Back From Hell - An upcoming CRPG Puzzle Adventure coming to Kickstarter 1st November 2016

Photoplaygames

Photoplaygames

First time out of the vault



Hello NMA, I've been working on a game for some time now and I would like to share it with you all.

Back From Hell will launch on Kickstarter on the 1st November 2016.​



Description


Back From Hell is an upcoming CRPG Puzzle Adventure game set in two worlds: a 15th Century Spanish hilltop town and a journey to the depths of Hell and back again. The player in this photo-realistic 2.5D game will fight for the injustice his family has suffered, battling his way in the underworld, and taking decisions which could possibly lead to devastating consequences.

In both worlds you will encounter a unique cast of fully voiced characters that bring the world of Back From Hell to life, all interactions and your subsequent decisions will have weight and impact. Conversations will be critical to solving many multiple first and third person puzzles and present the player with many difficult ethical choices as the game evolves. Back From Hell will also have a complex action RPG combat system, with multiple weapons and magical abilities to help you dispatch a wide array of enemies.

Like Sierra's classic Quest for Glory series, Back From Hell merges classic computer role playing game mechanics with point and click adventure style puzzles and exploration. You'll face challenging environmental puzzles in the vein of MYST. Like Planescape: Torment and Age of Decadence the player interacts with NPCs in complex branching dialogue trees where every choice has consequences. Many quests and puzzles have multiple solutions which may affect the characters and game world and ultimately determine the player character's fate...


Features

  • Dialogue driven story that is full of complex characters, branching paths, unique locations, tough moral choices and multiple conclusions.

  • A myriad of expansive environments to adventure in, explore and investigate

  • Based both in the realms of the living and the dark depths of the afterlife

  • First and third person elaborate puzzles that are both visually appealing and mentally taxing.

  • Stat based combat system with multiple attacks, weapons and magic with a varied cast of enemies.

  • Conflict resolution for the character - combat is not always the solution.

  • Resource management, with a vast number of items to boost you in battle and objects to assist you along your journey.

  • A highly detailed hand crafted art style reminiscent of classic adventure games.
  • Full controller and keyboard support.
Follow the project here

http://www.backfromhellgame.com/
or
https://twitter.com/photoplaygames
or
https://www.facebook.com/backfromhellgame/

Thanks for taking a look
 
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latest

TOASTY
 
This looks incredibly similar to Purgatory: An RPG of Choice and Consequence, a game that was pitched here a year ago.

Any connection?
 
JO'Geran said:
This looks incredibly similar to Purgatory: An RPG of Choice and Consequence, a game that was pitched here a year ago.

Any connection?
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Same artist/half the team. Purgatory is moving along far too slowly/unprofessionally , so I decided the best course of action was to start fresh on my own. It was the only way a game like this would see the light of day.
 
I have received some feedback about the speed the player moves, I have made some tweaks and included running in the trailer.

Probably still a little slow but in the grand scheme of things a pretty easy fix, (just time consuming) I need to re-shoot the player and re-edit the animation and with Kickstarter rapidly approaching I just don't have time at the moment, but I assure you It will be fixed in the future.
 
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Everything looks and sounds extremely interesting to me. The only thing that gives me pause is that you mention Diablo as an influence. I hate Diablo. It is probably my least favorite RPG of all time... So what specific elements are going to be similar to or inspired by that so-called RPG?
 
daveyd said:
Everything looks and sounds extremely interesting to me. The only thing that gives me pause is that you mention Diablo as an influence. I hate Diablo. It is probably my least favorite RPG of all time... So what specific elements are going to be similar to or inspired by that so-called RPG?
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Diablo as its the closest thing that I could think of in terms of look (sort of top down ish and mid 90's) maybe Darkseed or Harvester would have been more appropriate however they are point and click and not too popular. Back From Hell does contain hacking and slashing but just as much exploration, choices and use of the brain.

The game is littered with choices, both indirect and straightforward. Some voluntary and others block progression. What you do in the living world will directly impact what happens in the afterlife too and of course your return.

There are areas that you will reach only after several playthroughs. Statistical character development is there however Back From Hell is developed by a tiny team, therefore the game world will never be the size of something a AAA developer could create, lots of combat/heath stats won't have a massive impact on how the game plays out.

