Julian Gollop's Chaos Reborn Kickstarter Kicks Off

[Karloff]

Julian Gollop's Chaos Reborn Kickstarter Kicks Off

[kickstarter=1206403106/chaos-reborn-from-the-creator-of-the-original-x-co]

The creator of the original XCom goes back to 1985's wizard school, and Ken Levine's already on board.

A short while back [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131543-XComs-Julian-Gollop-Returns-To-Strategy-With-Chaos-Reborn] Julian Gollop, the man who made the original XCom, announced he was taking his wizard strategy title Chaos Reborn to Kickstarter. The great day has finally arrived, and Gollop's already had $12,244 of his $180,000 ask pledged. You'll get a taste of what's to come in the video - no animation, and the graphics are just placeholders, but the base game is fully functional - and Ken Levine of BioShock fame is already on board. Take a look, and find out whether you want to get in on this too.

If you get in at the Apprentice level - a $20 pledge - you get the digital download, DRM free, for either Windows, Mac or Linux, as well as early access. But perhaps you'd prefer special gear, access to the map designer and other stuff? Better get in at the Forgemaster level or higher. Three backers have already leapt in at the $1,000 God mark; what's the odds one of those three is named Levine?

Chaos Reborn, a continuation of Gollop's 1985 strategy title Chaos, sees you as a lonely Wizard trying to work your way up the ranks to Godhood. You'll be summoning monsters, suborning other wizards' minions, and blasting your enemies along the way. You can work your way through procedurally generated levels either on your own or as part of a co-op group, or even a guild, in search of the Wizard King and his minions. Fancy a multiplayer match? No problem; there will be online tournaments, or you can hot-seat in offline mode. There are 30 days left to go on this one, so there's time to make your mind up; but don't wait too long!

Source: Kickstarter [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1206403106/chaos-reborn-from-the-creator-of-the-original-x-co]



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[LaoJim]

Superb,

I know the cynic says that Kickstarter is just simply about pushing the peoples nostalgia buttons rather than creating genuinely original projects, but heck if this isn't my perfect nostaligia project.

Chaos was one of my favourite games on the ZX Spectrum. You could have upto eight players (and if there were only two of you you'd typically take four wizards each). Each Wizard took turns to cast spells and move their minions. You were given about 20 spells to begin with each with a percentage chance of successful casting. Most of the spells were for summoning creatures to fight for you, though there were a few offensive/defensive spells (fireballs, flaming swords etc). Each spell had a percentage chance of being cast successfully (so Giant Rat started at 90% where as a Golden Dragon was typically 10%). Nice creatures (like Lions or Eagles) were Lawful, whereas nasty creatures (Vampires, Skeletons) were Chaos, each time you cast a Law creature successfully the Law/Chaos balance would shift towards Law adding an extra chance to cast your other Law creatures. (So generally you'd start out with the high-probability weaker creatures first). Obviously with seven other players the balance would be shifting about a lot. What was great about it was that you could cast illusions of creatures, these illusions were identically to normal creatures (i.e. they could kill and be killed) but casting always succeeded and other wizard could cast a disbelieve spell on them at anytime.

This led to some great double bluff moments, for example you'd be sure that that Red Dragon that has just been successfully cast (at 10% chance) is an illusion, but you don't want to waste your turn disbelieving it, especially if he's going to use it to attack someone else. Of course, when it starts coming in your direction and you try to disbelieve it and it turns out its real...

Having said all this, Chaos Reborn seems like something different. There was a sequel called Lords of Chaos, which was still great but not quite the greatest thing ever, which had more of a campaign (The original was played on a black background of empty squares) where as LoC had a few maps and campaign goals etc. Given that the Kickstarter is talking about procedurally generated levels, this may be closer to LoC than the original Chaos, or might be its own thing entirely...

In anycase, Julian Gallop, yea!

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

id back the fuck out of this if i could

 

[SlipperyJim]

As the Kickstarter is in its final week Julian has made the prototype available for anyone to play.

http://chaos1.vm.bytemark.co.uk/ChaosReborn/client_web.html

Regards,

Jim