KickStarter Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness - Tales of the Moon Cult expansion on the way

[Doktor Best]

This sounds like a trainwreck in the making, but I'm willing to give it a chance simply because it has a class named Crushmaster

Sounds like a cocktail mixer, for masterful crushed ice cocktails.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Will STOMP MY BALLS $5 be included as a Crushmaster?

 

[GreenMagicSpell]

Crushmaster is someone who enters a tavern, and if insulted, he crushes EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Except the girl who serves the drinks, of course. (My thoughts.)

Some semi-official info from devs: imagine Crushmaster as a warrior that specializes in bludgeoning weapons such as maces, hammers, flails, clubs etc.

 

[Nael]

Will STOMP MY BALLS $5 be included as a Crushmaster?

If it was the fuck I was giving it would be done...! Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!!!

...

 

[Tigranes]

1. The initial 'pitch', both the post here and the front page of the website, need to be rethought. "set in the world of Yerengal"? Why would anybody in the universe care about that? Nobody knows anything about this Yerengal. Might as well say "Exciting new game set in the world of Bluegooblers featuring Pedro Whatshisface" and expect people to care.

2. You have either a very awkward writer or a non-English native. Either way, there are a lot of awkward names, like "Theatre of Purple Shades" or "Marriage of Ice and Fear". They sound incredibly amateur. If the issue is non-English devs, I sympathise, but it might be good to get feedback on key names as the project goes forward.

3. When I read the short blurb or the features list I don't know anything about what makes this game unique, or what makes this game good at all. All I know is "a game somewhat like classic RPGs!" All the potentially exciting details are actually in the Novelties page. Your 'Features' list is not going to do any good if the only interesting and meaningful linformation in there are links to other pages.

4. The Novelties section, on the other hand, shows some pretty cool tidbits. If it's executed properly some of these could be really cool, and definitely appeal to Codexers:

Greed: Whenever a creature acts greedily in Isilmerald, the power of Zornilsa grows. Your actions are no exception, so keep this in mind when controlling your characters! As Zornilsa gets stronger, the kingdom becomes even more chaotic. For example, lawful citizens may end up as desperate bandits who attack others (including your party) for gold. Greed shall infest us all!

Put silently: This is basically the opposite of stealing/pickpocketing! It allows the Thief to place certain items into the clothing of other characters silently. For example, the Thief can hide poisonous or sleeping powder under the armor of guards, which will start to affect them after a particular amount of time. As a more interesting example, your Thief character can steal jewelry from an NPC, hide it in the pockets of another NPC, and then accuse him of stealing! The two NPCs might attack each other eventually, so if you want them dead, you can easily kill the weakened winner. Interested? Be the puppet master in Isilmerald!

Adaptive Shapeshift: When this high-level spell is cast, the character will take the shape of a powerful creature. From now on, whenever the caster starts to suffer from a harmful condition (such as repeated cold damage, or low HP), it will change its shape again to a creature that is the most beneficial in the situation. For example, if your character is hit by cold damage three times in a row, it may change to a Frost Giant. If your character’s HP becomes low, it may take the shape of a Forest Troll to get a high regeneration rate. If both conditions (frequent cold damage, low HP) are present, the caster may be transformed into an Ice Troll, which offers a good balance of regeneration and cold resistance (but it will have a weaker attack than a Frost Giant or Forest Troll).

In short: the presentation is an utter mess, showcasing the weakest aspects of your pitch (half-written character info, an uninspiring concept art, an incomprehensible features list) and hiding the best parts of it. If you want to go Kickstarter you want to do that after you've addressed this, at least. (More generally, you'll want to show people a lot more about your game if you want to raise any substantial sum.)

 

[Perkel]

So mobile game with optional PC port..

 

[GreenMagicSpell]

1. The initial 'pitch', both the post here and the front page of the website, need to be rethought.
...
In short: the presentation is an utter mess, showcasing the weakest aspects of your pitch (half-written character info, an uninspiring concept art, an incomprehensible features list) and hiding the best parts of it. If you want to go Kickstarter you want to do that after you've addressed this, at least. (More generally, you'll want to show people a lot more about your game if you want to raise any substantial sum.)

Thanks for your thoughts, I'll forward them to the devs.

So mobile game with optional PC port..

Nope, the opposite. They added the mobile platforms later. Priority is PC in all respects.

 

[Hegel]

If you're such a big fan of BGII then you will face no difficulty in recalling and telling us the name of the NPC who ferries you from Athkatla to Vvardenfell.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Guy on left looks like Son, guy on right is...

