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RAINFALL: THE SOJOURN KICKSTARTER AD !
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kentona
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author=GhostThis is true. Don't mistake my comment as disinterest--I just can't pass up an opportunity to make fun of something. Lingering grade school mentality.
The best part of that is Jude still pledged.
Anyway, I don't really think people have to show actual gameplay footage for Kickstarter. It will influence my decision whether or not to help fund something, but I do acknowledge that Kickstarter projects can be at varying stages of development.
Also, I still think your screenshots are mock-ups. Even if it is constructed out of tiles it's not an actual screenshot of a combat sequence. That's okay though, because it still represents a design goal.
The problem I have with a highly-conceptual, extremely-ambitious game idea is that this is the RPGMaker community, and extremely-ambitious, highly-conceptual game projects are a dime a dozen and zero for infinity in actually getting finished.
From what I'm seeing Ghost, you have little-to-no actual progress on your game despite working on it since 2011. You have a team that it's easy for you to be confident in now, but how many dream-team supergames actually see the light of day? This game is about as ambitious as I've ever seen, and if you or anyone else presented it just as a non-commercial project on RMN, I'd have no problem predicting a zero percent chance of it actually seeing a playable release. I suspect many people feel the same way.
Adding Kickstarter money in, you have another level. Once you're on the hook to investors, that's not an easy obligation to get out of. Are you sure you're up for this? You were already showing concern in your response to me about "life" happening and getting in the way. If one of your team leaves, is the project dead?
Jude is right that your screens depict "design goals" but as of now I don't even know if they're attainable ones. Basically, seeing some kind of actual demonstration that your engine is capable of some of this huge list of features would make me feel better about this.
Not trying to be antagonistic here, just concerned. Kickstarter is way cool but it's also a serious business undertaking. You should be sure you aren't biting off more than you can chew here. If you put a gun to my head, I'd say that I think you are.
From what I'm seeing Ghost, you have little-to-no actual progress on your game despite working on it since 2011. You have a team that it's easy for you to be confident in now, but how many dream-team supergames actually see the light of day? This game is about as ambitious as I've ever seen, and if you or anyone else presented it just as a non-commercial project on RMN, I'd have no problem predicting a zero percent chance of it actually seeing a playable release. I suspect many people feel the same way.
Adding Kickstarter money in, you have another level. Once you're on the hook to investors, that's not an easy obligation to get out of. Are you sure you're up for this? You were already showing concern in your response to me about "life" happening and getting in the way. If one of your team leaves, is the project dead?
Jude is right that your screens depict "design goals" but as of now I don't even know if they're attainable ones. Basically, seeing some kind of actual demonstration that your engine is capable of some of this huge list of features would make me feel better about this.
Not trying to be antagonistic here, just concerned. Kickstarter is way cool but it's also a serious business undertaking. You should be sure you aren't biting off more than you can chew here. If you put a gun to my head, I'd say that I think you are.
Yup, same sentiments here. It's too ambitious a game in scope to work out with essentially no budget to speak of. You've set out to achieve a SNES-quality title with a motley team of teleworkers working pro bono in their spare time. Unless there's a prototype and not just a bunch of mockups I myself could produce over a weekend, I wouldn't throw any money at this. It just screams vaporware, no offense. I should know, I've been through this myself (though no money was involved, thankfully).
BTW, TFT, next time you're up for a kickstarter, hit me up and I'll throw together a few high-quality screens for your page, seems people flock to these like moths to a flame. Bait and switch? Who cares! 8)
BTW, TFT, next time you're up for a kickstarter, hit me up and I'll throw together a few high-quality screens for your page, seems people flock to these like moths to a flame. Bait and switch? Who cares! 8)
Ghost
787
We actually decided to just take some time and go around our schedule to finish the engine and actually throw up something to show gameplay within the engine. It'll be a little bear so please keep that in mind. I think it'll be a nice way to show progression anyways (see the gameplay evolve). I was pretty adamant about completing the engine in its entirety first but I can understand some of the concerns expressed here.
Stay tunes for updates, thanks for voicing your thoughts.
Stay tunes for updates, thanks for voicing your thoughts.
