Hello everyone! We hope you have a good Sunday!

We have posted a new gameplay teaser dedicated to our Kickstarter campaign on YouTube, check it out!

If you have friends who love post-apocalyptic and sci-fi RPGs, and they don't know about Encased yet - this is a perfect opportunity to share with them.

Also check out our latest artwork, dedicated to our dear KS-backers. Thanks to all of you again and again!


These Tier 2 Orange Wing employees are definitely up to something

Project funding info: $55,855 raised by 1,589 backers! This is 55% of the funding goal and we still have 22 days to go! Stay tuned for more updates, next week will be very intense.

In today’s update we would like to talk about the gradual game enhancement a bit. We’re in pre-alpha state now and there’s a lot of work before us, but we’re working on developing every aspect every day.

In order to proceed as quickly as possible, we often make rough models, which then fall for revision. Crafting the intermediate versions is useful because we can see the in-game result immediately, and the other members of the team are much more interested in working with a living character, not a running cube.



Then comes the time to think… what else can we do for our characters? For our maps? For everything we create? For us, they are not just game objects, they are like children. Which we raise, care about and wish only the best.

This is how our “kids” looked like at the primary testing stages, and how do they look like now:


The same metamorphosis also applies to game maps. Even now, during the Kickstarter campaign, we did not halt the project development and are working on the game locations actively.

Dealing with environment, we proceed from the fact that every meter of our world should be of interest to the player. And we try to make those locations the way someone could stop and take a look around, even if “around” is just a fragment of a desert or a marsh, woods or caves. Our task is to make the world around you speak for itself. Tell its own stories, with no need for additional text or explanations.



Until recently, our locations looked like this. Those were the testing sites, we were probing the ground and figuring out what the level topology would look like on the terrain.

Now we are working on the terrain itself. Trees, rocks, surface textures. One of the current tasks is to make the ecosystems self-sufficient. So that the single fragment of wilderness pleased the eye. It is known that the famous game industry developers often say: “The roofs and the floors are crucial to isometry”, because it’s what the player sees best.”



Project funding info: $54,277 pledged by 1,534 backers!

Stay tuned - there will be more interesting information and details about how we develop Encased! Let us know which aspects you'd like us to cover!

In today's update we would like to speak about one of the most important aspects for creating the atmosphere of the game — the music. And about the people who composed the main theme for our Kickstarter video.



Make yourself comfortable and get your best speakers, they’ll come in handy! Now we’re gonna show you how the track was being made.

Encased Kickstarter Theme — Original Jazz Rock Version

Encased Kickstarter Theme — Original Jazz Rock Version

Suddenly, there’s a man responsible for the music under our Dome. Introduce yourself, buddy.

My name is Peter Salnikov and I’m happy to be on board of this campaign. As a composer, I wrote this Encased Kickstarter Theme with my bandmate Ruslan Eldoradovitch.

Peter, you’re not telling us everything. There are no random guys under the Dome. You’re connected to games, aren’t you?

My career could be easily split in two sections. The first is media. After seven years in gaming journalism I decided to quit this profession, and for the last five years me and my partners run an independent lifestyle media called Disgusting Men. It’s the biggest site and community of it’s sort in Russia, we also run the biggest entertainment podcast of the same name. It’s all in Russian, but if you feel like listening to it, check the episodes with Raphael Colantonio (Dishonored, Prey), Daniel Vavra (Mafia, Kingdom Come: Deliverance) – they were published in English as well.

We begin to see the big picture now. let’s talk about music.

Aside of that, for almost a decade we play rock’n’roll with our band called Solar Deity. It’s a real rock band with rehearsals, shows and tours, and its lyrics are in English, so this could be easier to check out. We also did some soundtrack jobs before. Being a curious and a stubborn person, I offered my help to Vyacheslav the way he couldn’t refuse.

Let’s think back a few days ago and recall how did it happen.

The week before Encased Kickstarter launch was pretty tough. We were live streaming, breaking down the musical plan we sticked to while recording the demo of this music. We then held a Skype call with Dark Crystal Games and that was the exact moment when found out that this Kickstarter page will go live on September 13th and not a single day later.

ENCASED Kickstarter Trailer Theme Teaser | Guitars & Drums Only | Work in Progress

After that, you most certainly did grab you head, saying ‘Guys, to hell with you, we don’t have the time!’ Was it like this? Or...

