excited about stuff like the Rat Faction and the mysterious complexity he kept referring to in his German games. It’s probably my disappointment with this Kickstarter (and a few others near to my heart that also failed) that led me to try to help him so much. But if he (or anyone else) wants to try for another Kickstarter, I think they’d do well to focus on identifying with their audience as gamers first, developers second. They need to sell themselves well, but also a fulfilling role for the viewers, who (after all) want something more than just a game at the end of this. We want to feel that we’re part of something larger, and the guy values our goodwill and enthusiasm as much as our money.

In the next post-funding update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore we get news of  physical reward tiers for Plan B.

Physical Reward Tiers have arrived!

Many of you have been waiting for this, and as promised, we now have Physical Reward Tiers available to pledge on as well!

Once again, we have tried to incorporate and carry over as much as possible from the original Kickstarter campaign, though, certain amends had to be made in order to accommodate certain changes in the overall rewards structure. We made sure, however, to keep the $55 physical entry-level tier alive, which will give you a Retail Copy of the game in a DVD-style case with a printed manual. And, yes, the Cloth Map is also back! :-)

Make sure to check out the tiers we have prepared for you and feel free to pledge!

We are currently also working on the Backer Portal, which will allow backers to manage their pledges, as well as their rewards and add-ons, and the first part of it is almost done. Very soon you will be able to link your Paypal payment and your Kickstarter name to your user account, to make sure it is all neat and tidy. There is no need for you to send us your information, because you will be able to handle it all yourself as soon as we have that part of the portal up and running.

And while we’re on the subject of pledges and rewards, I think it is great to see that we have reached over $30,000 in direct pledges already in a little more than two days, coming from over 700 faithful backers! We thank you with all of our hearts!

$30,000 IN TWO DAYS! THANK YOU!

Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore has a few more post-funding updates about the games future. Details and links are below.

Update #23 - "A Note about the Backer Portal"

I wanted to take a moment real quick to let everyone know that we are working with the utmost urgency on getting a proper backer account system and backer portal in place on the “Deathfire” website for people backing us via Paypal. As you can imagine, Plan B threw a bit of a wrench on our system, and developing and deploying a backer portal like this will take a bit of extra time.

Update #24 -"Why no new Kickstarter?"

As we unveiled Plan B earlier, naturally, the question immediately arose why we did not decide to simply try another Kickstarter campaign. Allow me to lay out some of the reasons for you, why another Kickstarter was not really a viable alternative.

Update #25 -"Benefits of your Founder Status"

Thank you to all our backers who have taken the time to take a look at our Plan B approach to getting “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” off the ground and, of course, those who put in their pledges once again.

Everyone who has backed “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” here on Kickstarter and also joins us as a backer under our new plan will receive a special bonus as a Thank You token for their faith in us.

These backers will receive FOUNDER status, a unique status to proudly show to the world that they have believed in us from the first moment and that they have been supporting the project from its early inception. Among other things, the Founder status will be displayed as a banner in the Deathfire message boards.

Well it's with sad tidings that I bring news that Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore has failed to reach it's funding. All is not lost as we get more details of Plan B in the latest update.

Welcome to “Plan B”

With the Kickstarter campaign for “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” now coming to an end, the question arose, of course, how we would continue from here, now that the funding of the game did not fall into place.

This Kickstarter campaign may not have reached its goal, but it was a huge success nonetheless in our eyes, as it brought together a group of almost 4,000 very committed fans. We have been blessed and inspired by the incredible sense of community that our Kickstarter backers have created, their fervent support, their show of faith, their constantly upping their pledges even as I am writing this, and all of their kind words. All of that is indication that there is definitely interest in a game such as “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore,” and we are exceedingly proud to announce our next moves.

Let me introduce you to “Plan B.” :)

While we evaluated various alternatives how we could perhaps put funding in place, one concept in particular struck us as notable, and we decided to give it a shot. We have got a very strong sense of community and commitment here from our Kickstarter backers and we hope that most of you will also support us in this renewed effort to get us off to a strong start.

We do not want to deviate from the formula of the game. The reason why so many of you have fallen in love with “Deathfire” is because of its many cool and unique features. If we were to reduce the scope or depth of the game, we would essentially destroy everything that fans cared for in the first place. Therefore, the decision was made to find a solution that allows us to keep the game’s features intact.

The plan is this: Instead of creating a large-scale game all at once, we decided to take an episodic approach to the game. As opposed to forcing ourselves to a development schedule that spans a year or more, and which needs to be funded up front entirely, we have decided to develop the game in installments, each an individual chapter in the story—as you would have in a book—which, when taken together make up the entire story of the original game.

Slimgamer interviews Guido Henkel about Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore.

What would be your advice regarding creating a project on Kickstarter in general? How important was the video? 

The most important thing is preparation, really. It is easy to underestimate the amount of time and work that needs to go into the preparations before the campaign actually launches, and that’s only the beginning. What follows are 30 days or so of intense work on a grueling schedule, as you continue to explain the project, create updates, answer questions, push for exposure, do interviews and such. The better one is prepared for all that, the easier and smoother the campaign will go.

The pitch video is exceedingly important. Many backers never read the text. They will watch the video and decide within the first two minutes whether they like it or not.

What did you do to promote your Kickstarter campaign? 

We began by announcing the upcoming campaign on our official website, accompanied by a countdown. In addition, we made the information available to the public through the press. We have a media list that contains well over 2,500 media contacts, which we repeatedly contacted with news, information, screenshots and other information about the project and the Kickstarter campaign.

However, the press, being what it is, trying to get coverage is always a hit or miss proposition. If one percent of your media outlets cover your story, you’re already among the lucky ones.

But we continued to work the media long before and after the Kickstarter launch. Hard as it is to get coverage, especially on major gaming websites, it can result in a lot of exposure and attention.

I’ve also done countless interviews to promote our campaign, both in written form as well as video interviews and podcasts. Every little bit counts, and considering how hard it is to get good coverage, it is very important to seize every opportunity you get. Never turn down an interview, even if it means getting up at 4:00 in the morning in order to talk to someone on the other side of the world. Kickstarters are international affairs and they do not operate on your schedule.

Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore has a few more kickstarter updates in the last day again. You guys should know the drill by now details, and links are below.

Update #20 - "We passed 3,500 backers and offer a new Goal"

The Classless Character is here

Yesterday we managed to pass the 3,500 backer hurdle, which means that we will include a Classless Character Type to the game. As pointed out before, this character class will have the advantage of being a jack-of-all-trades, but he will also have some limitations. Surely, though, it will be a fun class to explore.

With this goal behind us, we have decided to set up a new goal, and I am sure you will like this—a lot! When we reach 4,500 backers, we will add the Nethermancer as a playable class to the game. However, the class will not be available to players straight away. Instead, it will be unlocked once you completed the game, giving you the opportunity to replay the game with this unique character class, which will, of course, offer a number of its own plot variations as you do so.

Update #21- "Greenlit in 20 Days"

Greenlit in only 20 days!

As you might have heard by now, “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” has been greenlit on Steam this morning. Amazingly, it took only 20 days to get there, and in the graphs we could see that the game was way ahead of the average curve, just plowing up the charts into the Top 100.

Being greenlit means that we now have a slot in the Steam catalog and we could sell the game on Steam any time we wanted to. Great news! There’s just one hitch… we don’t have a game yet, and as we are going into the final hours of this Kickstarter, hopefully the round of newly greenlit games will attract more players to give our campaign a look. We could certainly use a flock of new backers, couldn’t we? So let’s keep our collective fingers crossed and keep trying to get the message out.

Another video for you

Today I also have a new video clip for you. This is an early animation test of two dragons in front of the Apocryphic Temple. It is still rough around the edges and not properly timed, which is also the reason why it doesn’t have sound, but I wanted to let you guys see this clip before the Kickstarter ends, just to show you once more the scope of the game.

Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore is the next kickstarter to have multiple updates in two days. Also a quick reminder the game has four days left to get funded.

