R
polycounter lvl 12
Cool kickstarter project, shame it doesn't look like it will get funded.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/486250632/republique-by-camouflaj-logan
Seems to me that kickstarter can only work with the nostalgia of old ip's and not innovations
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/486250632/republique-by-camouflaj-logan
Seems to me that kickstarter can only work with the nostalgia of old ip's and not innovations
Replies
Hollywood and major publishers have long since come to this same conclusion.
Unfortunately true. But isn't kickstarter supposed to be all about bucking that trend?
Or a known developer, it's very much about trust.
They were a bit too late to announce pc support too, the marketing train had already left and all it was at that point was an ios game, nor does innovation help if the new innovative game is not the kind of game some target crowd might want to play.
The most innovative sports game won't be funded by any people who do not care for sports.
Once again though, kickstarter is not a charity, you have to give people what they want, and you have to sell your idea in the best possible way, having been limited to ios only to start with most likely caused the most damage.
That and again: if 1/2 of the people who thought it sounded interesting but then realized they can't play it at all they would most likely forget about funding it, and at the point the developers added the PC to the list, the people who did visit their kickstarter had already forgotten about it.
Hope they get a late push on this, want to play.
And I would say that even more so than big publisher-backed blockbuster titles, the free advertising from places like RockPaperShotgun and Kotaku is incredibly important for Kickstarter projects. The first time I heard about Republique was from a news post on Penny Arcade where Jerry mentioned it in the sense of, "what a shame this won't get funded". That's not how you want to make your first impression.
I'd wager that funding figure would easily be doubled (if not more) by now if they started out saying it would also be a PC release. The funding got a significant boost when it was announced for PC but it's just a case of too little, too late. Momentum is a huge issue for this trust-based funding model.
That's the advantage of other sites like indiegogo where, even if it doesn't meet the goal, they still get whatever money was pledged.
Also in regards to games it's more that anyone can write up a design document, no doubt a mod team could hash something together and get it on there as some sort of pipedream. I think if youre not an established name then even a tiny amount of potential gameplay is what will really seal the deal. Its something nostalgia has already... proof of quality/or potential whereas some pretentious sounding name and a screenshot is meaningless to me.
They also seem to be under the delusion that gamers will flock to iOS "if people make games for them on those platforms". The reality is that they won't, as there are already plenty of superior platforms that already have the types of games they want to play. There are plenty of gamers using iPads, but it seems unlikely to me that people buy iPads just to play games.
Had they made it a PC/Mac game from the start of their campaign, with a much more realistic funding goal, they might have succeeded.
Sorry, but as much as I wanted the Rep to be funded, it's outrageous. A bunch of peeps who people haven't heard about in the industry, prototyping a 'workable' version of the game on the Iphone for a tag of 500K, and are 'open' to PC porting later on, it just isn't sane.
They should have started smaller, and made a robust sized game for the money they're trying to get, something akin to Silent Hill one, where the tech was simple and ideas at it's naked core, then, from there they could have used it as a base to make the sequels and start to create more complicated stuff later on, and expand on the idea in bigger ways
Sequels aren't a poison we should be fighting, they're the only way some people can test the waters before jumping in and expanding the technology they have with a sizable investment. Never EVER think your first game is going to be a hit.
Overall, not surprised. Ridiculous price tag, lack of background, format choices and bad wording on how they said stuff led them here.
http://www.camouflaj.com/
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C1o7oHq4BE[/ame]
Like you said Mats Effect, this feels like a "proper" game.
I need an iPad... Playing on an iPhone5 blows donkey tail.