- Volume 1 in the Earthlock™ series
- Release platforms*: PC/Mac/Linux, Wii U, Xbox One, PS4.
- Greenlit for Steam in October 2013
- Release date: Q1, 2015 on PC, Mac and Linux. Q2, 2015 on Wii U, Xbox One and PS4.
- Early Concept Demo available for download
You can download and try our early demo for yourself!
- Rich, non-linear story
- Turn-based combat (No Active Time Battle)
- Combat pairs (Allows more variations to your battle team)
- Grow your own ammunition (Organic crafting)
- Build and improve your home base
- Environmental Puzzles
- Gorgeous Overworld with a retro feel
- No random encounters (Monsters visible at all times)
- Play as Male or Female protagonist (You can switch at any time)
Long ago, a cataclysmic event struck the magical world of Umbra. Suddenly and mysteriously the planet stopped spinning. Volcanoes awoke and oceans moved. Kingdoms and civilizations were buried or drowned. Soon, the scourging sun took hold of one side of the world, while dark winter seized the other. Today the glory and might of the old world is buried and the only habitable region can be found in between.
The evidence of Umbra’s past lies scattered about as ruins, treasures and artifacts. In the new world, rebuilt but far from as advanced as the old one, archaeologists and scavengers supply the rich and powerful with ancient technology and magical artifacts exhumed from ice, sea and sand. It is a world divided by those who dabble in magic and those who tinker with technology.
Your quest for peace will take you to the corners of the world to unlock the secrets of Umbra’s mysterious, catastrophic past. Along the way you’ll explore oceans, vast deserts and snow-buried lands, rebuild your island base, gather seeds to sow and harvest ammo, get more allies to join your quest, crack puzzles and overcome fierce monsters.
The battle system goes back to the roots of the genre with its no-nonsense turn based combat, but there are several refreshing twists to the formula. One is the pairing system. Instead of separate characters, your party is made up of pairs where each pair is composed of a warrior and a protector.
The warrior uses consumables such as ammunition and items, while the protector can perform spells like healing and shields. Instead of standard magic points, spells cost Support Points, which build up when the pair receives damage.
One of the unique aspects of Earthlock™ is Plumpet Island, which functions as your very own home village. Here you can perform key activities like harvesting consumables and managing your character progression. Players will be able to check in on their harvest using portals found scattered across the world of Umbra.
While your village starts off pretty minimalistic you will get new shops and items throughout the game which adds new mechanics like potion brewing, barnacle care and weapon upgrades.
Combat, harvesting and character progression is tightly linked in Earthlock™. When you are on the island tending to your village, what comes out of the earth and from your barnacles is literally the magical ammunition and consumables you need in combat.
Plumpet Island is a peculiar volcanic island located in Nevad. It has a unique soil full of magical energy. With the right gardening skills it is possible to grow plants with magical attributes. Plumpet Island functions as the player’s home base throughout the game.
Original Harvesting Concept
You start by playing as Amon, but a bit further into the game Ive will join your team. After that you can choose Ive as main character if you like.
The beauty of Kickstarter is that an independent studio with a great vision can connect directly with you, the player, and together create a truly fantastic game experience. No middle-men will hamper the creative decisions because of marketing statistics. It can be a pure creative vision!
We have personally invested everything into this game. We have gotten great support from the Nordic Game Program and the Norwegian Film Fund. We have awesome investors who believe in us, and the last piece of the financial puzzle is you, the player.
With your support we will achieve two things. Firstly, we’ll get the funds to complete the Festival of Magic chapter, and secondly, our investors can see that there is a viable amount of players out there who wants Earthlock™. With the investors on board and the revenue from market platforms like Steam, PSstore etc. chapter II and III won’t necessarily need their own Kickstarter to be a reality.
Concept: The Frog Boy
Here is an overview of the various reward tiers and below that a full description of what you get.