Update #17 - "Whatcha got for Christmas?"

Did you ever think of giving a Kickstarter pledge as a gift?

I am not kidding. It is a serious thought. Instead of purchasing a traditional gift this year, why not purchase a “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” pledge for someone? We will even create a beautiful gift certificate for you that you can put under the Christmas tree.

Naturally, this will work also for your friends, even if they do not play games themselves. Surely, however, they have friends or family members who do enjoy computer games and for whom "Deathfire" would make a fantastic Christmas gift. Or just go the extra mile and specifically ask your friends and family members for a "Deathfire" gift for Christmas. :)

The possibilities are endless, so go out there, shout it out, tell the world about it! It's Christmas time… the time of Giving… and we can use all the help we can get! :)

Update #18 - "New $20 Reward Tier"

Here is a quick heads-up for you to let you all know that we have just opened a new $20 rewards tier. A lot of the feedback and comments we have received in the past days revolved around a lower-priced tier. Since the limited EARLY BIRD EDITION has been sold out for some time, many of you feared that the $25 barrier of entry is too high to attract new backers.

Therefore we have just created a new $20 tier that is stripped down quite a bit from the $25 tier. It features only a Digital Copy of the game—as a Steam key, if it is a backer’s preferred method of delivery, of course—along with In-Game Credits, Backer Forum and Beta Access. None of the other added value items will be included in this tier.

There’s nothing to hold you back now! No more excuses. Pledge now if you haven’t done so yet!

Update #19 - "Keep Spreading the News"

Guido here with your update, as we are now quickly closing in on the final days of our campaign.

As I pointed out before, at this point, it is critical that we all pull together and make our voices heard. There are still too many people out there who have not heard about “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore,” so we need to find them and get word to them before it is too late. No one can tell me there are only 3,500 gamers out there who are truly interested in a real role-playing game!

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, ReddIt, Pinterest and others are great ways to spread the information, so please feel free to grab your favorite image or video clip from the Kickstarter page and post it across your social networks. Sometimes an image says more than a thousand words—just don’t forget to add a link to the Kickstarter as well. ;-)

If you have friends on Steam, the Playstation Network or some other gaming networks and message board, please do the same thing. Let them know what we’re trying to accomplish and show them what we’re made of.

“Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” deserves to be made!

Incase you missed the Deathfire update here is the interview Guido Henkel did on a site called ForeverGeek. He talks about RPGs from the past, and compares them to modern RPGs.

Role-playing saw a real heyday during the 80s, when games like “The Bard’s Tale,” “Phantasie,” “Ultima,” “Wasteland” and the “Wizardry” games allowed fans to explore fantasy worlds in a way they had never seen before. During the 90s, the horizon of role-playing games expanded dramatically, as new technologies evolved and technical advances allowed for bigger and more feature-rich games. During this period, games like the “Might&Magic” series, the second wave of “Wizardry” games and SSI’s “Dungeons & Dragons” adaptations, as well as our own “Realms of Arkania” games, created role-playing experiences that oftentimes tried to capture the essence of pen&paper games, but without the inherent limitations. Many of these game succeeded and went on to become timeless classics.

The result of that era was a series of games, each of which was incredibly imaginative, colorful and bold. Some games pushed the storytelling side of role-playing, while others were decidedly more technology-driven. But they all had one thing in common. They were created by people who loved the genre, most of which were intimately familiar with the way pen&paper games were played, and who had the idealism to weather whatever obstacles lay before them, in order to bring their visions to life. I know, because I’ve been there, and the “Realms of Arkania” games are testament to that.

But there was trouble on the horizon and it had been looming there for years. Throughout the 90s, role-playing games were becoming more and more niche products. While action games, simulations and certain strategy franchises raked in the millions of dollars, RPGs have always had less commercial success, despite their acclaim and were generally smiled at. “Oh, you are the guys who pretend to be wizards and stuff, right?” was something you’d hear all too often. Sales of RPGs were significantly lower than those of comparable action titles and as the industry consolidated by the mid to late-90s, many publishers – who by that time controlled and owned many of the RPG developers – decided that role-playing games were no longer a viable market. Too much risk with too little payoff. Overnight, the genre as it were literally died.

In the next kickstarter update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore developer G3 Studios talks about the games final week. Share your thoughts in the comment section.

The Final Week

Hello, my friends, Guido here again, after a great Thanksgiving. We all hope you were able to spend some quality time with your family.

As I write this, we have entered the final week of our Kickstarter campaign. Yes, we have only 7 days left to make this happen, so we all need to switch into Overdrive Mode, kick in the Afterburners, or however you want to call it.

My point is, we have to activate all reserves. We need each and every one of you to go out and tell the world about “Deathfire” and our Kickstarter. We need each of you to grab a friend by the collar and bring them here and get them to pledge!

If every one of our backers would bring one or two friends to pledge, even at the lowest $25 tier, there is a very real chance that we would make our funding goal, if you take into consideration the upswing most campaigns see during their final days. So, what are you waiting for? Surely you have a friend or two who like the same games as you? Tell them… bring them… make them commit…

If they don’t want to commit just yet, here’s a guest blog post I wrote on ForeverGeek.com this weekend, which discusses — very quickly and in a rather generalized manner — the evolution of computer role-playing games. It also explains very well, in my humble opinion, why games like “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” deserve to be made. In fact, should be made in order to bring back the essence of a long lost game genre.

In the next kickstarter update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore developers G3 Studios say thanks for the $10,000 pledges, and talks about the games greenlight status.

$10,000 Pledges Rock!

Seriously, seeing the money counter for the funding of our campaign jump by $10,000 from one second to the next yesterday was quite the highlight of this campaign. It is a moment that fills you with incredible joy, but also with tremendous humbleness over the fact that someone would love your idea and work so much that they would invest so much money in it.

From the entire Deathfire team, and perhaps, from all the backers who try so hard to help us make this Kickstarter a success, we want to wholeheartedly thank this backer, who shall remain unnamed for privacy reasons, but who has elevated our funding amount so significantly.

The Beastiary

Yesterday we introduced the Beastiary as a new reward in our tier structure, and from the feedback we got, this seems to have struck a chord with many of our backers, and I agree, seeing these creatures fully illustrated with all the information, will be quite a feast for the eyes. Depending on how many backers we will have in the respective tiers, we might even be able to bring down the cost of printing so far that we might be able to produce it in color. Now that would be something…

The question also came up if monsters created by backers, such as in the $500 KAHUNA EDITION or the $1,000 MONSTER EDITION, will also be included in this book, and the answer is a resounding Yes. These backer-created creatures will be part of the game world’s fauna the same way a Rat Trooper would, and therefore, these creatures will definitely be featured in the Beastiary as well.

So, make sure to secure your monster a spot not only in the game, but also in the Beastiary book by putting in a pledge in one of the respective tiers!

Greenlight Status

I also wanted to let you know what the current status on our Steam Greenlight campaign is. “Deathfire” has received 7,800 Yes votes at this point, bringing the game 87% of the way into the Top 100. Great news, of course, though the development still needs to be funded, so make sure to keep telling people.

In the latest update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore we get news of more rewards, a new Q&A, and a music video.

Keep the Fire Burning!

As the remaining days in our campaign are ticking down, I would like to encourage you to keep the momentum going and, perhaps, help us reach out to new potential backers. There are still countless fans of traditional role-playing games out there who have never heard of “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore,” and even with the best press coverage, we can only reach so many of them. But they are out there. Let’s find them. Let’s engage them. Let’s turn them into backers!

We have reworked our Kickstarter pitch video on the main page, and added it to the campaign yesterday. Getting away from the hard-core approach of listing core features, this new video has a more conversational tone, relating some of the features in the game in a fashion that is hopefully better relatable for more casual players.

