Hello everyone! We are reaching the very end of the campaign and have unlocked the first stretch goal! Let’s keep it up! There are other great features and add-ons ahead which may not happen without your help!


First one unlocked! Keep it up!

The Fallen Fortress was first introduced in KS Update #12; today we talk a bit more about the background of this special encounter.

***

The private military contractor Eidolon had a mixed reputation.

Most serious people considered Eidolon’s existence a myth. However, really serious people knew how to send them an encrypted message with a very strong chance of a reply. And those communiques, as a rule, were about really serious matters.

According to a classified CIA document which fortuitously escaped its scheduled destruction, Eidolon had a part in every significant conflict of the era - from the Rimon 20 operation to Black Saturday and the fall of Phnom Penh. In each case, Eidolon’s personnel had up-to-the-minute knowledge and skills in every branch of military science. Apparently it’s true that Progress is the father of Efficiency.

It’s no surprise that shortly after the discovery of the Dome these mercenaries contacted CRONUS.

The true nature of this interaction is known to no one, except at the highest levels of CRONUS administration. But one particular rumor persists. Allegedly, everything ended with the last flight before the Incident. That flight was an armed transport converted from an Army bomber. And on that transport, together with ammunition, equipment, and medicine was something very important to certain people.

Something very valuable. Something from under the Dome.

Radio contact was lost a few hours into the flight, and moments later the craft disappeared from radar as well. At the same time, all contact between CRONUS and their Eidolon liaisons was severed. Even the emergency channel fell silent… But then Maelstrom broke loose, and survival became the chief priority.



No one expected that this same lost bomber, staffed and piloted by a shadowy organization which may or may not have been an urban legend, would be discovered in the drifting dunes of the Dome. The craft was surprisingly intact, though it had obviously made an emergency landing. Of the crew there was no sign. The cargo was abandoned. And now two factions are ready to tear out each other’s throats for it.

Whatever it is.

***

Once again - thanks to each and every one of you for your generous support!

If you missed our rewards preview from yesterday, check it out in KS Update #23. Consider upgrading your pledge level or adding some extra rewards as add-ons!

Please like and share these messages on Twitter and Facebook - this will help us raise some extra activity on these two last days (we will count those into our Social Goals too!).

Encased Kickstarter campaign is almost over. Little time remains. If we use it well - and we will use it well - the Fallen Fortress Encounter will make it into the game and in a few months you’ll be in the desert, holed up in a crashed bomber, fighting off attackers with a high-calibre air-to-air machine-gun.

A heart-warming thought, we’re sure you’ll agree.

We’re fully funded, but we have so much more planned for this game. The more support we can get, the more awesome content we can add to the game. We have a slew of cool stretch goals to hit, and your support will help us get there - and land you some fantastic physical rewards. T-shirts. Hoodies. And an item that’s going to blow your mind.

Welcome to the must-have accessory for the desert under the Dome. No self-respecting barbarian would be seen dead without it.

Behold the Mask of the Raider!

We have only four Masks of Supreme Ruler!

Hand-painted by our artists in an isolated underground complex (our office) deep beneath the scorching desert (in Russia), your mask of the raider stinks (some imagination may be required) of blood, heat, and insanity. Unique in their madness, no two masks are alike. Yours will be one of a kind.

The mask was taken from the Dome, sourced in violence and terror, and delivered to us by a mysterious benefactor at a time when all the lifts to the Spire were out of service, and the radiation alert was at stage 5 - exposure for more than 30 seconds, even in a hazmat suit, would kill you.

Who sent it? And why? We’ve spent long hours staring into those eyeholes in search of the secret. (We’ve found nothing, and now we feel a little… strange. The eyes seem to stare right back.)

At the dawn of CRONUS’s exploration of the Dome, when a new era of discovery and prosperity was upon us, the Foundation was organised and regimented. Much thought went into employee uniform design. Thousands of uniform items were manufactured. Most were distributed. Some were shelved, banished to a warehouse to gather dust. And some were deemed to be just too damn awesome and were never made. We’ve found the patterns for those items, and we’ve had them manufactured as a special thank-you for our backers.

The Committee T-shirt

Before CRONUS gave up on sartorial magnificence in favour of the practicality of the jump-suit coverall, elite designers conceived a range of phenomenal T-shirts to be issued to employees deemed most deserving. Lore would have it that they were never made. We’ve remedied that situation.


T-shirt design prototype

Hand-sewn at Orange Wing factories by diligent ex-prisoners, the T-shirt’s pleasant design, comfortable shape, and soothing CRONUS logo will be welcomed by even the most resentful wage-slave.

Rogues Team Cap


Baseball cap design prototype

One for the fans. The Crystal Sands Rogues are the Dome’s most popular (in fact… only) baseball franchise. Recruited from the ranks of the Orange Wing, their dedication last season let them to a perfect win/loss record, and allowed the entire roster to escape being sent into the Dome. But Lady Luck is a fickle champion - who knows how this year will pan out for our ball-playing heroes?

