Queen's Wish: The Conqueror Gets Funded Within a Day, $54,330 and Counting

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror, Jeff Vogel's latest project and his first Kickstarter campaign, has reached its initial goal in just one day, and is now sitting at slightly above $50k, which means the iPhone port stretch goal is also in already. Here's the only currently available campaign update, a short message from the man himself:

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror funded on its very first day. It is well on the way to its stretch goals. We are very surprised, humbled, and grateful. We were optimistic about our Kickstarter, but the generosity of our fans has stunned us. Thank you!

We are aiming for Queen's Wish to be out May, 2019. Anyone who has watched us over the years knows we are very good at hitting ship dates. If something slows us down, we will let you know in a prompt and clear update. Your trust in us deserves no less.

Some have asked us about new Stretch Goals. To be honest, we are skeptical about this. I have a very clear picture of a game in my head. I genuinely think it will be a cool game, and I want to make it. I don't want to start changing things around now just for a bigger bucket of money, especially now that you have been so generous.

However, if you have a good idea for another goal or thing to add, please post it in the Kickstarter comments. I will try to respond with what I think.

Thank you again, so much. Now I'm going to get back to work on Queen's Wish. It's a long road, making a new series, but it helps a lot to know that people believe in us.

- Jeff Vogel

But if you'd like to know more about this project, you may want to visit Vogel's blog where he outlines the basic game details and talks about some of its mechanics. A few sample paragraphs:

A Lot of Stuff About Forts

In Queen's Wish, your power comes from forts and trading posts. You will be trying to rebuild old keeps, once held by Haven. You can get permission to do so through force or diplomacy. These will increase your wealth and power and your standing with the Queen.

I love games that let you make fortresses and fill them with stuff. However, those forts seem to only rarely make a difference in the game. In Queen's Wish, you will have power to build and make decisions, and those decisions will give you noticeable power and bonuses.

Note that, if you aren't into this sort of thing, you can do the fort stuff very quickly. Just think of it as another way to train your character.

You can also make furniture and cosmetic improvements. My younger daughter told me that she wants this, so I put it in.

How the Combat Will Work

It will still be turn-based combat with hand-edited fights, like all our other games. We're working hard to make sure the fights are fresh and don't repeat themselves.

The game system will be skill-based. There won't be character classes. You can pick your skills from four different trees, hopefully allowing for a wide variety of different builds and strategies.

Your characters are stranded deep in a hostile land, and I want the feel of combat to support this. When you leave the base and get into fights, they will wear you down. The missions won't drag you down with lots of trash fights, but each battle will exhaust you. You will have to conserve your power and choose when to use your best abilities and items to push all the way to victory.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Aaaand ... we funded.

I wrote this blog post before the Kickstarter started, planning to post it on the second day of the campaign. I genuinely didn't expect that it would have funded by now. I am humbled by your generosity and faith in us.

Barring my getting run over by a bus, we hope for Queen's Wish to be done by May, 2019. Based on the size of game we have planned and what we have done so far, this seems very doable. It's a crowded market, but I will do my best to make something surprising and unique, and I think I will succeed.