Saint Kotar has reached (and has passed since) the 100% mark on Kickstarter! The game is not only fully funded but it's also coming to consoles (Nintendo Switch, Playstation and Xbox) as we've managed to achieve the first stretch goal "Console ports". Exciting times!
Next stretch goal: Backstory DLC + Partial Voice Acting
But the Kickstarter campaign is not over yet, there's still 4 days until the end! If you've played Saint Kotar: The Yellow Mask you already know there are a lot of things that happened the night before the start of the free prologue. Almost every character has something to say about last night's events, and what's happening in the prologue is directly related to what happened the night before.
Without spoiling too much, it is the night of the town's special day, the night of the ritual. It is also the night when Benedek, Nikolay and Viktoria arrive in town. The full game continues where the prologue ends, while the last night's events are part of the backstory that was never planned to be playable. But if we reach the stretch goal "Backstory DLC + Partial Voice Acting" we can make it a reality, in the form of a DLC.
The Backstory DLC would offer an additional 1 to 2 hours of gameplay time while playing with Viktoria, the mysterious character that is not even seen, but is often talked about, in the prologue. The DLC would be exclusively free for all the backers of this Kickstarter campaign. Each backer that pledged to the "Early Key to Heaven" (or "Key to Heaven") tier or to any of the higher priced tiers would get this DLC for free if the stretch goal is achieved.
The 11:00 PM CEST on Friday, July 17, deadline has passed. It was a goal were we had to achieve 100% in order to unlock all the remaining hidden locations in the game (so far, only 2 of them have been unlocked with the community stretch goals).
When we announced the goal on Thursday the project was funded 87%. At the time of writing this post we are at 94%. Even if we didn't get to 100%, an increase of 7% in two days is a great achievement. This is a result of a lot of new backers joining the project (we are now over 900 backers), but also of the many existing backers increasing their pledges. And not to forget those who have spread the word out about the campaign! Our backers were all incredible and we cannot ignore their efforts, they deserve to be rewarded:
Yes! Even if we didn't achieve the goal, we decided to reward the amazing support they've been giving us (and not only for the past two days) by unlocking all the remaining hidden locations in the game. This means that the game will have a total number of 7 hidden locations to be uncovered! Hidden locations are locations that offer an insight into the background story and lore of the town, a non-playable character to interact with, a special item that could help with the progress at certain points in the story, or sometimes even all of the above mentioned together. To learn more about these locations, read post update #4.
Let's continue rising and pushing forward
With 7 days to go until the end of the campaign we need only about 2000€ (about $2200) to fund this project! The sooner we achieve it, the quicker we'll be able to focus on the stretch goals that are waiting just around the corner.
If we manage to have the project funded by 11:00 PM CEST on Friday, July 17, which is today, we will unlock all the remaining hidden locations in the full game Saint Kotar (so far, only 2 hidden locations have been unlocked). This special goal will replace all the remaining community stretch goals.
Hidden locations are locations that offer an insight into the background story and lore of the town, a non-playable character to interact with, a special item that could help with the progress at certain points in the story, or sometimes even all of the above mentioned together. To learn more about these locations, read post update #4 on Kickstarter.
A total of 884 backers have supported this project so far, pushing it so high to be 93% funded, with 7 days to go.
All hidden locations in Saint Kotar can be unlocked until Friday!
Surprise, surprise!
We have a surprise, an unexpected goal that if achieved will unlock all the remaining hidden locations that are currently tied to the community stretch goals. So far only two of the total number of se7en hidden locations have been unlocked.
Hidden locations are locations that offer an insight into the background story and lore of the town, a non-playable character to interact with, a special item that could help with the progress at certain points in the story, or sometimes even all of the above mentioned together. To learn more about these locations, read post update #4 on Kickstarter.
We need to achieve 100%
The goal is very simple: if we manage to have the project funded by 11 PM CEST on Friday, July 17, we will unlock all the remaining hidden locations in the game. This special goal will replace all the remaining community stretch goals.
