Sword of Fargoal 2

Sword of Fargoal new FREE through our Kickstarter campaign…

OK, now we've gone and done it… We just made Sword of Fargoal FREE (for a limited time) through our Kickstarter campaign!

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You are our Hero!!

— Jeff

 

Oh, so wonderful you are, slewis7, to begin getting the word out more and *so quickly* after we posted our latest update!! Most of you know the Kickstarter link, but just in case, here it is:

http://far.gl/sof-ks

Very much appreciative,

Jeff McCord,
Fargoal, LLC

 

Wow! And Kickstarter is such a great vehicle to really get projects going with *more content* than they might otherwise be able to afford. In our case, having the funding allows us to not only get the game done within the first part of next year, but it allows us to hire the extra pixel artist and possibly some additional coding so that Paul (Madgarden) will have the support he needs. Plus it lets us do *more* action cards, and *more* monster types, and *more* in-game puzzles, and *more* dungeon level types, sizes, and textures, *more* items, spells, traps, and treasures. You get the idea.

Like we've said publicly, Fargoal 2 won't completely die if our Kickstarter campaign does not get funded — but you guys/gals have seen how much we have struggled to keep things going after a solid year of work to get it to this 80% mark. Getting the last 20% done is nearly impossible to accomplish without the additional talent and support that Kickstarter will help us secure.

Sans Kickstarter, continuing it on a grass roots basis is simply a much longer and more difficult process than we ever anticipated.

By a significant order of magnitude, it is a much-larger game that the first one is: Your play experience, the depth and richness of detail, the unexpected moments, natural behaviors of monsters and foe, and endless variety of what you can do and what you can find all makes this Kickstarter campaign worth supporting!

Sorry, I didn't mean to go on rambling about the fork in the road we may soon reach. We have high hopes we can still make it — but we will *definitely*, beyond a shadow of a doubt need everyones' help and support to catch up and have a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Here's an idea: Anyone who is still on the fence about supporting our Kickstarter campaign: Please consider this an open invitation to ask me specific questions about what will make Fargoal 2 such an amazing game once it is complete. I will do my level best to answer what I can, and I will let you know if I get stumped by any questions you may have, or if we don't yet have an answer!

Sincerely,

Jeff McCord

 

Mookmonster, et al,

We think so too. This may be one of those rare projects that funds partially based on a harrowing last day or two in a come-from-behind moment. "Is he dreaming?" (one might ask). I'd have thought so too, but there's another project I recently helped support on Kickstarter — Conclave — that was just over 48% funded at the stage if the campaign we are currently at, and eking past 71% when just 22 hours remained. Right within that last day, they jumped from 71% to 101% and made it, just under the wire!

Compare Conclave's curve to ours here:​

[Conclave] vs. [Fargoal 2]​

We are currently at $18,782 out of $50,000 that is needed to unlock our Kickstarter-supporter funds (as-of this writing).For those who may not be familiar, projects don't receive any of their funding if their base goal is not met. The remarkable thing is though, is that this amount has been reached so far with just 637 generous backers!

By the Numbers:

• Now we estimate that over 1,000,000 (or more) fans owned or downloaded the original Sword of Fargoal for the C64 in its lifespan of over 30 years — how many of those legally? Not quite as sure of that! ;^)
  
• The C64 Direct-to-TV joystick that came out in in late 2004 also had Sword of Fargoal on it as one of 35 games. It is estimated that it had sales of between 17 and 25 million units by the time it was done, according to some sources (which by the way we received no royalties for).
  
• And finally our installed base, including free downloads, of Sword of Fargoal and Sword of Fargoal Legends for iPhone/iPad is estimated at between 150,000 and 250,000 or more, depending on how many people keep it on their devices.

With those sorts of numbers it stands to reason that it is *just* a matter of getting the word out. We are trying day and night to do that, but cannot do that without fans and followers like you helping.

20,000,000+ may know of Sword of Fargoal at some level — I'll bet we can reach more than 637 supporters!!​

What Can You Do?

• If you yourself have played the game, and want to see Sword of Fargoal 2 made as the best game it can be, then consider supporting the Kickstarter campaign yourself.
  
