The Dream Of Rowan, Kickstarted

The Amiga 500 game scene has been surprisingly quiet lately, so the announcement of The Dream of Rowan was a welcome surprise. I first heard about the game some time ago, but there was so little information available that I decided to put the article on the back burner.

Yesterday, I came across news that the game had launched on Kickstarter and was seeking support. I decided to pledge, although I didn’t contribute a large amount, as I found the pledge options a bit generic. That said, my decision may change over the next 28 days as the campaign progresses.

The AMITEN Software Inc. team behind The Dream of Rowan consists of just five people, all working on the game in their spare time—so, of course, this is a true indie project.

Interestingly, Amiten is the only developer I know of based in Tenerife, Spain, which I think is pretty cool.

They’ve promised to dedicate the next year (from October 2016) to working on the game if the Kickstarter goal of €4,000 is reached. The more I think about it, the more surprising that figure seems. Had the target been €1,000–1,500, it would almost certainly have been funded by now. At the current level, I worry they may struggle to reach the goal.

After two days, the campaign sits at €668. While it’s likely to at least double by the end of the campaign, reaching €4,000 will still be a challenge.

The game will be available in both digital download and boxed editions. The boxed versions will come in two formats: CD and memory stick.

The graphics shown so far have been great, actually, the style seems coherent and well thought out, and i checked a video last night which confirms all that. The game follows a standard that most indie teams have set over the years, and that is game designs a bit out of the norm.

The specs of the game are quite high; this is down to several things, like the use of AMOS PRO among other things, OCS/OCS 2mb chip memory and a 030 CPU, but they will also try and make it possible for stock A1200 users to play the game.

The game runs at 50Hz/fps, which is likely one of the reasons why the specs are so high.

The music in the previews so far is of typical sid style and very catchy, the song so far reminds me of something, but no matter how hard i have thought about it i still can’t place it.

The game will be released in both Spanish and English.

Deluxe paint is naturally one of the dev tools used, a wonderful app that was used by professional artists up to at least 2000, an example is, for instance, WipeOut 2097.

The only thing i can think of that should be changed is the actual look of the main character (Rowan, i presume),  but i guess that is too late to ask, for now, way to much time and effort has gone into the development, and naturally the character is everywhere.

This is the actual render/design of the game before transforming into an old-school pixel look. Below is the result of the change.

So which one is the better looking? i personally think that the pixel look is better, and probably more so when the game is played on a CRT TV.

There is also a cool video on the Kickstarter page that i recommend you check out. That video was also one of the reasons why i decided to support the game.

If you want to contact them, then you can do it via their Facebook page.

That wraps up this preview of The Dream of Rowan. I’ll be posting more updates as the project progresses.

I really like how the game is shaping up. While it’s still rough around the edges, I believe the final product will be a significant step up when it’s completed.

Good luck to the team, and as they would say: Amiga4ever!