Guido Henkel may not be a household name among gamers, but many of the titles he’s worked on are. As well as Planescape, his portfolio includes Neverwinter Nights, Fallout 2, Jagged Alliance and Realms of Arkania. Thorvalla will be a party-based RPG “steeped in Norse mythology” and featuring dragons.
Henkel, also the author of the Jason Dark series of pulp novels, is joined by game designer Neal Hallford, who has worked on such games as Betrayal at Krondor and Dungeon Siege, so the two definitely have RPG rep that they can flaunt. Henkel has not been involved in games development for some time and, while he says that the game won’t strictly be “old school,” Kickstarter is his chance to make the kind of games he hasn’t been able to for several years now.
The thing is, they don’t have all that much to show for Thorvalla right now. Their Kickstarter video only features a Q&A and a few pieces of concept art, while their $1m target is certainly an ambitious one. Is it realistic? They have 28 days to go and so far they’ve raised $22,475, so it looks like they’re going to need a little more momentum.