Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous - Kickstarter Update

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The November Kickstarter news for the C64-RPG Unknown Realm: The Siege Perilous (Chris Huelsbeck has agreed to do the full soundtrack for Unknown Realm!):

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Unknown Realm November Update

Greetings from the Stirring Dragon Lair!

It's been awhile since our last update and we know at least some of you have been craving an update about Unknown Realm! We had hoped to post this sooner, but there were a number of details that we needed to finalize before sharing some of the news items in this update. It's been an interesting few months with a lot of ups and downs. We're pretty much in full crunch mode around here, so if you don't see us, it's only because we're focusing our efforts where they're most productive to making this game a reality.

State of the Realm
Production on the game has been going strong. Here are some highlights about our progress and some of the challenges we've been facing as we work to bring you Unknown Realm.

Music news
Music development for Unknown Realm has its own set of unique challenges, partly because nothing quite like this hybrid in-game soundtrack has been done before. For every track in the game, we have to have multiple arrangements of each song to accommodate the PC and C64 versions of the game as well as the final soundtrack version. Working with outside contractors adds a new layer of complications including tool support, documentation and communication that takes a lot of extra time. The development on the music has been slower than we planned, but we're making good progress. One member of the Unknown Realm backer community has stepped up in a big way by writing a tool to streamline the music conversion process. This was a huge help! It's so cool to have the support of backers who are passionate about the project and want to be part of the effort to bring this game to life.

And here's some really great news: Despite the fact that we did not quite make our soundtrack stretch goal during our campaign, we're excited to tell you that Chris Huelsbeck has agreed to do the full soundtrack for Unknown Realm! We're working with Chris to make a one-of-a-kind soundtrack that will be a treat for both Chris Huelsbeck and RPG fans alike. This sound track will feature 8-bit chiptune versions of songs found in the game, as well as their modern arrangements.

Backer Content
Over the last few months, we've been chasing down all of our in-game content from backers. After many reminder emails, we're still waiting on some backers...If you pledged for a reward that includes in-game content like a mercenary NPC or Tombstone and have not replied to your survey yet, pretty please, check your email and look for the survey from Stirring Dragon Games. Even though it's a little extra work on our end, it's been a lot of fun to have backers participate in creating in-game content, especially for NPCs in the game. We love hearing the ideas our backers come up with and we're taking a lot of care to fit these ideas into the game world in a way that is respectful of the story and hopefully exciting for players to discover.

Bestiary Art
Our pen & ink artist had a lot going on this summer but he's back to work now creating the last few illustrations for the 64 (yes, 64!) monsters that will be in the game. It's been two and a half years since we started creating this bestiary with him and we're excited to see this part of the project near completion.

Speaking of bestiary illustrations, here is one of our backer-designed monsters, called a Tigoth, which was designed as part of the "Create-a-Monster" reward on Megafounder. The Tigoth is a large, nocturnal, saber-toothed cat with a long, whip-like tail ending in a sharp blade of hardened bone.

Each monster illustration and their description can also be viewed in the in-game bestiary, which brings us to the Frontend (main menu) of Unknown Realm...

Frontend Sneak Peek
No respectable RPG should be without a nice frontend presentation and an authentically 8-bit RPG like Unknown Realm is no exception. Every element of this game, from our feelies to our user-interfaces has been carefully designed to keep your imagination immersed in the game from the moment you start it up. From the beginning we put a significant effort into designing a fun, interactive, and most importantly, immersive frontend filled with various things for you to explore. It's chalk full of so much content and music that you may get lost in it for hours.

Here is a sneak peek of one of the features you will find in our frontend, the "Pixel-Ink" in-game bestiary that mirrors the beautifully illustrated pen & ink art of our physical bestiary book...

Game Production Status
At this point, we still have some outstanding assets that need to be created and integrated into the game including music and some portraits. If all goes well, we'll be on track for the game to hit an Alpha state in December. We are looking into finding one additional pixel artist to help out. If you are a pixel artist and interested in working with us, please contact us via email.

There are a lot of other details we want to share with you about this journey, but in the interest of saving time, we're reserving a lot of those for the Making-Of book. Rest assured, the book will have a healthy dose of behind the scenes drama - everything from technical challenges, dealing with troublemakers, lessons learned the hard way, unexpected life issues and of course, the hazards of going into business with your spouse. ;-)


The Road Ahead
By this point, you have probably figured out that our release plans need to change somewhat from our initial estimated delivery dates and schedule. What we originally hoped to do was release the physical and digital editions concurrently. However, because of the nature of the project and the exhaustive testing required to ensure a bug-free game on cartridge, we're shifting our focus slightly in favor of a conventional digital-first release. This will not be an early access/beta release. Testing of the cartridge version will be going on concurrently with the digital release. Since we cannot patch or re-flash the cartridge once it's shipped, the digital release will give us one last opportunity to weed out any missed bugs or potential balance issues before we finalize the cartridge ROM. It's an extra precaution we feel we need to take to get this project right.

Our current plan is to release the game digitally in Spring 2018 and we anticipate shipping out physical rewards a few months after that. We considered trying to ship PC physical rewards separately to align with the digital release, but due to the high number of rewards shipping internationally, the freight costs for shipping C64 and PC separately would not be feasible for our budget. This was a really hard choice for us to make because it's not in line with what we originally wanted for this game, but sometimes compromises are necessary to make the product better.

As frustrating as it is to miss our original estimates, it would be so much worse to release a game that wasn't ready to live up to the experience we've promised you. The important thing is that we will continue to put everything we have into developing this game and making it the game we all want to play.

That said, adjusting our schedule isn't all bad, we are taking advantage of the extra time to make your rewards even better than we originally planned. Which brings us to...
Old School RPGs Need Epic Traditional Art

We searched high and low to find an artist who could bring the Unknown Realm cover art to life in a manner worthy of its old school roots and now we're thrilled to announce we are working with one of the best traditional fantasy art painters around to make this happen! Ted Nasmith is a world-renowned illustrator and traditional artist who has created illustrations for projects associated with The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones.

We are so excited to have him paint the Unknown Realm cover art for you guys because his unique style and dedication to the craft of traditional art are perfectly suited to bringing back all of those old school RPG feelings. This cover art will be used across all our digital formats and appear on the physical editions of Unknown Realm. Every backer ($19+) will be receiving a digital wallpaper version of the cover art and we'll have posters available in the future as well.

Final Thoughts
Bringing back the authentic 8-bit RPG experience takes time, persistence and a lot of optimism in the face of tough odds. It wouldn't be possible without you and we're eternally grateful to each of our backers for your support, encouragement, understanding, and patience too!

Special thanks to those of you who've taken the time to comment with your support and understanding: you guys brighten our day and help us push through challenges (and fatigue). :-) We see how much you care about this game being done the right way and it means a lot to us! We've backed close to 50 Kickstarter projects ourselves over the years, so we've been in your shoes and we appreciate your understanding. We're excited to be making this game for you, and we'll keep fighting with all we have to make it worth the wait!

If you ever have questions or want to get in touch, the best way to reach us is directly via email at hello@stirringdragon.games

Until next time!
-Laura & Bruce