Stretch goal thoughts

[phimseto]

A few disjointed thoughts on the Kickstarter and the game...

 

- For me, I don't have a huge interest in playable races - at least not as a stretch goal. The only things that I would love to see a push for are more story and more party characters.

 

- Regarding party characters, I have one extremely random suggestion. Much like the Space Hamster appeared in the Mass Effect games, I have always viewed Minsc and Boo as these characters who could show up in any game/any setting. Provided you can get a hassle-free allowance from whoever owns the rights to the character, I would love to see Minsc and Boo appear as characters in the game. If you're at all intrigued, it's worth at least a casual inquiry to see what it would take and I think it would make an interesting stretch goal.

 

- Use a stretch goal to educate players beforehand about the new world. If a certain number is reached, commission a digital book of short stories/world atlas/lore to establish the setting and perhaps even some of the characters. It won't be necessary to read to enjoy the game or learn what you need to do to succeed in the game, but will give players a chance to delve into the world while waiting for the game and let them start to shape their own story/approach in their minds.

 

- If you're planning on having a stronghold like NWN2, then note that and tie stretch goals into it. Dead State tied a number of their stretch goals into that particular feature, and it gave them a huge boost. Of course, their HQ is the centerpiece of the game, but in my observation and experience, RPG players love that feature and will want to see it as robustly developed as possible. Figure out some ways that you would expand on the concept given the extra money/manpower, and tie it into those additional stretch goals.

 

- Something Echoes of Eternea did on their Kickstarter was ask for a boost to support post-main story content. If your game doesn't have a hard ending (ie you can keep exploring past the end), consider using a stretch goal to support additional content for that section.

 

- Another stretch goal, again tied into party characters, would be to take those characters further. Traditionally, every party character has an arc which ends with them either utterly loyal to you or leaving the party. Use a stretch goal to develop more content beyond that traditional arc. Once you reach that character arc end, find ways to take that relationship further. In the case of love interests, give the players what Bioware fans are always bugging the Mass Effect devs for: a chance to romance, date, etc. their love interests. Tying that kind of stuff to stretch goals could be big.

 

Anyways, those are some initial thoughts. Cannot wait to play this game, and glad Obsidian finally took the Kickstarter plunge!

[Sensuki]

I'm just gonna double down and say I hope there's a MORE SIDEQUESTS stretch goal.

 

BG2 had the most amazing amount of cool sidequests.

[Kilroy_Was_Here]

BG2 was unique in that most of the game was cool sidequests. You get out into the world and the main quest becomes:

 

NPC:'get 20k gold and come back and see me'

PC:'Um.... ok.'

 

That's the essence of Chapter 2, and most of the gameplay (60+%) is in that single chapter. Want to bust some slavers? Wolves attacking a village? Harpers kidnapped Monataron? (Not Montaron... you bastards!) Just about every area has interesting stuff to do in it, none of which is connected to the main quest except maybe getting you closer to your 20k. Have yet to find any game that does this so well.

[Sensuki]

I think the reason for this was (and I read this in Brent Knowles' yearly blog)

 

Back then the individual designers were free to populate their areas with whatever they wanted

Edited September 19, 2012 by Sensuki

[Badprenup]

I agree on pretty much all points. Even though it looks like two fantasy mainstays - the elf and dwarf - are already going to be in the game, I really don't care how they fill up the other races. Classes I care more about, but need more information before I can say anything about them. The rest of the stuff sounds like awesome ideas for stretch goals.

BG2 was unique in that most of the game was cool sidequests. You get out into the world and the main quest becomes:

 

NPC:'get 20k gold and come back and see me'

PC:'Um.... ok.'

 

That's the essence of Chapter 2, and most of the gameplay (60+%) is in that single chapter. Want to bust some slavers? Wolves attacking a village? Harpers kidnapped Monataron? (Not Montaron... you bastards!) Just about every area has interesting stuff to do in it, none of which is connected to the main quest except maybe getting you closer to your 20k. Have yet to find any game that does this so well.

That is a fantastic way to encourage sidequests. You give the player a single arbitrary goal to achieve that has to be obtained by doing X side quests out of a large list. You could also equate this to the beginning of Fable where you had several options for getting the gold you needed to buy your sister a present. It wasn't quite as varied but it's that kind of freeform environment with a particular end game goal in mind that really lets you play a role.

