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[Parfait]

That 2 year wait though...

 

[Raging Spaniard]

That 2 year wait though...

You should make a game sometime! They take time.

 

[L00P]

Metroidvania with Valkyrie Profile combat.

Wasn't that what the original Valkyrie Profile basically was?

I mean the dungeons in VP were 2D sidescroller platform-eqsue with multiple rooms, and the unique aspect in that there was doors for foreground and background accessible rooms.

Unless they mean Metroidvania in the specific progression that you slowly unlock additional platforming abilities such as double jump and whatnot.

Valkyrie Profile had one of my favorite combat systems, tying individual buttons to each character and being able to tap them in sequence to form a combo chain.

I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this project.

Yeah I think that's what they're going for based on what they said. Which sounds dope

 

[Ravidrath]

Okay, that's good to hear. The reason why I had asked, is that when I was doing a clean up test for the Skullgirls project, I couldn't submit my test, as the Zero Labs website had closed applications.

Exactly who should I contact, with regards to sending in my design samples, resume, & such?

Just keep an eye on the @Skullgirls and @IndivisibleRPG Twitter accounts. If we're looking for more art contractors, we'll announce it there first.

Oh my, VP combat with Mike Z programmed frames? Yes please (assuming he's on the project).

Of course he is - he's our design director.

Ravidrath, a few questions if you're around:

• Any plans to make this episodic / constantly patched and changed? Or will this product mostly stay as-is once shipped?

I enjoy the idea that Skullgirls gets so much support and growth, but there's also a negative side to that; it often feels daunting to return to the game, when so much shifts about constantly. Not just character balances, but basic building blocks of the gameplay and match flow. Should be expect similar modding and meddling with this game too?

• Any kind of Multiplayer thrown around? Local Co-Op?

It'd be pretty cool to be able to assign characters in your party to another player, and try to sync up attacks. I enjoyed the bit that Child of Light had (with a second player able to control Igniculus), and the idea of being able to share an adventure with a friend is one that's great whenever it occurs (from Multi-player SoM, to the ability to use 2 or more controllers in Final Fantasy VI, Wild Arms, Lunar, and Arc the Lad...)

This will probably stay pretty much the same after it's shipped, although we have some gameplay additions as stretch goals that will likely be handled similarly to post-release DLC.

However, if we're funded, we're going to migrate the prototype to Steam and gradually add new levels to it, so we can get feedback on monsters and party members, etc. without spoiling the story at all.

And we have some multiplayer ideas, but they're most likely going to be some of that post-release "DLC" content.

Metroidvania with Valkyrie Profile combat.

Wasn't that what the original Valkyrie Profile basically was?

I mean the dungeons in VP were 2D sidescroller platform-eqsue with multiple rooms, and the unique aspect in that there was doors for foreground and background accessible rooms.

Unless they mean Metroidvania in the specific progression that you slowly unlock additional platforming abilities such as double jump and whatnot.

Yeah, it's more VP1 w/ new traversal, obstacle-breaking abilities, etc. being gradually introduced. That's where the "Metroidvania" comes in, for the most part, although I think you'll see more exploration, too.

Also no time limit so you can explore and battle as much as you want!

I like it because she is a darker skin lady. As I am black and it is nice to see more characters of different colors.

Expect a lot more of that!

Yeah, I'm in. Sounds like a really exciting mix, and as someone who doesn't really like fighting games I'd love to support them. My one question would be platforms though; I'll back the crowdfunding campaign if they're doing keys for PS4 copies.

PS4, Xbox One, Windows/Mac/Linux to start. So you're covered!

Do you have more words about the setting?

I can probably get into this a bit.

The "core" of the story, etc. was inspired by Southeast Asian mythology and religion, but the entire world is sort of a fantasy version of Earth where lots of different mythologies and their monsters, etc. coexist.

Ajna herself hails from a region that would fit a sort of generalized Burmese / Malaysian / Indonesian sort of vibe, but her quest will take her all over the world.

So, for example, a South American-ish region might have monsters and lore inspired by Aztec, Mayan and Incan mythology.

 

[Just take it with you.]

...and a lush soundtrack from legendary Secret of Mana composer Hiroki Kikuta.

Wait, what?

Cool to see him escape the eroge ghetto.

 

[Crocodile]

So I stumbled onto this! Ajna, the main character's name, is equivalent to third-eye chakra and is the sixth primary chakra according to Hindu tradition.

In the trailer, right after the screen flashes with a close up of Ajna's face, we get below:

..............

