Vapourware Aloran - Isometric TB party based RPG

[Tigranes]

I wonder if it simply was a mistaken launch, and he's just desperately trying to cancel it? Have there been any press about this?

 

[Lucky]

They can still turn this around, but they really need put up more info, contact some sites and start communicating if they want to pull it off. They should also have arranged for the launch to be front page news here. That Which Sleeps only brought in about 4000 on the first day, but had a fantastic fourth day thanks to publicity and a very steady rate of pledges from that day onward. It's also weird that they haven't even posted in this thread, when the Codex is the kind of group that they're marketing to and when they're Codexers themselves.

 

[Ninjerk]

I wonder if it simply was a mistaken launch, and he's just desperately trying to cancel it? Have there been any press about this?

I don't even know that Apexeon has posted since it went up.

EDIT: NVM he has, but not about the KS.

 

[thesheeep]

This is really an absurdly bad KS video.
Actually, there is no video. Just music and some (nice looking) isometric art.

The video is the first thing people will see and if that doesn't grab them, nobody will bother to even look at the text below.

I don't agree that a game like that can't be done with 85,000, though. It really depends on how much wages have to be paid. If all in the team agree to bare-minimum wages for the time of the development (not too unusual for indies), you can come a long way with that money.

 

[Hegel]

Looks like a good product with shit marketing.

 

[naossano]

Graphics look beyond awesome.

 

[Mustawd]

Graphics look beyond awesome.

Agree. The art is top notch, and I went bazonkers when I saw the screenshots. A shame the KS campaign has been bungled so badly .

 

[Perkel]

Ok this "looks" amazing but:

they basically have art but 0 game. They basically are trying to do it backwards.

Draw animations before even movement system is in game.
Draw backgrounds and locations before even game design is in place.

Honestly i wish they well considering how much they did but i won't pay for it more than 5$ unless they have actual programmer and designer on board and some work done.

If this fail i hope they will redo kickstarter when they will have some programming work done.

 

[Korron]

Hey look, Dawn posted in the comments section of the KS. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/335604146/aloran/comments

 

[ArchAngel]

This KS is ghost town.

 

[getter77]

They....really need to get something beyond a prototype art centric update wrangled as otherwise it really does nothing to bolster the situation.

 

[Kattze]

Who are these people on the codex by the way? And who is this Dawn person? Is he/she a codexer?

 

[Abelian]

Who are these people on the codex by the way? And who is this Dawn person? Is he/she a codexer?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...kworm-from-a-indie.77804/page-24#post-3893425

But damn if this didn't come outta the blue.

It's just one user, Apexeon and his wife. There's also a USA based coder. The thead in link above contains the project's history on the Codex.

Highlights of the Dawn_ saga
Dawn_ (don't forget the underscore) is a Kickstarter user who backs many video games. It started when the Codex posted an interview with Whalenought Studios regarding Serpent in the Staglands, which was mentioned on the comments sections. The thread featured the expected colorful and caustic remarks, but the general opinion was generally favorable.

Dawn_ criticized the Codex in one of the Serpent in the Staglands comments, which drew the Codex's attention, led to a minor Codex meme, which resulted in Dawn_ writing an open letter to the Codex (which she later claimed was only meant for the Admins) which got its own thread (now retardoed), DU writing back a characteristic response, and the creation of an animated Staglands gif feturing Dawn_'s avatar.

She withdrew her Serpent in the Staglands pledge due to the Codex, even though the only ways the Codex was affiliated with the creators was that one of the creators created a Codex account, the interview, and the Codex raised $1500 for the game in a funding campaign.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Looking forward to their second Kickstarter.

 

[Mustawd]

Looking forward to their second Kickstarter.

Infinitron, can we merge this thread with the Hero U kickstarter thread?

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

No, but I wish somebody would merge it with the original Workshop thread.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Might as well since this thread isn't really going places. Also,

This is a test. We have only had 705 views on the video so far.
In fact the response so far has been fantastic.

Kickstarter is about the media, quality pitch page, demo and talking.
I am missing all 3.

If we fix the page for pitch 2, invest in a alpha demo (hands on for players) and develop a correct marketing plan (media release) we would be in with a strong chance.

the whole KS is a false alarm. This thread serves no purpose!