Please take a look, and feel free to share the video with anyone you can think of. At this time we truly need to rally all of our supporters and make sure we get the word out. Post information about “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” on the message boards you frequent — and make sure to tell people that it is not a dungeon crawler, while you’re at it. Talk to your friends. Post it on your Facebook, and tweet about it. Perhaps even help us find groups and message boards that are home specifically to players of traditional RPGs, and then try to let them know about our project. In the end, it will be in all of our best interest, because together we will be able to create a potential classic!

New rewards

Yes, we have even more rewards in store for you, and one of them is, in fact, music-related. I know that many “Realms of Arkania” players really enjoyed the music of the games and I am very happy to see that the soundtracks I made have turned out so timeless. Therefore, I have decided to re-record a number of my tracks from the “Star Trail” and “Shadows Over Riva” soundtracks and release them as a Kickstarter reward. This is not simply a remastering of the original tracks or some such. Instead I will completely redo these tracks, rework the arrangements and re-record them with the technology that is available to me today.

Starting at the $50 PAINTERLY EDITION level, every backer will receive a digital copy of this newly recorded “Realms of Arkania” soundtrack, and all backers of the $100 MOUSER EDITION and higher will also receive a CD version of the soundtrack as part of their rewards package.

Aside from this, we have another cool new bonus for you. We are creating a beautiful Beastiary for the game. It is a book that features pages and pages of finely crafted illustrations of monsters from the game, along with descriptions, background information and additional details relating to the creature in the game. It will be a beautiful compendium and the perfect accompaniment to the game.

How about some music?

As many of you may know, back in the day, I was the one who composed and recorded the music for the “Realms of Arkania” game “Shadows over Riva,” as well as for about half of the “Star Trail” soundtrack.

I want to share something with you today that is very special to me. Andreas Maria Marcus is a very talented classical guitar player who has for some time already recorded pieces from “Star Trail” with his acoustic guitar — along with tunes from a few other games. He has re-arranged these pieces and turned them into YouTube videos.

His latest effort is the title track from “Star Trail,” which I had originally composed and arranged for a complete orchestra. In this video Andreas has re-arranged the track for two guitars, both of which he is playing himself.

I feel incredibly humbled and flattered by Andreas' obvious appreciation of my music and the effort he puts into creating his own versions. Take a look and enjoy!

G3 Studios has released a new pitch video for their kickstarter Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore. So if your interested here is the new video.

In the next kickstarter update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore developer G3 Studios goes into more detail on Dice+, talks about Steam Greenlight, and gives a look at the crypt.

Steam Greenlight is on Fire

I just checked our stats on Steam Greenlight and I was amazed to see that with over 6,600 Yes votes, "Deathfire" is now 73% of the way into the Top 100. This is a staggering result for me after only 11days. Now, if this push would also extend to this Kickstarter, that would be awesome! If we had 6,600 backers here, we would be well on our way to being funded. So please help us with your shout-outs, and let people know about our Kickstarter.

I also want to take this moment to thank some of our backers, like Lighty67 and Wastelander, who are relentless in their efforts and always post links and updates over on the Greenlight section to help promote the project. We truly appreciate the effort and the show of support! Please keep doing it to remind the Steam community that this game will see the light of day only if we actually manage to get funded.

DICE+ excites

I was glad to see the kind of response we got out of the DICE+ announcement I made in my last update. Naturally, this is only a gameplay extension and not a feature everyone is interested in, but it is very exciting for us to see that there are, indeed, a number of players who can see the appeal, and, like ourselves, feel this would make a nice addition to the game.

In conversations we had with backers, as well as with the folks from DICE+, it also opens up the doors for a number of other options. From the possibility to allow a second player to participate in the game, as the die roller perhaps, there is one additional feature that I had not at all mentioned in my video.

A look at the Crypt

The other day I gave you a first glimpse at the tombs that are part of many reward tiers of our “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” Kickstarter. Today, it is time for me to show you an example of what the crypts could look like. As you can see below, they are big affairs, almost pompous, that will prominently carry a name, epitaph and banner of your choice. Similarly to the gravestones and tombs, we will give our backers in the respective tiers a variety of crypt designs to choose from to best match their personal tastes.

Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore has posted two more updates in the last two days. Details and links are below, and I even have two new videos to share.

Update #11- "A Welcome and a Big Thank You, and more…"

Big push today, folks, as we are sure you noticed. The guys from the “Torment: Tides of Numenera” project had an Update earlier today that they sent out to all their backers, and they mentioned us in it. It is a very generous move on their behalf and we truly appreciate it, of course, especially as it has helped to provide a fresh and strong influx of new backers to our game. So, a very sincere Thank You to the Torment Team, and a big warm Welcome to all the new backers who just joined us.

Gameplay Video

Since the gameplay footage in the Kickstarter pitch video is spread all over the place, I decided to create this brief clip that shows off some of the in-game footage in order to give interested gamers a better idea how the actual game looks like. This is actual in-game footage, recorded straight from Unity3D. No tricks, here.

Update #12 - "Dice+ support in “Deathfire” creates real role-playing flair"

Gadget Time: Dice+

Have you ever heard of Dice+ (It is pronounced Dice-Plus)? No? Well, you should, because as you will see in a minute, Dice+ is a very cool little gadget that we will support in our game, that will potentially enhance the role-playing experience quite a bit and add a ton of additional fun to the mix.

But instead of explaining it all in writing, perhaps, this is something that is better explained in person. So, here’s a video for you, in which I will explain this remarkable little gadget in more detail.

Worldsfactory interviews Guido Henkel about Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore.

Why did you decide to go back and do another cRPG now?

I think it was simply time. I’ve been doing a lot of mobile games over the past ten years, and though they are fun, because of their fairly small size, you find yourself working on a new game very quickly. In that way it became a bit repetitive and lost its luster, and eventually the desire grew inside of me to tackle a larger project again. Naturally, a role-playing game was the immediate choice.

What can you tell us about the world and lore of Deathfire? Is it standard high-fantasy or did you apply any twists to make it unique?

The setting may appear to be a standard high fantasy world at first glance, but there’s a lot more to it. As soon as the player starts the game, he will realize that things are not always what you’d expect. There are going to be some big surprises throughout the story, but I don’t really want to spoil it, because I believe, part of the fun playing “Deathfire” will be to unravel the mysteries of the story for yourself and let yourself be surprised by the events and turns as they unfold.

I will just say this. There is a good reason why we selected a Nethermancer as the antagonist in the game, instead of, say, a Necromancer, who would also have had the ability to raise the dead. The big difference, however, is that the Nethermancer has the ability to cross dimensions, with death being only one of them… I shall leave the rest to your own imagination for now.

In the next kickstarter update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore we get a look at the games character creation system.

A Closer Look at Characters

We still have 18 days left in our campaign to get “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” funded, and we are still confident that it is possible to reach our $390,000 goal. It will not be easy, but with your help, and with the help of the press and our own doing, we hope we will be able to increase the influx of new backers once again, to help carry us over the finish line.

As you know, every backer is important to us, and with the added rewards we announced the other day, we were very grateful to see many of you upgrading their pledges. It helped tremendously, and the entire Deathfire Team thanks you very sincerely.

With that in mind, it is time to dive into more details about the game itself.

Races and Classes, and the whole Spiel

We have discussed races and classes in the game a couple of months ago as part of our Developer Diary on the official website, but I thought it would be a good idea to reiterate some details about characters in “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” once again here, for every backer to see.

As you certainly know by now, character stats are very important to us in this game. With the help of our Psycho Engine, all the character attributes — visible as well as hidden ones — help us create characters that will be richly varied and will feature unique personalities.

Because we want the game to be accessible to players who do not have a lot of experience with deep role-playing systems, we decided to keep the character generation fairly straight-forward and easy to use.

So the first thing the player will get to choose for a character is his or her race. We are offering six races - Humans, Dwarves, Snow Elves, Wood Elves, Halflings and the vicious Tarks. Each race has certain modifiers associated with it that will affect the character’s final traits. Snow Elves, for example, have a higher resistance to ice than Humans. Halflings are more dexterous than Dwarves, while Tarks are experts at taunting; that sort of thing.

