KickStarter Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption - adventure-RPG from the creators of Quest for Glory

[iamlindoro]

Not to mention this:

Let’s look at all the money we've received from crowdfunding and our site:

• Pledged on Kickstarter (Gross): $409,000 (but some did not pay)
• PayPal and Humble Bundle (Gross): $26,000
• Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Gross): $435,000
• Deductions and Funding Costs: $60,000
• Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Net): $375,000

Here’s where we spent the original Kickstarter funding:

• Art and Animation $205,000 (includes work on virtual rewards)
• Programming $85,000
• Music $25,000
• Taxes/Fees/Overhead $75,000 (includes cost of funding)
• Software/Supplies $10,000 (Unity and other licenses)
• Rewards and Shipping $35,000
• TOTAL: $435,000

This is terrible accounting. The cost of funding can be either deducted from the funding or added to costs, but not both. Either the amount raised *and* the costs are $435K, or they're both $375K, depending on how you account for the funding costs. At best, this is sloppy math (which doesn't inspire confidence). At worst, it's a manipulation of the numbers to try to dredge up more support.

 

[Mustawd]

you gotta admit Coles are a different breed from many other kickstarters...

Granted that part of the reason they get a pass is due to their very obvious passion for gaming. It's just that their passion doesn't really translate into effective project management. Plus, it seems like they deluded themselves a bit in thinking they could just pick up where they left off.

Not sure why this second kickstarter is ticking me off. I guess I just truly believe it'll be a trainwreck of a game when it's all said and done, and all that $$ was wasted on a shit game. Instead it could have gone to a hybrid of X-COM and Fallout to bring back glorious TB goodness to this world.

It's just so hilarious you want to see how long they can keep going...

the sad kind of hilariousness

Truly sad..

 

[Mustawd]

Not to mention this:

Let’s look at all the money we've received from crowdfunding and our site:

• Pledged on Kickstarter (Gross): $409,000 (but some did not pay)
• PayPal and Humble Bundle (Gross): $26,000
• Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Gross): $435,000
• Deductions and Funding Costs: $60,000
• Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Net): $375,000

Here’s where we spent the original Kickstarter funding:

• Art and Animation $205,000 (includes work on virtual rewards)
• Programming $85,000
• Music $25,000
• Taxes/Fees/Overhead $75,000 (includes cost of funding)
• Software/Supplies $10,000 (Unity and other licenses)
• Rewards and Shipping $35,000
• TOTAL: $435,000

This is terrible accounting. The cost of funding can be either deducted from the funding or added to costs, but not both. Either the amount raised *and* the costs are $435K, or they're both $375K, depending on how you account for the funding costs. At best, this is sloppy math (which doesn't inspire confidence). At worst, it's a manipulation of the numbers to try to dredge up more support.

What he's trying to do is an accounting reconciliation...and he fucked it up. I've audited my share of truly derp companies, but that's pretty rich. If he was a client of ours I'd tell my team to hang on to their seats because it's gonna be a bumpy ride...

 

[mediocrepoet]

Not to mention this:

Let’s look at all the money we've received from crowdfunding and our site:

• Pledged on Kickstarter (Gross): $409,000 (but some did not pay)
• PayPal and Humble Bundle (Gross): $26,000
• Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Gross): $435,000
• Deductions and Funding Costs: $60,000
• Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Net): $375,000

Here’s where we spent the original Kickstarter funding:

• Art and Animation $205,000 (includes work on virtual rewards)
• Programming $85,000
• Music $25,000
• Taxes/Fees/Overhead $75,000 (includes cost of funding)
• Software/Supplies $10,000 (Unity and other licenses)
• Rewards and Shipping $35,000
• TOTAL: $435,000

This is terrible accounting. The cost of funding can be either deducted from the funding or added to costs, but not both. Either the amount raised *and* the costs are $435K, or they're both $375K, depending on how you account for the funding costs. At best, this is sloppy math (which doesn't inspire confidence). At worst, it's a manipulation of the numbers to try to dredge up more support.

What he's trying to do is an accounting reconciliation...and he fucked it up. I've audited my share of truly derp companies, but that's pretty rich. If he was a client of ours I'd tell my team to hang on to their seats because it's gonna be a bumpy ride...