Ur art is really gorgeous to look at! *o*/ it's so beautiful, i ended up getting out of bed and running to show my sister, lol... /*O*\
Good luck! i bet ur artist must feel so honoured. (although i think the artist is also the developper..? XD)
Good luck! i bet ur artist must feel so honoured. (although i think the artist is also the developper..? XD)
Anaryu
8848
The video and couple of cycling screens and images are impressive looking. I'd expect more substance in a project before I'd invest (I'm working on something of my own and don't plan to post a project before I have a fully working demo, etc) but you sold it well!
A few warnings from someone who manages software projects with budgets for a living and has done so for over half a dozen years:
Money changes the whole playing field in any project, software in particular.
1. Have your plan mapped out completely, you build the design docs, everyone agrees and sticks to them
- You promised a lot of incredible things like smooth, revolutionary combat and AI and puzzles that fit the world, if you just plan to wing it and mess with it as you get there you'll come to regret it and it'll eat up time like you would NOT believe
- Balance your stats out early in a spreadsheet - 'winging' the difficulty and how stats/skills/etc work, as well as enemies, throws off balance like nothing. Even if your balance isn't perfect, if you used a spreadsheet to work out stats and build some common metrics (like X number of average hits to defeat, and min/max attack value ranges, etc.) you can tweak it without breaking the game if you keep it all calculated nicely.
- I can't stress how you need to know those numbers and features before you build, so I'll add another line.
2. No new features until it's working - scope creep is the ultimate enemy and will eat your budget
3. Get "who gets how much money and how and when" worked out early and get everyone to agree - no feature is ever implemented in the amount of time people will think they can do it in, as a rule we take a dev estimate and double it MINIMUM, so if you use an hourly rate kind of approach you'll be in trouble
4. Your advantage here is that it's a hobby and you've got some funds to work with - this is also your main disadvantage, up until now no one expected anything but to do their hobby, now they have money, be careful of how that can change mind sets
5. Be careful with your team, if someone decides they're sick of it and leaves the leader is on the hook, not them, know what to do if that happens
6. Use small goals to motivate your team - give them something small to work on, one at a time, and then get it working in the project. Big things make people feel like they have as much time as they need and they'll lose focus; small ones they feel good about completing and can handle. Do not leave it up to them. :)
7. Version Control. That's right. Do it now. Github is a good place to start. (ps. Make sure you stay in control of the files so that if someone does disappear you don't lose whatever work they DID complete.)
There's a lot more you should be doing, setting milestones and dates and such, but it won't happen with a team of hobbyists. So do what you can and be prepared for the worst and have a plan for when it does.
Finally, a word to you as the project lead. Bad shit will happen. You won't care about the money and you'll either want to write the whole project off and forget it happened, or you'll experience insane amounts of stress in trying to work with people to get something done. Either way you will wish you didn't spear-head this and you will experience ridiculous amounts of stress and fear and frustration and shame.
Tough it out, it's never really as bad as it looks (okay, maybe it is as bad as it looks, but it's not the end of your life, it'll just feel that way.)
(Also, when you start to make concessions to people in the hopes that maybe they can pull off something like a miracle, be warned that it is likely not going to happen and remember that a solution is all that matters, not blame.)
A few warnings from someone who manages software projects with budgets for a living and has done so for over half a dozen years:
Money changes the whole playing field in any project, software in particular.
1. Have your plan mapped out completely, you build the design docs, everyone agrees and sticks to them
- You promised a lot of incredible things like smooth, revolutionary combat and AI and puzzles that fit the world, if you just plan to wing it and mess with it as you get there you'll come to regret it and it'll eat up time like you would NOT believe
- Balance your stats out early in a spreadsheet - 'winging' the difficulty and how stats/skills/etc work, as well as enemies, throws off balance like nothing. Even if your balance isn't perfect, if you used a spreadsheet to work out stats and build some common metrics (like X number of average hits to defeat, and min/max attack value ranges, etc.) you can tweak it without breaking the game if you keep it all calculated nicely.
- I can't stress how you need to know those numbers and features before you build, so I'll add another line.
