Game News Shaker Kickstarter Cancelled

[The Bishop]

The idea of Kickstarter is that devs show their ideas and pitch them to their customer base. The Wasteland 2 team had little to show apart from big time industry names and that one hauled in the millions. Loot Drop did do pretty much the same and didn't, despite a trackrecord of people who worked on classics such as the Wizardry series, Anachronox and Doom. The flak they're getting is ridiculous. These people are not the pr suits that ruined the industry to begin with, they are developers. People now basically demand a return of the pr folk before shelling out. Way to validate the industry.

There is PR talk and then there's also genuine communication skill. Not using the former is not a proper excuse for not having the latter. If you're bad at explaining your ideas, you going to have trouble with other people siding with you, be it kickstater or anything else, because for an average person a badly presented idea is indistinguishable from an idea that is actually bad.

 

[Volourn]

"nd our glorified modders at Obsidian want to make a Dragon Age clone after their Mass Effect clone bombed."

I disagree. I proved in the other PE thread that PE is actually a fantasy version of ME2. :D

 

[Marsal]

"Redneck Rampage"

Fuck you, bro. Redneck Rampage was awesome. Didn't even play the game, did you? Just picked it because of the name?

 

[Davaris]

People put up their reputation as collatoral and lose it if they don't deliver, it's pretty simple. And if you don't have one to start with may as well forget it.

This is a good thing. After a few more flameouts like this one, devs are going to realize using cult of personality, to raise money is too great a risk.

IMO Kickstarter should be about presenting design documents and demonstrating basic game play, instead of the hype it is now. If a pitch fails, it should not be the end of the world, you just go back to the drawing board and come up with another idea.

 

[Spectacle]

I bet if BIO (unlikely since they are tied to a publisher) had a KS, they would get $5mil in donations easy.

I'm actually waiting to see how long it is before the smart exec at EA realises how much of a free ride they can get and try it.

EA isn't interested in doing a game with a 5 million budget, even if they get the money for free. It wouldn't surprise me if they decide to kickstart a DLC though. Aiming it at the romancefags would be a sure win.

 

[Moribund]

Games don't cost 5 million to make. Every game costs 2046 dollars cash, the rest is just marketing.

 

[Grimlorn]

I bet if BIO (unlikely since they are tied to a publisher) had a KS, they would get $5mil in donations easy.

I'm actually waiting to see how long it is before the smart exec at EA realises how much of a free ride they can get and try it.

EA isn't interested in doing a game with a 5 million budget, even if they get the money for free. It wouldn't surprise me if they decide to kickstart a DLC though. Aiming it at the romancefags would be a sure win.

No they'll just subtract whatever they receive in kickstarter from the original budget they would have had to use. I don't think there is anything saying they are limited to the funds received in kickstarter. For example, Obsidian could take PE to EA or another publisher and give them all rights to PE and EA would probably double their budget. Maybe give more.

 

[tuluse]

All publishers already sell pre-orders.

 

[Harold]

In the end, Tom and Brenda came down with the shakes.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Fargo - the guy who, in his zenith, chose to have stuff like "Redneck Rampage" made instead of oldschool rgps, subsequently drove his company to the ground.

Interplays product line-up was solid fucking gold until the titus buyout.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Ultimately, our pitch just wasn't strong enough

Ya think??

 

[Jaesun]

So why is it not cancelled? Obvious scam is obvious?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Fargo - the guy who, in his zenith, chose to have stuff like "Redneck Rampage" made instead of oldschool rgps, subsequently drove his company to the ground.

Interplays product line-up was solid fucking gold until the titus buyout.

Not quite. Interplay was drowning in debt and went public to pay it (never a good reason to go public). Naturally, it didn't work out, they had several years of losses, their shares dropped and were delisted from Nasdaq, and then Fargo sold the company to Titus (basically).

http://www.techagreements.com/agree...se Agreement With Titus Interactive&num=79518

 

[Infinitron]

Not quite. Interplay was drowning in debt and went public to pay it (never a good reason to go public). Naturally, it didn't work out, they had several years of losses, their shares dropped and were delisted from Nasdaq, and then Fargo sold the company to Titus (basically).

http://www.techagreements.com/agree...se Agreement With Titus Interactive&num=79518

Solid gold in terms of quality, not revenue, unfortunately

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yeah... Like Stonekeep. 5 million bucks well spent.