Considering that right now we are 87% funded and that we have a trend of growing 3 to 5% each day, this goal is very achievable! It does need a stronger push than usual, but it's not impossible.
And hey, can you imagine? The game will have all the hidden locations and it will be funded! And then we can start looking at those sweet stretch goals. Oh, what a day, what a lovely day it would be! :)
Get the word out about this special goal and we'll do the same. Let's get it achieved and the project funded together!
Saint Kotar Kickstarter campaign extended by 7 days!
7-day extension
Great news: the Kickstarter team extended our campaign by 7 days!
They saw the potential of the project and the efforts put into the campaign, they've seen a great community of backers... and so they agreed to extend the campaign until Saturday, July 25.
In normal circumstances Kickstarter doesn't allow extensions, but the spread of COVID-19 has created uncertainty and stress for so many people, including developers and backers alike, that they decided to make exceptions. We believe the pandemic has played its part in slowing down this campaign.
The extension is great news that certainly helps, but we must keep growing to achieve the goal(s) in front of us. After we get the basic goal, there's the Console ports goal, then there are the voice acting goals... and many more that are still waiting to be uncovered. Exciting times ahead of us! :)
Interactive animated comic book and time limited discount!
The background story and lore of Saint Kotar span a long period of history, going as far back as Ancient era Europe. We’ve invested so much work into creating a unique story and world with a long history (relating it to real-life events, objects and people), which gives us the opportunity to tell several stories from different time periods, each connected to the present-day story of Saint Kotar.
One of these stories is Saint Kotar: The Sek’vra Book, an interactive animated comic book set in 15th century Europe during the onset of a dark age for this continent. The widespread panic that lead to hunts and extermination of heretics at the time was merely a consequence of something far more sinister. At the heart of this darkness was a predestined witch and her sacrifice to help fulfill an ominous prophecy.
[previewyoutube="DBNsCxqLIf4;full"]
This dark tale in The Sek'vra Book is connected to the present-day story of the game Saint Kotar and will be delivered in the form of an interactive animated comic book (its one page preview is seen in the video above) which is included in the ”Early Fear of Sights and Sounds” tier and all higher priced tiers.
If you pledge to “Hands of Fate”, “Malleus Maleficarum” or “Pontifex Maximus” tier, among a wealth of other things, you will appear as a specific character in the same comic book. Visit the Kickstarter page and look out for these tiers, they are discounted but only for a limited time: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redmartyr/saint-kotar?ref=34wgpx
Important: by pledging on Kickstarter you get the full game on release!
We've received a few messages from potential backers asking us what do they get by pledging on Kickstarter. They were confused by the description "Digital copy of Saint Kotar for a special Kickstarter price" in the bulleted list of all tiers and the text "... plus the Saint Kotar key for a special Kickstarter price for..." in the "Key to Heaven" tier.
No one told us until now that this description was confusing, but now that some did we had to react to clear up any doubts.
By pledging to the tier/reward "Early Key to Heaven" (sold out) or "Key to Heaven" and every other higher priced tier/reward, you get the full game on release. You will not have to pay anything more later when the game comes out and you will get the full experience.
What the description "Digital copy of Saint Kotar for a special Kickstarter price" in the rewards means is that you are buying the full game now but at a discounted price in confront to the price that will be set on release in stores.
The Kickstarter system doesn't allow us to edit the description once the rewards have already been pledged to so we don't have a choice but to reach out to all of our followers and explain it this way.
4 new NPC tiers added, first community stretch goal achieved
75% funded!
Hello everyone, we have some great news today - the Kickstarter project is going full force towards the goal, we are now 75% funded!
Yesterday, a backer bought the 5000€ tier "One of the Seven Disciples". That tier is limited to 7 backers, so if you want to visit the mountain region of Croatia, where the fictive town of Sveti Kotar is placed, you can still pledge to it and get a wealth of nice goodies as well as in-game objects dedicated only to you. The tier was designed to let you experience the atmosphere and see with your own eyes the mysteriously beautiful region that inspired the creation of the game's world.
Gorski kotar, Croatia. The mountain region where the game takes place.
