This researcher wants to investigate the correlations between tighter gun controls, gun violence and overall regulation. NRA activism has generally made it difficult to conduct this sort of research, and the results can have significant impacts on public awareness and public policy toward guns.
Because of the lack of funding she's crowdsourcing it on Microyza, 25,000 in 100 days. Please spread the word on this important project!
I think that's better than the Mona in the AVS:Year One KS. At least the original actress was trying. The new one sounds like she's performing for a high school play.
EDIT: I don't think Shadow of the Eternals is going to make it. They are down to 16 days left, and only have $250k (combined between crowdfunding sites) of the $1.3m they're asking for on KS alone. Not that their ignitiondeck funds count toward their KS goal, but it still shows to go that they fail. and hard.
I mean, it just shows that it was stupid to split their crowdfunding between sites (as opposed to starting out by embedding a KS widget on their website.) But even if they didn't do that, they'd still fail.
I still maintain that the reason Eternals is going to fail is down to two reasons - splitting the crowdfunding, and Dyack. Even discounting the Kotaku article, the man has a ton of bad press surrounding him. Adding in the Kotaku debacle (why is that word not in spellcheck?) - whether it was well-founded or not - the man is poison and became the noose around the project's neck. Why else would they desperately try and make things right with that video?
I'd like the game as much as any of us, but not this way.
I really don't have high hopes for the AVS kickstarter. I mean, a game with an unfinished story gets a prequel that's only going to be the first episode out of four? Why would anyone want such a pile of uncompleteness? I'm really not going to back that, as much as I love Tiller's artworks.
I really don't have high hopes for the AVS kickstarter. I mean, a game with an unfinished story gets a prequel that's only going to be the first episode out of four? Why would anyone want such a pile of uncompleteness?
Thumbs up for this one.
30 years of incomplete stories! You'd think they'd learn, but noooo.
Shadows of the Eternals Kickstarter to be cancelled, possibly rebooted soon
Everybody who's donated on their site so far will get refunded. I'm guessing at the very least they want to have all of the crowdfunding happen in one place, but some people are suspecting that a publisher has gotten involved which would change the scope of things.
Also, this amused me:
Since we announced this Kickstarter campaign we have seen more support from our community than we had ever hoped for
Really? You weren't, you know, hoping for a little more support? The funding and the public opinion were both trending pretty low, seems like they could have hoped for a bit more.
Shadows of the Eternals Kickstarter to be cancelled, possibly rebooted soon
Everybody who's donated on their site so far will get refunded. I'm guessing at the very least they want to have all of the crowdfunding happen in one place, but some people are suspecting that a publisher has gotten involved which would change the scope of things.
NOTHING about this has filled me with anything even remotely resembling confidence. The way they're treating this cancellation isn't doing a bit to change that.
They've said they'll re-launch the Kickstarter campaign in "just a few short weeks," at which point "exciting new developments" will be revealed. Uh, why not reveal them now and boost your current campaign? This just smacks of "hey, our last Kickstarter failed so we're just gonna cancel it and try it again because we can".
And "exciting new developments"? Besides removing Dyack from the project (and I highly doubt they'll do that), the only thing I think people will care about is if they've got Nintendo to actually let them make it a full-on sequel to Eternal Darkness rather than just a spiritual successor. And that's doubtful as well.
This has just been a mess all round and I really wish they'd just hold up their hands and admit it's over, because really, nothing else will let them leave this with any amount of dignity.
And I doubt there's a publisher involved, because if that were the case, why would they need a Kickstarter?
I really don't have high hopes for the AVS kickstarter. I mean, a game with an unfinished story gets a prequel that's only going to be the first episode out of four? Why would anyone want such a pile of uncompleteness? I'm really not going to back that, as much as I love Tiller's artworks.
That's a pretty reasonable and sympathetic position, but my understanding was that each of the speculative prequel episodes would be completely self-contained, and that Bill simply has ideas for up to four stories in the unlikely event of a windfall. As it stands, he'd be lucky to make the first one.
It sounds like the sequel is currently out of his hands, and that this prequel might somehow play a role in making its publisher more agreeable to the idea of resuming it. I have no way of knowing for sure though - the details surrounding that situation have always been pretty vague.
