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[Dakota47]

From the comment section of the last update:

>Any chance we could hijack a balloon?
Certainly something we discussed, but it might be tricky to pull off.

This would be so awesome.

 

[Ledsen]

Always happy to support these kinds of games, looks awesome. I hope they can get the graphics and animations right, but from what they've already shown they should be more than capable.

 

[Dakota47]

Wow, 60.000 old world doubloons pledged as of now. To celebrate there's a new update:

Hooray!

Incredible! We're now 50% past our goal, with eighteen days to go. Needless to say, we're enormously pleased.

£60,000 has unlocked Hot Air Balloon Spotter Patrols .

You can see the list of unlocked stretch goals so far over here.

And next we reveal what we anticipate being the final stretch goals: the Riders, and multiplayer.

£70,000 - The Riders

Our most ambitious NPCs will take on the form of a classic British fox hunt, one of the favoured bloodsports of the rich and landed. These red-coated rider robots will be the most merciless - and the fastest - hunters in the archipelago. Once they have you sighted, well, run, Fox, run. We're asking a bit more for this thanks to the additional complexity of riding characters, and we're certain they'll make the most exciting addition to our NPC arsenal.

£80,000 - Multiplayer

It goes without saying that multiplayer is an extremely complex undertaking in its own right, and because the focus of Sir is on a single-player game, we are not going to promise multiplayer on release. We are a tiny team, and must hit one objective at time. What we will do, however, is provide a multiplayer component to all backers when this goal is unlocked, soon after the initial release of the game.

We've had plans for multiplayer for a long time, and we agree with those of you who have suggested that some manner of multiplayer suits the nature of the game. Currently we're planning a 4-player game, where the players can compete or co-operate with each other as they are hunted by the robots. Only one player can get off the island, and so winning will require getting others to sacrifice themselves, or you to sacrifice others. The choice, we hope, will be one that drives the game.

Other Things!

We're busily at work on the game, but there's more Kickstarter stuff to come, including more detail on the physical rewards, and another gameplay video showing features such as placing traps, luring AI into traps, and using the environment to your advantage.

If you'd like to join in further discussions about this stuff please head over to the forum on the main Big Robot site, where we're already knee deep in Sir char. It's also not a bad idea to follow Jim and Tom on Twitter (if you're into that sort of thing) for general development chat.

Thanks, everyone. Here's to the next three weeks.

 

[Corto]

That zero sum multiplayer mode needs to happen. It needs.

 

[clockpunk]

Fantastic news.

Add in plenty of gun designs, some degree of character customisation (perks and costume), and a good deal of variety in foodstuffs, and this could be the only game I'd playfor a good long time!

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

That zero sum multiplayer mode needs to happen. It needs.

yup.

 

[Gbraga]

The music convinced me, let's go.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #7 A New Video And That Tee Design

Hello, everyone! This will be a busy week as we head into the final half of our Kickstarter. As you'll already have seen, we're now over 164% funded, with a couple of key stretch goals unlocked, but we want to keep going. There's so much we can do with this game, with your help.

Material Things

Apologies for the delay on this latest update, we were hoping to be able to show you all the physicals rewards for the Talisman tier and below last week, but we're still waiting on the sample tee and the Robot portrait poster, which we should get later this week.

In the meantime, here is the design for the tweedpunk tee: a fine tweed waiscoat for the discerning gamer. We'll show you the physical garment in a later update, along with the poster and the talismans (which are being handmade right now, and look fantastically cute/weird.)

We won't be making these again after the KS, so they'll be quite the rare item when Sir is a legendary classic...

Video Things

As promised, we've put together some more video of action from the prototype. This sequence, narrated by James, shows off some of the more stealthy behaviours in the game, with traps and noise-based distractions as part of a gameplay scene.

Please keep in mind that this is quite early, and so a good deal of what you see here - animations being the most obvious - remains placeholder. It nevertheless conveys the sort of mechanisms of the game as we see them, and should give you some idea of the range of tactics that we're expect players to be able to implement.

http://youtu.be/OJJS-dt-nNs
[PLEASE WATCH IN HD!]

Please tweet, Facebook, and otherwise circulate our videos. It really helps to get awareness out there.

Here's to that next stretch goal!

More soon.

 

[ZoddGutts]

Looking good. Should hit 70k soon. Leaving 80k left for multi.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #8 - £70k! Can You Help Us Reach 4000 Backers?

Splendid Stretch Goal Victory!

We hit £70,000 last night, which means rider NPCs will be unlocked. To answer the most common questions on this:

- Yes, the horses will be robotic.

- These will be "fox hunt" style riders, with red coats and hunting horns.

- Yes, that will make it even more challenging to play.

Can We Take This Further?

