164 réponses à ce sujet

[TheBlackBaron]

Fargo does an excellent job of explaining why the Kickstarter is going live now in the last email update for Wasteland 2 backers, so I'm not real worried about that. Still, backing a third Kickstarter game when as yet the first two aren't out is a bit risky.

With 30 days I think I'll play wait and see for a bit on this one.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

TheBlackBaron wrote...

Fargo does an excellent job of explaining why the Kickstarter is going live now in the last email update for Wasteland 2 backers, so I'm not real worried about that. Still, backing a third Kickstarter game when as yet the first two aren't out is a bit risky.

With 30 days I think I'll play wait and see for a bit on this one.

I can see that the Kickstarter games will prevent you from buying 'publisher based games', because you are paying so much to Kickstarter devs that you don't have the money or interest to get the publisher based games!

Modifié par Legatus Arianus, 06 mars 2013 - 08:31 .

[ObserverStatus]

Sadly, I still haven't gotten around to playing the first planescape. Does that make me some kind of a PC gaming master race traitor? Still, it does seem a bit odd that they're pressing this out before Wasteland 2 has shipped. Whole thing would seem a lot less sketchy if they funded the game with Wasteland 2, but if they're saying Wasteland 2 isn't going to make enough money to pay for Torment it doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence in either product.

[Eurypterid]

lol - funded. It reached its funding goal in about 6 hours. Unreal.

[TheBlackBaron]

bobobo878 wrote...

Sadly, I still haven't gotten around to playing the first planescape. Does that make me some kind of a PC gaming master race traitor? Still, it does seem a bit odd that they're pressing this out before Wasteland 2 has shipped. Whole thing would seem a lot less sketchy if they funded the game with Wasteland 2, but if they're saying Wasteland 2 isn't going to make enough money to pay for Torment it doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence in either product.

Well, I'll just copy the text from the email:

On Monday we released the news that we would be launching another Kickstarter campaign for Torment: Tides of Numenera today. If your reaction to the news was, “Hell yes, that is awesome news!” you can stop reading this update and head right to the Torment Kickstarter page to check out a lot more detail on the product. There is a ton of information about the team and the project, so please give it a read. We are crazy excited about the opportunity to work on Torment, and the Torment Kickstarter page should be enough to get all of you excited too.

If your reaction to the news about Torment was more like, “inXile, you greedy bastards, why would you launch a Kickstarter before Wasteland 2 is even done!”, then keep reading; we are addressing that point in this update… 

To those outside the industry, it might seem odd to launch another Kickstarter before Wasteland 2 is done. We understand that it raises some questions, and we want our Wasteland 2 backers to understand the decision and to have access to all the information that has led us down this path. The goal of this update is not to convince you to back Torment; the goal of this update is to answer one simple question. Why now? 

One of the keys to success for a small game company is being able to create continuity within the development team. It takes a long time to get a team put together, and it takes an even longer time for a team to settle in to new working relationships, a new engine, new systems, and a new asset creation pipeline. A team’s knowledge and experience grows a lot during a development cycle, and all of that knowledge gained is lost if we let the team break up when a project ships. To address that issue we have developed a very simple strategy that has already worked for us on dozens of titles in the last 25 years. Here is a quick explanation of our development team-structure philosophy:

inXile, with all of our internal employees and outside contractors, consists of enough people to be considered about the size of a team and a half. This is by design. We always want a small and efficient team (the “half team”) to design both our product and our product development plan. This is called pre-production. It is the most important time in a project’s life cycle. This is the time when we want to make sure we slow down and get it right. During this phase we don't need all the engineers and 3D Artists on the project, it is mostly concept art, design and dialog writing. When this process is completed and we are ready to roll into full production we want to have a large team of people ready to make the game. If the planning was done well during the pre-production phase we can be very efficient during production and leave ourselves with plenty of time to iterate and make amazing games. If there is no pre-production done, and the full team is trying to create the design and development plan as they go, months, if not years, are wasted. Having a full team try to start a project when the pre-production has not been completed is like stacking up a giant pile of money and lighting it on fire. This same philosophy served us quite well at Interplay in creating some of the best RPGs of all time.

