About
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Thanks to all of your generous support, we are happy to say that Blood Nor Water will become a reality!
There are a few dreams that we thought might be too much to ask for, but now that we're funded we are showing you what could be in store if we get a lot more support in the last few minutes!
We've budgeted carefully and we know we can make these goals happen if we get enough support. Can we make it? Maybe!
Current Planned Platforms:
PC, Mac OS, Linux, and Nintendo Switch
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Any Kickstarter project comes with risk, but we didn't feel like we could ask for your help without doing our part first. We wanted to put in the work first, to show you we believed in our own project.
We are focusing on the Pc/Mac/Linux releases first, and a Switch version will come afterward to give us more time to refine the controls.
The game is nearly feature-complete, and people have played it at places like DreamHack Austin, and Juegos Rancheros. This lets us test and get feedback early, so we can tighten up the controls and make it feel really great to play.
Of course, we still have a lot of work to do. The rest of the game world needs to be built, we need to commission music to enhance that world, add more hidden areas, create all of the equipment and commands, and add more characters. There's a lot of work left, but we know we can get it done.
Our game is currently running smoothly on several platforms. We are going to bring this game to as many platforms as possible, but our main focus right now is PC, Mac OS, Linux and Nintendo Switch.
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Real-Time with Turns: A hybrid between real-time and turn-based.
- Control a Team of 4+: Deploy a team of your favorite characters.
- Rest In Peace: Units that die in battle don't come back.
- Commands: Play commands to change the tide of battle.
- Multiple Factions: Enemy factions will attack one another.
- Unit Supports: Close friends are stronger while near each other.
- Customizable Equipment: Total freedom in building a unit.
- Character Interactions: Characters talk and develop relationships.
- Hidden Locations: Find hidden areas with rare items and lore.
- Branching Story: The story branches depending on your choices.
- Primarily Single-player: Single-player story-driven campaign.
- Multi-player: Player versus player online matches. (Stretch Goal)
It breaks our heart when we hear, "Strategy just isn't for me." And we hear that a lot. So many of our friends just don't want anything to do with the genre, and I don't completely blame them. Strategy, whether real-time or turn-based can be pretty intimidating when you first see it.
The real-time strategy genre generally requires high actions per minute, understanding of build orders and resource management, with strategy often taking a backseat until the basics are mastered. StarCraft is one of our favorite games ever, and it handles this pretty well. But even StarCraft can still be pretty daunting for new players. Many real-time strategy games are outright overwhelming.
Turn-based strategy has a different problem. It can take an incredibly long time just to complete one turn. Moving each unit one by one, changing around items, and choosing attacks. It can take a massive all-out battle and make it feel sluggish and tedious.
We believe that the genre can be better. We've seen a lot of genres evolve rapidly over the last few years. Platformers feel more fluid and responsive than ever, and puzzle games keep outdoing themselves with unique new mechanics. But strategy games don't come out very often, and even though we've made some major strides, we think we could do more too.
We want a game with a focus on strategy, instead of memorizing build orders or clicking and typing quickly. And, we want a game that feels fluid to play.
Gameplay is everything, and that's why it's the main pillar and focus of our development. Gameplay is the foundation on which games are built. And for strategy games, this might even be truer than other genres.
We're trying to make a game that feels clean, fluid, and easy to pick up. Throughout our design process, we've asked ourselves where we were annoyed with some of our own favorite games, and tried solutions and then tested to see if it worked. We've tried a lot of things, and thrown away most of them.
Right now, it feels great. Click once, and a unit will find the fastest way to that point. Hold the mouse down for a bit longer, and all nearby units move as a group. Once you've given your orders, start the turn and watch combat play out in real time.
This process is ongoing, and we will be listening to your feedback during the Kickstarter and beyond. We want to make this feel just as amazing to play, as it feels to have those breakthrough strategy moments.
Tarot cards will be designed for each playable character, which describes who they are as a person and tells a part of their story. These cards can be collected by helping those characters to grow and overcome one of their weaknesses.
