Dead State - Kickstarter Launched!

Oh gawd what do they need the money for? I thought the game was nearly finished.

The whole point was to make the game and then sell copies (or partner with a publisher perhaps).

If you had an opportunity to pre-sell a certain number of copies and promo materials in advance, wouldn't you take it?

I don't know exactly how they've been funding development up to this point, but I imagine they have a pretty small team. An injection of funding like this can result in a greatly improved finished product.
 
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Oh gawd what do they need the money for? I thought the game was nearly finished.

Wrong project? You're way off base - check this newsbit as a reminder.

Well - $150k is a nice sum of money if you win it in the lottery or something like that. But trying to run a company, it's not much.

First there's a fee for Kickstarter (around 10%). Then they also have to spend a little on the physical goods (plus setting aside work time to design, produce and order them). Then there is software licenses.

Sure. I don't know what the "licenses" are that Brian refers to but given this is based on the AoD engine and using the same programmer and main artist (at least in part), I assume they already have most of their equipment and development software. I guess they need another Torque license but it shouldn't make a big dent in $150k.

Obviously I cannot know what salary level the core guys are willing to work for, but the point would also be to bring in more people on contracts or full time. Those guys probably expect at least a reasonable salary - for which they also have to pay tax and so on. And insurance for their employees, etc. It just cost a lot of money to run a company.

No, I don't know what salary they want, either - but the co-contributors have made it through many years of AoD development on zero (or very little, anyway). I doubt there is an office beyond Brian's home (Nick and Oscar certainly wouldn't be there, anyway), so I assume they wouldn't pay any insurance or very little. $150k would pay three modest salaries for a year, for example. Modest living - but a long way from the "zero" so far. I don't think this is "let's set up an office and we'll need a photocopier and a receptionist and…".

I'm sure they'd like more but they also couldn't possibly have counted on Kickstarter when they started - so I assume they expected to finish the game on their savings or similar. In that sense, $150k is infinitely more money than zero.
 
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Also, 150k is a realistic target, I sincerely doubt they would get the game funded at 350k. Things are already starting to slow down considerably…

I hope they make a tidy sum. The more they get, the closer to their vision the final product will be.

Pledged more on this one than Wasteland or Shadowrun, I really want to see Brian and his game get a chance.

Fingers crossed...
 
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150k is light to go through 18 months of developpment (estimated release date: december 2013)

Once salaries are budgeted, most commercial licences will put a dent on the remaining money.

As previously stated, they are aiming for a very large base of customers with their kickstarter offer division.

Compare to Shadowrun: $1.8M, 36 000 backers. Entry offer:$15, 15 000 backers for the entry offer so $225k.

Most of the money came from higher levels of offer.

Dead state higher level offers are less appealing. Few to no physical goodies, Shadowrun is an already established game universe etc...

Most dead state funding comes the entry offer, it is growing steadily, nearly minute by minute as you can check if you refresh the page. But it is still only 15 dollars at a time.

The second thing is that the more people buy it through kickstarter, the less will through release price etc

Eager to see the stretch goals, will give more insight. Maybe the game is much advanced and the release date includes all the stretch goals.
 
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No, I don't know what salary they want, either - but the co-contributors have made it through many years of AoD development on zero (or very little, anyway). I doubt there is an office beyond Brian's home (Nick and Oscar certainly wouldn't be there, anyway), so I assume they wouldn't pay any insurance or very little. $150k would pay three modest salaries for a year, for example. Modest living - but a long way from the "zero" so far. I don't think this is "let's set up an office and we'll need a photocopier and a receptionist and…".

That was also my estimate - around 3 man-years, for people really passionate about the project (for example the current core members). The thing is that I believe there is more than 3 man-years of work left, but who knows :)

As for insurance, I wasn't thinking of office/building insurance - but "salary insurance" or whatever it's called. The thing is, where core guys like Brian and Oscar will most likely drag themselves to work (and do long days etc) regardless of how they feel, people on contracts will call in sick. At least in Denmark there is no way you can avoid paying them they their salary in this case. So companies are insured and can reclaim at least part of the "wasted" salary.

I looked into this a bit because my own dream is also to start up my own thing (with or without Kickstarter) - but it's just more complicated and expensive to run a company than one might think!

But anyway, this is indeed a worthy goal - and I do wish these guys the best - so I decided to pledge a bit of money, regardless of my concerns :)
 
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Looks like Brian finally came around to the phrase "DRM-free". I haven't seen a Kickstarter game yet that wasn't. For me that's one of the major draws for indie games, other than them actually being worth playing.

I'll be pledging when I get home. Sweet t-shirt too.
 
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