 

[Tye The Czar]

Wait, what?

Cool to see him escape the eroge ghetto.

The Eroge ghetto? You saying he worked on Hentai games?

 

[TheChundertaker]

I'll keep an eye on this game for sure.

 

[SolarPowered]

..............

Always with the overthinking. I bet you are speculating she or other characters might have extra limbs ala Hindu Gods.

 

[punkmaggit]

Should be excellent. This is like my dream game.

 

[Grief.exe]

Wat

 

[Ravidrath]

Wat

Guess Brady compressed it as variable framerate, which is why it came up with that.

 

[jb1234]

Wait, what?

Cool to see him escape the eroge ghetto.

Agreed. A lot of my favorite JRPG composers from the 90s and early 00s are stuck working in genres that get zero exposure outside of Japan. Bums me out so I'm happy to see that indies are coming to the rescue.

 

[Odrion]

Wat

the eye can only see in 57 fps anyways

 

[DangerMouse]

Highly interested in this.

 

[Worldshaker]

They have my attention!

 

[TheOGB]

I can probably get into this a bit.

The "core" of the story, etc. was inspired by Southeast Asian mythology and religion, but the entire world is sort of a fantasy version of Earth where lots of different mythologies and their monsters, etc. coexist.

Ajna herself hails from a region that would fit a sort of generalized Burmese / Malaysian / Indonesian sort of vibe, but her quest will take her all over the world.

So, for example, a South American-ish region might have monsters and lore inspired by Aztec, Mayan and Incan mythology.

I didn't think you could sell me more on this but you did

 

[R_thanatos]

Definitely need to see gameplay footage when they put some out. Tentatively interested though.

Same here for me... with more info, i might get hyped.

 

[Shengar]

I can probably get into this a bit.

The "core" of the story, etc. was inspired by Southeast Asian mythology and religion, but the entire world is sort of a fantasy version of Earth where lots of different mythologies and their monsters, etc. coexist.

Ajna herself hails from a region that would fit a sort of generalized Burmese / Malaysian / Indonesian sort of vibe, but her quest will take her all over the world.

So, for example, a South American-ish region might have monsters and lore inspired by Aztec, Mayan and Incan mythology.

You see, I'm quite interested with the setting and her background as a character

Spoiler

since I'm a Southeast Asian myself

So I'm curious where you guys get the necessary material from, since to be honest, they're quite hard to get even for us, the native, since most of our mythology aren't well recorded.

 

[Parfait]

You should make a game sometime! They take time.

??? Of course they do. I don't want them to rush it or something. It's still 2 years, however. That's a long time.

I'll wait it out, though.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

Those spats tho

Dont care I don't play games with only short skirts on the characters. That's why I stopped playing Madden

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

http://scarletmoonproductions.com/artists/

Met one of the guys behind Scarlet Moon Productions, along with Hitoshi Sakimoto at E3 this year. They're all very open to working with indie devs.

Getting more and more easilty available Basiscape greatness would be exemplary (especially given the drying 3rd party dedicated system situation over there).

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Metroidvanias must be pretty popular now huh?

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

While we haven't designed all the party members, fanservice is not going to be a focus in this game.

I don't understand. How was Skullgirls fanservice if it was your first game? I would think you would have to have an established fanbase in order give service to your fans? Were you talking about when y'all were letting fans vote and create characters?

While it not being a focus this time around, I do hope you throw bones to fans of your previous work whether it might be Easter eggs, costumes, or mechanics.

 

[ixix]

Sandals?

Not sure how I feel about that.

 

[Ravidrath]

You see, I'm quite interested with the setting and her background as a character

Spoiler

since I'm a Southeast Asian myself

So I'm curious where you guys get the necessary material from, since to be honest, they're quite hard to get even for us, the native, since most of our mythology aren't well recorded.

I don't really know what all of his sources are, but Alex he does a lot of research to support his stuff.

Eliza in Skullgirls, for example, was heavily researched to pack her with as many mythological references as possible and figure out how to represent them and make them gameplay-relevant, too.

The art team also took a trip down to the big LA library to do all sorts of weapon, mythology and monster research to inspire the content that'll be in the Indivisible playable prototype.

I don't understand. How was Skullgirls fanservice if it was your first game? I would think you would have to have an established fanbase in order give service to your fans? Were you talking about when y'all were letting fans vote and create characters?

While it not being a focus this time around, I do hope you throw bones to fans of your previous work whether it might be Easter eggs, costumes, or mechanics.

It's their term, not mine.