We've had loads of great coverage so far, with the Sir Kickstarter being featured in The Guardian, on RPS, over at Polygon, at Game Informer, on Joystiq, and on PC Gamer, but we know that's only a small part of the battle. The most important thing to a project like this, and to a company like Big Robot, is word of mouth. If you've backed us then we need you to tell people. So please, please tell your friends, tell your mother, tell anyone who might be interested in seeing an interesting new game come into full bloom. Please get the word out any way you can. Tweet, put us on Facebook, and circulate our alpha videos. If you've backed us already then you're probably going to want to see this Kickstarter enable us to make the best game possible: that's all we want to do.

Please help us get to 4000 backers by putting the word out.

And thankyou, profoundly, to everyone who has already backed us. It's an amazing feeling.

More news - include reward stuff and new tiers - coming later in the week!

 

[Dakota47]

Update #9 - Physical Manifestations, Exciting New Final Week Tiers

Materialisation

As we'd mentioned earlier in the week, we wanted to detail some of the physical rewards and we now have produced samples of everything from the £100 tier to show you.

On the left we have our poster. This comes in A2 format, and looks rather fetching. A bit of detail from the printed poster:

In the middle are our talismans. These sinister/cute handmade ragdolls appear in the game (for everyone, not just £100 edition!) and act as buffs or power-ups, slightly altering your stats. We can't be sure that they have the same stat changes in the real world, of course... Here they are in full:

And on the right we have our tee. Here's that design again:

Detail from the sleeve:

Hooray!

New Reward Tiers

Due to popular demand, we have made the tee and soundtrack available at lower tier reward prices. For £25 you can get the soundtrack as a digital download with your copy of the game, and for £40 you can get the tee, inclusive of shipping. (£40 also gives you early access when we run the beta test next year.)

We understand this changes the perceived value of our £60 and £75 pledges, but we hope that some of you will still want the previous tier rewards (early beta access and your name in the game) that these higher tiers come with. We believe these two new lower tiers better reflect the kind of rewards people were hoping for from this Kickstarter.

Thankyou, however much you have backed us with. We love every last one of you.

 

[Dakota47]

Jim just published An Essay About 'Sir, You're Being Hunted' on RPS. Brew up some tea and take the time to read this. If you haven't pledged already, you will after you've finished this essay.

 

[Dakota47]

Sir, you're gonna get multiplayer. The Kickstarter just passed the 80K mark. Update #10:

We've unlocked multiplayer with £80,000, with just over four days left on the clock!

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ALL: Multiplayer will NOT ship with the initial release of the game. We stated this in the original stretch goal text, but we wanted to be extra clear: multiplayer will be an add-on that will come after we've finished the main game. Single-player is the focus for this project, and multiplayer will be free to all backers at a later date.

And so the next, and presumably actual final stretch goal. We're going to be ambitious with this last one, because, well, why not?

Final, Final (Probably) Stretch Goal: Character Customisation at £100,000

We're looking to add something pretty huge to both single and multiplayer aspects. If we do this, it will be a bonus for all players. Can it be done? (Yes!)

Character Customisation

This is something that will benefit both the single-player game and the multi-player expansion to come. Right now we're planning a standard player avatar for multiplayer, and we hadn't anticipated any character creation for single-player. What we'd like to do, however, is to add character creation and customisation to the whole game, so that the avatar you create can appear in both your solo experience, and in whatever you do online.

What this means is a character creation screen where you can name your avatar, customise their appearance – moustaches, tweeds, boots, monocles, and other accessories – so that you have a unique character in the game world.

Furthermore you'll be able to choose a number of “talents” that will have an affect in both the single and multi-player game. These will allow you to push your specialisation towards a particular direction: perhaps increasingly your constitution for a vitality bonus, or pushing up your stealth ability with the appropriate selection.

These won't be “classes” or anything like that, but more like a couple of abilities from something like a talent tree. Small bonuses that push your advantages this way or that. This doesn't mean we're looking at other RPG elements – the game will still be about your skill and what you find in the world. It just allows you a little more depth in focusing how you want to play the game.

But there's more! This feature will allow us to add an optional (turn it off if you don't want to use it) third-person view. The game is still first-person, don't worry! We're just adding another option, which we hope will bring another layer of depth to the single-player game, and should help with stealth activities, as well as letting you see the character you have put together. We only have just over four days to unlock this final goal.

Let's make it happen!

 

[ZoddGutts]

Hope it gets close to 100k for the final stretch goal.

 

[Dakota47]

Hope it gets close to 100k for the final stretch goal.

Yeah, especially in combination with multiplayer customization it is pretty damn awesome.

 

[El Sloth]

Hadn't heard of this game previously. The multiplayer sounds excellent.

