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Vapourware Project Silkworm (from a indie)

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
I figured.

In terms of the blank looks: the key thing to remember is that while those gamers rule the mainstream (and, perhaps also the "art-house indie") market, I am not persuaded that they are the dominant force on Kickstarter. Rather, with a few exceptions, Kickstarter seems to reward projects that persuasively invoke 80s-90s game nostalgia. Within that set, people may not know Ishar but they'll certainly know Eye of the Beholder.
 

Apexeon

Arcane
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Messages
864
I didn't see the picture of them before. Apexeon am disappoint. My image of you was Bukowski-like, not this young guy with a hot wife. :rpgcodex:

See I already won with a Hot wife into Crpg art.

All those artist slaves working on Skyrim sucks to be you (unless you have a hot wife too).
 

Apexeon

Arcane
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Messages
864
I figured.

In terms of the blank looks: the key thing to remember is that while those gamers rule the mainstream (and, perhaps also the "art-house indie") market, I am not persuaded that they are the dominant force on Kickstarter. Rather, with a few exceptions, Kickstarter seems to reward projects that persuasively invoke 80s-90s game nostalgia. Within that set, people may not know Ishar but they'll certainly know Eye of the Beholder.

I started on the Amiga :). Black crypt was 10 types of Awesome.
 

Apexeon

Arcane
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Messages
864
I certainly don't mean to suggest a hostility to Asian things, so I hope it didn't sound that way! As a teenager, my multimedia staples were kung-fu movies, anime, and jRPGs. But I think the connotations the name generates are not consistent with the game, which seems "Western" in both mechanics and setting. I think you want, as much as possible, to suggest that the game is a love-letter to specific games that possible backers will also fondly remember, such that they will want to be signatories to the love-letter themselves. By all means you should also show ways in which you're building upon those classics as opposed to merely aping them, but you don't want to seem like you're building away from them, if that makes sense? The title, to me, feels like it's going in a different direction.

You may also want to namecheck Lords of Xulima. If nothing else, it seems like one of a small number of games that mash up isometric exploration with that style of combat, and it was a successful crowd-funding venture. The developers seem like good people, too, so they might be able to provide you some practical advice as well as a useful point of comparison.


Agree with all your points.
I backed Lords of Xulima. I will have to buy a copy.
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
By the way, a very stupid point, but I would consider not showing a photo of you and your wife -- I think text will work better here, though others may disagree. If you use a photo, I would not use one where either of you is wearing a shirt that says "MONEY." :)
I don't mind the photo (although I think it would be better to have a separate photo of each one of you), but I can only agree with the money shirt :)
The combat part needs more details and illustrations (I know it is a WiP, but I mean, it is the single most important feature after all).

Edit : on second thought, I think it is cool to have you both on the same pic, but I think a pic of youself at work on the game would work better than yourself in holidays or whatever non work related activity you are undertaking.
I thought you had a developer on board too. Will he be mentioned?
 
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Apexeon

Arcane
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Messages
864
01-Drak-Moor-Screen-1.jpg
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
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Messages
5,703
Location
California
Looking good. The logo might be a little better if the text and the background to it meshed better, but I have no idea how to achieve that -- maybe reduce the thickness on the black line around the text slightly?
 

Farage

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Feb 17, 2014
Messages
596
Looking good. The logo might be a little better if the text and the background to it meshed better, but I have no idea how to achieve that -- maybe reduce the thickness on the black line around the text slightly?
Mess with saturation and contrast - that will do.

Your kickstarter is building well, needs more stuff about gameplay though
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
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Messages
5,703
Location
California
Incidentally, as I think about it, there are a couple of young writers I've corresponded with over the years who probably would be excited to be involved in the project. If you want, I could put you in touch? (I haven't spoken to any of them recently, so perhaps they've now ascended to Avellonian heights of success, but if they're still young and hungry they'd probably be the kind of people who would work hard for not a lot of money.)
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Guest
Drakmoor sounds like a cool name, except:
1. It sounds like a generic fantasy name to me, but you can ignore this point.
2. It gives too much space for mocking the game.

The second point is related to German language ("dreck" = "shit"). You're giving too much ground for dumbfucks of all kinds to call this game "Dreckmoar" or "Dreckmore".
I'd ask JarlFrank for confirmation on whether I'm right or not, though.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Drakmoor sounds like a cool name, except:
1. It sounds like a generic fantasy name to me, but you can ignore this point.
2. It gives too much space for mocking the game.

The second point is related to German language ("dreck" = "shit"). You're giving too much ground for dumbfucks of all kinds to call this game "Dreckmoar" or "Dreckmore".
I'd ask JarlFrank for confirmation on whether I'm right or not, though.

Yeah, Dreck means crap, but honestly? I didn't think of that when I saw the name. Now that you mention it, though, "Dreckmoor" would be German for "dirty swamp". The potential for mockery is there, but it's not that strong.

And if you're looking for writers, Apexeon, I would love to become involved. I'm a published author (a self-published German book, and an English short story of mine will soon be published in an anthology) and I've worked on indie games before, although they all ended as vapourware. Just write me if you're interested. :D
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Guest
And if you're looking for writers, Apexeon, I would love to become involved. I'm a published author (a self-published German book, and an English short story of mine will soon be published in an anthology) and I've worked on indie games before, although they all ended as vapourware. Just write me if you're interested. :D
Actually, bro, I was going to recommend you, because I ended up giving up on thinking of a good plot for a fantasy game.
So I'd rather stick to the music instead of trying to write in the genre that is complete opposite of my usual ideas. If you'll end up working with Apexeon, I'll share some broad ideas with you.