 

[Obama Phone 3]

Nice art, but who the fuck are you and why should I give you my money husbando and waifu? If this project makes it's goal, I'm going to pay an artist to make some isometric paintings and cash the fuck in.

Careful now. One of these days someone will come up with the be-all, end-all epic game and pitch it on Kickstarter to raise millions of dollars. They will prerecord all "updates" and release them in strategic intervals, like Osama Bin Laden's televised rants on Al Jazeera. Next thing you know, the entire "dev team" is caught partying in the Bahamas, under fake names with everybody's pledges in Swiss bank accounts. Who monitors Kickstarter BTW?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Quick comments:

A classic inspired RPG game

It's a bad, uninspiring summary. RPG game?

Aloran is a turn-based, isometric fantasy RPG inspired by the classic games of the 90s that so many know and love: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Eye of the Beholder, and Might and Magic. Like games of a bygone era, it will offer rich party-building: eight characters, with myriad skills and a vast variety of equipment. It will also capture the handcrafted, personal feel that is sometimes lost in modern games made by huge staffs. Aloran is a labor of love as well as a testament of love to old-school RPGs.

The idea is to sell your game, to make people want to play it. Your overview doesn't sell it. I think we can all agree that "inspired by classic games" no longer mean anything. Plus MM and BG couldn't be more different. How many is myriad? What's vast? Handcrafted and personal - not after PoE.

So overall, you say that your game is like some other very different games, it has 8-character party (the only specific bit of info), myriad(!) skills and equipment, plus it's handcrafted and personal, which sounds like something from a hippie store.

The Story

Astral terrors of the night roam the darkest dungeons and strange animated unnatural beasts roam the lands. Your party has been gifted a powerful item to protect and as the story unfolds it will become something to protect your party when the time it right.

The first sentence paints a painfully generic picture. The fact that you spared two sentences to describe the story suggests that there is no story. Not saying that's the case, but that's the impression you pitch creates.

Features
Classic CRPG features, hand crafted dungeons, hand crafted loot, hand placed loot and lots of interesting monsters to defeat etc...

The very first feature (aka the most important feature) - first we handcraft loot, then we hand place loot, then we handplace handcrafted monsters to guard it.

Aloran full release will be available for Windows only. The full release will be distributed on Steam as well as DRM-free download.

Who gives a fuck? You're stating the obvious and wasting space, creating an impression that you have nothing else to talk about. Might as well add "you'll need a monitor and a keyboard to play the game".

Party based RPG: Up to 8 party members
Stats: Strength, Agility, Quickness, Stamina, Fortitude, Toughness, Appearance, Perception, Self Discipline, Intelligence, Presence, Wisdom, Willpower, Essence, Psi
Stat rolling: Character creation involves rolling for your stats
Perks: Characters will be able to select perks
Skills: A player can select skills from a wide list to shape there play style
Talents: Define a character and are hard to acquire

I'd explain it under "character system".

Anyway, you should have posted your pitch here first.

 

[Abelian]

Anyway, you should have posted your pitch here first.

He did, and got some good feedback (and listened to most of it) but launched the KS campaign a few weeks early.

 

[MRY]

He did. The whole thing is odd. There was an active thread in the Workshop, with people giving him feedback on a mocked up pitch and him responding, then, out of nowhere, the pitch goes live, apparently as a "test." So it goes.

 

[Vault Dweller]

'tis a mystary!

I checked the workshop thread, saw some great looking screens (char system and approaching orcs), talk of a demo (which would have been nice). Oh well... Better luck next time.

 

[felipepepe]

He has some fantastic art, but doesn't know what to do with it. I mean, 8 party members in a TB isometric RPG? Sorry, but won't even be able to fit 8 characters in most of those screens, not to mention the enemies and some room for maneuver...

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Apart from the the video and the lack of detail, if he'd kept on getting feedback in the workshop thread I'm sure we could at least have proofread this stuff for him. Typos and errors are never a good sign in a pitch for a complex RPG:

Skills: A player can select skills from a wide list to shape there play style

 

[kris]

Apart from the the video and the lack of detail, if he'd kept on getting feedback in the workshop thread I'm sure we could at least have proofread this stuff for him. Typos and errors are never a good sign in a pitch for a complex RPG:

Skills: A player can select skills from a wide list to shape there play style

I don't see any spelling error their.