KickStarter Apocalypse Now RPG by Monty Markland - terminated with extreme prejudice!

[MLMarkland]

MLMarkland, I'm curious about something that may be difficult to "get at".

Having just watched the film - and forgive me if this is obvious - I feel a major theme is the arbitrary, uncaring nature of the world. Things aren't always random - there are some things you can count on - but even the reliable things are irrational, e.g. Kilgore's invulnerability (and Willard's intuition of it), Roach's unerring instincts. As the film goes on, any sense of security Willard has erodes to nothing. Certainly, although he continues to pursue his mission with authority, there is almost no sense of power or control even at the beginning and by the end there is absolutely none. It never occurs to him to try to sneak into Kurtz's stronghold, or fight his way in. He submits immediately, unquestioningly, inevitably - as so, later, does Kurtz himself. At no time is there a sense of anyone imposing their will on the situation (with the awful exception, at the beginning, of LTC Kilgore). This is the opposite of a story of empowerment.

It strikes me that this disempowerment, so essential to the core of the film's horror, is outright antithetical to the nature of a video game. In a game, the player begins unsure of himself, not certain how the systems work, having to figure out (for example) enemy vision cones during stealth sections, which character stats are important for which actions, even how to get the most out of scripted dialogues, and so forth. As the player plays the game more, he feels more in control. Even as the levels add more enemies and bigger challenges, the player gets more comfortable and more confident that he can manipulate its systems to produce the desired results. This may be particularly true in an RPG as character growth gives the player more tools and abilities to control the situation. Things become less arbitrary as the player learns the game, and a good game then tests the player on what he's learned, granting a sense of accomplishment and closure.

Has the team considered this contradiction? Is it possible for a game to maintain the (in my opinion) central theme of helplessness from the film? If so, is it a good idea to make a game that takes away power from the player and risk being a "bad game"? On the other hand, if the player is given the power to impose his will, and tell the story how he likes, is the game then true to what makes the film so powerful?

This is a great analysis.

I believe focusing on the concepts that drive successful horror games is the answer.

When I first had the opportunity to speak with the Coppolas about this project just about everyone had pitched "Vietname war shooter."

Our team came in and said, "Hey we think it only works as a horror game and we just worked on Aliens so we've got some ideas."

There are design tropes of horror games that help with what you are talking about.

If anyone remembers how terrifying certain sounds can be in say Resident Evil ? with the chainsaw guys for example.

In a horror game it's the partial restriction of player agency that actually creates a lot of the tension.

Whether it's because you can only run for so long, or so far, or turn to aim at a natural speed, or your skills and gear make you more vulnerable to enemies even if they make you more dangerous attacking.

The restrictions we carefully apply to your ability to react to situations will have just as much impact on the gameplay being true to the movie as just about anything -- and that's one of the fundamental challenges of horror gameplay: the correct application of this idea in a non-frustrating manner.

The moment-to-moment gameplay is the more challenging part to make true to the experiences of Captain Willard -- but also you don't have to do it just like Willard did. You can carve your own path and be more active (and experience how the world and characters respond to that and discover how good a tactic that is).

With the narrative gameplay, we feel very confident in this area. These are some of the same themes we've worked with before (particularly on the Aliens RPG but also other games). I think there this sense of the war and modernity's true impact on the psyche is a huge part of the story in the game and your interactions with the characters through dialogue.

 

[Joevonzombie]

You guys are definitely in for an uphill battle. Spec Ops: The Line, despite being released in 2012, is still fresh in a lot of gamer's minds. I understand you guys have made it clear that this is not a shooter, but you need to convince people of what is going to make this a better way to experience this story.

 

[MLMarkland]

You guys are definitely in for an uphill battle. Spec Ops: The Line, despite being released in 2012, is still fresh in a lot of gamer's minds. I understand you guys have made it clear that this is not a shooter, but you need to convince people of what is going to make this a better way to experience this story.

Agree 100%.

for starters I think

1) the emphasis on characters (in the context of this specific narrative tradition and the movie's themes) and
2) combat avoidance gameplay

Are the two top reasons I'm interested in directing this game.

Games are almost always about shooting the most stuff. We've got source material here that is already about the exact opposite. If we can find the funding to do it, it's going to happen and we've put together the best team for it (Aliens, FNV, WL2, NWN, Infinity Engine, PoE, Far Cry, etc.).

 

[insukk]

I read about it on POLISH GENERAL NEWS site (like politics and other bullshit no gamer cares about).