2. No new features until it's working - scope creep is the ultimate enemy and will eat your budget
3. Get "who gets how much money and how and when" worked out early and get everyone to agree - no feature is ever implemented in the amount of time people will think they can do it in, as a rule we take a dev estimate and double it MINIMUM, so if you use an hourly rate kind of approach you'll be in trouble
4. Your advantage here is that it's a hobby and you've got some funds to work with - this is also your main disadvantage, up until now no one expected anything but to do their hobby, now they have money, be careful of how that can change mind sets
5. Be careful with your team, if someone decides they're sick of it and leaves the leader is on the hook, not them, know what to do if that happens
6. Use small goals to motivate your team - give them something small to work on, one at a time, and then get it working in the project. Big things make people feel like they have as much time as they need and they'll lose focus; small ones they feel good about completing and can handle. Do not leave it up to them. :)
7. Version Control. That's right. Do it now. Github is a good place to start. (ps. Make sure you stay in control of the files so that if someone does disappear you don't lose whatever work they DID complete.)
There's a lot more you should be doing, setting milestones and dates and such, but it won't happen with a team of hobbyists. So do what you can and be prepared for the worst and have a plan for when it does.
Finally, a word to you as the project lead. Bad shit will happen. You won't care about the money and you'll either want to write the whole project off and forget it happened, or you'll experience insane amounts of stress in trying to work with people to get something done. Either way you will wish you didn't spear-head this and you will experience ridiculous amounts of stress and fear and frustration and shame.
Tough it out, it's never really as bad as it looks (okay, maybe it is as bad as it looks, but it's not the end of your life, it'll just feel that way.)
(Also, when you start to make concessions to people in the hopes that maybe they can pull off something like a miracle, be warned that it is likely not going to happen and remember that a solution is all that matters, not blame.)
Ghost
787
That was pretty helpful Anaryu. It's very hard to get actual critical feedback in general. I could tell you were sincere and I really appreciate that you took the time reach out, thanks man.
I think most of what you've said was rhetorical so I'm not going to actually respond to each point. I will say that I have planned a lot of things out already, including contingency plans. I'm quite meticulous in that regard as I don't really like shooting in the dark.
There are a lot of conditions you have to take into consideration when assembling a team / managing said team. I've spent a lot of time finding the right people. For the most part, the core team is solid and we work well with each other.
I apologize if the finer details are obscured at the moment. I am fully aware that I'm on the world stage and what that implies but really, I have thick skin I don't really care if people sling stones at me. What I do care about is completing the game and staying within my scope. I'm actually doing this to see my concept through, everything else is fluff. I must say, working with people feels really awesome though. It's what I always wanted really.
I'm usually quiet with things, that's just my nature. However, there will be more public updates in the upcoming weeks, starting around the end of the Kickstarter campaign.
6 frame walking cycle (left leg a bit stiff here). There will be some more animations very soon as well as possible gameplay video.
I think most of what you've said was rhetorical so I'm not going to actually respond to each point. I will say that I have planned a lot of things out already, including contingency plans. I'm quite meticulous in that regard as I don't really like shooting in the dark.
There are a lot of conditions you have to take into consideration when assembling a team / managing said team. I've spent a lot of time finding the right people. For the most part, the core team is solid and we work well with each other.
I apologize if the finer details are obscured at the moment. I am fully aware that I'm on the world stage and what that implies but really, I have thick skin I don't really care if people sling stones at me. What I do care about is completing the game and staying within my scope. I'm actually doing this to see my concept through, everything else is fluff. I must say, working with people feels really awesome though. It's what I always wanted really.
I'm usually quiet with things, that's just my nature. However, there will be more public updates in the upcoming weeks, starting around the end of the Kickstarter campaign.
6 frame walking cycle (left leg a bit stiff here). There will be some more animations very soon as well as possible gameplay video.
Ghost
787
No, just added more frames. There are other sprite / sprite animations.
Animations will look more fluid now across the board. It won't really take long to add the updates either which is good.
It would have been easier if we used a NES palette and baby sized sprites (retro!). Just a tad faster I bet... XD.
Animations will look more fluid now across the board. It won't really take long to add the updates either which is good.
It would have been easier if we used a NES palette and baby sized sprites (retro!). Just a tad faster I bet... XD.
Go to the Kickstarter campaign page and read the updates (or lack thereof) and the comment section. They give a pretty clear picture.