Explorer’s Hoodie

The nights are cold in the desert. To work at their optimum, CRONUS employees were to be issued with a soft hooded top that would allow them to carry out their duties in comfort, protected from the cold - and from accidental radiation exposure.


Hoodie design prototype

A joint project between the White and Silver Wings, scientists chose materials and color combinations that would allow the employee the highest visibility in the dark of the night-time under the Dome. (After the Maelstrom event, this would become rather a disadvantage, but the hoodies remained prized for their warmth, their softness, and their rakish style.) The Silvers agreed and insisted that a huge CRONUS logo be sewn on the sleeve. This may be the only example of the two Wings working together in perfect harmony.

CRONUS Badge


Badge design prototype

After a lode of a pure and surprisingly workable metal was found in a mine under the Dome, CRONUS celebrated with the creation of these limited-edition souvenir badges, which were distributed to workers considered worthy of reward. Scientists of the White Wing have been unable to identify the metal, but they swear that it’s probably not dangerous.

Hardcopy Lorebook



Feel the weight of the hard-cover tome and inhale the heady scent of ink - a rare and valuable commodity under the Dome. Written and illustrated by highly talented (and in some cases decidedly odd) CRONUS employees, this collection of visions of the world beneath the Dome is drawn from their adventures, their experiences, their research studies… and their nightmares. This is a story about the first days under the Dome, and how a civilization thousands of years old collapsed overnight.

But that’s not all!

In addition to your physical rewards, some rather delectable digital goodies await you - including the opportunity to get your portrait into the game, immortality as a baseball star, access to alpha and beta versions of the game, and a rather spiffing set of army dog-tags - and the quest that goes with them.

Personalized Baseball Card

“Strange how memories work. I was sixteen, my father had just bought me an old car. Where I come from the streets can be dangerous, and I was small and skinny, thinner than your leg, so I hid a baseball bat under the front seat of that old car. One day, some bastard decided he didn’t like my parking and thought he’d teach me a lesson. I grabbed the bat. He laughed at me.

The joke was on him.

That was fifteen years ago now, maybe more. Me and my bat have been through a lot since then. But every time I pick it up, each and every time I feel the weight of the wood in my hands, I think about how we hammered that asshole into the ground in the parking lot of a five-and-dime, and I smile. I reckon that memory makes me the player I am today.”

Casey Molinary, outfield for the Crystal Sands Rogues.


Check out Crystal Sands Rogues Baseball Player tier there are only 40 of these

You, my friend, are the lucky ones. You took the deal and joined the Orange Wing, and made your way to the Dome. But someone read your file and saw you had talent, or maybe they saw you play a pick-up game in a sandy parking lot while waiting for a transport - and picked you up for the Crystal Sands Rogues.

You’re famous. You’re popular. Your face on a baseball card is a collector’s item. You’re a star and a hero - as long as the team keeps winning. Lose, and you’re going into the Dome as a nobody - you’ll have to find some other way of being a hero.

In-game Portrait

We know that many of you RPG fans set out to make a character that’s as close as it can be to yourselves. (We know this because we do it too.) Want to play the game with a character whose portrait matches yours? This pledge is for you.


Check out CRONUS Wing Director - Portrait Edition

(We’ll also send you a high-res download of the picture.)

You want this. You want the T-shirt. You want the hoodie. You want the baseball cap. And you want an extra copy of the game or a Beta Access. Obviously. Here’s what you need to do.


You need to pledge CRONUS Corporal tier or above to be able to include add-ons

You probably know very well how to increase tier level (Please consider it!). If not we will help.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darkcrystalgames/encased-old-school-isometic-turn-based-rpg/posts/2314621

Hello there, Encased Community!

Just now, we calculated the total Community Points you’ve gathered with your Likes and Shares. Guess what: there are exactly 48 of them! That means it’s time to unlock the next social goal, and today’s reward is an unusual weapon, unique in the game, the Dragon Katana!


We unlocked 48 points

Kimiko Nakamura, head of the New Committee, is constantly followed by an inconspicuous, gloomy man wearing headphones. Practically nothing is known about this man, and even his name, “Henry”, is widely considered to be an alias.

Reliable facts about “Henry” are scarce: he is 194 centimeters tall, loves music, and always wears headphones. He also carries a sizeable katana in a lacquered wooden sheath, about which, perhaps, we know more than about Henry himself.


Gunblade Katana is now unlocked

This sword is clearly of custom design. In addition to the blue steel blade, this katana has an unnaturally long handle. Taking a closer look, one sees a pistol grip and trigger are concealed within the hilt.


There are two more rewards, keep it up!

Eyewitnesses familiar with the design say the katana is capable of firing .50 caliber incendiary rounds. Those who’ve seen this strange weapon in actual combat will probably not say anything - because they are dead.

Two more Social Goals to go. Can we do this?

Thank you!

New Kickstarter Final push Teaser!

