Gamebanshee reports on the latest update for Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous which is exclusive to backers.

Back in May of 2019, a development update for Stirring Dragon Games’ old-school Commodore 64-style RPG Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous assured us that that the game would be launching within a year. However, the game’s latest Kickstarter update doesn’t look as promising, with the developers asking their backers for additional funding in order to finish the game sometime in 2020.

The update shows no recent progress of any sort and instead asks for regular donations in exchange for further development updates. Perhaps this is why it’s exclusive to the game’s backers, but if you’re not one of them, you can find the relevant parts below:

[...]

Screeg spotted the November Kickstarter news for the C64-RPG Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous (Chris Huelsbeck has agreed to do the full soundtrack for Unknown Realm!):

Unknown Realm November Update

Greetings from the Stirring Dragon Lair!

It’s been awhile since our last update and we know at least some of you have been craving an update about Unknown Realm! We had hoped to post this sooner, but there were a number of details that we needed to finalize before sharing some of the news items in this update. It’s been an interesting few months with a lot of ups and downs. We’re pretty much in full crunch mode around here, so if you don’t see us, it’s only because we’re focusing our efforts where they're most productive to making this game a reality.

State of the Realm
Production on the game has been going strong. Here are some highlights about our progress and some of the challenges we’ve been facing as we work to bring you Unknown Realm.

Music news
Music development for Unknown Realm has its own set of unique challenges, partly because nothing quite like this hybrid in-game soundtrack has been done before. For every track in the game, we have to have multiple arrangements of each song to accommodate the PC and C64 versions of the game as well as the final soundtrack version. Working with outside contractors adds a new layer of complications including tool support, documentation and communication that takes a lot of extra time. The development on the music has been slower than we planned, but we’re making good progress. One member of the Unknown Realm backer community has stepped up in a big way by writing a tool to streamline the music conversion process. This was a huge help! It’s so cool to have the support of backers who are passionate about the project and want to be part of the effort to bring this game to life.

And here’s some really great news: Despite the fact that we did not quite make our soundtrack stretch goal during our campaign, we’re excited to tell you that Chris Huelsbeck has agreed to do the full soundtrack for Unknown Realm! We’re working with Chris to make a one-of-a-kind soundtrack that will be a treat for both Chris Huelsbeck and RPG fans alike. This sound track will feature 8-bit chiptune  versions of songs found in the game, as well as their modern arrangements.

Backer Content
Over the last few months, we’ve been chasing down all of our in-game content from backers. After many reminder emails, we’re still waiting on some backers…If you pledged for a reward that includes in-game content like a mercenary NPC or Tombstone and have not replied to your survey yet, pretty please, check your email and look for the survey from Stirring Dragon Games. Even though it's a little extra work on our end, it’s been a lot of fun to have backers participate in creating in-game content, especially for NPCs in the game. We love hearing the ideas our backers come up with and we're taking a lot of care to fit these ideas into the game world in a way that is respectful of the story and hopefully exciting for players to discover.

Bestiary Art
Our pen & ink artist had a lot going on this summer but he’s back to work now creating the last few illustrations for the 64 (yes, 64!) monsters that will be in the game. It’s been two and a half years since we started creating this bestiary with him and we’re excited to see this part of the project near completion.

Speaking of bestiary illustrations, here is one of our backer-designed monsters, called a Tigoth, which was designed as part of the “Create-a-Monster” reward on Megafounder. The Tigoth is a large, nocturnal, saber-toothed cat with a long, whip-like tail ending in a sharp blade of hardened bone.

Each monster illustration and their description can also be viewed in the in-game bestiary, which brings us to the Frontend (main menu) of Unknown Realm...

Frontend Sneak Peek
No respectable RPG should be without a nice frontend presentation and an authentically 8-bit RPG like Unknown Realm is no exception. Every element of this game, from our feelies to our user-interfaces has been carefully designed to keep your imagination immersed in the game from the moment you start it up.  From the beginning we put a significant effort into designing a fun, interactive, and most importantly, immersive frontend filled with various things for you to explore. It's chalk full of so much content and music that you may get lost in it for hours. ;)

Here is a sneak peek of one of the features you will find in our frontend, the  "Pixel-Ink" in-game bestiary that mirrors the beautifully illustrated pen & ink art of our physical bestiary book...

Game Production Status
At this point, we still have some outstanding assets that need to be created and integrated into the game including music and some portraits. If all goes well, we'll be on track for the game to hit an Alpha state in December.  We are looking into finding one additional pixel artist to help out. If you are a pixel artist and interested in working with us, please contact us via email.

