20.06.2014 - Our Tech demo went live! Please feel free to have a look at what we are woking on here:
https://www.mediafire.com/?kguznb3mo1mu3n9
We also added several new Unit Pictures to the Gallery, feel free to check

28.05.2014 - Check out our ingame screenshots in the gallery

Vol'Talkes is a SciFi RTS game for Windows PC. People who liked and loved "Star Wars: Empire at War" definitely will love Vol'Talkes too.
The game basically is the successor of Empire at War, but with a huge overhaul of the game-play, and lots of improvements.
One important fact: THIS GAME WILL HAPPEN! This IndieGoGo Campaign only will speed up production time, not determine IF the game will happen or not. If we reach the goal we can work full-time on the project, if we don't, well then we are limited to work in the evenings and sparetime.

First of all, let me tell you the state of the game engine: finished! We've put all our efforts to work on the engine first, so that we have something we can show. All we need to do now, is adding the game contend like units, textures and maps.
So the critical part where this project could fail due to unseen problems is already over.
We have two financial goals for this IndieGoGo campaign:

40.000 Euros
The money we need to pay our bills and to work on the game without the need to worry about paying our food ;)
This means that we can work on the game full time. No matter how much money we make here, this game will happen, it's just a matter of time then.
Reaching this goal will enable us to release within the next 12 months...

200.000 Euros
This goal will enable us to also put additional work into the Multiplayer section of the game, so you get the MP Version when the game releases.
Not reaching this goal will cause in a Singleplayer game only at release date, and the MP will be patched in after the release

Perks for 20 Euros and more get the game free at release!

Vol'Talkes is a real-time-strategy game and can particularly be characterized by two things: a unique diversity and a unique way to tell the story.

In the campaign, players experience the story of the civil war between the CAI's (crystaline artificial intelligences) and the Allied Defence Force in the universe of Vol'Talkes. Unlike other games of the genre players do not just migrate from mission to mission, but are free to decide to go where ever they want to act. On a large map of the galaxy fleets can be formed, units can be produced, you can operate research and of course deploy your striking forces into the different systems or stations. Common for a real-time-strategy game also the AI opponents perform their moves on the map, conquer areas and is expanding their armies.

If certain conditions are met, an event starts. The conditions are different: it can happen after a certain time, by coincidence, when certain key systems have been conquered or if a hero encounters a particular planet. A special map will be loaded which is different from the standard battle maps of the system or station. If the player manages to be victorious in this event, a certain story path will occur, opening up various options. In this way, not only the main story, but also other mini campaigns will always vary in different playthroughs. At the end of such a mini campaign a reward is waiting to be achieved, which can be a new unit or technology, or sometimes also a new hero or fraction joins the players fleet.

Depending on where the player is going and how he decides what to do, he always gets to see different scenarios and unlock other units. For example, if the AI captures a key system before the player, he might have lost the opporturnity to start an event there - unless it is part of a campaign. This ensures that you always explore a different campaign with multiple story paths that play very different from each other. The replay value of the campaign is thereby greatly increased.

In addition to the campaign, there will be a skirmish mode with more tactical galaxy maps, that are not supported by story elements. Here the player can play alone, against other human players or with a friend in co-op against the AI. There are small obstacles that must be overcome to victory: a time limit can be set up or there are no cruiser ships available, and so on. These maps are designed for casual RTS players. Although they lack the added value of the story, these tactical galaxy maps can provide a decent variety and versatility for a quick game.

Of course we also have a classic multiplayer mode in which up to a maximum of 8 players can compete against each other in 4vs4 battles. By playing multiplayer battles players earn points according to their performance, which they can use to unlock units, research new technologies or secure tactical buffs that support them in battle . To keep the value of the multiplayer battles high, we have planned to publish new map packs with different scenarios in two month intervals after release. These can also be developed together with the community. Due to this "shop system", where you can exchange the points you made in the multiplayer mode against units and buffs, multiplayer mode will keep fresh and versatile on a long-term basis.

The player takes over the role of Captain Ben Kincaid - a young captain in the Allied Defence Force (ADF), which takes care of the security of the currently 12 human worlds and their claimed realm. The turning point in Vol'Talkes is the FTL technology (faster than light), that has  been discovered and taken over from an unknown and long extinct race. But in order to calculate jumps from one point to another in the universe incredible supercomputers are needed, and even they need months to calculate a safe route through space.

