KickStarter Consortium: The Tower - now available on Early Access

[Melan]

It has been several years now and they delivered diddly squat. Pressed X to doubt.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Umm, they expect a "great success" from the VR game and think it will fund the budget to complete The Tower. https://steamcommunity.com/games/ConsortiumTheTower/announcements/detail/3100164020360916230

It's not uncommon for VR hardware manufacturers to pay devs to create VR games.

 

[LESS T_T]

Umm, they expect a "great success" from the VR game and think it will fund the budget to complete The Tower. https://steamcommunity.com/games/ConsortiumTheTower/announcements/detail/3100164020360916230

It's not uncommon for VR hardware manufacturers to pay devs to create VR games.

I don't think they're paid. They think Consortium VR will sell well.

 

[LESS T_T]

Well not from a VR headset manufacturer but they got a grant from Epic for the VR game: https://steamcommunity.com/games/ConsortiumTheTower/announcements/detail/3094537058233188066

21 Day - Epic MegaGrant and the iDGi-1 updated Info Console
01-21-2022 - iDGi Game Dev bull2t1n

Happy 21 day everyone,

We are thrilled beyond words to be able to announce that in December of 2021, our currently still technically secret VR project was selected to receive an Epic MegaGrant!

This MegaGrant is enabling us to hunker down and focus on getting the game done and ready for release. We are honored and extremely grateful to Epic Games for their awesome support and acknowledgment that we're really onto something with this project.

We are now more confident than ever that our upcoming release will clearly point the way for everyone to easily imagine the limitless creative possibilities that exist within a brand new genre:
VR INTERACTIVE CINEMA
.

We told you all before that we would be properly announcing the project upon reaching Beta. However, now that we’ve had time to really think about the marketing side of things, we’ve decided to internally focus hard on taking us to beta and completion within the next few months. Then, we will shift our focus to "announcing", promoting and releasing within a 5-7 week period right after (give or take…).


Want to play?

If you have a Quest 2 VR headset and/or Steam VR capability and you have interest in participating in upcoming closed beta testing of this project, here is the process:

1) Join our Discord server
2) Enter the “announcement” channel.
3) Navigate to the post made on December 31st, 2021 and click on the VR emoji to add your name.
4) We will then contact you through Discord when looking for new players.

This means that the 21 day updates over the next few months are going to be very brief, but we’ll continue to find interesting things we’re working on to show you all each month. Speaking of which…

Recent iDGi-1 interpretations indicate a vastly different interface for the Info Console than what was previously garnered. From our analysis, these fixes will allow for far easier browsing and general use of the Info Console. Here is a brief glimpse:



Until next month, may this message find you all safe and sound…

Namaste,

--iDGi

P.S: To all Backers of Consortium: THE TOWER who signed up for Pre-Beta testing for our VR project - your keys should be finally incoming within the next few days or so! Watch your email inbox…

“The planet's hope and salvation lies in the adoption of revolutionary new knowledge being revealed at the frontiers of science.”

-- Bruce H. Lipton

This is not related to the EGS exclusivity deals.

IIRC these grants are generally in the range of $10k~50k, probably more (hundreds of thousands) if you really can prove your project is worth it.

 

[forumvisitor#451]

I am grumpy but I reported this latest news report from them as a spam. There is nothing in this that relates to Consortium: The Tower (fuck free keys for VR shovelware).

 

[forumvisitor#451]

Oh boy, this is a comment by them on Steam about latest "update" (which is just another ad for their VR thing).

"This isn't about diversifying portfolios... but it IS about building a reasonable *completion budget* for Consortium: THE TOWER. VR is super hot right now (esp Quest 2) and the market is desperate for real story games. Also...we would like to remind all backers of THE TOWER that: without your support those many years ago, THE TOWER would literally *not exist at all* as a playable game."

 

[LESS T_T]

More "update": https://steamcommunity.com/games/ConsortiumTheTower/announcements/detail/3094537058233188070

21 Day - A brief glimpse and update.
02-21-2022 - 1DG1 Game Dev bull2t1n

Happy 21 22 day everyone,

General iDGi Dev Update

After a few weeks of internal testing, debugging and fixing, we finally sent keys out to the first wave of testers for the pre-beta testing for our VR game. If you are a Tower backer that signed up for testing and haven’t received your key, that means you’ve been assigned to the second wave, roughly around early April.