In the latest update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore we get news of more reward options for all new, and previous backers.

More rewards for you

Today, we have an exciting update for you, not so much because we will talk more about the technology or features of “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore,” but because we are announcing a whole lot of changes to our reward structure, with the result that every single backer of our campaign will get more swag! How do you like that?

So let’s not waste any more time with preliminaries, let me outline for you, what is happening and what you can expect.

Rewards Galore!

First and foremost, all of our reward tiers will receive eBook versions of the entire “Jason Dark: Ghost Hunter” Collection, a series of pulp-fiction style novels, written by Guido Henkel. The collection features all eleven adventures, a $30 retail value, that we’re giving away to every single backer, even those coming in at the $5 level.

We are also creating a Monster Naming Pool. Throughout the game you will encounter various monsters and we will create a pool of names — that you will provide — and randomly pick unique names for many of these creatures. You can throw your own name, or a name you made up, into the pool if you’re backing this project at the $50 level or higher, adding to the variety this game will offer its players.

In addition, we have decided to create a Cloth Map for the game, displaying the various areas the game plays in. It will be beautifully crafted and best of all, it will be added to all existing physical reward tiers! Once again, we feel by adding this kind of value to all physical tiers, we can express our gratitude for your support! Naturally, the map itself will also be made available to all digital tiers in a digital image format.

One of the key levels in “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” is a Graveyard area that surrounds the Apocryphic Temple at the top of Mount Nethermore. Instead of filling it with entirely made-up names, we have decided to hand the space over to you. We are giving you the chance to name the graves. At the $60 level and above, you will be able to name a tombstone. Once you commit to the $100 MOUSER EDITION and upwards, you will even be able to name an interment site in a catacomb, select the look of it from a number of designs, and place a personalized banner over it, which you can provide as a bitmap image. If you are a backer at the $300 level or higher, you will receive a fully personalized crypt instead. It will contain all of the above features and will also allow you to add a personal epitaph. With these rewards, which span a wide range of reward tiers, you can now immortalize yourself in the game!

As we pointed out before, the game features a recipe-based crafting system, which allows you to create brand new items, or enhance existing ones, such as weapons. Starting at the $100 MOUSER EDITION tier, backers now also have the ability to name a specific crafting recipe, adding their own name to the ancient lore of the game world this way.

For those of you more interested in all things combat, starting at the $120 CLASSIC BARD EDITION tier, we will also give you the opportunity to name a rare weapon. These highly individual weapons will be available to all players, but they will carry the name you provided. Imagine the fame your weapon could achieve among players!

Matt Barton interviews Guido Henkel about his latest RPG kickstarter Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore in the latesest Mat Chat video.

I'm joined this week by German CRPG maestro Guido Henkel, who has a new kickstarter project out called Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore.

G3 Studios has posted the next update of Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore talking about the rules of egangement, and showing off a new screenshot.

Rules of Engagement

As you know, from the very beginning, we were dedicated to adding turn-based combat to the game, and over the months, a number of questions came up, which spurred me into giving you a bit of a rundown over our plans.

Why turn-based combat in the first place?

The advantages of turn-based over real-time combat are certainly in the eye of the beholder, and his or her preferences, but also lie in the game itself.

When I have my action-RPG hat on, I’m perfectly happy with real-time combat. I play a lot of “Skyrim,” which is entirely in real time, and I enjoy it tremendously. I also loved the combat in games like “Legends of Grimrock” or the original “Dungeon Master,” etc. even if it became a mad clickfest at times. Regardlessly, they serve their purpose well in each respective game because the game as a whole was designed that way.

However, when I put on my more traditional role-player hat, real time doesn’t cut it for me for a number of reasons. For one, it gets very hectic, and when you are trying to control a party of six players, each decked out with various weapons and spells, this can quickly become a nightmare to handle. Not to mention, that I always feel at a disadvantage, because the computer doesn’t have to do all that…

In addition, real time combat somewhat limits the number of options you can offer the player at any one time. After all, actions have to accessible very quickly or else your characters may be dead before you even selected the right command.

It further minimizes real tactics and strategy, as you are essentially forced to react reflexively, without actual thinking about the situation. So there is a tremendous difference in focus between real-time and turn-based combat.

As I said before, real-time combat is not a problem per se, and it works wonderfully in a certain type of game. “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” is, however, not that kind of game, as we are trying to dig deeper and create a richer role-playing experience. It is just not going to be an action-RPG.

In this new kickstarter update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore we get news the Early Bird plegde is almost gone, and get to meet Lead Character Artist Marian Arnold.

Last Call for Early Birds

We are also beginning to run very low on EARLY BIRD EDITIONS, so if you’re reading this and haven’t pledged yet, you may want to take this last opportunity to jump in at the low $20 level before they are all gone.

Many of you seem to really appreciate the additional rewards we added earlier this week, as we noticed that quite a number of you have upgraded their pledges. It is nice to see that kind of commitment and to find affirmation that we made the right decision by adding Colin McComb’s Oathbreaker books to the mix.

Naturally, we are trying to arrange for some more rewards that we can offer you, and while I can’t announce anything new on that front just yet, I am hopeful that we can make a pretty cool announcement shortly. Stay tuned!

It's great to see some of the hard work of the past days finally come to fruition, as we have seen quite a bit of press coverage in the past days. It appears as if some of the interviews I've been giving also seem to finally make their appearance. These interviews are always a great way to talk about a variety of subjects surrounding the game.

Team Q&A: Marian Arnold

Who are you and what is your job on the Project team?

My name is Marian Arnold and I‘m the Lead Character Artist on this Project, which is quite funny because when Guido named me Lead Artist at first, I was the ONLY artist on this project. So I was basically leading myself - oh, the wonders of corporate titles. Well, it is a bit different now, as we have more artists working on the project. But in a small team such as ours, a title doesn’t mean all that much anyway. Everyone helps everyone, and we’re all pulling together. Sure, I created most of the monsters, but I‘ve also worked a lot on dungeons and dungeon props, created icons, scribbles and lots of other graphic elements. Whatever is needed at any given moment.  

Rock, Paper, Shotgun interviews Guido Henkel with a variety of questions about his new kickstarter Deathfire: Ruins Of Nethermore.

RPS: I’ve seen people asking why the grid-based format? What is it about this format that appeals to you, makes you want to stick to the pre-Ultima Underworld universe?

Guido Henkel: It is a personal preference, really, and it has to do with my memories of tabletop, pen & paper games, I suppose. There is something magical about that for me, because to me it somehow defines the space better and gives the player better control of that space in a strategic sense.

We were extremely mindful, however to make sure that despite being grid based, the game does not necessarily look that way. You can see very well in our outdoor screenshots that we broke up the geometry to create a look and feel that completely hides the underlying grid and creates an environment that is every bit as crooked and angled as it is in other 3D games.

Depending on the environment, we do the same thing in dungeons, though some dungeons are by their very definition fairly straight tunnels and do not benefit at all from too much deviation.

So, on the whole, it is an artistic and nostalgic decision, and since we know that it may not be everybody’s cup of tea, we make amends by also offering full mouselook capabilities and the ability to turn off things, such as the little bounce in each step. That way it is possible to move through the world in a fashion that easily lets you forget that you’re moving along a grid in a stepwise fashion.

RPS: I can imagine that developing an old-school RPG might come with some challenges based on expectations. People at once want something that reminds them of their favourite games, but also want something original. But at the same time others will react negatively to the original, because it doesn’t remind them of their favourite games! Is finding that balance tricky?

Guido Henkel: I am not sure at this point. Time will tell, I presume. All that we can do is make the game we feel is the best we can make. I look at features of my old games and try to determine which ones were valuable and which ones weren’t. The other day, for example, I began playing Shadows over Riva, the third of the Realms of Arkania games, and was shocked at how unfriendly the experience was in terms of usability. So I made notes how to improve that. I also found that it had an excessively slow start from a narrative point of view. So I made notes of that as well, and made respective plans not to repeat the same mistake in “Deathfire.” I will start with a bang and set players on the right path straight away, giving them something to do.