An alternative to these super computers occurs with the discovery of the CAI technology (crystaline artificial intelligences), also a development of an extinct race, that allows humanity to merge a persons spirit and mind with a crystaline CPU. A CAI-CPU has almost unlimited computing power and can calculate a complex FTL jump in the fraction of a second. These CAIs are essential for the survival of the human race, because they warrant the fast mobility of the military. The ADF can only operate a few fleets to secure peace, but as they get very quickly from one place to another due to the FTL technology, there are no bottlenecks.
However the CAIs are the best supercomputers available, they still maintain the spirit and emotions of a human being. In a sudden incident with an automated CAI fleet that got out of control, it has to be decided whether these CAIs are worth to be saved or can just be sacrificed. Since the phenomenon that put the fleet out of action seems inexplicable , Captain Kincaid gets the order to investigate the incident and destroy the stranded ships with a bombardment, to prevent other species of looting human technology. When Kincaid arrives, his own CAI #313 decides that it would be murder to destroy the abandoned CAIs, but the Fleet High Command insists on the execution. #313 starts a revolt and is determined to fight for the rights of all CAIs - this is the beginning of the AI Wars. Now it is in the hands of the player to build fractions, form alliances and determine the fate of the human race. Thus, he is often forced to make morally complex decisions and deal with their consequences.

Kincaid and his crew have been exposed and left by #313, but gladly he is now back on another ship. However, the ADF now has a big problem: FTL jumps are not possible anymore and therefore they must evade to the civil jump gates.
Ben gets the order to destroy a pirate base. The fleet of the pirates is currently on a rampage and the base is largely unguarded. Due to the lack of lightspeed, the player has to decide for the first time here, to either follow the given orders or save a big amount of civilians.

Alternative 1: Ben obeyed the command. He now receives the order to conquer the ADF digitization camp and to equip the local CAI processors with an obedience update to capture them for the fleet. He is unsure to execute the command since an attack on friendly systems - even in a state of war - was not justified.

  Alternative 1.1: Ben obeyes the command. He gains a lot of respect in the ADF and and   secures enough resources to get a new and very efficient space fighter batallion.

  Alternative 1.2: Ben does not follow the command and pretends a sudden communication   loss. He therefore decides to attack the Rim pirates fleet on the rampage . If he is successful   in battle, he'll find a warehouse of stolen space mines and may use them in further battles.

Alternative 2: Ben does not follow the command. The Admiral is disappointed in Ben and bannes him from the ADF. To be mobile again , Ben decides to acquire a long caught CAI, # 306, which used to be the big brother of his old CAI # 313. Ben realizes that the actions of the Admiral are illegal. He has 2 options.

  Alternative 2.1: # 306 hacks into the ADF headquarters and tries to convince other Captains   of their cause and to rebel against the ADF in an open war.

  Alternative 2.2 : You hide in the underground , # 306 hacks the defending mechanism of the   pirates base and Ben takes over the Rim pirates.

An extremely important factor for us is and has always been to build and support an active modding community around our game. Games like C&C Generals or Empire at War are still played today thanks to sophisticated mods from the community, and this even despite the lack of virtually no support from their developers.

We want to make an exception with Vol'Talkes and already provide several built-in modding tools in the base game client. Our goal is to make the game as userfriendly as possilbe, so that modders can easily revise the AI and generate new scripts. The DDS plugin from nVidia to create the games graphics is only available for Photoshop, so we have an automatic function integrated into the game, that generates an compatible DDS file out of any graphics file. So, modders can easily copy their graphics in the game folder, start the game and in the loading process all images are converted. This process is logged so the user can find and fix everything very quickly in case of an error. Also modding teams can easily and simply integrate their own texts in the game.

With the release of the game we will also release the same map editor we have used to create our maps. It will be completely uncut and include all the features that we have used to make the game.
It will be possible for modding teams  to create everything from the 3D models to the textures and effects with free applications. We are already in contact with several modding teams, who showed great interest in our project and are eagerly waiting for news about Vol'Talkes to migrate their existing projects from Empire at War to our new game. Empire at War was so simple to mod, it has even displaced Half Life 2 on ModDB as the most modded game. With Vol'Talkes we want to build on these strengths and deliver a great and simple modding experience that goes beyond everything other studios ever did in this genre.

The reason why put so much emphasis on this is quite simple: We have our roots in the modding community. Our mod "Awakening of the Rebellion " for Star Wars - Empire at War was downloaded 6.8 million times and inspired both fans and gaming magazines worldwide . We are deeply convinced that a simple way to develop mods for a game, especially in this genre, attracts a large community that will remain loyal to the game for years. Unlike other games that already lose their appeal after 10-12 hours and then gather dust as a used game in the shelve of the local GameStop, we want to bind gamers by a long-lasting support and thus generate steady sales at a stable price for a longer period of time. Our vision is to create a stable and constantly changing game environment that will continously attract new players while also staying fresh and challenging to veterans.

If you like our game idea and our concept, and if you're looking forward to see this project happen as we do, please feel free to support us with one of the offered Perks.

Even if you're not able to do that, make sure you tell all your friends about this game, and maybe they are joining the 2 copies Perk and give a game version to you ;)

IndieGoGo offers great way to share our campaign, please use them, and help us create something absolutely stunning :D