Project Resurgence Kickstarter Campaign Launched, Seeking $160,000

Back in September of last year, we told you about Nectar Game Studios' development of Project Resurgence, an early Black Isle/Troika/BioWare-inspired CRPG that they intended to raise the necessary equity for through crowd-funding. Following the release of a teaser trailer later in the year, we didn't hear much more about the game until they launched the promised Kickstarter campaign this week. In it, we learn that they're seeking a sum of $160,000 to fund the initial title, that this will be an episodic RPG spanning five installments, and much more about the series' overall premise:

At its core, Project Resurgence is a game bridging two worlds: a game rooted in the past as well as the future. We wear our inspirations to the classic cRPGs of the late 90s on our sleeves, yet also aim to innovate with modern design sensibilities.

All of our features support three gameplay pillars: Challenge, Exploration, and Advancement.

Challenge: Combat & Overcoming Obstacles

- Take direct control of your allies to survive the many dangers of Lumen. Your companions will act independently if left alone, or you can direct their every movement.

- Tactically-focused combat encourages players to strategize and make the most of their resources on hand.

- Switch freely between Turn-Based and Real-Time Combat modes when violence breaks out. Change modes at any time to always handle danger at your preferred pace.

- Turn-Based Combat let's you take it slow, and direct your party based on their individual Initiative and Action Points (AP) scores.

- Real-Time Combat cranks up the intensity, but you're free to pause and queue up commands at any time.

- Unleash powerful Talents (melee/ranged attacks, spells, etc) to gain an advantage. Talents draw on limited resources, but regenerate quickly after each encounter.

- Master the 15 utility Skills (Brute Force, Stealth, Persuasion, etc) to approach challenges from different angles. Each skill is useful in a variety of ways and opens up new playstyles.

Exploration: World, Lore, & Character Interactions

- Discover each episode's self-contained storyline set in a new section of the world. Like seasons of a TV show, each episode also feeds into a larger overarching plot all starring your custom character.

- Highly reactive branching storyline changes based on your choices in immediate and long-term ways, with the ramifications of those choices cascading across later episodes.

- Recruit allies from all over Lumen, each with their own goals and values. Small groups are safest, so keep up to five around to watch your back. Or go it alone if you prefer.

- Novel-like dialog presentation uses vivid descriptions to make conversations lifelike and immersive. Your specific character traits also unlock extra choices, encouraging replayability.

- Resolve objectives nonviolently. Fighting isn't always the best option, so why risk life and limb when you can try to sneak or talk your way past trouble?

Advancement: Leveling Up & Sweet Loot

- Create your custom hero, choosing from a variety of options to specify Sex, Gender (preferred pronoun), Tribe, Background, Quirks, and Appearance.

- Quirks and Perks add complexity to characters. Quirks are optional at character creation, but provide roleplaying opportunities through flaws and other tradeoffs. Perks represent small bonuses your character earns through deeds, representing their personal story.

- Earn experience from objective advancement, not grinding. You level up by pursuing your character's goals and playing the way you want, not just by killing everything that moves.

- Be as versatile or specialized as you want. Class-free advancement lets you tailor characters however you see fit; you aren't shoehorned into a specific role or ability set.

Old-School Style: Respect Your Roots

Project Resurgence is a love letter to our favorite western-style RPGs. Many of us grew up during the golden age of these games in the late 90s playing legends like Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, and Fallout. Our greatest dream is to create a spiritual successor worthy of those timeless classics with all of the freedom, reactivity, lore, and challenge that made us fall in love with these games in the first place.

Modern Innovation: An Episodic Collaboration

We've designed Resurgence as one of the first episodic RPGs, with an epic storyline planned over the course of five episodes. Each episode continues the story of your custom protagonist, and must be played in order. The first episode, delivering 5-10 hours of gameplay, can only be brought to life through this campaign and YOUR support! This episodic approach allows us to polish smaller portions of the game and release them as soon as they're ready, instead of waiting multiple years just to try a potential 100+ hour experience. This gets you our game faster, keeps the project scope in check, and grants us the opportunity to engage more with players to help shape the course of the game from the very beginning. We want to make a game you're going to love that feels just as much yours as our own. Join us for episode one and your feedback will help shape the future of the series.

Representing Diversity: A Mosaic of Beautiful Differences

Lumen is a land of diversity, with many backgrounds and beliefs intermingling throughout it and people of all types calling it home. Reflecting the design of Lumen itself, we want to give players the freedom to create a character wholly like them, unlike them, or anywhere in between.

Players choose their character's tribe, sex, gender identification, and skin tone. We also hope to achieve a respectful representation of characters through appropriate functional clothing and armor design. We're planning for a variety of romance options and relationship choices to represent all walks of life.

With Project Resurgence, we want to create a game that everyone can explore and lose themselves in. And allow everyone to create a character that they feel best represents them in the world.