And we do want to express our sincere gratitude to our backers in these exact words. We are thrilled to be able to make Encased the RPG exactly as it was intended, with your help.

The Kickstarter campaign is taking a lot of energy and we are damned tired, but there’s still about a week to go and we have tons of plans and ideas. What else can we include in the game to make it even better and more interesting? How will additional funds from this point on affect Encased?

That’s what we’ll cover in today's update!

$105 000 — The Fallen Fortress Encounter

Fascinating combat encounter where the player must defend a crashed bomber in the desert against a crowd of raiders. Read more about this event in one of our previous updates.



$110 000 — Interesting Free Play

Mode Encased won’t end when the credits roll. Moreover, the post-completion Free Play Mode will get a number of interesting options, additional quests, events and dialogues. The game will also “remember” which ending the player achieved and the world will adjust accordingly.

$120 000 — Upgradable Mobile HQ

An auto-train buried in the sands will appear on the outskirts of the Dome. The hero will be able to capture and restore it, and use it as a mobile base of operations.



The auto-train is designed to be modular: some cars provide the ability to produce weapons, others allow you to heal injured comrades (or yourself), and a third type acts as a launching pad for reconnaissance drones. There are also several random events and quests associated with the road train.

$130 000 — Player Vehicles



The desert under the Dome is vast and dangerous. It is much safer, and less exhausting, to travel behind the wheel of your own vehicle. However, safety does not equal boredom. Automobile ownership automatically triggers the appearance of specialized “automotive” events in the game, as well as additional ways to complete quests.



Also, the car (or the motorcycle) can be upgraded into a real post-apocalyptic tank.

$130 001 — 1 Combond Encounter

We’re all used to quests of epic complexity being rewarded with superior loot and good money. But what about an adventure that pays a single coin? Will it be easy? Maybe. Will it be strange? Definitely. In any case, the result will be completely unpredictable.



After collecting $130,001, we will add this funny and unusual quest to the game.

$135 000 — Personal Drone Assistants

Robotics is one area where the technologies under the Dome have been successfully implemented. These little-studied mechanisms have allowed the creation of lightweight, levitating drones that crack wise, criticize the player’s actions, occasionally do useful things, and sometimes even participate in combat.



The drone is not merely a companion, but also an exciting “construction kit”, whose components can be assembled in a variety of ways. As a result, you might convert a frail flying robot into an incredibly effective fighter, or an inconspicuous scout into a universal first-aid kit, darting from unit to unit on the battlefield.

$145 000 — Gladiator Arena

Having been captured by one of the raider factions, a player may find himself in a real post-apocalyptic coliseum! Gladiatorial combat in the world of Encased is not just a bloody fight for survival, but a whole game unto itself, with match-fixing, intrigue, and confrontation between champions.



You will also discover unique items, interesting text events, and a couple of extra hours of gameplay to spend knocking the crap out of opponents in multiple colorful and detailed arenas.

And by the way, you can bet on yourself at the local bookie.

$160 000 — Mod Support

A good RPG often awakens the desire to continue or expand its story. Or write a completely new one. Such has been the case with the classic Fallout, as well as The Elder Scrolls series, and we hope the same will be true of Encased.

If we collect $160,000 or more, we will create a toolkit with a user-friendly interface to pass along to our players.

$210 000 — Narrative Voiceover

Encased has a lot of stories that could be even better if the “narrator” had a real voice. But we need your help with this.

Project funding info: $99,799 pledged by 2,331 backers!

Once again - thanks to each and every one of you!

The history of the Dome began with a hazardous, solitary expedition comprised of military personnel and a handful of scientists. Since then, much has changed. CRONUS was formed, the number of permanent citizens of the Dome grew to 27,000, and the lifeless desert is now littered with settlements and outposts. One thing remains the same: the people in charge are scientists and military personnel.

And where you find military, you’ll find weapons, as well as good reasons to use them. In today's update, we’ll tell you a little bit about the Encased arsenal.

CRONUS is a wealthy and influential organization, and many corporations vied to have them for a client. The firearms market under the Dome is divided among four competing firms: Horizon I&R, Vixen, Westminster Defense Solutions, and Forge Co.

Each of these manufacturers has its own lineup and own philosophy. Forge Co. are the most cynical, combining mass-marketing and mediocrity to appeal to a family audience. The only distinguishing feature of Forge Co. guns are average price and average quality. Forge Co.’s ideological opposite is Horizon Industries and Research (Horizon I&R), which fabricates high quality weaponry and distributes it via sales agents who travel the Dome, suitcases in hand. While these agents are now lost to the dunes, the Vixen shops are still standing. Vixen has outlets in every rundown village and town. Their second-rate SMGs can often be found at huge discounts. The last corporation in the weapons market is Westminster. Westminster specializes in older, but time-tested, rifles.

Products from different manufacturers vary not only in price and features: upgrade potential and firearms-related perks also differ.