Imo clearly have PR company working in old channels. Which explains a lot why their social channels are so behind.

There was also coverage on the Polsat News. Crazy stuff considering how badly this Kickstarter performs so far.

 

[Zombra]

A great bit from the polygon piece:

“I’m excited about having the ability for Kurtz to be the culmination of your personality,” Auten said. “He will talk to you and treat you based on your decisions, whether he should know what they were or not.”

I completely support this. It ties in great with what I was saying about lack of control. Normally stuff like "psychic guards" is terrible, but here information traveling and influencing in creepy and unexplained ways is very appropriate.

 

[imweasel]

That is all.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fringerider/apocalypse-now-the-game/posts/1793645

Update #4 - The Production Plan
Early Access Production Plan
By the Production Team
27 January 2017

We’re going to do something that I don’t think has been done before.

We’re going to layout our production plan for Apocalypse Now in the crowdfunding phase.

What you're about to read details how we arrive at Early Access launch. There’s a whole ‘nother plan for the 1-2 years after that. We can discuss that later.

For now, let's talk production plan. This document details the expected phases of development and ensures that the project is successfully delivered at the highest possible quality based on the time, scope, and budget.

Why release it now?

Partly so that you can understand our plan. So you know that we've thought these things through. We want to hear your thoughts; in crowdfunding you the people are in charge. Big game companies are afraid to do this. We're making a game that promises transparency and access. Here's some proof.

Don't forget to let us know what you think. It’s the community that helps us understand what kind of experience you want to experience.

In this first production plan update, we’re going to detail the first six Phases of development. Each Phase is comprised of multiple internal milestones. These milestones are adjusted as development takes place, so detailing the exact deliverables in each milestone isn’t yet realistic. Some tasks will land early, some on time, and some late. But having these multiple milestones allows us to actively address any issues that come up, reschedule them, and ensure we can meet what’s most important: that the Phase itself is completed within the estimated timeframe at the highest quality possible.

PHASE 1

Milestones 1 through 3

Pre-Production and Prototyping - 24 weeks

Project Definition Phase (16 Weeks): We’ve already started this phase!

We’ve got a partial prototype. A huge game design document. And a lot of milestone schedules and production plans. Up next is the creation of Project Plans, Art Plans, Technical Design Document, Product Scope, Initial Schedule, and Staffing Plan to help ensure the organized development of the product. Engineering and Staffing documents are particularly important.

Prototype Area Delivered (8 Weeks):

We finish our prototype. It’ll be an area similar in size to Novac from Fallout: New Vegas. Development will start quickly and ensure that the area development pipeline can be learned, defined and refined. Our goal is to create great moments that we can later expand into sequences of similar moments throughout the game.

Primary Purpose: Successful completion of this Phase will mean that the team has scoped the project and has identified the tools and techniques required to create a representative chunk of the game. In this Phase, we identify necessary tools, pipeline improvements, and technical design specifications are written.

PHASE 2

Milestones 4 through 7

First Playable - 24 weeks (48 weeks total)

Prototype Area Finalized (24 Weeks): The final Prototype Phase, Phase 1, will end with the development of a "First Playable" prototype. This will include the Prototype Area from Pre-Production and, along with the new content to be developed during Phase 2, and will encompass a landmass at least two times greater in overall area than the Phase 1 Prototype.

On the Art front, representative assets in most game object categories will be created, largely to ensure that all of the content pipelines fully are fully tested. This will include a new interior tileset.

During Phase 2 several key documents across all disciplines will be delivered: Art Bible, Animation Design Document, Final GDD, Final Production Plan, Final Concept Submission Documents for SCEA/MS, and Final TDD. Initial iterations of core features, such as Traits/Perks, Survival System, and combat systems will also be implemented at this time. Finally, optimizations for baseline tool and pipeline features will be implemented.

Primary Purpose: Successful completion of this Phase will mean that the team can create full areas at production speed and assets at a rate fast enough to deliver the game.

PHASE 3

Milestones 8 through 11

Vertical Slice - 24 weeks (72 weeks total)

Do Lung Bridge Area Delivered (24 weeks): The first half of the critical-path story from Game Start to the point at which the player reaches the Do Lung Bridge is the goal. This Phase will include the development of key outlying areas, including the open jungle/river from the start of the limited scope Early Access area.

