Vinland 2: Call of Destiny

Well, we've gone more public on our plans for Vinland 2, while we wait for the business aspects to fall into place so that we can release Vinland: Arctic Assault. Here is a video we created to try and secure some funding;



As you can see it is far more ambitious than VAA, and we are sooo excited to be working on this now.

We've not yet released our plans to the big wide world yet, but in time we will be adding details to IndieDB and our website. We want to get VAA released first, but I wanted to give you guys a sneek peak. Development will likely be far more open too, as this will be a more long-winded project with a longer development cycle, so we can and will be taking more input from the community as we go.

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NOW you've caught my attention. To cut a long story short: Me want!

I want this

Good to see the project coming along.


You'll of course have a dedicated group of Alpha testers here when you get to that phase.


Hell, I wouldn't mind getting a copy of what you have now to mess around with.

Wow this looks really cool Mordred. The world needs more of these games.

But also know, there are many gamers out there, especially today, who don't have the 'mindset' required to play a free-roamer, they want a linear game from point A to point B, because they need their hands held. Be sure to put in an epic main story. A big example of a merge between main quest and free-roam, TES games. If you look at any of them (except Skyrim) you can see that the main quest does capture your attention, but the game itself is a free roamer. POP , bless the devs, does sort of just throw you in there, a thing that many of those aforementioned players do not like, as they are confused on what to do. I for one, love the games that just throw you in, because I love learning stuff hands-on.

Skyrim isn't as much as a free-roamer because the game seems like its forcing you to do the main quest, which is not what a free-roamer is about.

A very much doubt there will be an epic main story to this game, just doesn't work well with the random generation aspects of it and the free roam.


I myself am a linear gamer, and I think it would be too much added effort really to make this project appeal to both types of people on their budget.

Sir Aranor wrote:

Skyrim isn't as much as a free-roamer because the game seems like its forcing you to do the main quest, which is not what a free-roamer is about.

Well you really only need to do like the first 4 main quests and then do whatever you want, like with my lvl 40, i have done like 5 of the main quests and just run around doing whatever i want now.

DiabloDude wrote:

A very much doubt there will be an epic main story to this game, just doesn't work well with the random generation aspects of it and the free roam.


I myself am a linear gamer, and I think it would be too much added effort really to make this project appeal to both types of people on their budget.

How about something like POP4 will have, a sort of ultimate goal, but you can take your time achieving it?

Extor wrote:

Sir Aranor wrote:

Skyrim isn't as much as a free-roamer because the game seems like its forcing you to do the main quest, which is not what a free-roamer is about.

Well you really only need to do like the first 4 main quests and then do whatever you want, like with my lvl 40, i have done like 5 of the main quests and just run around doing whatever i want now.

But the dragons are always in your face, not like Daggerfall or Morrowind or Oblivion. Their stories were in the background, except for Oblivion, which was sort of in the middle.

It's more of an exploration type game.

Sort of.

As if a person in real life had discovered this island, not so much a fantasy setting with a plot and history.

Fair enough. I didn't mean fantasy and everything, just a good story.

I don't think you need a proper main story. It would be enough to put some miraculous pedestals around the island that require certain artifacts to be activated and then have the generator hide the artifacts in the hidden temples, caves, etc. By activating all pedestals a secret cave or temple could be uncovered.

Sir Aranor wrote:

But the dragons are always in your face, not like Daggerfall or Morrowind or Oblivion. Their stories were in the background, except for Oblivion, which was sort of in the middle.

Well thats just because you need their souls to learn the shouts you find in every other cave/fort you explore...and its fun to watch them glitch out sometimes

Thanks for your kind words guys, I'm not sure who is more excited about this now, you or us!

I can't discuss too much what we're intending to do (as most of it is still very much on the drawing board), however we will have a number of end-game objectives that the Player can work towards rather than a proper central quest line, and it is these which will form the foundations of the playing experience. Which the player goes for (and they can change at any time), is entirely their decision. What we are focusing most on is how the player can affect the dynamics of the world, a small aspect we highlighted in the video (the predator / prey simulation).

Its an interesting discussion you are having with the linear Vs open gameplay, and I am definitely listening to your opinions on this, as I cannot claim to be in either camp. The way I play is that I like to have an ultimate goal in mind, but have an open world and lots of options on how to achieve this.

