Game News Kickstarter Drama: Conquistador, Shadowrun and Eisenwald

[Metro]

Wait wait wait... Double Fine ran out of money after the three million or so they got for that adventure game (and spent $500k or whatever on the documentary)? Or am I reading things wrong?

 

[Infinitron]

People who sound like they know what they're talking about:

Checkpoint saves ARE in fact far less time consuming to code than not. There are fewer variables if you can't save mid-mission or in any possible place and status, even if save points are abundant.

Save anywhere isn't really much harder technically assuming your architecture is set up for it from the start, but it's still a lot more time-consuming and error-prone, especially to QA. In other words, it's got little to nothing to do with programming ability.

People who are contradicting each other.

The SR guys fucked up their technical management. They should have used Unity.

 

[Roguey]

People who sound like they know what they're talking about:

Checkpoint saves ARE in fact far less time consuming to code than not. There are fewer variables if you can't save mid-mission or in any possible place and status, even if save points are abundant.

Save anywhere isn't really much harder technically assuming your architecture is set up for it from the start, but it's still a lot more time-consuming and error-prone, especially to QA. In other words, it's got little to nothing to do with programming ability.

People who are contradicting each other.

The SR guys fucked up their technical management. They should have used Unity.

Not necessarily, bolded a part you missed. Both agree it's a question of time.

 

[tuluse]

Wait wait wait... Double Fine ran out of money after the three million or so they got for that adventure game (and spent $500k or whatever on the documentary)? Or am I reading things wrong?

They didn't actually spend all the money, they projected that they would run out of money to make the game as big as they wanted so they secured some distribution deals to finish funding it. Also, the final budget was about 2.2 million.

 

[Infinitron]

Wait wait wait... Double Fine ran out of money after the three million or so they got for that adventure game (and spent $500k or whatever on the documentary)? Or am I reading things wrong?

They didn't actually spend all the money, they projected that they would run out of money to make the game as big as they wanted so they secured some distribution deals to finish funding it. Also, the final budget was about 2.2 million.

Yeah, you need to remember that a lot of these early Kickstarters fucked up and spent way too much on physical gifts. Wasteland 2 included. Luckily, inXile has The Bard's Tale.

 

[Roguey]

Wait wait wait... Double Fine ran out of money after the three million or so they got for that adventure game (and spent $500k or whatever on the documentary)? Or am I reading things wrong?

Yah, Tim Schafer cannot into money/project management. If what I read was correct, this was the big reason why Brutal Legend finally got a PC port.

 

[dibens]

Everything went as expected.

 

[Metro]

Hilarious.

 

[Infinitron]

Wait wait wait... Double Fine ran out of money after the three million or so they got for that adventure game (and spent $500k or whatever on the documentary)? Or am I reading things wrong?

Yah, Tim Schafer cannot into money/project management. If what I read was correct, this was the big reason why Brutal Legend finally got a PC port.

I thought Brutal Legend got a PC port because Steven Dengler wanted to see the game on PC.

 

[tuluse]

Wait wait wait... Double Fine ran out of money after the three million or so they got for that adventure game (and spent $500k or whatever on the documentary)? Or am I reading things wrong?

Yah, Tim Schafer cannot into money/project management. If what I read was correct, this was the big reason why Brutal Legend finally got a PC port.

Didn't an angel investor offer to pay for the port?

The difference between how InXile/Obsidian and Doublefine run their projects is striking. I don't think Tim Schafer knows what pre-production is.

 

[Metro]

So does that mean the DF adventure game is going to have a publisher?

 

[Infinitron]

The difference between how InXile/Obsidian and Doublefine run their projects is striking. I don't think Tim Schafer knows what pre-production is.

TBH I'm not sure that Obsidian are that absolutist about the "pre-production"/"production" dichotomy either. PE's development seems to be following a roughly similar trajectory to Wasteland 2's, but it's not quite the same.

So does that mean the DF adventure game is going to have a publisher?

No.

 

[tuluse]

So does that mean the DF adventure game is going to have a publisher?

No, it's going to be self published, one of the deals mentioned was something in South Korea.

