Information Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden 2 Kickstarter Launched

[LeStryfe79]

I've heard there is a secret update. Fuck that shit.

 

[Tzaero]

The latest update was on the 19th entitled Status update, I doubt it would have been hidden.

 

[eric__s]

Yeah, there's a $40+ backer update going to get sent out via email shortly. It's not very interesting, just an introduction to who we are as a team and what the money is going towards. It was one of the things in the reward profile thing, that you get this email. I wanted to make it ZaNiEr and more ToG but it was already like 75% written by the time I got to it. I'm not 100% sure when it will be sent out, I'm not the guy doing the server code, but it will be very soon and I don't mind if you repost it here. Hopefully future updates will be more interesting (i.e. I get to them first).

 

[eric__s]

There's a goddamn pie chart in the email. It is the most boring thing you will read today.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Can you get around paying royalties if you do a parody version of Space Jam in the game?

Yeah, I know, parody of shit song is almost redundant.

Yes and no. It's kind of weird, one of the laws I looked up said something like we need to pay 9% of the income a parody song generates to the party the song parodies, but I have no idea how to calculate how much that would even be. Anyway, the truth is we don't really want the song in the game. I mean, it is a great song, we love it and it defines the first game. But that's it - it defines the first game. I don't want this game to rest on the laurels of the first game, this is a new game and we want to do new things with it. This is going to be a new experience, both mechanically and thematically. We're not going to repeat the same jokes and the same experience and to me, that's what having the song in the game represents.

That said, based on some of the emails we've gotten recently, I don't think we'll need the Space Jam song.[/quote]


TIME FOR....ASK A (former) LAWYER....:

The reason why you still have to pay royalties (even in Australia where parody is explicitly exempted from copyright) is because whilst you're parodying the lyrics, you're still doing a straight-up usage of the music, and the music has it's own copyright. Before anyone complains about that, keep in mind that having separate copyright for the music is probably the only reason why D-grade pop and hip-hop aren't raping the classical canon.

And yes I know that the actual symphonies themselves are too old to be covered by copyright...but the orchestral performances and recordings of performances are, so music studios still have to try to convince bitter old conductors and classical musos that their work should be used to make a teenager using autotune rich, in return for a near-insignificant royalty

 

[kazgar]

I didn't get the update, but I got numerous and frequent rewards from Tales of Game's today, its been a future historical incident for vidcon activity.

edutainment hooooo!

 

[eric__s]

Yeah, the rewards were sent out last night, it's simultaneously a huge relief to not have to worry about them anymore (I was seriously stressing out!) and really awesome to know people are enjoying them. I thought the update would be sent out too, I'll see what's going on.

 

[Zed]

what's the ETA on the game anyway?
give me a percentage of game completion, like a true indie.

 

[eric__s]

Hahaha, it won't be until late 2013 or early 2014. I don't know, maybe we're at 5%? I'm working on the game's first area right now and other people are completing the game's main mechanical infrastructure.

 

[Zed]

what's 'mechanical infrastructure'? interface, inventory, that sort of stuff?

 

[eric__s]

The interface, menus, options, system preferences, stuff like that are mostly done. We're moving onto making combat feel really good, statistical algorithms and coding functions to make scripting faster and easier. It's hard to pinpoint what specifically we're working on at any one time because all these systems interact with each other, nothing is isolated. Making a change in one system will affect another, so it's kind of a back and forth.

 

[Gold]

Hey an update!

*reads email*

Oh, come on, give a little more news than that.

 

[LeStryfe79]

 

[Gakkone]

Worst thread bump ever. Ban Gold.

 

[Zed]

stfu and jam

what's the ETA on this game anyway?

 

[Excidium]

Goddamn faggot necro, I thought it was news on the game.

 

[Gold]

There is news. Get it on Linux too. Update #13.

