I wish this guy all the luck in the world. I’m in a similar situation and I cannot imagine asking anyone for money at this point. Seriously, building a game for the first time is exhausting and terrifying. You want to add in the extra pressure of taking people’s money? No thank you. I could not handle the responsibility of that weighing on me. I understand you have to find a way to pay the bills, and I am luckier than most in the respect, but that is just extra baggage you don’t need for a first project.
I feel similarly to Mark Asher upthread.
Andrew Groen, formerly of the Penny Arcade Report, is writing a history of Eve Online’s great wars:
rowe33
2769
I can’t tell if this would be utterly fascinating or utterly boring for someone like me who hasn’t played a second of Eve Online. The massive wars and political plays that occur sound really interesting though and I’ve read some posts in the past about the really over-the-top actions.
All I can say was there were a couple of articles on Eve in the late MASSIVE Magazine that fascinated this non-player. Don’t think this guy wrote them, but I think it speaks to the potential quality of the subject matter.
Could have sworn I heard about this here, but the Google and built-in forum searches are coming up empty, so:
Armello, a beautiful, anthropomorphic, fantasy, digital dice-and-cards board game is in the last nine days of its campaign at about 50% funded. I was intrigued by the art and game style, but the recent 20-minute walkthrough has me sold.
‘The Old City’:
Very atmospheric exploration game, RPS has some gameplay footage and remarks here:
Hey, I got my download key for the Sunless Sea closed beta! No doubt it will be a little rocky, but exploring the Fallen London world in my zubmarine should be big fun.
Dejin
2774
I’m not actually seeing a key anywhere. I’ve got on the Sunless Sea Explorer Beta page and I can download the game, but after I login it asks me for an activation code. I don’t see one on the download page and I don’t see one offhand in the e-mail either. What am I missing?
The activation code that you’re prompted for upon starting the game is actually in the email they sent you. I imagine we got the same form email, so if you see a four step activation process, the code should be in step three.
Dejin
2776
Thanks Pogue that’s done it. I had tried that previously but the “Activate” button looked like it was still “Inactive” so I decided that wasn’t the right code and I went looking for something on the Humble Bundle page.
Life is short (so i didn’t look back far), but did we mention this yet, a sort of minecraft/cubeworld type thing, but set over multiple square worlds, Planet 3(cubed):
It’s already funded, but maybe worth keeping an eye on if that sounds like your thing.
I did a quick scan and it actually looked like nobody mentioned that Harmonix is trying to kickstart an updated version of Amplitude!
Currently not looking likely to make it. Which is a shame, since it was a fantastic beast of a game on the PS2. I guess music games are out of favor these days.
I was about to post about it, actually! “Not looking to make it” doesn’t make much sense to say when the campaign just launched today, though. (No clue why they decided on a short campaign.)
Aw, it’s a PS3/PS4 exclusive?
Oh, I figured since it had less than 3 weeks left it’d been sitting around for a while. If it just launched today, then nevermind. (I am naive in the ways of the Kickstarter!)
I hope Planets^3 makes it to an actual product. It looks like it could be interesting.
arrendek: Sony IP, so yeah.
Wow. So is this a first? Sony sends the developer to attempt a kickstarter to fund an exclusive sequel to a game series they own?
They’re pretty clear in the campaign that they’re using crowdfunding as a way to see if there’s even demand for a new Amplitude. Given what happened to the music game genre in the west, I wouldn’t blame Sony for not wanting to potentially waste hundreds of thousands of dollars funding a game that might not sell.
Harmonix could easily have made this campaign without needing to call the new game Amplitude, but I’m guessing they decided name recognition was more important than the possibility of bringing it to non-Sony platforms. (In fact, given the complexity of rhythm game development, I imagine they appreciate anything that limits the number of platforms they have to deal with.)
I kind of wish I could see a cost breakdown for this. They say they’re focusing on original music for this, with licensed tracks as over-funding / stretch goals, so I wonder how much of the cost is going into creating those tracks. I’m not sure how I feel about that in general. While I get that original tracks can be tailored for optimal “level design” experience, it does give the game a different character.
Also, I’m curious how they’ll handle the controls, since the L1/R1/R2 control scheme of Amplitude and Frequency is garbage on the PS3, as a result of the larger range of motion on the DS3 triggers.
