Only a Game

Silk Kickstarter Live!

Silk is an innovative sandbox RPG and adventure game using a lo-fi visual aesthetic and a lightweight interface to deliver endless engaging decisions. Rise into glory by running your caravan from the Roman Empire to war-torn Three Kingdoms China. Defend yourself from bandits, sandstorms, and rebellions by hiring Advisors skilled in everything from battle to wayfinding. Fall in love with your own unique party of Advisors and the enchanting world of the Ancient Silk Road in 200 AD.

 

“The djinn are fighting in the deserts of Takla Makan,” your guide informs you. “We must turn back to Kashgar!” But your head guard looks less convinced... “Forget these foolish superstitions,” she says, “let us upend the wagons — we can shelter from the storm here.” What do you choose?

Kickstarter now live!

Cross-posted from ihobo.com

 

Silk Kickstarter Launches Thursday

After months of hard work from the team, we are now ready to show our new sandbox RPG and adventure game Silk to the world – and to ask for your help in finishing it. We’re excited to announce that on Thursday 28th February, at 7 am GMT, the Silk Kickstarter commences!

This project started out as a tribute to Mike Singleton’s classic game The Lords of Midnight, and the game uses a rendering engine with the same ‘landscaping’ algorithm as Mike’s groundbreaking strategy-adventure. Also like its inspiration, Silk offers many ways to play – as an exploration adventure, a caravan trading sim, or a siege battle game. Another key influence is King of Dragon Pass, specifically the Clan ring, which inspired the Advisor system that forms the centre of the wilderness adventures of Silk.

We are asking for all friends of International Hobo to help us promote the Kickstarter and the game. It’s vital that we hit the ground running on Thursday, as early momentum is the key to success in every crowdfunding campaign. Please retweet and share everything you see about Silk over the next week – and especially on Thursday.

If you want to back us, take advantage of Early Bird offers and get first pick of one of the special rewards on offer, please do so as soon as you can on Thursday. Day One is going to be our most important day – thank you all in advance for all your support!

Check the list below to find the launch time for your part of the world:

• 7 am Thursday 28th February for the United Kingdom
• 8 am Thursday for Europe
• 11 am Thursday for Dubai
• 1 pm Thursday for Mumbai
• 3 pm Thursday for Hong Kong
• 4 pm Thursday for Kyoto
• 6 pm Thursday for Melbourne
• 2 am Thursday for Philadelphia, PA (EST)
• 1 am Thursday for Nashville, TN (CST)
• Midnight Thursday for Billings, MT (MST)
• 11 pm Wednesday 27th February for Laguna Beach, CA (PST)

Cross-posted from ihobo.com

Coming Soon: Silk Kickstarter

Dear friends,
With a stomach-rattling cocktail of excitement and terror, I'm proud to announce our first Kickstarter. Silk, our lo-fi wilderness adventure, is seeking crowdfunding support to get the project over the hump - and we want your help to do it!

Firstly, we are seeking to appoint three Community Nazgûl to help build and maintain links with our fans and backers. If you love getting engaged with gamer communities and want to become an ihobo volunteer, email our Nazgul at ihobo.com address and indicate your primary social media platform (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) and your level of experience with Kickstarter.

Also, we are recruiting alpha testers for the Silk Kickstarter demo. If the game looks interesting to you, you qualify to apply - please email our alpha at ihobo.com address and include a sentence saying why Silk appeals to you.

We expect to launch the Kickstarter in the next month or so - I hope we can count on your support through this new adventure!

And whatever dream you are working towards - just keep going!

Chris.

PS: For updates and further announcements, please join our newsletter!

Cross-posted from ihobo.c0m.

The Persistence - Out Now!

This week, Firesprite’s Playstation VR game The Persistence was released – and to great reviews! It was International Hobo’s pleasure to work on the narrative design, script, and voice recording sessions of the game. This was a significant challenge since the roguelike, procedural elements disrupted conventional storytelling and required careful construction to ensure the story did not get in the way of the game. We also worked closely with Firesprite to tweak the world building in subtle ways that will be invisible to players but which significantly improved the final experience. Firesprite gave us a lot more rope than we expected, and allowed us to create a truly unique story mounted as a two-hander theatrical play set against numbingly recurrent death. If you’re a PSVR player, check it out!

Cross-posted from ihobo.com.

Best of E3: Shadows

At this year’s E3 in Los Angeles, one of International Hobo’s RPG projects received two Best of E3 nominations, one from RPG Fan and one from WorthPlaying. The game, Shadows: Awakening – the latest instalment in the cult Heretic Kingdoms franchise that began in 2004 – is developed by long-time ihobo client Games Farm. Featuring an original narrative design and script by International Hobo’s founder, Chris Bateman, the game features characters voiced by Tom Baker, Sally Knyvette, Robert Ashby, Joanna Wake, Ramon Tikaram, Marc Silk and many other talented actors and actresses.

Due for release later this year by publisher Kalypso, Shadows: Awakening is an action RPG set in a dark sword and sorcery world. The player controls a Devourer, a kind of demon that can swallow the souls of the dead and manifest them as puppets. But who is really pulling the strings? Find out later this year!

Cross-posted from ihobo.com.

Pinky Elephant (Kickstarter)

May I draw your attention to Stephen E. Dinehart's Kickstarter for his extremely cute game Pinky Elephant: Collision of the Colorverse?

The Voices of the Heretic Kingdoms

Over on ihobo today, a piece expressing my joy and adoration for the incredible voice cast of Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms! Definitely worth checking out – but especially if you’re a fan of Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, or Dark Souls. You can read Voices of the Heretic Kingdoms over on ihobo.com now.

Sunset - a new Tale of Tales

I was just bemoaning my total lack of interest (as a player) in the big releases this month, when suddenly my secret wish was granted… I’m delighted to share the announcement of a new Tale of Tales project, Sunset:

Sunset is a first­-person exploration of a single penthouse apartment in a fictional tropical republic suffering under an oppressive regime. Set in the early 1970’s, the player, a housekeeper, visits week­ by­ week and slowly discovers the role of the apartment’s eccentric occupant in the civil war — and her own role in his life — as the city erupts around them.

Check out the Sunset website!

Cross-posted from ihobo.com.

Bolton Students Learn to Slay Dragons

One of the things I was keen to achieve by having one foot in academia and one foot in commercial game development was to give the students at University of Bolton a chance to work on actual projects. This year, I’ve done just that – as this article, Bolton Students Learn to Slay Dragons, confirms.

Cross-posted from ihobo.com.

Kult Post-mortem (2): An RPG Between East and West

In the previous post I shared the story of how Kult’s Heretic Kingdoms setting came about. Today on ihobo, Part (2): An RPG Between East and West looks at the influences on the design and mechanics of the game.