There are a lot of other details we want to share with you about this journey, but in the interest of saving time, we’re reserving a lot of those for the Making-Of book. Rest assured, the book will have a healthy dose of behind the scenes drama – everything from technical challenges, dealing with troublemakers, lessons learned the hard way, unexpected life issues and of course, the hazards of going into business with your spouse. ;-)

The Road Ahead
By this point, you have probably figured out that our release plans need to change somewhat from our initial estimated delivery dates and schedule. What we originally hoped to do was release the physical and digital editions concurrently. However, because of the nature of the project and the exhaustive testing required to ensure a bug-free game on cartridge, we're shifting our focus slightly in favor of a conventional digital-first release. This will not be an early access/beta release. Testing of the cartridge version will be going on concurrently with the digital release. Since we cannot patch or re-flash the cartridge once it's shipped, the digital release will give us one last opportunity to weed out any missed bugs or potential balance issues before we finalize the cartridge ROM. It's an extra precaution we feel we need to take to get this project right.

Our current plan is to release the game digitally in Spring 2018 and we anticipate shipping out physical rewards a few months after that. We considered trying to ship PC physical rewards separately to align with the digital release, but due to the high number of rewards shipping internationally, the freight costs for shipping C64 and PC separately would not be feasible for our budget. This was a really hard choice for us to make because it's not in line with what we originally wanted for this game, but sometimes compromises are necessary to make the product better.

As frustrating as it is to miss our original estimates, it would be so much worse to release a game that wasn’t ready to live up to the experience we’ve promised you. The important thing is that we will continue to put everything we have into developing this game and making it the game we all want to play.

That said, adjusting our schedule isn't all bad, we are taking advantage of the extra time to make your rewards even better than we originally planned. Which brings us to...
Old School RPGs Need Epic Traditional Art

We searched high and low to find an artist who could bring the Unknown Realm cover art to life in a manner worthy of its old school roots and now we’re thrilled to announce we are working with one of the best traditional fantasy art painters around to make this happen! Ted Nasmith is a world-renowned illustrator and traditional artist who has created illustrations for projects associated with The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones.

We are so excited to have him paint the Unknown Realm cover art for you guys because his unique style and dedication to the craft of traditional art are perfectly suited to bringing back all of those old school RPG feelings. This cover art will be used across all our digital formats and appear on the physical editions of Unknown Realm. Every backer ($19+) will be receiving a digital wallpaper version of the cover art and we’ll have posters available in the future as well.

Final Thoughts
Bringing back the authentic 8-bit RPG experience takes time, persistence and a lot of optimism in the face of tough odds. It wouldn’t be possible without you and we’re eternally grateful to each of our backers for your support, encouragement, understanding, and patience too!

Special thanks to those of you who’ve taken the time to comment with your support and understanding: you guys brighten our day and help us push through challenges (and fatigue). :-)  We see how much you care about this game being done the right way and it means a lot to us! We’ve backed close to 50 Kickstarter projects ourselves over the years, so we’ve been in your shoes and we appreciate your understanding. We're excited to be making this game for you, and we’ll keep fighting with all we have to make it worth the wait!

If you ever have questions or want to get in touch, the best way to reach us is directly via email at hello@stirringdragon.games

Until next time!
-Laura & Bruce

Some Kickstarter news for the C64-RPG Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous:

New in-game content items on Megafounder now!

Hello backers!

Just a quick crowdfunding update... we mentioned we would be posting some new in-game add-ons for you on Megafounder before we wind down that campaign. We plan on closing down the Megafounder campaign on July 24, at which time we’ll finalize our numbers for production and manufacturing.

If you’ve been secretly wishing you pledged for a Ziplock Bag Edition or the Collector’s Edition Box instead of an all-digital tier, now is your last chance to remedy that problem. ;-) There are only 16 PC Collector's Edition boxes left and then these feelies will be gone for good.

The new in-game content add-on tiers are live on Megafounder now. These include Dungeon Master, Create a Monster, NPC Portrait, and Name a Mountain.(These add-ons are available exclusively for new and existing Ziplock Bag or Boxed Edition backers.)

Head on over to Megafounder now and get your add-ons before they are gone!

Thank you all for helping us bring back the classic 80's RPG experience! Please help us spread the word about this final opportunity for classic RPG fans to enjoy an old school, big box PC game the way it's meant to be!

-Bruce & Laura

GameRaven interview Bruce and Laura about Unknown Realm.

Sean: What's the story behind how Unknown Realm's concept was formed?

Bruce: The original concept for Unknown Realm came out of some frustrations I had with the direction RPGs were taking during the late 1980's while I was still in high school. They started becoming focused on simulation aspects and less enjoyable to me. I wanted to do more exploring and discovering things, and less combat, simulation, and story grind. I always felt there was huge potential for this type of RPG to tell a story and keep the player's imagination engaged at every step of the journey, but it requires the right balance otherwise, the game can quickly become a monotonous waste of the players time and intelligence.

Bruce: A big test for me as a game designer is whether the player actually finishes your game. Many players I know never finished RPGs they started because the games became too long, tedious, or generally less engaging. In my opinion, this is like an author writing a novel that is so boring or hard to read that the reader puts it down after a few chapters and doesn't feel compelled to finish. A good RPG, like a good story, should be so engaging that the player cannot help but finish it because they are enjoying the experience at every step and can't wait to see what happens next. Scope and pacing are very important for an RPG.

