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Thread: Incarnate - Tactics-Style Deckbuilder (WiiU, iOS, Win) (I made this!)

  1. Incarnate - Tactics-Style Deckbuilder (WiiU, iOS, Win) (I made this!)


    (hey there everyone, this can be moved to the general Kickstarter thread if necessary)

    TLDR version: I made a game with some guys from the internet! If you like FFT or M:tG I think you'll like it. I did all the art, and a lot of other things too! Now we need some help to finish it.



    So, for the past year or so I've been working on this game. A few days ago my team's Kickstarter campaign launched, and we're trying to raise money and get in to the second phase of development.

    INCARNATE Kickstarter

    INCARNATE Official Site

    Now, I'm in grad school currently and have been navigating a tumultuous relationship for a couple years, so the sad fact is that I can't get my hands on every aspect of this game. These guys found me on freelanced.com, of all things, and I was more-or-less adopted in to a larger designer role. I say this, because, there are aspects to the feel of the game that need to mature, and are certainly worth criticism...just rest assured I'm working on it. The fundamental design and mechanics are exciting though, and every month we put in to it nets substantial amounts of polish and content.

    To that end, I'm going to tell you guys about the game in my own voice, because I think it has a ton of potential, and some design elements that I think you'll dig. Please check out the Kickstarter and site, of course, because there's a lot of material.

    Custom Character and Deck
    This is a Tactics-style battlefield with a customized character and an ability set based on your deck. By that, I mean the characters are modular, and combine from three parts. How you choose to make your guy determines which cards you'll have access to, like a class, and the more parts you have of a certain character allow you to go deeper in to that class (at the cost of diversity).

    That said, there are many different builds within a unified class, and once you start mixing, it's really flexible, while maintaining some parameters so you need to be creative or specialized.

    There are builds built around sniping, ally control, disruption, combo damage, healing, pet/token generation, hidden information, tank, assassination...pretty much any sort of guy you like to make in an RPG or MOBA type game you can make here...and we only have 4 characters so far (which represents 64 unique combinations, plus whatever deck you want to roll out). The fifth guy adds another factor of options on top of that, and so forth for every character we release.

    Map Transformation and Effect on Tactics
    The battlefield is still getting a substantial visual upgrade, but the mechanics are there. Characters have all sorts of moves that can raise or lower the terrain in various formations, which directly relate to their attacks and abilities. For instance:
    - The Titan class has a move you slam the ground and cause a line of 4 spaces to cave in, and then the 5th space erupts into a 4-tall column (which obviously does the most damage).
    - The Titan also has an ability that slams an enemy in to a wall, where the higher the column, the more damage falls down on to the target (column crumbles down).
    - So, terrain modifications can be set up for myriad and offensive effects, as say in those two examples, you could use the first move to create the column behind your enemy, and then smash through.

    When you start setting things up for teammates or to bait people in FFA, the options get really nutty. Which leads me to:

    Modes
    This has a variety of FFA and team-based competitive multiplayer, with ladders and ranked play and all that.
    There are also co-op modes, Endless Dungeon-style challenges, Boss challenges, and a Story mode (assuming we can get the funding).
    There's loot and crafting and a ton of unlockable content and perks, which pleases me, because I don't really have the time to work out competitive versus builds...oh, but we have a Draft too, which I like because you can just in and choose/work with the cards you're offered.

    Art
    By and large, I've done all the art and designs for the game. There were other artists originally and the team eventually decided to have me do everything. I'm still unifying elements, and there is an alarming amount of design-by-committee that one needs to navigate for a project like this, but I think we found our game 'voice'.

    I linked to this gallery in case you guys were interested for conceptual lead up, and the sort of paint-overs and notes needed when working with a European modeling team : /
    Some of my development Artwork
    Here's a bunch of character and card art for the game! They're uncropped, so composition will look a little iffy, but they're a much better representation than the tiny images Kickstarter lets you put up.
    Card Artwork and Splash Art

    Okay, I think that's an adequate overview. We pretty much went in to this saying...we like Final Fantasy Tactics, and we like Magic the Gathering, and we like unlocking stuff and customizing our little fighter guys...and we think a lot of other people will too. It would be fantastic if you guys wanted to help the Kickstarter with some forum love, but really, I hope the idea gets some hooks in and some of you are legitimately interested. If you're a fan of the genres it's scratching at, I think you'll have fun with it.

