Information Tom Hall and Brenda Brathwaite Kickstart Turn-based Oldschool CRPG

[markec]

The thing is that for last couple of years they have been making shitty facebook games for morons, so its not surprise that their brains started to rot from inside out. Their pitch would be passable if they were making another shitty game for facebook crowd but its main target were not morons but RPG fans and we, thanks to histories with companies like Bioware and Bethesda, can smell bullshit miles away.

 

[kaizoku]

Maybe the masses just likes classic isometric RPGs more than classic first person RPGs? Generation Diablo, generation console players (1st person view vanished more and more with the introduction of consoles).

nice trolling brah

I'm afraid if the kickstarter fails, they completely give up the 1st person party gameplay and keep on doing facebook games... and everyone else who planned to create games alike will give up as well with the words "if they didn't succeed with this type of gameplay - how can we ...? ", which results therein, that no one will ever make a game like Wizardry 8 anymore...

FP view can DIF for all I care.
But here, have a FP game
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lavidimus/chris-taylors-arakion?ref=category

 

[IDtenT]

I've looked and I can't find any retarded game that Tom Hall has been a part of, in fact he has some of the best games to his name. The fact that he follows Romero around is his only negative quality. I mean, even when working on Wizard101 he produced a really fun teen-focused MMO, without trying to copy other MMO styles.

Have any of you played Wizard101? The deck construction and tactical details are quite well developed in later game, making the end game an actually pretty competitive experience for an adult.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

I've looked and I can't find any retarded game that Tom Hall has been a part of, in fact he has some of the best games to his name. The fact that he follows Romero around is his only negative quality. I mean, even when working on Wizard101 he produced a really fun teen-focused MMO, without trying to copy other MMO styles.

Have any of you played Wizard101? The deck construction and tactical details are quite well developed in later game, making the end game an actually pretty competitive experience for an adult.

I cannot think of one negative thing to say about Tom Hall. Every single game I have seen where he was involved had a little extra something that made it quite good. Commander Keen was an extremely well designed platformer. Anachronox was excellent and way ahead of its time.

So why did he think he would stand a better chance in a Kickstarter by partnering with a charlatan like Brenda Braithwaite? If he'd done it on his own with a good concept and clear vision for his game he would have had no problems getting some money from me. I don't know why he thought going through Loot-Drop mobile and flash game popamole would improve his chances.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Meh. I called it, but at the same time sad to see it end like this.
They really have offered no proof of concept, etc, etc.
I think it's a bit different with Obsidian, considering what they've produced in the past and the fact that they are an active game company.
It's why people are more willing to give them cash vs these guys.
Too bad. Seem to have some real talent on the team.
But that's no fucking excuse for a bad business plan.
As someone said before, I can't remember who, might have been Boyarski, game developers are bad businessmen.

 

[Jaesun]

The BEST thing we can hope for is they will learn from these mistakes, and try again. Because that concept of the sci-fi would is very interesting. But I need to know a LOT more from someone claiming they are passionate about old schoold cRPG, when they are a company that is currently making shitty flash games, instead of cRPG's like Obsidian.

 

[Jarpie]

Another failure what they've done is that they haven't made a single comment or answer in their Kickstarter comments.

 

[theSavant]

nice trolling brah

Sorry, you are right. My comment about generation Diablo and Consoles was obsolete. It is simply true that the OldSchoolRPG presentation did not look seriously enough to everyone, and this was proven at the moment they came up with their bullshit 2 RPGs for 1. Ridiculous if you look at the ETA which was January 2014. Did they really think they could produce 2 full-fledged RPGs within 1 single year?! That's totally senile. The ignorance almost made me cancel my pledge...

 

[Major_Blackhart]

It's prolly gonna get canned anyway Savant.
Just do it and save yourself the time and money.

 

[tuluse]

Yeah, despite I dislike the presentation of OldSchoolRPG, a part of me is angry about the fact, that people pledged so easily when PE was announced. I mean they just openend their hands and the whole world pledged. I wished PE had to elaborate a more sophisticate concept as well, because - as a matter of fact - their kickstarter pitch sucked too.

