Vapourware Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen - Chaos Chronicles reborn and dead again

[Grunker]

I think that even mostly applies to famous "scam" projects like Star Citizen.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity incompetence.

I can't remember who made it, but I watched a long-ass rundown of Star Citizens failings on YouTube that delved into the really technical aspects of why Cry-engine was so inefficient in a multiplayer environment. You came away from that video with the impression that "man, it's just impossible to make that shit work with their plans for what the game should be." Suddenly it doesn't seem so strange that they've been struggling for umpteen years trying to make basic shit work - trying to solve "unsolvable" problems will do that to you.

 

[The Wall]

Move somewhere where your rent alone won't eat up 10% of your budget. Nein! We'll make isometric Arcanum+Daggerfall with HoMM overworld map for less then 200k€ in Germany! And we'll do entire fantasy continent with 5 different biomes/kingdoms/cultures!

Ok, with that amount of €€€, move to Balkans and you might make it. Nein! Balkan doesn't have Muslim terrorist attacks nor internet!*

*unlimited, super fast, 4G internet costs <20€ per month in Balkans

 

[The Wall]

At least I got free life lesson to never start company where I'm 50% owner and dependant on other owner not going shizo insane. You either get a loan, borrow from Mafia, win election and make tax payers pay or simply find publisher/Jewish investors and make it to the Steam Early Access with foundations of good product and fun game. If you sell 100k+ copies in first month for decent price, from them on it's smoooth sailing

 

[Darth Canoli]

"Scale down and make the game you can with the budget you have."

"No! Never!"

I don't know if it was a scam all along (i don't think so because of the demo) but mostly a dreamer dev working with an incompetent business manager.
Obviously, the failure comes from the money/marketing guy who couldn't land a publisher.

Maybe a little of scaling down too and planning additional features and areas in DLC. I'm not a fan of DLC in general but if they're good and it allows a dev to keep delivering quality content, I don't mind.

I'm glad he's out of the RPG scene though, there's enough failed projects, we don't need a new one.

Anyway, I prefer to have devs team trying to reach the sky every now and then and eventually fail rather than having Kingmaker and Solasta clones, they're not even worth playing so better not having a game at all.
One failure per dev team is enough, still.

 

[Alienman]

think the more banal truth is that these guys are just horrible managers - something which was probably true for 99% of the developers we thought were just getting held back by shitty publishers, when we were young

still think our interview with bitcomposer was somewhat of a perspective turning point of the era for this site

You mean this one:

https://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9094

 

[Grunker]

yep

 

[Grunker]

it was still ks early days, most people believed in the publisher-evil story, and HobGoblin laid out a really classic one for Chaos Chronicles

his story was so one-sided that even if you didn't believe Wolfgang Duhr fully, it was obvious that the story was way less clear cut than hobbo described it

 

[underground nymph]

I totally see myself surrendering muh moneys upon seeing new sweet screenshots of this beauty. Do you?

 

[Darth Canoli]

I totally see myself surrendering muh moneys upon seeing new sweet screenshots of this beauty. Do you?

You mean you'd go again if he came back with a bullshit story staging a final homerun but needing muy new kickstarter money first?

Fooled you once, shame on him,
Fooled you twice, shame on yourself
Fooled you thrice, hem, shame on your Alzheimer?

 

[Grunker]

honestly i'd fund that shit just to keep this tragedy going. used to hurt, now i'm far beyond acceptance

 

[Darth Canoli]

honestly i'd fund that shit just to keep this tragedy going. used to hurt, now i'm far beyond acceptance

I'd buy a final product if by miracle a billionaire RPG fan fund them, yes.
But funding them myself ...

Spoiler

Only if they invite me to the parties they will throw with that kickstarter money. It's been too long since I traveled to Germany, I don't care about Omicron anymore.

 

[Grunker]

I'd buy a final product

 

[Tyranicon]

honestly i'd fund that shit just to keep this tragedy going. used to hurt, now i'm far beyond acceptance

I'd buy a final product if by miracle a billionaire RPG fan fund them, yes.
But funding them myself ...

Spoiler

Only if they invite me to the parties they will throw with that kickstarter money. It's been too long since I traveled to Germany, I don't care about Omicron anymore.

Are gamedev parties not the cringefests I imagine them to be? I've actually never been to one.

If you don't count me getting high and passing out on launch day.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Are gamedev parties not the cringefests I imagine them to be? I've actually never been to one.

