KickStarter Underworld Ascendant is a disaster

[Infinitron]

We'll never know for sure how things would have turned out otherwise, but the primary difference between Ascendant and Kingdom Come is that the latter had a budget.

I remember before KCD was Kickstarted there was a period when it looked like it was also struggling to find a budget. I hope that Vavra would have chosen to cancel it if he'd ended up in the same situation as OtherSide.

 

[Nyast]

We'll never know for sure how things would have turned out otherwise, but the primary difference between Ascendant and Kingdom Come is that the latter had a budget.

I remember before KCD was Kickstarted there was a period when it looked like it was also struggling to find a budget. I hope that Vavra would have chosen to cancel it if he'd ended up in the same situation as OtherSide.

What was KCD's budget ?

Because UA's budget was like 6 million dollars.

That's fucking insane when you compare it to the end result. And maybe KCD's budget was a bit higher, but not tenfolds either, right ? And while KCD is flawed, it is a real game with actual content. Unlike UA.

 

[Nano]

You don't know how to read if you think I'm talking about Tim Stellmach.

Then make the effort to quote the post you're replying to.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

What was KCD's budget ?

About 36.5 million dollars including marketing costs according to the Wikipedia.
That + living costs in Czech Republic are somewhat lower than in the US (3-3.5 times, from what I gather).

 

[baud]

We'll never know for sure how things would have turned out otherwise, but the primary difference between Ascendant and Kingdom Come is that the latter had a budget.

I remember before KCD was Kickstarted there was a period when it looked like it was also struggling to find a budget. I hope that Vavra would have chosen to cancel it if he'd ended up in the same situation as OtherSide.

What was KCD's budget ?

Because UA's budget was like 6 million dollars.

That's fucking insane when you compare it to the end result. And maybe KCD's budget was a bit higher, but not tenfolds either, right ? And while KCD is flawed, it is a real game with actual content. Unlike UA.

According to wikipedia, KCD's budget was 36.5 M$, including marketing, so actual money spend on the game might be around 20 M$. Also I think it might be cheaper to develop games in Eastern Europe than the US, not by much when you want competent devs that are going to ask high salary, but that still count for something (also cheaper rent for the office and perhaps an EU grant on top of that).

Edit: Ninjaed by zz

 

[Curratum]

UA never had any real devs working on it. It's all made by interns and had maybe 500 lines of code from Tim Stellmach before he fucked right off to work on something else.

 

[Invictus]

We'll never know for sure how things would have turned out otherwise, but the primary difference between Ascendant and Kingdom Come is that the latter had a budget.

I remember before KCD was Kickstarted there was a period when it looked like it was also struggling to find a budget. I hope that Vavra would have chosen to cancel it if he'd ended up in the same situation as OtherSide.

It is not a question of budget here but the fact of the matter is that the KCD team had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted to produce and what the end product would look like; Otherside spent all this time and effort with their retarded “interactivity” where moving a plate or burning a door seemed “innovative” instead of focusing on making the game fun and hell even functional... this abomination with the KCD budget would still have turned into a even worse disaster because it was mismanaged from the start

 

[Alienman]

Just a shame they spent so much time and money on a flawed combat system.

 

[LESS T_T]

Chris Siegel too?: https://twitter.com/RealChrisSiegel

His Twitter handle was "OthersideSiegel" and he had link to Otherside website on his profile.

He posted on OtherSide forums yesterday two days ago FWIW: https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/this-forum-is-too-dead/10084/18

They removed "OSE Staff" role from Jared (the QA) on Discord but not from Chris.

Looks like he actually left Otherside: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersiegel/

Dates Employed Oct 2014 – Jun 2019
Employment Duration 4 yrs 9 mos
Location Boston

 

[MasterLobar]

Good riddance! Any firm that hires this guy should be boycotted by gamers forever.

F*cking up and lying is one thing, mocking your backers in such an arrogant and disdainful way is pretty rare in the gaming industry.

