KickStarter Mechajammer (formerly Copper Dreams) - cyberpunk RPG from Whalenought Studios

[Sam Ecorners]

I just wanna grab drinks with Joe and Hannah again

 

[Abu Antar]

I wouldn't have known about this beta if I hadn't read Infi's update post. I have gotten no email about it. I wonder if most backers are even aware about this.

 

[Alienman]

Maybe the game has been sold to someone else. I doubt it but it's a bit weird all this.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Maybe the game has been sold to someone else. I doubt it but it's a bit weird all this.

Or most likely it's a bunch of indie devs that really have no understanding of project management and they are being too "perfectionist" for their own good.

Wonder how much progress is gone between that good alpha footage to this beta. Heck if anything it feels like negative progress has been made.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, there's no mystery here. They're two nerds who love tinkering with their RPG engine and have little idea of how to finish a project of this scope (and maybe they also don't really feel that they need to, as long as they keep their backers updated frequently enough). It's only surprising because they came out with Serpent in the Staglands so quickly.

The absence of a Kickstarter update or any public indication of the beta's release does make me suspect that they realize it isn't so great. Maybe they'll only release a public update once they've improved the beta.

 

[The Wall]

Agreed Infi but they did literally bet their house on this project. Maybe one gram more seriousness from them would be good. Didn't they post year or two ago how their entire diet consists of noodles and rice, cause that's all they can afford. P.S. I really don't like Hanna, has that jewish princess vibe

 

[Infinitron]

House flipping isn't really the same thing as betting their house. They might have problems now with the coronavirus shutting down the economy though.

 

[hello friend]

I was so excited for this game. All that excitement has now dissipated, suddenly and completely.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

The absence of a Kickstarter update or any public indication of the beta's release does make me suspect that they realize it isn't so great. Maybe they'll only release a public update once they've improved the beta.

Why release it then in the first place?

 

[Infinitron]

The absence of a Kickstarter update or any public indication of the beta's release does make me suspect that they realize it isn't so great. Maybe they'll only release a public update once they've improved the beta.

Why release it then in the first place?

Because it was late and they wanted to release something.

 

[Lacrymas]

The Kickstarter was like 5 years ago, so yeah.

 

[Robespierre]

I still don't understand why they wasted so much time with the art style. The first screenshots looked great and were really atmospheric. I find it increasingly harder to root for Whalenought, Serpent in the Staglands wasn't a masterpiece but had its heart in the right place - it fell short at times (combat was too easy, the resting mechanics was broken by spamming the healing spell etc. etc.) but still it was a promising first game. Copper Dreams on the other hand looks like crap and will likely never be released in a good state - they didn't bother to update SitS too, and the expansion for it is obviously stillborn.

 

[The Wall]

In June it will be exactly four years since Kickstarter. I feel like they wasted 4 years of their time and all of my hope for them. And boy, was I hopeful!

 

[Daedalos]

I'm actually embarrassed that I backed this with 35 dollars. I want my fucking money back, lol. You scammed my ass.
They basically ripped people off, and squandered the money.

This looks atrociously bad. The artstyle is dogshit, the graphics, the ui, the presentation. Good god.

You wasted fucking 4 years on this? OOOOOokay.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Maybe the game has been sold to someone else. I doubt it but it's a bit weird all this.

Or most likely it's a bunch of indie devs that really have no understanding of project management and they are being too "perfectionist" for their own good.

Wonder how much progress is gone between that good alpha footage to this beta. Heck if anything it feels like negative progress has been made.

Sure, but they already have a game under their belt. I would expect them to learn a thing or two about priorities. I don't understand what they changed the art style so much. This is cosmetic. This type of game was never supported because of the art. It was supposed to be all about the mechanics. They certainly had tons of personal problems during development. How else would explain this result?

 

[ItsChon]

The previous iteration looked both cool and playable

You mean this one?

What the literal fuck happened? How did the game go from this to the beta that people are posting videos of now? The new art style looks atrocious, and the game looks incredibly choppy and poorly optimized. It's as if they had to restart from scratch and make a completely new game...

 

[The Wall]

...It's as if they had to restart from scratch and make a completely new game...

Only explanation, way too common in industry. Bannerlord: rebooted 3-4 times, Copper Dreams at least: 25. And much more reboots before release to come! Copper Dreams, played only in dreams

 

[Onionguy]

there are only 8 days left till april fools' day, couldn't they just wait a little longer before showing it? What a missed opportunity!

 

[ArchAngel]

The previous iteration looked both cool and playable

You mean this one?

What the literal fuck happened? How did the game go from this to the beta that people are posting videos of now? The new art style looks atrocious, and the game looks incredibly choppy and poorly optimized. It's as if they had to restart from scratch and make a completely new game...

It is very strange. It is like they lost most of the code they worked on for last 2 years and then decided to continue working on old code instead of commiting suicide.

Otherwise it is hard to explain how they went from this alpha video to black blurbs of enemies that you cannot even click on half the time and all green inventory items that are hard to even figure out what they are.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Please just go back to what you had in the above Alpha Trailer. It looked great right there.

It makes zero sense why you would deviate from that. Not only does it look good, but it's eye-catching enough to draw in new fans. And that UI was magnificent.

 

[RickOmbo]

Shame the game wasn't another fantasy RPG. Their death always cheers me up.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I didn't think I'd regret backing this one, but here we are... The beta looks like ass.

 

[Fenix]

And I'll just wait.

 

[gaussgunner]

If they were gonna deliver they would've had this "beta" demo in 2015 ahead of the kickstarter, real beta in 2016, release in mid 2017.

November 2017

It seems like most devs never surpass their first or second game. Joe and Hannah definitely learned from their mistakes with SitS. On the other hand I fear they got too ambitious with Copper Dreams and may never finish fiddling with it. That's too easy when you're your own boss.

 

[Ninjerk]

If they were gonna deliver they would've had this "beta" demo in 2015 ahead of the kickstarter, real beta in 2016, release in mid 2017.

November 2017

It seems like most devs never surpass their first or second game. Joe and Hannah definitely learned from their mistakes with SitS. On the other hand I fear they got too ambitious with Copper Dreams and may never finish fiddling with it. That's too easy when you're your own boss.

zwanzig_zwoelf and I talked about this earlier. There are a lot of artistic tweaks happening between recent patches, which to me indicates that there are elements of this thing they are really "pantsing." I pointed out that they asked for, what, a little more than 40,000 dollars for two people. It's been 3+ years since the kickstarter. Call it 3 years--That's 13k per year. The US Department of Health and Human Services sets the poverty line for a household of two at roughly 17,000 dollars for 2020. Between this and what they obviously must have done to pay the bills, if they're guilty of anything it's got to be trying to be too modest with their ask vs. their goals.

But, as they say, winning cures all. If they show the goods vis-a-vis content, I think the art style changes could be explained and possibly forgiven.