After a short panic strike we’ve mobilised all our forces to record this music live, as was planned earlier. We wrote the theme together with my band partner Ruslan but in fact there were a lot more people involved in this than the two of us. In a day we got all of them covered: the trombone player, the string trio, the sax guy, the drummer, the sound engineer and the studio fellas – all of them got their instructions, paper score, dates and details. In two days we stood ready at the studio. In short, it was a huge luck to suddenly be able to gather all those gifted (and thus – over occupied) people at one time and place and this fast. We did all the basic job in 24 hours.

Let’s ruin the intrigue from the start: it was much more harder.

The problem was that the Kickstarter video itself wasn’t finished by then, and when it finally was – it was almost seven minutes long vs. two and a half minutes of our music. But that was a part of the deal we made with the Crystals.

And still you managed.

This Encased Kickstarter Theme (sorry, it still has no name but it definitely deserves to have one – leave your suggestions in the comment section below) was built to be a «handcrafted procedural track». In short, all instruments and fragments were recorded in one tempo and key, and though the original track was only 2:40 long, all of its pieces and cues could be cut apart, arranged in any order and length and transformed into a longer track or a smaller jingle. Actually, we learned that playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption and watching this video after. So, after getting a Dropbox video link, we’ve spent a night and a morning bringing the demo music to needed structure. And then our sound engineer Artem brought the instrumental track to the same form.

When we were waiting for the track, we tried to guess, what will it be like… and we didn’t. Although the result surprised us, in a good way. The video provides a sense how this track was being created, but the references and the internal working are still a mystery.

First off, when we had our first meeting with Vyacheslav Kozikhin, we were talking about the references, the vibe we need. We’ve played the pre-alpha build (and yes, we play a lot of CRPGs in general) and figured, why not make it something that would sound sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, western, and 1970’s-ish at the same time? As a reference, we took Dune (1984) soundtrack, the music of The Last Man Standing (1996, a Bruce Willis movie) and mixed it up with our vision of our favourite game music (Mass Effect, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout – there’s a lot of «canon» features if you listen closely). But the main part was to imagine something like this to be played by a real band actually existing in this word of alternative history.

And, well, there you have it. If you’d ask us to think of an orchestra performing in a club somewhere outside the Dome, we’d think of this. Tell us what you think! There’s a lot more job ahead than done, so your suggestions will be considered.

Encased — Full Kickstarter Theme

Project funding info

As of today $53,160 pledged by 1,494 backers! Thanks to all of you!

When we started this crowdfunding campaign, we definitely had faith in the project and in our ultimate success. However, we did not expect so much support so quickly: just one week into the campaign, we’re already over 50% funded, and the numbers continue to grow hour by hour.

Thanks to you.

In this update, we’re going to discuss our plans for Encased if we surpass our original goal.

If we are successful in raising $100,000, this would let us expand the team, perfect the quality and extend the quantity of Encased content, and invest in localization and professional voiceovers.

When the pledge total approaches $100,000, we will unveil the stretch goals section, where additional objectives will be outlined. But what are these new objectives? Perhaps a pack of new guns? A new mobile transport for the player? Or an additional companion? We’ve got tons of ideas and we intend to post the finest among them.

By the way, we’re happy to read your ideas on what we could add to Encased. Let us know in the comments! Though we can’t promise to implement all of them, we will definitely consider each and every one.

Today we’re also going to reveal the add-on rewards fans can add to their pledges. This one’s simple: to acquire an add-on, top up the amount necessary and pick the required item on the Backers’ Page when the campaign is over (do not forget to add delivery fees for material rewards).



Once again, thanks to everyone supporting us! Stay tuned for new updates!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darkcrystalgames/encased-old-school-isometic-turn-based-rpg/

In this update, we would like to talk in detail about the people who are working on Encased. We will not list the games that we’ve worked on - it is at the end of our campaign page. Today we are going to share some funny and interesting facts about us.

Let’s roll!


To survive in this dangerous lands you need a good team (New art by our artist Alexander Davtyan)

The tower office

The Dark Crystal Games office is located… in a tower, “growing” out of the roof of an old soviet recreation center. Here we have a spiral staircase, an excellent view from the balcony and f**king cold during winter time.