Whispers From The Rift is still in the middle of being upgraded with many new brainscan images. How many in total will it have once done? No-one can say at this time. Peek into the Whispers From The Rift channel in our iDGi Discord to see a sneak peek at another new image.

We’ve been steadily receiving updated iDGi-1 Virtual Trainer data of all sorts. Here is a brief snippet of something we’ve recently been transcribing...



Until next month, it’s back to the dev caves for us…

Namaste,

--iDGi

“That old law about “an eye for an eye” leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing”

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

 

[Infinitron]

A very brief look at the last decade of iDGi game development. Includes previously never before seen footage of The Tower and our upcoming VR game.

 

[grimace]

21 seconds of gameplay
that's enough for investors
right
?

 

[Blaine]

The completion budget for The Tower was supposed to have come from the crowdfunding.

"Thanks, paypigs, but that was a long time ago. You're lucky there's even a chance we'll finish the game at all. Please insert shekels to continue."

 

[Alienman]

Dead game.

Sadly.

 

[Modron]

What is dead may never die:


https://steamcommunity.com/app/626250/discussions/0/3829791007686976119/

Has this project been abandoned?

As we move forward with various projects simultaneously, and more reviews pop up for this project calling it "abandonware," we thought we should address this concern directly and explain our thinking as a company.

When the original CONSORTIUM was released in January 2014, this was before Early Access was commonly used. We had internally tested it and even had Kickstarter backers playing it and reporting, but it was not even close to enough. Upon release, the game was still too buggy, with players reporting all sorts of technical issues our team was unable to find on our own. This crippled the game’s ability to propagate and find an audience when seemingly every review called the game "interesting but way too buggy." This hit us hard in all the wrong ways, but we powered on because of our shared belief in the story and a need to finish it.

Fast-forward years later, we realized that a port of CONSORTIUM to the Unreal Engine (and ultimately VR) was not only possible but doable for cheap and only required a few team members. We further realized CONSORTIUM's mechanics are tailor-made for V.R. (especially with VOICE!), so Gregory and Ryan began the porting process as a side project in their spare time.

Whispers From The Rift is another ongoing endeavour that began as a side project by our head writer Steve and has since grown into something much bigger than anticipated, ultimately becoming a bit of an obsession for him. This project was built in Steve's free time (like CONSORTIUM VR / Remastered) and has cost the company very little. Ultimately, this project will come to Steam and even as a phone app (new market!) as a standalone text-based prequel to CONSORTIUM and THE TOWER.

All this is to say that our team is working tirelessly to create a comprehensive budget for THE TOWER while minimizing expenses. Everything is about ultimately finishing THE TOWER. It is where the story takes off and the mystery of our game world begins to truly unfold. The entire Consortium Universe is a passion project for us, and the story is something we simply must tell. To leave things hanging without The Tower completed would be a colossal shame, so we're continuing to do everything possible to ensure that does not happen. It may take a while, but we are just as committed today as when CONSORTIUM was released in 2014.

Please Note: Everybody who owns CONSORTIUM (2014) on Steam has now received access to the flat-screen Remastered Beta . Look for “Consortium Remastered Playtest” in your game library right now! (if you do NOT see it and are reading this soon after this was posted, give it a day or two and it will appear!) Once we come out of this beta/playtesting stage, you will automatically be gifted the full release for free. Continued production on CONSORTIUM Remastered Beta will be in tandem with CONSORTIUM VR as they share a similar code base/mechanics.

That brings us to today. We are correcting our past mistakes by putting CONSORTIUM VR into Early Access (here on Steam and the Quest 2 AppLab) to ensure it is as clear and bug-free as possible before doing a full release, inviting reviewers to play, and then once more moving full-steam ahead into Phase Two of production for The Tower. CONSORTIUM Remastered sharing the same code base means it does not need time in official Early Access, but any feedback from folks with access to the Playtest/Beta version is always welcome!

We have stated some of the above in various responses to comments, and we hope this helps clear things up once and for all. We understand folks thinking this game has been abandoned, and we accept that. This only drives us to get it done and prove you wrong

Thanks for your time and continued patience,

- The iDGi Team.