At this point, we will have polished "complete" examples of all key asset types and gameplay objects: new weapons, perks, and additions to Tactical Combat Mode. A small team will remain working on Do Lung Bridge area.

This is to ensure that gameplay quality is higher than Fallout: New Vegas and that density approached 50% of that found in that post-Apocalyptic RPG.

Larry is going to make a special note of why this is important:

Lawrence Liberty: “Often times the initial area and content developed for a game end up being ‘forgotten’ as the team moves onto new areas and content. The byproduct of this? This first area sucks compared to the other newer areas and content that follows. Leaving a small team to keep the initial area and content up to par with the rest of what follows to makes sure you, the player, have a consistent high-quality and engaging experience throughout the game.”

Additionally, a Dialogue & Presentation System will be initially implemented during this Phase. This system will determine how narrative/mission actors are governed, controlled, lit, react and so on during dialogues.

Primary Purpose: The development of all planned game features in a polished "complete" state, and can be demonstrated in a section of the critical path that is already complete.

PHASE 4

Milestones 12 through 20

Early Access Production - 40 weeks (116 weeks total)

Single Game Ending Delivered (40 weeks): At this point, the game's Early Access critical path story will be completed, and the Core (6 x 6 large maps square - ~40% of the total game) Area will be complete. The game can be played from start to finish (along critical path, with one ending).

Additionally, the Final Early Access Game Script and Dialogue Script will be completed for Voice-Over recording purposes. The Game Script for the Outer Reaches will be finalized during the Alpha Phase, and will be recorded (along with any changes to the Core Area) as pick-up sessions.

Primary Purpose: Successful completion of this Phase yields the game's complete Early Access critical path and surrounding environs.

PHASE 5

Milestones 21 through Early Access Beta

Early Access Finalization (EA Beta) - 4 weeks (120 weeks total)

Early Access Beta Game Refined (EA Beta) (4 weeks): The complete game is tested and any content necessary to take it from a complete state to the final state is added.

In addition, the outer "rings" of the Critical Path Map are completed. The critical path area comprises 20% of the total game.

During Beta, the Outer Rings will be completed and Final [EA] Localization Kit will be delivered.

Primary Purpose: Early Access Content completion.

PHASE 6

Milestones 22 through Early Access Launch

Early Access Launch - 4 weeks (124 weeks total)

Early Access Launch Game Finished (Beta) (8 weeks): The complete Early Access game is put through finalization in order for it to be ready for submission and subsequent publish of the EA build.

Primary Purpose: Bug fixing and asset polish - all assets deemed "Final."

AND FINALLY...
You get the Early Access of the game and we move into finalization mode... which we will detail in a subsequent update!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fringerider/apocalypse-now-the-game/posts/1793666

Update #5 - A Message from The Game Director: We’re Listening to You
By Montgomery Markland

27 January 2017

A lot of Kickstarter projects get people excited from the moment they're announced.

Sequels, fan-favorite reboots, franchises saved from the bargain bin -- instant goodwill from existing communities and new fans swept up in the riptide.

But that's not going to happen here.

It has to be you You are like us now. You are on the river.

We’re working with one of the most beloved films ever made about one of the most controversial conflicts in world history.

We have never played a great Vietnam game.

The war’s shadow hangs over popular depictions of conflict.

In Vietnam, something in our nature changed.

Apocalypse Now is the cultural artifact that best displays where the United States started going wrong with the Vietnam War.

Apocalypse Now is the story of a man with a gun versus a man with a book. One of them dies and the world is a different place.

This is a lot to handle in a video game and we’ve been thinking about these problems for a long time. We just started actually putting pen to paper. Started to prototype, got enough footage to show you.

When we launched this campaign, we made a mistake.

We forgot that many of you have been disappointed by overreaching games and overreaching promises.

We had stopped paying attention to the Kickstarter world, when we put our heads down and went to work on this full-steam about 18 months ago -- first with documents and then with prototypes.

Because we went upriver, we did not remember that those of you who love games and those of you who love Apocalypse Now would immediately treat the announcement not with excitement, but with concern.

This skepticism has been echoed by some of the gaming press who told you that the game doesn’t need to exist. That other games had covered this terrain.

We understand how you feel.

We love these things as well.

That's why we work with them.

We also understand that we have to prove ourselves to you just as we had to prove ourselves to Francis Ford Coppola.

It took us a long time to earn that trust, years in fact.

We don’t blame you for wanting us to earn that trust in hours or days or even years.

