KickStarter Terran Shield: Edge of the Abyss - X-COM: Terror from the Deep spiritual successor

[_Arhaeus_]

While the material for the campaign is polished, the concept work for the game goes on.

 

[Cael]

Isn't that a lot like the new Xcom, which was basically tinsel sprinkled dog turd when compared to the originals?

It is not like the new x-com, because in the surface missions you can take 30 soldiers if you want to and they can use any researched weapon or device. There is no "spawning" point for aliens, they exit the UFO or are deployed on the map and move each turn as the AI considers fit. In Apocalypse and also in JA2 the AI was in control of the units from the turn one but in UFO1 and TftD the aliens were "activated" if the player units came in range.

We implemented a 2 step command for movement, first you mark the desired movement spot and the next command actually moves the unit there. This way there are fewer chances for miss commands. The alpha version 0.23 is ready for download on the drive. https://drive.google.com/open?id=15BkAd8YTVxMcNjzNexaXc-OgI8WVxGyj

Oh good. The squad level nonsense of new X-Com was really dogturd.

 

[_Arhaeus_]

Terran Shield crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter is launching on September 3rd 2019.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=647426929099648

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project.../preview?ref=pbuild_dashboard#project-preview

^Is this Kickstarter link on your website supposed to be functional? Because it isn't.

 

[_Arhaeus_]

It is the draft Kickstarter page. It should work if you have a Kickstarter account.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/419885320/156069250?ref=ebv6rs&token=23bfec00

 

[ERYFKRAD]

_Arhaeus_ how was the funding effort through your site?

 

[_Arhaeus_]

We sold some pieces, no many.
It understandable, people want to be sure they spend the money on a real product. Until you have a successful crowdfunding campaign, or you are well known, they are suspicious.

 

[Cael]

We sold some pieces, no many.
It understandable, people want to be sure they spend the money on a real product. Until you have a successful crowdfunding campaign, or you are well known, they are suspicious.

I hate to break it to you, but with the likes of Ultima Ascendant, I think people are going to be suspicious until they see the final product regardless. That was a disaster and a half and probably classifies as fraud. Tarnished the entire crowdfunding thing.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

We sold some pieces, no many.
It understandable, people want to be sure they spend the money on a real product. Until you have a successful crowdfunding campaign, or you are well known, they are suspicious.

I hate to break it to you, but with the likes of Ultima Ascendant, I think people are going to be suspicious until they see the final product regardless. That was a disaster and a half and probably classifies as fraud. Tarnished the entire crowdfunding thing.

Right now Epic store shenanigans ought to be damaging it more.

 

[ArchAngel]

That KS trailer didn't buy me. Looks like some unity project done by one guy based on it. I am already supporting one such game (copper dreams), not interested in another.
Also your KS is at same time as a noticeably superior Solasta.

 

[_Arhaeus_]

Regarding Ultima Ascendant, there will always be projects that fail or people that earn money they didn't deserve. Still, Otherside Entertainment released this year a patch that fixed some things.

About the KS trailer... A trailer is not the best way to judge a project. A lot of projects had wonderful enhanced trailers (Afer Effects) and the real game was, in fact, far from the presented image. Our trailer presents the game in the current alpha state, as it is.
Detaching myself from my game developer perspective and looking at Terran Shield as a gamer, I would evaluate the project not strictly on the graphical aspect (which is not bat, knowing that was made with virtually 0 development money), but more for the potential it has.
What will this game bring to the strategy/tactic genre? Will it improve the old TBS games or will it go on its own path, disregarding all that was done good in the past?

Also, as a hardcore TBS gamer, knowing that the X-Com & JA genre has few titles (Xenonauts, UfO: Extraterrestrial, new X-com, Phoenixpoint and JA doesn't have many games that follow its path either) I would backup any project that can bring something new and at the same time would respect the legacy of those great games.
And if I wanted to say something about a game that has a demo, I wouldn't miss playing the demo first.

We are not worried about Solasta, that is a TB RPG, not a TBS.
The only thing that I worry about is for our message to reach the fans because it is very hard to get noticed nowadays.

 

[ArchAngel]

Well in that case I will need to see the finished game before I can judge if you did something good for the genre. Still not a way to sell your KS.

 

[_Arhaeus_]

Maybe we are not good sellers, our duty is to be good designers after all. But that can be seen only in the final product, as you said.

 

[_Arhaeus_]

Our Kickstarter campaign is live:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/419885320/terran-shield-edge-of-the-abyss
We hope you find something to your liking on our page. And as usual, spreading the word helps! Thanks.

 

[thesheeep]

The campaign page is a bit weird.
For one, there doesn't seem to be a main video, instead there's a video first on the "about us" section. That's not how it should be.
The other thing is that IMO there are too many gameplay details and the entire page is just too long. For many, that might simply be a tl;dr.
Don't get me wrong, you should have all of those detailed descriptions somewhere (perhaps even more detailed), but the main page should be more slick (about 2/3rd of that size I'd say), maybe with links to more in-depth descriptions somewhere else (homepage, blog, ...).

Also, no word on the target platforms, which makes me assume Windows only, which is a huge bummer to me. And even if it is Windows only, that should at least be made clear.

In the end, 100k is unfortunately a lot to ask for these days. There's just too many games out there. And that's just the bottom of all the stretch goals laid out - leading one to think 100k would only get you a bare bones minimal game and the "real" game would need much more.
That's IMO not too motivating to get people to support, I think revealing stretch goals only when it is realistic that some of them might actually be reached is a better approach.

P.S: Is "suckers" really the proper terminology for these... things that attach themselves via pressure? It might be, but that's kinda unfortunate

 

[_Arhaeus_]

Thanks for the feedback. I put the target platforms. We will also adjust the content to be briefer.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Abu Antar]

What happens now?

That campaign didn't go too well. $365/$100.000...

Are you guys still planning to work on this?

 

[Cael]

What happens now?

That campaign didn't go too well. $365/$100.000...

Are you guys still planning to work on this?

$365/$100 sounds like they even over the target, which is a good thing...

 

[Infinitron]

Oh, they cancelled the campaign huh. Bunch of videos:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzyu3jRP_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O89HZtlkyw

 

[ArchAngel]

I did warn them that the KS video is just not good enough. On KS you are there to market your product, you cannot just put random shots together and call it a day. You need a story and a good salesman

 

[_Arhaeus_]

We relaunched the campaign with a lower goal and hope for the best. We have a new trailer and campaign page content.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terranshield/terran-shield-edge-of-the-abyss-0

For the latest news and dev talks, you can follow us on our Discord server: https://discordapp.com/invite/kEErsjp

 

[Abu Antar]

I wouldn't have relaunched so soon after you cancelled the campaign.

Also, approximately 10x less asked.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[_Arhaeus_]

Yes, I know that launching so soon after the previous cancelled campaign is an unorthodox approach and that the set goal is much lower than the first time around. But it's about making the game and moving ahead, so we're willing to take smaller steps if that's what it takes. And build gradually.