The perception of any game is highly subjective. I often see people flock to a certain game on troves, and when I check it out for myself, I just can’t see the appeal oftentimes. And vice versa.

Every player has his own preferences and projects his own expectations in a game. We cannot control this – and think we shouldn’t – and the best thing we can do, really, is to make the kind of game we would love to play. That way it will always be earnest and genuine, without becoming a product made purely for commercial appeal.

RPS: So, go on, what will we see from this game that will take us by surprise?

Guido Henkel: Many players who have not really played through the heyday of classic computer role-playing games may find that the experience is a very different one from what passes for role-playing these days. It is a much more engaging and diverse experience that is not limited to repetitive combat and level grinding. Instead, it is much more focused on story and character development, getting the player invested on a completely different level, adding facets to the overall experience.

At the same time, I believe the biggest surprise that players will find is the story itself. At this point Deathfire may seem like it is a bit generic, traditional high fantasy – and that’s the image we are creating for it, including the title – but there’s a whole lot more going on in the story.

There is a good reason why we picked a Nethermancer and not a Necromancer as the antagonist. A Nethermancer has very different abilities that go way beyond raising the dead or some arcane magic. A Nethermancer can bridge dimensions… I’ll let your imagination fill in the rest.

G3 Studios posted the next update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore with infomation on new backer rewards, and a new Q&A with Guido Henkel.

As for the project itself people have pledged $65,063 of it's $390,000 goal. Still quite a way to go but there's still time. So keep spreading the word everyone.

New Backer Rewards!

As we try to add new backers to the campaign, we have also been spending time, trying to maximize, what we can offer existing backers to thank you for your generous support. For that matter, I am very happy to announce that we have some new rewards for you that will go straight into existing reward tiers. This means, everyone who has pledged n those tiers or higher, will automatically receive these new items. What are they?

Please meet my friend Colin McComb.

As many of you may know, Colin was one of the designers on “Planescape: Torment” and more recently, Colin is also the designer on the upcoming role-playing game “Torment: Tides of Numenera” from inXile, which has been kickstarted a while ago.

What many of you may not know, however, is that Colin is also a very talented novelist. He has released a fantasy novel called “Oathbreaker” last year, which has found plenty of critical acclaim. It was the first in a series of books, and currently, he is putting the final touches to the second book in the series.

Today I am happy to announce that we are adding both “Oathbreaker: Book 1: The Knight’s Tale“ and “Oathbreaker: Book 2: The Magus’s Tale” to existing reward tiers.

Here is a small part of the Q&A.

Which aspect of “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” do you find the most attractive one?

For me it is a throwback to the Golden Days of role-playing and everything reminds me so much of the time when we built the first “Realms of Arkania” game. The idea to make a really deep, involving role-playing game that has a rich story and plenty of variety for the player is what really appeals to me and makes me completely giddy. Nerdy things like our Psycho Engine get me completely psyched.

What do you like more, designing a game or programming it?

This is a tough question. I love both. I love to write and come up with new stuff. After all, I’ve also written a number of pulp novels in recent years. But at the same time I feel that it often drains me very much, and that’s when programming becomes the perfect infusion to counterbalance that.

In my heart, I am a programmer, though. Always have been. It fascinates me how you can put together complex components with small code building blocks, and to get the computer to behave exactly the way you want it to. I enjoy the analytical thinking that has to go into it.

Can you tell us very briefly which games you have worked on in the past?

I started making computer games in 1983 and have since worked on a large array of games. The most recognizable are probably the original “Realms of Arkania” trilogy, as well as “Planescape: Torment,” which I produced for Interplay. I’ve also been involved in games such as “Fallout 2,” “Neverwinter Nights” and many others. So as you can see, my primary field of expertise is in role playing games.

G3 Studios has released two more updates for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore. You know the drill by now details below everyone.

Update #4 - Meet the Psycho Engine

Since character interaction is one of the key features in our game, I thought in today’s update I will tell you a little more about how this is going to work and what kind of effects you can expect. It is a bit tricky for me to do, because on the one hand I would love to divulge every bit of information on it - because it really is absolutely cool and fascinating - but at the same time I need to make sure we are maintaining a bit of competitive advantage by keeping things vague. In the old days, this was not a problem because you talked about things such as this very late in the development of a game, but in today’s climate, as soon as we announce features, people want to know details. The problem with that is that in the time from now until the time we publish, other projects can essentially pick up your idea and mimmic the feature, and take away a competitive advantage from you that way. I need to prevent this while also satisfying our backer’s curiosity. I’ll try to do my best.

Update #5 - 1,500 Backers, We offer you a new goal!

Last night we finally reached 1,500 backers. It took a little longer than we had hoped, but it does not change the fact that it makes us very happy. So happy, in fact, that we decided to drop the 48 hour limitation we had previously imposed and will give the Kickstarter Editions of the game their own, unique cover!

What’s more, when the time comes we will prepare a selection of potential covers and allow all backers to vote which one we should use for the final packaging. Sound fair?

Now that we have reached this initial goal, lets move to the next one. We want to continue attracting new backers, of course, and therefore we have decided that we will be adding an additional ending to the game if we reach 2,500 backers!

In its current version, the game will contain three different main endings, each with a number of subtle variations. With the new goal we will add a fourth main ending path to the game, that will divert from the others and will offer an additional, unique way to complete the game. We feel it is a great goal to aspire to, as it also adds tremendous replay value, and we hope you will continue to help us gather momentum and exposure for the “Deathfire” Kickstarter, so that we can not only reach this goal, but blast way past it and add other cool features to the game over the duration of this campaign.

G3 Studios has posted the third update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore  that gives us a look at the different factions in the game.

A Look at Factions in the Game

Hey guys, Guido here with the latest update for you.

We’re three days into our campaign, and as you can see we’re over 11% funded at this time. This is great news, of course, and we are continuously working on getting the word out about the campaign and to find outlets to increase the campaign’s visibility.

On the other hand, we have not reached the goal to acquire 1,500 backers within the first 48 hours, which would have unlocked the Kickstarter-exclusive cover for the backer editions of the game. We are still almost two hundred or so shy of that, which is really unfortunate, because it had looked so well within reach after the first 24 hours. It appears we are still not reaching enough people out there - certainly not for a lack of trying, I can tell you that, but because so far it has simply not been possible for us to get the majority of US media to cover the launch. Just for those of you who are interested in specifics, we have contacted almost 2,300 gaming media outlets with information about the campaign. That is quite a significant number. But in the end it is up to them to decide, which news bit to give preference to, and not up to us. All we can do is try to get on their radar.

I know, many of you are keen to learn some additional information about the team. Who are the people making this game? And I can definitely understand that desire. We will bring you brief Q&As with all core members of the team shortly to tell you more about who we are, what our expertise is and which games we have worked on in the past. After all, since we are building an old-school style role-playing game here, who better to make it happen than the old guys who actually made them in the first place?

G3 Studios has posted the second update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore with news about 1,000 backers reached, Get an Avatar, and the Curse of the Nethermancer.

1,000 backers reached!

As I write this, we have accumulated 1,000 backers, and it took only a little more than 24 hours. We are truly impressed, and seeing this, we might indeed make it to the 1,500 backer milestone tomorrow, which will unlock the Kickstarter-exclusive cover for the game. It is still going to be hard, though, and we will need all the support from you that we can get. Talk about the “Deathfire” Kickstarter. Spread the word. Shout it out! just help us to keep the momentum going and to attract new backers to make sure we will reach our funding goal.

Having said all that, we are extremely impressed that no less than 948 backers achieved FIRST DAY BACKER status! That is definitely a badge to wear with honor, because you have established yourself as someone who believed in the vision of the project from the very beginning and were willing and ready to prove it. We cannot tell you how much we appreciate this show of faith and support.

