The Kickstarter Thread

[samm]

Deathfire kickstarter is live now

 

More promising than the website actually. New screenshots on the KS page and the trailer show a wealth of skills (traits). So not only dungeon-crawling with monster slaying but also riddes and outside world. The latter is pretty gray currently, but the other artwork is very nice looking, early development seems solid  

*backed*

Edited November 6, 2013 by samm

[Tale]

I'm skeptical. Talent is a perishable good and they don't have much to show from the past decade. Sounds like they might have one guy who worked on League of Legends on the team.

 

But by the same token, that kind of skepticism is against inXile and I'm hopeful. Or Harebrained Schemes and I think they did well. And inXile increased their talent pool from when they first pitched.

[Keyrock]

Deathfire kickstarter is live now

 

More promising than the website actually. New screenshots on the KS page and the trailer show a wealth of skills (traits). So not only dungeon-crawling with monster slaying but also riddes and outside world. The latter is pretty gray currently, but the other artwork is very nice looking, early development seems solid  

*backed*

I'm not convinced but I am interested.  I'll keep an eye on this.  Hopefully Guido and Co. divulge a lot more particulars before the campaign is over.

[BruceVC]

 

Deathfire kickstarter is live now

 

More promising than the website actually. New screenshots on the KS page and the trailer show a wealth of skills (traits). So not only dungeon-crawling with monster slaying but also riddes and outside world. The latter is pretty gray currently, but the other artwork is very nice looking, early development seems solid  

*backed*

I'm not convinced but I am interested.  I'll keep an eye on this.  Hopefully Guido and Co. divulge a lot more particulars before the campaign is over.

 

 

It worries me if you aren't convinced  When you become confidant that this project is viable then I'll consider supporting it.

 

You are my litmus test for any game that I don't know about

[Keyrock]

 

 

Deathfire kickstarter is live now

 

More promising than the website actually. New screenshots on the KS page and the trailer show a wealth of skills (traits). So not only dungeon-crawling with monster slaying but also riddes and outside world. The latter is pretty gray currently, but the other artwork is very nice looking, early development seems solid  

*backed*

I'm not convinced but I am interested.  I'll keep an eye on this.  Hopefully Guido and Co. divulge a lot more particulars before the campaign is over.

 

 

It worries me if you aren't convinced  When you become confidant that this project is viable then I'll consider supporting it.

 

You are my litmus test for any game that I don't know about

 

Yeah, well, I mean nothing said in the pitch video was bad, but not too much to get me really excited either.  Different races, different classes, stats, skills, kill monsters, dungeons, outdoor areas, that could be literally any fantasy RPG ever.  One thing I liked was when Guido talked about party members having personalities, conversing with each other, potentially getting into fights, or flat out leaving.  That I like, that's cool.  Other than that, everything else sounded pretty much like standard paint by numbers fantasy RPG. 

[Bester]

Also, text based adventure

 

http://www.mandategame.com/scourge/

It's five minutes long.

[babaganoosh13]

Bloom: Memories

A fantasy aRPG focusing on a conflict between nature and technology - may also heavily focus on the relationship with the character's mother

 

This is actually their second go at Kickstarter. Their first go ended short with only 70% of funding. The first go they had more concept than game but the new campaign's trailer shows nothing but game, which notably looks much cleaner than before. Taking a look at both may give you a better picture of what's going on here.

I really hope they make it this time. The artwork and music is incredible. The only game that I was more disappointed that didn't make funding was the new Jim Walls one.

[Labadal]

Deathfire kickstarter is live now

 

More promising than the website actually. New screenshots on the KS page and the trailer show a wealth of skills (traits). So not only dungeon-crawling with monster slaying but also riddes and outside world. The latter is pretty gray currently, but the other artwork is very nice looking, early development seems solid

*backed*

I backed Thorvalla when they launched that kickstarter, but this does not interest me.

[ShadySands]

 

Finally

[TrashMan]

Has THE MANDATE been mentioned yet?

