People News Guido Henkel is back with a new game - Deathfire

[Lady_Error]

Totally agree on that. It seemed like he does understand the fun aspect of the overland map with random encounters now. He mentioned that he should have kept that in Realms of Arkania 3.

So, maybe, not all hope is lost?

 

[kaizoku]

You guys really love to hate the man.
I really don't know why the butthurt goes over the chart with him.


Infinitron
by looking at his desk, MCA is indeed disorganized. But everyone says he's a very prolific writer.
Maybe it was Henkel who changed MCA's nature into a lighting fast writing machine

 

[Davaris]

I don't know what to think of him, he gave up on Thorvalla too easily, and now he comes up with something completely new / different, and again nothing to show at all. The 900,000$ attempt was a deserved fail, as so many other kickstarters have showed us, but a better prepared pitch could have succeeded. So many people were still on the fence, I even pledged for Thorvalla out of pure compassion. Seems like he doesn't really know what he wants to do, just wants to do anything (financial / job problems?).

Some people go into Kickstarter thinking its an easy thing to raise money. They do not understand how much work must be done, before a Kickstarter is held and how much work is done, while it is running. A big part of that work is building a huge and loyal following, before the Kickstarter is ever held. Another big part is understanding what is newsworthy. The press don't owe game makers anything.

 

[Stabwound]

It also helps to be a well known name, you have to admit. But yeah, all the big ones lately had lead-up promotion to the actual KS itself. You can't just throw it up online and then start to promote it especially if you're not a well known figure.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Being a douche/madman is a requirement for CRPG creators.

Just cRPG creators? More like cRPG fans, AMIRITE?

 

[Davaris]

It also helps to be a well known name, you have to admit. But yeah, all the big ones lately had lead-up promotion to the actual KS itself. You can't just throw it up online and then start to promote it especially if you're not a well known figure.

The same applies when asking for smaller amounts, like a few thousand dollars, from what I have seen. As you say, having made games that are well loved is a big part. Another one is building a popular website of your own and that can take years.

 

[Excidium]

Another way is actually showing something.

 

[~RAGING BONER~]

From the man who curbed Avellone's enthusiasm, and almost brought you Thorvalla...Guido Henkel presents, a 1st person 3D environmental "thing" that promises to redefine the genre!... if only it can get made:

Deathfire!!!!!

Now with twice the death and even more fire!!

So awesome you'll think it was AAAwesome!

coming soon to a kickstarter near you...

 

[Kosmonaut]

 

[Studio Fawn]

It also helps to be a well known name, you have to admit. But yeah, all the big ones lately had lead-up promotion to the actual KS itself. You can't just throw it up online and then start to promote it especially if you're not a well known figure.

It all rests with the media... if you are covered by a bunch of gaming sites and blogs and you have a decent pitch...you are good.

The big names get covered by major major sources. And then continue to get covered for every update (just look when a new torment update is posted, it is big news with it's own thread...even if they don't really say too much ).

Doing a big lead up is easy if you are a huge name and can tease people. A small names lead up isn't really that possible (posting on random forums isn't really going to get you so far haha... because there is NO chance a blog or anything else is going to cover just the lead up to a small name).

 

[Davaris]

Another way is actually showing something.

Brian Fargo and Obsidian had nothing much to show either. Just a wink and a smile.

 

[Excidium]

They did have a bunch of famous games and developers to namedrop.

 

[Davaris]

Yes they did and that is a story the press would be very interested in.

 

[majestik12]

Having something to show and getting media attention is not enough, it seems. Just look at Project Awakened. They had more to show than almost anyone out there, and they had plenty of coverage, including mainstream media. None of that allowed to raise $500K they were asking for.

 

[The Bishop]

Having something to show and getting media attention is not enough, it seems. Just look at Project Awakened. They had more to show than almost anyone out there, and they had plenty of coverage, including mainstream media. None of that allowed to raise $500K they were asking for.

