Game News Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore Kickstarter is Live

[Rake]

Why should someone who is not a starved blobber junky pledge in this? Especialy with M&MX around the corner that looks better, has more name recognition and will be out soon?

MMX is rather simplistic. If Deathfire is anything like RoA (even RoA 3), which is strongly implicated, it'll be head and shoulders above MMX.

No for the average Joe it won't. I was talking about marketing, not about game complexity.

Anyway, MMX and Grimrock hardly make for an ovesaturation of blobber market. And other recent blobbers are too indie to make a difference.

So...could it be Guido's fault instead of the concept's after all?

Personally, I think it's rather Schafer&Co's fault for giving other developers an illusion that you can successfully crowdfund something oldschool .

It works for some of them. But what it realy comes to is the definition of "oldschool".Most people when they say oldschool they mean Black Isle era. These are games that have a reasonably big fanbase and are used as examples of modern games declining.
Older that that the fanbase is significantly smaller, and is shrinking as you go further back. While they still have their fans, don't expect multimillion "celebrity" kickstarters for that kind of games. Even Obsidian with it's name and reputation, if they had gone for a Gold Box successor instead of an IE one they would propably gather around 1,5 millions intead of 4+

 

[cherry blossom]

So, tell us more about your new General Theory of "Ubisoftening".

Does Splinter Cell suffer from this? How about Rayman?

Are you aware that MMX is being designed a Might & Magic nerd practically recruited directly from an MM fan forum?

I should ask you the same but I already did in that other thread which went unanswered. But just to entertain you; yes and yes. They both do. More so in Splinter Cell's case. It's not like they are horrible games because of it but they would be far better without the very obvious Ubisoft design impositions, certainly.

As for MMX, it doesn't matter who and how. It is under Ubisoft's roof. The only reason it is happening the way it is happening is because it is perceived to be a rather niche game (perhaps correctly) and is Turn-Based, the otherwise don't-touch-even-with-a-ten-foot-stick taboo of big publishers, but Ubisoft will take steps to alleviate that little "problem". You can already see it in the triviality of the game's design elements the devs put up for voting. So utterly trivial, players voting one thing in over another is completely inconsequential.

 

[V_K]

It works for some of them. But what it realy comes to is the definition of "oldschool".Most people when they say oldschool they mean Black Isle era. These are games that have a reasonably big fanbase and are used as examples of modern games declining.
Older that that the fanbase is significantly smaller, and is shrinking as you go further back. While they still have their fans, don't expect multimillion "celebrity" kickstarters for that kind of games. Even Obsidian with it's name and reputation, if they had gone for a Gold Box successor instead of an IE one they would propably gather around 1,5 millions intead of 4+

I'm just saying that it weren't the games, that got funded in these kickstarters, but rather marketing gimmicks. I quite agree with some of Guido's critics on that. It's just being a mildly autistic person with zero social skills and a rather low opinion of humankind I don't agree that it's his fault that he doesn't want to resort to such cheap trickery. And as Coles' example shows, with a relatively modest goal it's doable without it (though takes some effort and luck), so I haven't lost hope in this kickstarter yet.

 

[Infinitron]

As for MMX, it doesn't matter who and how.

And that's where you go wrong. The who is extremely important. It's why Diablo 2 was better than Diablo 3. It's why DX:HR was a success and Thiaf is a clusterfuck. And at Obsidian, it's why a Sawyer game is bound to be different from a game made by somebody else. Same company name, different people.

You seem to believe in an almost mystical all-powerful influence of "company culture". While company culture definitely exists, it's not as important as you think.

 

[Cosmic Misogynerd]

Yet, at the end, what really matters is corporate politics.

 

[stony3k]

Compair him with Fargo.

Fargo was always a CEO and businessman. It's no wonder he knows how to market himself and his games. Guido is a developer/designer, so expecting him to behave like Fargo is unrealistic. Maybe he should have hired a PR person to sell the game for him, but that's likely where his ego came in. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to appreciate that KickStarter is not about the game as much as it is about the pitch.

I do find it ironic that the Codex that claims to hate marketing and sales and the business side of gaming is so mad at Guido for failing at the same business side.

 

[Name]

Shitty Kickstarter aside, I pledged because the game sounds interesting and Guido has some talent. It looks like that alien plant with SNES graphics game will outraise it.

Shit, that plant game does look pretty cool.

Can you give a link to KS of the said game?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1183462809/paradise-lost-first-contact

 

[~RAGING BONER~]

I'm honestly surprised it's reached a 1/10th of its goal so fast.

39k as of this post. Guido has a few fans it seems.

