KickStarter Mechajammer (formerly Copper Dreams) - cyberpunk RPG from Whalenought Studios

[Maggot]

First Kickstarter game I've ever backed. I just hope it's not the first one I get burned on.

 

[Anthedon]

Larian just endorsed Whalenought Studios on *dry heave* Facebook. We should be seeing some kind of increased interest, at least for a little while.

They also endorsed them on Twitter:

 

[Merlkir]

Autocorrect, or snark? )

 

[NotAGolfer]

So another Kickstarter?

Spoiler

You want me to sign?
As you command, milady.

Spoiler

What's that, a reward? For me?

Oh wait. I'm afraid I won't get any of these goodies. These are not for peasants like me.

But at least I'll get alpha access and can help muddling the design vision testing and enhancing the game.

 

[mindx2]

New update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/posts/1582108

#3
Setting Part 1: The Syndicates
Posted by Whalenought Studios (Creator)

The Syndicates
In Calitana, the syndicates that rule the streets are as much a part of everyday life as the joylessly utilitarian synthetic food and overpowering aroma of copper that radiates from alleyways. In your role as an Agent of Asset Inquiries, you interact with many of these groups and will be thoroughly briefed on your rivals, but we wanted to give you a brief overview of the main players on the island.

Walled off from the rest of Calitana, the Mayflower Initiative, or the MFI, is the largest and wealthiest group on the island, hoarding resources, talent, and technology on their elevated plane above the rest of the city. Officially sent from the US government to jumpstart industry and civilized society for the colony in its founding years, the MFI not only built factories and housing for its members with its Corporeal Synthesizer, but also set up ministries for the purpose of enforcing fellowship and cheerful productivity, at gunpoint if necessary. The MFI members and their families enjoy luxuries such as fresh produce, safe streets and well-made housing complexes, but their lives are restricted by the numerous harshly enforced regulations that dictate everything from the color of their jumpsuits to their thoughts and speech.

Not everyone who is drafted to live on Calitana makes the cut to work at MFI, and thus the slums district grew outside its walls, sheltering those who have been exiled from the syndicate, those who are deemed unemployable, and those who are headhunted by other syndicates before the MFI can interview them. Following the years since the government has broken contact with the city this issue has escalated, and that was decades ago. The MFI still considers the citizens of the slums to live in its jurisdiction, but patrols infrequently and generally only where their financial interests are at stake. Still, as homelessness, unemployment, and loitering are all unlawful under the mandates of the MFI Ministry of Harmony and their Civic Spirit Acts, the citizens of the slums live in a state of constant tension, knowing that catching the eye of a patrol guard might land them a visit to the holding cells, an underground prison with a notoriously barbaric reconditioning program.

An indomitable force, the Mayflower Initiative runs the city with an iron fist, whether from behind the scenes or by sending in their artillery. Their favorite weapon, the Copper Faces, a beheaded elite guard with a skull of enhanced censors and a brain more robot than human, are a personification of the terror they invoke in the lives of citizens.

Everyone Else

It’s often a surprise to new draftees that any corporation besides the MFI exists, but the Initiative finds it useful to allow other companies to grow outside its walls, filling assembly lines at factories and providing small commerce for the slums. These smaller syndicates have control over distinctive neighborhoods in the city, and though most focus their industry in a few areas, their reach in the community is pervasive.

Unwilling to cede too much wealth and power, the MFI continually plays one syndicate off another with lucrative deals and trade agreements to keep competition running high.

One of the many syndicates operating outside of the walls of the Mayflower Initiative, Wolffz Bay originated as an industrious family of fishmongers, but quickly expanded into shipping and other services with the help of their nimble hovering boats that navigate the canals of the city.

The Wolffz family and their employees exercise ruthless tactics to protect their interests and those who have sworn their loyalty. A smaller company than their neighboring competitors, Wolffz Bay relies on stealth and well-timed information over resources or brute power to achieve their ambitions.

Wolffz Bay has recently been losing agents in their expansion efforts and are aggressively hiring. In Copper Dreams, you have been recruited by Wolffz Bay based off your military experience to seek intel, gather resources and protect shipments and property that will help your company stay a step ahead of its competitors.

Owning and running the factory district in the slums, Quinton is easily the wealthiest of the syndicates, manufacturing clothes, construction tools, hardware and other various essentials. Looking down on the less successful ambitions of rival syndicates, they see no moral issue with stealing secrets and goods from their inferior competitors and torturing agents for valuable intel to sell to the MFI.

