KickStarter DEMIURGOS: Path of the Leviathan, an alternative history adventure RPG

[bataille]

Anyway, this while affair strongly reminds me of this gentleman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladislav_Klíma

Interesting.
I do have a few book of him here, but they are all in Czech (which I cannot read).
Will need to dig deeper and educate myself, maybe he is a potential candidate for one of the great persons in the game.

Try to find his autobiography, it's a little, 17 pages-long, very colourful thing that embodies his character in a crisp and eccentric manner. His fiction is good, but the autobiography is essential. The gnostic and philosophical exercises of his were super interesting and fun.

 

[Lacrymas]

Daniel Bill, I'm interested whether living great persons will be in the game? Like me, for example (jk). Like Krzysztof Penderecki, Stephen Hawking, Pope Benedict XVI aaaand it's actually hard for me to think of any more that aren't composers, but you know what I mean.

 

[Daniel Bill]

Try to find his autobiography, it's a little, 17 pages-long, very colourful thing that embodies his character in a crisp and eccentric manner.

I will try to find it. Read the Wikipedia article and think he would perfectly fit into the game and its premise.

Daniel Bill, I'm interested whether living great persons will be in the game?

Actually that was not planned. We had envisioned integrating selected works from many of the great persons that had lived and worked as artists.
For example we wanted to use parts of Goethes Faust or music from Puccini, composing Turandot.

But I do have to say: Stephen Hawking would really be an option for me - even though Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg are already the designated physicists.
The update regarding the great persons will most likely be posted on Thursday. At the moment we are still working on the update with the animal companions, still had to do Twitter homework...

 

[Lacrymas]

Daniel Bill, yeah, I wouldn't call Puccini one of the greats. Famous and liked =/= great. Even people from his time were criticizing him for purposefully writing popular things and not letting his genius fly. Yes, he was a genius, you can plainly see that from some parts of his scores, but he didn't capitalize on it in an intellectual sense, only as a tool for popularity and wealth. I'm not saying those things aren't worth striving for, I'm saying they aren't enough for someone to be considered great, and Puccini really isn't. If you want an opera composer from that time who was also great, incorporate Richard Strauss and one of his operas, I'd go with Salome -



There's a better production with Nadja Michael that I have on DVD, but it's not on YouTube anymore, so this will have to suffice. Notice the chord at 4:11.

 

[Murk]

Asking for a very modest sum, too. So far the music seems nice as well, and so I will probably pledge a tier that gives that reward.

Welcome to the Codex.

 

[aratuk]

Try to find his autobiography, it's a little, 17 pages-long, very colourful thing that embodies his character in a crisp and eccentric manner.

I will try to find it. Read the Wikipedia article and think he would perfectly fit into the game and its premise.

Es gibt an English translation (with endnotes explaining the people and places named): https://www.scribd.com/document/62368130/My-Autobiography-by-Ladislav-Klima

 

[Love]

I think their understanding of socialism is more like sweden. Or Bernie Sanders.

It doesn't matter. It all starts on the same premise and leads to the same devastating results, over and over again.

Btw, don't want to brag but Warren Spector - the producer of my favorite game of all time - pledged as socialist.

Nature 1:0 Nurture

All the air in Texas couldn't change his mind.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/546845775/demiurgos-path-of-the-leviathan/posts/1942546

Update IV: Animal companions and "Vote the Truth" recount

With this update we would like to introduce you to the animal companions.

At the moment three types of dogs are planned. While each type of dog has distinct characteristics and can help the player in different ways, every one of them can enter the so-called labyrinths; as presented in the video below.

While we would like the companions to interact with the game-world as much as possible in the final game version, we have to wait and see how much time we have left at the end for extras like this.

On another front: The newest recount of our "Vote the Truth"- experiment has produced suprising results. Imperialists and Liberalists are both on the rise, gaining momentum and threaten the Socialists position.

The Socialists are still the strongest power with 42%, but are on the decline. Proletarians of the world are still trying to unite.

The Liberalists have returned to the political arena with astonishing 30%.
Black smoke and ashes from industrial chimneys blanket the cities.

The Imperialists grasp for power with 28% of the votes cast.
Naval warships set sail in the Aegean Sea.