Maybe the masses just likes classic isometric RPGs more than classic first person RPGs? Generation Diablo, generation console players (1st person view vanished more and more with the introduction of consoles).

I'm afraid if the kickstarter fails, they completely give up the 1st person party gameplay and keep on doing facebook games... and everyone else who planned to create games alike will give up as well with the words "if they didn't succeed with this type of gameplay - how can we ...? ", which results therein, that no one will ever make a game like Wizardry 8 anymore...

Legend of Grimrock, Arakion as mentioned by kaizoku, Grimoire as soon as Cleve gets his indiegogo up.

This pitch was an insult to intelligence.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

In Grimoire we trust.

 

[xilo3z]

Doh! Forgot to state WHY we dont see more game businesses get loans in that regard in my message. My apologies. 2 Fold-

The statement "people dont try for loans" is actually shockingly accurate (yes, by your account I is da retarded now)
-> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/small-business-loans_n_1778206.html 59% of small businesses in NYC that needed capital did not even try getting a loan. Think about that. You are a business in a highly competitive area who really wants to do XYZ as it could really help you out. You would exhaust all possible means correct? ... Well apparently not, they totally say screw loans to the point of not even going in to talk about it. 59%! And from the article - "Lenders also were less likely to lend to small businesses that could not show constant or rising sales or existing bank relationships." - there's that character and capital, shits important and if you have banks will work with you no matter what like I said.

And http://finance.yahoo.com/news/inaugural-quarterly-index-reveals-decline-130000673.html We see that total business demand for loans has dropped 4%. Really demand across the board is falling. And in the first article, yes there is risk in what a bank will take on even if you meet all criteria, but as said in the article - that's start up risk. Start ups are having next to impossible times getting loans. We arent talking about a hypothetical start up game company getting a loan. No bank wants start ups right now. We are talking about broad video game risk... which leads to point number two!

The CAMELS shit and all that. Yeah it works, yeah its shit, its whatever, haha. BUT Collateral is one aspect that can't be ignored. How do you value virtual IPs/virtual collateral/virtual assets? That's a major problem with the industry right now, hello Zynga again and hellooo Curt Schilling and 38 studios. I jokingly said Fargo would definitely get approved, but honestly if the agent said "Ok list your assets/liabilities collateral and all that" and he wrote down Bards Tale and Chop Lifter, do you think the bank would even know how to approach that? Hell, remember Fallout 3? There were industry people valuing it as high as $30mm saying Microsoft is gonna grab it for that much and others saying Troika for 500k. Someone mentioned asymmetrical distribution of knowledge, that's here as much as possible.

Risk aversion has come up on both sides of the argument and in my opinion BOTH loan parties are also extremely risk averse so you get this situation - a small business who wants to expand but is afraid of any loans handicapping him/whatever else business loan stigmata brings, and you have a bank who has no idea how to truly value any of the IPs they will be funding other than a cash flow analysis using marketing data from other similar games. But this doesnt mean banks hate the video game industry. Loans to the industry are more common than you might think - http://www.shacknews.com/article/73960/konami-autumn-games-accused-of-bank-loan-fraud Konami gets loans for production on its games as do many others I'm sure of (and look at that! The bank didn't know how to value the transaction). The more I think the more maybe Fargo used the KS and capital he raised for that to maybe go to a bank and hey we need a loan and look at what we accomplished.

 

[theSavant]

Thanks for the suggestions, but unfortunately none of them offers what I expect from a spiritual successor of Wizardry 8. One reason for that is that these games still use classic dungeon crawler style, although Wizardry 8 has shown it's possible move away from it and yet keep all the variety and complexity. The gameplay was also much superior and richer after this change, in my opinion. If Brenda says that their project will be a classic dungeon crawler I will remove my pledge. But I still have the hope they have something in mind which relates more to Wizardry 8 than retro dungeon crawling...

 

[l3loodAngel]

Ok. I am ind finance, but I don't quote shit. I dead drunk so I willvre=repsong tommorow.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

?

 

[UnknownBro]

I'm saving my kwa-dollars for Hero-U... Oct 19! True old-school gaming.