    Feedback would be great. The team is a couple of guys with the idea and will to make it happen, myself on art, and a fourth guy doing the coding. There are definite gaps in our skillsets, but we are proactive in finding the talent needed to get tasks done. Of course, with decent funding, we'll add more a few more to the team get our production pipelines really optimized.

    Thanks for reading! I didn't to want muck up TNL with this until it was really rolling, but now I'd really appreciate the forum's perspective.
    Last edited by FuryFox; 08 Nov 2014 at 11:26 PM.

  2. You are a good artist! And the game itself sounds keen. I digs me some Tatical RPG-style action. Good luck with the Kickstarter.

    BTW, I like the design of the one female character (the cybernetic-looking with the big red ponytail and sword). Have any more artwork of that character?
    Last edited by Dolemite; 03 Nov 2014 at 07:29 AM.

  3. The graphics look good but these types of
    games are so easy to screw up.

  4. This looks promising, and as someone who has always loved your art this is an absolute no-brainer for me. In as a Cardbacker, although I wish I had thousands of dollars to help you out! Looked through the first 20 or so images from your development artwork, I love the style and think it would be great to include that stuff as unlockables for a gallery in game (I don't know how many people like looking at concept art in game, but I sure do!) But so long as it's half as fun as FFT and at least as much fun as M:tG, this sounds like it'll be pretty good! Thanks for sharing Fury!

  5. Quote Originally Posted by Dolemite View Post
    BTW, I like the design of the one female character (the cybernetic-looking with the big red ponytail and sword). Have any more artwork of that character?
    Thanks Dol. Funny thing with the game, there aren't any female characters currently (granted, the existing characters are only...roughly defined as male, but that's the assumption). This mostly has to do with the part swapping, and the fact the guys just didn't design around it originally. However, I think female characters are crucial, and especially integral for a game based on character customization. The solution we've ended on is simply female versions of each character, but that requires new models and skins for everything.

    In the meantime, I've been trying to slip women in to the card art as much as possible (just like, random characters or lore fillers). Here's some card sketches I rather like, as example:

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    The graphics look good but these types of
    games are so easy to screw up.


    I agree, and have tournament level card folk (including my brother) set to break the game as much as possible so we verify our balance checks. I'm curious though, do you have some examples of prominent games that came out poorly? I'd like to track their idea-to-output development.

    I remember Hex being a big deal, but haven't heard of it since, I assume it was due to balance, or just plain, not being that fun.

    In as a Cardbacker...how many people like looking at concept art in game, but I sure do...Thanks for sharing Fury!


    Thanks Pineapple! I'd love to have a solid game core, so after it's out there, we can just release more content along the same pipeline...more cards and characters, which is all I really want as a player (and a creator!).

    I'm really not in to all the social media stuff, and in the case of Kickstarter, the constant (but necessary) self promotion and marketing...luckily the other guys are handling that, I find it annoying. However, as part of a series of developer/community events, I'll be doing a live stream art session for an upcoming card or character skin. Later this month, but I'll post a link when it's set in case anyone's interested.

  6. Neat sir! I have zero interest in card games that aren't Blackjack, but I'll give this a go!
    Quote Originally Posted by Razor Ramon View Post
    I don't even the rage I mean )#@($@IU_+FJ$(U#()IRFK)_#
    Quote Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name View Post
    I'm sure whatever Yeller wrote is fascinating!

  7. #7
    Cool!

    Stop that tumultuous relationship already! It isn't worth your time!
    Pete DeBoer's Tie
    There are no rules, only consequences.

  8. Quote Originally Posted by Cowutopia View Post
    Stop that tumultuous relationship already! It isn't worth your time!
    Strangely enough, this comment was the final thing to push me to end it. I told her to look me up when she gets her life together.

    brb shooting self now

  9. So, we've been featured on a variety of gaming sites/blogs, but this interview in particular seemed to capture the sense of the game and what's fun about it.

    http://purenintendo.com/2014/11/14/p...ate-for-wii-u/

    Also, I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys might have, or hearing about any similar projects, good or bad. We'll be posting the female designs of each character this afternoon (well, as soon as I finish them, in any case).

  10. Geez I've always loved how clean and detailed your work is. Love those thumbnails you shared too!

    I would like to back this but money is so super tight as I transition to a new gig. If I miss out I'd still buy it when it becomes openly available!

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