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Masquerada: Songs and Shadows |KS| Finishing Touches for Pause-for-Tactics RPG

W

wilflare

Member
header.jpg


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13978330/masquerada-songs-and-shadows

//UPDATES
- It's a SHORT 14-Day Campaign, ending on May 5, 2016!
- They have reached 40% after just TWO days!
- Update #5 - Design: A Closer Look (Combat Stances, Skill Evolution) + Surpassed £20K
- Update #6 - PAX East 2016 Round up! + Surpassed 50%
- Update #7 - Darkest Dungeon Giveaway + Surpassed £26K
- Update #8 - Clarification on the giveaway
- Update #9 - Soundtrack update from Josh Whelchel
- Update #10 - Quiet Demo (playable during PAX East 2016) now up + Introducing Venty!
- Update #11 - Broken Clay by iNCH
- Update #12 - The voice of Chloe (Life is Strange), Tiny Tina (Borderlands 2), Ashly Burch as Vint!
- Update #13 - Meet the Team - The Designers!
- Update #14 - Meet the Programmers (the brains behind the prettification of spell effects)
- Update #15 - IT'S FELICIA DAY (as Orlana Corvail)
- Update #16 - Behind the mask
- Update #17 - Bringing the characters to life - Meet the animators, modelors!
- Update #18 - Style, inspiration and concept design - The guys behind the beautiful environments!
- Update #19 - Do you know that they have an architect on the art team?
- Update #20 - The Bard Speaks - Meet Nicholas, the focus of the team's love-hate

//What is Masquerada?
A tactical action RPG featuring pausable real-time combat - Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a colorfully grim song of masked deception, set amid a Venetian-inspired city haunted by the shadows of civil war, misplaced faith and fey manifestations. Our myriad inspirations for Masquerada are owed to superlative, genre-defining titles like Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age, Transistor, and much more.

Game is releasing in 2016 and heading to Steam (PC/Mac) and PlayStation 4

Here are some notable highlights about the game

//Story -
In the turmoil-ridden Citte della Ombre, religion holds no sway. Only the songs sung of one’s deeds will carry an Ombrian’s legacy beyond death. Those who hold even the smallest morsel of power will make every effort to ensure their songs live on.

Ive99U9.png


//Gameplay
Pause-for-Tactics or MOBA style? Your choice
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JkPjgAw.gif


Weapons Upgrade System
kcwHISC.gif


//Art
fKP3PKR.jpg

qjuXPK4.png

BajDNms.gif


//Fully-voiced Experience
Hear the voices of Matthew Mercer, Jennifer Hale, Dave Fennoy and more!

Z9Qf5x8.png

wd9JYiH.png

BOGfuQ6.png


//DEMO AVAILABLE
Check out the Demo on STEAM - LINK
They will be refreshing the content of the demo halfway through the campaign but if you are at PAX East, you can check out the latest demo at their booth!
 
G

Gala

Member
I'm happy to give them my money earlier! Ravenmark was a blast and I'm really looking forward to this game
 
N

Nordicus

Member
Oh damn, what a shame that the Kickstarter managed to go under GAF's radar for 2 weeks

Edit: oh, shorter duration Kickstarter? Nevermind then
 
C

Clunker

Member
I'll have to back this when I get home - I absolutely adore the Ravenmark games, even if I am absolute trash at them. An insane amount of polish and dedication to their lore and world building, and this new project looks to have some really compelling mechanics and setup to boot.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Alastor3 said:
I like the artstyle, wonder why they didn't do a 30 days kickstarter, maybe they really need the money fast
Click to expand...

Devs answered in another thread, something along the lines of them analyzing that things go fastest in first few and last couple days so they thought doing it this way would help carry momentum more.
 
W

wilflare

Member
Clunker said:
I'll have to back this when I get home - I absolutely adore the Ravenmark games, even if I am absolute trash at them. An insane amount of polish and dedication to their lore and world building, and this new project looks to have some really compelling mechanics and setup to boot.
Click to expand...