The “half team” in our team and a half model consists of writers and artists as well as designers and a producer. They are the ones that define the game design, write the dialog, define the combat, the UI, the missions, and even parts of the level design. We spent about 6 months working on this pre-production for Wasteland 2 and we would like to spend even longer doing it on Torment. For inXile, this “half team” that did the pre-production for Wasteland is done, their work on Wasteland 2 is completely finished. We want to get this group into pre-production on Torment to keep them working together on a project we are all passionate about.

Currently, Wasteland 2 is in full production with a team of 15+ people cranking away on it. This is the full team that consists of engineers, scripters, character modelers, environment artists, and animators. This team is implementing the plan created during the Wasteland 2 pre-production cycle. When this full team rolls off of Wasteland 2 at the end of the year, they will need something else to do. Having a complete pre-production plan at that time allows us to roll the entire team onto a finely honed game design. Team continuity is maintained, and efficient production can begin. In a traditional publisher model, now is the time in the project life cycle where we would start to try and sign the next big contract. The best tool we have to get that done is to go back to our new publisher, you, and explain that now is the best time to start the next project.

Our “half team” is ready to start the pre-production for Torment now. They need about 8 months to get this pre-production work done. In an amazing coincidence, in about 8 months I will have a full team that is ready to take that pre-production plan and create a game. The alternative, starting pre-production on Torment after Wasteland 2 is done, increases the cost of Torment production greatly and requires us to reduce our headcount during the process.

Staggering projects like we are doing with Wasteland 2 and Torment is the best tool a single-team company like inXile has to be successful. It has the triple value of making us more efficient, giving us a better game design and making sure we keep our design and art talent working with us.

To make everything as clear as we can regarding the Torment Kickstarter and what it means for Wasteland 2, I will attempt to answer some other questions you might have:

• We do want to be abundantly clear that no Wasteland money is to be spent developing Torment. No Torment money is being spent on Wasteland 2. That said, lots of tools, plug-ins and pipeline processes that have taken man months to create will be shared between the projects if we can keep team continuity.

• The pre-production of Torment is not going to hinder the development of Wasteland in any way. As explained above, they are different teams during the pre-production.

We hope this update helps to explain the logic of why we are launching this Kickstarter now. Based on our experience we know that now is the time to get Torment rolling. We also hope that we can count on your support for Torment, and if not your support, at least your understanding. This system has always served us well so we think it makes sense to try and re-create it with you.

The other thing to remember is that Wasteland 2 hasn't actually made any money yet. The Kickstarter money is funding its development. So it's hard to fund pre-production for another game with money you don't actually have yet, regardless of how much you think you might make. 

[Nordicus]

bobobo878 wrote...

Still, it does seem a bit odd that they're pressing this out before Wasteland 2 has shipped. Whole thing would seem a lot less sketchy if they funded the game with Wasteland 2, but if they're saying Wasteland 2 isn't going to make enough money to pay for Torment it doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence in either product.

Did you watch the pitch video? Because it pretty clealy shows why they're doing this now.

The way video game development works with designated writers, character artists, level designers, programmers, etc., is that some of them are far more required at the beginning parts and some at the end.

If you try finishing one game before starting another with this kind of structure, it leads to a scenario where you have to pretty much fire half the staff during some of the phases.

What the hell are writers and designers supposed to do during the latter half, twiddle their thumbs, wait for that pink slip?

No, Fargo wants to keep these professionals working with him, and he's going to have to find some way to pay them. So, they're now working on Torment.

Couldn't they just get another publisher funded project while they wait for Wasteland 2 to finish? Theoretically yes, in practice no. Fargo has criticized the publisher model very, very loudly, he doesn't want any more business like that, nor probably could.

[Jozape]

Legatus Arianus wrote...

TheBlackBaron wrote...

Fargo does an excellent job of explaining why the Kickstarter is going live now in the last email update for Wasteland 2 backers, so I'm not real worried about that. Still, backing a third Kickstarter game when as yet the first two aren't out is a bit risky.

With 30 days I think I'll play wait and see for a bit on this one.