At this point we would also like to give a quick shout-out to our backer Empirimancer, who was the first person to back “Deathfire” in this campaign.

Naturally, I would also like to mention Martin Zagora, who was our 1,000th backer!

Curse of the Nethermancer

The question also came up, whether the Nether Bursa item that we outlined yesterday replaces the in-game item that is part of the DIGITAL BASE EDITION and upwards. No, it is not. The Bursa is a separate item that every single backer will receive. The item from the DIGITAL BASE EDITION will come in addition to the Nether Bursa, and at this time we have not yet announced what that item will be. Stay tuned, and eventually you will find out, as we will cover it in one of the future updates.

And speaking of the Nether Bursa and the Nethermancer, I wanted to let you all know that we have removed the NETHERMANCER EDITION from our reward tiers. If you’ve been following the comments section, you have probably heard that this reward did not sit well with many backers, as they felt that we were withholding content from all other backers. This was not our intention at all, of course, and therefore, that tier is available no more.

G3 Studios has posted the first update for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore with news about a new Exclusive in-game item for all Kickstarter backers.

But first here is the pitch video. It wasn't avaiable on YouTube for me to post yesterday. Enjoy and sorry for the inconvenience.

Exclusive in-game item for all Kickstarter backers!

We’re off to a great start for this campaign and we are very excited about the amount of interest and enthusiasm the project has generated so far. Thank you all for throwing your support behind this game the way you do. We truly appreciate it.

At the time of this writing, a mere 8 hours into the campaign, we have already reached one third of the backers necessary to unlock the Kickstarter-exclusive cover for the game, putting us squarely on track with our goals. But here’s more good news…

In conversations we had since starting the campaign with various backers of our project, we noticed that many of you are actually very interested in playing the Nethermancer, as outlined in the Nethermancer Edition reward tier. Understandably, however, not everyone is willing to spend so much money on a feature that is not really changing or expanding the game in any way, and serves more as a cool and fun gimmick.

Since we feel very strongly that every Kickstarter backer should actually get something special and exclusive, we have decided to give everyone the opportunity to get a taste of the Nethermancer first hand. What does that mean for you?

Every Kickstarter backer will receive a Nether Bursa, an item that collects energy from the Nethers. Once it is fully charged, this item will allow players to temporarily channel a Nethermancer. You will obtain the Nethermancer’s unique green-tinted vision, and as long as the energy lasts you will be able to move about as a Nethermancer, even using some of the unique Nethermancer spells. Since these spells rely on the Nether energy and not regular Mana, even characters that are not magic users will be able to use Nethermancer spells at that point.

Guido Henkel has launched his promised kickstarter for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore asking for $390,000 to get funded. Here is a recap of the game to get you started.

The Deathfire Vision

“Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” is a party-based computer role-playing game with turn-based combat that hearkens back to the Golden Era of fantasy cRPGs. Built upon the power of the Unity 3D engine, “Deathfire” utilizes a first person view that gives the player the feeling of being there. A solid role-playing engine that utilizes over forty visible character attributes, along with countless invisible ones to track behavior. They make up the heartbeat of the game, and allow us to analyze and adjust gameplay on the fly, and react to the player’s actions, shaping the story around these actions and decisions.

Character interaction is another key ingredient in “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore,” as the player will encounter many denizens of the game world and will be able to recruit numerous ones to follow along as non-player characters in the party. Ripe with personality, opinions, phobias and their own little peccadillos, these characters will enrich the game and create unique gameplay twists—as well as many memorable moments, for sure. (Don’t forget to share them with us, when they occur…)

With a variety of large outdoor and indoor environments, the game will offer a rich game setting with party-based gameplay and turn-based combat that allows for tactically infused battles.

Doesn’t that sound like the game you’ve always want to play? Well, it sure is the game we want to play, and that’s why we started building it, and have been working on it for the past eight months.

Key Features In A Nutshell

Just to give you a quick overview of the key specs, here is the game for you in a nutshell

• Single player, first person Party-based play (four player-, plus two non-player characters)
• Six races and eight classes to choose from
• Over 34 unique character traits, plus base attributes
• Party characters interact with each other
• Turn-based combat
• Indoor and outdoor environments
• Complex puzzles and evolving quests
• Combine items to build weapons and traps
• Interactive game world
• Recipe-based crafting and enchanting
• Involving, adaptive storyline with many key players and twists
• Factions for intriguing political set-ups
• Tons of monsters to battle
• Dialogues—yes, you will be in awe at our cool and intelligent dialogue system 
• Cheese toast (This is an inside joke for those of you who have played the “Realms of Arkania” trilogy. If you have not, do not worry, “Deathfire” will give you the opportunity to become a member in the ranks of those initiated in the joke.)

Guido Henkel annouces that Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore will be go live on kickstarter Wednesday, November 6.

“Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” gets Kickstarted!

Many of you are by now aware of my latest project, “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore,” I presume, and since you were a backer of my previous project, “Thorvalla,” I thought you might be interested in hearing that we are currently lining up a Kickstarter campaign for “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore.”

The campaign will go live on Wednesday, November 6, so please mark your calendar and stop over to check out the campaign when we go live.

If you haven’t been following recent updates for the new game, feel free to take a look at the official “Deathfire” website at http://www.deathfiregame.com where we are hosting screenshots, massive details about the game and a lot of background information about the development process.

Thank you for your support in the past, I hope I will be able to welcome you once again as a backer for “Deathfire : Ruins of Nethermore” on November 6, especially since we will offer special perks for first-day backers!

Deathfire has a new development update about how the team behind the game is growing, and gives a short status update on the game itself.

As work continues on “Deathfire,” I wanted to let you know, that our team has been growing in the past weeks, allowing us to focus on more areas of the game and, naturally, to tackle more of the workload.

In order to illustrate some of the scripted events in the game, we are working with Adriano Batista, a well-respected freelance comic book artist from Brazil, who has worked on comic book series such as “Vampirella,” “Red Sonja,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “Lady Death” among others. In addition, he has also provided pre-production art and character designs to computer games such as “League of Legends” by Riot Games and others.

Thomas Kronenberg has also joined the “Deathfire” team recently, and with his extensive Unity experience he has quickly become the driving force behind trying to tickle the maximum potential out of the engine. Thomas has worked on countless games before, including the “Sacred” series and many others.

The latest addition is Michael Flad, a programmer I have been working with for many years. In fact, Michael was one of the programmers on “Shadows over Riva” and has also worked with Marian and myself on “Herrscher der Meere,” but was also part of other projects, such as “Gothic 3.” He is a very experienced and versatile programmer with well over a dozen games under his belt.

More and more, the “Deathfire” team feels like a homecoming to me, because in one capacity or another I have worked with virtually all team members before, and most of us actually go back together as far as “Shadows over Riva.” It is a cool feeling to “put the old gang” back together, in a sense, and to see how the magic is beginning to happen.

I hope you are as excited as I am, because with these new team members now working on the game, I expect that we will see some solid and steady progress in the months to come. Each of us has his/her own field of expertise and combined we can make things happen.

Here are 4 new screenshots for Deathfire that have just been made available by G3 Studios.

In addition they also launched their new website.

Deathfire has a new update on the games blog about mysterious notes discovered in the Ruins of Nethermore.

While venturing through the catacombs somewhere in the depths of the Ruins of Nethermore the other day, we stumbled across a strange set of notes. They seem to be coming from the pages of a diary. In fact, someone suggested, they might be a diary entry from the great elven wizard Tesselar.

Long and heated discussion broke out over this suggestion here in our offices, but the more we did our research, the more it became evident, that the handwriting does indeed seem to match that of the legendary Tesselar. We also discovered hints in various reports that the elusive wizard-who-walks-the-ages has been seen approaching the Nethermore Mountains some weeks past, shortly after the initial outbreak of the undead plague. Tesselar’s appearance is significant, of course, in many ways, because the wizard magister had not been seen for many years prior, and the only explanation for his presence in the Nethermore region is that he has been following the same goal as ours… to find the source and stop the horrors of the walking dead, just as these mysterious notes indicate.