We're asking for a lot here and on https://apocalypsenow.com

We're asking for trust. We're asking for money. We're asking for $900,000 here and $5,000,000 over 3 years on the website. We're specifically asking each of you to Back This Game.

We're asking for you to believe again. To help us make this game great.

We need your support.

I am personally, directly asking for your support.

As of this writing, the trend line indicates that we have a 50% chance of reaching our goal.

In the last forty-eight hours, we’ve listened to and addressed some of your concerns.

You, the audience has driven every decision for the past 48 hours.

Publicists and executives and producers wanted to hold the prototype teaser trailer back for later release.

The audience, you the people, the crowd -- you demanded we release it immediately and we did.

We didn't ask for permission, because we already had it from the only two people that matter: Francis Ford Coppola and each individual fan.

We did this because we understood you needed to see actual results in order to trust us.

And as long as you keep participating in the community, we’ll give you everything we've got to earn that trust.

In return, we need your help.

We need you to not only support the game but to get others excited and to push back against uninformed or inaccurate media stories.

Apocalypse Now is our culture. We will protect it. And it is your culture and we want you to support it.

We want to make a game that is as important to our culture as the film was on the day of its release.

We have come to Kickstarter because we believe this vision is bigger than just ourselves.

We have a responsibility to you, to ourselves, to Francis and his family, to history and to every human soul affected by the Vietnam War.

We urge you to join our crew

-- and never get off of the boat.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I got inspired and rewatched Apocalypse Now. Last time I saw it, which was several years ago, I thought it slow and boring but this time, oh man! I was drawn right into it and it hold my attention for 3 hours straight! It's a really tight movie.

I dunno about a game though, but it could be cool. Pledged 50$ and we'll see.

 

[MLMarkland]

Update #4 - The Production Plan

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fringerider/apocalypse-now-the-game/posts/1793645

Update #5 - A Message from The Game Director: We’re Listening to You

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fringerider/apocalypse-now-the-game/posts/1793666

Thank you Infinitron for the updates post!

A great bit from the polygon piece:

“I’m excited about having the ability for Kurtz to be the culmination of your personality,” Auten said. “He will talk to you and treat you based on your decisions, whether he should know what they were or not.”

I completely support this. It ties in great with what I was saying about lack of control. Normally stuff like "psychic guards" is terrible, but here information traveling and influencing in creepy and unexplained ways is very appropriate.

Rob has really cool ideas for gameplay for this and a lot of projects that have been thwarted one way or another by the exigencies of the game business. We're going to change that eventually -- hopefully on this project. Thanks Zombra.

I got inspired and rewatched Apocalypse Now. Last time I saw it, which was several years ago, I thought it slow and boring but this time, oh man! I was drawn right into it and it hold my attention for 3 hours straight! It's a really tight movie.

I dunno about a game though, but it could be cool. Pledged 50$ and we'll see.

Thank you for the support Apan.

And the movie really does change as you grow older, the way that you watch it. We watched it in high school drinking Miller Lite and interrupting with quotes. I watch it now while I fall asleep because I'm working on it and and deep in it (just like I watched Alien and Aliens 50+ times while I worked on that game).

 

[laclongquan]

Dat structure

The main house is wooden, but the walls of that and the other house can be mud mixed with straw, an ancient and venerable materials for the less developed. My grandfatherhouse was just like that three decades ago.

The metallic drums seem a bit too posh for such a house. Generally it would be ceramic or earthen drum-pot. A series of that generally signify this house made soya sauce, or fish sauce, or some sort of fermented stuffs. Without craft they might need two only.

Edit: I will note that the kitchen's placement is unclear. It should be near the main house to serve hot meals, so it should be where the bamboo fence is, which also fit with the place of the drums. OR it could be behind the main house and therefore out of sight. In that case people make things in that side house and away from the kitchen. If this is a 3D map and rotate-able, please dont forget that detail.

Also, 3 steps away from the kitchen would be a primitive well where you pull water up with ropes. A really posh house would have wooden wheel to pull water, but that is a village chief, or richest man in the village kind of thing.

 

[laclongquan]

This house is somewhat open. But a pretty popular setup is to have a row of bamboo on one side, or enclose. IT both serve as wall/defense, and a ready source of fire wood, AND a source of natural rope with young branches. You can never have enough ropes. In the rare case of building some houses bamboos can be of much use, after some weeks/months of soaking under pond's water.

 

[Zombra]

The metallic drums seem a bit too posh for such a house.