My guess is that in certain areas there will be timed exclusivity, and a year after it comes out no one will even remember.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah, you need to remember that a lot of these early Kickstarters fucked up and spent way too much on physical gifts. Wasteland 2 included. Luckily, inXile has The Bard's Tale.

Hare Brained spent about 23% on physical rewards which doesn't sound too bad to me. It'd sound a lot better if they got more than 1.8 million sure.

 

[felipepepe]

Makes you wonder how shitty would've been Double Fine's game with just the minimum 400k... or maybe it would end up 10x better.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, you need to remember that a lot of these early Kickstarters fucked up and spent way too much on physical gifts. Wasteland 2 included. Luckily, inXile has The Bard's Tale.

Hare Brained spent about 23% on physical rewards which doesn't sound too bad to me. It'd sound a lot better if they got more than 1.8 million sure.

ksaun Can you tell us what percentage Torment is spending?

 

[Metro]

But what if South Korea gets blown up?!?!!

 

[almondblight]

No mention of The Banner Saga taking their Kickstarter money and running off to make a F2P game?

Also...

A reminder that Shadowrun Returns got on Steam without making a deal with a publisher, being on greenlight or a proven track record (to date they've only released a couple of mobile games).

 

[evdk]

But what if South Korea gets blown up?!?!!

Then it will be funded by Best Korea.

 

[FeelTheRads]

That's one of the main problems with KS. Developers ask for money, never really explaining why they need 50k or 100k or even 1 mil, how they are going to be spent, and, most importantly, what makes them think that these money will be sufficient to make a game. People fund these games thinking that now that these games are funded, they are as good as done, while in reality, it means nothing at all.

Definitely not saying they shouldn't, but how many people would know if their intentions are realistic or not? If you didn't have a business yourself it's unlikely you'll know. You'll mostly have people who believe anything a "beloved" developer says or those that cry that they spend 1 million on a person for a stretch goal even though it was mentioned countless of times that that's not how the stretch goals work. Basically I think the biggest problem is that they don't plan their money right. Spending too much on physical rewards is pretty mindblowing for me. Find out the costs before offering anything. Also how do Kickstarters that have been funded more than 300%, like inXile, spend too much on rewards? That means they went too far with the stretch goals? Or that the initial goal really was far far lower than they really needed?

 

[Infinitron]

A reminder that Shadowrun Returns got on Steam without making a deal with a publisher, being on greenlight or a proven track record (to date they've only released a couple of mobile games).

Steam Greenlight only started after Shadowrun Returns was funded. I guess Jordan Weisman had enough industry cred to be allowed onto Steam despite his current company not making much of anything.

 

[Metro]

No mention of The Banner Saga taking their Kickstarter money and running off to make a F2P game?

This stupid argument again? The F2P game is the same fucking game mechanically speaking and the single player game is still getting released.

 

[Monty]

At least with Larian's kickstarter there's guaranteed to be a game at the end of it. One that's already playable but just needs expanded content. If backers get burned by a couple of the more speculative kickstarters from unknown developers, then in future most of the successful fundraisers will probably go towards finishing projects like Divinity or following the big names like Fargo/MCA.

Which is not really what was initially expected of kickstarter I suppose.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Definitely not saying they shouldn't, but how many people would know if their intentions are realistic or not?

They wouldn't, so they should ask how exactly raising 50k, for example, would help and ensure that the game gets done.

...or those that cry that they spend 1 million on a person for a stretch goal even though it was mentioned countless of times that that's not how the stretch goals work.

So why accept the fucked up way they work instead of asking for something realistic? Why not present a proper budget for a core game and then upgrades showing proper and realistic estimates for extra features, instead of asking for x amount of dollars and hoping to get 3 times more and then attaching random amounts to different features?

Basically I think the biggest problem is that they don't plan their money right.

I think the biggest problem is that companies ask for what they can get not for what they need, which causes all kinds of problems.

 

[Excidium]

Re: Steamworks for Shadowrun it seems to be more an issue of them liking Steamworkshop.

Which is a bullshit excuse. They could just go the nexus route like Obsidian with Project Eternity. To me it seems like they just want DRM for the post-release content. The game and the promised Berlin DLC will still be "DRM free" , but future stuff will be steam-only, and that includes mod packs that might be necessary to run player-made content, because you can't upload your own models and stuff.