Kickstarter - Xenonauts

Dhruin

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Today's Kickstarter project is indie XCOM "remake" Xenonauts. This has been around for a while but now they are looking for $50k for the last stretch. They already have $20k in one day, so this one looks ready for a big haul:
Xenonauts has been in development for almost three years already, and has been available for pre-order for the last 18 months (please see the FAQ if you have already pre-ordered the game). We are planning to release the game this year. Why are we doing a Kickstarter?
The answer is simple - we want to make Xenonauts as good as it can be! We have raised enough money through our existing pre-order system to finish the game, but there are a lot of cool little touches that we want to implement but we simply don't have the resources to justify spending our time on. This is a shame - it's always the little touches that make a game memorable!
Xenonauts is also an incredibly complex game and contains vast amounts of content. We only have three full-time team members (the project lead, one artist and one coder) and they don't even live in the same country, instead working together in a virtual office. Everyone else on the team works with us part-time, around other jobs - the ones that pay the bills. This causes a lot of delays, bottlenecks, miscommunication and stress.
Despite the difficulties, we are nearing completion of the game using this model. However, getting the key team members together full time and in the same place would allow us to respond to bugs and issues more quickly, and finish the game faster and to a higher standard (and with less damage to our collective sanity).
They have a demo you can try, so check it out.
More information.
 
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Overall what was shown in video is beauteful, some one asked what they will do if they get 1m and I am quite intrigued since what they ask seem acceptable but what they will do if a bigger sume is accomplished.
 
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I'll pass this only because I had already pre-ordered it.
One other advantage that Kikcstarter seems to give is more visibility.
This is one of the projects that will benefit from it.
 
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Kickstarter is draining my bankaccount. Waiting for payday to support this.
 
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Definately going for this one. I've been seeing their progress and checking their forums regularly and they realy realy seem to understand what the X-COM feeling realy is.

The only thing that i was a little afraid was that their fundings were too low to actualy polish the game to the point we would see a fully flaged finished AAA product.

Now with the fundings from kickstarter (i'm sure they'll reach $200.000 at least), it will be more than enough money to polish the game, get some extra art, extra sounds, extra animations and even some extra features that will make the game more rich and even get more replayability.

For the people who want an extra video to be convinced :

Preview from an older build from the cinical brit "TotalBiscuit"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc7IVbY3UYg&feature=related
 
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I've also preordered this on Desura Certainly a worthy project. They definitely have the feel of the first X-com down pat. Give it a try. It's already fun to play, and I haven't even played it in three or more patches. They've been updating regularly. It is my understanding they intend to launch around the same time as the Firaxis X-com remake, choosing to look on the competition as an opportunity for extra.pubpicity for themselves. They believe, and i am sure they are right, their game will be truer to the spirit and gameplay of the original.
 
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Looks pretty good so far. Good to see some more of these projects from around the world that I would have otherwise maybe not hear about end up doing well on kickstarter.
 
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Pledged. I really hope all these kickstarter projects won't get finished at the same time, it would be impossible to choose which ones to play...
 
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Demo was cool...I love blowing stuff up brought back good memories, pledged.
 
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I'm going to try the demo this weekend. I loved X-Com.
 
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Dang! Another Kickstarter I feel the need to invest in. As of now they are $2000 away from the project goal so this is gonna get funded for sure. Question now is how much over are they going to be.
 
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I've been following Xenonauts a looong time and am really glad they went with Kickstarter to get funds for the final push and extra polish. This way, an already awesome game will become even more, er, awesomer! Anyone, and I mean anyone, who liked the original X-Com games will HAVE TO support Xenonauts. This is our last, best chance for a proper X-Com remake (never mind the Firaxis one or the awful FPS version). Xenonauts is as close to the real deal as we're ever going to get. Go, make your pledge now! Earth is depending on you!
 
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I come from the land of ice and snow
I've pre-ordered this as well. The demo is very polished and very professional. It bleeds promise. Not much in the way of content though.

Take note, developers: every single Kickstarter project promises a no DRM version of their final game. There are still a handful of indie developers (believe it or not) who mumble that some kind of DRM is necessary. You know, to fight the pirates.
 
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Another studio that is going to blow their funding target.

One day, and they are already over the 50k target, 29 days to go.

The nasty consequence is that while they get more money than planned, they will have to add less well thought features to justify the excess of funding.
 
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Actually I got an email to vote on what we wanted with the extra funds. Seems pretty well thought out. Some of the items included more tilesets for different areas, female soldiers, high grass(like xcom) and weapons and such.
 
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I checked their kickstarter link on their forum as implictly told in my post before my comment.

When I checked, it was updated thrice. 29 days to go out of 30.

They planned to play with the listed ideas (somehow close to their wording) based on a $50k budget.
Their manifesto is quite honest: they declared they do not know how their ideas would work and might have to remove them.

In one day, they have covered more than what they assessed to be needed.

It is not what ideas are brought in to justify the kickstarter itself, it is the ideas to soak up the excess of fund they are going to collect, leading them to add ideas only for the sake of justifying the excess of funding (compared to their target)

More importantly, asking the communauty for ideas is no warrantee. At all. No insight on the developpment.
 
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Most of the ideas are basically art assets so the affect on overall program is limited.
 
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