$1 - BACKER
• You have our deepest gratitude for supporting us and you will receive all future updates from this campaign.
• Access to our backer only forum where you can follow the entire development process, and you will get an exclusive backer badge for the rest of the forum.
$15 - EARLY SUPPORTER
• Everything from the BACKER Tier.
• You get one digital copy of the game. Choose between PC/Mac/Linux, PS4, Wii U and Xbox One.
• Invite to the Beta testing for those of you who would like to help in the development process and give feedback about the gameplay and bugs before the game is completed (This may contain Spoilers).
• Credited in the game as supporter in the end credits.
$20 - SUPPORTER
• Everything from the BACKER Tier.
• You get one digital copy of the game. Choose between PC/Mac/Linux, PS4, Wii U and Xbox One.
• Invite to the Beta testing for those of you who would like to help in the development process and give feedback about the gameplay and bugs before the game is completed (This may contain Spoilers).
• Credited in the game as supporter in the end credits.
$30 - SOUNDTRACK
• Everything from the SUPPORTER Tier.
• Digital download of the Soundtrack from the game
• Digital world map and digital poster (as a high res wallpapers).
• Access to the pre-release of the game on Steam if you have chosen Steam as your platform. The game will be released 1 - 2 weeks before official release exclusively for you.
$45 - ART BOOK
• Everything from the SOUNDTRACK Tier.
• Digital download of the art book detailing our world from concept to finished game.
• A digital key to unlock the exclusive kickstarter in-game weapon.
$60 - COMIC BOOK
• Everything from the ART BOOK Tier.
• Digital download of the Earthlock™ comic book where you will get more insight into the backstory of the main characters.
• A digital key to unlock the exclusive kickstarter in-game vehicle skin for travelling the Overworld in style.
$80 - ALPHA DOG
• Everything from the COMIC BOOK Tier.
• Invite to the Alpha test where you can help us test and improve the game at a very early development stage.
• Digital download of 3D model files for the Main Characters. You can then print these in 3D with a 3D printer / print shop of your choosing (Printing cost not included).
• A digital key to unlock the exclusive kickstarter in-game character skins for Amon and Ive.
• One additional digital copy of the game for a total of 2 copies.
$110 - EARTHLOCK SEQUELS
• Everything from the ALPHA DOG Tier.
• One digital copy of Earthlock: Volume 2*.
• One digital copy of Earthlock: Volume 3*.
• Total of 3x digital copies of Earthlock: Festival of Magic (Volume 1).
*You will be able to download Volume 2 & Volume 3 of Earthlock if and when they are released. We estimate that it will take about 6-12 months to develop each sequel. Please note that we cannot guarantee the release of these Volumes. It is our intention to do so at this moment, but circumstances beyond our control may force us to change our plans. We will of course remedy any changes to the best of our abilities.
Creative Tiers
$300 - PLANT DESIGNER (Creative Tier) - Limited 10
• Everything from the EARTHLOCK SEQUELS Tier.
• We will send you design sheets to create a magical plant for the game. Our art team will help shape it to your liking. This plant will produce a resource for the player party.*
• Credited in game as Additional Design in the end credits
• One additional copy of the game for a total of 4 copies.
$400 - WEAPON DESIGNER (Creative Tier) - Limited 10
• Everything from the EARTHLOCK SEQUELS Tier.
• We will send you design sheets to create a weapon for the game. Our art team will help shape it to your liking. This weapon will then be used by one of the members of the player party.*
• Credited in game as Additional Designer in the end credits• One additional copy of the game for a total of 4 copies.
$600 - MONSTER DESIGNER (Creative Tier) - Limited 10
• Everything from the EARTHLOCK SEQUELS Tier.
• We will send you design sheets to create a monster for the game. Our art team will help shape it to your liking. We will then add the monster to the relevant part of the game world.*
• Credited in game as Additional Designer in the end credits
• Two additional copies of the game for a total of 5 copies.