In case there are any questions we are always available. Next update coming soon.

 

[Daniel Bill]

Changed "Proletarians of the world are still trying to unite."
to "Proletarians of the world are setting up barricades in the streets."
because it sounded biased. Just in case that bothers someone.

The game is not about legitimating any ideological point of view.

 

[The Wall]

The game is not about legitimating any ideological point of view.

Now that's truly BALANCEDtm approach to the topic.
Are you absolutely sure that Sawyer is no cousin of yours and you're not related, not counting you both coming from Germany?

This Kickstarter is currently sitting at 22% funded with around 18 days left. What a shame! Such an unique, interesting and fresh idea and execution and people are passing by it as if it was a drunken hobo on the street.I hope you will be able to reach funding and at least unlock one stretch goal. I'll help you in that endeavour by pledging early next week.

Maybe modern socialist gommunist retadred youth expects someone else aka government to fund this game and they have their money to spend on objectively better stuff (like on make Donald Drumpf again stickers huehuehue).

Too bad your game is not part of central planning, comrade. At least it's not openly against revolution! (ah, it pays off being balanced) so no gulag for you, yet...

Wish you all the best!

 

[Daniel Bill]

This Kickstarter is currently sitting at 22% funded with around 18 days left. What a shame! Such an unique, interesting and fresh idea and execution and people are passing by it as if it was a drunken hobo on the street.

I think I didn't read a single negative comment about the game itself. Maybe you need more reputation to be successfull on Kickstarter or more capital in the first place. Some of the larger campaigns invest the total amount we are seeking for just in advertisements I believe.
They also get featured in gaming magazines etc. Our reach just isn't wide enough and we are no social media guys at all, thats also bad.

Anyway, thanks for your support. We'll keep on fighting, facebooking and of course twittering.

 

[The Wall]

I think I didn't read a single negative comment about the game itself. Maybe you need more reputation to be successfull on Kickstarter or more capital in the first place. Some of the larger campaigns invest the total amount we are seeking for just in advertisements I believe.
They also get featured in gaming magazines etc. Our reach just isn't wide enough and we are no social media guys at all, thats also bad.

Anyway, thanks for your support. We'll keep on fighting, facebooking and of course twittering.

Let us all be here brutally honest. Amount you're asking for is really low. For that amount of money I doubt someone at Obsidian would be willing to make a new island in Deadfire if not couple of huts on new island and you're making a whole game. And what a game! Of course I don't want to overhype and game is not released yet and thus I can't judge it etc. but unlike so many kickstarters which brought to the table only washed up carcasses of careers of has-been devs from industry with little to no if any concrete gameplay if perhaps a bit of artwork here and there and people would shower them with money and you opened up by giving us 20+ min. long walkthrough. That's something you don't see every day! Amount you're asking some of these campaigns (many turned out to be scams, underdelivered or are yet to deliver) raised in matter of minutes in the beginning and ending days.

It's just not fair...man. You know it's going slowly when you slide to the second page of most popular video game kickstarters on current year Kickstarter where every project below place 8-9 is lucky to get 500$ per day.

Don't know how Codex, if willing, can help you except for 2 things.

1. I'm a long time lurker and over time I got this weird impression that staff likes to post Kickstarter updates quite a lot on home page. Now some would say that some Kickstarters are more prominent in these updates than others but I'm sure such prestigious project could get on the list plus every bit of exposure helps. They posted about project when it started, maybe a new post with all the updates so far is warranted...
   
2. Codex funding campaign though they are only done in case when base funding is reached. So... make sure you reach funding goal and Codex will make sure at least first stretch goal happens, I guess.

Have you tried contacting some of the less autistic yet prominent youtubers? If their audience is big enough and interested in rpgs it's bound to gain some traction.

 

[Daniel Bill]

Let us all be here brutally honest. Amount you're asking for is really low. For that amount of money I doubt someone at Obsidian would be willing to make a new island in Deadfire if not couple of huts on new island and you're making a whole game. And what a game! Of course I don't want to overhype and game is not released yet and thus I can't judge it etc. but unlike so many kickstarters which brought to the table only washed up carcasses of careers of has-been devs from industry with little to no if any concrete gameplay if perhaps a bit of artwork here and there and people would shower them with money and you opened up by giving us 20+ min. long walkthrough. That's something you don't see every day! Amount you're asking some of these campaigns (many turned out to be scams, underdelivered or are yet to deliver) raised in matter of minutes in the beginning and ending days.