You'll find the same measure (if not, greater) of lore and world building this time round too in Masquerada!
 
L

Labadal

Member
I now have time to download and play the demo but there is no actualy option to do so. I've downloaded plenty of STEAM demos before.

Restarting STEAM fixed my issue.

Will post impressions later.
 
L

Labadal

Member
Gave the demo a try and it took me exactly 30 minutes to beat.

I'd like to say it was great and that everyone should get hyped. Alas, that is not the case.

When you start the demo, you can choose if you want to play on Normal or Hard. I decided to go with Normal just to see how the game plays like. (I might try it on hard at a later date.)

There was no exploration. You go from point A to point B to point C. The combat is real-time-with-pause. It was entirely possible to just play without pausing. You have a 3 character party, but you control only one of them while in combat. You can obviously switch characters freely. While you control your character, the computer will handle the other peoples' actions.

Here's the problem, it seemed to me that the characters I was not controlling did what I told them for a second and then followed my guy and attacked the same target. Things get cluttered in combat and it is not always easy to see what is going on. The combat itself wasn't very demanding. I went through the demo mostly unscathed. I had trouble in the first encounter because I didn't know what I was doing. After that, I mostly spammed the few skills that each character once their cooldown had run out. Another pet peeve of mine. I am not a fan of cooldowns in these types of games but that is a subjective matter.

I said that things got a bit cluttered in combat, but other than that, I must say that the game looked good overall. I did have an issue with blurry text and it was also super small. If the lines hadn't been voice acted, I would not have been able to follow what was going on from a story perspective. Speaking of the voice acting, it was solid. No complaints there. Music and combat audio were also well done. In other words, in the non-gameplay department, I don't have many complaints other than tiny text.

What could be improved in my opinion is that combat should feel a little bit less cluttered and maybe add some gambit-like system. Fix the text while you are at it.

There was no menus while playing, for example, inventory or skill screen. That means that I don't know if there will be loot, leveling up and such. I have no idea how quests work or if it's just like in the demo.

I was very hyped for this. After trying, though, I might pick this up as a time waster when I have nothing else to play and it is on sale.
 
W

wilflare

Member
I think the linearity of the game was a conscious decision. The lack of exploration could perhaps be seen as spending time and effort on things that are more visible to the largest number of players - exploration begets the creation of multiple minute details that not all players will find or appreciate.

For the combat, it does take some getting used to. I started off making zero use of the tactical pause but got to slowly appreciate it later. The AI characters do have a certain skill cycle so that may perhaps explain why they didn't seem so "cooperative"

The game does have a pretty solid story to tell with a rather diverse cast of characters - worth checking out the various media coverage on it!
 
T

Tebius

Neo Member
Labadal said:
Gave the demo a try and it took me exactly 30 minutes to beat.

I'd like to say it was great and that everyone should get hyped. Alas, that is not the case.

When you start the demo, you can choose if you want to play on Normal or Hard. I decided to go with Normal just to see how the game plays like. (I might try it on hard at a later date.)

There was no exploration. You go from point A to point B to point C. The combat is real-time-with-pause. It was entirely possible to just play without pausing. You have a 3 character party, but you control only one of them while in combat. You can obviously switch characters freely. While you control your character, the computer will handle the other peoples' actions.

Here's the problem, it seemed to me that the characters I was not controlling did what I told them for a second and then followed my guy and attacked the same target. Things get cluttered in combat and it is not always easy to see what is going on. The combat itself wasn't very demanding. I went through the demo mostly unscathed. I had trouble in the first encounter because I didn't know what I was doing. After that, I mostly spammed the few skills that each character once their cooldown had run out. Another pet peeve of mine. I am not a fan of cooldowns in these types of games but that is a subjective matter.