***



Upgrades allow the player to improve the accuracy, rate of fire and magazine capacity of firearms. You won’t find two identical rifles in any one Encased walkthrough: two guns of the same model will differ at least slightly in their upgrades and degree of wear.

Firearms can be disassembled on a special workbench, creating some interesting game options: weapons stripped for parts can be sold piecemeal for better value. Or, having obtained a dozen identical rifles, disassemble them all and pick the best parts to create one superior weapon.



Aside from these considerations, each weapon has a scale of Familiarity. Regular use of one particular firearm leads to small but fun bonuses. At the same time, focusing on a particular type of weapon (from pistols to sniper rifles) increases your Proficiency in all weapons of that type.

***

If you’re not a fan of guns, Encased has still more to offer. The game arsenal includes dozens of melee weapons, many of which were suggested by our community. Several different companies are engaged in production and supply of these items, but the biggest player is Danny Reynolds Supplies. Reynolds produces a huge catalogue of bladed implements, ranging from kitchen knives and machetes to more exotic types, like the kukri.

Combat for a melee-spec’d character is risky and adrenaline-driven. While the shooter requires a high skill level and proper use of cover, the main catalyst for victory in melee combat is inventive juggling of abilities: you can backstab someone, block an incoming attack, or (with the rights skills) disarm your opponent.

In addition, the player who prefers melee will appreciate the ability to manage the distance between himself and his prey. Reynolds’ shops sometimes carry harpoon guns, the perfect tool to encourage distant enemies to get a little closer, and even jetpacks(!), allowing you to immediately access different height levels on the map.

***

Jetpacks and harpoon guns are very useful, but throwing weapons, including darts, knives, Molotov cocktails and, of course, grenades, have an even greater influence on tactics.

Who doesn’t love a nice, bloody explosion? Here come the grenades! There will be several grenade types in Encased. In addition to the classic frag grenade, the protagonist will have access to smoke, flashbangs, incendiary, and EMP grenades, which completely shut down the enemy's electronics.



With the right grenade, you can change the tactical situation on the battlefield in just one throw: cover your retreat with smoke (greatly reducing hit probability), or block aisles and chokepoints with incendiaries. And thanks to flashbangs, you can render even the strongest opponent helpless for the next couple of moves.

In designing weapons for Encased, our goal is to get away from the “war of numbers,” where the side with the biggest guns and thickest armor always prevails. Instead, we offer our players dynamic battles based on ingenuity, tactics, and competent use of many different equipment features.

We love items with a great backstory: not just an energy pistol, not just a visor or Blue Wing cutting torch, but something with a past, with scars that can be read.

A suit of gray, high-tech body armor is peppered with bullet marks and burn patterns from explosive charges, as well a custom paint job and a thin coat of desert dust. Standard gears and hydraulics have been replaced with handtooled mechanisms… This armor remains locked in a bunker for several years.

And then the player finds it.

Remember that we unlock additional content when certain social goals have been met. Each new share, subscription, or Like on Facebook and Twitter earns our community achievement points. These points grant access to rewards we will add to Encased.


Together we unlocked 36 points

Read more about the system here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darkcrystalgames/encased-old-school-isometic-turn-based-rpg/posts/2297047

Today, our community reached another reward - a special servoshell color scheme!


Servoshel coloring is now unlocked

A gloved hand snaps away a dusty tarp with Black Wing insignia. Lamps flare a little brighter, illuminating acrylic painted armor. Chrome servo hoses shimmer in the dim light.

The original soldier’s name and rank have been erased. In black, it now simply says “Mike”.

***

Far out in the uncharted desert there is a database center containing CRONUS employee records. If you open the personnel table, you will find a total of 43 people on the Committee named “Michael,” and four more registered as “Mike”. Narrowing the search to Black Wing employees gives you four “Mikes” in total. Their employment status was updated to “Deceased” soon after the incident with Maelstrom.

Because the right Mike, the Mike who made this armor, is not Black Wing. Nor Blue Wing (eight people, one dead), nor White (twenty-three), nor Orange (seven surviving, two dead).

Mike is a Silver, perhaps the craziest Silver under the Dome.

***

Michael Hurd Jr. could have written a book about his life if he had been able to hold still long enough. He did try writing a book once, at the age of fourteen, when he wished to become a writer. He also loved sports and planned to become a professional baseball player, as well as a sailor, a surfer (as if the climate in New England is conducive to surfing!), an automobile designer, and a financier. In the end, it was that last profession which led Mike to the Dome, and the financial department of Silver Wing.

After a year of working for the Committee, Michael realized he was in trouble: he lacked the perseverance and discipline needed for career advancement, and without the right education there was no way to transfer to a different Wing. Mike would have preferred to leave the Dome altogether, but of course that was not an option.

But in the midst of a gray depression, Mike came up with a plan: rob the vault at his base, occupy one of the hundreds of cozy, uninhabited objects in the distant desert, and live life the way he did before, exactly as his whim would have it.

After considering the many different angles, he declared his plan flawless. Now came the execution.