But people seem to call anything breast/panty-oriented "fanservice" these days?

 

[Dambrosi]

Metroidvania with Valkyrie Profile combat

It's as if Lab Zero saw straight into my soul.

Actually, no, that would have been:

Metroidvania with Valkyrie Profile 2 combat

.

 

[Odrion]

I like it!

 

[More_Badass]

Why IndieGoGo rather than Kickstarter?

 

[Odrion]

Metroidvanias must be pretty popular now huh?

We should really rename Metroidvanias since neither of those games exist in a modern context.

I guess we could call them "Indie games", as that label no longer exists outside of that genre.

Or how about "The good 2d platformers?" :V

 

[toastyToast]

Looking forward to it. Kind of a pipe dream with the work involved but if enemies' hit reactions are akin to Skullgirls that'd elevate the game for me immensely, especially if the game is gonna have a combo system. Abyss Odyssey and Valdis Story had combo systems but they both felt kind of off.

 

[Ravidrath]

Why IndieGoGo rather than Kickstarter?

First, we'll be doing a Fixed Funding campaign, since we can't actually get the money we need if we did a Flexible Funding campaign.

That seems to be the thing that puts most people off about IGG - that they Flexible campaigns amount is open-ended and they get charged right away.

Anyway, for us it's...

- They take 7% instead of 10%, which is significant on larger campaigns

- They start paying as soon as you hit your goal, which means we can start working sooner: KS pays around 6 weeks after the end of the campaign, which means you could be waiting 10 weeks before you see a dime

- Because we were their most successful gaming campaign in the past, we'll get a lot of PR and campaign support from them that we'd never get on KS

 

[Dimitri LH]

I don't understand. How was Skullgirls fanservice if it was your first game? I would think you would have to have an established fanbase in order give service to your fans? Were you talking about when y'all were letting fans vote and create characters?

While it not being a focus this time around, I do hope you throw bones to fans of your previous work whether it might be Easter eggs, costumes, or mechanics.

There are two types of fanservice:

The normal kind that gives what the fans want like kick ass team ups in Project X Zone (or most cross over games done right)

And theres the other kind which involves heavy....er, sexual appeal to the point where its too obvious usually. Big TnA, panty shots etc, etc. ( there can be fan service for females to enjoy also mind you). Usually pervy Otaku stuff.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

There are two types of fanservice:

The normal kind that gives what the fans want like kick ass team ups in Project X Zone (or most cross over games done right)

And theres the other kind which involves heavy....er, sexual appeal to the point where its too obvious usually. Big TnA, panty shots etc, etc. ( there can be fan service for females to enjoy also mind you). Usually pervy Otaku stuff.

Project X Zone also works for your second type.

 

[Crocodile]

First, we'll be doing a Fixed Funding campaign, since we can't actually get the money we need if we did a Flexible Funding campaign.

That seems to be the thing that puts most people off about IGG - that they Flexible campaigns amount is open-ended and they get charged right away.

Anyway, for us it's...

- They take 7% instead of 10%, which is significant on larger campaigns

- They start paying as soon as you hit your goal, which means we can start working sooner: KS pays around 6 weeks after the end of the campaign, which means you could be waiting 10 weeks before you see a dime

- Because we were their most successful gaming campaign in the past, we'll get a lot of PR and campaign support from them that we'd never get on KS

At the end of any KS campaign, the money leaves my account within a few days (if not within a day) after the campaign ends. Does it then sit in Amazon/KS's coffer for weeks before the campaign organizer gets their cut? I would have thought the transfer, after Amazon/KS take their cut, would have been within days O_O

There are two types of fanservice.

Eh there are way more than two types. Its just that without further context people usually mean sexual fanservice.

 

[Ravidrath]

At the end of any KS campaign, the money leaves my account within a few days (if not within a day) after the campaign ends. Does it then sit in Amazon/KS's coffer for weeks before the campaign organizer gets their cut? I would have thought the transfer, after Amazon/KS take their cut, would have been within days O_O

I don't know exactly why KS takes so long, but I suspect it's to avoid chargebacks, confirm everything, etc. before passing it on so they're not left holding the bag later.

 

[mrklaw]

Someday she will find, the ceetees of gold




Edit: I got confused with Valkyria Chronicles combat. Never played profile.

 

[Psxphile]

Dont care I don't play games with only short skirts on the characters. That's why I stopped playing Madden

 

[Nocturnowl]

I'm am very on board for this, looking forward to seeing more of the character designs.

 

[shink]

Art style looks good, I'm in.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Dont care I don't play games with only short skirts on the characters.