And none of them are red. How will I know which one will explode when I shoot it?

 

[laclongquan]

Why would they explode?

And you can just fire tracer rounds on the sidehouse' roof and it will go up like nobody's business. Dried straw~

 

[MLMarkland]

Dat structure

Please dont forget that detail.

We won't! The team leads watch the movie a lot. Anything that looks out of place is almost always a placeholder.

Barrels just placed there by an artist for effect -- not an intended part of the village in real time. They are placed where the baskets and pots would normally be.

This is the same square where the saboteur tosses a grenade into a Huey rescuing a wounded G.I. -- in the final version those barrels are baskets and pots. (You see the baskets and pots blow away/get knocked over during the Huey landing and the subsequent explosion).

 

[Bester]

Such detailed plan...

You usually create a plan by listing all the features you need in your prototype in detail, example:
Day N:
- animations for crossbow from 1st person
- animations for crossbow from 3d person
- reload system
- reload interruption system
- crossbow arrows sticking to surfaces
- arrow leaving trail behind it + whooshing sound
- arrow pooling system
And you do it for every day, until you exhaust all the features you want in. This forces you to basically "make" the feature in your head in order to estimate the amount of time it requires. It's very difficult and time consuming, but by the time you're done, you have better information than "24 weeks for this, another 24 for this, yep, sounds about right".

Have you made any estimates for the "early prototype" that you've got? How precise did your estimates turn out to be?

I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but it seems like you haven't got any of your shit together.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fringerider/apocalypse-now-the-game/posts/1794029

Update #6 - On Creating Complex Characters
Posted by Rob Auten

28 January 2017

Criminals, according to Batman, are a superstitious cowardly lot.

Writers, on the other hand, are more suspicious and flowery. (At least I am.)

And as a writer—and especially a writer of games—one of the claims regarding Apocalypse Now about which I would be the most suspicious is that we’re going to somehow create complex non-playable characters for this game.

In the smattering of interviews that I’ve done, I can sense the incredulity in the journalist’s voice when I discuss how each entity in the game judges Willard to see how he solves problems and interacts with other characters.

No one’s asked how this works thus far, probably because they assume that as a writer I don’t know myself.

As it happens, I’ve been working with a team of engineers for several years on a system to help create more believable virtual characters for a variety of applications including games.

The system is called SAGA—read more at hexagram.io—and I’ll explain how it works and how it’s going to help us make the world of Apocalypse Now more believable and more reactive.

If you’ve every played a role-playing game, you know what a character sheet is. If you haven’t, imagine breaking a personality into a variety of factors, such as the matrix seen below (taken from Westworld).

From a game engineering standpoint, every entity in our game that’s capable of emotional reasoning (i.e., no rocks) has a character sheet.

This sheet contains a series of basic qualities, such as Fallout’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L. values, but also some additional data related especially to this particular game, such as how easily the character is intimidated by force or how he or she reacts to gunfire. (From Fallout 2).

Now imagine that these numbers are capable of changing as a result of Willard’s (and others’) actions.

If a character is relatively tough, he might not flinch when you stick a gun in his face the first time. But do it a second time and he might react with anger and violence.

In a traditional game AI environment, you might manually program a character such as this one to “snap” once a gun is pointed at him a second time. But the manner in which we are engineering SAGA enables us to have a set of metavariables that control the speed at which other character attributes are changed.

An improperly managed relationship

A character who is very loyal, for example, will be less likely to turn against his leadership even when he watches said leaders do inhumane things. A strong sense of humor will cause a character to make jokes in the face of difficult odds or oppressive situations. If a character with a weak sense of humor get tired of jokes, he or she will tell the wiseacre to can it. If the funny character is sufficiently empathetic, he will do so. Otherwise, the situation may escalate into argument. It’s all numbers slinging back and forth under the hood.

To be clear, this isn’t a generative system. When Matthew McConaughey tells TARS to turn down the humor, he’s actually telling the robot’s AI to stop writing unique and novel sentences. Our utterances and situations have to be prewritten and prerecorded. There will be a lot to create, but both the process and character writing will evolve over the course of development.

One of the advantages that we have is that the system enables us to start creating characters independent of a specific game context.

In most games, you only write dialogue once you know exactly what is going to happen; when the characters are ambushed from the east, you write specific lines for that scene that say “Go west!” In this case, we can start working on character templates that are informed by a wide variety of potential variables such that when a specific situation occurs, the characters will choose from a selection of pre-written responses.

