Dead State - Zombie Survival RPG from the Designer of VTM: Bloodlines

[Diff-chan]

... what's going to happen to public funded games where when the money runs out, the lights just go off?

Lots of tears.

[Shou]

Backed. This time next year, we can look back at all of the projects I've funded and see which ones ripped me off...

[Frogacuda]

Lots of tears.

Very probably for at least some of them.

Of course, the flipside of this argument is that you can look at Kickstarter as hedging your bets. I backed five or six games, mostly for small amounts (Tex Murphy I backed for the amount I sold a sealed copy of the first Tex Murphy for, because it felt right, so that was a big pledge). If three or four of those games come out good, I will probably consider that money well spent, especially in light of the fact that none of them could have happened without Kickstarter.

But I'm much more cautious about some of these games that have much lower budgets and grander ambitions. Making a 2D Space Quest-ish adventure game and making a 3D RPG are not equivalent, let alone doing the latter for less than half the budget. Stuff like Jack Houston seems awesome too but I just don't think they can do that game well for that little money.

[epmode]

Making a 2D Space Quest-ish adventure game and making a 3D RPG are not equivalent, let alone doing the latter for less than half the budget.

Are you talking about this game? It's already pretty far along, having been in production for a few years. I remember reading about it back in 2010: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...tate-revealed/

[Frogacuda]

Are you talking about this game? It's already pretty far along, having been in production for a few years. I remember reading about it back in 2010: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...tate-revealed/

I know, but I also know they haven't been a real studio with an office and payroll, it's a lot of people with day jobs working in their spare time.

And if you've ever followed any ambitious mods or whatever, you know how long that can drag out. *coughBlackMesaSourcecopugh*

[epmode]

True. I was only saying that the entire game isn't being built for $250k or whatever.

As for the the possibility of this getting stuck in development hell, I guess I don't mind risking a few bucks on something with lots of potential. It's not like we're seeing a lot of dialogue-heavy, base-building survival RPGs.

[Frogacuda]

Yeah, as long as you look at it like that. I think a lot of people don't though, particularly the people that give large amounts.

[James]

Fool, money, parted, etc. I've donated a little bit to a lot of Kickstarters, but anyone going in thinking they're going to get the awesomest thing ever!!! for their $1000 donation to a games studio with very little experience and no demo would have wasted it anyway.

James