 

[LeStryfe79]

The KS is finished and will fail. This thread needs retardod just for lolz

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Oh my, is the third update bad...

Update 3: NEW TIER, STEAM, UNITY!
*Update 3: NEW TIER, STEAM, UNITY, COMBAT*
Hey there, folks, some quick news in this new update before a bigger update
next week! Let's get to it....

*NEW TIER: BASIC BOX*

People have asked for a basic boxed edition to display proudly on their shelf
and we heard ya!

Behold the *BASIC BOX: $65*
GAMER WITH EARS AND EYES EDITION + simple BOXED VERSION OF OLD SCHOOL RPG. The
boxed copy will include a DVD version of the game and a printed manual. This
is in addition to the digital version of the game (so 2 copies overall!). Please
add $15 for international shipping.

It's available now! If you've been waiting for it at a lower level, you can
change your pledge to Basic Box at any time. Thanks for the suggestion!

*WE WANT TO TURN ON THE STEAM*



We are happy to announce our intent to have the game on Steam. Has to get
green-lit of course, but we're going for it!

*OLD SCHOOL GAME, NEW SCHOOL TECH: UNITY*



Loot Drop's Old School RPG plays old-school, but looks new school! Using the
Unity engine, our game is planned to have the beauty and speed of today's RPGs!
It is also the strongest choice for cross-platform development!

Thanks for all your emails and comments -- so wonderful to see so many folks
passionate about the game. Stay tuned for a great update next week!

--Tom 'n' Brenda

 

[FeelTheRads]

You'd think they'd actually try now, but they just go on with stupid updates. At least they promised a "great" update next week.

By the way, this 3rd update mentions combat... but there's nothing about combat in it?

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Holy shit


Hey guys, Unity is great for porting our shitty game to your iphone cross-platform developement!
We will bring our game to Steam!! You heard it? Steam! Yay! You can all rejoice now!

Just goes to show how out of touch Tom and Branda are with reality and fan expectations.These guys seriously think they are gonna develop their next shitty facebook game and people are going to give them money for it...

 

[LeStryfe79]

Oh fuck, what an embarrassment. Thanks to them, our only hope is Cleve. Good job shit heads, I hope you suckle the flesh tree and succumb to eternal rabies. They gave a shit effort and tried to ruin it for everyone.

Fuck those losers™

Cleve, we need an update! Do a KS for $30k to round out the bs. PLEASE(wait a month)

(Then wait another month) Do another ks for $15k

Rinse and repeat and finish your fucking game goddamnit. --------->



Also use DWB credentials when kickstarting



RETARDO THIS THREAD ALREADY :baby:

 

[Crooked Bee]

You'd think they'd actually try now, but they just go on with stupid updates. At least they promised a "great" update next week.

I bet that's because they're desperately trying to come up with at least some kind of basic idea for gameplay. So far we don't even have any point of reference, like Wasteland was for Fargo or the IE games for Obsidian. This is ridiculous.

 

[Jarpie]

If they would've done any research on other Kickstarter projects they wouldn't be in this mess. Surprised that potential pledgers wanted more info on the game before buying it? No shit, they went into this as we say in Finland "Ass ahead at the tree". As someone else said they just should cancel the project for now and bow out with "We've taken all the feedback we've gotten, analyze it and come back fresh. Keep the feedback coming!" and come back in month or two with completely new Kickstarter.

 

[theSavant]

Yeah, let's see, I'm still eager to know the big update.

 

[ghostdog]

Damn, this KS campaign is pathetic. Individually Hall and Brenda have a great background --even if some butthurt entity screams otherwise-- Brenda was one of the main developers of Wizardry 8 and it was a fantastic game. On the other hand, Hall has great humor and clever gameplay ideas and he has created another one of my favorite games, Anachronox.

Frankly, it's not a bad pair. If they tried to kickstart a humorous Wizardry clone in an Anachronox-styled world and showed they'd at least fleshed out the basics of the game, I'd certainly back it up. But this is laughable, especially when they're promising 2 rpgs. Even the KS video was crappy, I'd have expected at least some good humor from Hall, but maybe the stroke has taken a great toll on him. Oh, and the way they use the term "Old-School" is insulting.