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, the 60k "Deductions and Funding Costs" might include deductions for things like people who didn't actually pay their pledge and so forth, while the 75k "Taxes/Fees/Overhead" that includes cost of funding might only include the funding costs portion of the 60k, resulting in a discrepancy that's less than what's stated, but also not 0. It could also be that the two categories refer to different things, such as if the top deduction was related to Kickstarter fees and the bottom had to do with loan interest, if they were trying to privately finance a bit against future sales. It's hard to say based on a post with very broad categories rather than actually having a look at their books.

I don't think I'll be supporting this time around either. I had pledged originally, then decided to cancel once I had more of a look at what they were planning. I just didn't have much confidence or interest in this project, which was sad since QfG is probably my favourite game series of all time (or at least one of them). I also like to think that any misstatements made regarding their financial picture are as a result of being unclear about things or a mistake rather than actually attempting to mislead everyone.

 

[iamlindoro]

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, the 60k "Deductions and Funding Costs" might include deductions for things like people who didn't actually pay their pledge and so forth, while the 75k "Taxes/Fees/Overhead" that includes cost of funding might only include the funding costs portion of the 60k, resulting in a discrepancy that's less than what's stated, but also not 0. It could also be that the two categories refer to different things, such as if the top deduction was related to Kickstarter fees and the bottom had to do with loan interest, if they were trying to privately finance a bit against future sales. It's hard to say based on a post with very broad categories rather than actually having a look at their books.

I don't think I'll be supporting this time around either. I had pledged originally, then decided to cancel once I had more of a look at what they were planning. I just didn't have much confidence or interest in this project, which was sad since QfG is probably my favourite game series of all time (or at least one of them). I also like to think that any misstatements made regarding their financial picture are as a result of being unclear about things or a mistake rather than actually attempting to mislead everyone.

He addressed this on Kickstarter. He says that the 60K in both lists are one and the same, but that the $435K in costs should be reckoned against the Gross line in the fundraising lists (also $435K). I guess I can accept that. It's a weird way to format that (obviously people are going to focus on the two bolded items, as I did) but the takeaway is that they're essentially at 0. Broke, but not *yet* completely indebted.

 

[mediocrepoet]

He addressed this on Kickstarter. He says that the 60K in both lists are one and the same, but that the $435K in costs should be reckoned against the Gross line in the fundraising lists (also $435K). I guess I can accept that. It's a weird way to format that (obviously people are going to focus on the two bolded items, as I did) but the takeaway is that they're essentially at 0. Broke, but not *yet* completely indebted.

You're right. That is weird. It makes my skin crawl a bit to represent it that way even on a kickstarter update since he apparently has an idea of what he's trying to do. It's not dishonest, just ugly and potentially misleading if people don't know what they're looking at.

 

[Apexeon]

You make good points, but we did feel we had much choice in any of the changes we've made to Hero-U.

Step 1: Decide to work with experienced developer's code base (but developer is very expensive).

Step 2: Said developer quits because our budget won't cover his consulting rate for a year.

Step 3: Art director refuses to make the game like the original concept because it "looks like shit". We happen to agree, and go with it.

Step 4: After six months of work, the team can't get a single scene to look good in 2D. We make the expensive decision to switch to 3D. Lori and I stop paying ourselves and put all the money back into the budget.

Good old professionals.
Professional just means they get paid a lot to sink the ship then run.
I prefer some guy in his garage who runs on cheap wine.

 

[Infinitron]

Oh hey, one of the angry backers in the previous update is good old Dawn_

And mbpopolano24, who was apparently given a refund long ago

 

[Apexeon]

Oh hey, one of the angry backers in the previous update is good old Dawn_

And mbpopolano24, who was apparently given a refund long ago

Even after a refund a person still wants to feel like they are a publisher who can make comments on production?
Are the new publishers the gamers themselves?

 

[Name]

The new combat demo is out. The combat is turn-based with 4 options: attack, defend with counterattack, ranged attack, and use items, with a huge emphasis on using items (and chugging health potions, unfortunately, which are apparently hoarded by rats and vermin). You can also switch to combat mode, sneak up on enemies and ranged first-strike or something. Basically the whole exploration and encounter design reminds me of QfG V more than anything else.

 

[iamlindoro]

Basically the whole exploration and encounter design reminds me of QfG V more than anything else.