Well actually there is more than one, but which one you like the most?

On the appointed day, Mike removed the beacon from his CaerOS so that he could not be traced. Then, using a stolen management override, he breached the vault and seized close to 1,700,000 combonds. Overnight he became the wealthiest Silver on the base.

But no matter how perfect the plan, the unforeseen can always derail it: in the midst of the heist, the base’s electrical systems flickered and died before switching to emergency mode. The alarm linked to the vault, which Mike had previously deactivated, rebooted. The moment he touched the door, the sirens began their terrible song...

Mike fled, but ended up cornered in a warehouse. While the engineers were readying equipment to break through the doors, the administration was gathering all available forces just behind them.

The security doors fell in with a hollow boom. Mike stood before his former colleagues in a servoshell which for some reason he had wrapped in a dozen CRONUS-issue synthetic warehouse storage bags.

As it reads in the operations log, M.Hurd Jr. responded to their offer of surrender with his middle finger. With negotiations now over, Black Wing forces unleashed a storm of gunfire and the great chamber lit up with a dozen powerful flashes. Mike had planned a couple of surprises however. Beneath his robe of bags were two additional layers of security. The first was a carpet of bulletproof vests. The second was a necklace of flashbangs, which defanged the gunmen immediately.

The ops log went on to say that Mike came out of this exchange completely unharmed. The servoshell had deflected both bullets and the effect of the flashbangs, while the thick wads of cash stuffed between his clothes and the armor no doubt helped to dampen the concussive effect of the grenades.

In a smoking armor suit, now a walking vault full of money, Mike exited the base.

And immediately got lost in the desert.

Project funding info: 10 days left! We still have time to wrap it, and maybe even touch some stretch goals. We are 93% funded, with $93,012 pledged by 2,152 backers! Thank you! See you next week with new exciting info about the game! Don't hesitate to ask questions in the comments section.

If you don't have enough of Dark Crystal Games check this interview article by Chris Picone! Thank you for reaching out, Chris!

The light of a flashing TV screen in a dark room makes your eyes sting. When your eyes have adjusted, you recognize the logo of the Dome Police Department soaring over the pale pink sands of the desert - seems like the colors are slightly off.

The desert is replaced with a massive wooden table in a bright room. A large, dark-skinned man in a brand new police uniform is leaning slightly towards the camera.


Sergeant Major James Keppler himself

“Greetings, cadets. I'm Sergeant Major James Keppler of the Black Wing Public Supervision Department. We perform police duties throughout the New Committee zone, as well as in friendly, neutral, and uninhabited areas of the Dome.

Get your pens and pencils ready. In this tutorial video, I’m going to tell you about our criminal code and about the measures we take against offenders.”

Keppler is a great storyteller, but let’s let him have the floor a bit later. In today's update, we discuss how the law works in the world under the Dome.

The world in post-apocalyptic settings is often one of absolute lawlessness, but Encased is an exception to this rule. In any civilized corner of the Dome, the player will have to think twice before killing a merchant or robbing a defenseless traveler, for there is a Justice System in the game which includes the following concepts:

Infamy: the motivation of the police to capture you. Ranges from 0 to 5.

Tension: the degree to which crime will be tolerated in the region. The lower the tolerance level, the more Infamy points the criminal will get for each transgression. In fact, it is an Infamy “multiplier." The Tension of each region ranges from 1 to 3.

Statute of Limitations: the time frame in which a criminal may be prosecuted. Varies from a few hours of game time to infinity.

Area: ranges from the spot on which the victim stands to the whole territory under the Dome.

The most important of these measures is Infamy. Infamy determines the intensity of the pursuit and the severity of his punishment.

In the video, Keppler limps as he makes his way around the table. It seems he hasn’t fully recovered from a recent leg injury.

“Law abiding citizens have an Infamy level of zero. However, we strictly monitor all crimes under the Dome and punishment will follow even a minor offense. Minor theft without bodily harm is an estimated 0.5 points of Infamy. Significant theft of money or valuables, as well as bodily harm to the victim, 1 point. Robbery and GBH, 2 points. Bank robbery, shoplifting and murder, 3 points. Mass murder, 4. In exceptional cases, a particularly egregious offender will receive 5 points. This will result in a search throughout the whole territory of the Dome.”

The Infamy level is a dynamic value, decreasing the farther you are from the crime scene. Prosecution for minor transgressions does not extend beyond the town sector or game location, while a criminal with an Infamy of 3 will be hunted throughout the whole city. At level 4 they will stalk the violator throughout that entire faction territory. If you reach Infamy 5 you’d better sleep with both eyes open. At that point, you’d be better off hiding out in some remote area until the threat has passed. But no matter how far you run, there is always a chance the authorities will come for you.

You might be able to hide, but most likely you will get caught.

***

“In most cases, we will let the offender off with a fine. This has proven quite an effective deterrent. However murder or serious injury to the victim requires imprisonment. If convicted, extremely dangerous criminals will be executed in accordance with New Committee laws."