[Keyrock]

Deathfire - Update on Factions:

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/g3studios/deathfire-ruins-of-nethermore/posts/657222

 

Ooh, they have a faction of rat people, and you can even potentially make friends with the rat people and help them out.  Now I'm interested.  Power to the rat people!

[JFSOCC]

Has THE MANDATE been mentioned yet?

yes, I believe so, but it's not doing so well, unfortunately. I don't know what the paypal totals are, which is how I backed it, but it looks like it won't make its goal.

[AwesomeOcelot]

My worry about the The Mandate is that the scope of the game: being 40 hours, large number of solar systems, squad RTS, spaceship combat, doesn't match the $500K goal. Even if a lot of the content is recycled and shallow, being procedurally generated, a year and a half doesn't seem enough. I don't know enough about the team to have this level of confidence in them.

[Keyrock]

When I first heard about Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore (good lord that title is downright cringeworthy) I wasn't exactly blow away, but I'm starting to warm up to it, especially after this latest update:

 

 

Meet the Psycho Engine

 

As another day of our Kickstarter campaign comes to a close, it is becoming evident that the momentum has dropped significantly. We are still hard at work trying to get press coverage that will help to attract more potential backers to the campaign, and with 27 days still to go, there is still every chance to reach our funding goal.

 

I also wanted to point out that we are reading all the comments here on Kickstarter, and where ever possible we answer right away. However, it is not possible for us to answer all questions and cover all areas of the game at the same time. I will discuss different parts and areas of the game in updates here on Kickstarter, but I will have to do so one at a time. I hope you understand. and having said that, let’s dive into today’s topic - the character interactions I have mentioned on various occasions before.

 

The Psycho Engine

 

Since character interaction is one of the key features in our game, I thought in today’s update I will tell you a little more about how this is going to work and what kind of effects you can expect. It is a bit tricky for me to do, because on the one hand I would love to divulge every bit of information on it - because it really is absolutely cool and fascinating - but at the same time I need to make sure we are maintaining a bit of competitive advantage by keeping things vague. In the old days, this was not a problem because you talked about things such as this very late in the development of a game, but in today’s climate, as soon as we announce features, people want to know details. The problem with that is that in the time from now until the time we publish, other projects can essentially pick up your idea and mimmic the feature, and take away a competitive advantage from you that way. I need to prevent this while also satisfying our backer’s curiosity. I’ll try to do my best.

 

At the core of all of the character behavior is our “Psycho Engine.” Aptly named, wouldn’t you say?

As you know, the game uses 34 traits for each character, but that’s really only half the story. These traits are the ones visible to the player. There are countless other stats running under the hood, constantly measuring and recording things. How many times did character one disagree with remarks made by character three, for example? It builds an internal frustration level that is invisible to the player. Naturally, when a certain threshold is reached, the frustration will result in a response. The character may tell the other guy to just shut up, for example.

 

Now take this example and apply it to all the things that go on in a role-playing game. As players, we tire of sword fodder in RPGs, meaning, after killing the umpteenth goblin, we would appreciate a different monster for a change. Why should the companions in your party feel any differently? So, let’s keep track of things such as the number and types of monsters slayed overall and within a certain recent window of time, and evaluate the information constantly. Once again, when a certain threshold is reached, it will force a response.

 

The list of things that can be done this way is endless and we actually apply various levels of importance to these responses. Naturally, these are vast masses of information that will have to be processed, but thanks to modern day computers this is more possible than ever. It is something we could never have done in games such as “Realms of Arkania” because the memory and storage requirements would have been too high, and the computing muscle to process all that information would have been too weak or slow. So when we say we keep the game traditional but will make use of modern technologies, it refers to something like this every bit as much as to the pretty graphics in the game.

 

At its core, the Psycho Engine is a kind of artificial intelligence that is highly specialized on the requirements of our game. It weighs and prioritizes things in the game, just like a human being would, and there are certain responses that are instinctive, reflexive or subconscious while others are more defined by a character’s actual personalities and the way the player has been defining these companions in his play.