These cards will be able to be played within a small radius of where that character is standing, for powerful and thematic abilities.
We believe we can tell some beautiful stories through these cards, while also providing fun options for in-depth strategy.
Strategy games are all about making tough decisions that can be, and often are, life and death. Knowing and caring about those who are fighting for you changes the way we look at and think about strategy.
Meaningful and relatable characters are our second pillar. When war breaks out in her homeland, a young noblewoman named Eira joins the fight in search of her sister Leora, a great knight who Eira looks up to. She and her half-brother Amnon are followed by soldiers of their house like old veteran Nyla and the mage Dara and will be joined by many others as war takes them across the hills, forests and plains of their homeland.Games like Fire Emblem and Valkyria Chronicles have demonstrated the potential of strong characters. The challenges they soldiers of your army face together serve as a backdrop that helps you to understand their personalities, and how they change in the face of adversity.
In those games, if a character dies they're gone for good, and our game is no different. When beloved characters die permanently, it adds real stakes to both your gameplay and the struggles of your characters, and we believe it will be the best way to tell an emotionally impactful story.
It's important for us to have different characters that represent as many different people as possible. From different walks of life, different experiences, and places from throughout the world. Having a character that each of us can relate to in some way helps build a stronger connection to the game. Each and every difference between our characters is an opportunity for sharing, learning, and growth. But differences can lead to conflict as well. Racism, sexism, and class divides are all going to contribute to our narrative in a way that will allow for these moments of character growth.
We have only experienced so much in our own personal lives, so we're reaching out to those who have experienced firsthand challenges we could never understand. We want to faithfully represent as many different people as we can, to bring as much life into our characters as possible. It's very exciting for us!
Characters will have their own story arcs and can build and develop relationships with one another. We're putting a focus on making sure each character has a distinct voice and showing that voice through their actions.
At the Heart of Blood Nor Water, is gameplay driven storytelling. And the backbone of a strong story, we believe, is a living, complex world. This is why the beautiful land of Altessa is our third pillar.
Altessa, a land of rugged highlands, thick forests, and wide plains, and tall, resilient people, is now a country worn by tragedy. Famine and plague stalk at its core, and with the king claimed by the disease, the regions turn against each other and the threat of foreign invasion looms. We want to make this world feel like it's lived in and real, and we want our maps to feel like more than just set-pieces, so we hope to scatter little stories across our maps telling you of the world our characters live in. With careful exploration, we hope you will find these little stories tucked into little pockets of the world, and learn from them more of the peoples and histories each region you’re in, and how they make their lives in these times.
Character art for a many of our characters was done by the very talented Ssensenh.
We have a strong vision for what we want to create, and we want to ensure we can fulfill that vision. Kickstarter allows us to make the game we want to make, and bring all of you along for the ride.
Not only that, but we want your help. Kickstarter is amazing at building communities, and we know that to make the game as great as we hope to, we'll need your input. This is why every Kickstarter backer is given the ability to participate in our forum polls and help shape the development of the game!
This is our cost breakdown, which we figured by putting all of our expected remaining expenses together. This is where funds will be distributed after funds are used to deliver all of your backer rewards.
"Development" will cover paying our living expenses so we can focus fully on developing great content that we hope you'll love. it will also cover some equipment as well so that we can work more efficiently.
Risks and challenges
The game is already built and working, so the majority of our risks relate to either backer reward distribution or unfinished content.
There is a small risk that some of the companies we quoted for our collectibles and merchandise either stop offering those services or change their prices. In this event, we will do everything we can to find an alternative provider and still get the products delivered. One of our developers has a long history working in a sign shop and has a long business history with several different clothing and printing companies.
Another risk is the Nintendo Switch release, as for whether or not our game makes it onto the Nintendo e-shop is ultimately up to Nintendo. However, we believe because of the quality of the game and Nintendo's friendly disposition towards indie developers, that this is a minor risk.
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Funding period
- (30 days)