I said that things got a bit cluttered in combat, but other than that, I must say that the game looked good overall. I did have an issue with blurry text and it was also super small. If the lines hadn't been voice acted, I would not have been able to follow what was going on from a story perspective. Speaking of the voice acting, it was solid. No complaints there. Music and combat audio were also well done. In other words, in the non-gameplay department, I don't have many complaints other than tiny text.

What could be improved in my opinion is that combat should feel a little bit less cluttered and maybe add some gambit-like system. Fix the text while you are at it.

There was no menus while playing, for example, inventory or skill screen. That means that I don't know if there will be loot, leveling up and such. I have no idea how quests work or if it's just like in the demo.

I was very hyped for this. After trying, though, I might pick this up as a time waster when I have nothing else to play and it is on sale.
Click to expand...

Heya Labadal! Ian here, a dev on the team. Thanks for taking the time to try the demo. =)

I think much of what you say has merit - specifically about the combat being cluttered. It's an issue we're currently designing to solve. I'd like to figure out the hit boxes too, to make sure it's responsive. There's little exploration too, admittedly, but this was a choice on our part. Between using our meager resources to have large exploration that's mediocre (stuff for stuff's sake) and a silky smooth, polished experience that's limited to the main story, we went for the latter. Supergiant Games is a huge influence on how we'd like to give you a satisfying experience. A less is more approach, I guess. I'm really sorry if this disappoints you though - I can understand as I enjoy exploration too!

On some of the other matters, I think I can put some of your fears to rest!

Companions: For the sake of the demo, we preset their behaviour, but in the full game you can tweak how they use their skills and the priority in which they use them!

Pausing: True, you don't necessarily have to pause. We do think the pause mechanic is there for you if you want it. Also, many abilities have their trees split such that you could play it with pause/tactics or real-time/smash-your-face. Both are viable options.

Blurry text: The UI is scalable! You can scale it to what's comfortable on your screen size!

I think tl:dr, it's the demo, so we wanted to keep things simple.

No matter what, I'm simply grateful you spent some time with the little thing we're sharing with you. =)
 
W

wilflare

Member
The team has posted two updates since - added the links to the OP
- Update #6 - PAX East 2016 Round up! + Surpassed 50%
- Update #7 - Darkest Dungeon Giveaway + Surpassed £26K

The team will be giving away 10 keys for the Darkest Dungeon to 10 random backers :D
header.jpg
 
A

Anko

Member
I've backed this because they refused to bow down to the local government that was pressuring them to get rid of the gay male side character. At least, that's what I've read some time ago... I hope nothing has changed since. I'd support this based on principle alone.

Proud of them and looking forward to seeing what my fellow countrymen can churn out.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Anko said:
I've backed this because they refused to bow down to the local government that was pressuring them to get rid of the gay male side character. At least, that's what I've read some time ago... I hope nothing has changed since. I'd support this based on principle alone.

Proud of them and looking forward to seeing what my fellow countrymen can churn out.
Click to expand...

Probably referring to this article:

http://embedwith.tumblr.com/post/106717694732/embed-with-singapore

Great series by Cara Ellison where she'd go hit up indie devs in some of the countries that don't tend to get a lot of coverage.
 
W

wilflare

Member
The team posted a slew of updates the past week! I was really caught up with my own work so pardon me for not updating as much
----

Update #8 - Clarification on the giveaway
Update #9 - Soundtrack update from Josh Whelchel
Update #10 - Quiet Demo (playable during PAX East 2016) now up + Introducing Venty!
Update #11 - Broken Clay by iNCH
Update #12 - The voice of Chloe (Life is Strange), Tiny Tina (Borderlands 2), Ashly Burch as Vint!
 
W

wilflare

Member
The team has posted another bunch of updates, including a very special one!
---

Update #13 - Meet the Team - The Designers!
Update #14 - Meet the Programmers (the brains behind the prettification of spell effects)
- One of them even made the Omen Threat Meter and Postal addons for WOW!
Update #15 - IT'S FELICIA DAY (as Orlana Corvail) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1UJYzCn5FQ
Update #16 - Behind the mask

neR8O6e.jpg

- What the final mask would KINDAAAAA look like for those backing that tier!
 