$1000 - NPC DESIGNER (Creative Tier) - Limited 10
• Everything from the EARTHLOCK SEQUELS Tier.
• We will send you design sheets to design an NPC for the game. You will get access to our internal lore so you can help create a background story for that character, and if you want we can base the visuals off of yourself or a friend. The NPC will be interactable by the player*.
• Credited in game as Additional Designer in the end credits
• Two additional copies of the game for a total of 5 copies.
*A note about the creative tiers: The final design will be at our discretion to fit properly in the game by adjusting balance and look.
Producer Tiers
$2500 - ASSOCIATE PRODUCER (Producer Tier) - Limited 5
• Everything from all four Creative tiers.
• One 8” (20cm) 3D statuette of the main character of your choosing.
• Associate Producer Title in the credits.
• Invite to our launch party here in Oslo (Travel and accommodation not included).
• Total of 10 copies of the game to give to anyone you like.
$5000 - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER (Producer Tier) - Limited 5
• Everything from all four Creative tiers.
• Two 8” (20cm) 3D statuettes of the main characters of your choosing.
• Executive Producer title in the credits.
• Invite to our launch party here in Oslo (Travel and accommodation not included).
• Total of 10 copies of the game to give to anyone you like.
$8000 - CO-PRODUCER (Producer Tier) - Limited 5
• Everything from all four Creative tiers.
• Three 8” (20cm) 3D statuettes of the main characters.
• Co-Producer title in the credits.
• Invite to our launch party here in Oslo (Travel and accommodation not included).
• Total of 10 copies of the game to give to anyone you like.
Add-ons can be added to all reward tiers.
To get an add-on you just pledge normally and select the reward tier you want, then add the price of the add-on to your pledge.
Physical Add-ons (Poster & T-Shirt) will be produced in the USA.
For shipping outside of USA (International) you must add $5 for each physical add-on.
The three in-game addons (Unique Weapon, Reckless Skin, Character Skin) are the same as the ones from the higher tiers. You can stay on a low tier and still get the in-game items by getting these addons, or you can get more keys from these addons to give out to friends.
If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask! We are more than happy to help.
Based on our experience with the Unity Engine, the choice is easy. It is flexible, easy to use and the quick turnaround on development means less barriers between creators and creation. The engine allows us to build the game for multiple platforms without having to spend huge resources towards each platform.
We have also enhanced Unity's built-in audio functionality with
Tazman Audio's Fabric, in order to bring you the best audio immersion
we can.
For enhanced visual quality and high rendering performance we use Skyshop's shader system called Marmoset.
Unity Game Engine
We started Snowcastle back in 2009 with the original team based in
Oslo, Norway, but additional team members are now spread from Oslo to Texas, California, and Vancouver all managed by our Salt Lake office.
Our first original game, "Hogworld" was an interactive children's story driven by classical game mechanics.
Hogworld (Adventure game for kids)Hogworld received critical acclaim and a number of awards, including a place on Apple’s Best of 2011 list in the iOS App Store. As we finished Hogworld, the team sat down and discussed what our next big project should be. It was clear that we all dreamt of making the kind of bold, colorful and charming adventure games we grew up playing.
The team here at Snowcastle sincerely hopes you will pledge to support us through this Kickstarter campaign and promise in return to give you a truly great game experience.
Risks and challenges
Earthlock™ is by far our biggest production yet. We have spent over a year in development already. Making a game like this is a very complex task and we still have a year to go before the product is completed. Over this time there are many risks that can cause delays, especially the parts where we develop new untried gameplay.
We have done all we can to minimize the risks of delay by using a well working game engine like Unity and solid extensions. We have experienced team members and we have a thorough production plan. We have been able to keep our milestone deadlines for the last 9 months.
Delays are unfortunately all too common in the game industry. Should we be forced to cut features to stay on time and on budget, we will add those features through an update or in the next volume of Earthlock™.