Apexeon, I definitely recommend asking Frank to do the writing.
 

roshan

Arcane
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
2,426
Wow fantastic graphics! I really liked the video but you should also put in some text explaining the overall concept or design philosophy behind your game. Having the chaarcters walk and move in engine would also be much more interesting, better yet, to see them perform some actions like casting.

Watch this video promoting Serpent in the Staglands, it's somewhat similar to what you are doing because it doesn't feature devs talking, just presents the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85SEpTOu1Eo

What's interesting is that it shows cool aspects of gameplay such as typing out spells, or drawing your own runewords. Also look how they hype it... "Whalenought Studios Presents", it seems professional, prestigious. Basically present your work with pride. And it has little snippets that hype up the game or point out key selling points such as "no quest grinding", "a true role playing adventure", "classless builds with 100 skills", "bronze age setting" etc. You have to figure out your unique selling proposition and hammer that down. And yes of course nostalgia with references to older games will help a lot too. I understand your project is nowhere near as far along as SITS but there's still quite a lot you can take away from that video.

Regarding the kickstarter page, one thing in particular that stuck out right away:

A 2D RPG game.

This really has to be better. Is it a tactical, story based or action RPG? What other games is it similar to, in terms of setting or mechanics? The tagline should excite interest in the game, it's the first thing anyone will see and will already make an impression before anyone has even scrolled down to read the overview.

There's a lot of typo errors and grammatical mistakes in the text too, do have it proofread, and take your time in getting things right before launching! Will try and give more suggestions later.
 

Apexeon

Arcane
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Messages
864
Meanwhile in the real world ----->

World of Warcraft's new Token system, in which you can exchange said Tokens for game-time or in-game currency, will be live today at 10am PST in the Americas, Blizzard has announced.

Regions affected include North America, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

:negative: The human race.

The casino online continues.

I am waiting for "Destiny's Child" the follow up to the smash hit loot casino Destiny.
Now you can buy tokens to increase your drop rate by 0.05% per 10 tokens.

!!! Game design omg game design !!! that was amazing I can empty my wallet for tokens to get lootzz.

:negative: I need to go play some Might and magic 4 I am feeling stressed again.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Generally I fully agree with MRY & tuluse. I'll reiterate again that the 'additional graphics' (logo, the textured frame you have just above my post) are not impressive and you should just focus on showing the beautiful maps you do have. I can also help proofread when you're closer to the final version of the KS; your character sheet screen alone had several typos (Strength, Physical, Constitution, Unconscious...) and that sort of thing is easy to fix.

$10 seems pretty cheap. Is there any reason you aren't going for the Early Backer / Normal price tiers? I suppose advantage of $10 is to get a lot of people, especially if your final funding goal is modest. But I'm not sure then what the point is of $15 (who will pay $5 extra for a digital world map image?) or of gating the $20 tier? I do approve of no physical rewards, and with keeping tiers relatively simple and few.
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
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Developer
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Location
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Generally I fully agree with MRY & tuluse. I'll reiterate again that the 'additional graphics' (logo, the textured frame you have just above my post) are not impressive and you should just focus on showing the beautiful maps you do have. I can also help proofread when you're closer to the final version of the KS; your character sheet screen alone had several typos (Strength, Physical, Constitution, Unconscious...) and that sort of thing is easy to fix.

$10 seems pretty cheap. Is there any reason you aren't going for the Early Backer / Normal price tiers? I suppose advantage of $10 is to get a lot of people, especially if your final funding goal is modest. But I'm not sure then what the point is of $15 (who will pay $5 extra for a digital world map image?) or of gating the $20 tier? I do approve of no physical rewards, and with keeping tiers relatively simple and few.
Fully agreed there. The world map for 5$ is dubious value at best. I'd rather gate the 10$ for early birds (even if you put 5000 of them), and then put the standard to 15$
I don't think you should limit tiers that offer no discount and no modification in the game itself (I mean, if 40000 people really want a pdf map and a digital concept art book for 10$, why not let them?).

Edit : on second thoughts, I am not too sure early bird adds much. It looks like most backes don't like this feature, but I don't know whether it has any detrimental effect on people getting there too late.
 
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Abelian

Somebody's Alt
Joined
Nov 17, 2013
Messages
2,289
The video's transitions look much better now. I also agree with not offering physical rewards since many past kickstarted video games have demonstrated how expensive it is to design, manufacture and ship them. I like how tier include all previous rewards. Seven Dragon Saga recently ran a kickstarter campaign where the rewards were somewhat confusing.

I'd argue that $10 is too cheap for the base game, unless it's limited to something like the first 500 or 1000 backers. The increase from $10 to $15 should not deter too many potential backers (we're talking about dozens of hours of entertainment for the price of a lunch or movie), but reduces the number of base backers by a third.
 

Apexeon

Arcane
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Messages
864
Its a low risk $10 bet.

Most if not all the punch is at the lower tiers.

I am not concerned if I fail on the first pitch the feed back will be worth it alone.
RPG codex is great to keep me focused and not give into the dark side but I need to see how the
average backer out there is going to respond.

I have the best trainers in the world to keep me focused.

Bruce lee and Chuck Norris.



I am not even 1/10th the man Chuck is.

 
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tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
A lot of people dont' like it but early bird specials are usually a good thing if you do it right.

You need to get a significant portion of your funding level in the first few days or people who look at your pitch will think there is something wrong since other people didn't contribute. I'd set the $10 tier to raise half the money of your target that way, and then a $15 tier that's the same if you're after that.

I can imagine taking in all this must be very overwhelming. Remember to breath drink some wine every now and then.
 

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