W

wilflare

Member
Update #17 - Bringing the characters to life - Meet the animators, modelors!
Update #18 - Style, inspiration and concept design - The guys behind the beautiful environments!
Update #19 - Do you know that they have an architect on the art team?
Update #20 - The Bard Speaks - Meet Nicholas, the focus of the team's love-hate

// the team is posting so many updates :O
// Less than 64 hours to go with £4000 left!
 
A

Anko

Member
And they're now rather comfortably over the target of 45k. There isn't a lot of time left (36hrs) but I wonder if they'll do stretch goals? Seems weird to do it though, since the aim of this KS was to polish up the final product. So, in a way this kind of was the stretch goal.

49 thousand pounds ain't nothing to sneeze at.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Hopefully it just means they can get it out sooner. Like the KS says, a lot of the funds are for things like QA testing, which means they could hire more now and get things done quicker. The release date was already pretty close anyway.
 
W

wilflare

Member
I was hoping the game would attract more attention here on GAF but :(

The game seems to be getting pretty solid reception from various media outlets
- Angry Joe backed this
- The Divinity Team gave a shout out
- Ken Levine (Bioshock) also backed this!

Game was also reported on Forbes too!
 
T

TheChaos

Member
wilflare said:
I was hoping the game would attract more attention here on GAF but :(

The game seems to be getting pretty solid reception from various media outlets
- Angry Joe backed this
- The Divinity Team gave a shout out
- Ken Levine (Bioshock) also backed this!

Game was also reported on Forbes too!
Click to expand...

There's been a flood of indie games as of this year, and a lot of them sadly get left behind. Glad to see that it made its goal, though. It looks really promising.
 
W

wilflare

Member
The team has just hit their first stretch goal!
They've also added a new 500pound tier!

Singapore's local ISP MyRepublic donated 2500pound that really helped to speed things up (it's nice to see local companies supporting one another)
 
R

Ryne

Member
Got to backing today only because it's a neat looking game. Gonna try the demo tonight.

Hopefully it does well!
 
W

wilflare

Member
One Foul Note said:
Wait, this is Witching Hours next game? Well and truly backed! And from the looks of it just in time too.
Click to expand...

Yes! Their first game was Ravenmark on iOS, Android and recently (last year) on Steam as well!

Masquerada originally started off as Ian's (or Tebius as he is known on GAF) D&D campaign before he decided to get writer to fully flesh out the story!
 
W

wilflare

Member
sorry to bump this up again but there's only 90 minutes left and we are just slightly shy of the 2nd Stretch Goal - New Game+!
 
A

Anko

Member
That last minute.

I was afraid there would be more trolls, but the 3 new backers helped push it comfortably past 60,000. Newgame+!

Congratulations to all backers and to the studio. I can't wait for July. And thanks to wilflare for the thread and for all the updates. I would have missed the KS if it weren't for you.
 
K

kulapik

Member
Dammit, I played the demo and liked it, but forgot to back :( Don't think they'll do a slacker backer considering how close the game is to releasing, but will buy Day 1 unless it's more expensive than those 14 pounds.
 
W

wilflare

Member
Anko said:
That last minute.

I was afraid there would be more trolls, but the 3 new backers helped push it comfortably past 60,000. Newgame+!

Congratulations to all backers and to the studio. I can't wait for July. And thanks to wilflare for the thread and for all the updates. I would have missed the KS if it weren't for you.
Click to expand...

I got caught up with work towards the end, especially the last series of updates but I'm glad you got to know about the game! :D
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Launching on PC on the 30th of this month.

Edit: Edited out trailer because it's private and they asked not to share it yet, they're doing a push on Monday for it.
 
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