About
Take up your sword, channel your magic or board your Mech. Chained Echoes is a 16-bit SNES style RPG set in a fantasy world where dragons are as common as piloted mechanical suits. Follow a group of heroes as they explore a land filled to the brim with charming characters, fantastic landscapes and vicious foes. Can you bring peace to a continent where war has been waged for generations and betrayal lurks around every corner?
Key features
- 20-25 hours of play time
- Fast paced turn-based battles
- No random encounters; enemies can be seen running around
- Tons of items to be looted, stolen or crafted
- Complex skill and equipment system
- Customize your own airship
- Travel and fight by foot or in your Mech
- 16-bit SNES style graphics
- Music inspired by PSX RPGs
Chained Echoes combines the simplicity of classic games with modern gameplay to bring an epic and fast-paced adventure to PC, Mac and Linux in a little over 2 years. A Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 version will be simultaneously released if the corresponding stretch goal is reached (in this case you will be able to switch the platform of your digital copy to Switch or PS4 after the campaign's end). Please keep in mind that even if the stretch goal is not reached, a Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 port might come at a later point in time .
The game will be English only. Further languages will be available through stretchgoals, with German coming a little earlier than the others (it is easier to handle because I'm from Germany).
A little sneak peek:
More stretch goal details will be revealed throughout the campaign.
Chained Echoes is a story-driven game where a group of heroes travel around the vast continent of Valandis to bring an end to the war between its three kingdoms. In the course of their journey, they will travel through a wide array of diverse landscapes spanning from wind-tanned plateaus and exotic archipelagos to sunken cities and forgotten dungeons.
Discoveries to be made around every corner: Take your time to discover a world brimming with surprises. Expect to find concealed locations, such as caves behind waterfalls where mad hermits have made their homes, as well as sewers filled with hungry krakens, hidden villages built inside of crashed airships or even a dungeon found in the belly of a giant sandworm.
Methods of traversal: Your heroes can run, climb, swim and even board a Mech in order to find loot-filled treasure chests and monsters that are ready to drop rare crafting materials.
Battles take place in a fast paced turn-based battle system. There are no random encounters in Chained Echoes. You can see your foe on the map and fight it exactly at the place where you engage it. There is no separate battle screen. Everything is fluid and on point.
No random encounters: No separate battle screen means that every battle takes place in a unique area. The player can take advantage of that environment. See that chandelier hanging above the enemies? Cut the rope and let it come crashing down on them.
Depth built on simplicity: The battles are built on systems that are easy to learn but require strategic thinking to master. In a unique tag team system, your characters can switch other allies into battle in order to trigger certain skills, obtain overdrive bonuses and access a wider array of abilities. Every action you and your enemies take moves the party’s position on the overdrive bar. Your effectiveness in battle depends on this position and under certain conditions even allows the use of special attacks. But moving too far on that bar will have dramatic consequences for you and your party.
Everything a RPG lover’s heart wishes for: find treasure chests, defeat strong enemies, buy equipment, pimp it or craft it anew, gather, take on side quests, analyze your stats and learn new skills. Being a proper RPG, you will find all the features you would expect and more.
Your second skin: Expand the possibilities of your traversal. No river, plateau or canyon shall hinder your thirst for exploration. Board your mechs to reach isolated places. Equip them with a wide arsenal of mechanical parts and weapons and set one of your characters as the pilot to fight against bigger foes up in the sky.
Take it even higher: In the course of the game, you will get your very own airship. Explore the continent of Valandis and the seas around it on a classic JRPG styled world map. Similar to your mech, you can equip it with powerful upgrades, assign your characters (depending on their skill) to positions like the bridge, machine room and more, all to fight against your enemy’s armies in massive battles across the skies.
The continent of Valandis and its three kingdoms are just recovering from a war that had lasted for over a century. The land is devastated, towns lie in ruins, monsters roam throughout the night and noblemen who have lost their lands and ranks organize themselves in bandit groups. In spite of all this, after a war that had lasted for generations, this is the first time the people of Valandis can finally experience peace. For this reason, on the second anniversary of the peace treaty, the southern Kingdom of Fonset is holding the biggest festival the land has seen in a long time. The streets are full of colorful food and loud music. People are dancing and laughing. Lords and ladies from all over the continent are invited to an extravagant banquet inside the castle.
On that commemorative night, our group of heroes are also present at this event, each member with a different agenda. There is Victor, a world-renowned celebrity known for writing the most enchanting stage plays. He had been invited as a guest of honor. We have Sienna, a con artist who tries to take advantage of all the wealth streaming into the city. In attendance is the Princess Lenne, who fled her country in search of a special place and ended up - after a series of coincidences - as one of the palace guards, without anyone knowing her true identity. Always at her side is Robb, her bodyguard and childhood friend. And lastly, there is Glenn and Kylian, former mercenaries on a secret mission to infiltrate the palace.
But things do not go according to plan for anyone on this fateful night; the festival is hit by a disaster, which leads to a chain of unforeseen events. In the end, it causes a new war that is much worse than anything previously seen, surrounding a newly discovered weapon of mass destruction. Our group of heroes are swept into this maelstrom and find themselves on a new mission:
To stop the war and destroy this devastating, god-made weapon, the Grand Grimoire.
The PSX inspired music for Chained Echoes is written by the talented Eddie Marianukroh. Listen to a selection of released songs from the game’s original soundtrack on his Soundcloud.