My team and I at hexagram.io have been building the SAGA system for the past several years as I believe character is going to make games and other experiences better and more accessible to everyone.

As a games writer, I often grew frustrated filling out endless spreadsheets of character dialogue that lacked any context. Shouldn’t there be a different line for when you pick up a health pack that you really need versus when you have 98% health and basically slap on a Band-Aid? Shouldn’t an ammo-starved companion character throw out a line when she sees you hogging all the supplies?

I remember vividly when games introduced real-time physics. Impact decals were replaced by shattering bottles and splintering tables. Game worlds took a major step toward reality in a manner that felt visceral and exciting. But until that change took place, I had forgiven games for not having these capabilities.

With Apocalypse Now, we hope to demonstrate the power of real-time reactive characters and to show that they are as (or more) important as physics, fluid dynamics, or subsurface scattering in creating immersive experiences. Please feel free to ask any questions and I look forward to sharing more about SAGA through the development process.

 

[Prime Junta]

You usually create a plan by listing all the features you need in your prototype in detail, example:
Day N:
- animations for crossbow from 1st person
- animations for crossbow from 3d person
- reload system
- reload interruption system
- crossbow arrows sticking to surfaces
- arrow leaving trail behind it + whooshing sound
- arrow pooling system
And you do it for every day, until you exhaust all the features you want in. This forces you to basically "make" the feature in your head in order to estimate the amount of time it requires. It's very difficult and time consuming, but by the time you're done, you have better information than "24 weeks for this, another 24 for this, yep, sounds about right".

This type of planning is a 100% guaranteed recipe for schedule and budget overruns, as well as spending considerable effort on something that doesn't produce anything of value.

 

[MLMarkland]

RE Planning

Larry Liberty executed one of the greatest production plans in history for Fallout: New Vegas. They had a tiny budget compared to F3 and F4 and they turned in a game over 100 hours, that's generally perceived as superior by fans of the original Fallout and 2 and it's got an 86 user rating.

Nobody bats 1.000 but Larry is the best game producer I've ever met. His plans are way more detailed than we can post in an update. Maybe if we get far enough we can post some direct links to spreadsheets in google docs.

Production planning is part science, part product management, part software development and part art and intuition.

 

[Bester]

Larry Liberty executed one of the greatest production plans in history for Fallout: New Vegas.

I remember the story Sawyer told about how their programmers spent 2 weeks doing the reload interruption system, and it turned out to be full of bugs, and then they spent additional weeks on it, which was a huge delay, and in the end I was watching a FNV speedrun the other day and the guy just reloads a gun and opens his pipboy at the same time, and gets propelled half a mile ahead instantly. Couldn't stop laughing.

FNV is shit by the way, and Obshitian is known to have humongous human resource management problems.

Namedropping like you're doing isn't cool. It's better to have arguments instead of appeals to authority. Anyway, good to know you have at least someone who's got some experience.

 

[MLMarkland]

Larry Liberty executed one of the greatest production plans in history for Fallout: New Vegas.

I remember the story Sawyer told about how their programmers spent 2 weeks doing the reload interruption system, and it turned out to be full of bugs, and then they spent additional weeks on it, which was a huge delay, and in the end I was watching a FNV speedrun the other day and the guy just reloads a gun and opens his pipboy at the same time, and gets propelled half a mile ahead instantly. Couldn't stop laughing.

FNV is shit by the way, and Obshitian is known to have humongous resource management problems.

Namedropping like you're doing isn't cool. It's better to have arguments instead of appeals to authority. Anyway, good to know you have at least someone who's got some experience.

Larry Liberty is my friend. I'm not name dropping. We started a company together almost a decade ago. But I get what you're saying.

And I'm also not a producer so appeals to authority regarding the production plan are about all you'll get from me on that topic. Division of labor.

I'll take a stab though, here's some arguments that aren't about the skill of the producer:

1) Plans should be designed the the level of detail necessary for the immediate moment, the short term, and the long term; medium term plans are generally highly inaccurate.
2) Plans that are designed should be communicated to other third parties at the Level of Detail necessary to communicate the key information.
3) Plans are not a substitute for communication.
4) Communication is a substitute for a plan.
5) Day-to-day project management should be reality and communication based.
6) You should adjust your long term plans to be based on reality instead of your original assumptions.
7) You should minimize the project management cost of your PM solution (ie the effiency -- you don't want your engineers losing 2 hours of work a day dealing with project management BS).

