I see the Prince of Persia from 2008 found a new employer.......

I backed it. Looks really promising and has all the features I've been looking for in a new cRPG. And they did the right thing, confirming a DRM-free version! Hope they can manage to reach their funding goal.

560
Backers
£10,667
pledged of £120,000 goal
25
days to go

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/199630513/zaharia/posts/754154

update #2

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/199630513/zaharia/posts/755996

update 3
Something about the skill system and the Consciousness of a Thousand Worlds
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In this update we will briefly explain how the skills work in the game.

First of all, the skills won't unlock perks simply leveling up, in the final game the player will need to find a proper teacher in order to obtain a perk.

Combat skills have an obvious purpose, they define the proficiency of a certain character in defending and using various weapons. Those skills will be useful in combat, but sometimes they will be useful in dialogues too, thanks to some rare stat checks.

Knowledge skills are some really versatile skills and they can be useful in many situation. They are really useful in dialogues and unlock a lot of different lines, but some of them have different practical uses. With the Alchemy skill it will be possible to brew potions or assemble bombs; the Magic skill will help the character to resist to magic and it's a necessary skill for mages; the Medicine skill will allow the character to treat wounded people.

Practical skills are useful mostly outside the dialogues. The Athletic skill allow the character to improve his Stamina; the Steal skill allow the player to steal things from people in different situations (Yes, in dialogues too); the Lock Picking skill will allow the player to get through locked doors; the Sneak skill will reduce the noise of footsteps and other actions in the stealth phase and will allow the player to learn some really important stealth perks.

Social skills are useful for a massive amount of stat checks in dialogues and they can be combined with the character's reputation for a better result.

Skills are improved using experience points, which can be earned by the player doing quests. The more a character is experienced with a certain skill, the more it will cost further improvements, that's will encourage the player to invest some points in other skills and improve the character's versatility.

Now let's talk about the Consciousness of a Thousand Worlds.

On the top of the highest mountain in the Zaharian Empire the player will be able to meet a mysterious entity, the Consciousness of a Thousand Worlds, a magical being that will let the player enter in different dreamlike experiences, each experience will be related to a certain theme or to the player's choices during the game.

The more you guys will back Zaharia and follow us on social networks, the more dreams you will be able to enjoy in Zaharia.
1 dream unlocked!
Kickstarter: new dream at 750 backers.
Zaharia Facebook page: new unlock at 500 likes.
Inner Void Facebook page: new unloack at 250 likes.
Inner Void Twitter profile: new unlock at 250 followers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/199630513/zaharia/posts/757619

Update #4 ℹ

Feb 25 2014
The world of Zaharia


We want to share with you some details about the world of Zaharia, from our first dev. diary.

We worked hard to realize a fresh and original experience, which will stand out from the classic fantasy clichés, and we finally managed to realize the Zaharian Empire. Its name comes from a huge region called Zaharia, whose people share the same culture and religion. This update will summarize the general setting of the game, while the next ones will analyze other important themes like religion, culture, magic and technology.

As shown by the map, the Zaharian Empire is widely extended, so much that allows a great variety of weather and geographical conditions. This is the reason why every settlement will be characterized in a different way, depending on its position. A great part of the Empire is settled down in the coast, where the mediterranean climate and the huge availability of water facilitate the agriculture activity. Fields and forests will cover these landscapes, while the hinterland presents impressive mountain chains with frigid climate, especially during Winter. Beyond the mountains, climate gets drier and water starts missing, until the territory becomes desertic and inhospitable. Despite that, a lot of settlements manage to survive in these barren areas, which are full of mineral resources that can be exported to get all the necessary supplies, rather hard to find in other ways.

The Zaharian Empire counts more than 30 million people, but not everyone belongs to the Zaharian culture and ethnic groups, since many of them are immigrants coming from other nations. This leads the region to be a social melting-pot, with a deep interaction between cultures and a multitude of different way of seeing religion and society.

The same populations that immigrated in Zaharia in the old times are now considered as native, although they preserve slightly different customs and traditions that will be made visible during the game. Focusing on all these aspects we could create a realistic society, in order to highlight the mix of cultures and the different habits of people living in the same nation. We avoided to create a society made by individuals who act all in the same way, or who find themselves under the same traditions and religions. We believe this to be one of the most important element needed to grant the maximum immersion in the game.

As for the most characteristic settlement of Zaharia, we first find Ashantir, the magnificent capital that rises on the delta of the Shir river. The city has great relevance being the cultural, economical and political center of the region, and it counts more than 1 million people. Ashantir is the pride of the nation, with its high and wide palaces that stretch skyward, its buildings that seem almost suspended in the islands that form the city, between one ship canal and another. Travellers, merchants and foreigners can see its dream-like architectures from kilometers.