If you don't count me getting high and passing out on launch day.

I've seen a small part of a video of one with one gal dressed as a bunny (don't imagine a sexy bunny, it was no skin allowed bunny) and effectively a cringefest but it was devs that delivered.

Devs that don't deliver have to go with insane parties with german models or something, I mean, you can't have nothing ... It'd be too sad!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

think the more banal truth is that these guys are just horrible managers - something which was probably true for 99% of the developers we thought were just getting held back by shitty publishers, when we were young

still think our interview with bitcomposer was somewhat of a perspective turning point of the era for this site

I've said it in the shoutbox a few times in the past, but a lot of projects people call "scams" are more likely just examples of colossal incompetence, mismanagement and feature creep.

I think that even mostly applies to famous "scam" projects like Star Citizen.

If they wanted to run a scam, there are far easier and more lucrative scams than continuing to work on vapourware endlessly.

So they're not scammers, they're just negligent idiots?

 

[Tyranicon]

Are gamedev parties not the cringefests I imagine them to be? I've actually never been to one.

If you don't count me getting high and passing out on launch day.

I've seen a small part of a video of one with one gal dressed as a bunny (don't imagine a sexy bunny, it was no skin allowed bunny) and effectively a cringefest but it was devs that delivered.

Devs that don't deliver have to go with insane parties with german models or something, I mean, you can't have nothing ... It'd be too sad!

Every time I see a crowdfunding reward for "party with the devs," part of me says you couldn't pay me enough money to actually attend one.

If you have money to throw a proper shindig, you should probably hire somebody for it. If you don't have the money, then make it what you think backers/fans would want. For RPGs, this is probably an inside look at the game, the systems, meeting the writers, Q&A, etc.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

If you don't have the money, then make it what you think backers/fans would want

The game.
A lot of backer rewards are stupid, especially ones that involve physical goods.

 

[Tyranicon]

If you don't have the money, then make it what you think backers/fans would want

The game.

That's way too hard for most crowdfunding devs. In my experience, there's two broad types of people who use crowdfunding.

A. People who know exactly what they're doing, have all the tools lined up, have a proper business plan and just need a little bit more funding to make things better (and extra marketing provided by crowdfunding exposure).

B. People who don't want to work a day job and want to be professional idea peopleTM. If it doesn't work out (like 90%+ of all such cases) they'll throw up their hands and say shit like "at least we tried to reach for the stars... cringecringecringe."

 

[Darth Canoli]

The game.
A lot of backer rewards are stupid, especially ones that involve physical goods.

Makes me think...
Marry a Russian sex worker.
Make the world believe you're working on a revolutionary RPG.
Make a lot of promotional videos with muy wife's cleavage.
Promise an evening with your wife to 5K+ backers.
Open a Cayman's bank account for the money.
Divorce your wife for adultery.
Profit.

I can't believe it's not already a recurring scam in Africa/China.

 

[vazha]

The game.
A lot of backer rewards are stupid, especially ones that involve physical goods.

Makes me think...
Marry a Russian sex worker.
Make the world believe you're working on a revolutionary RPG.
Make a lot of promotional videos with muy wife's cleavage.
Promise an evening with your wife to 5K+ backers.
Open a Cayman's bank account for the money.
Divorce your wife for adultery.
Profit.

I can't believe it's not already a recurring scam in Africa/China.

Legends of Aethereus did that I think? And they didnt even have to divorce the hoe, because never married her in the first place.

 

[Tyranicon]

Legends of Aethereus

Those devs are apparently still around. They make hidden object games now.

 

[Tacgnol]

Legends of Aethereus

Those devs are apparently still around. They make hidden object games now.

Waaaay back in the day, I used to play wow with one of the devs. I remember him talking circa 2009/2010 how him and a bunch of his friends had an idea for a "brilliant new" mmo.

If only I'd been more insulting and soul crushing about his dreams, maybe I could have aborted it before it actually became a thing.

 

[vortex]

If Digimancy George Ziets entertainment isn't making new game, maybe they can resurrect Realms Beyond from the ashes. And make combat RTWP.

 

[Darth Canoli]

And make combat RTWP.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

If Digimancy George Ziets entertainment isn't making new game, maybe they can resurrect Realms Beyond from the ashes. And make combat RTWP.

@GZiets don't listen to this guy and keep the combat turn based you hear?