 

While playing the game, this means situations will lead to other situations. When two characters argue a lot, the player has to pay attention to that in order to prevent bigger problems down the line. There will be various ways to deal with it, and each situation will probably be different. Sometimes a bit of diplomacy might help, sometimes authority may work and at other times, it may simply be the best to send away one of the characters to make sure peace returns to the group. Perhaps recruiting a different NPC, one that fits in better with the group dynamics, would be advisable. Since you will run into recruitable characters throughout the game, it may turn out to be a very interesting change in pace, as a matter of fact. The decision is up to the player.

 

This is just one example, but I think you get the idea and can see how something like this can very quickly result in a game that is much more challenging and involving, and resemble a classic tabletop game where the player has to take charge and really role play his characters.

 

Coincidentally, the same is true in combat, where running a sword through an opponent may not always be the best option. In “Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore” we try to get players off the auto pilot and think about their actions. I will talk more about combat in a future update, because we have some very interesting options there as well that will hopefully please players.

 

The overall intention is to make sure that the game is not a simple Hack’n Slash game and that players won’t look at it as just another mindless “Blobber.”

I'm definitely a fan of party members having their own minds and personalities and potentially getting into conflicts with each other, maybe to the point of fighting or leaving.  Squabbling within a party has been done many times, but most often it's scripted rather than dynamic, and the vast majority of the time there is no actual consequence that results from it.  It does sound like they are putting a good deal of thought into this system.  Hopefully it winds up being dynamic and robust.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Keyrock

[forgottenlor]

For those old folks like me who like really old school games there is Lords of Xulima:

 

https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/687831/video-306387-h264_high.mp4

 

I'm actually not worried about The Mandate getting funded. I think Jagged Alliance was still under 40% when it was at the same point in its campaign as the Mandate is. Rather the question is if the Mandate can be made as planned if it just barely reaches funding. Maybe since they've been greenlighted they'll go the early access route.

Edited November 11, 2013 by forgottenlor

[ShadySands]

I dunno, I'm still not convinced that The Mandate will make it.

 

1/2 funded with 2/3 of the time already elapsed

[Undecaf]

After Reset

 

Ripping off Fallout and being greedy. I'd want this to succeed, but even though it's early, it doesn't look very promising.

Edited November 12, 2013 by Undecaf

[Apatia]

Reset @ IndieGoGo.

 

You might remember Reset from this teaser trailer:

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLd8kEQJIzw[/media]

 

 

A sci-fi noir, a mystery, a first person puzzle game. Reset is infused with mind boggling puzzles, a grippingly haunting but beautiful story and an unparalleled immersive atmosphere.

 

Reset is a single player adventure. The unique game mechanic in Reset is the ability to travel back in time to solve puzzles co-operatively with yourself. You multiply yourself by first marking a place/time of re-entry in the game world and then proceeding to complete one part of a puzzle. You then reset (jump back in time) to the re-entry mark creating two separate co-existing timelines. But the mechanic is not limited to two timelines, more elaborate puzzles have multiple timelines for some serious mind fun.

 

[babaganoosh13]

Black Cloud Studios has some well known talent working for them, such as Kris Taylor, Mark McGreen, Jim Kain and Furgus Neidhardt.

 

As a stretch goal, they *might* be able to get Chris Allalone to do some special guest writing for them.

 

--------------------------

 

With that being said, I wish them luck, but $900K is a stretch for a brand new studio with seemingly no real established talent. Plus that Richard Nixon guy seems like a crook.

 

 

He is not a crook.

 

http://afterreset.com/contacts

 

I love how everyone but Nixon's email address is access denied there.

 

There is this from NMA: http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57734

I guess their background is in modding NWN2. They worked on a mod called Fallout d20.

[forgottenlor]

I dunno, I'm still not convinced that The Mandate will make it.

 

1/2 funded with 2/3 of the time already elapsed

 

Many succesful kickstarters I have seen have made between 1/3 and 1/2 of their funding in the last week, especially if its a question of getting funded or not.

