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KickStarter Dead State: Reanimated

ST'Ranger

Augur
Joined
Oct 23, 2014
Messages
306
...without the hassle of 'customers' that hate you, literally, because of your gender ...

:hmmm:

:

Also we all keep talking about Brian and Annie and variously shitting on the game in this thread, but this gentleman Elhoim is an unsung hero and deserves some proper brotherly handshakes.
 

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
6,326
I'm guessing KSP has a bit more budget to work on yeah.

You are just switching arguments, KSP is from a new studio self-published and would need about as much money as DoubleBear, it also uses Unity as the engine.

So were is the funding coming from? they didnt started with a Kickstarter ... are you saying DoubleBear simply made bad choices and so we have to bail then out? Do I need to go over again games arent art and we arent supposed to subsidize then because they are "artists" and want to "create their vision".

In fact, you want to continue down this line I will point out FTL ... Kickstart, Early Access and released, Shadowrun Returns the same, those games exist thanks to Kickstart and I dont think Kickstart is bad but as some games will make it, others will fail ... it doesnt invalidate Kickstart or Early Access so using it as a excuse for this as "we needed the money" once again goes to what that review said, it was a money grab to release it, it did worst to Double Bear because now we know the moment they run out of cash AFTER they crowdfunded they will release what they have no matter what state that is in and we dont have to subsidize every dream and people must understand they are responsible for their actions, if they are bad managers they are.

And that is what Pantheon will show ...
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
You are just switching arguments, KSP is from a new studio self-published and would need about as much money as DoubleBear, it also uses Unity as the engine.

So were is the funding coming from? they didnt started with a Kickstarter ... are you saying DoubleBear simply made bad choices and so we have to bail then out? Do I need to go over again games arent art and we arent supposed to subsidize then because they are "artists" and want to "create their vision".

In fact, you want to continue down this line I will point out FTL ... Kickstart, Early Access and released, Shadowrun Returns the same, those games exist thanks to Kickstart and I dont think Kickstart is bad but as some games will make it, others will fail ... it doesnt invalidate Kickstart or Early Access so using it as a excuse for this as "we needed the money" once again goes to what that review said, it was a money grab to release it, it did worst to Double Bear because now we know the moment they run out of cash AFTER they crowdfunded they will release what they have no matter what state that is in and we dont have to subsidize every dream and people must understand they are responsible.

And that is what Pantheon will show ...
All I'm saying is that Double Bear ran out of money and thus had to release their game.

it was a money grab to release it
What's worse doing a money grab release to try to get funds to patch it or abandoning the game in Early Access because the company is out of money?
 
In My Safe Space
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
21,899
Codex 2012
I think the people who keep repeating "they missed the zombie fad!!!" are missing the point. Even if that's true, which is arguable, it's still the least of DoubleBear's problems.

Their problem isn't that they missed the zombie fad. Their problem is that they missed the "weird/small/low budget RPG" fad. See also: what happened to the Eschalon series after the first game.
I would say that the zombie survival shit is gaining momentum if anything.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
What's worse is understating your Kickstarter goal in order to guarantee its funding when you know you need more money. Of course they got double their goal so they must really have undershot the mark.
 
In My Safe Space
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
21,899
Codex 2012
http://steamcharts.com/app/263380

A whole peak of 25 players didn't get mad.

Also, DoubleBear literally did not have the choice of delaying the game any longer. Not unless Annie and Brian have figured out a way to not need food any more.
If people would be Entitled to food, it would have never happened. They should have went on a honest power party in the name of Entitlement instead of lying like that.
 

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
6,326
What's worse doing a money grab release to try to get funds to patch it or abandoning the game in Early Access because the company is out of money?

Whats worst is not being honest about it ... actually, no its not being realistic about it, saying "ok, we are running into financial problems and we have to release the game now" but at the same time I do know how things work, even if DoubleBear goes down the game will not cease to exist, at least the creditors will have it to sell it in the worst case.

Yet your argument simply revolves around technicalities, as "what is worst? hitting a person and steal his wallet or steal his wallet and then hit the person" ... fact is released changes nothing, its not as if Early Access is some kind of Sekret Club in Steam, if the game was there it would continue to be available to be brought, maybe its the price?