The point's valid though. Even if there are behind-the-scenes circumstances that explain it, how can you expect people to react when you come back after five years to give a game that ended in a huge cliffhanger a prequel? With the business situation difficult to communicate, he may have been better off trying to fund an original game as long as he was going independent. Maybe the line of thinking was that an established IP would up the odds, I dunno.
For me, any graphic adventure with Bill Tiller backgrounds and a Pedro Camacho soundtrack is one I wanna see get made. I might be wanting too much though, if the progress of the Kickstarter is anything to go by. I'll be tracking it hopefully.
One reason I won't sponsor AVS is I just don't find the protagonist interesting.
I firmly believe any character can be made interesting with the right writer. Even a naive, shrieking prima donna like Mona.
Both AVS and Ghost Pirates have plenty of faults. Puzzle design, characters, humor and story construction are all lacking in those games. And before I back Tiller I need to know if he even is aware of these problems and is willing to improve. Judging from his pitch, he isn't. Bill Tiller is not a great writer, he's a great artist. For some people that's enough... just not for me.
Ghost Pirates was one of the biggest disappointments I'd ever played. Technically it had the right elements but the accents were misplaced and the characters dulled down to bugger all. You can get away with a by-the-numbers plot if your characters at least are interesting and have a dynamic among them. Ghost Pirates did not.
Both AVS and Ghost Pirates have plenty of faults. Puzzle design, characters, humor and story construction are all lacking in those games. And before I back Tiller I need to know if he even is aware of these problems and is willing to improve. Judging from his pitch, he isn't. Bill Tiller is not a great writer, he's a great artist. For some people that's enough... just not for me.
He is aware of the faults of the Autumn Moon games, and is planning on addressing them by working with other game designers to improve the game design and dialog (he's responding to the comments in this post, if you're interested to see the criticisms in question).
That's one of the things I like about Bill Tiller, he really does take criticism and suggestions to heart. I really do hope A Vampyre Story: Year One succeeds.
Okay, screw this, it's IndieGogo, but Beast's Fury. It looks good, and is in fact already funded (sort of), they only need the stretch goals at the moment.
Ugh, that's utterly unconvincing unfortunately. If only it was a treadmill.
The technology essentially is that your foot slides back into its original position. That doesn't feel like moving forward, and it certainly doesn't feel like walking or running. Anatomy is more complex than that.
He is aware of the faults of the Autumn Moon games, and is planning on addressing them by working with other game designers to improve the game design and dialog (he's responding to the comments in this post, if you're interested to see the criticisms in question).
That's one of the things I like about Bill Tiller, he really does take criticism and suggestions to heart. I really do hope A Vampyre Story: Year One succeeds.
Well...... Shit. Now I have to support his game. I can't say no to an earnest desire to be creative.
He has added two new tiers to Kickstarter. One of them is $20 for a digital download of the AVS OST and a free copy of the original AVS from the future Autumn Moon web store. There seems to be a mix up on the names on the accompanying images.
That's me in as well, since I've wanted to play the original game for a while. I know it's available from gamersgate.com, but I think it would be neat if he got the chance to make a new game. I'm not too picky about voice acting either, since I often play games muted anyway.
The voice acting for AVS, divorced from the dialog itself, is pretty uniformly great (it was handled by Bay Area Sound, the same folks who do Telltale's games), and in fact the original voice of Mona was Rebecca Schweitzer, who you may know as the Mole Granny from Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Edna Strickland from BTTF, or Clementine's mom from The Walking Dead.
I think the issue surrounding Mona's voice had more to do with the conscious creative decision to make her that shrill, which some people didn't mind and some people despised. Bill recast in response to the loud feedback, but I've got a feeling the differences have as much to do with a change in direction as they do a change in actress. And of course, everyone complained about the new voice anyway.
If it's only a matter of voice directing it shouldn't be too difficult to accommodate the critics? It would be sad if something as simple as that end up ruining the kickstarter for him. At least if the game holds up well otherwise.
