Game News Project Eternity Kickstarter Update #26: $4 Million Stretch Goal - Chris Avellone Will Play Arcanum

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura; Chris Avellone; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

Obsidian Entertainment have revealed one final stretch goal for Project Eternity, and it is as epic as was to be expected: at $4 Million, Chris Avellone is going to finally sit down and play Arcanum!

Update #26: One Final Stretch Goal

And here it is...

$4m Stretch Goal - Enhance the Whole Game

OK! After much team deliberation we have one final ultimate stretch goal. At $4.0m we will be enhancing the whole game. We will use live instrumentation for the soundtrack, add developer in-game commentary, and use every dollar between $3.5m and $4m to enhance the game. Also at $4.0m Chris Avellone will be forced to play Arcanum.​

Whoop whoop bring it on!

Source

 

[Mrowak]

Jesus Christ. They ran out of ideas and do not care to earn more at this point. So much for the "plan". :facepalm:

 

[Surf Solar]

This is probably the dumbest stretch goal I have ever seen. Bravissimo.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Jesus Christ. They ran out of ideas and do not care to earn more at this point. So much for the "plan". :facepalm:

It's just their way of saying "We're gonna do some QA this time."

And maybe MCA will finally play Arcanum.

 

[Helly]

They definitely were not expecting that much gold

 

[Volrath]

 

[Mrowak]

Jesus Christ. They ran out of ideas and do not care to earn more at this point. So much for the "plan". :facepalm:

It's just their way of saying "We're gonna do some QA this time."

And maybe MCA will finally play Arcanum.

Bee, they got the money for QA from the entire fundraiser. It's not like employing Ziets cost them $2.8 million or the stronghold $3.0 million. These goals were for marketing reasons only. Else that would mean that they disregarded QA to begin with - which is (hopefully) not true.

Also the fact that they didn't have the final goal confirms my fear. I am very disappointed at the planning side of the endeavour and I am pissed off that Fergus is already backpeddaling on the promises made by his staff. It means that their plan was:

Show bunch of unrelated concept arts and ideas that don't mean anything more than typical Bioware marketing ---------> Get the money --------> Start developing the project plan -------> Realise you can't possibly accomplish what you promised and backpeddal or worse - fulfill every promise in half-assed manner (typical Obsidian route).

If as a publisher I had to work with such people, I sure as hell would turn into this:

 

[HitlersUncle]

Upped my donation from $50 to $500

 

[OracleX]

Chris avellone needs to prove that he does play Arcanum.... With a lets play!

 

[Gondolin]

Chris avellone needs to prove that he does play Arcanum.... With a lets play!

I'd rather he focused on making the damned game. The let's play can wait until May, 2014.

 

[MF]

What are you guys talking about? I wasn't interested in pledging until I read "Live musicians" and "Arcanum". Now I chipped in $160.

 

[Frusciante]

Having this as a stretch goal is kind of retarded but I'm glad they're spending the extra money on making the core game better. A quote:

''We will do things like the following - add quests, variations on attack animations, unique spell effects, unique animation rigs with less rig sharing, art time spend on unique item art, more portraits. I guess that is "more" stuff, but it is to make the game more dense than broadening the borders. It will mean more game time and more replayability as well.''

Also the fact that they didn't have the final goal confirms my fear. I am very disappointed at the planning side of the endeavour and I am pissed off that Fergus is already backpeddaling on the promises made by his staff.

Calm down, its just one lousy stretch goal, the rest of the campaign was pretty good. About the backpedalling, this is how games are made. You start with a vision, translate it into a concept and then test it. When it doesnt work, you change it. And thats all Feargus said, if it doesnt work (the stamina/health mechanic) then they will improve/change it.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Kind of a criminal genius move for dodging pitchforks if they ship a buggy game: "Well, you guys should have given us the money to hit the stretch goal"

Edit: Should point out that, I do think this is exactly what they should be doing. No need for more stretch goals, and no game that I'm aware of has shipped with too much QA

 

[Mrowak]

Also the fact that they didn't have the final goal confirms my fear. I am very disappointed at the planning side of the endeavour and I am pissed off that Fergus is already backpeddaling on the promises made by his staff.

Calm down, its just one lousy stretch goal, the rest of the campaign was pretty good. About the backpedalling, this is how games are made. You start with a vision, translate it into a concept and then test it. When it doesnt work, you change it. And thats all Feargus said, if it doesnt work (the stamina/health mechanic) then they will improve/change it.

If that's the way the games are made at Obsidian then that explains a lot. Ehh... You see, it is evident that all those promises, all those talks and assurances were just smoke and mirrors. Random ideas without grounds for anything. A fantasy sold to the crowd - "wouldn't it be fun if....?".

Unfortunately projects of this scope do not, and cannot work well in such haphazard fashion. Sure things are bound to change as they go, sure options need to be tested and numbers tinkered - that's obvious. But the skelleton elements ought to remain the same. However, what we were presented with were not even those skeleton elements.

You see this is the problem I identify in each and every game by Obsidian. They have ambition and ideas, so they jump at the head on and do their best. It later turns out, however, that sure - you can see some interesting concepts - but you can also see that they had been stuck together with a duct-tape. How else can you explain the good and the bad in Alpha Protocol or the gameplay of NWN2?

To my mind, planning has always been Obsidian's fault, and I really hoped they'd use Kickstarter as an opportunity for a fresh start. You know - the responsibility and all. I don't think they've succeded at that, quite frankly.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

About fucking time.

 

[Whisky]

Don't really care about the rest, but instrumental music would kick ass. Looks like they're getting close to it too.

Plus MCA finally playing Arcanum.

 

[Outlander]

Damn, looks like they're gonna hit 4 mil *_*

 

[Harold]

4.5 mil. $ stretch goal - Avellone has to finish Arcanum 7 times and then say it's shit.

 

[Spectacle]

Jesus Christ. They ran out of ideas and do not care to earn more at this point. So much for the "plan". :facepalm:

Maybe, just maybe they think that at this point the game will be "complete" and that adding more stuff won't make it any better.

 

[thesoup]

He should LP Arcanum as well.

 

[IDtenT]

Mrowak, the developer-publisher relationship has developed into something where developers come and pitch some vague things, take out some things the publishers don't like - add some new ones, etcetera. It's pretty clear to me (at the very least it is what kickstarter is telling me) that developers don't know how to design with a solid goal in mind, because they've never had to.

 

[Havoc]

Btw. Watched the stream. Still only one black guy.

 

[Jaesun]

There are 2.

 

[Tigranes]

Mrowak, I actually share the concerns about how the Kickstarter has been executed, and my biggest concerns are also about scope management and just how much they know and have planned about the costs and logistics of delivering the ever-largening pool of physical goods (to tens of thousands of people) as well as stretch goals. That said, I have no idea how you go from "what I see in Kickstarter" to "I can see inside their offices and THEY HAVE NO CLUE MAN, NO CLUE". By 'I have no idea', I mean, 'you have no idea', too.

Certainly along with Wasteland 2, but especially here because the stretch goals have been specific and quite large (i.e. the bloody mega-dungeon, where I really think they should have said more backers per level), the proof will be in the pudding of the next 2 years.

An Arcanum LP by Avellone would be better than half the other merch offered.

 

[kazgar]

4 million got. (including paypal)