"People expecting a redo of UU are not happy. That was never the plan, its not what we would have built back at LGS after Shock and Thief, and frankly we already built that game 20+ years ago. Maybe we should have just done a remastered for those people."

https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/...ught-to-you-by-zombie-looking-glass/76311/539

ProducktionMalphunkt
Did we miss…yep.
Did we probably overscope, yep.
Are we trying to course correct? yep.
As for ‘did he read what was on the kickstarter page’…I probably wrote it, what 4 years ago. Did design direction change in 4 years…yes for 100 different reasons. I just won’t apologize for that. Good call or bad, that is how development works.

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/for-the-curious-among-you/9862/16

"Yep, yep, yep. No apologies for scamming 'those people'. In fact, it was a good idea."

 

[LESS T_T]

It's Italia again! Another Italian interview with Spector conducted at April, also has him saying "but then we realized that we didn't want to offer that experience", fortunately this one provides the original English audio recording. You hear actual talk (23:29), but the content is not so different with Google translation anyway.

Also he finished West of Loathing.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

What was KCD's budget ?

About 36.5 million dollars including marketing costs according to the Wikipedia.
That + living costs in Czech Republic are somewhat lower than in the US (3-3.5 times, from what I gather).

$36.5m sounds too high. Vavra said the game's development was nearly already paid off 2 days after release with 300k copies sold -- no console sales figures were available to them yet, and he expected it would be paid off the next day. Including various retailer's cuts(was it available on outlets other than Steam?), regional pricing etc., would place that well below $36.5m

 

[BEvers]

Game Designers: Chris Siegel, Carl Ahlund

QA Testers: Jared Mitchell, Jason Sidor, Remy Vogler

Lead QA Tester: Amanda Rivet

 

[Nano]

Not even trying to downplay it, just coming right out and saying it.

 

[HeroMarine]

I had completely forgotten about this game, I'll add it to the list of failed kickstarters (a big list).

 

[Mustawd]

What was KCD's budget ?

About 36.5 million dollars including marketing costs according to the Wikipedia.
That + living costs in Czech Republic are somewhat lower than in the US (3-3.5 times, from what I gather).

$36.5m sounds too high. Vavra said the game's development was nearly already paid off 2 days after release with 300k copies sold -- no console sales figures were available to them yet, and he expected it would be paid off the next day. Including various retailer's cuts(was it available on outlets other than Steam?), regional pricing etc., would place that well below $36.5m

Wikipedia quotes that figure as 500K total with 300K on Steam, which puts it closer to what one would expect to recoup $36.6M.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

So...
Is this game fixed, at least performance and bug-wise?

 

[udm]

I had completely forgotten about this game, I'll add it to the list of failed kickstarters (a big list).

DCC RPG

 

[HeroMarine]

DCC RPG

Check my ongoing campaign, it's in my sig! (might as well use this failed thread for huckstering for something useful

 

[thesecret1]

Is the middle column the value of your pledge? How many times do you need to get burned to learn your lesson?

 

[MasterLobar]

So he didn't jump. He was fired. That they laid off QA staff was expected -- nothing to do QA on for a while. But why fire an experienced producer/designer, when they have that mysterious unannounced project (which doesn't exist)?

This is amazing, because unlike the others, he was inner circle. Looking Glass Alumnus, joined Otherside in 2014, even before the kickstarter.

And, well...

"Sorry, but that is like commenting on my family and these people I see just as much as my family."

https://forums.otherside-e.com/t/for-the-curious-among-you/9862/25

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

“Laid off” generally implies that they were let go due to financial constraints, not due to performance or behavioral problems.

 

[Katana1000S]

LOL, the game is a pure disaster, if they were let go ... the kind phrase, its because this moronic game was one pile of shit from start to finish, if it was a massive success, they would still be on the team ... now go back and bury your head in the sand, fucwitt.

Stop so being naive and White Knighting, people ... Trolls like you make me angry Simmons, you feel sorry for game developers but wont support them.

Get lost troll face.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

He stated a fact.

There is termination for cause (poor performance, conduct) and termination without cause (anything not the principal responsibility of the employee). Terms and laws vary by country, state/province, etc.

In this case, the reason is probably termination of the project or something related to finance. What you are anyone else thinks of their work is irrelevent.

 

[Glic2000]

Did anyone ever get one of those plastic figurines high-level backers paid for? They showed off some 3D renderings of them but I never saw the final product.