Ashantir couldn’t obviously be the only important centre of such an extended Empire. Among the other cities we find Rasul, birthplace of the Azhanit religion, the official cult of Zaharia. Rasul is living a period of deep decline because of Ashantir, that overshadows its importance.

West of the capital we find Zarta and Qanyuba, not far from each other. Zarta is called the Green City for its large amount of native vegetation, that grows thanks to the abundance of streams of water. The city is home to some of the richest people in the country, who moved there attracted by its natural beauty and its tranquillity. These peculiarities along with the massive presence of all kinds of artists, make this city unique in the world.

Qanyuba, on the other hand, is known as the Steel City, famous for its ancient craft tradition. Thanks to this historical feature, together with a significant technologic improvement, the city is about to give life to the first proto-industries.

And now we want to share with you another interesting Kickstarter campaign, a Sci-Fi graphic novel. Check this out, their artworks are amazing!

Irrealistic project (once again...so many of those on ks sadly :( ).
6 ppl (+2 extras) with a 120,000£ goal which means 20,000£ for each of them. Sooo...considering they should be paid around 2000 each month, that leaves only 10 months to complete the game.
Yeah...no. Seein how early the prototype is i'm fairly sure it won't get really far in the development. Young team with no big name, no one seems really experienced and reading this: means they don't have ways to finance the game if their KS isn't succesful (which it certainly won't be).

Also, no money towards bug testing/polishing in that pie chart really makes me wonder if they have ever worked on a game before. My guess is they haven't and this will fail or (worse case scenario:) be succesful and have an average rating of 1/20 on gaming sites.

i seen goblins carrying bombs on their back, climbing over walls and hopping around like a pokemon or just merely rushing into battle like some sort of warrior. i have yet to see a goblin with dynamite up their ass. other things they were trying to sneak across the broder, yes. Dynamite not yet. Speaking of dynamite. that does give me a idea for a brand new trap to use in my dungeon.

Man, that chart does not include everything. And it's pretty obvious.
Do you really think we created a campaign without consulting different programmers and sending them the GDD to have different opinions about the development time? What kind of programmer does not include the polishing in his workflow?
Come on, we may have a bad accent, but that doesn't mean we're idiot!

I think the game looks really promising, and it's nice to see a different and interesting setting - so I've backed it.

Best of luck with your kickstarter - hope it succeeds!

Yeah, i think you did. I also think you can't manage to create this game with only 1 full time paid programmer. I'm working on an indie game myself so i know a bit about it ;)
This project is meant to fail, sorry to disappoint you, but i'm being realistic here.
That said, i still wish you luck on it but i don't see it being succesful.

...First, I am sure they know more about their inner-workings than some rando on the net, and second, whatever the case with the project, they came to GOG to answer questions/address concerns, so replying in an aggressive way just makes you look bad.

When you put your project online for everyone to pass judgement on/critique, then I guess you'll be more empathetic, but for now, if you don't have anything nice to say, just let it go.

e: b/c name-calling is bad, kids

I"m giving an opinion and replying to a post that has been made in reply to my opinion. If being realistic about this project is "being a douchebag" then so be it. I don't care if you dislike it, i'm not going to ignore an answer directed at me because you don't like my post.
Who's insulting the other ? Who said the other was a douchebag ? I'll let you meditate on that.

When i'll put my project online, i'll be open to criticism, especially if it's coming from someone who probably knows more than i do.

I never said my opinion was god's will and that i could predict the future. I just gave an opinion and yes, in my opinion (and from the overall feeling from that kickstarter), i know more.
Good day.


edit: for "TheDarkSlayer":
I don't mean to be rude, i'm hoping what i'm telling you here will help you guys.
I just feel like your kickstarter is both showing too much and too little. We have no information on who you guys are, why we should trust you, why you feel like you can manage making this game in time with this budget or if you had an initial budget. And at the same time there's too much images (for tiers), different tiers and things that confuse the reader.
I'd suggest that you explain more the work you have done before, your past experience and why you're the right guys for this game. Also, you should add stuff like beta-test/debug in your pie charts because people like me won't back up projects that seem irrealistic.
Also, for a rpg project, i would have probably started by working on the combat system since it's usually very important (most RPG devs work on this first and the rest just gets added in).

That said, the project does seem pretty cool and if you can manage to get it right, it will be nice...all in all, if you want it to be succesful, you should make sure people have more confidence in it after seeing your KS.
Good luck !