Plus since its released there is no guarantee the game will continue to be patched, in fact if they needed the money it means they are going either pay the bills and close down (like Troika did) or keep going and end up bankrupt because how the fuck do you think they will look next time they go crowdfund their next game? I mean if KSF that apparently is Mexican managed to get founding ... I suppose they better go south of the border and go laundering money for the cartel since that looks their best chance to have their next game funded after this.

Or be rational and realized they cannot do it and call it quits before this damage then further.
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
What's worse is understating your Kickstarter goal in order to guarantee its funding when you know you need more money. Of course they got double their goal so they must really have undershot the mark.
They released a fully feature complete game. I don't recall one of the stretch being "bug free". I'm pretty sure it is significantly less buggy than say Fallout 2 1.0.

Plus since its released there is no guarantee the game will continue to be patched
The only guarantees in this world are death and taxes my friend.

, in fact if they needed the money it means they are going either pay the bills and close down (like Troika did) or keep going and end up bankrupt because how the fuck do you think they will look next time they go crowdfund their next game? I mean if KSF that apparently is Mexican managed to get founding ... I suppose they better go south of the border and go laundering money for the cartel since that looks their best chance to have their next game funded after this.

Or be rational and realized they cannot do it and call it quits before this damage then further.
I suspect if they go to KS again, it will not turn out very well because the game they made has not been well received. Such is life.
 

tuluse

Arcane
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
http://steamcharts.com/app/263380

A whole peak of 25 players didn't get mad.

Also, DoubleBear literally did not have the choice of delaying the game any longer. Not unless Annie and Brian have figured out a way to not need food any more.
If people would be Entitled to food, it would have never happened. They should have went on a honest power party in the name of Entitlement instead of lying like that.
No food was an exaggeration Awor.
 

Elhoim

Iron Tower Studio
Developer
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
2,880
Location
San Isidro, Argentina
Well, not for me it wasn't.:D Think I only played 14 minutes total in Early Access.

Really strange, I've fixed it myself. The hospital has all the corresponding collisions, so they shouldn't see you from a different floor. Maybe it didn't update properly? In any case, that level indeed is a little messy. I'll probably rework it to be similar to the city hotel.
 

Ovplain

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
1,890
Location
Down by the riverside
RPG Wokedex
Well, I'm not bullshittin' you.:) Nor am I calling you a liar back or anything. Don't want this to come off that way either.
The 'Ballinger Hospital' was the last thing I went through in the game, 11 days ago or so. And I just kept getting stuck in combat mode, as I went through it. Eventually I just put two of my party members close to the foot of the staircase to intercept zombies and kill them as quickly as possible.:S While the other two cleared and looted the rooms, slowly.
But whatever, my main issue was never with the bugs and glitches, I managed to pretty much ignore them for the first 40 hours of game time. They only became annoying when the content became boring.:S
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,753
Edit: yeah, they probably should have said we're releasing because we're out of money and intend to patch it up post release but like Annie said there's a reason she's not in PR.

While honest, this would undoubtedly result in fewer sales than they ultimately received. :P

As the saying goes, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission, but they even skipped that step so.
 

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
28,550
Oh? Let's see if that's true.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=6172
http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=6176
http://www.rpgcodex.net/tags.php?id=713

One thing's for sure - that's a hell of a lot of responses for a game nobody cared about.

The truth is that in the pre-Kickstarter period of decline, "weird" RPGs like Dead State, Knights of the Chalice, Age of Decadence, Grimoire, etc, were a big big deal on the Codex.

Since Kickstarter began, so much has changed that people can't really wrap their heads around how things were back then. The past is a different country.
Yeah, back in 2009, a Zombie themed game was still a fresh idea.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,677
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Zombies have never been fresh. It's one of those things that became cliche the instant it was conceived.

Ultimately, what matters is making a good RPG that appeals to RPG fans. Because you know, high fantasy ain't too fresh either.
 
Unwanted
Shitposter
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
3,390
Location
Nazi death cult center of jew medicine avoidance
Zombies have never been fresh. It's one of those things that became cliche the instant it was conceived.

Ultimately, what matters is making a good RPG that appeals to RPG fans. Because you know, high fantasy ain't too fresh either.

What you say is true, but this is why the concept is a problem. It's not really a traditional RPG it's more like a survival game. It's not the first of its kind on the market, and I would not call those RPGs.