The skirt reaches her knees in the first shot though, so it's not that short.

 

[Riposte]

We should really rename Metroidvanias since neither of those games exist in a modern context.

I guess we could call them "Indie games", as that label no longer exists outside of that genre.

Or how about "The good 2d platformers?" :V

"The good 2D platformers" are rarely "metroidvanias". The best Castlevania games, for example.



EDIT: Does your character move in battle? Does battle occur on a separate "scene" than the map?

 

[AzureTranquility95]

That 2 year wait though...

This game will still come out before Final Fantasy 7 remake. Have faith in Square-Enix's slowness.

Spoiler

This game and Shenmue 3 will launch same day, and it will be crazy

 

[ocean]

Metroidvania is so done. Being on Metroidkyries.

 

[Ravidrath]

Does your character move in battle? Does battle occur on a separate "scene" than the map?

Still prototyping out the combat, but they'll be fixed in place ala VP1 most likely.

Our goal is for the battle transition to be pretty seamless - collide with an enemy, camera moves in, everyone takes their positions and fights, you win, zoom out and you're platforming again.

 

[Sesha]

This looks and sounds amazing. I love the aesthetics of South/South East Asia, but this is something I didn't I wanted. Love the design of the main character. Not to keen on the idea of Valkyrie Profile combat, but we'll see how the combat turns out.

Quick questions:
1) What are your Metroidvania inspirations for this game?
2) Have you looked at Bloodstained's Kickstarter when determining stretch goals and features? If not, will you consider it? Bloodstained has an amazing array of modes that are perfect for combat-focused Metroidvanias. But I understand that budget will be a much bigger concern for you than for Bloodstained.

Edit: Ah, the combat is RPG-based, then. That makes some of Bloodstained's extra modes a bit irrelevant.

We should really rename Metroidvanias since neither of those games exist in a modern context.

I guess we could call them "Indie games", as that label no longer exists outside of that genre.

Or how about "The good 2d platformers?" :V

Exploratory 2D platformers?

 

[Ravidrath]

Quick questions:
1) What are your Metroidvania inspirations for this game?
2) Have you looked at Bloodstained's Kickstarter when determining stretch goals and features? If not, will you consider it? Bloodstained has an amazing array of modes that are perfect for combat-focused Metroidvanias. But I understand that budget will be a much bigger concern for you than for Bloodstained.

Edit: Ah, the combat is RPG-based, then. That makes some of Bloodstained's extra modes a bit irrelevant.

1) Super Metroid would be the biggest inspiration, I think. We'll see how it goes, but Mike would like to make sure there's a lot more exploration and discovery than you see in many modern "Metroidvania" games.

He'd also like the areas to be interconnected and possibly have some potential for sequence breaking.


2) As you noted in your edit, there isn't a lot of room for all these modes in a game with RPG combat like this.

I can't really get into it now, but we do have some plans for content variations that will require you to really know the game's mechanics and all of your party members' abilities to succeed, though.

We also don't want stretch goals to balloon the size of the core game too much, otherwise it'll be impossible to stick to our estimated schedule. So I think you'll likely see some of the content be stretch goals for post release update(s).

 

[Sesha]

1) Super Metroid would be the biggest inspiration, I think. We'll see how it goes, but Mike would like to make sure there's a lot more exploration and discovery than you see in many modern "Metroidvania" games.

He'd also like the areas to be interconnected and possibly have some potential for sequence breaking.


2) As you noted in your edit, there isn't a lot of room for all these modes in a game with RPG combat like this.

I can't really get into it now, but we do have some plans for content variations that will require you to really know the game's mechanics and all of your party members' abilities to succeed, though.

We also don't want stretch goals to balloon the size of the core game too much, otherwise it'll be impossible to stick to our estimated schedule. So I think you'll likely see some of the content be stretch goals for post release update(s).

Everything of what you said sounds good to me. You guys always struck me as a developer that knows exactly what you want and how best to execute on that plan.
But if I could throw out a quick personal wishlist as a guaranteed future backer, I would like to see a Boss Rush Mode and Rogue-like mode, as both I feel would be compatible with an RPG-system. But I'm excited either way.

Third question, though more of an addendum to my first one: What indievanias, if any, have been an inspiration? Have you looked at other indievanias and what they've done in terms of level design, or combat (Valdis Story for example is more RPG-based than most)?

 

[Krackatoa]

 

[Lime]

The VP mention makes me automatically interested.

The character design needs to grow on me though. Not immediately impressed