Luckily for Quinton, they are adept at sidestepping complaints, shifting blame and keeping on the right side of MFI. Without the factories, the commerce supporting the slums would break down, and the heads of Quinton sleep soundly at night knowing they always have an ace up their sleeve.

While both Quinton and Wolffz Bay prefer to maintain a diverse spread of interests, convinced that the more industries under their umbrella the more wealth they’ll gather, Agro-Fax is namely concerned with scientific and technological pursuits. Started by an exiled elite of the Mayflower Initiative from his position as Lead of Research and Discovery, Agro-Fax mainly derives profits from the sales of synthetic food, the main source of nutrition on the island. (Despite the best efforts of Wolffz Bay, citizens refuse to subside off fish alone, and Wolffz Bay and Agro-Fax are in constant competition to feed the people of the slums district.)

Agro-Fax is often considered the least corrupt of the syndicates on the island, since it generally can’t resist directing a large portion of its profit into its innovative Research and Development programs, leaving fewer resources for extortion and bribery.

Led by a charismatic and seemingly ageless leader, the Faith is a religious order preaching peace in the face of street violence and corporate warfare. Based in an abandoned mine, the Faith has set up shelters to any willing to work in the mines and attend services, firmly believing in the benefits of a day of honest labor and a night of wholesome meditation. With the profit from the mining efforts, the Faith feeds and clothes their laborers, and many find the safety of such a refuge worth the monotonous lifestyle.

While Earth has become increasingly secular, the misery of Calitana creates an environment ripe for a new missionary cause, and though the Faith does not consider themselves a corporation, it would be a mistake to underestimate a leader that can summon so much loyal manpower.

The Mayflower Initiative issues state-of-the-art ray guns to its guards and sleek grenade launchers to its elite Copper Face units, but for everyone else looking for something besides a shiv, the best place to go is the Arms Guild. The Arms Guild creates and distributes ballistic and Second Civil War weapons, modification services, and dabbles in the cybernetics and robotics as well.

The Arms Guild has no enemies and it needs to no allies. Other syndicates either deal with them honestly, or have their homes set on fire. While the Arms Guild has market fronts throughout the slums to trade, their main encampment is behind one of the indestructible blast doors found throughout the city, a local mystery as to their origins. Lucky for the Arms Guild, they seem to have found a key.

The Quarry Men were the true original settlers of Calitana, prisoners sent from Earth to work off their sentence by building the colony. When the Mayflower Initiative arrived for reorganization, they retreated to a quarry on the edge of the island, fortified by natural rock formations and watch towers, ostensibly to keep the prisoners in, but perhaps also to keep everyone else out. The Quarry Men don't leave their base, and haven't been seen in the city proper in years, inspiring conspiracy theories of infiltration and unnatural occurrences.

Part 2 Coming Next: Quests
We'll be posting a Part Two talking about quest structure and how all these syndicates interact with you. Copper Dreams is a very hands off experience, and it's strictly up to you, the player, to discover the truth behind a city full conspiracies.

Thanks again everyone for all of the support!

Cheers,

Hannah and Joe

 

[Jrpgfan]

 

[ArchAngel]

Seems 250$ tier is all gone again. Maybe they should add 10 more :D

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

They should have added even higher than 250$ special collector edition tier a long time ago.

 

[ArchAngel]

They should have added even higher than 250$ special collector edition tier a long time ago.

Like 1 000 000$ tier that gives you a "date" with the developer of choice (it is 2016, you cannot just offer a girl)? :D

 

[Bubbles]

I was wondering what caused the extra ~1k that I woke up to this morning. Great

What's interesting is that Larian's retweet didn't actually bring in a lot of new backers - it was just a small number of people (a total of four more backers than on Thursday) who pledged at high levels:

The average pledge so far is $45, compared to $26 for SitS. Supports my hypothesis that this KS will stand or fall on the strength of its physical reward tiers.

 

[almondblight]

Hope some big youtubers back this game. That seems to be one of the best ways to get backers. Getting mentioned in another KS update seems to help as well (TTON, POE, or DOS telling backers about them).

 

[grimace]

Hope some big youtubers back this game. That seems to be one of the best ways to get backers. Getting mentioned in another KS update seems to help as well (TTON, POE, or DOS telling backers about them).

Let's reach out to them. Who do you watch/respect?

