Viewing comments for - Ultimoore

Here is my article/ interview I did about Shadow Remnants.

When you hear Tactical / Strategic Role Playing Game, what is the first game that comes to mind?

More often than not Final Fantasy Tactics for people who grew up on Playstation. Shining Force for the older crowd like me. But on the PC it is a little harder to come across any games of this genre. Sure there are a few but none really like that Final Fantasy Tactics feel.

Battle For Wesnoth is a wonderful game and I still play it on my Ubuntu12.04 rig. But I wanted to find a almost homage to games like Final Fantasy Tactics.

Sometime passed I continued to work on trying new games and checking out 2 site that peaked my interest. First was Kickstarter.com and the other was Indiegogo.com . Now for anyone who has not heared of theses sites (which I highly doubt.). It allows a small company or group of people who have great ideas and need money to get the project “Kick started” this is the place to go. Now for those who have heard of these sites, know of games like : Planetary Annihilation, Ouya, Wasteland 2, Legends Of Eisenwald, Grim Dawn, The Banner Saga so on and so on. I supported a bunch of them on the premise that they would make Linux versions. All the names mentioned are making one but Grim Dawn but thats another tale.

I came across a company called Shorebound Studios they came together to make a project called Shadow Remnants . Shadow Remnants is a turn-based tactical role-playing game for the PC market. As players travel through the vast country of Avatia, you will battle against corruption. With the use of character classes at your disposal, assemble a team of followers to help you in battle. Online PvP will be in the game also. Crafting is also going to have a heavy hand in this title. Hello looting.

I thought to myself I have to talk to these guys and get some info on what their plans are with the game. Plus they had recently announced that the game was also coming to Mac and Linux I was happy with that announcement. Ok lets face it I was stoked like any good fanboy. So after a few weeks of stalking the company through their site and waiting for a email back from them saying I could interview one of them. Finally get an email back from Jonathon Davis the head man himself who worked on titles like Moonlight Minons and Pastry Pig he was nice enough and would do a interview with me. So we had a chat for a while and he is excited to get this game out. He spoke about how he is making a map editor for people to make mods for the game. Here is the Interview.

Me: How long has Shorebound Studios been around?

Jonathon: Shorebound Studios was formed third quarter of 2012.

Me: Who is all on your team?

Jonathon: Myself and Ryan Burkani. We have been working with Steve Mazzaro to do the music for many of our projects over the years, however, he is on contract.

Me: I see that the game has drawn inspiration from games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Shining Force, Vandal Hearts and so on. How have games like that inspired you to make Shadow Remnants?

Jonathon: I don't really want to get into the specifics on why each of these titles are special. You probably know the answer to that yourselves. As like many of you, video games are a huge part of my life and being into them since the mid 80's makes me have a sweet spot for nostalgia. We love tactical role-playing games! We also felt that the genre has faded from the spotlight. Our hope is to bring it back and get some new gamers to see a great genre that they may have missed. There are a lot of people out there that don't know what a tactical role-playing game is.

Me: Why bring to the PC market?

Jonathon: We are not only targeting the PC market but I grew up on the PC and will never quit developing for it. I feel like there is huge potential here as an indie developer. The mobile market is extremely saturated and hard to shine through the thousands of apps that come out each day. This is why we decided to focus on the PC version and later port to mobile versus the other way around.

Me: That is great to hear. In Final Fantasy tactics the world was rich in story big and small. Will Shadow Remnants be the similar in that aspect?

Jonathon: This being our favourite thing about FFT. It is our primary objective to involve a very rich story in Shadow Remnants. Unfortunately, we failed to go into enough detail in our Kickstarter.

Me: Speaking of Modding Community, will there be any tools in the near future for modders to play with?

Jonathon: Yes, we have three tools that users can use to begin modding for Shadow Remnants. The particle tool allows users to create custom particle effects for their mods. The model tool allows users to view and export from common model formats to our own. The editor allows people to build custom maps from the ground up and allows them to import their own models, particle effects and even write their own scripts for a custom storyline and AI.

Me: That is amazing I can't wait to try it and so will modders. Will Linux and Mac OSX clients be released?

Jonathon: It wasn't until our Kickstarter campaign that we realized the amount of Linux and Mac fans so we immediately started working on ports to support these communities. We are extremely excited to launch on Linux and Mac.

Me: Best news thus far. But how will crafting effect players in Shadow Remnants?

Jonathon: There is a great deal of loot in Shadow Remnants. The excitement of finding new gear is something I've always enjoyed. We also want users to be able to craft their own gear to help customize their party further. For example, you may want your healer to have a large mana pool to keep those heals coming in long fights or you may want to give him a mixture of intellect and mana for moderate sustain but also have stronger heals and the ability to burst undead. Crafting is just another tool for you to alter your party to your play style. We have also considered adding an auction house to allow players to sell and buy crafted items made by themselves or others.

Me: Will Shadow Remnants come to Steam Greenlight and/or Desura?
Jonathon: We have worked with Steam before and we do plan on having a Greenlight release.

Me: Last question for you. Is there going to be any Beta access for people?

Jonathon: The public will have access to the beta release very soon. Players will be able to play on an island off the coast of Avatia. It is there that you will battle a wide range of monsters and will also have some crafting available. You will follow the story of a man who is caught in the middle of a bad situation (a side quest unrelated to Drake's quest). There will be three bosses that you need to defeat before reaching a boat that takes you to the mainland. This boat will be inactive until further patches but eventually will allow people to venture into Avatia and start experiencing the main story. We will have a section on our website allowing for donations as we develop. The more money we make, the faster the patches will be released. We feel this approach will be much more pleasing to the community versus waiting years for us to release something.

You guys can check out more info and updates on the game at [url="http://www.Shadowremnants.com"]www.Shadowremnants.com[/url] or talk to the team on their Forums at
[URL='http://www.shadowremnants.com/forum/index.php']www.shadowremnants.com/forum/index.php[/URL] .Check them out.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Shadow Remnants Linux Support Planned
26 Aug 2012 at 9:06 pm UTC

they are releasing the editor early and they said they are doing a linux port first for the editor. I am trying to push them for same day. Ok also I just signed up on their forums and they really want people on their to give feedback on what they want to see. This is our chance to get the Linux gaming community in their and maybe get some content added.

the Link to the forums is
[url="http://www.shadowremnants.com/forums/index.php"]www.shadowremnants.com/forums/index.php[/url]

View this comment - View article - View full comments