Any character who consistently violates the law will end up in prison sooner or later. The imprisonment period is a whole new “game within the game.” The player can try to display that he’s been rehabilitated, plot an escape, bribe a guard or a judge, or even provoke a riot! Alternately, a hero with high Persuasion can argue his innocence in court with a fiery speech, or try to intimidate the judge in private.

But sometimes you will be unable to speak convincingly and running is not an option. In such cases the protagonist is forced, as in the Middle Ages, into the stocks in the town square, or to “do time” behind bars.



In the territories outside the New Committee zone, the punishment is more severe: the guilty are cast into the Labyrinth of Death.

Keppler walks to the overhead projector and inserts a slide. A disturbing image appears on the screen behind him: the dancing light of torches, an armed mob, and a gate opening on the grinning mouth of a metal beast.

“Write this down, Cadet: the Trial of the Labyrinth is a cherished tradition in the wild. The convict must navigate a cruel maze filled with traps, the autonomous combat systems of the Forefathers, and other desperate convicts ready to kill and devour newcomers."

It is a cruel tradition, but in spite of all its horror the labyrinth offers a faint hope: occasionally a lucky convict will pass the gauntlet alive.


Enter the labyrinth of death

Officer Keppler turns the projector off and stands by the table again, hands behind his back. The screen goes black, replaced in the darkness by quivering bands of interference.

Once again, we would like to begin our update by thanking our backers: thanks to you, we’ve already raised $81,894. We’re in the home stretch now. We only need another little push to make the campaign a success.

Yesterday we have surpassed 2,000 total backers and raised funds in excess of $75,000, we will lift the veil of secrecy over the two secret stretch goals. Thanks again!


New goals unlocked

We will also talk about additional content to be added if pledges exceed $110,000 and $120,000 respectively.

Read about Stretch Goal #1: The Fallen Fortress in Kickstarter Update #12


To us, one of the most interesting gameplay opportunities is to allow the player to continue in the world of Encased even after the main storyline has been resolved. After all, there are always outstanding quests you might want to solve, unexplored locations and hidden secrets that you will want to revisit after saving the world (or watching it drown in the abyss of chaos).

But no matter how much we love this style of play, we have to admit that when it is implemented it often ends up rather boring: no new content, no more reactivity, the world just carries on.

Therefore we are opening up a new goal for Encased - post-game free play with new content! Here is what awaits if we meet this stretch goal:

- The world itself changes, depending on how the core game ends.

- Bonus gameplay mechanics.

- Many new quests and random events available only after the main plot is resolved.


In the early 70’s, just after the Dome was discovered, the first group of scientists (not yet united under CRONUS) began to brainstorm different methods of exploration. When they discovered that entering the Dome is a one-way ticket, many proposals were put forward for autonomous exploration. But only one of them resulted in a functioning prototype.

This is how a huge machine came to be crawling through the sands of the Dome: Project Ursula.

“Ursula” is a futuristic, desert-traveling locomotive. She is powered by not only an eighteen liter engine, but also an electric motor and even a small reactor fueling the heart of the machine, a self-teaching onboard computer also called Ursula. In addition, an entire working laboratory is contained within the vehicle, with its own dock for research drones.

Despite her purely scientific purpose, Ursula is not defenseless; she is outfitted with multiple weapon systems. The machine guns are loaded and dusty viewfinders scour the horizon, but as of yet her combat journals remain untouched. Ursula’s mainframe moved the train into an uninhabited sector soon after the incident. There she lain ever since, lights out and systems dormant, hidden in the sands. Finding and capturing her won’t be easy...


Game Design Prototype

Taking over Ursula will add a lot of additional fun features, a bit of management and solid core gameplay: the machine will act as your HQ, where you can recover from your wounds and store your loot.

The design of the road train also includes a stationary defense mode. The armored hull can be disassembled and turn your parking space into a makeshift camp.

And of course you can use Ursula to travel across the desert. But it’s worth remembering that the ground train will need spare parts to continue functioning smoothly, and also fuel, because the reactor’s supply of plutonium won’t last forever.

***

Additional cars for Ursula may be found in secluded corners of the desert, waiting patiently for the player.

Adding cars will add functionality: an advanced medical compartment, a workshop with machine tools, a training complex, or a platform with large-caliber weapons will appear in your base. The last one will once and for all put an end to any issues with security.

Each new train car also increases fuel consumption and requires the hiring of additional crew members.

***

Managing this huge machine requires employees of different expertise: Blue to watch over the engine and systems, White to control high-precision equipment, Black to drive and man the guns, while Orange may be found crawling around the undercarriage with a plunger syringe greasing the suspension and cursing loudly.

If you manage to recruit a Silver Wing officer to the crew, he will take on the role of Commander in your absence, and you will be able to send the train on missions, the details of which are still classified.

The crew is in constant communication: the player can order Ursula to any point where she has access.