You are skeptical? Well then, read for yourself…

Guido Henkel has updated his blog with information on how they reached the final title of the game they are developing, which is Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore. Those who were on the focus groups aided in reaching a decision on what the best title would be for the game.

Guido also explains why they wanted a two part title:

We decided to use a two-part name for a number of reasons. For one, it gives the game a more epic scope, indicating that it may be part of a series. While we do not have exact plans for future sequels of the game, there certainly is the possibility, depending on the game's overall success.

The other reason we decided to use this two-part name was that it allows us to reflect the different aspects of the game. "Deathfire" is the part of the title that suggests a dynamic game, filled with combat and dark powers, while "Ruins of Nethermore" clearly plays up the traditional aspects of the game with a title that conjures up associations with classic computer and pen&paper role playing games.

And he was friendly enough to provide us with an updated logo as well.

We decided to use a two-part name for a number of reasons. For one, it gives the game a more epic scope, indicating that it may be part of a series. While we do not have exact plans for future sequels of the game, there certainly is the possibility, depending on the game’s overall success.

The other reason we decided to use this two-part name was that it allows us to reflect the different aspects of the game. “Deathfire” is the part of the title that suggests a dynamic game, filled with combat and dark powers, while “Ruins of Nethermore” clearly plays up the traditional aspects of the game with a title that conjures up associations with classic computer and pen&paper role playing games.

DarkStation interviews Guido Henkel in a new podcast interview.

In this episode of DCI, Brian and I talk with Guido Henkel to discuss his latest game, DeathFire. Guido has worked on a number of renowned RPG including Realms of Arkania and Planescape: Torment. So in addition to chatting about DeathFire, we also talk about his his time on those other games.

Guido Henkel provides some information on the story of Deathfire in his latest blog.

One by one they are disappearing
Friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers
When they return they aren't who you think

They look the same. They sound the same
But they are no longer the same...

The most unholy of spells incanted,
Undead fire burns in its victims' eyes...

The Nethermancer has spoken
His was the last voice they heard...
Before they were perverted into monsters with familiar faces

In a world without heroes
Who can you trust?

In a world where the dead are rising
Who can you turn to?
No one.
No one is safe

Can you save the world from everyone you ever cared about?

This, my friends, is the promotional snippet for Deathfire, designed to whet your appetites. Because of my vacations and all the stuff going on here, it has been a while since my last Developer Diary update, but today I thought, I'd give you a bit of a glimpse at the game's story.

As you can certainly tell from the blurb above, there are some sinister things going on in the world. From villages, people are disappearing at random. Families are torn apart and the people are mourning and heartbroken.

One by one they are disappearing
Friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers
When they return they aren’t who you think

They look the same. They sound the same
But they are no longer the same…

The most unholy of spells incanted,
Undead fire burns in its victims’ eyes…

The Nethermancer has spoken
His was the last voice they heard…
Before they were perverted into monsters with familiar faces

In a world without heroes
Who can you trust?

In a world where the dead are rising
Who can you turn to?
No one.
No one is safe

Can you save the world from everyone you ever cared about?

This, my friends, is the promotional snippet for Deathfire, designed to whet your appetites. Because of my vacations and all the stuff going on here, it has been a while since my last Developer Diary update, but today I thought, I’d give you a bit of a glimpse at the game’s story.

As you can certainly tell from the blurb above, there are some sinister things going on in the world. From villages, people are disappearing at random. Families are torn apart and the people are mourning and heartbroken.

- See more at: http://guidohenkel.com/2013/07/let-me-tell-you-a-story/#sthash.ll8QTp0J.dpuf

Guido Henkel has a new post on his Deathfire blog and gives a little treat for die hard Realms of Arkania fans.

While cleaning up my hard drive just now, I stumbled across a neat image that I thought I’d share with you. Here, for the first time, I assume, is a look at the original artwork for Shadows over Riva without any logo and without any cropping. This is the artwork that as it was delivered to us by Ugurcan Yüce, the artist who created the artwork not only for our Realms of Arkania computer role-playing games, but also for virtually all of the “Das Schwarze Auge” pen&paper games the “Reams of Arkania” games were based on.

Ugurcan is not only an incredibly talented artists but also a very nice guy and I remember visiting him in his home numerous times, watching and admiring him at work while his wife would serve me traditional Turkish treats. At Attic Entertainment Software, we commissioned the covers for many of our games from him, not only the “Realms of Arkania” games, but also covers for titles such as “Fears” and “Der Druidenzirkel.”

Most strikingly, every time Ugurcan did a cover for us, he was nice enough to actually allow us to keep the original paintings for good. This is something very few artists will ever do—or only at a significant cost—and shows you just what kind of a guy he is.

Anyway, I thought I’d share this little gem with you real quick because I know there are many die hard Realms of Arkania fans out there. Enjoy!

Marian Arnold leads us through the steps that are involved in creating a moving monster in Deathfire in the latest blog on the development of the game.

With our first dungeon sets finished, we noticed that pretty soon we would need something that moves around in these labyrinths, so we can play around with it, and test the game mechanics within. At this point we already have lots of ideas for cool enemies and monsters scribbled out for the game, but to fully flesh them out, design them and then build them in high quality from scratch will take quite some time. Usually you start the modeling process with a scribble that you draw or receive from your conceptual artist that defines how exactly the creature should look like in the end.

Unless, of course, you already have a clear vision, in which case you would simply set yourself loose and begin modeling the creature straight away with Dynamesh in Zbrush. Alternatively, you could just fool around with Zbrush long enough until you managed to produce something decent out of it. Each approach may work, but more often than not, the approach artists take begins with the scribble. Since nothing about Deathfire is truly ordinary, our case was an exception, of course. ;-)

I recalled that I had the concept for a monster lying around in a backup somewhere. It was a monster I had thought of about ten years ago but never had the chance to actually use it. I had begun to model it back then but never got further than doing a basic few tests and getting the proportions in place. For me, it was the perfect starting point. I went back, loaded the model and began to re-imagine the creature, skipping the scribble stage entirely.

Don't be disappointed, though, I created one nonetheless... just for you... after the fact... which is a whole lot easier by the way, because you already know exactly what it looks like.

The article shows several pieces of artwork of the monster in progress ending with a video of it moving around.

With our first dungeon sets finished, we noticed that pretty soon we would need something that moves around in these labyrinths, so we can play around with it, and test the game mechanics within. At this point we already have lots of ideas for cool enemies and monsters scribbled out for the game, but to fully flesh them out, design them and then build them in high quality from scratch will take quite some time. Usually you start the modeling process with a scribble that you draw or receive from your conceptual artist that defines how exactly the creature should look like in the end.

Unless, of course, you already have a clear vision, in which case you would simply set yourself loose and begin modeling the creature straight away with Dynamesh in Zbrush. Alternatively, you could just fool around with Zbrush long enough until you managed to produce something decent out of it. Each approach may work, but more often than not, the approach artists take begins with the scribble. Since nothing about Deathfire is truly ordinary, our case was an exception, of course.

I recalled that I had the concept for a monster lying around in a backup somewhere. It was a monster I had thought of about ten years ago but never had the chance to actually use it. I had begun to model it back then but never got further than doing a basic few tests and getting the proportions in place. For me, it was the perfect starting point. I went back, loaded the model and began to re-imagine the creature, skipping the scribble stage entirely.

Don’t be disappointed, though, I created one nonetheless… just for you… after the fact… which is a whole lot easier by the way, because you already know exactly what it looks like.

- See more at: http://guidohenkel.com/2013/06/oh-no-it-moves/#sthash.iMh3gayu.dpuf

Guido Henkel has a new post on his blog for Deathfire. He needs feedback from a focus group to help with his game. Anyone interested use the link from this post.

