Subterranea has failed to get funded on kickstarter, and only managed to get $3,371 pledged of the projects $12,500 goal. The developer Cloud Nine Games has posted  information on the comment section about the games future.

Cloud Nine Games 

Hi everybody! It's disappointing that the Subterranea Kickstarter has not succeeded, however many lessons have been learnt. Graphical improvements/polish, particularly of the environments, certainly seems to be one theme from the constructive feedback.

The support of you backers has been fantastic, not just the monetary pledges, but also where you have been out there trying to spread the word and on here making helpful suggestions to try and get more traction. Huge thanks from us - your support has been very encouraging!

So what's next for Subterranea? Development will continue, however the schedule on the KS page will not be able to be achieved now. Some funding will be necessary to finish the game, and there's a few options. Improving the graphics, and other aspects of the presentation, before doing another KS is one, also releasing a self-funded game that could be fully developed quicker to fund the development of Subterranea is another option.

Also, an opportunity to collaborate with a talented 2D level design artist has presented itself - that is an opportunity we will be exploring now in the hope of releasing a similar CRPG...

We still believe there's a niche for a 3D, custom-party, "high fantasy" RPG that uses physics for emergent gameplay - that game will be released at some point in the future!

Whatever we decide to do in regards to funding we'll post updates about here, as well as on our website and social media sites.

Thanks to you all again,

Cloud Nine Games

Cloud Nine Games has a new update for Subterranea that talks about the games ruleset.  As for funding the game still only has $2,953 of the $12,500 goal.

Subterranea Ruleset

Anyone familiar with the rules of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), especially the 3.5 edition, will see many recognizable rule features in the Subterranea videos and screenshots. That is because Subterranea is based on an "open" version of the D&D 3.5e ruleset - this update gives the history of that open version and how it relates to Subterranea.

In 2000, the owners of the D&D license, the Wizards of the Coast (WotC), released the Open Game License (OGL) v1.0a. The OGL allowed licensees to implement most of the D&D 3.5e ruleset in Pen and Paper RPGs (PnP RPGs) or Computer RPGs (CRPGs), with the following main caveats:

* No affiliation or compatibility with D&D, WotC, D20, etc. can be claimed.

* Certain copyrighted content of WotC (named as Product Identity in the OGL) cannot be used - this includes setting and character names like Forgotten Realms and Elminster, and certain monsters like Beholders. The rest of the content (game mechanics, most monsters and items, etc.) was labelled Open Game Content (OGC).

* For CRPGs, all rules used by the engine must be exposed in a human-readable form. The follows the principle of most open licenses where open content that is used and enhanced should also be made open for others to benefit from.

Subterranea has two new kickstarter updates from the last two days. The first update is recap of the Character Creation video for backers whom might have missed it.

Character Creation

At the suggestion of one of our great backers, we're posting an older mini-gameplay video in this update taking the viewer through the creation of a character in Subterranea, enjoy!

The second update shares two samples of game music.

Subterranea Music

Hi all, super-backer and talented game music composer James Thorley has composed two custom tracks for Subterranea. The first is called "Mystery of Vengarth" and was inspired by the concept art of the main villain:

The other track is called "Echoes of Vengarth" and is suited for general exploration around the swamp and megadungeon:

If you'd like to contact James to use his talents for custom game music, send us a message and we'll pass on his contact details!

As a follow up to yesterday's update Cloud Nine Games has released a new screenshot to show how the concept art will look in-game. Keep up the good work JMab.

Concept Art Implementation

As a follow-on from yesterday's update, here's an in-game screenshot of the concept art implemented. A Fighter is sneaking up on the mysterious figure in the swamp...

Cloud Nine Games has posted the next kickstarter update for Subterranea that talks about the the mystery of the game world. The project has twenty days left, and has so far only got $2,594 of the $12,500 goal.

The mystery of Subterranea...

Hi all, we're working here on building better looking 3D environments, but in the meantime, have a look at some concept art of the main villain in Subterranea, sighted around Vengarth Swamp!

Cloud Nine Games shares a few links about press coverage for his RPG Subterranea. We even get mentioned for our interview posted yesterday.

His game has twenty four days left and has so far got $2,322 of the $12,500 goal.

Subterranea in the Press

Hi everybody, here's a collection  of press articles over the last few days for Subterranea!

February 05, 2014: Interview at RPGWatch.com:

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=237&ref=0&id=637

February 03, 2014: Game announcement at IndieRPGs.com:

http://indierpgs.com/2014/03/subterranea-announced/

February 02, 2014: Campaign Review at GeekersKeep.com:

http://geekerskeep.com/2014/03/02/campaign-review-subterranea-3d-fantasy-role-playing-game/

Subterranea is the one of the newest RPG Kickstarters to go live last week. It's the brain child of a man called John Mabbott the founder of Cloud Nine Games.