Another Kickstarter related thing that I don't think was mentioned here (correct me if I'm wrong): The Norwegian Film Institute has granted another 1.5M NOK to Dreamfall Chapters in addition to the original 1M. I read about it on Norwegian news sites last week, but I haven't seen any international coverage on it. That brings the total up to $430K in addition to the $1.5M from Kickstarter and whatever else they got through PayPal.
and in fact the original voice of Mona was Rebecca Schweitzer, who you may know as the Mole Granny from Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Edna Strickland from BTTF, or Clementine's mom from The Walking Dead.
I think the issue surrounding Mona's voice had more to do with the conscious creative decision to make her that shrill, [...]
Well, the mole girl/granny had a very hard to bear lisp/spatter speak while Edna Strickland had all too repetitive dialog and an exaggeratedly aged voice in most parts of the game. And while Clementine's mom was a really impressive performance, it lasted for 30 seconds tops.
So actually for most of what we heard of Rebecca, conscious character design decisions could have muddied the impression.
I dont know if I should fund for the Vamprye story prequel kickstarter. I havent played the original but I will say it looked great visually. I dont like it how Mona's voice is different though.
I haven't either. The new $20 tier made me want to pledge though. It includes the original game which is available for €7.49 digitally (€15.99 for Mac), so I figure it's a good deal.
So... apparently that practical effects movie I mentioned earlier just met it's goal. Even I was surprised this time. I mean, really, 100K in 3 days. Crazy.
Or at least find the pitch video a stroke of genius.
Hello! Nelly Cootalot is my project and I just found this little plug from a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the support!
Of course, back then I didn't know I was going to be competing with Massive Chalice and Armikrog! But that's life! (And I backed those campaigns anyway...) We're still alive and heading towards 2/3 of our goal, so thanks again,
So... apparently that practical effects movie I mentioned earlier just met it's goal. Even I was surprised this time. I mean, really, 100K in 3 days. Crazy.
Wow! That's an impressive comeback. I've seen this kind of turnaround happen, but it's not common.
Hello! Nelly Cootalot is my project and I just found this little plug from a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the support!
Of course, back then I didn't know I was going to be competing with Massive Chalice and Armikrog! But that's life! (And I backed those campaigns anyway...) We're still alive and heading towards 2/3 of our goal, so thanks again,
- Alasdair.
Welcome Alasdair!
And, anytime. Massive Chalice could have waited a bit until you're fully funded, but I can confirm that your project is still very much on the radar of my German adventure forum. This one just has to succeed. If it doesn't, we will hold Tim Schafer personally responsible.
Don't forget to add a PayPal option as soon as the goal is met... because at the time, that's the only way I can get in Nelly's boat as well.
If Bill is pushed out of game design because of a Kickstarter failure I'll be pretty sad.
Yeah, that would be sad. He seems like a really nice and hardworking guy. From the recent AdventureGamers.com interview I got the impression that he wouldn't quit making games if the Kickstarter fails though. He's still working on AVS2 and he will get it done, it just means that he can't work full time on game design, and will have to do it in his spare time while having other work to pay the bills. It seems that he's very passionate about making games, so I don't think it would be the last we'd seen of him as a game designer. The Kickstarter seems to have lost pace the last few days despite of the new tiers, so it's not looking so hot at the moment.
Seriously, F!!! Gilbert, Bill and all these other old men. YOU'RE OLD. If you haven't made a nest egg for yourself in the last 20 years of making games then sod off. MAKE WAY for a new generation of game developers. Cave Story was shit, Vampyre Story was shit, TIME FOR SOMETHING new and even if it's shit it's no worse than the shit you pumped out in the last decade.
Are you saying that the fact that guys like Ron Gilbert and Bill Tiller are still making games are actively prohibiting a new generation of game developers from making games? Personally I think it's great that we've got a good blend of old and new talent pumping out a shitload of games these days. Of course everything won't be for me, but I rarely buy games from AAA developers and most of the games I buy are from unestablished developers even if I still appreciate the games made by veterans like Gilbert, Schafer and to a lesser extent Tiller.
And AVS isn't shit, it just has a mediocre story and a mediocre lead voice actress (who btw is better at a faux French accent than the new voice actress is.)
