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Game News Mechajammer Released

flabbyjack

Arcane
Joined
Jul 15, 2004
Messages
2,592
Location
the area around my keyboard
How does this stack up against Underrail?

Sorry to hear about bugs, they will be fixed soon I'm sure. These guys should be very proud of Mechajammer. Massive accomplishment. Novel gameplay. Oozes style points.
 

Calm

Novice
Joined
Jun 12, 2016
Messages
33
Location
NZ
Played a few hours:
Specced almost all into grace and one hand edged weapons - as long as I didn't let myself get surrounded just walked over everything doling out shanks to the head left and right.
Once the map opened up found myself almost immediately in the swamp to the north east running around slaying muties by the dozen until I found a warehouse with a vehicle in it; hopped in and immediately fell through the world floor and died.

Seems overkill to be rolling 7d6+2 on knife attacks when I apparently only need a 5 to succeed, whereas 2d6+4 Social has never once succeeded.

Setting and mood seem cool and there seems to be this promise of content and features if one only goes further but it's hard to tell if that's all just a mirage of set dressing, leftover minor features from the n iterations of the game since the kickstarter, or actually things that exist.

It's all very opaque.
 
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Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth

Bester

⚰️☠️⚱️
Patron
Vatnik
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
10,992
Location
USSR
I wonder if Hannah burned out big time, but they needed the money, so they released it in this state and it's never going to get fixed.

Or she wants to fix it, but the code is such a mess that she's unable and never will be.

After all, chicks can't really code.
 

Kem0sabe

Arcane
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
13,076
Location
Azores Islands
This release is likely to have ruined these developers credibility, at least in this incarnation of their development studio. It's yet another EA game released as a finished product, its mechanics are confusing and purposely obtuse to new players who havent been following it, and people coming in expecting an crpg and then getting an half assed npc recruitment dice rolling army simulator with no quest log will blast it in the reviews.
 

Kev Inkline

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
5,072
A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I’ve always said Kickstarter pledges is the closest that I’ve ever contributed to charity.

By reading these impressions I think it’s not just close but exactly the same thing.
 

SausageInYourFace

Angelic Reinforcement
Patron
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
3,858
Location
In your face
Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
Who could have possibly foreseen it would end like this?!

This won't end well.

But why, there was no reason to worry! ...or was there?

I think it pretty save to say that this game by now has a bit of a troubled development history. After making the KS money they went silent for long stretches of time, moved/sold the house, went sick (not their fault obviously but it doesn't help) and the little time they had they spent on a billion art style changes which, no matter what they say, must have cost time and resources. I'd imagine that if you are a tiny developer you better be laser focused on what you want to achieve. That allows you to properly allocate resources which is absolutely necessary. I am sorry to say it but even Serpent in the Staglands was pretty lacklustre in some aspects and buggy in the beginning. So I think one takeaway from that is that you should spend your time on honing systems and content, not art styles. (Also, I think that game was supposed to get one more expansion it never got.) And from what I have seen of CD, not just the art style but also the combat went through significant changes. Both of this is a sure sign that they didn't have a clear idea of what they wanted to do or at least that they ran into deep problems and it didn't really pan out that way.

On an aside, I also noice that also Sensuki, who was supposed to playtest this extensively, apparently stopped working with them months ago? At least that was the impression I had, I don't wanna lie on the internet.

Well, if the final product rocks all of this would be water under the bridge. But now that we get a beta the impressions so far are "lol what the hell is this", with it being apparently tiny, not working properly in parts and with confusing combat and an uniformative and unintuitive UI.

Either way, all this doesn't exactly inspire confidence in how the final product will turn out.

So yeah, I am sorry to reiterate: This won't end well.

Oh, well. It is not like I am happy I was correct on this one, wish them all the best and all. But this was mishandled. And I am still salty about how they handled all those fundamental changes. So .. as I said in 2018 (!):

I won't go as far as to ask for my money back but I probably won't back another project by them either. If you ask people for money before the fact there needs to be some level of trust that what you give the money for is reasonably close to what will be delivered.
 
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Tacgnol

Shitlord
Patron
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
1,871,734
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
I’ve always said Kickstarter pledges is the closest that I’ve ever contributed to charity.

By reading these impressions I think it’s not just close but exactly the same thing.

It seems like the KS with the most chance of success are the ones that barely get the amount they want and thus avoid feature creep from "stretch goals".

Though there are exceptions on both sides of that argument.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
5,861
It seems like the KS with the most chance of success are the ones that barely get the amount they want and thus avoid feature creep from "stretch goals".

Though there are exceptions on both sides of that argument.

Successful kickstarters are ones that are managed well and don't have a significant redesign (nevermind several) during development. Most projects don't survive even one redesign.

But at least Whalenought actually delivered. Regardless of quality, this actually puts them in the minority of funded videogame kickstarters.
 

