Stonehearth

[Samwise]

Another attempt at the "graphical Dwarf Fortress" holy grail.

Too early to say how it'll pan out, but their tech demo videos are pretty cool.  You construct buildings by drawing them in a Sketchup-like interface, and then your dudes will construct it block by block, erecting scaffolding so they can reach parts of the building that they need to work on, automatically harvesting resources if they run out, etc.  A lot of work for what is mostly just window dressing but I'm a sucker for emergent behavior so I think it's pretty goddamn cool.



Also, there's crafting, and I guess you can have a mammoth farm?  I don't know.  They briefly mentioned in their KS video that there was a tile puzzle game aspect to growing crops, which sounds very interesting to me.



It could easily come to nothing like Game of Dwarves did, but who knows.  The guys behind it seem like they're really interested in making a cool sandboxy ant farm sort of thing more than they are in making a traditional RPG sort of thing, and that excites me because the ant farm aspect is what I enjoy most about sims.  They also are putting a really heavy emphasis on user-created content a la NWN.  Could be cool.

[Stormwaltz]

I wish the world had more DF clones and fewer WoW clones.

[schild]

I want that to be a thing.

[Rendakor]

Someone (maybe you Sam) linked this on facebook and it looks really cool. Once they've got something playable I'll be more than happy to throw some cash their way.

[Samwise]

Someone (maybe you Sam) linked this on facebook

Probably me.  One of my D&D friends who I've known since forever recently quit her day job to work on this thing, so I'm a little biased to root for it.  That aside though I still think it looks neat.

[Kail]

It's on Steam Greenlight if people want to vote for it:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=142375476

[jakonovski]

As someone who has never managed to get into DF, I need one of these games to work.

[Ironwood]

Needs more Dungeons.

[Quinton]

I like the sort of Lego-brick look they're getting out of the smaller voxels.  Definitely an art style I approve of.

I also like that they believe supporting mods/extensions should be a first class feature and that they're intending to use the same APIs for internal systems as for external mods.  That's the right way to do it, rather than trying to tack something on as an afterthought.  Implementation is always the hard part, of course, but at least their design philosophy is sane.

[Lantyssa]

Looks cool.  If it has tunneling and other nifty effects, I'll play it.

[Paelos]

As someone who has never managed to get into DF, I need one of these games to work.

Bingo. Me too.

[Yegolev]

In Soviet Russia, Dwarf Fortress plays you.  Actually it does that everywhere.  So, yes, bring on the clones.  I don't even need it to be graphical, it just needs a sane interface.

[Bzalthek]

Well for whatever it's worth i voted for it in Steam.  I too would like to see something like this as I simply cannot play DF with the shitty interface/graphics.

[Severian]

I wonder how irritated the Stonehearth people are that Hearthstone (HoWoW) is on the way, and if they have considered changing the name.

[Sky]

Good point. Probably better to do it now before rawrsuit.

[Xanthippe]

I backed this. Looks really intriguing. Hope they can pull it off.

[Pezzle]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1590639245/stonehearth/posts


30 hours until it funds.  Funding is at 680k right now.  They added the last two stretch goals as post release items.  We want the 750k goal because Dwarves. 

[schild]

If anyone wants to up their pledge to $50, I will paypal them $25. This offer is only valid to people who are "regulars" in this community.

Basically, be my buddy!

Edit: Yes, I'm breaking my rule about actual video game backing with this. Also, I don't consider Hex a video game, so don't give me no guff. It's a fucking ccg.

Edit: The $50 level doesn't say its a buddy level. I don't get it and I'm a moron.



Someone make this work, no comprendo.

[Samwise]

Every tier includes benefits of lower tiers.  $45 is the tier that gives you another beta spot.  $50 gives you that plus art.  I'm at the $30 level, so it'd only cost me $15 to up that to $45 and have an extra beta thingy.

(edit) I'll go ahead and make you my buddy.  You can put the moneys in the frontpage/rent fund.

[MrHat]

I had already upped my pledge to $45 this morning.  This game looks like good stuff.

[schild]

Every tier includes benefits of lower tiers.  $45 is the tier that gives you another beta spot.  $50 gives you that plus art.  I'm at the $30 level, so it'd only cost me $15 to up that to $45 and have an extra beta thingy.