He describes his game as the following, " An Adventure through a world rife with peril and intrigue, to solve a dangerous mystery in this fantasy, turn-based CRPG".

I had the chance to ask him a few questions in my latest interview. We talked about his game, his Kickstarter, and a few other various questions.

RPGWatch:Thanks for agreeing to the interview John. Can you tell us a little about yourself, and your game Subterranea?

Cloud Nine Games: I'm a long-time fan of single-player CRPGs, and grew up on Pool of Radiance, Bards Tale, Ultima, Might & Magic and some Wizardry. My day job took me into software development for banks, however I've always had a burning desire to build a CRPG like the ones I used to play, in a modern engine with all that offers, including "newer" graphics, smooth animations, physics, etc. The time has come to make this come true!

Although I know it's an over-used setting, I still love the typical D&D high fantasy setting, and think that there still some ways to keep parts of it fresh. I like a realistic/gritty world rather than a cartoony/over-the-top one, so Subterranea will be closer to the vibe of a Witcher or Gothic, rather than a Kingdoms of Amalur, although obviously the gameplay will not be like those ARPGs!

My design philosophy with Subterranea is to push some of the technical boundaries of what's been seen in tactical, party-based CRPGs to-date. The best examples of the genre tend to use beautifully-drawn, but static, 2D backgrounds. I want a dynamic, vibrant, fully-3D world, full of emergent gameplay possibilities.

Cloud Nine Games has posted the first update for Subterranea with a message from a special guest. As for funding the game has made $1,645 of the $12,500 goal.

It's Mick Liubinskas, the friend that owned the Commodore 64 that we spent too many hours on playing Pool of Radiance!Just a short video talking about our passion for CRPGS.

(Update)- They also posted the second update today about Branching Dialogue.

This video shows how the branching dialogue works in Subterranea, as well as giving you a "behind the scenes" view of how the branching dialogue can be easily modified.

Cloud Nine Games has just launched the promised kickstarter for Subterranea. They are asking for a modest fee of $12,500 AUD, and will run till Sunday, March 30th.

If you are a fan of party based RPGs then this game is for you. Here are a few details incase you missed the other posts on site.

(Update) - I forgot to mention you can also vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.

Adventure through a world rife with peril and intrigue, to solve a dangerous mystery in this fantasy, turn-based CRPG.

Subterranea is set within, around, and below, a massive swamp named Vengarth. Some time ago a poor fishing village by the name of Gimlet, whose inhabitants scratched out a living on the edge of the swamp, had a marked improvement of fortune after a mysterious Elf-Lord appeared in their midst.

The Elf-Lord, Lord Lenzo, struck a deal with the villagers - in exchange for harvesting the rare and valuable plants that were found in abundance in Vengarth Swamp, the Lord showed them how to refine the plants into valuable alchemical and magical reagents and helped them to trade those reagents across the country for his own and the townspeople's prosperity.

Under Lord Lenzo's benign but increasingly absent rule, Gimlet Village grew and prospered into Gimlet Town. The fishing families who originally lead the village formed a cabal of Merchant Lords and have effectively taken over the stewardship of Gimlet Town.

Recently however, a group of harvesters stumbled upon an entrance to a sunken temple within the swamp and unwisely entered looking for valuables. The survivors brought warning to the town, and the cabal instructed other harvesting parties to keep their distance from the temple entrance. Despite their instruction, harvesting parties keep disappearing from all over the swamp with increasing regularity.

When the cabal's profits are threatened they act. You control a party of adventurers who have answered their call to arms. You are not alone though - other adventuring parties have also come seeking rewards from the wealthy cabal of Gimlet Town - these adventurers may need to be dealt with one way or the other.

The game features deadly intrigue, murky and conflicting agendas, a sprawling megadungeon to conquer and ultimately a mystery that lurks far beneath the surface of Vengarth Swamp!

I have good news for everyone today as Cloud Nine Games has just sent me information their RPG Subterranea wil be on  Kickstarter & Greenlight on Friday the 28th.

I'll post the link to the Kickstarter on Friday, and in the meantime here is a new trailer.

Exciting news – the Subterranea Kickstarter and Greenlight campaigns have been approved and are ready to go! The campaigns will be running simultaneously, starting at Friday, 28th February, 5pm EST (New York time), and ending on Sunday, 30th March, 5pm EST.