The problem is it is more of a hoarding take on survival and not roaming around like in other zombie survival games. So it is not going to work on that front.

It's a concept that's not going to cut it as a zombie survival game and isn't really a traditional RPG so it was kinda doomed to be unsuccessful from the getgo.
 

Kem0sabe

Arcane
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
13,219
Location
Azores Islands
I feel a lot of the problems with the game are down to how easy it is, the survival aspect simply isnt there. The combat is ridiculously easy to exploit, the zombie line of sight issues are something that should have never passed Q&A, the zombies are often dispersed and alone, rarely if ever you encounter huge roaming packs, the amount of resources available to the player is significant and trivializes the base management aspect.

It's a shell of a game and nowhere near approaching release quality.
 

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
28,550
Zombies have never been fresh. It's one of those things that became cliche the instant it was conceived.

Ultimately, what matters is making a good RPG that appeals to RPG fans. Because you know, high fantasy ain't too fresh either.
Yeah, but with two people with little experience, working off their own funds... a "different theme" was all this had going for it. As you say, imagine if it *was* high fantasy.
 

Starwars

Arcane
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Messages
2,834
Location
Sweden
About 15 hours in and I'm kinda starting to feel the boredom that some others have posted about setting in. I think the game could've done with some balancing and also some condensing actually. The game is pretty damn big, way bigger than I expected actually. And while this is certainly pleasant in some ways, it kinda feels like it's maybe a bit too big for its own good? Part of it is probably due to how slow the actual looting runs tend to be. At least the areas which have a lot of zombies in them, there's a lot of zigzagging, a lot of sneaking up on them and taking them down one by one. The game engine is kinda slow in itself so it starts to get repetitive after a while, especially once you hit bigger locations. Also, while I haven't had that many bugs, I've run into some crashes now as I've gotten longer into the game and it's fucking annoying to lose half-an-hour of straight up zombie-whacking to a crash (like what just happened to me). That said, apart from the crashes, something like Wasteland 2 was waaaay buggier for me overall. Like... no contest.
Like I said, the size and layout of the game also feels like it's been hard to balance. So it feels like gathering resources is pretty easy. The big challenge is if you go up against humans, which is completely fine in my book. But the all the other stuff feels too easy.
The game is really addictive though. The loot -> upgrade -> character interactions cycle works to draw me in.

The most fun, and what I'm mostly looking forward to, are the little events that happen at the start of each day. The little character interactions feel good and are generally well-written and quite "human". I'm sad that I've only seen on crisis event so far during this long-ass time I've played, a real wasted opportunity. I don't know if more show up if you screw up parts of the base management, or if people die more, but given that the game feels pretty easy that would be kinda backwards. It could also do with more reactivity. Again, part of me wonders if it wouldn't have been better to focus on a smaller number of survivors and shrink the game-world and focus more on the depth of character interaction. But I dunno, maybe that'd would've been predictable. Like I said, it's kinda its own allure to have so many locations. Again, way bigger than I expected.

Visually, it's not great. Character models look very simple and boring (pretty good animations though) That said, I'm very pleased with how good some of the locations look still. They're pretty fun to go through in my opinion and I feel they did a damn good job of squeezing out quality from the engine. Audio-wise, it's nothing spectacular. Alright music which is fitting, but nothing to write home about. You'll recognize some sound effects from AoD. :)

I'd already say that I've easily gotten my money's worth (I backed the kickstarter for the lowest entry, though I'd feel it was worth it if I had bought it at the current price) and am looking forward to playing more. I think it's a damn shame that the drama now overshadows the game because it' a game that's definitely worth a chance and does some things really well. I guess 2014 have spoiled the Codex for good games. I'm sad to see how something like WL2 and DS gets huge amounts of attention but this gets looked over.
I hope there will be more patches though add some stability to the engine though and maybe balance passes as well.

:thumbsup:
 

Branm

Learned
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Messages
472
Location
Ottawa
Kind of think the game gets too much hate... I bought it in early access and had put like 29 hours in across a couple builds...Didn't actually get a chance to play release version yet but even so far I got my money's worth...Lets see looking at about 1$ an hour for entertainment....A hooker would set me back a lot more and I'd have to double bag to make sure I don't catch shit...

And well there are other games which the codex hailed as the next coming of Christ (like Divinity) where i never got close to getting my moneys worth..
 

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