Bruce: A concept I formulated long ago is that games should be an abstraction of reality, not a simulation thereof. I think one game designer who understood this concept well was Sid Meier. His game Pirates! is just one example of what I consider great reality abstraction in a game and it influenced me greatly as a game designer. Better graphics and more realistic physics can never fix a bad game design.

Bruce: A lot the design choices that went into Unknown Realm came out of my D&D tabletop days in the 80's. For instance, I dislike the idea that a role-playing game should have multiple players that you control. All the D&D players I knew only role-played with one character. This is why in Unknown Realm you only control yourself. Any companions in the game are computer-controlled. While I know many will disagree with me on this, I do not consider a game where you control multiple characters in a party to be a true RPG.

[...]

The was Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous C64-Kickstarter was very successful:

We did it!!

Wow! What a crazy finish to this campaign!

1,246 backers, over 500 comments, countless messages, tweets, Facebook and forum posts. You made this happen! Together we accomplished more than anyone thought was possible. Knowing that we are making this game for YOU will help us get through any challenges that lie ahead!

The immediate plan for us now is to get Megafounder up and running for our Paypal and late backers. We are hoping this will be done in the next day or two and we will update when it is.

This incredible part of the journey has come to a close but the adventure is just beginning! Now the real work starts. We are so honored by the support you have given to this project and we cannot wait to deliver this experience to you! We look forward to sharing our progress with you along the way!

And now maybe we can catch up on a little sleep for the first time in weeks! :)

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

-Bruce & Laura

Unknown Realm has funded and is now looking to secure its place on Steam through greenlight.

Unknown Realm is live on Steam Greenlight!

Yes, you heard that right. Unknown Realm is LIVE on Steam Greenlight! Vote. Comment. Share. Pump it up! :) You guys are awesome, work your magic!! Let's make Unknown Realm the first 8-bit RPG ever on Steam!

Much more to come this week. We're planning on unveiling a few new surprise reward tiers that we saved for the last week of the campaign, we'll have game design updates, and hopefully get closer to that full soundtrack by Chris Huelsbeck!

Thank you all, none of this would be possible without you!

-Bruce & Laura

Unknown Realms latest update focuses on stretch goals such as additional tilesets, seasonal fx and quest cards.

Tilesets, Seasonal FX, and Quest Cards!

We're closing in on our next goal pretty fast! Maybe we can get there by tomorrow? ;-)

Let's talk about some of the design elements that will be unlocked with these upcoming goals...

Additional Tilesets and Seasonal FX

Currently we plan on having over 1500 tiles for the game. However, in the past we did some tests using alternate nighttime tiles and we liked the ambiance they added. Nighttime tiles will enhance the way a player experiences the night and day cycles in Unknown Realm and help reveal things that can only be discovered during the night.

Seasonal FX allow us to have variations on regular tiles such as fall and winter elements, and give us the opportunity to include some environmental fx such as washed out bridges and snowed in areas in the game. The winter season in particular opens up game elements we would like to include such as ice caves and survival components. You'll also have to figure out how to protect yourself from the winter elements.

Additional Quest Cards

Reaching this goal will provide an additional four quest cards on top of the eight we have included in the budget. The quest cards correspond to actual items, artifacts, or puzzles that you will discover in the game. Unlocking these additional quest cards also means unlocking additional sub quests.

In keeping with the inspiration for these feelies (namely Bruce's memories of playing old D&D modules like Tomb of Horrors), each one will be illustrated in a traditional pen and ink style. We wanted to incorporate that same kind of tabletop feel into the gameplay and increase the immersion by providing things you can hold and examine to help you solve quests in the game. These may be maps, an inscription to decipher, or a clue to help solve a puzzle. Even though you will be able to look at these cards beforehand, their purpose will only become clear once you uncover their context in the game.

For digital backers, printable version of these quest cards will be included in the digital supplements. For Ziplock Bag Edition backers, the quest cards will be part of the module-style manual. Collector's Edition and Black Edition backers will get a deluxe packet of these quest cards included as one of the feelie components in the game box.

We have unrolled our stretch goal scroll a bit more to hint at what we have coming next after we unlock the quest cards.

You guys have been doing such a great job spreading the word! We want this project to reach as many RPG fans as possible. We know there are a lot more out there that haven't heard about Unknown Realm yet and we don't want them to miss out on being a part of the movement to bring back the classic 8-bit RPG.

If you have a favorite gaming website, podcast, blog, or game news outlet, please consider suggesting this project to them. After all, it's kind of a big deal that in this age of digital only games, close to 700 gamers so far have loudly proclaimed (via Kickstarter) that they are totally down for new, real 8-bit RPGs with feelies included!

We certainly think you guys are a big deal. ;-)

- Bruce & Laura

Unknown Realm has funded with 19 days still to go.

Stirring Dragon Games Creator about 11 hours ago

Thank you all for making this happen! 100% funded in 15 days! What a great way to start the new year. We are so grateful for your encouragement, enthusiasm, and the memories you have been sharing with us. You guys are really the cool kids, and don't let anyone tell you different! An update about our next steps is coming soon. ;-)