How to train a dragon: Kickstarter for new RPG Thorvalla promises a rich world of magic and dragons
By Jess Colwill on November 21, 2012 at 3:29 pm
In the latest Kickstarter news, the producer of Planescape: Torment, Guido Henkel, has started up a fund for a new RPG he’s calling Thorvalla. Teaming up with Neal Hallford, whose credits include Betrayal at Krondor and Dungeon Siege, they have a reputation for RPGs that can be relied on. So what’s Thorvalla all about?
Steeped in Norse mythology, Thorvalla will be a party-based single-player game harking back to RPGs of old. But on top of the Norse veneer there are also elements of high-fantasy, such as the dragons you can harness and fly, and a world rich with magic. But the world of Thorvalla isn’t all Nordic. There are other cultures filling the world including a tribal people not-unlike the Native Americans, and a rich colourful people with a heavy Asian influence.
All in all, Thorvalla sounds very much like breathing new life into the Baldur’s Gates and Planescapes we know and love but haven’t seen for many a year. Check out it’s Kickstarter fund for yourself. There’s still 28 days left on the clock, so we can totally make the $1 million they’re hoping for. But the fund isn’t in a great place at the moment. If this sounds like something you or your friends would enjoy, make sure you pledge, and encourage others to give it a shot too. I think this could be a great game, but we’ve got to reach that goal if we want to see it in action! Don’t you want to fly a dragon?
Source: Thorvalla Kickstarter
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This is a very meh presentation and a very broad and bland looking setting. I hope they do well, however compared to the other presentations we’ve seen recently I don’t think they will get the funding they’re after.
ashigaru,
This. I’m sick of Kickstarters for projects that seem to have been made 10 minutes after some guy had had an idea. Elite reeked of this as well.
I might consider buying it when gameplay videos come out
Exactly. I’ve backed 4 kickstarts as follows:
Pebble eWatch: I’m still waiting for it (but it’ll be worth it ;) ). They had a solid pitch and it’s a good product. Easy sell.
Planetary Annihilation: Awesome video to sell it and a team with a good track record to back it up.
Star Citizen: I was very hesitant to get this one… Seemed rather meh at first then more and more updates came out, solid looking demos of the engine etc etc. The commitment they have to the community is their selling point and the fact that space sims have been dead for quite some time. Funding seems like it could be an issue though ($6.5 mil for what they’re aiming at is crazy!)…
Boss Monster Card Game: $40 delivered for a tabletop game I’d be happy to buy in-store? Well that was an easy sell. Good video to get me enthused too!
In fact every project I’ve backed has one very important factor, a solid video to get me enthused. This really doesn’t. Far too bland, far too high concept only. You made a couple of decent RPGs.
Bah hit enter by accident.
You made a couple of decent RPGs, woopdie doo. Give us more than a couple of concept sketches, give us an early engine build. That’s what’s going to win backers over.
This will get nipped in the butt before it takes off, it sounds way too much like How to Train Your Dragon and the spin off Dragons: Rider’s of Berk unless they have approval from the folks who did the movie and tv series.
And I agree with the rest, really bland to start off with.
If they have the money to show gameplay don’t you think they wouldn’t NEED kickstarter to begin with?
Every kickstarter you’re backing it based on whether or not you like the premise, whether you think they can deliver, and whether you like the people behind it.
I trust these men more than I trust the supposed planetary annihilation people that just quoted anything they could think of as having at least 1 member involved in those projects.
Despite the fact that cavedog entertainment went on to become GPG and are working ON the spiritual successors to total annihilation.
While I agree that the video was a little ‘meh’, the concept sounds great to me, and I don’t need no fancy video to impress me. It’s all there in the mission statement, and like Rapid says, if they had the money to show you gameplay they wouldn’t be asking for your money.
These guys have been involved with some of the greatest RPGs of our time, and frankly I’m more interested in the cerebral content that’s better displayed in words, anyway.
To me, a great RPG is in the stories, the exploration and the characters, and not the combat or anything that can be shown effectively in a video.
Just my opinion!
This isn’t about a fancy video, it’s about showing that you can AND HAVE done something to make your product a reality. You shouldn’t be basing a backing over just the concept of what *might be*, you should be backing it over whether you think they are actually capable of delivering a product. I personally don’t as the presentation was subpar at best. No real direction was given, just a bunch of ideas and broad comments of what might be cool and again ultimately came across as something they had come up with the night before. Kickstarter isn’t (or at least shouldn’t) be a place to get money to start a project, it should be a place to get the funding you need to continue and finish a product by showing what you already have (however small and early) and by extension showing that your ideas are actually achievable.
This game isn’t really getting any money atm and to be very frank and honest if not harsh, that is a GOOD thing. There have been far too many successful Kickstarters that many obviously think they can come in with next to no effort on their pitch. Maybe they can make this game but that ultimately isn’t the point, the point is that this is still a pitch and just because they’re not doing it for tight-a$$ company executives who never take risk or anything doesn’t mean they get to slack off.
And I don’t know how you could trust this guy more (never heard of this guy before and it’s a bad sign when they feel the need to build him up as a ‘legendary’ designer especially given he hasn’t made anything of note for a decade) over Uber Entertainment who are actively in the industry this day making successful video games. Sure Uber’s presentation felt a bit like they had just come up with it but at least they seemed to have a better idea of what they wanted to do and that they’re actively developing games today.
How was Star Citizen funded before the Kickstarter btw? I’m curious as you say these guys possibly had no money to make something yet wouldn’t RSI have needed money to make the pitch that they made?
The campaign originally started on their website; in fact, that is where the majority of their funds were raised.
I used the term video when pitch would have been more appropriate. As Exe already pointed out, it didn’t feel like a solid pitch at all. That was my biggest concern. Uber Entertainment is an existing studio and having played a fair bit of monday night combat when it came out, I know they’re going to make a fun product.
You’re correct, you do back a project based on the people behind it but I still think the pitch is one of the most important things of all. Planetary Annihilation scaled it’s pitch up and up in the intro video and really generated solid excitement. Star Citizen I was initially sceptical on but once again through their ongoing engagement and pitch “updates” I was won over. Admittedly I’m not the biggest RPG fan but I am a massive fan of high fantasy and initially from what Jess wrote I was very intrigued. The pitch itself however just seemed lackluster so personally I will be surprised if they can reach the goal. Good luck to them though as there’s obviously an audience for them out there.
Jess: I agree you can’t show off combat etc in a video for a large scale RPG such as this. I would have liked to see more concept art for environments, the type of dragons they’ll have, rough ideas of some of the classes. Whether they go isometric or 3D doesn’t matter for concept art, you still need to flesh that out at some point :) I know they’ve written down a lot of the ideas but I’m a visuals man and that’s the point of playing a visual game (to me) is that what you see is a big part of it. But once again that’s just what I’m into, it’s the main reason I prefer warband style or large scale tabletop games as opposed to a pen and paper RPG :)
ezelek,
But they already had their footage, showings and pitch for that as well.
Seeing the recent entry in the files section maybe they used the free version of Cryengine 3 to create what they did and show their vision so they didn’t need to put the time and money putting together an engine.