Massive Chalice is Already a Massive Success.
Double Fine is Kickstarting a new project called Massive Chalice. It will be a tactical fantasy game that promises a dreamy combination of Final Fantasy Tactics and XCOM with some neat new lineage mechanics.
Launched just four days ago, the Kickstarter is almost fully funded already. Are you surprised? I’m surprised. Yup, totally surprised. I swear.
Asking for a more than reasonable $725,000 for the full title, the project is at $694,000 as of writing this article. I had to update that number three times while writing. Massive Chalice is riding on the coattails of the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter success, which was funded with over $3.3 million. I don’t expect this to completely blow up the same way the Double Fine Adventure did, but I am very happy the game is getting a fantastic chance to be made.
The (Double) Fine People Involved
With Double Fine’s now-signature cheeky Kickstarter video stylings, Tim Schafer formally introduces us to the Project Lead: Brad Muir (pictured right). Creator of Iron Brigade, the fan-favorite tower defense mech shooter and longtime Double Fine veteran, Muir served as a programmer on Psychonauts and a designer on Brütal Legend. Double Fine just seems to have boatloads of qualified people just lying around waiting for funding.
Fun Fact: In the video, Muir is found in Shady Acres, the fictional mental institution from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
2 Player Productions, the guys making the Double Fine Adventure documentary, will also be working on Massive Chalice. The documentary team will be creating a series of development diaries chronicling the creation of Massive Chalice. These dev diaries will be released to the general public and backers will have access to a HD downloads.
What is Massive Chalice?
According to the Massive Chalice Kickstarter page and accompanying video (see video at the top of this page) the game will be an epic-scale, multi-generation, tactical strategy game. Other tactical strategy games, like XCOM, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Fire Emblem have been generally successful and provide great gameplay. Massive Chalice promises to deliver something more.
“If turn based tactics and feudal fantasy had a lovechild, and that offspring founded a mighty century-spanning dynasty, it would be Massive Chalice.” – Kickstarter page.
How is this game different? Well, for starters the gameplay centers around an epic scale of time. Massive Chalice will span several generations of warriors and you, as the master tactician, will dictate the lineage of those warriors. This mechanic also holds a very strong bond with perma-death, which is so quintessential of the tactical strategy genre.
Your characters will die. Sorry, but whether they die in battle or from old age, they simply will not survive an entire century. So, it is up to you to decide when to retire characters and let them have families. They will pass on valuable knowledge, skills, and family heirlooms onto their offspring, making for an even stronger and better pedigree.
Why Kickstarter? Double Fine is Already Doing Great.
While, yes, the Double Fine Adventure has been successful on Kickstarter, Massive Chalice is still a fairly risky game. Double Fine has never made anything in the tactical strategy genre. The game company is best known for goofy adventure games, not anything quite like this. Also, they aren’t asking for crazy amounts of money and Double Fine still doesn’t even have a product to show from the first big Kickstarter.
I know there has been some recent controversy with Zach Braff’s Kickstarter and the Veronica Mars Kickstarter, but Double Fine seems like a company really in tune with how to use (and not abuse) Kickstarter.
One more fun fact: The Kickstarter claims to take a strong inspiration from Game of Thrones when it comes to the notion of noble families. Double Fine is taking inspiration from GOT? Yes, please!
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