Hey guys, as one of the people involved in MAKING this project, please know that this isn't a blood sport. Nobody gets extra points for bashing other backers whether they are for or against any of the ideas that we put out there. There are going to be disagreements, but don't get personal here. There's no call to be purposefully uncivil. The anonymity of the Internet makes things bad enough. We're adults here. Let's act like it.
Guido and I both understand that this can seem unnerving to the uninitiated. We both have been in the position of being the new guy who watched multi-million dollar projects get greenlighted by the management of big game companies, sometimes approved on nothing more than a two page summary and a crude sketch. The reality of it is that this isn't significantly different than the way some "real" game companies develop their titles. EVERY game starts off as a gamble, and with a million fiddly little details up in the air well into the development process. In 22 years of game development, I have never ended up with a game that exactly matched the design proposal I started off with. The big broad strokes are usually still the same, but the five bajillion little systems that I thought sounded AWESOME at the start ended up being unworkable or just not fun at the end of the day. So don't get worked up over the small details. Until this is officially in production and has been reality tested, this is all a best-guess. And at least be assured that the guys making the best guesses have hit the target more times than they've missed it. We'll get some things wrong along the way. Absolutely we will. But we'll also get a lot right. And you'll be giving us exactly the same flexibility that the people with the directors with the purse strings gave us when we made the hit games we both made in the past. I know it's hard to have faith, especially when this whole process is new to you, but as I said before, this is honestly the way it has often worked in the big shops. If you want to understand this process more thoroughly, go google the phrase "agile development" so you'll see how this works. Start with the small stuff, test, innovate, and iterate. Go from the vauge to the specific, but only once you've established you're on the right path.
We are both very honored that you've chosen to donate to this project, and thus your comments mean even more to us than those who remain out there in the world, complaining about something they haven't even really bothered to investigate. Presumably all of you have donated to this project because there's something here you believed in. Maybe it was what you read on the page. Maybe it was in the update. Maybe it was just because you loved a game that Guido or I made. Regardless of your reasons, your donations are paving the way to allowing us to get done. But we need something from you right now that's just as important as your donation. We need you to spread the good word. If you want this to happen, it's no good just debating about it here because this is the choir loft. Everyone in this list is here because they wanted to make this happen. We need you to amplify the signal. We need you to share with your friends, to tweet to your fellow gamers, to post in forums outside because those are all the people we haven't reached. People who arrive on Kickstarter through the personal recommendation of a friend are 70% more likely to donate than those who simply discover a campaign randomly. If you believe in this project, if you CARE about this project, then please reach out and make it a personal goal to bring in one, two, or three more friends who care about RPGs as you do. Do more than talk about it, be ACTIVE about it. Because we haven't spent a million dollars on an ad buy, the ONLY way we get this message out there and attract the donors who will get us to a fully funded project is if you pitch in and amplify the signal. And if you aren't prepared to reach out and do that, then don't complain about our "numbers" not being where you want them to be. We need your help. You HAVE influence. Do something positive and awesome with it.
Best wishes,
Neal Hallford
Thorvalla - Lead Writer
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