So, how many hate messages telling them to finish Broken Age before launching another Kickstarter, even though this is a different internal team than Broken Age, do you think they'll get?
Hm.... I haven't kickstartered anything this year. But am considering this, just because it's Double Fine, and their stuff is generally speaking awesome.
I was doing pretty well too, but suddenly I've backed 4 projects this year, all within a couple of weeks. I think Massive Chalice looks like it might have the potential to become a huge hit for Double Fine. It's probably a lot more mainstream than Broken Age, but with a solid portion of that Double Fine magic from the looks of it.
Does Double Fine really need to be Kick Started? Are they not making profits off their games?
They are, but they don't have enough money in the bank to pay salaries and other expenses in advance. After Brütal Legend they had started working on a sequel and invested time and money into it before it got cancelled by EA. It was after that they started working in smaller teams on more but less development intensive games to minimize the financial risk. They want to be able to self fund their games in the future, but they aren't nearly there yet.
I felt that people would be a bit dicy on this... but it looks like I'll be wrong.
I think I'm okay with it though. It's not like they're using it to make highly marketable mainstream games. I do have a bad taste in my mouth that they are going back to the well so quickly. It's like "okay, that worked. Well, we have another idea no one else liked. Let's do it again". I'm getting bad vibes about it...but still, I want to see it made and them be successful.
Double Fine explains in this Polygon article why they started another Kickstarter before Broken Age was released.
It's odd, I might have just not seen it, but I don't recall Brian Fargo getting this much flak when he started a second Kickstarter for Torment while Wasteland 2 was still under development.
Concurrent, overlapping development teams are the only way a company like Double Fine can work. And rather than try and get a publisher (which they may have already tried to do, unsuccessfully) and potentially risk losing IP rights and limit profits they're going to a place to find the people who are interested in the idea.
If you're not interested in the actual idea, then don't back it. No-one is forcing people to give them money. It's best to look at Double Fine in this situation as a publisher with a few in house dev teams, one of which is working on Broken Age, another is pitching this idea and there's probably at least another one or two teams working on other things.
No-one would have a problem if Double Fine announced a new publisher backed game while still making another game and this is exactly the same kind of scenario.
Does Double Fine really need to be Kick Started? Are they not making profits off their games?
They're certainly doing better financially than they were during the Psychonauts and Brutal Legend days, but they still don't have enough cash flow to fund their own games without publisher backing or investment.
It looks incredible. I'm conflicted though, since TenNapel's such an asshole.
The guy has extremely backwards views on gay marriage, which really sucks because he's otherwise very talented. Ultimately, if it was on a shelf I'd buy it, and I really badly want it to happen in spite of it all, and I don't object to HOW my money will be used(as far as I'm aware, he doesn't publicly campaign against gay marriage the way Orson Scott Card does), I'm backing.
The guy has extremely backwards views on gay marriage, which really sucks because he's otherwise very talented. Ultimately, if it was on a shelf I'd buy it, and I really badly want it to happen in spite of it all, and I don't object to HOW my money will be used(as far as I'm aware, he doesn't publicly campaign against gay marriage the way Orson Scott Card does), I'm backing.
Fair assessment and I agree. It's not as if all the money you pay is funneled into an anti gay campaign.
I don't begrudge anyone for refusing to back on those grounds, though. Everyone I think has their comfort zones around these things, everyone has their own ethical standards. My line may be further out than theirs, but I still have my own. After all, I would feel uncomfortable backing an Orson Scott Card kickstarter, as he very publicly spends a lot of his money from his writing into homophobic political action campaigns, and while it's still indirect that would be too close for comfort for me.
It's not as if this kind of game would be a good vehicle to transport political views. Not backing for moral reasons is a bit like refusing to watch Mel Gibson or Tom Cruise movies... understandable, yet in the larger scheme of things, not massively significant.
So, according to recent updates on the 'A Vampyre Story'Facebook page, the 'Year One' Kickstarter isn't far away from going live. The project just needs to be 'reviewed by Kickstarter'.
It's kind of unfortunate that Bill Tiller has chosen this particular point in time to launch his Kickstarter, in the wake of Double Fine's new one... but hopefully he can still gain the funds he needs. Bill is in dire need of some good like sometime soon.
Massive Chalice is 80% Funded and there's no doubt it would reach its goal. I do hope AVS:Year One gets enough money. Sure, Tiller's last two games weren't that great, but I kind of enjoyed them nonetheless.
So, according to recent updates on the 'A Vampire Story'Facebook page, the 'Year One' Kickstarter isn't far away from going live. The project just needs to be 'reviewed by Kickstarter'.
It's kind of unfortunate that Bill Tiller has chosen this particular point in time to launch his Kickstarter, in the wake of Double Fine's new one... but hopefully he can still gain the funds he needs. Bill is in dire need of some good like sometime soon.
Having actually played A Vampyre Story, I'm very cautious about this. The game'll need an entirely new cast before I even remotely think of backing.
I thought Froderick was meh but still kinda tolerable, but Mona was just awful. A French accent is a hard thing to make listenable (see the Broken Sword games for proof!), but wow, they failed HARD with her.
A Newfie accent is a hard thing to make listenable.
That's more like it. French accents can sound fine when spoken soft and with rhythm.