(edit) I'll go ahead and make you my buddy.  You can put the moneys in the frontpage/rent fund.

AWWWW SHUCKS MUCH LOVE! /fistbump

[Ingmar]

Personally, I canceled my pledge today!

because Sjofn signed up at a higher tier

[Nonentity]

stop linking me things to kickstart

i can't

dinosaur survival hnnggg

[Quinton]

These guys have clearly put some serious time into this already (their tech demos of their current engine and game stuff look really slick) and they seem to have their heads on straight as far as modding and extensibility goes.  I have high hopes for this one.  Also, quitting your jobs, working for 18 months, building some impressive technology, and *then* asking for money to see it through to shipping is something I'm happy to support.

[Samwise]

These guys have clearly put some serious time into this already (their tech demos of their current engine and game stuff look really slick) and they seem to have their heads on straight as far as modding and extensibility goes.  I have high hopes for this one.  Also, quitting your jobs, working for 18 months, building some impressive technology, and *then* asking for money to see it through to shipping is something I'm happy to support.

This.  Sometimes as a coder you look into a project from the outside and get the sense that the people involved have no idea what the fuck they're doing.  This is the exact opposite -- watching them talk about what they've done so far and what they're planning, I get the sense that they might actually be able to deliver on all their grandiose plans.

[Yoru]

This is the first Kickstarter I'm actually tempted to back. But then I realize it's fucking Kickstarter.

I'll wait until the thing's released and get it then.

[Ironwood]

Alas, that's my view of pretty much any kickstarter.

That said, I really, really, really like the look of this.

[apocrypha]

Ach, they got me, $15. Everything looks like Minecraft these days, and I don't mind.

[Paelos]

This is the first Kickstarter I'm actually tempted to back. But then I realize it's fucking Kickstarter.

I'll wait until the thing's released and get it then.

Is it coming out on Steam? I'm with you, I wouldn't Kickstart anything on general principle in the gaming arena.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see the Greenlight.

[Severian]

They hit the $750K (counting $44K via PayPal) and Dwarves will indeed be delving. Also

Three hours from now, Tom will cap off the Kickstarter with a 3 hour countdown livestream. He'll recap all the goals we've achieved and talk about what's up next for Team Radiant, along with answering your questions. You can tune in live at http://twitch.tv/radiantentertainment

That would be 3 hours before Kickstarter ends at 1:00 AM EDT, so I figure starting 10:00 PM EDT.

[Dark_MadMax]

Interesting . Looks very much like this http://www.timberandstonegame.com/

I dunno I am on fence, I played gnomoria for quite a bit and while it was not 3d and very simplistic  I had fun with . Those projects looks very interesting and have great technology but  I havent seen much gameplay in them yet

[Quinton]

They just reiterated in the livestream that the entire game is implemented using the same tools that will be used for third party extensions / modding (Lua based) -- character classes, behaviours, UI, all game systems, etc.  An example given was if somebody wanted to do a total conversion where you colonize the moon, mine some kind of gas, build space suits and moon buggies and such, that sort of thing should be doable (though would obviously be a lot of work).

[Samwise]

I'm thinking adding new classes and creatures will be very fertile ground for modders.  I'm actually looking forward to seeing their APIs; I haven't seen too many games ship with an SDK that doesn't seem like a perfunctory afterthought.

[Quinton]

They did a livestream showing some of the current state of the lua scripting stuff recently:
http://www.twitch.tv/radiantentertainment/b/404681488
http://www.twitch.tv/radiantentertainment/b/404702629

[Samwise]

Backers get access to the alpha soon.  Sounds like it's basically going to be a tech demo.

Here’s what’s in Alpha 1:

Random world generation
Ability to choose where you want to settle
Harvesting resources (wood, berries, etc) and storing them in stockpiles
Basic crafting, with one profession: the Carpenter
Day/night cycle
Your citizens will eat when they get hungry and sleep when they get sleepy
Basic construction of walls and houses

This will be an Alpha quality release. There will be bugs. It is missing major features, like the ability to save your progress.

Still a better deal than that game with the ships.     Sounds like once the alpha's out they're planning on doing regular updates to add new features, a la Prison Architect.