[phimseto]

Right...this is the kind of stuff that excites folks. They've committed to X number of playable races, so I'd say cap it off there. Use extra stretch goals/money to do more with the playable races that are there - race-specific quests or NPC reactions, etc.

 

From all the RPG/adventure game-based Kickstarters that I've seen, people react very, very positively to pushes for more story content/more places to explore.

Edited September 19, 2012 by phimseto

[Ausir]

Like the whole Baldur's Gate series (as well as PST and IWD), Minsc and Boo are currently owned by Atari and are not likely to appear in any non-D&D game.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Ausir

[Longknife]

Am I really the only one that just wants to see Sawyer, Avellone and Tim Cain sing Don't Stop Believin' by Journey?

 

That'd be worth it's weight in gold...

[Karranthain]

Some stretch goal ideas :

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60038-george-ziets-as-a-possible-stretch-goal/page__hl__ziets

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60122-stretch-goal-hire-justin-sweet-to-make-portraits/?do=findComment&comment=1188511

[phimseto]

I definitely support hiring George Ziets as a stretch goal! And I like Justin Sweet, too, provided his art style fits what Obsidian wants to do.

 

@Ausir, as for Minsc and Boo, I know he's someone else's IP but arrangements for something like this can be made. If Obsidian actually approached Atari, they'd be smart to play along. Reintroducing Minsc and Boo into the conversation helps fan the fuel for more Baldur's Gate.

[Karranthain]

I think it'd be a good idea to post more stretch goals once 1,8 mil. or 2 mil. funding is reached, to keep the momentum going.

[phimseto]

Truth be told, they probably have that exact plan (including exactly what they want to do), but - hey - on the off-chance they're open to additional ideas, I figured it wouldn't hurt to post my own thoughts and invite discussion from fans!

[Chaos Theory]

I think a stretch goal should include some kind of pre-release lore material, be it a novel, short story, etc. Just no anime or comic, please.

[SerRodrik]

Stretch goal idea: recipes in the back of the manual. I still use the banana bread one from Arcanum's manual.

[DarthAdamRG]

I think a stretch goal should include some kind of pre-release lore material, be it a novel, short story, etc. Just no anime or comic, please.

 

A novel, written by the right person would have me pledging more, this is a great idea.

[Karranthain]

The funding has picked yesterday, after the GOG announcement. There's been a noticable improvement in the update frequency and it definitely helped. Next stretch goal will probably be reached today.

[phimseto]

I noticed the jump! Huzzah! The more money this game gets, the better. It's especially encouraging, too, because a properly-run Kickstarter (which so far this one has been) gets a significant bump at the tail end. The goals I listed above are definitely ones for mid-to-late in the process, accompanying new rounds of info on the game.

[Karranthain]

The funding has now slowed down to a crawl We need a big jolt!

[phimseto]

Thrilled to see the novella and player home appear as stretch goal items! I also threw in another $50 to help GameBanshee's "ChipIn" campaign.

[Monte Carlo]

* Mega-dungeon stretch goal

[rjshae]

From a replay perspective, a nice stretch goal would be a gritty, hard-core mode, as in Fallout: New Vegas. Weapons can break, armor can become shredded, bow strings can snap, physical impact can break bottles, heavy hits cause significant injuries, gold has weight, encumbrance hinders activity, foul weather weakens you, and the party can starve to death if they don't find food. &c. &c.

Edited September 25, 2012 by rjshae

[HungryHungryOuroboros]

From a replay perspective, a nice stretch goal would be a gritty, hard-core mode, as in Fallout: New Vegas. Weapons can break, armor can become shredded, bow strings can snap, physical impact can break bottles, heavy hits cause significant injuries, and the party can starve to death if they don't find food. &c. &c.

I don't know about you, but I would be upset if the *core game* wasn't "hardcore mode". It seems to me that the "Hardcore" designation was just there because they had to ship a mass consumer-friendly product.

[phimseto]

Weapon and armor repair is one of my least favorite elements in RPGs so I wouldn't be all that thrilled with it as a "feature". However, as something optional, I would support it for those who want it.