Will we have quests and things? Its possible, one issue to consider however is that there cannot be NPCs in this world in the sense of quest givers and companions because quite simply none of the natives speak Norse. Thorvald is quite literally on his own here, and that is a subject we want to explore more closely (we have ideas, but they need far more development before I talk about those).

Therefore we need to create new means of interaction, one of which is very likely to be in the universal language of trade... while another is war.

As to Skyrim, I just started a new game of that as it happens, im level 20something and have only just been to see the Greybeards. I love just being able to roam around and do my own thing. Currently trying to join the companions, which as a mage is... interesting. Vilkas 1 shotted me about 10 times before I got a single hit on him during the first trial. I like the way the dragons work, you can interact with them, or ignore them as much or little as you want really. I just wish their AI was better so as to give more challenge. That said I have the more high-level monster mod, and one of the buffed dragon mods and difficultly has really ramped up lately.

MORDRED!!!!!!!!!!

Dude if I can you and idea. You could do something like have diff tribes of natives with there own goal and stuff and your a prince of one of the tribes and you have to prove yourself as you grow older from hunting down big game to leading your tribe into battle against the enemy and things like that and like near the end have a norse colony come to the island and you have to push them away or something omg the possibilties. I know what i want to do when i go to college now i want to be a game creator so i can just make games i would want to play man this has got me realy excitied

Wolfarmin wrote:

MORDRED!!!!!!!!!!

Dude if I can you and idea. You could do something like have diff tribes of natives with there own goal and stuff and your a prince of one of the tribes and you have to prove yourself as you grow older from hunting down big game to leading your tribe into battle against the enemy and things like that and like near the end have a norse colony come to the island and you have to push them away or something omg the possibilties. I know what i want to do when i go to college now i want to be a game creator so i can just make games i would want to play man this has got me realy excitied

This is along the lines of what we were thinking, except for the Norse colony, we're saving that particular event for Vinland III. One end-game option is certainly to build a boat and escape / come across the next wave of Norse explorers.

Glad to hear you want to get into game development. Honestly you don't need college for it (though I do of course encourage you to go!), just learn some programming / befriend a programmer, sketch out some ideas and get developing. Just bear in mind that you need to start SMALL; hence Vinland: Arctic Assault was far more limited in scope than this. More game dev's fail because they were too ambitious than anything else. One tip I was taught, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) has been invaluable.

Sir Aranor wrote:

Wow this looks really cool Mordred. The world needs more of these games.

But also know, there are many gamers out there, especially today, who don't have the 'mindset' required to play a free-roamer, they want a linear game from point A to point B, because they need their hands held. Be sure to put in an epic main story. A big example of a merge between main quest and free-roam, TES games. If you look at any of them (except Skyrim) you can see that the main quest does capture your attention, but the game itself is a free roamer. POP , bless the devs, does sort of just throw you in there, a thing that many of those aforementioned players do not like, as they are confused on what to do. I for one, love the games that just throw you in, because I love learning stuff hands-on.

Skyrim isn't as much as a free-roamer because the game seems like its forcing you to do the main quest, which is not what a free-roamer is about.

Minecraft.

People dont need to have thier hands held, but they do need a goal, something to do. Non linear games arent as popular because they are never explained properly or marketed well. Look at mount and blade, the tutorial is atrocious and the game gives you no indication of what to, i like finding stuff out, but that doesnt extend to finding out game mechanics. The basic controls and systems of a game should be explained to the player.

So basically, make the game have a clear and definate goal or a clear and definate means to personal goals. My suggestion is to leave the player at the start with a note or something saying, " ive been shipwrecked here, the crew is dead, i have to find a way off this hell hole, i need to find a way home, first i need food, then shelter, then get the natives on my side, then i can build a boat ... and go home." To kickstart them into it.

Also, you will need an exceptional trailer and demo.


Also mordred about your predation system, there have been alot of scientific computer models made that do that, the basic theme of predation seems to be that as the prey rises in population, so does the predator, until then predators overpopulate and prey dwindles, then predators dwindle even further, then both slowly rise again, and it sort of sticks to that pattern, in a normal environment.

mordred, i dunno if uve heard of extra credits before, but basically they held a fundraiser for there artist, overshot there goal by 50'000 dollars, and are now offering this little game puplishing oppurtunity-thingy. Basically heres the vid of what they propose:

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/ec-fund-update

just an avenu u might wanna xplore.