New (Game) from the TA(and Co.) Developers

I see how many people speak about his enthusiasm , when I compare it with PM (yes I mentioned him) then its nothing and yes their first video was also quite... non saying, but they learned MUCH during the campaign how open you have to be, specially when you have many people who are sceptical. I am curious if CT will need to learn that too. Anyway, I hope we see little bit more than this, till yet its actually bull-sh*t of a "evolutonary" game. When I read the description I have to think of yeah, like other 850 games, dont praise something that every game has.. well to be short: "don't give me that sh*t". Well drinking tea and wait what comes as next is the best solution, I guess.

I wish I could say otherwise but I hope this fails. I was interested at first, but after looking into it, the project comes across as a total ripoff and Taylor as really dishonest.

First off - why would you Kickstart a MOBA? It's the biggest genre in the world! There's no way he couldn't get outside funding for this. So that already smells of exploitation.

But that wouldn't be so bad in itself. A game like that might be worth backing if it was unique enough and ticked most of the boxes you'd expect from a Kickstarter project. Unfortunately, those few details that emerge through Taylor's mealy-mouthed PR speak show he intends something quite different. He replied to a F2P question on the comments page:

So - Pay2Play Pay2Win. That's new, I guess? :shock: I've never played a MOBA but I'm pretty sure none of them are that greedy with the monetization. In LoL you buy heroes, in DOTA2 you buy cosmetic items right? No "consumable packs" in either, and they're F2P, so this is really a whole lot worse value for money than the competition. People wouldn't mind F2P if it didn't mean ******* up the game with **** like "consumable packs". Far from avoiding the downsides of F2P this seems like the worst of both worlds. I repeat: Pay2Play Pay2Win. From the start he's put monetization over game design. And he goes to Kickstarter with this. Party foul dude. :geek:

RPS did an interview which is really amazing, in that it's basically one red flag after another.

...In what way does any of that make it anything like an RTS? Sounds just like a standard MOBA with a few insignificant twists, and then he's trying to rope in RTS players by pretending the game is something it's not.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is called dodging the question. :lol: No seriously, does this kind of reply fill you with confidence? Compare with Uber who were quite upfront about what they would be able to pull off in terms of SP.

"Why should we crowdfund a F2P game?" "Well, you won't. That's why we're not making it F2P until we've milked you for as much money as we can. Until then, it's P2P but with all the bad parts of F2P." This guy... :|

Well, that's reassuring! He clearly felt unable to give a straight answer. No wonder when he's shooting for a Pay2Win microtransaction model which calls for server side DRM. As underlined in the most amazing part of the interview:

Let's go through this paragraph and spot all the mealy mouthed evasions and contradictions. There "might be" "some element" of authentication - so which is it Chris? How could you not have decided on that? Or are you just being disingenuous to rope in the people who rightly expect a KS project to be DRM-free? Taylor's "not a fan of DRM" but fully intends to use the most draconic DRM possible. And how could he not considering his game is filled with "consumable packs" and other great things? Seems more like he's a big fan of DRM, just not a fan of calling it DRM

I really wish I could see some upsides to this, but frankly it seems like the most dishonest, exploitative KS pitch by a known developer so far. Like I said, for the sake of the future of crowdfunded games I hope this fails.

I am glad I am not the only one, who smells the wildman.

"What we think we’ll do is we’ll start the idea off grounded in the notion that folks on Kickstarter are buying a game. That’s how the Kickstarter model really works. It’d be hard to go up on Kickstarter and plop down money on a free-to-play game."
thats the reason why its completely wrong, people back a game, they dont buy it. its not a store. and there are some f2p games, which got funded, I dont think its "difficult".. it just depends if its interesting.

There are some yes. In every other case only a fraction of 1% of all people that pledged for the project only "backed" it without also buying a copy in return.

Can't say I have ever played space siege.

But SupCom2 is one of my all time favorites for casual RTS gaming.

Sure things suck in the game that even I don't like (Bloody op planes with more HP then tanks!), but as a casual game where me and my mates all just do crazy stuff and have a good laugh in between the giant aircraft/walking boat wars we have.

And with the gaming getting a few mods now, it's better then ever.

Just not a SupCom game, more like Starcraft with SupCom like scale and feel.

People put money towards backing things that they want. How is that any different from buying?

Sad to say but hope it fails so they can get back to Kings & Castles Lol

If it fails I am fairly certain Kings and Castles will never happen. The best way to ensure that KnC happens at some point is to back this game.

I know, I'm not saying it pissed everyone off. Supcom2 has a surprisingly decent following, especially on consoles. But I was mainly referring to this forum, where the Supcom2 fans tend to be the minority.