It's just not fair...man. You know it's going slowly when you slide to the second page of most popular video game kickstarters on current year Kickstarter where every project below place 8-9 is lucky to get 500$ per day.

Haha, I like you. Thanks for the outrage.
Regarding Kickstarter: I did an awful mistake. The video compression on KS is one of the worst I have seen. The videos look much sharper and in general better before the Youtube compression, but after Kickstarters it was just unshowable.
Therefore I decided to upload it on Youtube and put a "Video in description" disclaimer on the project picture. Afterwards I realized that this is a reason for not to be chosen as a "Project we love" by Kickstarter. Now we are most often not
on the first page and I personally never even bothered looking at all that crap after the "Project we love" section. I tried to contact Kickstarter support, telling them I changed it, but they just sent me the usual corporate bs answers.
Not even sure if it was a real person. It was my mistake and it is written in the Kickstarter FAQ, so I feel deeply sorry for the other team members and everyone who is as hyped for this project as we are.

I'm a long time lurker and over time I got this weird impression that staff likes to post Kickstarter updates quite a lot on home page. Now some would say that some Kickstarters are more prominent in these updates than others but I'm sure such prestigious project could get on the list plus every bit of exposure helps. They posted about project when it started, maybe a new post with all the updates so far is warranted...

We'll do a couple more video updates. Maybe this will help to have this additional spotlight. We also have an interview on monday, but it has to be translated first.

Codex funding campaign though they are only done in case when base funding is reached. So... make sure you reach funding goal and Codex will make sure at least first stretch goal happens, I guess.

I would be happy if we would reach the main goal at all. Codex, it's community and some mods already helped a lot.

Have you tried contacting some of the less autistic yet prominent youtubers? If their audience is big enough and interested in rpgs it's bound to gain some traction.

Most I knew didn't even asnwer. Any suggestions?

 

[The Wall]

Most I knew didn't even asnwer. Any suggestions?

Some youtubers off the top of my head who might be interested in doing a video about promising video game projects (yours definitely is) are these:

1. Arch Warhammer*
2. The Thinkery**
3. Any channel which does Top 10 upcoming....***
4. Super Bunnyhop
5. The Rageaholic

*Mostly does strategy and Warhammer (it's in the name after all) but he LOVES philosophy and politics and game with such mature take on it will likely grab his attention.
**It's the second channel of Sargon of Akkad, dude mostly does politicks, philosophy and ethics for beginners (90% of millenials) and LOVES ancient Greece and something tells me he's gonna adore game's concept and do at least 1 video on his second channel about it which is still pretty big. Overall he is quite a big youtuber in so called 'Skeptic community'.
***these videos gather a shit ton of views (usually sorted by genres and platforms; with clickbait titles) and any interesting game in them is bound to stick out cause in order to fill the list they have to include a lot of shitty games. Just go on youtube and search top 10 upcoming pc RPGS and send all of those channels a mail.

If anyone else has some other suggestions, feel free to add. That's all I can think of right now.

You should marketing wise really put an emphasize that you're the first time someone tackles serious philosophical and political issues in an environment of rpg. Considering in what a heated political climate we live and how many of video gamers who grew up/ are growing up are starting to take interest in politicks, your game could really profit out of all this struggle (yes, western champagne socialists would probably gladly throw bunch of money at you for allowing them to finally at least once make their Revolution! viable :D ). You could give us all a venue to settle our differences in peaceful manner and all of us our saves would be the correct ones! :D

Don't know what else to say. I believe that all this game needs is more exposure because had more people been aware of it's existance it would have been funded a long time ago, I'm sure of it.

 

[Daniel Bill]

Considering in what a heated political climate we live and how many of video gamers who grew up/ are growing up are starting to take interest in politicks, your game could really profit out of all this struggle

Yes! We want to visualize that there is no inherent truth in questions of morality.

