Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: The Banner Saga, 2D Turn-Based Strategy RPG

[Aeschylus]

Not to mention they have to spend money for xbox license, and move to 3D engine. Probably means this will never come out.

Yes on the license, but why would they move to a 3d engine? Or are you just trolling?

 

[felipepepe]

Fuck it, removed my pledge to. It will be hard passing on that sweet poster, but I'll probably be able to find a scan of it later...

 

[Aeschylus]

Are you trolling?

You need to use a tool that supports your platform. Unless flash supports xbox now, which would prove that the devil made the world while god was sleeping.

o_O

Though I do agree that announcing a console port at the 11th hour is kind of BS. Still, plenty of time to withdraw pledges for those so inclined.

 

[mindx2]

In their update #9 comments section one person said:

Yeah, I'm not interested in my cash going towards the XBLA and PSN licensing costs. More quests and a steam release instead please.

Stoic then posted this reply:

@Adam Rudd:
We are going to be on Steam and the $650k tier IS the quests/content tier.
-Arnie

What I find kind of shady is that he fails to answer the concern. He doesn't say "No money from KS goes to license fees." Stoic has responded several times on the comments board but not once said if ANY of the Kickstarter money is being used this way. Always stating "More money = more content" without a word on the console issue. I just get a sleazy feeling about this whole thing. They wait till the last 50 hours to suddenly say "Oh by the way all this money you've given us to make this PC game will now get us a Microsoft and Sony license!!" Feels like a publisher kind of bait-and-switch to me.

 

[Aeschylus]

Yeah, that's as scummy as it gets. It's clear they planned this from the start. But project will fail anyway once they abandon flash so sweet poetic justice is at hand.

What exactly makes you think they are using Flash?

 

[kazgar]

Yeah, that's as scummy as it gets. It's clear they planned this from the start. But project will fail anyway once they abandon flash so sweet poetic justice is at hand.

How is it clear? Do you have access to design documents we can't see, or are you posting from inside their bedroom studio?

 

[Aeschylus]

^^
You think licenses for XBLA and PSN cost 300k?
...
Ok. o_O

With this and your inane rantings against Grim Dawn, I humbly suggest that you at least do a minimum of fact-checking before you start making grand declarations.

 

[TripJack]

i think ill go yell at them on saturday for contributing to the decline, i can see the evening news story now

'local man arrested after psychotic rampage at bar, possible connection to online hate group'

 

[Burning Bridges]

The problem is that we wanted another great white hope so much, that we did not care what it really was. But the more you think about it, BS has been a completely different kind of game from the beginning.

The campaign is an adventure game, they hardly talk of non-linearity and freedom, screenshots show absolutely simplistic dialog choices, and turn based combat is the type like in these Hero games which I don't play.

Now their unrealistic 700K goal includes a player owned upgradeable city. What the fuck? Does that mean in the basic version I can't even have a city and a crest?

The graphics and the setting are really nice but damn it I am not into fucking adventure or Hero games, especially not if dumbed down for consoles.

In the next days my full attention will go to SRR. At least they talk about an iso perspective and an "X-Com like" game. Heck, they even decided to make it turn based even though the original was not.

 

[Burning Bridges]

So yeah, something like 300k is about right.

I don't think that is realistic. There is no way they will spend 50% of their budget that way.

 

[Stinger]

This is pretty sad, I'd been looking forward to this and was planning on pledging soon but this recent announcement screws all that up. I'm not angry, just disappointed that it would turn out like this.

 

[Excommunicator]

The information surrounding the costs/requirements for console development seems uncertain at the moment but I am not liking the suggestions being made here.

Where is that chewbot ? He should be answering these concerns in this thread. It is good to see the pledges being withdrawn on the principle, but there doesn't seem to be much backlash on their page.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Only shows that it's the same crowd that has been slurping up the AAA+ games in the last years. I don't want to be in that company.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Too complicated reasoning. Now one knows for certain what engine they used or how they plan to bring it to the console.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Pretty graphics, but do we really need this?

 

[Volrath]

Pretty graphics, but do we really need this?

Yeah bro, I also get tired of all these fantastic turn-based games that are out today.

 

[Kalin]

The grid-based combat might be fun if they make it interesting and challenging, but the limited dialogue options look almost BioWarian/Toddler-esque/Final Fantasy-like in nature.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Knotanalt

I don't think they planned this, and porting is much easier than you say. They are probably using Unity3D which supports both XBOX 360 and PS3, as far as I know.

The funding will allow us to have additonal developers port the game, leaving us to focus on content development.

You are right though that THIS has a Tortured Hearts vibe

Anyway. What actually matters to me is the many small hints that this is not a game one should support. Example:

The additional content is just as important. This will give us the ability to add a much wider range of special events that can occur as you travel and really expand the scope of the finale to make it the biggest, most rewarding conclusion we can.

What this amounts to is a linear game in which you travel through special events, until you reach the final battle and epic conclusion. 0/10 replayability, 10/10 decline.

I cannot even recall why I ever believed this game would be anything special. But I'm sure that somewhere in the beginning (before kickstarter), it must have been in some video, or some interview they said something along the lines of "we always wanted to make a game the way games used to be, blah blah, and our employers wouldn't let us".