I don't know what's got you all worked up, Daishi, but Al Lowe hasn't made a game in a long time either and yet I hear LSL:R looks really good.
It has nothing to do with how old they are. I don't think Mike Stemmle was that old when he made Escape from Monkey Island, and that game is bad on a number of levels.
EDIT: yep, Mike was only 33 when EMI was released (he's 46 now.) Is that old?
Granted, Bill isn't the best at game design as AVS is just okay and GPoVI is a Monkey Island ripoff with too much unexplained back story. But that doesn't mean Al Lowe, Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer or any other old school game designers should go jump in a lake.
Comments
This researcher wants to investigate the correlations between tighter gun controls, gun violence and overall regulation. NRA activism has generally made it difficult to conduct this sort of research, and the results can have significant impacts on public awareness and public policy toward guns.
Because of the lack of funding she's crowdsourcing it on Microyza, 25,000 in 100 days. Please spread the word on this important project!
https://www.microryza.com/projects/gun-control-research-project
Here is the original Mona voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58A5T42v0Pc&t=60
I think that's better than the Mona in the AVS:Year One KS. At least the original actress was trying. The new one sounds like she's performing for a high school play.
EDIT: I don't think Shadow of the Eternals is going to make it. They are down to 16 days left, and only have $250k (combined between crowdfunding sites) of the $1.3m they're asking for on KS alone. Not that their ignitiondeck funds count toward their KS goal, but it still shows to go that they fail. and hard.
I mean, it just shows that it was stupid to split their crowdfunding between sites (as opposed to starting out by embedding a KS widget on their website.) But even if they didn't do that, they'd still fail.
I'd like the game as much as any of us, but not this way.
http://austinwintory.bandcamp.com/album/leisure-suit-larry-reloaded
I think this is one of the best original in-game songs. I love all the Kickstarter references.
Thumbs up for this one.
30 years of incomplete stories! You'd think they'd learn, but noooo.
Everybody who's donated on their site so far will get refunded. I'm guessing at the very least they want to have all of the crowdfunding happen in one place, but some people are suspecting that a publisher has gotten involved which would change the scope of things.
Also, this amused me:
Really? You weren't, you know, hoping for a little more support? The funding and the public opinion were both trending pretty low, seems like they could have hoped for a bit more.
WOW, Lefty's Bar sounds brilliant, most of the score does actually.
They've said they'll re-launch the Kickstarter campaign in "just a few short weeks," at which point "exciting new developments" will be revealed. Uh, why not reveal them now and boost your current campaign? This just smacks of "hey, our last Kickstarter failed so we're just gonna cancel it and try it again because we can".
And "exciting new developments"? Besides removing Dyack from the project (and I highly doubt they'll do that), the only thing I think people will care about is if they've got Nintendo to actually let them make it a full-on sequel to Eternal Darkness rather than just a spiritual successor. And that's doubtful as well.
This has just been a mess all round and I really wish they'd just hold up their hands and admit it's over, because really, nothing else will let them leave this with any amount of dignity.
And I doubt there's a publisher involved, because if that were the case, why would they need a Kickstarter?
That's a pretty reasonable and sympathetic position, but my understanding was that each of the speculative prequel episodes would be completely self-contained, and that Bill simply has ideas for up to four stories in the unlikely event of a windfall. As it stands, he'd be lucky to make the first one.
It sounds like the sequel is currently out of his hands, and that this prequel might somehow play a role in making its publisher more agreeable to the idea of resuming it. I have no way of knowing for sure though - the details surrounding that situation have always been pretty vague.
The point's valid though. Even if there are behind-the-scenes circumstances that explain it, how can you expect people to react when you come back after five years to give a game that ended in a huge cliffhanger a prequel? With the business situation difficult to communicate, he may have been better off trying to fund an original game as long as he was going independent. Maybe the line of thinking was that an established IP would up the odds, I dunno.
For me, any graphic adventure with Bill Tiller backgrounds and a Pedro Camacho soundtrack is one I wanna see get made. I might be wanting too much though, if the progress of the Kickstarter is anything to go by. I'll be tracking it hopefully.
I firmly believe any character can be made interesting with the right writer. Even a naive, shrieking prima donna like Mona.