You could give us all a venue to settle our differences in peaceful manner and all of us our saves would be the correct ones!

Yes!!

Don't know what else to say. I believe that all this game needs is more exposure because had more people been aware of it's existance it would have been funded a long time ago, I'm sure of it.

I really believe this is true and I hope our assumption is right. Thank you so much for the list. I will mail each of them immediately.

 

[HoboForEternity]

it's not about the doubt in quality and premise of the game, but the knowledge of it existing is pretty scarce. in other words, you really have to push the marketing stuff like it or not.

 

[Infinitron]

I don't think this game is very suitable for YouTube, but it totally could have been featured on Rock Paper Shotgun.

 

[Terpsichore]

Does it actually follow Gnosticism and Mesopotamian mythology plus occultism or just borrows the terms to appear pretentious while regurgitating modern politics of decline? The info is very vague.

 

[Daniel Bill]

Does it actually follow Gnosticism

Philosophical gnosticism? Yes.

and Mesopotian mythology plus occultism

Do you mean mesopotamian mythology? That is a stretch goal, but its quiet far away.

 

[Daniel Bill]

Sargon of Akkad

Anyone any idea how to contact him? Tried Twitter and Youtube messaging.
I actually think one shoutout of him alone could bring this project back on track.

Ok he follows me now lol

 

[Lacrymas]

Have RPGWatch been informed about this game?

 

[The Wall]

Sargon of Akkad

Anyone any idea how to contact him? Tried Twitter and Youtube messaging.
I actually think one shoutout of him alone could bring this project back on track.

Could you imagine if he did a video about it on his Thinkery channel with over 170k subs and average view per video of well above 100k?

Could you imagine that since he's in the middle of culture war with regressive leftists (many of them are open socialists/commies; and he's been battling them since ever) and he loves the setting and motive of it, he urges his subs to go pledge in order to make such an intereseting game possible and more importantly to beat socialists aka commies? All of the sudden number of Liberalists rises! And so does the number of backers and amount of money needed to reach funding goal shrinks!

Now if only there was a large, influential forum/platform/imageboard where bunch of people who love video games, alternative time periods, history, rpgs, politics etc. gather and they just so happen to for the most part be of Imperialist leaning and if someone would shill over there by posting a thread or two motivating them to also not only make game they will probably like possible but beat both socialists and liberalist too hmmmm...who knows, maybe in the end we'll need more stretch goals.

We'll see. One step at a time. Don't want to jinx anything...

Ok he follows me now lol

...

 

[Daniel Bill]

I think the chans and sargon might consider the dev ideologically suspect for his continental philosophy background and likely to uncritically present a marxist view of historical processes complete with dialectical materialism.

Good point.

Have RPGWatch been informed about this game?

Yes, they are informed.

 

[The Wall]

I think the chans and sargon might consider the dev ideologically suspect for his continental philosophy background and likely to uncritically present a marxist view of historical processes complete with dialectical materialism.

Good point.

What do you mean exactly by good point? That they may get such impression or that such impression is true? I agree that they might get such impression but from what I know about Sargon he doesn't have a problem with opposing views and unlike SJWs is more then ready to engage and all the time engages sometimes vastly opposing views. The Imperialists on other hand would be more than satisfied (most of them at least) with being able to play a game as well, Imperialist and not being judged by game for it. That's already much more than they receive from 99% of modern entertainment. Plus clash of civilizations in this case Persia and Greece would be quite interesting for them.

You said that Sargon follows you now, right? That's on twitter, I guess? He's a busy man so make sure to remind him from time to time (he admits he has shitty memory) and he doesn't follow just anybody which means that since he followed you so soon after you contacing him he probably really liked the premise of game. Keep reminding him about it in case he fogets but do it tastefully, in other words whenever you publish new update and video, send it his way and thus remind him about your project.

I agree that single video of his on The Thinkery channel could likely give you boost to reach funding. His crowd is very active and whenever he promoted something in the past like for example some donation, they made sure to help out. Also they love video games and rpgs. Oh, and I'm sure they won't be very pleased with current distribution of votes, a reason more to pledge...

 

[JarlFrank]

Daniel Bill you could hire me to get a fascist viewpoint into the game and attract Stormfront posters to the game.