Summary of improvements and features in Saint Kotar
Since after the end of the Kickstarter campaign we've been hard at work to improve and add lots of new features in Saint Kotar. Things that weren't good enough in the prologue were improved, and things that we thought were missing were implemented with the ultimate goal to make the full game an overall better experience. And, hopefully, a truly unique adventure game!
This news post summarizes all the work we've done up until now, explains the 4 pillars of Saint Kotar and, as a reward for being patient reading it, shows an in-game screenshot of a never-seen-before location in the game.
The 4 pillars
Saint Kotar's design is based on, as we like to call them internally, the 4 pillars. They pretty much explain the vision of the game and how it'll be played, and every design and story choice is built on top of them. Essentially, they represent the core of the game!
Two realities: in Saint Kotar you play with two playable characters, Benedek and Nikolay. As you switch between them, in some cases (depending on the point in the story), the reality (sounds and visuals) change as well. This change of reality is connected with who the characters are and how they see the world around them, influencing as well on how you solve some puzzles.
Death scenes: both playable characters can die during the story. I mean, it would be weird not to have death scenes in a horror game, right? If the characters live or die depends on your decisions, not on the time you need to make a decision. Like many other players, we are not fans of time based puzzles.
Exploration: a very important element of the game. If you are adventurous enough, the game rewards you with more lore and background story, unique characters to talk to and special/unique items which you can then use to solve some puzzles in a less complex way. Exploring the town of Sveti Kotar and its surroundings is fun, dangerous and rewarding (unlocks special achievements).
Decisions: they influence how you get through the story and how you influence the world and the characters you meet in this world. Some decisions make some puzzles easier to solve, others make them harder.
Technical overhaul
The technical overhaul was the first thing we started working on after the Kickstarter. It's finished now and we are very happy with the results and what they allow us to have in the game:
better, more fluid and natural-looking character animations
shorter loading times and a better overall optimization of the whole system
close-up scenes (something we thought was missing)
cinematic cut-scenes (same, we were missing them in the prologue)
support for gamepads and achievements
better looking and more user-friendly UI
Rewrite and redesign
In the prologue the player has a role that is too passive, especially in the dialogs. So what we did was to rewrite and redesign the whole story from ground up. This doesn't mean we've changed the story, it just means that the way we are telling it was changed, and for the better. With the new design the player takes a more active role in the game, just like how it needs to be and how it had to be in the first place in the prologue. This leads me to the next point - the UI changes.
UI changes
Dialog options now feature a portrait of the person the playable character is talking to, the last sentence that was spoken during the conversation, and the possibility to see the history (log) of that particular conversation by clicking on the expand button. Conversations are still played out outside the dialog box, just like in the prologue (with the sentences appearing above the characters' heads), and the box appears on screen only when the player has to choose what he/she wants to say or do. Take a look:
When you are wandering around the town or doing stuff (not talking to people), instead of the inventory icon from the prologue, you now see the portrait of the character you are controlling at the moment. And, when the game allows you to switch manually between the two playable characters, a smaller portrait of the other playable character currently not being controlled is visible on screen as well. Clicking on that portrait makes the game to switch control from one character to the other:
A new feature is the Memory system! It allows you to see all the tasks, be it completed or active, and the map of the town and its surroundings. This will be very useful as Saint Kotar not only has main tasks (or quests, if you prefer), but also side tasks that are not mandatory to be solved in order to progress through the story and finish the game. Although, if you do complete them you will be rewarded for doing so.
New version of the prologue coming this summer!
The version of the prologue Saint Kotar: The Yellow Mask that was released in June 2020, and is still available, will be replaced with a new version this summer! This new version, let's call it for now version 2.0, will include all the improvements and new features mentioned above in the article (obviously, the ones that the full game will have as well). It'll be a completely new experience, and it'll be made available for free, again.
New screenshot
Thank you for sticking with the article up to this point (if you just scrolled down to see the screenshot, we won't judge you, but you are missing a lot of valuable information about the game). This is an in-game screenshot of the never-seen-before lodge location in Saint Kotar!
