Information Dead State Design Update + Interview with Brian Mitsoda

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Brian Mitsoda; Dead State; DoubleBear Productions; Kickstarter

DoubleBear's Brian Mitsoda has put up a new update for zombie survival RPG Dead State, which serves mainly as a teaser for their upcoming Kickstarter...

We're gearing up to launch our Kickstarter very soon - I'll post a message on the board when we go live.

You can expect:

-An incredible trailer
-A Kickstarter video with new footage of the game (and me on camera, which is always terrifying)
-A look at our rewards that you helped shape
-Lots of updates and new press

Just a few more days without sleep and we'll be ready to go.​

...as well as done a short interview with PC Powerplay, focusing on Kickstarter and crowdfunding:

With Dead State at its current state in the development cycle, what would be most beneficial for you as developers from a successful Kickstarter campaign?

For us, it allows a lot of the team to quit their day jobs and dedicate all of their time to Dead State, which as you might imagine, gets the game done a lot faster. It also allows us to expand the team and bring on either long-time contributors or staff positions that are difficult to fill without full-time funding. And as I said, it rallies a lot of old and new fans around the project and channels that energy and enthusiasm into the momentum of the project.

Do you have plans for alternative funding if the Kickstarter campaign is unsuccessful?

We do. I mean there are always other solutions like allowing for pre-orders, but having a definite budget to work from and schedule around is more preferable. One of the reasons we’re using Kickstarter is to get the game out faster – it’s better for the project and the community that we’ve already organized around the game.​

The full interview can be found here.

 

[General Maxson]

Why no love for FMV? Tex Murphy was good. Anyway, I can't wait to see what they have to offer, this could be one of the projects I'll most likely support.

 

[kaizoku]

It’s really exciting, as long as FMV games don’t come back…

heheh Going to make my pledge a little higher just because of that Brian.

Lost my ITS forum password and I'm too lazy to register. I hope Brian reads this or someone transmits the message:

-A Kickstarter video with new footage of the game (and me on camera, which is always terrifying)

Annie should also appear with a costume/makeup reminiscent of VtM : B cover. But instead of a vampire, a zombie... but keep it sexy.

Remember to talk on past games you guys have worked. It will not generate any crazy amounts of buzz, but it should help.
I think Tim did a great work in their DFA pitch video where the box covers of all the past games he had worked were scrolling by while he talked.

Don't rush the pitch video. And do make use of dark magics (ie: marketing and publishing hype builders) if you need to. It can make it or break it.
The hype should help interest prospective gamers, while the technical aspects captivate prestigious gamers.

And I say it again, don't rush the gameplay and pitch videos. The other (1 minute?) teaser video kinda of sucked big time :/

 

[FrancoTAU]

Why no love for FMV? Tex Murphy was good. Anyway, I can't wait to see what they have to offer, this could be one of the projects I'll most likely support.

Tex Murphy was good, but in the mid 90s it was a gimmick that was used instead of actual gameplay. People kind of blame it for companies like Sierra getting shitty.

 

[EG]

The Brraaaiiinnss Within: A Gabriel Knight Surival-Horror. Fortunitely, most FMVs have been turned into full-on movies curtousy of Sy-Fi and that womenly netowrk thing.

Oh, your Kickstarter trailer terrifies me as well, Mitsoda . It invokes fears that it'll be what makes us laugh and smile rather than give our precious monies, as the teaser did.

I want to believe, DeadState.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Why no love for FMV? Tex Murphy was good. Anyway, I can't wait to see what they have to offer, this could be one of the projects I'll most likely support.

Tex Murphy - was that 'Under a Killing Moon'? If so, fucking awesome game - great memory of playing that. It was quite some time back, but I remember it having a rather neat death system that allowed 'accessibility' without having to dumb things down too much: the game would note how you died and 'the great detective in the sky' (or whatever they called him) would make a sarcastic comment about how shit you were, which would inevitably contain a hint as to what to do (I think you could switch it off, but you'd be missing some of the more amusing lines in the game). I've wondered at times whether you could implement a similar system in crpgs - Fallout and Torment already show that you can combine touches of self-aware humour with a good world design, and it might be a seamless way of letting new players know where they're failing. Obviously you wouldn't be able to customise the response to every death like you can in an adventure game, but you might be able to put in snarky responses to going into a place underlevelled, or dying with more than half your mana unused, failing puzzles, poor party combinations, hints for difficult encounters etc (it's only dialogue + voice-recording, so it's not like it would cost a lot to record a shitload of responses).

 

[Davaris]

Yes, 'Killing Moon was a fun game primarily for the FMV. So I thought FMV would be a good idea, for the Tex Murphy reason and because there are amateurs making horror movies guerrilla style and posting them on Youtube. The other thing is zombie movies are all about the human element and the dramas between people, so I thought it might work well. Ah well, if they don't like the idea, someone else might do it.

 

[EG]

The other thing is zombie movies are all about the human element and the dramas between people, so I thought it might work well. Ah well, if they don't like the idea, someone else might do it.

That seems to be only true for two movies: Dawn of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Really, every other zombie film i've seen has been about lolz or showing off grotesque special effects. Perhaps I've missed a few goodilier ones, though. Or maybe I see the phrase "are all about the human element and dramas between people" as the same faulty justification writers use to force situations on characters. "Can't get through the glass!" "Hey, by the way, I stole this generade from you last month." Yep. That's the human element right there.

I'm failing to deliver this thought in a clear manner . . .

 

[Davaris]

Day Of The Dead by George Romero is another example. He set the standard for zombie movies in his prime. Perhaps you meant Day of the Dead in your post?

28 Days Later is another one that is technically zombie. The Walking Dead series follows the formula exactly. Pretty much any zombie movie, that is not a bore fest, does the human element very well.

Can you think of any zombie movies that are good, where the characters are not in conflict, or where there are no soap opera dramas?

Edit:
The only ones I can think of is The Return of the Living Dead and Braindead, but they were comedies.

 

[shihonage]

An incredible trailer

Let's start with a credible trailer and move on from there. Baby steps...