A 4-player co-op RPG based on the online comic based on RPGs. Looking for Group has come full circle! For PC, Mac and Linux.
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A 4-player co-op RPG based on the online comic based on RPGs. Looking for Group has come full circle! For PC, Mac and Linux.
About this project
Blind Ferret
Hi! We're Blind Ferret and we make comics. You may have heard of Least I Could Do, Looking For Group, Gutters, Something Positive, Hijinks Ensue and The Bear? Well, that's us. On this project we've got:
Ryan Sohmer on writing duty.
Lar deSouza on art direction.
Randal Milholland as a producer and editor.
and Ariadne MacGillivray as everything else.
Paladin Studios
We are Paladin Studios, an indie game developer based in The Netherlands. We create games that make you smile - be it a sweet twinkle, loud laugh, or evil grin. For LFG that will be an evil grin. You may know us from Momonga Pinball Adventures, a pinball game where you join a flying squirrel on an epic adventure to save his tribe.
Well look at you with all the questions! "Looking For Group" or LFG is an award-winning comic available for free online. It is a fantasy based comic that features characters that will seem familiar if you are a fan of role playing games both pen and paper or video game in nature. It updates twice a week, Monday and Thursday. You can click here and flip through the archives to better familiarize yourself with the comic. Go ahead, I'll wait.
It is written by the eccentric Ryan Sohmer and the ursine Lar deSouza.
LFG & The Fork of Truth is a 4-player co-op video game based in the LFG universe. It will be available on the PC, Mac and Linux. You had best believe that we will be porting it to consoles and tablets if certain stretch goals are met! You could play the game solo but I'd be lying if I said it would be as fun. You and your friends get to play the parts of Cale, Richard, Benny and Krunch as you run around Legarion. I know that everyone will want to play as Richard and a few friendship will be lost because of this. We feel like the game will be worth those lost friendships. And you can always get more friends, right?
It is a top-down button masher, a bit like Gauntlet, and will start with 12 playable levels. Each level will be a different area of Legarion. I say 'start with' because, well maybe you should just check the stretch goals at the bottom.
You and your group will burn down villages and cut a swath through farmland! Or you could do fetch quests for farmers and help people with goblins. It's really up to you.
You will interact with familiar faces and visit recognizable places. You will yield legendary weapons from the comic and you'll find some shiny new weapons with which to stab people.
The game takes place between issues 1 and 12 of the comic and will be like a side-story. Some of the those unanswered questions from the comics may just find their answers in the game *winky face*!
Man, enough of this reading. Am I right? Pictures please!
This world is starting to take shape! But what will everyone sound like?
Exciting, right? Just look at these screen caps, aren't you excited as heck to play this game?!
Let's get down to the nitty-gritty.
A very good question. We have produced an exquisite pie-chart to show you how the $600,000 will be used:
Here is a fun interview with Sohmer and Derk for The Jace Hall Show: http://www.jacehallshow.com/news/gaming/preview/20130625/ridiculously-silly-violent-universe-lfg-fork-truth/
We got a fun write-up on Incgamers.com : http://www.incgamers.com/2013/06/looking-for-loot-lfg-web-comic-series-launches-rpg-kickstarter
Another interview with Sohmer, this time for MMORPG.com : http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/7544/Looking-for-Group-Fork-of-Truth-Interview.html
New interview with Sohmer! This one is from Tentonhammer.com: https://www.tentonhammer.com/interviews/ryan-sohmer-on-the-LFG-game
Q: Shut up and take my money! Which level should I choose?
A: If you just want to get your hands on the game, the $25 digital download reward is perfect (or if you’re an early bird you can get it for $20!). There’s also a $50 tier where you get in-game goodies. If you’re looking for a bigger package, you should definitely have a look at the $100 Physical Goodies reward - it’s got a Richard figurine and the digital download. If you’re a really big fan, check out the $175 Collector’s Edition reward - it has a signed boxed version of the game and all the other stuff you get in the lower tiers. There’s other rewards too - go check it out!
Q: What genre is the game?
A: It’s a top-down action RPG, with a focus on 4-player cooperative play.
Q: Which platforms can I play it on?
A: Fork of Truth will initially be available on PC, Mac and Linux. We have stretch goals for ports to other platforms - including consoles and tablets.
Q: Why does Richard sound different from the shorts?
A: Well, he’s the same guy, but in the game he’s not singing. At least not all of the time.
Q: What kind of co-op will it be? Internet? LAN? Couch?
A: For the PC that’s LAN and online. But if we get to do the console ports, it's going to be good old-fashioned couch multiplayer. Just grab the controls and some pizza, and you should be good to go.
Q: Can I also play alone?
A: Yes, but we haven’t made up our minds on how that works yet. It could be a lonely adventure, or perhaps some nifty A.I. teammates or hot-switching between characters. Either way, it’s going to be more fun when you play together. Time to get some friends!
Q: For the NPC level, how important will this NPC be?
A: We’ll give the NPC a good spot in the game - perhaps a questgiver for a sidequest. It depends on the design and name, it has to fit the world somehow. But we’ll come up with something nice :-)
Q: It says that Sohmer has veto rights, but I do want to get my ideas into the game.
A: For all the higher-level rewards (Blacksmith and upward), we will contact you to get your ideas on how you want your weapon / character / tavern etc designed. We will do our best to incorporate it in the LFG world, but we need to keep the final word on what is acceptable and what isn’t. In addition, there might technical limitations that we have to work with. But don’t worry, it’s a collaborative effort and we’ll work it out with you so that everybody’s happy!
We really do.
Risks and challenges
Our first and foremost priority is to deliver a game that does justice to the world of LFG. To us, that means it has to convey the essence of LFG: The heroes, the humour, and the “look and feel” of the LFG world in general.
To find this sweet spot, we can design things that look awesome on paper. But in reality we will need to get our hands dirty and test our hypotheses. So we will prototype the heck out of every little idea, and use playtesting sessions to gather feedback and see if it works.
This explorative approach has the risk of becoming too open-ended. This is why we work with Scrum, a management methodology that allows for rapid iteration and experimentation, while staying focused on results. We will learn and innovate along the way, but we will do so within a rigid framework of sprints, daily standup meetings, reviews and retrospectives. We will keep you posted on our updates, and as a backer you will be able to post feedback and suggestions. We will always take your comments to heart when making decisions.
It is possible that a situation occurs where we reach a dead end or where we need to rewrite parts of the game. If this happens late in the project, we potentially suffer from delays and/or budget issues. We would rather fail early, so we counter this by doing as much testing as possible before we scale up the team and go into production mode. In other words: Only when the core design issues have been solved, and when the storyline and game mechanics are complete, do we ramp up the team and proceed to the production phase. The production phase is also based on Scrum, but with clearly set production milestones that encompass multiple sprints.
The final risk is quality. We will support several platforms from the start, and this makes Quality Assurance an important part of the project. The solution is to involve an external QA team early on in the development process. We also schedule plenty of dedicated QA time at the end of the project, to make sure the game is meeting industry standards.
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Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
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Funding period
- (30 days)