That's 7. There's a lot of theories. There's a lot of practical experience. There's where the rubber meets the road.

I know LL has shipped a ton of games at a ton of different place with a huge variety of budgets and talent. So I trust him.

 

[Bester]

medium term plans are generally highly inaccurate

Google evidence based scheduling.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I was watching someone play through a really shitty game today on Youtube, I was in a masochist schadenfreude mood that was satiated very nicely, but one aspect of the game did spark a sense of wonder in me with regards to this thread: How about an RPG which includes sailing down a jungle river on a small boat. Instead of trawling through tunnels and fields to get to the next area you gradually sail towards your stop-off points, Apocalypse Now style. The sailing mechanic has been very underused over the years but is a wonderful way to get a sense of exploration and wonder.

Me and mah big mowf.

Let me highlight the important part of my post:

Apocalypse Now style

Why are you 'creative' types so creatively bankrupt that you'd rather just copy-paste something that already exists for the name bait than actually make something new for once?

I mean, even when you do shove a small bit of cash towards creativity, like towards Tyranny, you still butcher the entire concept back to shitty encounters and a chosen one formulaic borefest. "A game where evil won!!!!!!!" - but it wont be any different to any other game where you're a dog's body trying to beat the big bad boss man as the chosen one. I mean, FFS, now it's straight out copy-paste of a movie? Good god, whatever next? Ghostbusters RPG?

 

[MLMarkland]

medium term plans are generally highly inaccurate

Google evidence based scheduling.

Cool, I'm reading. My gut reaction is that this is a fancy way to say "producer instinct" and a way for producers to throw data at untrusting execs.

But I never judge a book by its cover. Except if it is a prestigious magazine.

 

[Perkel]

Don't want to be that guy but i must say you have now officially 0% chance of reaching goal. You lost simply momentum. Your kickstarter is dead on social media, meaning it doesn't generate buzz and people do not talk about it. I only hear about it from non gaming related news cycles and those are mostly occupied by non gamers which won't fund your kickstarter.

What i said earlier. Cancel kickstarter and redo your work on pitch. Before you go again be sure to inform everyone (meaning gaming press before hand) and talk about your game with press. Prepare solid work on concept art and be sure to explain them properly this isn't just another licensed on a movie game but actual real thing with certain design and goals. People need to hear interviews where you talk about game.

If you properly prepare i believe you will get easily 1mln+. You would get 2mln+ if you would be doing it first time the right way.

Whoever does PR for you they do not "GET" what kickstarter is all about. They do not get that your average backer isn't sunday mom who watches CNN.

Your backers are:
- people who love movie AND play games
- people who play RPGs
- people who play games
- developers themselves and industry people

In that order. None of those people even watch TV or listen to radio. They are all on social media, reddit, gaming forums, reading gaming news from gaming sites. Mind you i didn't say "people who watched movie". Because it is true, those people might be biggest fans but as long as they don't play games they won't pay a dime.

Cancel it, reorganize your pitch, make it more front loaded + what i said before and then start in 3-4 months time again.

edit:

You lost most of your backers who would generate more backers on name alone and those stretch goals.

 

[MLMarkland]

Don't want to be that guy but i must say you have now officially 0% chance of reaching goal.

If you properly prepare i believe you will get easily 1mln+. You would get 2mln+ if you would be doing it first time the right way.

Yo I agree with a lot of what you say, including and especially the criticisms. I'm more critical of myself than critiquing other people. I generally view the consequences of things as the consequences of my own actions and decisions. And I constantly wonder, what I could do differently and then try to do it differently in the future.

I do fundamentally disagree with the officially zero part.

I've been on and around a lot of crowdfunding projects.

Maybe I'll post the trendline examples sometime. There's more Kickstarters than you would think that don't follow the conventional wisdom of 3 in and 3 out. There's tens of thousands of successful projects that follow odd paths to funding. We just don't know yet.

We're watching metrics. We're watching the trendline. I've been jamming the fire alarm since an hour after launch (80 hours ago?).

We strongly believe we can be in a solid place by the end of the coming week. And it's all hands on deck. Because if we can't deal with this, we can't successfully make an Apocalypse Now game anyway -- the crowdfunding is a test to see if the pieces are all there and you've got a couple of weeks to pass the test. Not just three days. That's CW but it's a misnomer and not supported by the data.

And we'll see.