Spoiler

Zep--

 

[GreenMagicSpell]

If you're such a big fan of BGII then you will face no difficulty in recalling and telling us the name of the NPC who ferries you from Athkatla to Vvardenfell.

He is called Gorion. (No, there is no Vvardenfell in BG2, so your question makes no sense.)

 

[Perkel]

Nope, the opposite. They added the mobile platforms later. Priority is PC in all respects.

Are they doing two different games then ? Two UIs ? Two combat systems ?

 

[Mustawd]

Skills and Spells

• Unique skills and spells
• Novel spells such as Adaptive Shapeshift
• Brewing, drying, and a novel thief skill

Drying? That's some hardcore simulation.

 

[GreenMagicSpell]

Nope, the opposite. They added the mobile platforms later. Priority is PC in all respects.

Are they doing two different games then ? Two UIs ? Two combat systems ?

AFAIK there will be mobile-specific UI, yes. I have no info on combat system differences, but I'm sure they know what they're doing. With 3 party members, it looks feasible to me.

 

[Mustawd]

The right one Bruce Willis is a peasant.

That's harsh. But I agree.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Since you've brought this up: I'm impressed with the game, but I also know one of the developers (through a common friend). I never said there is no contact or affiliation -- I'm just not part of the official team, and I don't do any content for the game. (Yes, I expect to get a free Beta or even a free copy for my help. ) And yes, I collect your feedback and will forward the key points to their marketing guy.

Thank you – my question wasn't aimed at uncovering you as a PR agent. It's just that if you post a few paragraphs from a press release in a forum, no one will bother.

Tigranes has listed most concerns I had as well: No one will care for a fantasy setting, they didn't hear about.

You / they have to pick one (or at most a few) interesting and unique core features, which set the game apart from the competition and repeat them again and again. These days, everyone and his mother does a kickstarter for a "classic RPG". You need to proof that yours is worth investing / donating for, even without a track record of successes.

Also doing mobile / pc because "its popular" will be really detrimental for a project, especially if it's the first game the team develops. Notice that even a bigger and more experienced studio like Harebrained dropped mobile for the latest Shadowrun (and that was turn based, which works better on mobile than realtime). On a PC, you can add some complexity to RTwP, on mobile, you have to dumb down the fights, because the controls aren't just up to par.

I think you guys have some good ideas, but the focus and the presentation is lacking. E.g. the dialogue example – it's generic, not well written and no one will get a better impression of the game or the world.

 

[Hegel]

Are you guys planning to release the game before or after Grimoire?

 

[Zep Zepo]

Stop me if you've heard this one...

A CrushMaster walks into a bar carrying a spiked dildo...

Zep--

 

[GreenMagicSpell]

They asked me to send summarized points, so this is what I plan to send them:

Based on RPGCodex feedback:
- Present the unique features in a much more visible manner
- Get a better writer (for dialogues etc.)
- Consider dropping mobile support for now - even if you do it well, it may frighten away potential fans at this point
- Don't show fan-made/draft concept

Anything else to add?

Are you guys planning to release the game before or after Grimoire?

I don't know, and they aren't available now, I'll get back with an answer ASAP (tomorrow?).

EDIT: as I wasn't sure what this Grimoire is (never heard of it), I googled for it. If your question meant "will the project ever be released", I'm absolutely sure they will release it at the promised date (or somewhat later, we are in the game industry after all). The reason is simple: they have a great team, they have worked several years together; they know each other very well (something that matters even more than money when we talk about the success of a project).

 

[Perkel]

Nope, the opposite. They added the mobile platforms later. Priority is PC in all respects.

Are they doing two different games then ? Two UIs ? Two combat systems ?

AFAIK there will be mobile-specific UI, yes. I have no info on the combat system. With 3 party members, it looks feasible to me.

Color me impresed then. Though mobile-specific UI and butchering PC gameplay to limit amount of buttons needed for gameplay is obvious downfall of every PC to mobile "port".

There is no single PC and mobile RPG that works well. Either this game will be first (which i doubt) or it will be next game downgraded because it needs to be on mobile platforms.