Not surprising, I guess. I know that all creators are proud of all of their creations to an extent, but I also get the sense that they take particular pride in QfG5. This is odd, since it is basically the Attack of the Clones of Quest for Glory games.

By our last year at Sierra, Quest for Glory V had a multi-million dollar budget, and most of that went into the 3D environments, art and animation. We are making a game with equally rich game play that we can develop under a much smaller budget.

I would call QfG V a lot of things, but "rich in gameplay" is not one of them.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I'm trying the new combat demo out. It's very similar to past Quest for Glory games, but with a few new welcome twists to make combat more interesting. So far I've been able to throw bombs, knives, and wine bottles. I've set traps, too, which have been pretty handy, but you have to predict which direction the enemy will come from. The dungeon this was set in felt like an isometric dungeon crawl due to the camera angle, and although it worked quite fine it just felt weird since combat is turn-based. Count me pleased and interested.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Second campaign is live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/hero-u-adventure-role-playing-game

The goal is $100,000.

The demos are available at http://hero-u.com/press/

 

[Infinitron]

Second campaign is live:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/hero-u-adventure-role-playing-game

The goal is $100,000.

The demos are available at http://hero-u.com/press/

Not a bad beginning, I guess.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

They met 20% of their final goal already, have several demos to show, so already this Kickstarter seems better prepared and received than the last one they had put out. I guess they had a brutal learning curve.

 

[Maelflux]

And they also have(??) a 10K backer which accounts for half of their progress already..

 

[Blackthorne]

I like what they do, and I wish this game luck.

But there's the developer in me that just thinks "Man... what WE could do with 500k....." I mean, do you even know how awesome of a QFI2 we could crank out for that?? Heh. What I wouldn't give to have that kind of budget to pay my team.


Bt

 

[Coboney]

It does look like its going well - I was given a chance to talk with them and they explained some stuff on the budget there (especially when combined with a backer post I was allowed to copy numbers from). http://techraptor.net/content/indie-interview-corey-lori-cole-hero-u

 

[Coboney]

Looks like a large donor changed his mind on day 3?

Troll donor again at the 10k level

 

[DeepOcean]

From what Corey said, the game is more RPGish than Quest for Glory I to IV. You go talk with people, get quests and go on combat, there are a few quests that involve multiple solutions but there isn't a huge number of them, or huge number o puzzles too, just some at the critical path. Basically, the game is a better done version of Quest For Glory V, focus on the RPG side with some adventure, what maybe okay for people who liked Quest for Glory V and wanted something with a better combat system but I have to confess that while the combat is a massive improvement over Quest for Glory V, I don't know if it will be complex and varied enough to remain interesting through the whole game as the combat prototype of an unfinished game isn't enough to judge.

Anyway, they say they are inspired by PnP and are making dungeons closer to PnP ones than cRPG ones what it means that they could create dungeons better than Obsidian on the end of the day.

 

[Name]

Looks like a large donor changed his mind on day 3?

Troll donor again at the 10k level

at least he had the decency to pull out on day 3 instead of the last minute.

According to the Update #2, Kickstarter claimed the account was hacked to make a fake pledge and they revoked it.

 

[Infinitron]

Vote for Hero-U on Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com//sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=444566574

skuphundaku

 

[Crooked Bee]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/updates/444566574/1432056434

Hero-U vs. Quest for Glory

Hero-U is both like and unlike Quest for Glory. If anything, the story is richer because we have had more time to craft it and no restrictions on memory. There is more conversation.

The new game is less puzzle-intensive than old Sierra games. You can get through Hero-U without very many head-scratching moments... but you will want to play again to experience a different path through the game and do some of the "quests" you bypassed the first time.

Combat also has a different feel. In Quest for Glory, it was real-time, so you didn't have much opportunity to use tactics. Combat in Hero-U is turn-based, and Shawn has a variety of tricks and traps to help him win.

We've also cut down on deaths - loss in combat results in a trip to the infirmary and some wasted game time, but not a "restore game". Time is an important resource in Hero-U, so it will still be a fate you will try to avoid.

 

[Mustawd]

Voted.

 

[Morkar Left]

Only 11 days to go and still 22k missing till it gets funded. I have to admit I'm a bit buffled about their lack of updates. There were only three and only one is actually really about the game.