Matt Barton of Matt Chat should be pushing this project.
(Edit: he did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh1gJ1zribo link in description).

 

[Mustawd]

Stop drunkposting. K' thanks.

 

[Metal Hurlant]

They should have added even higher than 250$ special collector edition tier a long time ago.

They could still add higher tiers? I'm sure there are some backers willing to throw $500, $750 or $1000 at this. What would be good for those high tiers? And no more backer stuff in the game. I don't want to see another PoE. Also, I suspect people at those high tiers like $1000 aren't really after physical goods per se but wanting to throw money at this game to see it succeed.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

How about a personal letter of gratitude from one of the corporations? Or some kind of physical badge of a corporate whore employee?

 

[grimace]

I don't want to see another PoE.

What happened with PoE backer content? Named characters or something?

The Copper Dreams faces reward reminds me of the Nintendo 64 GoldenEye faces.

I have a memory of Game Informer writer Andrew Reiner having his face included in GoldenEye 007. 20 years later I can shoot myself in the face.

 

[Metal Hurlant]

What happened with PoE backer content? Named characters or something?

If there's a way to piss off players and backers with the backer content, Obsidian did it magnificently. Which is why if Whalenought were to do high tier rewards in the future, then do not follow Obsidian's example.

Oh, they just added more $250 CE's to the KS. It's up to 45 now. That should bring the total to $30K once they all go.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

They should have added even higher than 250$ special collector edition tier a long time ago.

They could still add higher tiers? I'm sure there are some backers willing to throw $500, $750 or $1000 at this. What would be good for those high tiers? And no more backer stuff in the game. I don't want to see another PoE. Also, I suspect people at those high tiers like $1000 aren't really after physical goods per se but wanting to throw money at this game to see it succeed.

Signed $250 boxes, having something named after the backer in the game, some more extra physical goodies, a chat with the creators, all future Whalenought games. Possibilities are countless.

 

[Metal Hurlant]

Signed boxes - ok
Letter of appreciation - ok
More Backer stuff in the game - No thanks

 

[Zetor]

Signed boxes - ok
Letter of appreciation - ok
More Backer stuff in the game - No thanks

Hey, it worked for Otherside Entertainment!

Anyway, this will be the first KS where I'm going for physical rewards. If anything, I think they are a bit underpriced...

 

[mindx2]

Signed boxes - ok
Letter of appreciation - ok
More Backer stuff in the game - No thanks

Hey, it worked for Otherside Entertainment!

Anyway, this will be the first KS where I'm going for physical rewards. If anything, I think they are a bit underpriced...

I hate to say it but I agree. I thought that the boxed copies would most likely start at $500 when they first showed the pictures and talked about what was included.

 

[Metal Hurlant]

I also agree that they're underpriced. I think the tiers should have been more spread out and the CEs up around $500.

 

[ArchAngel]

Maybe they didn't expect people to want to donate 500$ for such a less known kickstarter.

 

[Whalenought_Joe]

Signed boxes - ok
Letter of appreciation - ok
More Backer stuff in the game - No thanks

Hey, it worked for Otherside Entertainment!

Anyway, this will be the first KS where I'm going for physical rewards. If anything, I think they are a bit underpriced...

I hate to say it but I agree. I thought that the boxed copies would most likely start at $500 when they first showed the pictures and talked about what was included.

We tried to be honest with the pricing and what it would cost us with resources/time. However we have an update planned to show off all the miniatures and will include a new tier that will have all of them, we've had some messages requesting that. I talked about our position with exposure right now in the Update# 3 thread, but that's what we're working toward at the moment.

Hope some big youtubers back this game. That seems to be one of the best ways to get backers. Getting mentioned in another KS update seems to help as well (TTON, POE, or DOS telling backers about them).

Let's reach out to them. Who do you watch/respect?

Matt Barton of Matt Chat should be pushing this project.
(Edit: he did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh1gJ1zribo link in description).

Matt's wonderful, hope to do that with him soon. Need to get some rats in the game.

 

[mindx2]

We tried to be honest with the pricing and what it would cost us with resources/time. However we have an update planned to show off all the miniatures and will include a new tier that will have all of them, we've had some messages requesting that. I talked about our position with exposure right now in the Update# 3 thread, but that's what we're working toward at the moment.

Don't get me wrong as I'm glad it's "only" $250!!

Will you have an Add-on option for the extra figures to go only with my boxed copy tier?