Dev Q&A
The following is a series of answers that have been provided by Skymill.
The Game
Kindred Fates is an open world monster battling RPG, and a love letter to the monster battle genre. Our goal is to evolve the genre, and finally bring fans what they've been asking for. Welcome home.
Story
One of the things we are most passionate about is delivering a thought provoking and compelling story. Many of us who grew up with monster battle games hoped that they would mature as we did. We aim to create a game with thought-provoking storytelling, antagonists with a sympathetic cause, compelling character development, morally ambiguous decisions, and living with the consequences of your actions.
Map
The game takes place in the region of Hinterlock, a region filled with rugged mountains, lush forests, and massive lakes.
Character Customization
In Kindred Fates, you will be able to customize the appearance of your human character! There will be a wide selection of clothing, skin colors, hair colors, hairstyles, and body types to choose from!
Player Home
At the start of the game you’ll be given a home to live in. You can customize things like furniture, the layout, and even build expansions. Some expansions act like upgrades for your home, allowing you to do things like plant a garden, craft items, or upgrade key items. Your home is also the place you return to if you’re defeated in combat. As you play though the game you’ll find other homes for sale in the various towns across the region.
Guilds
Guilds in Kindred Fates are a bit like Gyms in other monster catching games.
The guild in each town exists to protect its citizens. Each guild consists of a guild leader and platoon of tacticians and their teams. Guild leaders are highly respected members of their community and skilled tacticians in combat. Guilds are often looking for new recruits, so if you prove your worth to them they might just make you a member.
Each guild requires potential tacticians to complete a different set of challenges to gain admission. Some may simply require you to defeat a high ranking member in combat, while others have more strict requirements that include solving puzzles or testing the quality of your character.
Build Your Guild
Not every town has a guild to defend it. If you’ve got what it takes you might choose to start a guild of your own and become a guild leader yourself! To get started, you’ll need a building to call your headquarters. There are many buildings available for purchase across the region, some more expensive than others.
Once you’ve made a selection, you’ll need to give your guild a name and an insignia. From there it’s yours to do with as you please! Recruit new members, train with them, add traps, design puzzles, and customize the interior to your taste!
While playing the game online, you can challenge other players' guilds, or anyone to challenge yours! You'll can even be able to select your guild as your preferred stage when queuing up for matchmaking! This will only affect the stage’s appearance in competitive modes to ensure layouts remain standardized.
Along with all the perks, being a guild leader also comes with a lot of responsibility. As a guild leader it’s your job to ensure your guild is prepared to defend against attacks. If your guild isn’t able to repel an attack it could have serious consequences for the town.
Recruitment
Where other monster battle games have breeding, Kindred Fates has recruitment. Once you’re a member of a guild (either an existing guild or your own), you’ll have the ability to recruit new members to your team!
1. First select at least one party member that you’d like to have search for a new recruit.
2. Then select what Kinfolk you’re interested in recruiting.
3. Your party member will leave for a bit while they search for Kinfolk who might be interested in joining you.
4. Once they’ve found someone they’ll let you know, and begin teaching them the basics of combat back at the headquarters.
5. They’ll pass down some of their skill and knowledge of combat, which in turn forms the base stats and known moves of the new recruit.
You can select up to 2 party members to search for new recruits. If two are selected, a new party member can be found twice as fast.
When only one party member passes down their skills and knowledge, the new recruit randomly receives 2 of their teacher’s base stats. When two party members pass down their skills and knowledge, the new recruit randomly receives 2 base stats from each teacher. These do not overlap.
If the teacher is in the same evolutionary tree as the recruit, they are more likely to pass down an additional base stat. At level 100, they are guaranteed to randomly pass down 3 of their base stats so long as the recruit is in the same evolutionary tree.
Just like meeting new kinfolk out in the world, your party members have a very small chance to recruit phantom kinfolk.
Making Camp
Your camp acts as a checkpoint that you can place anywhere in the wild, as long as you’re not in combat. If you’re defeated in battle you’ll return to your camp instead of your home, making it much easier to get back to where you were when you lost. Aside from being a checkpoint for you to return to, it’s also a place where you can to get to know your Kinfolk better. You'll be able to cook food, talk with them, and even play games with them!
Bonds
Just like people, they have their own individual tastes and personalities. They have free will and may even decide to leave your team if you treat them badly, or if they no longer trust you. Players who form strong bonds with their Kinfolk won’t have to worry about this though. A bond is a special connection you share with each Kinfolk on your team.
There are many benefits to having a strong bond with your Kinfolk. They fight harder in combat, can learn new moves, and even become a mount. Getting to know them better by playing games, sharing a meal, talking, or winning in combat will all raise the bond you have with a Kinfolk.
Losing many times in a row will lower your bond, and so will making choices that upset them. So you might want to find Kinfolk whose personalities are similar to your own. If your bond with a Kinfolk falls to 0, then it is broken. Don’t expect them to stick around long if this happens.
However, the stronger your bond is with a Kinfolk, the harder it is for that bond to be lowered or broken. So it’s definitely a good idea to form strong bonds with your Kinfolk.
Types
Rather than one type being better in a fight against another simply because it deals twice as much damage, we're trying something different. Your success will greatly depend on your skill, strategy, and personal playstyle. All types will deal equal damage to each other. You can think of types in Kindred Fates like fighting styles, or playstyles. Each type has it's own play style, and has its own favorable or unfavorable matchups against the other playstyles.
Capturing Souls
As you travel the world, you will quickly encounter Kinfolk whose souls have been corrupted by the fog. You'll need to cleanse them using light from the one of the game's many shrines if you want to add them to your team.
Death
In Kindred Fates, if your Kinfolk falls in combat, they don't faint. They’re actually dead. There are a few caveats to this.
When they die, their soul will materialize as a small blue flame that floats in the air where they died. If you walk over to it and pick it up, it will be added to your inventory and you’ll be able to revive them. If they die somewhere unreachable, their soul will float to the nearest reachable location.
You’ll also receive a key item at the start of the game that can only be assigned to one Kinfolk at a time. The Kinfolk you select with this item will automatically return to you if they die. Meaning they can always be revived. However, if you aren’t able to reach a Kinfolk’s flame before it burns out. They are gone forever.
In the player’s home town, somewhere near their house, there is a place called the memorial. Whenever one of your Kinfolk dies, their name (nickname if they had one), picture, bond level, date you met them, and date of their death are immortalized here. You can visit The Memorial any time to pay your respects, or place a candle in their honor.