 

[Spectacle]

The "player owned city" seems like straight pandering to buildfags. I thought Banner Saga was supposed to be about a nomadic caravan? If they settle in a city doesn't that mean the journey is over?

I'm still interested in this game for the turn based combat, but I've reduced my pledge to $10.

 

[Kz3r0]

In their update #9 comments section one person said:

Yeah, I'm not interested in my cash going towards the XBLA and PSN licensing costs. More quests and a steam release instead please.

Stoic then posted this reply:

@Adam Rudd:
We are going to be on Steam and the $650k tier IS the quests/content tier.
-Arnie

What I find kind of shady is that he fails to answer the concern. He doesn't say "No money from KS goes to license fees." Stoic has responded several times on the comments board but not once said if ANY of the Kickstarter money is being used this way. Always stating "More money = more content" without a word on the console issue. I just get a sleazy feeling about this whole thing. They wait till the last 50 hours to suddenly say "Oh by the way all this money you've given us to make this PC game will now get us a Microsoft and Sony license!!" Feels like a publisher kind of bait-and-switch to me.

The devil is in the grammar and the syntax:

The Most Content on the Most Platforms (at $650k)
Like the port to iPad and Linux, if we hit this goal we'll be able to make the game available on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.
The funding will allow us to have additonal developers port the game, leaving us to focus on content development.

The last line means that they will make the port regardless, having more money means that they will pay someone else to do it and so permitting them to work on the game.
Glad to see that they have their priorities straight, first the port, then the game.

 

[felipepepe]

Just spotted one more reason not to fund them:

Have you heard of Brian Fargo's "Kick it Forward" campaign? Will you be doing it?
As it turns out, we're already on board with the idea, and we've been funding projects that we think could be something amazing with our own cash, which we'll continue to do as long as cool projects pop up. We're as into playing games as we are making them.

"We heard, but no way we are going to promise to give fucking 5% of our profit!"



I'm really disapointed Chewbot, it seems the "you can take the person out of BioWare, but not BioWare out of the person" post was true indeed...

EDIT: Some guy said they are jerks for not using kick it foward, and the reply was:

If you're concerned for the future health of Indie games on Kickstarter then I think the most important thing for supporters to look for is how many projects the team has supported. I've seen "Kick it Forward" stickers on companies that haven't supported a single project.
We've backed 11 and will soon be backing 2 more. I really like the game and more importantly the message from the 'Grim Dawn' guys.
-Arnie

MAYBE that's because they have to give 5% of their PROFIT AFTER RELEASING THE GAME...not 11 pity donations of who know how much. Money at this momment should be spent on your game, unless you are just donating only 10-15 dollars, if so fuck you.

This is the worst dissapointment at kickstarter, start promising everything and name dropping the right games, switch to XBLA on the last momment and refuse to be a good sportsman and share the profit with the community. Assholes.

 

[Johannes]

Kinda all of those 3 goals are baffling to me.

The Orchestra not so much, it's just something kinda superfluous that they really want to try doing, but they just might not realize it's not as exciting to back someone doing orchestra recordings as it is to actually manage them. Doesn't improve the game itself that much compared to just using other forms of making music.


The 650k has been already discussed, it's both technically iffy and shows a lack of focus, and almost most importantly shows a lack of respect or understanding toward their earlier backers. I doubt many people who donated up till now were thinking - this game sounds really awesome, but damn, I wish I could play it on my Xbawks!

Now if they'd fund the porting from their profits after the actual real game is done by backer money, or start another kickstarter to get the funds to port it or something, ok whatever who doesn't want to make more money from those markets - but ffs if you use money from people who looked forward to a COMPUTER GAME made by this budget, in order so that you can profit from console market, that's just being an asshole.


And the 700k goal shows that they don't really have that solid a picture of what the game will be like. I was under the impression that it's about a caravan trying to survive, how does having a town fit into that picture? Seems like a very different mode of gameplay, even if the tactical combat is the same. Will you have your city at the end of the caravans journey or what? Why not make that be the chapter 2 or something... It's hard enough to make 1 mode of strategic play complex and balanced enough while having enough content, making 2 modes seems like a definite stretch of their resources no matter how much cash they have.
I might be wrong and it really fits the games structure, both gameplay- and storywise, but then it kinda feels like they've misrepresented the project up til now.


Basically - why offer these not-so-inspiring extra additions now instead of just making the fuckin' game you promised ?

 

[Infinitron]

So glad I didn't back this. Biowhores gonna whore.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I don't agree about the kick it forward thing though. Imo it's entirely their business if they want to join it or not.

it seems the "you can take the person out of BioWare, but not BioWare out of the person" post was true indeed...

At 1,000,000 they could have gone for romanceable characters. Who wouldn't want to romance with that girl.

 

[Kz3r0]

So glad I didn't back this. Biowhores gonna whore.

Actually developers gonna publishers.
And they are not the only ones, Both Fargo and Weisman proposed port to other platforms as a goal, something that shouldn't really be a concern for customers, I can understand as a way to attract more pledges from people that otherwise wouldn't pledge, but selling it as a wonderful feature is typical marketing speech, convince the customers that what is good for your business is good for them too.