Cardboard guns

To record the character animation properly, our specialist makes weapon dummies out of the paper towels’ liners.

The Art Director has always wanted a post-apocalyptic game

The lead artist of Dark Crystal Games tried to create a post-apocalyptic RPG Project Serenity almost on his own.

27 years of hardcore gaming

One of our leads is playing video games since he was three. His first game platform was a Spectrum-clone named “Delta”.

Pathological love for Fallout

We have 2.4 Fallout playthroughs per single team member and 3.16 playthroughs of Fallout 2 also. All this counting those few employees who haven’t played the first games of the series.

Vault Boy tattoos

The ribs of our modelling artist are covered with the tattoo of Fallout series mascot.

Writer’s black cats

Our lead writes loves cats. There was a time, when three cats were living in his house, all of them completely black. The current cat, by the way, is also black.

Dual-class writer/animator

Our senior writer trained as a computer animator but has never worked in that field.

T-shirt of a fan

Our leading technical designer wears a shabby T-shirt with the Larian Studios logo. Misses those times, probably.

Programming verses

Our lead programmer writes verses about coding, yep. He even posts them to the internets.

Dark Crystal Worldwide

The company's office is located in St. Petersburg. And remote employees work from Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Vladivostok, Kaliningrad. The additional experts, invited to participate in the game development, are from Ireland and USA.

Project funding info: $45,671 pledged by 1,249 backers. Thank you guys, you ROCK!

Important shout out!

Whoa, this update came out of nowhere, didn’t it? Kind of snuck up on you, just like one of our random encounters!

Our random encounter system is one of the features we’re most proud of. Here’s how it works:

Every encounter in Encased is its own post-apocalyptic story. Some of these stories will resolve on the spot, others will require significant effort and maximum concentration. Many encounters have consequences and lead to a whole new series of quests.

Random encounters occur when the player travels on the world map. A player’s Stats as well as the world’s condition directly affects which stories will be generated.


So a bunker, a car and dead bodies...

There is still civilization of a sort in the east of the Dome. You might meet a water caravan, slave traders, or a Kshatriya patrol. You may stumble upon a suspicious house, or a car riddled with bullet holes and carrying a mysterious case on the back seat. You might discover money or a relic inside.


Heavy and scorching cold

Encounters in the east are mostly social in nature, while the west is almost barren of life. Salt marshes and white sand tell completely different stories: of bare survival and limited supplies, of struggling against the elements. You may find yourself searching out rare underground facilities offering shelter and relief from the relentless heat.

The south of the Dome also has underground complexes, but travellers won’t find any welcome there. The south is an old communications center, a place where ancient battle machines lay buried beneath the sand and rocks. There are countless small bunkers here, the kind where once you enter, the somehow still-powered doors slide silently shut behind your back.


Who is this figure at the crossroads - a traveler, a merchant, a thug?

The north lands are now ruled by the New Committee. You may meet police and army patrols, come upon restricted areas where weird experiments are underway, and whole fields of abandoned vehicles rusting away to nothing.

Sooner or later, fate will lead the player to the very center of the Dome where Maelstrom runs rampant alongside gangs of insane raiders, and the stranger anomalies summoned by Tower radiation. Encounters near the center involve battles with bandits, surreal zones of abnormality, the constant chatter of insane Maelstrom, and many other unusual and exciting events.

When we say ‘many’ unusual events, this is no exaggeration. Encounters in Encased cannot all be resolved with combat. There are meetings with characters, secret locations which cannot be found any other way, and vignettes — brief but detailed text adventures, where the solution will depend on a player’s decisions, Stats and Skills.


Welcome?

For example, while travelling the desert the player may discover a spacious house. The doors are all locked, but there is definitely something going on inside. The player may break in (Lockpicking), enter through the open window on the second floor (Deftness), slip in through the back door (Sneaking), or simply knock and ask them to let you in (Looks). Although if you are unsuccessful, there’s always the risk of a bullet to the face. Perhaps, the player is wearing a mad raider’s mask or has shown up at a gang lair in a Black Wing uniform. Anyway, there is always a way to complete an encounter, even if it’s not immediately obvious.

At this point most of our planned 75 random encounters have already been written. With your help there can be even more!

