Tag: Unsung Story »

Unsung Story, Playdek's upcoming tactical RPG, seems to be moving along quite nicely. The Kickstarter project, which only started last week, is already past the halfway point with 24 days to go. I think it's safe to assume that a fair number of people want to play it, yeah?

Playdek CEO Joel Goodman was gracious enough to answer a few of our burning questions regarding Unsung Story. Specifically questions about the game itself, the Kickstarter project, and the involvement of Yasumi Matsuno.

148Apps: Playdek has one heck of a repertoire filled with a TON of great ports of some classic games. Do you think the mechanics of any of those games, or what you've learned while creating them, may have had an influence on what you've done with Unsung Story?
Joel Goodman (JG): The AI system we have created as well as our asynchronous gameplay mechanics will most definitely have an influence on what we will be able to do for Unsung Story. We also maintain a high quality level for all of our games.

148Apps: A tactical RPG seems like a fairly big change in genre from Playdek's typical work. Was it a challenge to start developing something so different or was it an idea who's time has come?
JG: It was a ripe opportunity that just sort of happened. When the opportunity came, we jumped at it. Plus tactics gaming fits our wheel house.

148Apps: Was Yasumi Matsuno a part of the project from the start or did you have the basic idea for Unsung Story in place first?
JG: Yasumi Matsuno developed the concept entirely from the start. We only asked for a tactics game and he took that request and hit the ground running. It is amazing to see the concepts and ideas he is able to come up with when given creative freedom.

148Apps: Will there be any form of multiplayer mode or is it being designed as an entirely single-player affair? Personally I wouldn't mind the latter in the slightest.
JG: There will be multi-player, but the core experience for the story is single player.

148Apps: It must have been difficult deciding where to place stretch goals for the Kickstarter project. Were there any goals you would shift around if given the opportunity? Any that you wish you could have included in the base game? Are you finding that backers are generally being receptive to them or has there been some pushback?
JG: The response has been incredible, and our backers are giving us tremendous feedback on the rewards and goals. We will be making modifications to those as we go based off of the suggestions we are seeing come in.

148Apps: Regardless of how the Kickstarter campaign goes (I'm guessing very well based on how much it's made so far) Unsung Story will still be coming to mobile, right?
JG: Yes, however we hope to get the game into as many player's hands as possible on their platforms of choice.

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We'd like to thank Joel Goodman for answering our questions, and are anxiously looking forward to getting our hands on Unsung Story.

There's been more than a fair bit of buzz surrounding Playdek's upcoming Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians project. It's a pretty big departure from the developer's usual (and excellent) ports of physical card and board games, a Kickstarter campaign to bring more talent on board and expand onto several other platforms just began a few days ago, and Yasumi Matsuno (Vagrant Story, Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics) is involved. However, the legendary game designer's level of involvement in the project has been somewhat unclear. Up until now, anyway.

Last night Matsuno broke it all down over Twitter in order to clear it all up. He isn't spearheading the development. Rather, his involvement "is limited to the original game proposal, world design, and story." It's not a bad thing in the slightest when you consider that those three elements are pretty much what he's known for in the first place, but he won't be overseeing the project directly.

He does go on to state that, while his involvement with Unsung Story is pretty much finished at this point, a successful Kickstarter campaign could see him jumping right back into it. So if they end up hitting their goals to bring Unsung Story to the Mac, PC, Vita, and 3DS, we'll be seeing a lot more of him.

Playdek and Yasumi Matsuno (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII) have been working together to create the tactical RPG Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians for quite some time now. And the fan response has been so big that they've decided to expand their vision.

They've taken the project to Kickstarter in order to push things even further. Now the plan is to try and raise enough through funding and stretch goals so that they can put together a dream team including Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII, Ogre Battle), along with the duo of Alexander Smith (Final Fantasy VIII, Front Mission 3, Parasite Eve 2) and Joseph Reeder (Final Fantasy XII, Crimson Shroud, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions) for translation. That's a lot of fantastic talent, I do declare. With enough funding they also plan to bring the game to Mac and PC, as well as the Vita and 3DS if they meet further stretch goals.

If you're interested you can check out the Kickstarter campaign, which just went live today.

Playdek has ported some fantastic card and board games to iOS over the years, such as Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, Agricola, Penny Arcade the Game: Gamers vs. Evil, and more. However, the recently-announced Unsung Story will be their first original IP. And it's being created in partnership with Yasumi Matsuno, the legendary designer behind Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII, and my personal favorite, Vagrant Story!

The first property based on Matsuno's visionary world will be co-designed by renowned French board game designer Christophe Boelinger, which will be released in 2014. The game introduces the world of Rasfalia in an exciting digital card game played online. The game pits two players against each other in a fast-paced and engaging struggle. Featuring innovative new game play mechanics, the card game will appeal to a wide variety of players through the immersive, strategic game play Boelinger is known for.