What is very important to me and will feature in Back From Hell

Allowing multiple ways of approaching problems and subsequent rewards. For each puzzle I am shooting for five ways each one can play out positive/negative/neutral/obscure/avoid altogether. Obviously this may not be possible with every single one.

There will be no random loot, everything will be placed piece by piece.

There is no leveling of the world. If you make the wrong decisions you will pay. (Hell is cruel)

There is no quest-log, you will need either a eidetic memory or a good old pen and paper.

An emphasis on cerebral puzzle solving and dialogue (no poor puzzles/combing random objects etc).

Items/paths/characters will be different depending on a puzzle, dialogue, path or a combination of all three.

You will have to play this game for years to uncover all of its content.

It's unfortunate I have to name drop big titles in order to get some attention. Such is the world of self promotion. We both know this is not going to play anything like Diablo :D
 
Photoplaygames said:
It's unfortunate I have to name drop big titles in order to get some attention. Such is the world of self promotion. We both know this is not going to play anything like Diablo :D
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There is some unfortunate truth to this and I don't entirely fault you for it. However, I would strongly advise against name-dropping Diablo as you may turn off potential backers like me who dislike that game or ARPGs in general if they just come across your KS and give it a cursory glance.... I would stick with games that you feel play like your game, even if they may not be as popular...

As I'm sure you're aware, this type of game is rather niche (point & click adventure games merged with old school / hardcore CRPG). Therefore, there is very little point in trying to appeal to fans of mainstream, streamlined "RPGs" who will soon realize your game is too awesome for their feeble mind to appreciate and then they'll go play some casual button masher that doesn't require any reading :).

It seems to be getting harder for small, unknown indie developers to get crowdfunded these days compared to a couple of years ago, but I wish you good luck. Many gamers seem to have grown cynical about crowdfunding and are more likely to say "I'll just buy it if gets released and has mostly positive reviews"... At any rate, pretty much everything you have said about your game sounds AMAZING to me, so I will most likely back if I can make room in my budget. My pockets may not be deep but I do my best to promote the indie games I back, too.
 
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There is some unfortunate truth to this and I don't entirely fault you for it. However, I would strongly advise against name-dropping Diablo as you may turn off potential backers like me who dislike that game or ARPGs in general if they just come across your KS and give it a cursory glance.... I would stick with games that you feel play like your game, even if they may not be as popular...
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Agreed, is there any comparisons that shout out to you? It is one of the things I find tricky really with this game. i guess for gamers who remember the 90's its not too difficult to find a comparison. I guess i'm just trying to find a title or two that anybody a bit younger might know too.

It seems to be getting harder for small, unknown indie developers to get crowdfunded these days compared to a couple of years ago, but I wish you good luck. Many gamers seem to have grown cynical about crowdfunding and are more likely to say "I'll just buy it if gets released and has mostly positive reviews"... At any rate, everything you have said about your game sounds AMAZING to me, so I will most likely back if I can make room in my budget. My pockets may not be deep but I do my best to promote the indie games I back, too.
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Any help would be amazing, even if its just letting people know the game even exists. That is my biggest concern really, very difficult to stand out from a crowd of millions of titles. If Kickstarter is unsuccessful this game is still getting finished no matter what, it just means ill have to return to full time work and it may take 4 or 5 years to get released. Back From Hell WILL see the light of day, I'm determined to see it to the end. Just hope its sooner rather than later, I'm going to give it my best shot.
 
Photoplaygames said:
Agreed, is there any comparisons that shout out to you? It is one of the things I find tricky really with this game. i guess for gamers who remember the 90's its not too difficult to find a comparison. I guess i'm just trying to find a title or two that anybody a bit younger might know too.
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Well, even if it might not be extremely similar to the Back from Hell, it may be worth mentioning the "Quest for Glory" series as it is probably remains the most successful and well known attempt to bridge the gap between P&C adventure and RPGs. More recently the very good "Heroine's Quest" was released to very positive reception (a donation-ware title, but one I think most would gladly have paid for).

The other obvious mention would be Planescape: Torment, with it's emphasis on dialogue, choices, and exploration over combat. It is held in very high regard and many people consider it one of their favorite CRPGs so you almost can't go wrong there... although you may be setting the bar high :)

Lastly, for something very recent... Age of Decadence. Like your game it is big on choices & consequences, uncovering secrets, and it has old school sensibilities with very little hand-holding. The main difference as far as I can tell would be the combat (turn-based tactical) but that's hardly the only reason people love that game; especially considering it's possible to get through the entire game w/o a single fight for the majority of the backgrounds.