Project fundraising report: $38,260 pledged by 1,010 backers! This means we’ve successfully raised almost 40% of our base goal, and are moving quickly past to the next milestone! Thank you so much!

Special thanks also to our friends at Larian Studios and especially to Swen Vincke for their generous contribution, shout out and moral support! Larian is constantly raising the bar for CRPGs with their beautiful games. Larian’s love, dedication, and creative energy make their studio a role model for all of us at Dark Crystal Games.

Let’s talk about why we got the project on Kickstarter.


We want Encased to be just the way you see the perfect CRPG: a huge game, rich in content, sort of “Fallout of our dreams”, which all of us could be proud of.

We’ve been developing the game for a while already. We have reached the pre-alpha stage and we are confident that Encased could become a great game. But we are a small team, and there is a lot of things that we’d like to add. With your help, Encased could become a way more ambitious, better fleshed out and polished project!

But it’s not just about the money that could help us expand the game!

One of our ground rules is to create games arm-in-arm with our community. Perhaps you, like many of our players, want to feel involved in the development process. And if the question “How may I help create Encased?” is the one running through your mind right now, then the text below has been written specially for you.

*NPC Generator*

A little while ago we’ve launched a website where anyone could fill in a form and create their own NPC: https://cronus.darkcrystalgames.com/en/


Most of those characters and their descriptions will be added to the C.R.O.N.U.S. supercomputer and could be found in game

Most of those characters and their descriptions will be added to the C.R.O.N.U.S. supercomputer and could be found in the game, while the most interesting ones will get a “physical body” in the game. You might even run into them at some point in the future. But for those of you who want to create a character with their own looks and personality, we’ve created a separate pledge in our Kickstarter campaign.

Watch our Dev Diary dedicated to it

*Unique Item as a Reward*

Among the rewards for the backers that pledged as CRONUS Corporal and higher, there is a unique item that will be created based on the thoughts and wishes of the community. The decision lies in your hands.

*Your Ideas*

Our community is our creative lab and testing grounds at the same time. If you’re sure that your ideas can make Encased better, then join us and take part in the project discussions. Watch a video about community proposed weapons.

(Check the volume slider, the music is a bit too loud in this one).

Discord Facebook Instagram VK Twitter

Or just here in the comments!

“Something happened. You all know what, dear listeners. But I won’t talk about it aloud. Let it lose its power and turn its gaze away from us, like a demon that weakens until called by its true name… So, we now walk in the canopy of… this. No, wrong! We are in the eye of the storm! From the vortex of sand faces look upon us, faces of people you will hear of not just once or twice in the years to come. But today it will be me to tell you about them!”

– Mike Warden Jr., Make Yourself Comfortable, live on 20th of January, 1977


“Everybody is scared, panic is everywhere! Where’s food? Where are antibiotics? Where are the cigarettes? The last helicopter left a week ago. What if it was, truly, THE LAST?.. And then Kimiko Nakamura entered the stage and she was all like “Hey, it will be ok, guys! We just need to tighten up the laws. And make me the one in charge.”— Max

But the price was high: the Committee paid for this with the dramatic change of political climate, harsh laws and total militarization. Some see this as the corporation’s last days, but Kimiko Nakamura, the president of the Committee, knows: a relic was found in one of the Forefathers’ facilities, which can change everything.

There’s no place under the Dome where the New Committee wouldn’t have their tentacles. But this huge monster is vulnerable, and you will have many possibilities to take it down. Or, on the contrary, make it even stronger.



Read full update on Kickstarter!

Tell us which faction you'd join after the Apocalypse? Become a renegade colonel, lonely wanderer or gray cardinal?

A little project update: we now have 18% of funding goal - thanks to our awesome 555 bakers! Please, let us know what do you think about this update and which topics you'd like us to cover in next updates.

This has been a crazy week. Preparing for day one of the Kickstarter has taken a lot of energy and sweat, but we are happy with the initial response. After the first 24 hours of the campaign, we are sitting at $12K with 352 backers! We want to thank each and every one of you for your support.

We are continuing to improve our Kickstarter page and adding more info according to your feedback, so please check back from time to time.

Please put your suggestions for future updates in the comments section - so far we've seen requests for details about character creation and for more information about factions. We are already at work preparing updates on these topics!


Read the full update on the Kickstarter page.