 

[Corto]

YAYYYYYYY. Multiplayer! Go, go customization. We can do this!

 

[Corto]

So, funded and then some. Such a pity that customization wasn't achieved but the guys are really good sports and will be adding some limited aspects of customization in single player as well as in the multiplayer game. Still surprised that this game didn't get much traction here, it deserved more hype. Alas.

 

[trinest]

This concept slightly reminds me of Miasmata, what is with all these types of games just appearing?

 

[Orayn]

This concept slightly reminds me of Miasmata, what is with all these types of games just appearing?

They're appearing through processes where publishers don't shoot down the idea because it "won't find a commercial audience."

 

[Dakota47]

Update #14 Happy Holidays, Sir's Work Progresses

Hello, everyone!

Just a brief update to say that we'll probably be fairly quiet until the new year. We're sorting out physical rewards for all the higher tier backers, and also getting on with putting the game together. Progress has been amazing, and our new animation is simply breath-taking. We can't wait to show you once it's all plumbed in!

Tom has also continued working on the world, and we have a functioning "day to night" cycle working. Here's a video (speeded up a bit, of course):

http://youtu.be/ahq-aMiRrEo

We've also started an official studio Twitter, so those of you who want to listen in on our pr ogress won't have to suffer Jim or Tom's incidental twitter witterings. We'll start regular bulletins from there and the blog in the new year, but we'll still keep you apprised of anything important via Kickstarter itself.

Thanks, everyone! And have a warm and cheery holiday season.

-BR

 

[clockpunk]

I'm glad the team plan on adding some degree of character customisations/skill tree system, despite not quite meeting the final added stretch goal.

Personally, I think that should have been the tier before multiplayer, given the rammifications it could have for singleplayer... but at last we are getting something.

My only disappointment is lack of standard building interiors... but this was raised and addressed by the team, who have since planned to make some buildings enterable. It would have been nice to have a few standardard 'but n ben' designs with a few randomised features, within which to hide (with chances for hunting parties to peer in through the windows), but alas...

Either way, next year is shaping up great for independent titles - looking forward to this, Maia, Godus, and War for the Overworld, more than any triple-A title currently announced.

 

[EVOL 100%]

Oh man, how did I miss this? Sounds brilliant.

 

[clockpunk]

Oh man, how did I miss this? Sounds brilliant.

I believe they are still taking 'advance orders' through Paypal (with the extra funds raised counting towards meeting the final stretch goal) - if you would be intetrested in any of the reward tiers.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

I believe they are still taking 'advance orders' through Paypal (with the extra funds raised counting towards meeting the final stretch goal) - if you would be intetrested in any of the reward tiers.

Yeah, I did the same thing. Didn't know it existed until I was too late.

 

[EVOL 100%]

I believe they are still taking 'advance orders' through Paypal (with the extra funds raised counting towards meeting the final stretch goal) - if you would be intetrested in any of the reward tiers.

Oh really, that's great. Going to pitch in.

 

[Corto]

update #16 - Hello From February!

Genre breaking news!

Beep bop Beep

Yep, we've decided to scrap the Hunting/Robot aspects of Sir and turn it into a sort of SimVillage tower defence cod management thinger, where hordes of Nimbies try to prevent you erecting wind turbines in the Lower Field! No, wait. Joking. So very joking. We've actually been building blood and tea and robots as usual, and that means it's time for another exciting (albeit somewhat overdue) Sir You Are Being Hunted project progress update!

Head to the update page for some screens and more details on the progress. A build for the backers is coming soon...

 

[Dakota47]

Update #17 Sir, You Are Being Optimised

Another busy fortnight at Big Robot HQ. We've been playtesting – Fleeing! Horror! Feedback! Robot noises! - and we've been optimising. Next up: mechanical dogs.

More here.

 

[Figboy79]

Never heard of this. Looks really cool. I'll keep my eye on it.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #18 The Hounds! The Hounds!

Hello, everyone! How have you been? Fancy a cup of tea? Well, let us put the kettle on and talk to you about the past couple of weeks.

While all the basic systems of the game are now in, we're now refining those and adding the rest of the NPCs. We've recently been able to add working hounds to the game. This is something we've wanted to put in from very early on (it was the second character model we had made after the Hunter) but we've been working on getting the Hunters more or less finished before we created their faithful companions (of death).

Also:

Let's finish with a request for questions: ask us stuff! We'll make the next update all about the answers to your questions.

More here.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #19 - Questions? Answers!

Hello! This update is based on your questions from the comments section from the last update. But before we get to those, we wanted to point to this post on our forums, where designer James Carey addresses a bunch of the concerns about dogs.

That aside, read on for elucidation!