To support the campaigns, here is the “Subterranea Teaser Trailer Number One”. Expect a few more of these to come before release day!

Cloud Nine Games has a new update for Subterranea about Puzzles & Riddles.

A number of puzzles and riddles in a dungeon can provide welcome fun as an alternative to combat. The challenge is introducing puzzles and riddles with solutions that aren’t already known by the player, or that can be instantly Googled. You might recognize the puzzle above, it’s a supposedly ancient puzzle that needs a bit of brainpower to solve!

Cloud Nine Games has a new update for Subterranea about, "The Path Less Taken".

The Path Less Taken

This screenshot is from a turn-based battle scene in the upcoming Teaser Trailer #1 for the Steam Greenlight campaign. The Drow Wizard has won the initiative round, and has started to flee up the stairs and out the door. The party’s Rogue is next, and is considering a Sneak Attack on the fleeing Wizard. However, the path that she must take to execute the attack will go through a Drow Warrior’s Threatened Area and will therefore provoke an Attack of Opportunity. She is weighing up whether to risk this by attempting a tumble through the Threatened Area, or another action…

You’ll be able to see the indicators working in real-time in the video. The green path indicators will show you how far you can move while still taking a Standard Action and how far you can move with a Double Move Action. The red Threatened Area indicators will pop up if your path will take you through a Threatened Area, thus provoking an Attack of Opportunity.

Cloud Nine Games has another update for their RPG Subterranea about party formation.

If in-depth tactical combat is implemented well, positioning is critical. And when positioning is critical, getting your party formation right is the first thing you need to do. Given the importance of getting the party formation right in Subterranea, I’ve implemented a flexible Party Formation window to allow you to position your characters exactly where you want them.

Cloud Nine Games has released a new gameplay video for Subterranea.

Not so much a gameplay video, rather a demonstration of many of the arcane spell effects in action. The video was taken in the Arcane Magic Training Room, in the Tutorial level.

It also shows off the new radial/pie menu I created over the weekend, I think this is a speedy/usable upgrade over the clunky old one.

Cloud Nine Games has a new Developer Diary post for Subterranea.

This is the first of many Dev Diary entries, where I show some behind the scenes views of Subterranea being made, as well as information on how I’m doing it.

First of all, like most Indie Developers these days, I’m using Unity. Unity is great, I like it a lot. It’s an extremely productive development tool in it’s own right, it’s got a great community and a wealth of questions online that have already been answered, it’s got an amazing Asset Store, that really speeds up development if you’re prepared to spend some money, and best of all, you can build great-looking games (to a point) for free!

One of the best moves I made with Subterranea was switching from my old, clumsy character pipeline, to the Unity Multipurpose Avatar. It’s not plug and play, but once you get your head around it, it is very powerful.

Cloud Nine Games has a new update for Subterranea that gives us a glimpse of how the turn-based combat works. So without wasting any more time here is the video.

What aren’t you seeing now, that will be in the final version? I’m still working on the projected 3D arrow which will show you how far you can move while still taking a standard action that round and how far you can move without taking a standard action (i.e. double-move). The PC portraits are missing HP indicators, the PC/NPC whose turn it is in turn-based mode is not yet highlighted, there are no context-sensitive cursors yet (i.e. sword cursor when the default action is a melee attack) and so on. These features are missing simply because the game is in a pre-alpha state, however rest assured that I am working on getting all of these in!

Subterranea is a new fantasy turn-based RPG being developed by a one man studio called Cloud Nine Games. The developer describes his inspiration for the game below

Undoubtedly, my biggest CRPG inspiration is Pool of Radiance, an absolute classic from the Gold Box series by SSI. I misspent many hours of my youth, with a mate, trying to liberate Phlan. So what did I enjoy about PoR? Creating your own party – each and every character. The in-depth tactical combat, where character position really mattered (i.e. blocking doorways with fighters and putting wizards out of harm’s way). The story, the intrigue of the council, the classes, monsters and items all made for a classic D&D CRPG experience.

If you're interested in the story here is a snippet of the plot.

Your party has answered the call and are gathered in the entry room of Gimlet Hall. You and the other adventuring parties eye each other nervously – will you help or hinder each other? A staff strikes the marble floor, the two massive doors swing open and a guard summons you to be addressed by the cabal…

I even have a few videos you can check out with more promised to come. The first video shows off some pre-alpha gameplay. The second video shows off the games character creation.

Well that's all if you have any questions the developer uses the name JMab on the RPGWatch forums.  Just visit his game thread here. Stay tuned for future news of a possible crowdfunding campaign, and other news.