I can see that the Kickstarter games will prevent you from buying 'publisher based games', because you are paying so much to Kickstarter devs that you don't have the money or interest to get the publisher based games!

This is true for me. I am delaying my purchase of BioShock: Infinite to back Torment(and possibly the new Ultima 'spiritual successer' KickStarter).

I pledged my 50 USD. This is seriously a game I would pledge 10,000 USD for if I had the money though!

[Jozape]

Eurypterid wrote...

lol - funded. It reached its funding goal in about 6 hours. Unreal.

Torment is also the fastest funding project in KickStarter history. Even OUYA required more than 7 hours to reach 1,000,000 USD.

[Brockololly]

This is crazy and awesome. Figured I'd be in for $20 and I can move up later if I feel like it.

[legion999]

I missed the Project Eternity one like a moron. Hopefully I'll be able to pick this one up.

[Jozape]

legion999 wrote...

I missed the Project Eternity one like a moron. Hopefully I'll be able to pick this one up.

The 20 USD tier is dissappearing quickly. Get your pledge in soon!

[legion999]

Jozape wrote...

legion999 wrote...

I missed the Project Eternity one like a moron. Hopefully I'll be able to pick this one up.

The 20 USD tier is dissappearing quickly. Get your pledge in soon!

It'll be gone before I can put a pledge in, guess I'll need to get the one above it and aim for a physical tier at some point.

[Urgon]

legion999 wrote...

Jozape wrote...

legion999 wrote...

I missed the Project Eternity one like a moron. Hopefully I'll be able to pick this one up.

The 20 USD tier is dissappearing quickly. Get your pledge in soon!

It'll be gone before I can put a pledge in, guess I'll need to get the one above it and aim for a physical tier at some point.

You can still pledge for Project:Eternity via paypal in Obsidian's forum.
http://eternity.obsidian.net/ .Here you go.
Not the high tier staff but at least you can still take the game cheap.

Modifié par Urgon, 06 mars 2013 - 11:31 .

[chunkyman]

Alright people, place your bets now. Will it get more funding than Project Eternity or not?

Anyway, I'm probably going to fund this. I want to see some stretch goals before I decide how much, though.

[MerinTB]

Brockololly wrote...

This is crazy and awesome. Figured I'd be in for $20 and I can move up later if I feel like it.

It's what I did.  I'm often at the low end and move up later.

[Sister Goldring]

I'm so excited to have seen and backed this project. What a year 2014 is shaping up to be!

[Gatt9]

chunkyman wrote...

Alright people, place your bets now. Will it get more funding than Project Eternity or not?

Anyway, I'm probably going to fund this. I want to see some stretch goals before I decide how much, though.

My predictions:  2 million by the end of the first day.  2.75 million by the end of day 2.  3 million by the end of day 3.  4.5 million by the end.

My longshot:  6 million by the end,  if they have some huge announcement waiting (And given how that worked for Wasteland,  I'd say we see a huge announcement in 14 days).

Edit:  Remember,  days "End" sometime in the morning,  not at midnight.

Modifié par Gatt9, 07 mars 2013 - 03:25 .

[wsandista]

Donated $110.

I don't think it will raise more than PE though.

[Sister Goldring]

Speculation is rife that Lord British will announce a spiritual successor to ULTIMA tomorrow!

http://www.kotaku.co...countdown-ends/

Hell YES gamers

[Isichar]

So...happy *sniff*

[TheBlackBaron]

MerinTB wrote...

Brockololly wrote...

This is crazy and awesome. Figured I'd be in for $20 and I can move up later if I feel like it.

It's what I did.  I'm often at the low end and move up later.

Yes, do this.

I stuck with the digital tier for Eternity, but with Wasteland 2 I eventually jumped up to the $50 tier (and thought about going up to $75). 

[Cultist]

More western RPGs with dialogues, more complex than "I wunt to be a dragun"? Jolly good!
1 500 000$ HELL YEAH!

[milena87]

I blinked and the 95$ tier was gone, went with 110$ instead. Can't wait for this too!

[SOLID_EVEREST]

Oh, ****. I never expected it to get fully funded in one whole day. Damn, I found new faith in old school RPG fans. They've really been putting their money where their mouth is.