Made by 3 ex BioWare guys

Quote: What is The Banner Saga? Short answer: role-playing meets turn-based strategy, wrapped into an adventure mini-series about vikings. Travel through stunning landscapes straight out of an animated film as your party escapes what could be the end of everything. Battle painstakingly hand-animated foes in strategic, turn-based combat. Make decisions with real consequences in conversations with people you'll actually care about. The Banner Saga is a mature game aimed at gamers who appreciate art, story and strategy. Hope you'll join the caravan

Looks fantastic so far, cant wait to see some more.

some screens (from the trailer)



Loving the art style

I really admire the art design

Looks good.

I shall keep my eye on this game.

This looks promising. I've just started playing Braid again and it's making me really appreciate games with interesting art styles

Daaft wrote: I've just started playing Braid again and it's making me really appreciate games with interesting art styles

+1

Looks good!

Art style reminds me of 80s Disney films, which could be very cool. Trailer was poorly written though, even for (ex-)Bioware (employees), which doesn't give me hope for the game's dialogue/story.

Interview with Creative Director Alex Thomas

Combat

Quote: GameSpy: Is your combat more tactical-RPG or traditional, Baldur's-Gate-style RPG? Is this hardcore strategy, or is it a bit more accessible than that? Alex Thomas: We're absolutely going for tactical combat, emphasis on the tactics. Actions are turn-based and the combat feels a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics. One of the things I'm most excited about, however, is the system we've come up with. It's not a major shift from the genre but we've done something that feels fresh and unique. I don't want to pander and say it's "easy to learn, hard to master." We're not going make it impenetrable for new players, but for people who really want strategy in their games, they'll find a lot of depth here.

Conversation, Choice, and Consequence.

Quote: GameSpy: You mention conversations with "real consequences." Can you provide any examples of that? The Witcher 2, for instance, had two entirely different second acts based on a few conversation choices. Is that the sort of choice you're aiming for? Alex Thomas: One of the first things anyone who has worked on a game with "real choices" will tell you is that it's expensive. Just imagine a simple conversation with one branching option -- now you've got to write two outcomes. If it branches again now you've quadrupled your work and you have to track all those new variables. That's just one conversation! Some games deal with this by creating false choices that all loop back to one point but that's still a ton of content to produce. Instead of taking the approach of giving the player a choice for every sentence, we thought it would be more meaningful to only present you with a choice when it's important, similar to The Witcher. In The Banner Saga there is a big, world-changing event going on. Instead of being "The Only Ones Who Can Stop It", you play characters just trying to survive and react as everything changes around them. In this regard, the choices you make affect who lives, who dies, and the relationships between the characters. It's not just about saving the world, it's about what happens to the people you care about, and what's worth saving. We'll be talking a lot more about this as we continue to develop the single-player campaign. GameSpy: You mention that you'd like fans of animated movies and well-written TV series to check out your game. Are you worried at all that complex combat might get in the way of that? Would you ever consider a mode that's pure story, no-combat for people who just want to enjoy the ride? Alex Thomas: Interesting that you would mention this. Unlike a lot of RPGs, we haven't just slapped a conversation system onto a hardcore tactical game. We're designing the single player combat to be affected by how you choose to play the game. For example, someone who doesn't want to struggle through each fight can make decisions outside of combat that will make combat easier but may change the course of their story. A lot of combat can even be avoided completely if that's the player's priority. On the flip side of this, a player who wants combat to be really challenging can make decisions that lead to some tough fights. They'll also be able to join in multiplayer where we expect to find the toughest challenges. One of the great things about working on our own game is that we can design this sort of thing without someone saying we need to pad out the length, or that we need to cater more to one type of crowd or another. The bottom line is if we think it's fun and adds something we can take a risk on it.

I approve this message

Hit their KickStarter goal in two days

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ga?ref=category

Had me at "combat feels a lot like Final Fantasy Tactics"

Count me in!

Quote: We'll rotoscope and ANIMATE YOU, personally, into the game doing an attack or using a special ability so you, too, can look like a badass viking. How many chances will you have to be animated into a 2D game? Backers must be local or able to travel to the Austin/Georgetown area. Afterwards, let's get some lunch. Includes all previous rewards, do we even need to say it at this point? Email us for more info. (2 of 3 remaining)

for $5k 2 of 3 remaining? Jesus...

bump

Quote: A time of reckoning is upon us. All of us at Stoic are proud to announce, after burning the midnight oil for many moons, that beta has ended for The Banner Saga: Factions and soft launch is today! What does that mean? In industry terms, soft launch is a short period in which a game is finished and complete, but released to a limited public. Also, it is a thank you to our generous and wonderful backers to get a head start on the release build of the game. Your progress is being saved this week and carries over for the official launch. There are some special perks available this week only, and every backer has a special green jade stone shown on your combat emblem that is exclusive to backers and early access players that are yours forever. From Feb 18th - Feb 24th Factions will be available exclusively to backers. The current characters, stats and rankings have been wiped for the last time and the game is essentially now LIVE, along with a fully functional tutorial. Later in the week we’ll be holding the first tournament exclusively for backers. Factions will be released to the public on Feb 25th. If you’ve been waiting for beta to end before trying the game, this is your week. With Factions’ launch, we’ve effectively worked out the thick and thin of combat and we’re soon on to travel and conversation outlined in the previous update, and thus, the single player campaign. Consider this the first major milestone on the road to success! WANT TO GET IN FACTIONS BUT HAVEN'T YET? If you haven't been added to beta yet but would like to get involved, you're always welcome. Please head to our forums and create an account using the same email address as your kickstarter account. That's all you need to do, and we'll send out keys and instructions on how to get the client on a regular basis. From all of us here at Stoic, Skal!

So its out now and i had a quick jam on it earlier.
has anyone else managed to get up on there yet?
it only seems to be multiplayer vs and challenge a friend mode at the moment (since this is factions, the multiplayer part).... oh and the marketplace ofcorse.
eitherway, what i played was really cool. nice animations and battle effects on those characters, cant wait to see a bit more, especially the single player stuff later.

zz just what we need another dofus game

Analgia wrote: zz just what we need another dofus game

Thanks for your insightful and informed input.

Dont care for the Factions aspect, but the SP game is something I am excited for.

cryocore wrote: Thanks for your insightful and informed input.

np

eug1404 wrote: Art style reminds me of 80s Disney films, which could be very cool. Trailer was poorly written though, even for (ex-)Bioware (employees), which doesn't give me hope for the game's dialogue/story.

Yeah, Dragon's Lair nostalgia rush for me

So? Anyone tried factions to see whether its actually OK?

I just bought into the beta. Only $5 for two keys.

Kind of pissed off that the are f*cking around with F2P factions when they have a SP game to make.

werewolves? wrote: Kind of pissed off that the are f*cking around with F2P factions when they have a SP game to make.

yeah, im a bit more interested in the single player stuff too

Only heard about this a few days ago and had a go on 'Factions' yesterday.
So disappointed that I didn't know about the kickstarter, would've pledged the shit out of it.

Can't wait for the campaign!!!

bloody good game

HunterKi11er wrote: Only heard about this a few days ago and had a go on 'Factions' yesterday. So disappointed that I didn't know about the kickstarter, would've pledged the shit out of it. Can't wait for the campaign!!!

TBH I backed it and feel a bit scammed, the campaign didn't focus on MP and I didn't back them to make a free-to-play microtransaction game (which seems like has been the focus of the development). The full game will probably be good but it just seems really cheeky.