 

 

I fear "After Reset "is setting itself up to fail. I highly doubt that they can make 900,000$. The Mandate is struggling to get half of that much, and they have been covered and recommended by a number of media sources. I mean, that's about as much as Brian Fargo has been asking for to make sequels of beloved computer games. There are also a lot of good looking RPGs being kickstarted now. I know I've given enough in the last few months. Maybe I'll consider donating if The Mandate, Greywalkers, and Deathfire fail and After Reset is looking like it may have a chance to get funded.

Edited November 12, 2013 by forgottenlor

[ShadySands]

I do hope that I'm wrong

 

EDIT: Also, Star Command Elite PC master race edition update

 

Hey Star Commanders,

 

We are still working on the PC version full time. Many of you are wondering where the heck it is - and like any delayed game that is a complicated question. The primary culprits for the delay are as follows:

 

- Conversion of iOS code to Android (this is done, we are almost a 100% PC focused machine...see the following).

 

- Catastrophic bugs on mobile needing immediate attention (these take a lot of the Dev's time)

 

- Extra missions (these took way too much time, and have adjusted our development process)

 

- Asset production for PC game (this is/has been ongoing...see pics below)

 

So the plan is as follows: 

 

• Get you guys the PC alpha asap. 

 

• Impress you with the new features coming to that version a help the community with modding.

 

• Fulfill our long-overdue kickstarter rewards in this order: dogs, klebaticus room, e-book, pixel art videos, likeness's in the game and the new alien races in the game.

 

 

Most of this is not anything new to you guys, so we are sorry if it sounds like a broken record, but great progress is being made. We work on nothing but Star Command 24/7 - so you have our apologies that it is taking this long. We are truly truly thankful you guys are still with us!

 

So let's get into the new stuff:

 

We always begin with reading the forums: http://forum.starcommandgame.com/

 

We have a lot of big ideas in the works for where the game is going next. I would categorize them as the following order:

 

1. Bugs causing people to not play the game.

2. Gameplay tweaks/features that make the game more fun.

3. Short-term quick improvements.

4. Medium term new additions/systems/content.

5. Longterm changes of what Star Command can truly become to be a better more PC-feel game. 

 

The forums pretty much break into similar areas.

 

If you played the initial iOS release and then the Android release there was a big jump. We added 5 new missions, added room efficiency, removed tokens from the weapons rooms, added iCloud saves and a bunch of other smaller tweaks. We are improving the game as fast as we can. You can expect a similar level of improvement for the PC alpha. We learn from our forums, reviews, feedback, kickstarter messages, etc and then we sit and make a list of the most bang-for-the-buck improvements we can do.

 

What we learned from the iOS to Android is very important to the PC version. We are using the lessons as we improve the PC version. They are sort of as follows:

 

- New content isn't NEARLY as significant  as gameplay improvements.

- QA takes a ton more effort than imagined

- Bugs suck

- The on-ship combat needs more depth.

- The Ship vs Ship combat is too shallow.

- The long-term gameplay is lacking.

- SC is too short.

- SC needs more complexity.

- SC needs more interesting decisions.

 

So you can see while dealing with these issues and trying to be as smart  and efficient about it as possible, whilst still running a mobile-game is a big task. We are up to it, and we continue to work hard. Here are some screens to hopefully whet your appetite.

Edited November 12, 2013 by ShadySands

[TSBasilisk]

Obduction broke 1 million

 

Their daily totals have been climbing for the last week and it looks like they hooked a few major backers today. $100,000 in three and a half days looks possible if they can keep the momentum, but I'm not holding my breath for the Oculus stretch goal.

[Keyrock]

Obduction broke 1 million

 

Their daily totals have been climbing for the last week and it looks like they hooked a few major backers today. $100,000 in three and a half days looks possible if they can keep the momentum, but I'm not holding my breath for the Oculus stretch goal.

It'll make the goal, but it's cutting it closer than I thought it would.

[Humanoid]

Somewhat of a right thread-wrong forum, but boutique UK studio Arrow Films is crowdfunding a restoration of Walerian Borowczyk's Goto, l'île d'amour. Do it, Terry Gilliam commands you.

[rjshae]

1979 Revolution: Black Friday

 

Interesting concept for a game. Kind of an ambitious goal though: $395,000.

Edited November 13, 2013 by rjshae