And you can read on here. Biggest news for me: the beta will start early May if all goes well. Huzzah!

 

[FloatOn]

this is one of my most anticipated games.

so glad to hear multiplayer has been added and that they are well on their way to reaching their final stretch goals.

I truly believe this will be the better experience over the day z standalone despite the smaller scale.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #20 - Big Robot And Sir At Rezzed!

Jim is working on some very important survey stuff at the moment. It seems we ran afoul of Kickstarter using a UK proxy for their payments, which means we got hit for maximum sales tax in the UK (we are VAT registered). Consequently, we're going to need folk to tell us if they are resident outside the EU to claw some of that back. Sales outside Europe won't be valid for the sales tax, but right now we can't show that to the UK government. The additional tax was a huge blow, equivalent to three months of development (sales tax is 20% in the UK), so it's important that we get the taxman the details that prove many of you were purchasing from outside Europe. The survey won't be issued until we're a bit closer to issuing rewards in a few weeks, to minimize hassle for your guys, but it's super important! So we thought you should know.

More here.

 

[gofreak]

Ouch...that's a messy distraction they could do without, I'm sure.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #21 - Fresh Footage Via A New Video Series

Hello!

Jim is putting together a new series of videos to show you what we've been up to.

This first video (below) is an introduction to the series, so it contains some stuff that'll be familiar to backers, but it also shows stuff that you'll never have seen before. You should definitely watch it.

http://youtu.be/2Wi1MKQtTtE

More soon.

The robots sound great. Just a couple of weeks until the beta ....

 

[FloatOn]

nice video. has there been any word on when the actual release is going to be?

 

[Dakota47]

nice video. has there been any word on when the actual release is going to be?

June / July. The beta will be beginning in a couple of weeks.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #22 has arrived with another video, yay!

http://youtu.be/BzY-V7KbuE8

 

[Messofanego]

I can see a lot of potential. I hope there is a way of silencing weapons even if it doesn't make period sense it could be a steampunk thing. Perhaps making the robots have personalities like the agents in Psychonauts where they say funny stuff in British accents where RPS writing can come to shine so you want to be close to them hearing inane things (Riddick, Max Payne, Thief).

 

[shinobi602]

This looks absolutely fantastic.

 

[Kard8p3]

Man, this week I've been dropping loads of cash; backed Starbound, bought Monaco, and I just per-ordered this from Humble; definitely looking forward to this!

 

[Dakota47]

Update #23 Landscapes And Hats

Update time again, and we thought we'd brew your figurative pot of tea by talking about a couple of the new "biomes" we've been building.

When you generate your world in Sir, you get to choose the makeup of the five islands in the archipelago, including the type of environmental theme that they exhibit. The one we've shown off at length so far is our core rural theme, which is the biome we used to develop the technology. This is based on British farmlands, particularly the Cotswolds, Somerset and Dorset. But there are other peculiarly British terrains too, and these next two biomes are drawn from those.

More here.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #24 Mountain High

This update is a new video, showing the mountain biome and the bleeding effect.

http://youtu.be/3vI0tY51ODI

 

[Dakota47]

There's a lot of playtesting going on for the imminent beta release.

Long evening of playing Sir and pondering. There's going to be a crazy post-mortem to write in a few months time.

I am really looking forward to this.

The balloon went in recently, complete with terrifying searchlight and klaxon. Best thing in the game now.

And for the Brits: the game will be playable at Rezzed this weekend. It would be nice to hear experiences from people who are going.

 

[Dakota47]

Big Robot did a presentation on Rezzed yesterday. You can watch it here.

 

[Dakota47]

Sir, You're Being Hunted was Game of the Show at Rezzed, according to Eurogamer.

 

[BriareosGAF]

I've been wanting to make a similar game for a decade (eg "Most Dangerous Game"), even with a similar English hunting party theme, although a little more focused on hiding. Will be following this.

 

[Jørdan]

English countryside generator, mother of God where do I sign. Looks spiffing, following this like a bloodhound.

 

[Dakota47]

Update #26 is about the Rezzed presentation and the 'best of show' award the game received there, like I posted above.

But it also contains this:

Now though we're focusing on the early access build. This next phases is where everyone in £30+ tiers gets to help us optimise and balance the game. It's a critical part of development for a game like this, where it's impossible for the three of us to be able to test the vast range of possible permutations that its systems will generate. We can't stress how important this period is going to be for the quality an later content phases of the game. Once again, we are going to be relying on your help to push this thing forward.

Can't wait to try it out, especially after watching that Rezzed presentation.

 

[Fletcher]

Pretty excited to play this. Glad I kickstarted it. So the Beta hasn't begun yet? I don't think I pledged enough for the beta, but when is the game coming for the rest of us? Have they said?