***

Since we’ve mentioned the possibility of using the machine in various quests, it is worth mentioning that Ursula-related random encounters will only occur if the player has already captured and is using the ground train.

One day, a battered drone with a tightly sealed container will fly to you from the deep desert. A weird, robed stranger will arrive to take a post in the depths of the engine room. While parsing Ursula’s files, a Blue crewmember will stumble onto a map of the Dome with a previously uncharted location. Or maybe the machine will make you and your people its captives...

There are many stories, and they all start in the desert lands at the far flung edge of the Dome, where Ursula dozes, and the on-board computer counts down the last minutes before she wakes.

There is almost certainly no game genre in which the storyline plays a greater role than in the RPG. The storyline creates the ground under the hero's feet, motivates his decision making, and drives a person from the safety of his Vault into a perilous quest for a water chip. In today’s update we will not simply relate Encased’s storyline, but also explore it, try to comprehend its origins, and imagine the place to which it will lead the player. We will also hear from people behind storyline development for the game.

Encased RPG - Dev Update 2 - Behind The Storyline

The game takes place in the 1970’s, a decade with many similarities to our own history but with one tiny twist: the discovery of the Dome.

[... both helicopters from the search group were wrecked, only one crew member survived. He said that one of the vehicles allegedly crashed against an "invisible wall" and, falling, collided with the second helicopter.]

[... like the Bermuda Triangle, except that it’s not really a triangle. A sergeant broke his nose against this thing when they set up camp near the crash site.]

[...an unpleasant surprise. Yes, the parachutes opened and our people successfully descended into the Dome. It's not even that one of them died in a gravity anomaly: this is a calculated risk, we also lost robots this way. But who could have guessed that the dome is semi-permeable and our people won’t be able to come back out?]



Why the 1970’s? Because the 70’s were a highly controversial period around the world, and many of the conflicts of that time end up reflected in the world under the Dome. Within the confines of this mysterious anomaly, the details begin to look a little bit... different.

The Dome is the major enigma of the world of Encased. An enormous, artificially engineered structure, with a vast network of underground facilities, full of sentient machines, traps and weird gizmos, the ultimate purpose of which the player will have to decipher on his own. This otherworldly artifact is the foundation of the main storyline, which sets the tone and background for the entire narrative.

But all this comes much later. In its initial stages, the conquest of the Dome was an unqualified success. Naturally, an undertaking of this size and complexity could not come to be without financing. The organization both backing and implementing the research, the CRONUS Foundation, recouped their investment by auctioning, on a global scale, some of the fantastic relics and technologies recovered from the Dome.

As the wealth of CRONUS grew, so did its political influence: as the brainchild of the world political elite, the foundation employed lobbyists around the world to promote its interests.

***

However, this story is not just about some giant corporation: in the game, CRONUS is simply one of the major factions, and nothing prevents the player from examining events under the Dome from an unofficial point of view.

The game is divided into a prologue and three acts. While the prologue relates the game’s backstory, inter-act transitions connect key moments of the main storyline. Each of these transitions marks an irreversible change in the world, and it’s for the player to decide exactly what that change will be.

***

The post-apocalyptic setting is a rich stage for storytelling on any topic. In our case it’s a story about progress, the riddle of long dead civilizations, and creatures from other worlds. It is also a story about human greed leading to strife, and ultimately world war.



We like to think of our plot as a Fallout-like story tailored for lovers of classic science fiction. After all, Fallout’s unforgettable backstory is about building a brand new world. Such inspiring science fiction leads us to a thought experiment: try to answer the question “How will people behave in conditions impossible in our reality?”

On the one hand, Encased is a story about hopes and ambitions. We put a lot of effort into the development of our factions and their leaders, seeking to create fresh and unique personalities with believable motivations and visions for the world they are building. On the other hand, Encased is about an inexplicable force that leaves in its wake a desert full of mysteries, artifacts, and strange, frightening things. Every contact and every interaction with this world leads to more questions than answers.

Interview with our guest stars!



You joined the work on Encased later than the main team and you are still getting into the details of what we have in mind. What do you like the most about the setting or the world of Encased?

I like the incredibly original setting (not just another post-nuclear-blast modern nation) and the faithful but warped 1970s sci-fi aesthetic. Encased has fantastic design backing its very original premise.

We like the idea that any element of the game could be a tool in the creating a story (and the means to tell it). I’m referring to things such as item descriptions, level design, recreating the consequences of an event, etc. What things can you suggest to be the tools of storytelling? Perhaps it will be something very unexpected?

Anything can be a tool of story design. Due to budget constraints, modern game designers are very reluctant to include content the player might miss, so that everything, even minor sidequests, tends to be connected geographically or story-wise to the main quest line. I love to stumble on things in an RPG, an uncharted cave with its own complete story unconnected to any other quest. Great level design could give the player cues to a secret area in an underground bunker. Hiding a breadcrumb leading to a quest in an item description is a great idea.



You write for games, but you've also written for movies and TV. How is writing for games different? What are the particular challenges of writing interactive stories?