 

[Brother None]

Yeah, Fargo fucked up bigtime. The how and why of it is open to discussion. A lot of developers seem to indicate a kind of "wanted to be a movie studio" and "bloated gaming budgets" syndrome that hit a lot of the game industry in that time. Fargo tends to blame not leaving PC for console fast enough, but that's kind of an eh argument.

So why is it not cancelled? Obvious scam is obvious?

Probably takes a while for Kickstarter to delist it. Can't be a scam since it's not reaching 1 million so they're not getting a dime.

 

[Jarpie]

Yeah, Fargo fucked up bigtime. The how and why of it is open to discussion. A lot of developers seem to indicate a kind of "wanted to be a movie studio" and "bloated gaming budgets" syndrome that hit a lot of the game industry in that time. Fargo tends to blame not leaving PC for console fast enough, but that's kind of an eh argument.

So why is it not cancelled? Obvious scam is obvious?

Probably takes a while for Kickstarter to delist it. Can't be a scam since it's not reaching 1 million so they're not getting a dime.

Unless they are trying to get Kickstarter to lower the goal.

 

[Jaesun]

Unless they are trying to get Kickstarter to lower the goal.

Has a KS project ever done such a thing before?

 

[Infinitron]

Brother None
But that "wanted to be a movie studio" craze was in the mid-90's, no? Was Interplay in debt in the late 90's because of mistakes made years earlier?

 

[Jarpie]

Unless they are trying to get Kickstarter to lower the goal.

Has a KS project ever done such a thing before?

There's been some whispers that some projects have tried to do so but KS haven't buckled.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Was Interplay in debt in the late 90's because of mistakes made years earlier?

It was in debt for sure, but I can't say due to which mistakes. They went public in 98 to deal with the debt issue, but the next 3 years were pretty bad for them.

 

[Brother None]

Unless they are trying to get Kickstarter to lower the goal.

Goals are never changed after the campaign launched. Kickstarter does not do that. They're not going to make an exception here.

But that "wanted to be a movie studio" craze was in the mid-90's, no? Was Interplay in debt in the late 90's because of mistakes made years earlier?

R. Scott Campbell cited it as a reason to leave in the late 90s, right before Fallout's release, but as something that started years earlier. This is a year-on-year process, not something that just lasts a short time and then goes away. Sure, the FMV game craze was dead by the late 90s, but that doesn't kill the "want to be a movie studio" craze. I mean, BioWare *never* got past the "want to be a movie studio" craze, that's still how they operate.

The zenit (or nadir) of Interplay's movie-studio craze was during the mid-late 90s, when Universal owned a piece of Interplay and they started working on movie licenses. They used the Waterworld license to release a game in 1997, for example. They went public in '98. Sure, TSR/BIS studio and D&D-licensed titles were going strong in this period, but the core of the studio was just throwing good money after bad. When titles in established franchises like Descent and Freespace were failing to sell is when the freefall truly set in.

 

[Infinitron]

I mean, BioWare *never* got past the "want to be a movie studio" craze, that's still how they operate.

Hmm, I'm not sure if that's relevant. The "CINEMATIC" thing we have today is distinct from the early-mid 90's FMV craze (Errant Signal called that period "Sillywood"). I'm not aware of there being any continuity between these two phenomenon.

But I digress.

 

[Brother None]

The FMV craze was short and invasive because it was gimmicky and just tried to vault up on "new technologies". I don't see how you can deny it stems from the same mindset and the same approach to game-making, focus-testing and suits interfering in development, though. Interplay is a good example of how a single mindset can lead to a variety of bad decision-making, because the same obsession led to the big-budget project of Sim-CD, the hunt for movie licenses from Universal *and* the bloated "cinematic experience" title Stonekeep, which started as a Bard's Tale throwback title. It's distinct kinds of decisions/titles but they all stem from the same film-obsessed process.

 

[Mastermind]

So why is it not cancelled? Obvious scam is obvious?

Do any of you tards even know how kickstarter works? You don't get charged until the time runs out and even then you only get charged if it's successful.

 

[Infinitron]

I don't see how you can deny it stems from the same mindset and the same approach to game-making, focus-testing and suits interfering in development, though.

I'm not sure it's quite the same mindset. The FMV craze was primarily about sheer realism ("look, REAL PEOPLE! omg!"), not about being cinematic. The 3D-based cinematics of today don't really pretend to be realistic. They're fake, fantasy stuff, and unashamed of it, but animated in a way that reminds one of live actors.