 

[Abu Antar]

That update does note bode well. Mark my words.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/626250/view/3686801719520422225

April 21st TOWER dev update
04-21-2023 - iDGi Game Dev bull2t1n

Happy 21 day everyone,

Earth Day is almost here. A day where we celebrate our shared home, planet Earth, and its incredible beauty and diversity. Let's take a moment to appreciate the natural wonders that surround us and commit to nurturing our environment for future generations. Here's to a brighter, healthier, and more eco-friendly world!

Consortium: THE TOWER
Consortium: THE TOWER remains an active project at iDGi. The Early Access 4.15 build, available on Steam since late 2019, signifies the completion of Phase One of production. While the development process has been lengthy and complex, our original vision for THE TOWER has not changed. Please checkout the following post for more information on our motivations and plans as a company moving forward:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/626250/discussions/0/3829791007686976119/

We are nearing completion of CONSORTIUM VR / Remastered, bringing us closer to commencing Phase Two of Consortium: THE TOWER's production. We have begun integrating the latest CONSORTIUM VR / Remastered features and content into THE TOWER, with plans to release "Alpha 2.0" later this year.

As a result of this effort, Consortium: THE TOWER will now fully support V.R. and V.O.I.C.E. This means that THE TOWER will eventually be coming to Quest and other VR platforms, and the Steam build will soon natively support V.R. (no extra cost to Steam owners).

The transition between engines UE 4.15 and 4.27 involves significant changes, requiring a substantial amount of time to ensure everything functions correctly. We anticipate that THE TOWER will be released as a UE5 title, but to achieve this, we must first ensure compatibility with UE4 4.27.
Lastly on THE TOWER front, we’d like to share a first glimpse of a choreographed scene in Consortium: THE TOWER, showcasing a little bit of our progress thus far.

Finally, we have a small surprise for you all... Now that V.O.I.C.E. is "out of the bag", we have decided to make the backer build of THE TOWER available for everyone. That means that anyone can play with the prototype version of V.O.I.C.E. in Consortium: THE TOWER right now. Simply ensure that your Default Mic is on, and you can literally speak dialog lines rather than punch keys.

Namaste,

--iDGi

“Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.”
― Charles Kettering

 

[Melan]

Appropriately enough:

FINAL FIG UPDATE for Consortium: THE TOWER​

Greetings Fig backers and investors:​

Fig is about to be deleted entirely and all legacy campaign pages will no longer be accessible. This was dropped on us recently and we weren't really prepared for it.

The "Earth Day" related update you all just received was actually supposed to have been sent on Earth Day in April. It was not sent and was stuck in some broken state, until just earlier today. Thankfully someone at Fig/Republic was able to help us sort out the problem. So it's late, but at least you all got it before the great deletion! Hopefully, that explains any confusion.

We have gathered ALL of the Consortium: THE TOWER Fig campaign page content, including all updates made since our campaign began. We will be re-creating the campaign page on our own website at some point in the near future. We will be working out a way for all of you to have a new account where we will officially keep track of all the physical rewards due you all.

All future email TOWER development updates will be sent directly from us, interDimensional Games inc (iDGi). Hopefully, it won't go to spam but you may have to watch for it.
​

Best ways to ensure you keep updated on THE TOWER's development:​

1. The absolute BEST place to ensure you receive all updates in a timely fashion is to join our BACKER ONLY channel on the iDGi Discord server.

• To get access to the iDGi BACKER only channel , email us at support@interdimensionalgames.com and tell us your EMAIL ADDRESS that this email was sent to, and your full name. We will upgrade your Discord account pronto. Then you'll be in the secret club!

2. Consider subscribing to our email subscriber list . We only send emails out when we have significant news to share. Sign up at the bottom of this page.
The old iDGi discussion Forum (online since ~2013) had to be taken offline due to our web host provider basically being shut down. Not to mention, it wasn't getting any use and it was under constant significant cyber attacks that were becoming tiresome to stay on top of. We WILL be bringing it back in the future and all of your accounts and posts that many of you may have made are in a safe place.

Thank-you, and please, if you are reading this, consider joining our secret BACKERS-only Discord channel so you will never miss any important TOWER updates moving forward.
--iDGi ( https://www.idgi1.ca/ )

“The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water moulds itself to the pitcher.”
– Chinese Proverb
​

This will not come out untill well after Steam kicks the bucket and western civilisation has fallen. And not even after that.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Fig is shutting down, that is the news in that update.

 

[forumvisitor#451]

This will not come out untill well after Steam kicks the bucket and western civilisation has fallen. And not even after that.

True.