And yes, I'm aware of the issues that yourtime and lophiaspis presented. To be honest, I'm surprised that the phrase "eye-popping visuals" hasn't been mentioned yet, as that has tended to be CT's catchphrase since Dungeon Siege.

But I really don't like to judge games people are working on before I get more information, especially developers whose previous work I've found to be very good. For example, I'm a fan of most of iD's games, and Carmack is one of my programming role models, but I haven't been too crazy about many of the games (game?) they've released in recent times. Still, I try to come to each game with a fresh view, because despite what may have happened with a previous game, I know it isn't always due to the developers themselves.

So despite Supcom 2, Space Siege, their dealing with Squenix, etc, I'm approaching Wildman with a clear perspective. There are plenty of things I've seen so far that I'm not crazy about, but I have 30 days to make up my mind. When that time comes, I'll start by looking at whether it has DRM and if there's Linux support. Unless the answers are no and yes, respectively, then my mind is made up. (For example, as much as I LOVE space sims, I didn't contribute a single penny to Star Citizen, because I didn't have a concrete answer about Linux support.) Otherwise, I'll look over the information that has come out, and as yourtime said, whether CT has opened up a bit about the game by then. (Remember, he has had to spend the past decade or so trying to pitch his games to publishers, and the style of his pitch is something he'll need to overcome for KS.)

I am not fussed about Wildman either.

For a game that is supposedly in development for quite some time, PCGamer mentioned that somewhere, I was quited surprised to see no ingame footage at all... also CT describes the game very vague...

Sounds like Demigod 2.0, maybe this time with more RTS Elements they wanted to implement there the first time and did not do it...

To be honest, I have no clue here what to expect from that game... if it is really MOBA... not thx and so far, it totally sounds like one.

Really sad that he did not continue with K&C... would have been by far the better game, especially if well done...

-> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gas ... sts/387446

Here you can see some prototype gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1NmN9_-KLE

Looks alright.

Not sure where the RTS bit is, looks more like a hack and slash or some kinda of a dota.

And I al kinda happy that it looks the way that it does, mainly because I can't stand games that try and look realistic.

If you killed someone in a game and it was realistic, that would be horrifying to watch happen.

I think the bigger problem is that MOBA and ARPG are two completely different styles of game (didn't see any RTS in there). Is there any overlap between players that like these 2 genres? My wife loves ARPGs, but hates strategy. She would never play this game.

I would empty out my wallet for K&C. I know he said it would cost over 6 million to finish it, but couldn't he have just Kick-Started a stripped-down version with one faction and limited art or something? They've been working on it for quite a while now, they must have something to show for it? Surely more than the couple months of Wildman development.

Ahhhghhh... Chris, I want to give you my money. TA, SupCom, Forged Alliance, Dungeon Seige I & II are some of my fondest gaming memories. I still feel like I owe you something for that. Maybe I'll donate, even though I have no interest in Wildman. :|

Yeah, that's why I'm not ready to ignore the campaign myself. (Though, to be fair, Chris wasn't the only mind behind those greats.)

Also, people seem to be hanging on for K&C a LOT. I don't understand what the draw is. There wasn't really any information about it released, other than just the very basic stuff. As far as we know, it could have been another Supcom 2, except in a medieval setting. Did I miss some very compelling information about this game?

I think it was mainly the potential, like you say, it could have been another SupCom2, but it also could have been another FA. And to me a fantasy setting is enough to change some gameplay flow compared to a Sci-fi setting akin to FA.

Mike

Yeah, none of the demos on the video blogs really blew me away... But the idea of the game seemed great: Build up a castle with bridges and fortifications, assemble your knights, send your army (accompanied by dragons, siege towers and airships) against a neighboring castle. How could it not be fun???

Then again, here's the only actual gameplay video that was released, which looks terrible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB-Xdee1nN8

So it could have ended up being total crap.

Uhh, that's a trailer based off an early, EARLY Alpha, I doubt PA will be all that great looking in terms of gameplay at that stage either.

Mike

i spent $90 on PA so $20 on this isn't much as GPG has mostly made good games so far.

Early days but not looking good to hit that $1.1M target.
I put it at ~$800K if it follows an s-curve similar to PA.

And that's based on the trend before news of the GPG lay-offs which is only now becoming widespread.

It'll be interesting to see what CT has to say in the next update but I can't see how he can turn this around.

Wow, that is absolutely terrible timing. The whole purpose of a Kickstarter campaign is to inspire confidence in an end product, and this is certainly not going to help. It's a pity there was no way they could hold out to the end of the campaign.

However, I think this is an interesting opportunity for GPG to step back to a more indie development scene, maybe let Chris get back in touch with his old style of development we were talking about.

Either way, it's just sad.