The obvious difference between TV and games is that games are interactive - in TV you write one version of the story (ideally the best version) but in games you need to write several versions of the story, and they all have to be awesome. More than that, the player has to feel like their choices are unlimited, even though there's no way in the world you can write every possible version. (This may be a challenge - but it's also an advantage. You get to explore a number of different versions of the same story. That's really attractive for a writer.)

Many of the story-telling principles remain the same, but another big advantage of story-telling in games is that the player controls the protagonist. In some ways this makes it easier to reach the audience emotionally - in TV the viewer is passive, in games the player is active. If the bad guy wins a fight in a TV show, the viewer might feel bad, but the story goes on. If the bad guy wins a fight in a game, it's generally game over. This means that the player isn't 100% focused on the story, because they have to be focused on the gameplay. Gameplay has to come before storytelling. The story has to rise from the gameplay. It's no coincidence that so many role-playing games are set in the world of heroic fantasy, because the core gameplay - exploration, combat and puzzles, usually - is easily served by a story that's simple and easy to tell. Stepping outside of heroic fantasy is a brave move, but it's going to make for a fascinating journey.

Now there is a clear trend for games with a rich history and Encased claims to be such a game. Do you think this is a temporary trend, or is the industry doing what it should have done a long time ago?

I don't pay a lot of attention to trends, in games or elsewhere, but having worked for Swen on Divinity: Original Sin 2, there's a lot to be said for taking the games you love and trying to do better. That's what creators do - we take bits of other people's work that we loved and mix it up with a bit of innovation, and this is how we move the culture forwards. We create from our own experiences, but also from the parts of the culture that connect with us. I know my own work is influenced by Stephen King and Metallica and the McDonagh brothers and Red Dwarf and Asimov and The Sopranos and 80s action movies and... well, the list is never-ending. Point is, all of those influences, combined with my life experience, make me who I am as a writer. Encased may be particularly inspired by Fallout 2, but Dark Crystal's passion for that game is going to mix with their love for Roadside Picnic, and DOS2, and all the other things they've known and loved over the years, and that will mix with their particularly Russian viewpoint (and that of their Irish and American guest writers) - and when you bring it all together, you'll get something new and unique and wonderful. Players who also loved Fallout 2 will be inspired by Encased, but there'll be players out there who've never played a Fallout game who'll love it too, because it'll be something new in and of itself.

If anything, this is a purer creative endeavor than, say, taking an existing IP and making yet another sequel to it, just because you know it'll be easier to market. (Nothing wrong with this, of course, studios have wages to pay!) But while Encased is inspired by old-school games, it's a new IP of its own. A new thing to add to the culture. And with a bit of luck, it'll inspire someone in years to come to make their own new thing. It's a thrill to be part of it.

Project funding info: $72,194 pledged by 1,983 backers and we still have a little less than two weeks. Thank you all!

The new week starts with good news! You were really active in Facebook and Twitter, and we are happy to put another tick in our Social Goals section. The nearest delivery will bring a batch of unique motorcycle jackets to the world under the Dome.


We have reached the mark of 33 Community Points

Darren's troops jacket

In the times of the Dome being actively explored, Darren Sherman, one of the Black Wing’s generals, proposed the creation of motorcycle detachments for rapid response in case of emergency.


Motorcycle Leather Jacket unlocked

The idea was close to the embodiment: a batch of powerful motorcycles was delivered to the Dome, and the uniform of the biker squads was designed from the ground up, taking into account the most stringent requirements for ergonomics and safety.

And then the Maelstrom broke loose so that the idea of the motorcycle squadron had no chance to become the reality. They say that the choppers are still stationed in one of the deserted warehouses, with odometers, stuck at around a couple of dozen miles. The jackets were much more fortunate: they can still be bought from wandering merchants or looted from bandits robbing old arsenals…



Thank you for your activity once again. We remind you that your likes, shares and follows are more important to us now than ever. A little more than two weeks remain till the end of the campaign, and we would really appreciate if as many people as possible could learn about Encased by that time.

We've already gathered more than $71,000, and this all could be possible only due to your support. Shares, likes and follows in social media are of much greater value to us, than it may seem, and each one of you can cope with it easily.

Check out previous updates and learn more about social goals and what was unlocked in previous updates (in case you missed them).

Encased Kickstarter Update #11: Help Spread the Word!

Encased Kickstarter Update #12: New stretch goal, social goals achieved

Thanks in advance for your help and understanding. Together we can make Encased a really great game.



And now - pay close attention! October 5th at 7 PM CET / 10 AM PDT we are going to have a dev stream, where we will show the inner kitchen of game development, answer your questions and make Encased and Dark Crystal Games merchandise giveaway.

You can ask questions right here, under this update, or in our Twitter account, but we will also answer everything asked during the stream time.

Waiting for you October 5th at 7 PM CET / 10 AM PDT.
Our channel link: https://www.twitch.tv/darkcrystalhq