• If you've never played the game, visit our Kickstarter campaign and scroll down to the download link. We've wanted total transparency about the value you'll get in supporting us, so we've made the iPhone version FREE for a limited time during our Kickstater campaign so you can try the current version yourself before you support us. We do ask that you support our campaign, though, if you like the game!
  
• In either case, you can start by communicating your own experiences with Sword of Fargoal to other readers here. Consider emailing about your support to just 10 friends. Post the Kickstarter link (http://far.gl/sof-ks) on Facebook. Use this tweet-cheat link here (I made that up) to tweet and retweet about the project (gives you a chance to edit before posting):

Tweet Now!​

Tweet will look like this: I'm supporting Sword of Fargoal 2 on Kickstarter!! Check it out and help make it happen! http://far.gl/sof-ks (Please RT!)

Together let's DOUBLE the number of people supporting the campaign in the next week as the campaign begins to draw to a close. At that point I'm perfectly happy leaving it to the last 22 hours for the last little bit to fund… After all, who isn't a fan of a little drama at the end?! Just like finding the Sword and making it out of the dungeon alive!

— Jeff

 

MidianGTX,

We are working day and night to try and get updates posted, press emails sent, communications taken care of, and all that we can do in our power to have the Fargoal 2 Kickstarter be successful! I know what you are saying though — I've been in non-stop panic mode ever since the campaign started. There is *so* much to do!!

— Jeff McCord

 

We made it half-way! WoooHooo!

We made it half-way so far on our Fargoal 2 Kickstarter! WoooHooo!

 

heh. I will weigh in too:

The new game we are doing the Kickstarter campaign for is called "Sword of Fargoal 2" and it will also have *bunches* of side puzzles, goals, and some side-quests that will be added to the game. Madgarden has already created much of the background coding for this, and at this point we have high hopes that we can fund the project so we can afford the extra resources needed (a second pixel artist and possibly some additional coding support) to complete all these goodies — and lots more! Madgarden has been doing nearly all of it so far — for over a year — and we are 80% done because of those Herculean efforts…



These are the new “Action Cards” showing all four new Character Classes for “Sword of Fargoal 2”

Additional new stuff (subject to successful Kickstarter):

• Mac/PC/Linux plus iOS versions: Sword of Fargoal 2 in all its glory on multiple platforms.
• Everything rebuilt from the ground up!
• Over 100 procedural dungeon levels: Different challenges and rewards every time you play.
• New character types: Fighter, Ranger, Thief, Magic User, plus male and female versions of both.
• New combat and ranged weapons, armor, magic, and effects.
• More goodies: Potions, wands, rods, spells, rings, amulets, traps, treasures, and poisons.
• Everything new about monsters throughout the dungeon: All new intelligent monster behavior, new monster types, and graphics.
• New quests and side-explorations: You can explore in brand new ways throughout all-new dungeon levels and types.
• New interactive dungeon environments: You’ll be able to pick locks, break containers, unlock items, burn items, create chain reaction explosions, ‘tinker’ to make your own traps, and change your environment in other cool ways.
• New unlockable “Ruins of Fargoal” mode: If you manage to free the Sword and win the game, you will be able to return to the dungeon and see how it has changed. Hint: it will be even more dangerous and unstable, with new riches to be found.
• New “Action Cards”: Cut scene cards to show you when you’ve achieved different elements of the game. You will have the ability to save, export, and re-watch you adventure like a slide show with music.
• Plushies (Stretch Goal): What will they be? The Hero? The Sword? Ogre? Werebear? Dire Wolf? Wyvern? It’s up to you.
• Super Secret Fargoal “Project X” (Stretch Goal): This has been revealed to be the upcoming “Sword of Fargoal: The Board Game”

Concept image for “Sword of Fargoal: The Board Game”






Initial sketches by Charlie Canfield of the player tokens.

— Jeff

 

It will sure be fun (when it is finished being designed). We have it as a "stretch goal" reward level on our Kickstarter campaign right now, but even if we don't reach that goal, we will be looking at ways to complete the game, with the hope to make it available for preorder sometime in spring of summer of next year!

— Jeff