Saint Kotar: The Yellow Mask stream for The Big Adventure Event
Join us for the live stream of Saint Kotar: The Yellow Mask, the prologue of Saint Kotar, as part of the Big Adventure Event! While watching, chat with us and ask us anything you want, from dev related stuff to what type of pizza we like.
Start of the broadcast: Saturday, January 23rd at 9 AM Pacific time (6 PM CET time) Duration of the broadcast: 1 hour, until 10 AM Pacific time (7 PM CET time)
Event name: Big Adventure Event Event link: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/TheBigAdventureEvent
Click play and turn the sound on to get into the mood:
[previewyoutube="77o_aKDKnXA;full"]
Yes! Even in the darkest of places, such as the world of Saint Kotar, one can find light and joy if he wants to. The year we are leaving behind was in many ways sad, hard and tragic... It was dark, but it wasn't lightless. If you are a Kickstarter backer of Saint Kotar, or have supported us in any other way, you can be very proud because you gave us the light when we were on the verge of falling into darkness. That light is driving us now into the new year, towards the completion of this project.
We wish you and yours happy Holidays and a happy, healthy, and playful 2021!
Progress
This update is not only about good wishes, but about good development progress as well. We decided about, and have already started implementing into the game, two things:
death scenes!
Memory system (work in progress title)
Death scenes will be an integral part of the experience. We believe they will add so much to the overall gameplay, and the sense of dread that is crucial in psychological horror stories. I can't disclose all the juicy details about them yet, but to calm you down, they won't be designed as time puzzles. This game will be about the decisions you make, they will shape the story and the characters you meet. Death will be no different, if you live or die will depend solely on your decisions.
The Memory system will allow you to see all the tasks, be it completed or active, and the map of the town and its surroundings. This will be very useful as Saint Kotar won't have a linear system of tasks (which is designed in a way that you complete one task to get a new one and so on) but there will be side tasks too (or quests, if you prefer) that are not mandatory to be solved in order to progress through the story. Although, if you do complete them you will be rewarded, in one or multiple ways.
Have you noticed? We slightly changed the logo as well. Now, you might wonder, why the new cover? Long story short, we believe the new one better represents the game and is more visually appealing than the old one. The new cover is darker, more story-aligned and full of hidden symbolism. Nothing was added on the cover for the sake of making it look nicer, every single element and detail are there for a reason.
Some behind the scenes of the creation process:
[previewyoutube="xOFEWxGiSDI;full"]
UI changes
Aside the technical overhaul and improvements on other important stuff (such as, the smoothness and speed of animations), we've also started redesigning the user interface. Still a work in progress, but this is close to how the new dialog options box will look like in Saint Kotar:
And, still regarding the UI changes, portraits are replacing the inventory icon in the bottom-left corner:
Narrative redesign
We are changing things in the narrative department as well. The goal is to create a better and more enjoyable experience for the player by redesigning how the game is played and by rewriting dialogues and descriptions to make them more exciting to read. This redesign includes the content from the prologue as well and so when the times comes we will release a new version of the prologue (Saint Kotar: The Yellow Mask), for free.
Saint Kotar factsheet
Release date: August 2021
Platforms: Steam, GOG, Nintendo Switch, Playstation, Xbox
Languages: English (text and voice), French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian
Features: Achievements, Full controller support, Cloud saving, Dev commentary
It's October, the spookiest month of the year! On the other hand, nothing spooky is happening in regards to the development of Saint Kotar. Quite the opposite; work is progressing as planned and the team is happy, creative and productive!
If you want to read the longer version of this update, make yourself cozy and head over to the original Kickstarter post. If you prefer to know only the most essential bits, then this is the place to be!
The overhaul
The prologue of Saint Kotar was well received, but it's far from being perfect. And we want the full game to be as perfect as possible, or at least considerably improved, so after the Kickstarter we've started doing an overhaul of the whole system which will bring to the game:
concurrent actions
close-up scenes
cutscenes
better character responsiveness and animations (smoother, faster, more natural)
and, as you may have already noticed if you've played the prologue after the last update (pushed a month ago), far better loading times!