Joyvankek

Learned
Joined
Dec 4, 2021
Messages
275
Successful kickstarters

Such as.........?
Pathfinders were success in my opinion.
War for Overlord was also worth a mention, It didn't managed to bring back the magic of original Dungeon Keeper but it was still decent.
Not that I supported any of those undertakings. I never saw the appeal of giving away my money to found a project. Why would I would want to take a risk without any kind of shares or cut from a profit if they will manage to pull it off?
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,785
I’ve always said Kickstarter pledges is the closest that I’ve ever contributed to charity.

By reading these impressions I think it’s not just close but exactly the same thing.

It seems like the KS with the most chance of success are the ones that barely get the amount they want and thus avoid feature creep from "stretch goals".

Though there are exceptions on both sides of that argument.

From my experience, the simpler the game, the easier it is to make a successful one. The best kickstarter games so far have been platformers, metroidvania and the likes
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
Successful kickstarters

Such as.........?
define 'successful'
for a more narrow definition of either very financially successful or well-received by the codex:
wasteland 2, divinity original sin 1 & 2, xulima, grim dawn, kingmaker, shadowrun games, darkest dungeon, kingdom come deliverance, expeditions conquistadors
Also vogel's queen wish, yes the risk averse guy making ultima clones during the 90's drought is still there today , standing and successful...
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,785
Successful kickstarters

Such as.........?
define 'successful'
for a more narrow definition of either very financially successful or well-received by the codex:
wasteland 2, divinity original sin 1 & 2, xulima, grim dawn, kingmaker, shadowrun games, darkest dungeon, kingdom come deliverance, expeditions conquistadors
Also vogel's queen wish, yes the risk averse guy making ultima clones during the 90's drought is still there today , standing and successful...

The game is an abomination though that even some of his long-time fans hate
 

Mortmal

Arcane
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
9,158
Successful kickstarters

Such as.........?
define 'successful'
for a more narrow definition of either very financially successful or well-received by the codex:
wasteland 2, divinity original sin 1 & 2, xulima, grim dawn, kingmaker, shadowrun games, darkest dungeon, kingdom come deliverance, expeditions conquistadors
Also vogel's queen wish, yes the risk averse guy making ultima clones during the 90's drought is still there today , standing and successful...

The game is an abomination though that even some of his long-time fans hate
It's nothing new, he's not going in the right direction, we want deeper gameplay, more characters in party and so on. Some long time fans hating, certainly and not only grognards on the codex, but queen wish is successful standing with 210 reviews on steam very positive rating and obviously jeff not starving.It's nowhere near as bad as underworld ascendant, realms beyond, or now mechajammer.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Queen's wish looks fucking horrible, like he slapped together some random art assets. It looks low effort therefore I avoided it.

ss_4c0a2935f064dc744e3ada4d969072d05dcd2cc0.1920x1080.jpg


Avadon from a decade ago:
ss_fe6a39cedc9d74070a73b77b3c9499ace5250928.1920x1080.jpg
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,785
Successful kickstarters

Such as.........?
define 'successful'
for a more narrow definition of either very financially successful or well-received by the codex:
wasteland 2, divinity original sin 1 & 2, xulima, grim dawn, kingmaker, shadowrun games, darkest dungeon, kingdom come deliverance, expeditions conquistadors
Also vogel's queen wish, yes the risk averse guy making ultima clones during the 90's drought is still there today , standing and successful...

The game is an abomination though that even some of his long-time fans hate
It's nothing new, he's not going in the right direction, we want deeper gameplay, more characters in party and so on. Some long time fans hating, certainly and not only grognards on the codex, but queen wish is successful standing with 210 reviews on steam very positive rating and obviously jeff not starving.It's nowhere near as bad as underworld ascendant, realms beyond, or now mechajammer.

210 positive reviews isn't exactly a success
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
210 positive reviews isn't exactly a success
For how much he spent and how long it took to make? It definitely is.
In the same time period a gamedev working at a studio as one of the higher paid jobs probably made half as much as he did.

If I were him I'd be worried about damaging the Spiderweb brand with games like Queen's Wish though. His income is reliant upon his longterm fans.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
5,861
210 positive reviews isn't exactly a success
For how much he spent and how long it took to make? It definitely is.
In the same time period a gamedev working at a studio as one of the higher paid jobs probably made half as much as he did.

If I were him I'd be worried about damaging the Spiderweb brand with games like Queen's Wish though. His income is reliant upon his longterm fans.


Queen's Wish raised $98k on Kickstarter, the sequel raised $65k, and Geneforge 1 - mutagen remastered kickstarter raised $85k.

IIRC, that very old video of Vogel talking about dev seemed to hint that his average annual income/profit was around $100-$200k, but gamedev is anything but regular. You can have a boom year when something took off, and famine another year with no release. And Vogel's been in business for years. He has no/few employees besides his wife, so I think he's fine.

Honestly, financially-speaking he's a bit of an inspiration for me. Because who wouldn't want to make a steady living being a nerd and making rpgs?
 

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