 

[Zombra]

Shitty Kickstarter aside, I pledged because the game sounds interesting and Guido has some talent. It looks like that alien plant with SNES graphics game will outraise it.

Shit, that plant game does look pretty cool.

Can you give a link to KS of the said game?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1183462809/paradise-lost-first-contact

Jesus Christ. Now that is a pitch video. Pledged instantly.

 

[General Maxson]

Compair him with Fargo.

Fargo was always a CEO and businessman. It's no wonder he knows how to market himself and his games. Guido is a developer/designer, so expecting him to behave like Fargo is unrealistic. Maybe he should have hired a PR person to sell the game for him, but that's likely where his ego came in. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to appreciate that KickStarter is not about the game as much as it is about the pitch.

I do find it ironic that the Codex that claims to hate marketing and sales and the business side of gaming is so mad at Guido for failing at the same business side.

I think most of the Codex is just frustrated as one potentially good Wizardry like blobber goes down the drain because of ineptitude at getting that damn money the way it works in the real world...

 

[theSavant]

I think most of the Codex is just frustrated as one potentially good Wizardry like blobber goes down the drain because of ineptitude at getting that damn money the way it works in the real world...

It is frustrating, because I know of no decent sized Wizardry-like blobber which has succeeded on KS. Maybe Guido should team up with Brenda. Together they may reach 500K and build Shaking in Nethermore Wizardry 8.5. Eventually this will be a success, due to being a fun blobber, and restore their popularity for future projects of their own.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Rather, DW Bradley should finally stop wasting his time on patching up the crap that is Dungeon Lords and go back to his Wizardry roots.

 

[V_K]

Rather, DW Bradley should finally stop wasting his time on patching up the crap that is Dungeon Lords and go back to his Wizardry roots.

Unfotunately, he expressed his love for real-time already when making W&W, so the best we can hope to get from him is "Dungeon Lords 2: Now with Romances!"

 

[Crooked Bee]

W&W's combat wasn't really real-time, and I thought it was actually pretty neat. I do prefer the classic Wizardry combat but I wouldn't mind him revisiting W&W-style combat either, except with fewer bugs and better encounter design.

 

[Alchemist]

Better yet, how about a Henkel / D.W. Bradley / Jon Van Caneghem superteam? Maybe add Neal Hallford too. With Brian Fargo handling the business strategy and marketing (maybe as a sub-label of inXile). Seriously, if all these guys banded together their kickstarter would be unstoppable. I know.. it will never happen... but a man can dream right?

 

[V_K]

W&W's combat wasn't really real-time, and I thought it was actually pretty neat. I do prefer the classic Wizardry combat but I wouldn't mind him revisiting W&W-style combat either, except with fewer bugs and better encounter design.

It was a blobberish RTwP which somehow worked for that game quite good. But what I meant is I remember reading an interview of his at the time of W&W's developement, where he called W&W's combat real-time and said something along the lines of real-time beind vastly superior to turn-based.

 

[theSavant]

Maybe we should make our own blobber... it's all here already

 

[Rake]

You forgot something

 

[V_K]

Maybe we should make our own blobber... it's all here already

Spoiler

I foresee a kickstarter hit of the proportions this world has never seen before.

 

[Monty]

I foresee a kickstarter hit of the proportions this world has never seen before.

Cleve as producer, Prosper running public relations, HHR managing the forums.... the masses would lap it up.

 

[theSavant]

I really wonder what DW Bradley is currently doing. Dungeon Lords was released in 2004 and afterwards he just made patches for this game... until 2009 or so. But not any sign of a a new game since 2004 ... what he is doing 10 years?

 

[V_K]

I really wonder what DW Bradley is currently doing. I mean Dungeon Lords was released in 2004 and afterwards he just made patches for this game... until 2009 or so. But not any sign of a a new game since 2004 ... what he is doing 10 years?

Actually, the latest version is from 2012.
I think, I've read somewhere that there was actually a DL2 in the making, but for some reasons (unrelated to the first game being a mess) that didn't happen. For the better of it, I guess.

 

[theSavant]

Ugh... does he want to re-work forever on this game? Then he could at least build a blobber feature for it.

 

[V_K]

To be honest, between the manual for Wiz6 (and some of the game's aspects) that recently resurfaced on CRPGAddict's blog and this, I'm beginning to suspect that Bradley has alsways been a dumbfuck, and the stroke of brilliance he had with Wiz7 and W&W was more of a happenstance.

 

[Rake]

It will be hilarious (and sad) if the whole "RPGs were that way back then because of the limitations of the time" BS turned out to be true in many cases