New NPC tiers added
We have added 4 new tiers that give the backers a possibility to become a non-playable character in Saint Kotar. One of them, the 1100€ tier "Head Worshipper" has already been sold out!
The backer who pledged to the tier "Head Worshipper" became the leader of a sinister cult in Saint Kotar.
By pledging to the tier "Bookworm" you become the bookstore owner, a furtive woman that knows so much and yet speaks so little about the town's dark secrets. We will design this non-playable character based on your look. You can pledge to this tier or increase your existing pledge and choose this tier here.
By pledging to the tier "Chief at the Edge of Hell" you become the chief of police, a respected and feared persona in this town tormented by agony and sorrow. We will design this non-playable character based on your look and your character will be voiced (if, at least, partial voice acting stretch goal is achieved) by Happy Anderson, the American actor best known for his role in the Netflix's tv show Mindhunter. You can pledge to this tier or increase your existing pledge and choose this tier here.
By pledging to the tier "Saintly Shepherd" you become the town's priest, a highly respected person and the only true leader of this strange community. We will design this non-playable character based on your look and your character will be voiced (if, at least, partial voice acting stretch goal is achieved) by Kellen Goff, the American actor best known for his roles in The Last of Us 2 and Five Nights at Freddy's. You can pledge to this tier or increase your existing pledge and choose this tier here.
Each of these 4 new tiers include a wealth of other physical and digital goodies as well. Take a look at all the tiers of this campaign here.
First community stretch goal achieved
We are going full force with the community stretch goals as well. One of them has been achieved, and others are progressing fine as well!
Reminder: whenever we achieve one community stretch goal, there will be a new hidden location in the game waiting to be discovered. In total, there are se7en hidden locations to be unlocked. You can learn more about them in the Kickstarter post update #4.
Only 7 days left!
We need only 25% to get the project funded and then only the sky is the limit! Although we have only 7 days left we can still reach even the stretch goals! Let's do it! :)
Consider supporting the project on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redmartyr/saint-kotar?ref=34wgpx
70% funded Kickstarter, Simplified Chinese localization added
Saint Kotar is currently 70% funded on Kickstarter, with over 650 backers and 8 days to go. Earlier today a backer bought the 5000 € tier "One of the Seven Disciples". What a great start of the day that was!
We also listen ad we care for the players. Based on the players' feedback a new update for the prologue was pushed yesterday. It includes:
Simplified Chinese localization
a bigger font size
brightness slider in the menu
minor updates and bug fixes
And, lastly, from the start of the Kickstarter campaign we had a few gameplay videos and trailers, but we didn't have a pitch video. Now it's here, showing and telling you all about the project and the team working on it. It's a nice pitch for a dark game, isn't it? :)
If you've played Saint Kotar: The Yellow Mask you already know there are a lot of things that happened the night before the start of the free prologue. Almost every character has something to say about last night's events, and what's happening in the prologue is directly related to what happened the night before.
Without spoiling too much, it is the night of the town's special day, the night of the ritual. It is also the night when Benedek, Nikolay and Viktoria arrive in town. The full game continues where the prologue ends, while the last night's events are part of the backstory that was never planned to be playable. But if we reach the stretch goal "Backstory DLC + Partial Voice Acting" on Kickstarter we can make it a reality, in the form of a DLC.
The Backstory DLC would offer an additional 1 to 2 hours of gameplay time while playing with Viktoria, the mysterious character that is not even seen, but is often talked about, in the prologue. The DLC would be exclusively free for all the backers of the Kickstarter campaign. Each backer that pledged to the "Early Key to Heaven" (or "Key to Heaven") tier and above would get this DLC for free. For other players, outside the Kickstarter, the DLC would be made available with a price on stores, sold separately from the full game.
In addition, this stretch goal would allow us to partially voice the characters in the full game. This means that they would be brought to life again with an amazing pool of talented actors, just like in the prologue, but with the difference of having only some lines voiced. If we reach the "Full Voice Acting + Dev Commentary" stretch goal, in that case everything would be voiced, exactly as it is in the prologue.