In short, we've picked up all the negative player feedback and we're working from there to improve the game on all counts.
What is happening right now
The overhaul is still a work in progress, and it will be for some time. At the same time, we are almost at the end of a 2-month process of creating all the character models in the game.
[previewyoutube="Wt5T_NrhapY;full"]
Lots of other things are happening in our office on a daily basis. For most of them you really don't want to know the details as they are super boring (administrative tasks), while for the rest it is not yet time to know them. We'll keep you updated on everything, don't worry, just keep following us here, on Kickstarter, on any or all of our social media outlets or Discord.
We've pushed a new update which we fully recommend you to download as it makes the game:
faster! The game now has significantly faster loading times between locations
smaller in size! The game now "weighs" only 3.1 Gb (in confront to the 7.5 Gb before the update)
cleaner and more enjoyable (with less bugs)
As we continue our work on the full game Saint Kotar we'll continue to update the prologue as well. Don't forget to add it to your wishlist, and to stay safe in these troubled times!
The Saint Kotar Kickstarter campaign has successfully ended on Saturday, July 25! It’s been a few days already, but we are still beyond thankful to our community for helping us achieve more than just our base goal.
1,163 backers have pledged €50,178 to help bring Saint Kotar to life, which means we achieved three of our stretch goals. Thanks to the great efforts of our wonderful backers, Saint Kotar will be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms, alongside the PC platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux)!
Even though the campaign has officially ended, you can still support us in the post-Kickstarter campaign via Paypal. This way you can further support the development and pre-purchase the full game; all you have to do is choose one of the available rewards.
The full game will feature up to 20 hours of gameplay, full voice-acting, and developer commentary in which we will explain the development process as you play. It’s important to mention that Saint Kotar will be localized into German, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian, with possible localization into other languages as well, such as Simplified Chinese, Brazilian, Turkish, Polish, and Czech.
We also achieved the “Backstory DLC” stretch goal; the DLC will be exclusively free for the backers and will offer additional 1 to 2 hours of gameplay time playing with Viktoria, the mysterious character that is not seen, but is often talked about, in the prologue.
We have set up the Steam store page for the full game, so you can already add it to your wishlist.
Once again, thank you for being a part of this success story, helping us achieve our goal and making our dream a reality!
Last 48 hours of the Saint Kotar Kickstarter campaign!
Funded 114% with over 1050 backers!
With less than 2 days until the end of the Kickstarter campaign, Saint Kotar is (at the moment of writing this news) 114% funded, with only 500 € away from the next stretch goal that unlocks the Backstory DLC + Partial Voice Acting.
Portrayed by Mirko - LAST 48 hours special add-on!
Until the end of the campaign at 9 AM CEST (3 AM EDT) on Saturday, July 25, for €35 ($40) you can get yourself (or someone else of your choosing) a nice digital portrait illustrated by our artist Mirko. It'll be made with such a quality that you can even print it at your favorite local print shop. Learn more in our post update #26.
"Your bust in-game" add-on still available
You can further contribute to the campaign by choosing two more special and limited add-ons. As revealed two days ago, for €50 ($58) your head (or someone's else of your choosing) can appear in the form of a bust in Saint Kotar, or for only €5 ($6) your name on our Saint Kotar office poster (your name will oversee us while we work hard on the game). To learn more about these two add-ons, read our post update #24.
Thanks to the amazing contribution of our backers on Kickstarter Saint Kotar is (at the moment) 108% funded! We are racing full force towards the next stretch goal "Backstory DLC + Partial Voice Acting", but there's only 4 days left. Time is not on our side now, but ideas are.
To give a nice and meaningful reason to further contribute to the campaign, we present two new add-ons: the "Your bust with your name in-game" and the "Your name on the Saint Kotar poster"!
These two add-ons are special for being available only for the final 4 days of the campaign, while the "Bust" add-on is also super limited to only 50 backers!
Take a look at the infographic below that explains what they offer.
We look forward in seeing your heads in Saint Kotar and your names on our poster! :)