Photoplaygames said:
Any help would be amazing, even if its just letting people know the game even exists. That is my biggest concern really, very difficult to stand out from a crowd of millions of titles. If Kickstarter is unsuccessful this game is still getting finished no matter what, it just means ill have to return to full time work and it may take 4 or 5 years to get released. Back From Hell WILL see the light of day, I'm determined to see it to the end. Just hope its sooner rather than later, I'm going to give it my best shot.
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I'll do what I can :) Glad you're determined to complete it. I've seen some really good looking games apparently abandoned after a failed Kickstarter. Such a shame.
 
Watching the video, slightly makes me remember Siege of Avalon.
When I read games say they are influenced by Diablo,then the ARPG to me does not mean Adventure RPG it means Hack and Slash Action RPG.

I wish you luck on your project. :)
 
Thanks guys, there are a couple of titles there I have not had the chance to play so I intend to give them a blast this week. This input is really useful for sure and I'm going to get the description of the game re-written. Best course of action is to be more direct, tbh I have felt a bit uneasy myself about the description. Writing these kind of things is really not my strong-point. CRPG puzzle/adventure game is a much better description, i do think MYST is a fair reference though due to the first person puzzles. What do you think?
 
You could mention MYST as an influence, too if some puzzles are similar. The important thing is to be very specific about what aspects of a game influenced BfH. Often indie developers simply list a slew of games from different genres on their KS / Greenlight page like "Inspired by Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Tetris, Skyrim, and Pokemon" and potential backers are left scratching their head trying to figure out how the hell that works :)

So you could say something along the lines of "Like Sierra's classic Quest for Glory series, Back From Hell merges classic computer role playing game mechanics with point and click adventure style puzzles and exploration. You'll face challenging environmental puzzles in the vein of MYST. Like Planescape: Torment and Age of Decadence the player interacts with NPCs in complex branching dialogue trees where every choice has consequences. Many quests and puzzles have multiple solutions which may affect the characters and game world and ultimately determine the player character's fate..."

Of course up to you to decide which games most accurately describe your game. I'm not a professional PR guy but I've gotten pretty good at promoting indie RPGs from backing over 50+ crowdfunding campaigns in the past few years.

I created a Giantbomb page for Back From Hell, using info from your website. If there's anything you want me to add or clarify let me know (Anyone can edit the page but until you get a certain number of edits every change has to be approved by a site admin). I also find it a lot of fun to look through the different game concepts and add it to a game's page. It's a great way to find games that have a certain element, feature, or theme that you really like.

I see you already have an IndieDb page which is good.

I can also submit a profile on Neoseeker but it takes a bit longer to get submissions approved as they're more picky (i.e., the description has to be "in your own words").
 
I created a Giantbomb page for Back From Hell, using info from your website. If there's anything you want me to add or clarify let me know (Anyone can edit the page but until you get a certain number of edits every change has to be approved by a site admin). I also find it a lot of fun to look through the different game concepts and add it to a game's page. It's a great way to find games that have a certain element, feature, or theme that you really like.
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Thank you very much, wasn't at all aware of that site. Does look very interesting and exactly the kind of place I need to show my wares.

"Like Sierra's classic Quest for Glory series, Back From Hell merges classic computer role playing game mechanics with point and click adventure style puzzles and exploration. You'll face challenging environmental puzzles in the vein of MYST. Like Planescape: Torment and Age of Decadence the player interacts with NPCs in complex branching dialogue trees where every choice has consequences. Many quests and puzzles have multiple solutions which may affect the characters and game world and ultimately determine the player character's fate..."
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Real nice, do you mind if I use that quote? It seems perfect, sometimes I wish I had a little more Don Draper in me, seems I'm much more effective at crafting 15th century cadence. :D

Ill go check out Neoseeker and get some photos uploaded to Giantbomb this evening.
 
Photoplaygames said:
Real nice, do you mind if I use that quote? It seems perfect, sometimes I wish I had a little more Don Draper in me, seems I'm much more effective at crafting 15th century cadence. :D

Ill go check out Neoseeker and get some photos uploaded to Giantbomb this evening.
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Not at all. Go ahead and use it or edit it as you see fit.
 
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