For anyone wondering, the Newfoundland accent is how the rest of the world thinks Canada talks. Like a certain area of London, the accents just make you sound less intelligent.
A Vampyre Story: Year One is live on kickstarter, with a goal of $200,000. This is for episode 1: Spring (if the kickstarter does well enough, episodes 2-4 could be funded as well).
Mona's voice is indeed different in the kickstarter video (it's definitely an improvement).
Not sure how I feel about the pitch actually. I was hoping for some more adventures, wild locations and a truly interesting story. Right now it sounds like a lot of slow walking back and forth the same old castle from the first game, plus a couple of talking animals and backgrounds. After spending so many hours getting out of that castle, the last thing I want is a game set there.
Shouldn't it start in an Opera house in Paris? And maybe a train at some point? Or is that just me?
Her voice is different, but it's still irritating and therefore a "no" from me.
Also, while the pitch video was neat, it told us very little about the game itself. Reading the Kickstarter page, it turns out Year One will be a prequel set entirely in the starting castle and will be about saving Froderick from a group of three bullies. Because, yeah, that sounds gripping.
They're raising money slower than I would have hoped, but they're still on track to get $10k in the first 24 hours, which is impressive considering Bill is not a hugely well-known name, this is a prequel rather than the sequel the fans would have preferred, and the general saturation of similar Kickstarter projects (my fear is that this sentiment is no outlier).
Hopefully people will recognize the quality on display here and the pace is sustained. Really pulling for Bill on this one. I can remember when he tweeted his intention to Kickstart this as long ago as April 2012. Sounds like he's basically been working on it since then in between and instead of paid gigs with limited help from close friends. I like pulling for underdogs, so I hope it ends in victory for him.
Comments
Oh god dammit just post the link already.
Still, I say 12. Total.
Hm.....
Pointing towards the obvious problem of the kickstarter with a pun, to which 'looks' exactly are you referring to?
And now, two months later, it's $240.
Since that post, I've backed Shovel Knight, Risk of Rain, Chasm, Code Monkey Save World, Energy Hook, Armikrog, A Hat in Time, and Massive Chalice.
It's been a REALLY good season for Kickstarters.
*shudder*
you know they have a list of that.:p
They are, but they don't have enough money in the bank to pay salaries and other expenses in advance. After Brütal Legend they had started working on a sequel and invested time and money into it before it got cancelled by EA. It was after that they started working in smaller teams on more but less development intensive games to minimize the financial risk. They want to be able to self fund their games in the future, but they aren't nearly there yet.
I think I'm okay with it though. It's not like they're using it to make highly marketable mainstream games. I do have a bad taste in my mouth that they are going back to the well so quickly. It's like "okay, that worked. Well, we have another idea no one else liked. Let's do it again". I'm getting bad vibes about it...but still, I want to see it made and them be successful.
It's odd, I might have just not seen it, but I don't recall Brian Fargo getting this much flak when he started a second Kickstarter for Torment while Wasteland 2 was still under development.
If you're not interested in the actual idea, then don't back it. No-one is forcing people to give them money. It's best to look at Double Fine in this situation as a publisher with a few in house dev teams, one of which is working on Broken Age, another is pitching this idea and there's probably at least another one or two teams working on other things.
No-one would have a problem if Double Fine announced a new publisher backed game while still making another game and this is exactly the same kind of scenario.
They're still a small developer, even compared to Telltale circa 2009. The fact that they don't have enough disposable income to qualify become a publisher of their own games on Xbox Live attests to this.
It looks incredible. I'm conflicted though, since TenNapel's such an asshole.
Fair assessment and I agree. It's not as if all the money you pay is funneled into an anti gay campaign.
But I respect both stances, of course.
It's kind of unfortunate that Bill Tiller has chosen this particular point in time to launch his Kickstarter, in the wake of Double Fine's new one... but hopefully he can still gain the funds he needs. Bill is in dire need of some good like sometime soon.
I wanted to respond with "But Vampyre Story wasn't even that good but felt I'd used up my antagonism points already.
That's more like it. French accents can sound fine when spoken soft and with rhythm.
For anyone wondering, the Newfoundland accent is how the rest of the world thinks Canada talks. Like a certain area of London, the accents just make you sound less intelligent.
Mona's voice is indeed different in the kickstarter video (it's definitely an improvement).
Not sure how I feel about the pitch actually. I was hoping for some more adventures, wild locations and a truly interesting story. Right now it sounds like a lot of slow walking back and forth the same old castle from the first game, plus a couple of talking animals and backgrounds. After spending so many hours getting out of that castle, the last thing I want is a game set there.
Shouldn't it start in an Opera house in Paris? And maybe a train at some point? Or is that just me?
Also, while the pitch video was neat, it told us very little about the game itself. Reading the Kickstarter page, it turns out Year One will be a prequel set entirely in the starting castle and will be about saving Froderick from a group of three bullies. Because, yeah, that sounds gripping.
Hopefully people will recognize the quality on display here and the pace is sustained. Really pulling for Bill on this one. I can remember when he tweeted his intention to Kickstart this as long ago as April 2012. Sounds like he's basically been working on it since then in between and instead of paid gigs with limited help from close friends. I like pulling for underdogs, so I hope it ends in victory for him.
Plus that box art is to die for.