Both AVS and Ghost Pirates have plenty of faults. Puzzle design, characters, humor and story construction are all lacking in those games. And before I back Tiller I need to know if he even is aware of these problems and is willing to improve. Judging from his pitch, he isn't. Bill Tiller is not a great writer, he's a great artist. For some people that's enough... just not for me.
That's one of the things I like about Bill Tiller, he really does take criticism and suggestions to heart. I really do hope A Vampyre Story: Year One succeeds.
Ugh, that's utterly unconvincing unfortunately. If only it was a treadmill.
The technology essentially is that your foot slides back into its original position. That doesn't feel like moving forward, and it certainly doesn't feel like walking or running. Anatomy is more complex than that.
It's already funded, but the team would love to hit $70K before the drive ends tomorrow.
Well...... Shit. Now I have to support his game. I can't say no to an earnest desire to be creative.
That's me in as well, since I've wanted to play the original game for a while. I know it's available from gamersgate.com, but I think it would be neat if he got the chance to make a new game. I'm not too picky about voice acting either, since I often play games muted anyway.
I think the issue surrounding Mona's voice had more to do with the conscious creative decision to make her that shrill, which some people didn't mind and some people despised. Bill recast in response to the loud feedback, but I've got a feeling the differences have as much to do with a change in direction as they do a change in actress. And of course, everyone complained about the new voice anyway.
Another Kickstarter related thing that I don't think was mentioned here (correct me if I'm wrong): The Norwegian Film Institute has granted another 1.5M NOK to Dreamfall Chapters in addition to the original 1M. I read about it on Norwegian news sites last week, but I haven't seen any international coverage on it. That brings the total up to $430K in addition to the $1.5M from Kickstarter and whatever else they got through PayPal.
Well, the mole girl/granny had a very hard to bear lisp/spatter speak while Edna Strickland had all too repetitive dialog and an exaggeratedly aged voice in most parts of the game. And while Clementine's mom was a really impressive performance, it lasted for 30 seconds tops.
So actually for most of what we heard of Rebecca, conscious character design decisions could have muddied the impression.
Hello! Nelly Cootalot is my project and I just found this little plug from a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the support!
Of course, back then I didn't know I was going to be competing with Massive Chalice and Armikrog! But that's life! (And I backed those campaigns anyway...) We're still alive and heading towards 2/3 of our goal, so thanks again,
- Alasdair.
Welcome Alasdair!
And, anytime. Massive Chalice could have waited a bit until you're fully funded, but I can confirm that your project is still very much on the radar of my German adventure forum. This one just has to succeed. If it doesn't, we will hold Tim Schafer personally responsible.
Don't forget to add a PayPal option as soon as the goal is met... because at the time, that's the only way I can get in Nelly's boat as well.
HARVEST is a Graphic Adventure similar to Snatcher, Phoenix Wright.
This is my project and we could use some support!
Yeah, that would be sad. He seems like a really nice and hardworking guy. From the recent AdventureGamers.com interview I got the impression that he wouldn't quit making games if the Kickstarter fails though. He's still working on AVS2 and he will get it done, it just means that he can't work full time on game design, and will have to do it in his spare time while having other work to pay the bills. It seems that he's very passionate about making games, so I don't think it would be the last we'd seen of him as a game designer. The Kickstarter seems to have lost pace the last few days despite of the new tiers, so it's not looking so hot at the moment.
And AVS isn't shit, it just has a mediocre story and a mediocre lead voice actress (who btw is better at a faux French accent than the new voice actress is.)
I don't know what's got you all worked up, Daishi, but Al Lowe hasn't made a game in a long time either and yet I hear LSL:R looks really good.
It has nothing to do with how old they are. I don't think Mike Stemmle was that old when he made Escape from Monkey Island, and that game is bad on a number of levels.
EDIT: yep, Mike was only 33 when EMI was released (he's 46 now.) Is that old?
Granted, Bill isn't the best at game design as AVS is just okay and GPoVI is a Monkey Island ripoff with too much unexplained back story. But that doesn't mean Al Lowe, Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer or any other old school game designers should go jump in a lake.