I’m a Backer: Forsaken Fortress
Its that time of the week again, fellow fanatics, when we look for great projects on Kickstarter, and I shout to the rooftops about one that I am really passionate about. This week in ‘I’m a Backer,’ I pry myself away from all the great comic book projects that have captured my attention for the better part of the last month, and again turn my attention to my other favorite category: games.
This week I am proud to bring you Forsaken Fortress, a genre crossing RPG of post apocalyptic strategy.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
In the words of the creator, this game:
“emphasizes simulation features such as base building, character personality/interaction, and resource collection. You will need to lead a group of survivors to construct your base and maintain its basic functions, such as electricity generation or food storage. Meanwhile, you will ensure the base’s security by building defenses and setting traps. You will also need to lead your expedition team to the wasteland to gather supplies and to work on missions, balancing their professional skills in order to maximize their effectiveness.”
This seems to be a pretty fair assessment; one of the two main reasons I backed the project was it’s innovation, blending some game mechanics and themes together that are an obvious match. This game looks like a wonderful mix of Fallout and The Sims, and what is more obvious to do in a broken world after all, than to rebuild, even in a limited sort of way. If the game play delivers on this process, and I have every reason to believe that it will, than it looks like the game will be a lot of fun to play.
Why am I so confident that this game will deliver? If you have to ask that than you obviously haven’t seen the project page. Their video, though mixed in its quality shows a great deal of game footage in a variety of circumstances. Though it is evident that team Photon has quite a ways to go, they are approaching the crowd at what I consider to be the sweet spot: when they have done enough work to be credible, but aren’t so close to the finish line that they leave you wondering why they need the money.
The reward levels are generally good, though I find little to make me want to spend more than the requisite $15 to get a copy of the game. Likewise the stretch goals are well paced, if a tad optimistic. The project pitch is art heavy and logically organized; if you read a good chunk of it, you are left with no questions as to exactly what the team behind this game wants to make.
I can only find two faults: the back story to the game feels a little weak (though that could just be the presentation) and the narrator of the video could stand to be significantly more enthusiastic. Still, these are minor things, and neither of them dissuade me from backing this fine project, or eagerly checking in for updates.
I had a chance to sit down with the project creator, Haoran and discuss this project further.
So, why Forsaken Fortress?
We want to combine different genres(RPG, simulation and a little bit of tower defense). We like simulation games in which you can design and build your own shelter, manage your people and gather supplies. We also like the idea of free exploration in a open world and build defenses to protect what you own. So we believe it is interesting to combine all them together and that becomes Forsaken Fortress.
I compared the game above to The Sims, and Fallout, but what would you say the major influences of this project are?
This game is heavily influenced by the Sims and Fallout. The base building part is very similar to that of the Sims and the setting is somewhat similar to Fallout. It also draws influence from Jagged Alliance and even Dead State. The squad management part resembles to that of Jagged Alliance and the scavenging mechanics is similar to Dead State.
Would you describe the game in its present state as a feature complete alpha? If not, how much further till you hit that benchmark?
No, it is not a feature complete alpha. We still need to add the character system, the base building/management and the resource collection mechanics in order to hit the benchmark.
Rebuilding seems like an obvious theme for a post-apocalyptic game; why hasn’t it been done before?
The game is not about rebuilding anything. Your goal is to lead a group of people to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. And their primary goal is to survive.
What are you doing to get the word out about your project?
We worked on social media sites such as Facebook. We upload videos on YouTube. We tried to contact gamer sites such as rockpapershotgun to feature our game. We post threads on various forums and we rely on word of mouth.
Caffeineforge 
Given that I love so many of the games influences, I think you nearly had me with The Sims meets Fallout. It looks like an incredibly fun title and the exact sort of blending of classic PC tropes and genres that I believe we need more of.
“The game is not about rebuilding anything. What? Did you even watch the video? Where did you get that crazy idea? This is game about survival and surviving, where you have to survive the survival of the survivors! There’s no rebuilding in surviving, dumbass.”
FTFY.