Yeah, you also need to offer people a game they would actually like to play.

 

[Davaris]

Just look at Project Awakened. They had more to show than almost anyone out there, and they had plenty of coverage, including mainstream media. None of that allowed to raise $500K they were asking for.

I just did a Google search for their Kickstarter page and couldn't find a direct link to it, just lots of magazines talking about it. Could be the problem was it was too hard to find their page?

The game doesn't look very inspiring either. It looks like yet another shooter and in the videos they appear to be telling people to make their own game.

 

[majestik12]

Having something to show and getting media attention is not enough, it seems. Just look at Project Awakened. They had more to show than almost anyone out there, and they had plenty of coverage, including mainstream media. None of that allowed to raise $500K they were asking for.

Yeah, you also need to offer people a game they would actually like to play.

You also need to offer people who are willing to pay a game they would actually like to play. Awakened failed not because nobody wanted to play it, it was a pretty cool popamole project after all. But popamole crowd does not care enough to fund the development. Why bother, if there are shitloads of popamole games anyway.

 

[majestik12]

Just look at Project Awakened. They had more to show than almost anyone out there, and they had plenty of coverage, including mainstream media. None of that allowed to raise $500K they were asking for.

I just did a Google search for their Kickstarter page and couldn't find a direct link to it, just lots of magazines talking about it. Could be the problem was it was too hard to find their page?

The game doesn't look very inspiring either. It looks like yet another shooter and in the videos they appear to be telling people to make their own game.

That's interesting. Maybe that was the typical reaction, not the one I had, which explains a lot. Generally, games like that are not my cup of tea at all, but their pitch got me absolutely sold. They offered (almost) GURPS-level customization of abilities, and I am a total customizationfag.

 

[Grunker]

they had plenty of media coverage

Though I'm not extremely informed, I consider myself way more up to speed on what goes on on Kickstarter than the average pledger. I had never heard about this project until now.

 

[The Bishop]

Having something to show and getting media attention is not enough, it seems. Just look at Project Awakened. They had more to show than almost anyone out there, and they had plenty of coverage, including mainstream media. None of that allowed to raise $500K they were asking for.

Yeah, you also need to offer people a game they would actually like to play.

You also need to offer people who are willing to pay a game they would actually like to play. Awakened failed not because nobody wanted to play it, it was a pretty cool popamole project after all. But popamole crowd does not care enough to fund the development. Why bother, if there are shitloads of popamole games anyway.

Well, that too. It's quite a different deal to offer somebody to fund development of a unique game that wouldn't be made otherwise as compared to yet another mass market product.

 

[majestik12]

they had plenty of media coverage

Though I'm not extremely informed, I consider myself way more up to speed on what goes on on Kickstarter than the average pledger. I had never heard about this project until now.

That is most likely because you don't care about popamole shooters. Me neither, but I still somehow stumbled upon them. They were featured on pretty much every mainstream gaming site: https://www.google.ru/search?q=project+awakened

 

[Mother Russia]

There was not nearly enough interest and support for the concept to make it happen, so that continuing on would have been a fruitless endeavor. Instead, I decided to learn from the experience

Well, apparantly you didn't learn shit, because your failure had nothing to do with your concept and everything to do with your half-baked, unprofessional, unresearched Kickstarter pitch. Unprofessional, half-assed pitch + asking for a large amount of money = sure failure.

Have you seen the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter pitch and page?

 

[Davaris]

[They offered (almost) GURPS-level customization of abilities, and I am a total customizationfag.

Yeah, I saw what you meant there, but it doesn't mean much to me, if it is yet another shooter. However if someone put that level of customization in an RPG like VtMB, I would be sold.

 

[belated]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1312036782/project-awakened
Isn't that the one that used to be called Hero?

Edit: Ah, it mentions it in the text, nm.

 

[Jasede]

"Deathfire"? Only a German could come up with such a dreadful name.