Mamma Mia!
So even though we haven't been updating, we definitely have been working! And one of the biggest things we've done is upgrade our development engine to GameMaker:Studio.
It's gonna help with a lot of things, especially speed. There is actually quite a lot going on in Barkley 2 and the new engine will make a lot of systems run hecka faster.
Also! GM:S allows us to export the game in a variety of different formats, so we are announcing that Barkley 2 is going to be available on Ubuntu Linux as well as PC and Mac AT LAUNCH.
Everyone who pledged at any time in our Kickstarter campaign will be able to opt for the Ubuntu build. All three will be available to you. (NOTE: we say Ubuntu because that is the only OS that is officially supported by GameMaker but chances are it runs with most Linux OSes. Also, if you are running Linux you should probably know how to get it running on your own, so stop whining.)
We know you guys and gals want more info about the game, and we promise it's coming! We want to not only keep you guys updated but also really knock your socks off with the content we've been adding. We're right on the verge of dropping some serious vidcon knowledge.
Semper Games,
ToG

 

[eric__s]

Haha, sorry, I didn't know there was going to be an update today, I don't write them. That's pretty big news for people who it affects, but I imagine it doesn't affect most people. But if you want to know more about the day to day stuff, I wouldn't mind telling you a little.

I'm just about to finish up the area I'm working on. It's a huge area, one of the biggest in the game. The graphics aren't complete for it, so it hasn't been mapped yet, but the writing will be done within the next few days and I'm looking forward to moving on because this area has taken a pretty long time and is very dense. Our animator Frankie is busy as always. He took a break from animating sprites to work on our gun's system for a little while, but he's back to animating again and often streams at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/frankiesmile. We also hired another artist to work specifically on character creation, which is pretty much complete except for graphics now. I'm really pleased with it, I think it's some of the best character creation ever. Programmers are programming; one of our programmers just got back, he had to take a break to complete his thesis. We're calling this the Summer of Code because it's the first time all of our programmers are able to work full-time at once. We switched from GM8 to GM Studio, which has had a few hitches but ultimately been a huge benefit - frame rate has gone from like 30 to 200. bort's working on the design aspect of our gun's system and also worked on a crazy knock back system. When he's done with that, he'll probably get to work on the class system. Probably lots more stuff going on too but I can't remember, I'm really tired.

The thing I like most about Barkley 2 is that it's really open. If you miss something, it's gone for good. Likewise, the things you do have permanent effects on the game world and often lead to even bigger things. It wasn't really our intention when we started out, but a lot of the game is about changing things in the world, sometimes small, sometimes big. It's kind of a byproduct of our time system, things happening and changing over time, but I like it a lot. I hope people appreciate that this isn't just a dumb RPG with jokes in it, but that it's doing a lot of new things. Even though they're not very similar, I'd say the game that it's most like is Age of Decadence. They're both games about committing to your choices and navigating a world that doesn't really care about you and continues whether or not you participate in it.

We're preparing a build to show at a certain convention. . . . . . . . . . . . . rumor has it we will not be the only rpg codexers there. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

stfu and jam

what's the ETA on this game anyway?

I'm not sure, whenever we're happy with it. It would benice if it was this year, probably sometime early next year. I imagine the beta testing is going to be a nightmare because this game is complicated as heck.

 

[Gold]

Thanks for the update, can't wait to play it seven times.

 

[Haba]

Where is the game, man.

WHERE IS THE GAME?

 

[Excidium]

Where is the game, man.

WHERE IS THE GAME?

Your answer:

Even though they're not very similar, I'd say the game that it's most like is Age of Decadence.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I must admit it really surprised me that you were keenly aware of the mechanics and history of the genre, it's quite impressive to see your posts about the history of Japanese gaming and experimental, obscure RPGs. When I played the original game I just thought it was a silly meta RPG Maker project, I never thought that one day I would speak to the head designer and discover that what he really meant to do the most is to push the genre forward.

 

[oscar]

Semper Games,
ToG

Whatever happened to good old gamesmasterjasper? I'm still fighting hard for the Gaming Revolution.

 

[kazgar]

I didn't get the shitty update!

But that's ok, prestigious magazine rpgcodex came through with a better one.

 

[Zed]

"at a certain convention?"
"not the only codexers?"

some sort of hook-up convention for sexually confused misogynists?