As the development of Deathfire progresses, we have reached a junction in the development of the game where we would like to get direct feedback from the fans. We want to hear your opinions!

Since it has always been one of our foremost intentions to share as many aspects of the development with you, the fans, as possible, we feel that getting a feel for certain elements regarding the game from the fans is the logical next step.

This is your chance to make a difference… we are putting together a limited focus group to evaluate one of the most critical aspects of the game. It will be a very easy task for those participating, that will require no more than a handful of mouse clicks and a few minutes of their time.

If you are interested in becoming a part of the first Deathfire Focus Group, please fill out the form below and we will add you to our list of interested candidates. From all submissions, we will then select 25 participants at random to move ahead with.

Guido Henkel has updated his blog on Deathfire bringing us more information on a user interface element of the game, especially on the character status boxes and the iterations there have been before reaching something they felt happy about.

It is a common occurrence in game development that you have to make design decisions based on incomplete information. Why? Well, because at the time you design many aspects of a game, the game itself does not really exist yet. You are merely projecting what you want it to be. Therefore you have to make a great many decisions based on whatever information you have at the time, and what you expect the gameplay to be like in the final product. It is probably hard to imagine for many people, but game design is a very iterative process. Especially as the complexity of the game and underlying systems grow, the requirements will most likely change as well. Somewhere down the line, play testing may show flaws and weaknesses that will have to be addressed, or entire parts of the system show themselves to be flawed, tedious or outright un-fun. No one has ever designed the perfect role playing game in a single attempt, ever. You make decision, rethink them, revise them, reiterate them, adapt them and then repeat the entire process until one day you ship a product.

Guido Henkel has a new post on his blog for his unreleased game Deathfire. 

“Bind on Equip” has been brought to the table by massively-multiplayer online games in order to prevent players from using and then selling valuable and unique items to other players. It forces the player to consider‌—‌if only for a moment‌—‌if he’d rather use the item or make money off it.

In retrospect, I find it strange that this feature has never come up in single-player games before, because at its core, the rationale remains the same. Perhaps we have all just been too blindsided to realize its existent potential. After all, they are not uncommon in mythical lore and popular fiction. James Bond has a gun that is attuned to him, and so does Judge Dredd, and even the magic wands in Harry Potter work that way. Excalibur, the mythical sword from the Arthurian saga or Ulysses’ bow are also perfect examples of bound or attuned weapons, so it is only sensible to carry the concept over into games.

When we bind items in Deathfire, it will be mostly for the same purpose. While buying and selling items in the game may not be the driving factor for item binding in our game, other aspects of it are. In Deathfire’s game design I want to use it to force the player to think about certain decisions. In this case, which party member should I give the item to?

Guido Henkel has written a new blog post, which this time is about items and weapons in Deathfire.

For the past few days I’ve been working on some exciting things in Deathfire, that have propelled the game forward quite a bit in my mind. Items. Sounds trivial, I know, but items are the salt and pepper of any role-playing game.

It started when I decided to make a weapons list for the game. We have been working on parts of the user interface for the past two weeks or so, and it got to the point that I wanted to see some weapon icons in the respective slots. In order for Marian to begin drawing some icons, we began making a weapons list. It started out quite innocuously, but once I got into it, the list grew very rapidly, and at the end of the day we had a list of over 150 weapons for the game. And that is just the first go at it, not including any quest items and not including any unique, named weapons, which we plan to feature prominently in the game.

Adding all those will easily double the number of weapons in Deathfire, and I have no doubt that on top of that I probably forgot a good number of cool weapons that we will want to include in the game as we go along. All things said, in the end, I would estimate that we will have somewhere between 300 and 400 weapons. Just to give you a comparison, Shadows over Riva, the third of the Realms of Arkania games had less that 100 weapons. In fact, looking over the game’s source code showed me that the entire game contained a mere 480 items. So, in essence, it looks as if we will have nearly as many weapons as Shadows over Riva had items. Nice!

A new  blog update has been posted for the first-person RPG Deathfire. The post focuses on the the technology powering the game.

There was a time not too long ago when using Unity would have raised eyebrows, but we’re fortunately past that stage in the industry and—with the exception of some hardliners perhaps—most everyone will agree these days that it is indeed possible to produce high end games with it.

For those of you unfamiliar with Unity3D, let just say that it is a software package that contains the core technologies required to make a game that is up to par with today’s end user expectations. Everything from input, rendering, physics, audio, data storage, networking and multi-platform support are part of this package, therefore making it possible for people like us to focus on making the game instead of developing all these technologies from scratch. Because Unity is a jack of all trades it may not be as good in certain areas as a specialized engine, but at the same time, it does not force us into templates the way such specialized engines do

EuroGamer has a new article on Deathfire.

Deathfire will be a "stepped" role-playing game, which means there won't be any open world exploration but rather a directed, linear route through.

"Our intentions are to push the envelope on what has been done with stepped role-playing games in the past. I feel that there is a huge untapped potential how that gaming experience can be enhanced," he wrote.

"Think of it this way, if there's an earthquake, in most stepped genre games you would see the screen shake and that's about it. In the case of Deathfire, I want this to become a much more gripping event where you will see rocks shake loose, where dust clouds will form and debris will rain down from the ceiling. Characters will react to it, voice their disapproval and fear, based on their stats, or urge the others to move along before everything caves in. On the whole, I want it to become an experience that is every bit as vibrant and alive as it is dangerous and adventurous."

Henkel has already shared Deathfire's character generation and progression ideas. There are 34 character traits broken into the categories Resistances, Body Skills, Nature Skills, Craftsmanship, Mental Skills and, interestingly, Negative Attributes. The latter can be things like a volatile Temper, Fear of Heights, Arachophobia, Greed, Superstition an Pessimism. There are Magic Abilities, too.

Guido Henkel provides more information on his plans on how to handle character creation in Deathfire.

Usually when starting a new role-playing game, one of the first things you begin to work on is the underlying game system. Deathfire was no different. After a few programming tests to prove general feasibility of certain key features, the first thing we turned to was the game’s character generation. Because the player’s stats, attributes and traits are at the heart of any role-playing game, it was only natural to begin zoning in on that aspect of the game and lay down some underpinning ground rules from which to build the overall game system.

And with that we were off to the races. It was decision time. How should character creation work? Should the player roll attributes which then decide which kind of character he can play, or should the player be able to pick archetypes himself and we fit the attributes around that?

Guido Henkel shares a bit more information on the recently announced game Deathfire especially on the very young history of the game and why some choices were made.

Running in a first-person view, it is a party-based real-time role-playing game with a focus on the story. It is not an open world design. Instead, it is very focussed to create maximum impact for the player. Therefore, we will very tightly control the environment the player moves through so that we can manipulate it as best as possible. This also means that it is a stepped role-playing game, by which I mean that there will be no free roaming the 3D environment. The player will take one step at a time as he explores the world. Not only does this help us to maintain a high level of quality in the overall experience, but it is in many ways also more reminiscent of many traditional pen&paper games where you’d use graph paper to map out the game.

When we think of first-person stepped role-playing games, two candidates come to mind, immediately, I think. The first one is Dungeon Master, the granddaddy of all real-time first-person roleplaying games, and the second one would be the games in the Wizardry series. Deathfire will be like neither of them. It will be so much more. It will be as gripping as Dungeon Master – or Grimrock if you’re not old enough to have played the original Dungeon Master upon which it was based – but it will have the depth of a real role-playing game, putting it more in line with the Wizardy games, perhaps. It will be a completely amped up affair. It will be more intense and deeper than either of these games. We have completed the character system design at this point and I can tell you that there are enough character attributes and stats to rival the Realms of Arkania games. Well, not exactly, but we’re not too far away from its depth. Our intentions are to push the envelope on what has been done with stepped role-playing games in the past. I feel that there is a huge untapped potential how that gaming experience can be enhanced.