Also don't release kickstarter with mobile platform going on. Make it something after you do game. Why ?:

- you will scare PC players. Those folks are the ones who back games
- mobile players won't even give single fuck about your kickstarter
- it's indie game and people are not stupid. If you will deliver game at all wihout it being scam it will be success. Targeting many platforms with bunch of newbies screams like:

I am talking specifically about this:

• Available for Windows PC, Linux, Mac, iPad and Android, with our CrossSave support
• Languages**: English, German (Deutsch), French (Français), Spanish (Español), Italian (italiano), Czech (Čeština), Hungarian (magyar)

Did any of you ship even one game ? I mean you have 5 different plarforms here and 7 languages.

QA alone will be hell for small experienced team let alone newbs.

Either you use magical engine which can at click of a button convert everything to platform of your choice (which doesn't exist and even Unity is not that easy with converting to many platforms) or you literally hope for the best getting as much money as you can and possibly hope you will get early access on steam and then maybe just maybe get close to finishing game but on only one platform chock full of bugs. Backers will downvote everything you post to oblivion and press and fans will anihilate your earning from complete game due to shitty reviews.

Honestly 3-4 players party and sort of isometric view like in screenshot is my cup of tea and could be interesting BUT for now it fires up almost every "SCAM" alert i have or "they will drop it after half a year"


HONEST TIPS:

- Go PC only for now. You can always port it after release.
- Focus on max 2-3 languages. Either you have some fantastic QA or you will have problems.
- If you want to launch kickstarter. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW. Bunch of pretty words + one screenshot won't do a shit unless you are Tim Cain.
- If is RPG then you need to present things like combat system, lore and so on with depth, get some banters between characters.
- If you are new team. Make sure your budget is transparent. Which means that you need to show why you think XXX amount of cash will make this game. If you have proper budged people will feel "safe". If you will ask for 50k and state that yeah us 12 people will work for 2 years now on that budget no one will believe you.
This also means who works for you and their full experience.


Here is some kickstarter campaign that was done by newfags and they showed that properly doing above will net you budget for game (and it was totaly nishe game at that)

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...turn-based-4x-space-strategy-game/description

 

[Mustawd]

Are you guys planning to release the game before or after Grimoire?

Why? Is Grimoire not coming out next Friday?

 

[GreenMagicSpell]

Perkel, thanks for feedback. Please see my previous post (once it gets approved -- I'm a newly regsitered member). I reacted to many points there (regarding the mobile support as well).

I don't know all members of their team, but many of them worked at big companies before (both gaming and other IT, mobile and non-mobile). So just because they are an indie team looking for crowdfunding doesn't mean they don't have experience. True, this is the first major game they will ship together -- but you have to start somewhere, don't you? AFAIK the team at Baldur's Gate / Fallout didn't ship much before these games, either.

 

[Mustawd]

There is no single PC and mobile RPG that works well. Either this game will be first (which i doubt) or it will be next game downgraded because it needs to be on mobile platforms.

To be fair, Spiderweb Software did a pretty good job on their iOS port of Avernum: Escape from the Pit. Of course, the major advantage there was that it was a turn based game.

I suspect RTwP is much harder to implement on mobile devices. Does anyone know if the Baldur's Gate port is any good?

 

[Perkel]

Perkel, thanks for feedback. Please see my previous post (once it gets approved -- I'm a newly regsitered member). I reacted to many points there (regarding the mobile support as well).

I don't know all members of their team, but many of them worked at big companies before (both gaming and other IT, mobile and non-mobile). So just because they are an indie team looking for crowdfunding doesn't mean they don't have experience. True, this is the first major game they will ship together -- but you have to start somewhere, don't you? AFAIK the team at Baldur's Gate / Fallout didn't ship much before these games, either.

read update to that post with link to that kickstarter

AFAIK the team at Baldur's Gate / Fallout didn't ship much before these games, either.

Yeah and for every succesful new studio there are 200 more that failed + both BG and Fallout were backed by publisher and both of those "new" studios had specialists working in field for long time.
Don't go into that direction, it's thought trap.

 

[vonAchdorf]

To be fair, Spiderweb Software did a pretty good job on their iOS port of Avernum: Escape from the Pit. Of course, the major advantage there was that it was a turn based game.

He discontinued iPad ports beginning with Avernum II though.

 

[Mustawd]

To be fair, Spiderweb Software did a pretty good job on their iOS port of Avernum: Escape from the Pit. Of course, the major advantage there was that it was a turn based game.

He discontinued iPad ports beginning with Avernum II though.

Sure. But my point was that it can be done well. Now, whether or not that takes up valuable resources for a small studio, especially given Spiderweb's own issues in keeping up with iOS updates, is a separate matter.