You will be credited as a backer in the game’s credits (5€ tier): Thanks to you, this game can become a reality. Therefore, you will be credited in a “Special Thanks” section in the credits. Yes, your name in a video game! Depending on the tier, you will receive a Chained Echoes lore-based title.
Digital copy of the game (17€ tier): Get a copy of the game for either PC, Mac or Linux. Steam or DRM-free. If the Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 goals are reached, you will be able to choose them as well.
Digital game manual (17€ tier): Receive a retro style digital manual with useful information. It will also feature some game art, making it a light version of an artbook.
Beta-Access (25€ tier): Before releasing the game, we will enter the beta phase. With this reward, you will be able to experience the game sooner than other players!
Digital copy of the soundtrack (40€ tier): You want to listen to Chained Echoes’ beautiful music outside of the game? This reward allows you to download the game’s full soundtrack.
Digital copy of the artbook (40€ tier): Do you like the game’s artwork? With this reward, you can look at a lot of the game’s art, containing over 50 pages of content.
Alpha-Access (60€ tier): With this reward, you will be amongst one of the first to be able to play the game with the opportunity to give valuable feedback that can influence the final game!
Limited physical artbook (100€ tier): Is a digital artbook not enough for you? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with this LIMITED hardcover artbook, which contains artwork not seen anywhere else, all printed on high quality paper with at least 50 pages of content.
Stickers (100€ tier): Get 5 random game stickers of your favorite characters and monsters with a chance to obtain a Rare or even Legendary Sticker.
Postcard (100€ tier): Receive three neat postcards with an artwork of Chained Echoes.
Your name and a quote will be engraved somewhere in Valandis (150€ tier): You have the honor of having your name engraved in a special place in Valandis. Together with a quote of your choice.
You will be credited as "World Builder" (150€ tier): Being a backer of the designer tier will get you credited in a special designer section of the game’s credits. Since those tiers are limited, you will get even more exposure inside the game’s credits.
Design a monster/boss/NPC/mech/airship/quest (250€+ tier): If you would love to add an idea to Chained Echoes, you can choose one of the designer tiers.
Currently, most basic systems for Chained Echoes are implemented. The most complex systems that still need to be done are the main menu and the mech and sky battles (the last two are based almost completely on the normal battle system but with some tweaks that make them play out differently).
After this, it's time to fill the game with content. The game is currently scheduled to be released in September 2021. Check out the road map below for an overview.
Chained Echoes has been in development for around 2 1/2 years now, with me working on this game in the evenings after my day job. Making a game of this scale needs a lot of preparations. Before starting the crowdfunding campaign, I wanted to have all the things that made exact time management difficult coded first. Now in 2019, I’m at a point where most of the basic systems are finished and I can schedule things exactly. I know my goal. And I can assess what I need to get there.
Since this is a classic RPG where exploration and cutscenes are vital parts of the experience, a LOT of assets need to be created. The funds are needed so that I’m able to concentrate on producing this content for the next 2 years, pay licenses and other things I list in the budget breakdown graphic below. It is also needed for Eddie to produce an awesome soundtrack. In this campaign, I’m not only asking for your money, but also for your support, in order to create a game that we all can appreciate.
Just one year ago I started my social media presence on Twitter and since then both my personal account and the game's channel have grown significantly. Thanks to that, I got to know a lot of nice people, which I’m really grateful for! You can join us either on Twitter or in our Discord channel, too.
If you have any kind of feedback or just want to say hello, feel free to send me a message on any of those channels!
(psst, you can also follow my private twitter account here: https://twitter.com/arkheiral )
You can customize your reward tier by adding the above items to your rewards.
More add-ons will be available throughout the campaign.
Shipping costs: If you choose a physical add-on you need to add shipping costs to your pledge:
If the hardcover artbook is one of your add-ons the shipping costs are: 20€ worldwide, 10€ EU, 5€ Germany.
If the hardcover artbook is not one of your add-ons the shipping costs are: 10€ worldwide, 5€ EU, 3€ Germany.
If you have already paid for shipping through your pledge tier, you don't need to add any shipping costs.
How to: In order to get an add-on, you don't need to change your reward tier. Instead you need to raise your pledge amount by the cost of the add-on (e.g. add 15€ to get the additional game copy). Every tier above the "Thank you" tier is allowed to get add-ons.
Follow the steps below to raise your pledge amount:
Step 1: Click “Manage your pledge” on Kickstarter's main page.
Step 2: Click “Change your pledge” next.
Step 3: Enter your new pledge amount and click on "Continue."
Step 4: Confirm your changes by clicking the "Confirm" button.
After the campaign, you will be able to specify what add-ons the money should be used for (e.g., if you raised your pledge by 15€, you can choose for an additional game copy).
You can also get two additional copies, if you like. You just need to raise your pledge by 30€.
Risks and challenges
Working as an indie developer always comes with some risks like misjudging the scope and budget of a game. But I used the last few years to improve my work routine, to calculate exactly how long I need for any kind of content and to finish all the systems that would make planning hard. I used the last 2 ½ years not only to develop the game but also to plan on how to handle the risks and how to get the right balance between polishing features and getting them finished. I learned what I’m capable of and when I need to get the help of others.
Of course, sometimes things will go a little different than planned. But I'll try to make sure that this only happens on a smaller scale. And most importantly: I will be as transparent with you as I have been in the past and keep you all updated throughout the development.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterQuestions about this project? Check out the FAQ
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