Dead State - Interview @ Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Dhruin · June 6, 2012

Brian and Annie Mitsoda chat with Rock, Paper, Shotgun about Dead State and their Kickstarter:

RPS: You’ve talked about ‘crisis events’, such as running out of antibiotics. Are these things that emerge out of the simulation or do they occur randomly?
Brian: They occur when certain criteria are met, so in a sense, yes, they are something that is going to happen through gameplay choices. Running low on antibiotics or food will trigger that particular crisis event, which will give you the chance to make a decision that people will buy you some time or a heap of scorn, depending on how you sell it or how much political clout you have with your sub-leads. There are quite a few crisis event triggers and most of them mean making a major decision that will affect the shelter for a time or particular allies at the shelter. They are one of my favorite parts of the game and I think they’re one of the systems that makes Dead State unique. You can see a bit of one in our Kickstarter video for a basic idea of how they work.
RPS: Roughly, how much time is spent exploring compared to dealing with issues back at the shelter? Or will that vary depending on play style?
Brian: It depends on how many allies you have. I think the more you find, the harder the game gets and the more time you have to dedicate to breaking them in and satisfying them. You will probably have to go out and scavenge most days. And, naturally, we’ll make sure some trouble finds you if things are getting routine. We always, always want to make sure that you’re juggling a few problems all at once.

More information.

Nameless one · June 6, 2012

Is it me or is kickstarter getting little crowded.Don't get me wrong I like concept of kickstarter(and I am optimistic that large number of those games will turn out good).I just think that RPG funs should be given some time to replenish their money(since large number of these RPGs target same audience).I think they would get better funding if they waited few months.

darkling · June 6, 2012

I'm getting Kickstarter fatigue.

This is the last of them for now, though, right? Right? :/

Starwars · June 6, 2012

Why on earth would you get "kickstarter fatigue"? You either back a project or not. If you don't, then you can buy the game whenever it comes out. I don't understand what's to get fatigued about? I mean, I have spent some money myself on various projects but the minimum pledges tend to be pretty cheap.

jwmeep · June 6, 2012

darkling said:
I'm getting Kickstarter fatigue. /

Agreed. Could only spend $15 dollars on that one.

darkling said:
Why on earth would you get "kickstarter fatigue"? /

In my case it's running out of money. Sure Wasteland 2, and Shadowrun were far enough back not to hurt the old bank account, but with Grimdawn, and non RPG stuff, like Kinetic Void, Drifter, etc has taken it's toll. Granted it's my fault for backing so many projects (I'm guaranteed to be burned by some of them.) but the fatigue does mount up. After this, no kickstarter for me for a while. Unless Tim Cain, or Obsidian do something. That might tempt me. All you indies out there though, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way, like Rampant Games did, or Soldak did.

BillSeurer · June 6, 2012

It's like donor fatigue.

Nameless one · June 6, 2012

Starwars said:
Why on earth would you get "kickstarter fatigue"? You either back a project or not. If you don't, then you can buy the game whenever it comes out. I don't understand what's to get fatigued about? I mean, I have spent some money myself on various projects but the minimum pledges tend to be pretty cheap.

You can buy game after it's released but point of kickstarter is to help games get made, as consumer I can get game via kickstarter, after release or year after makes no difference to me it hurts projects because they are competing with each other for limited money and attention(Criss England designer of xenonauts said they have problem getting press coverage because press got bit fed up with all kickstarter stories).I just belive that projects would get more money and press coverage if there where not so many of them at this time.

killias2 · June 6, 2012

I think there's already a winding down happening. After Doublefine, there was an explosion of awareness, but there's already a lot less (noteworthy) Kickstarter news now than there was a few months back. Before long, I think Kickstarter will become an established part of the PC market, but it won't be the force it is now. Things will.. normalize.

All that said, I wonder if Obsidian is still considering their own Kickstarter? I think they could break Doublefine's record....

darkling · June 6, 2012

Yep. It'll start spreading out and there'll be fewer interesting Kickstarters launching within days of each other soon. But there was too much lately, all at once.

It's easy to get tired of dumping money into a well of uncertainty. I'm not trying to say the end results won't be swell, but I've got little to dump into said well until I manage to pull something up.

Nameless one · June 6, 2012

killias2 said:
All that said, I wonder if Obsidian is still considering their own Kickstarter? I think they could break Doublefine's record….

Criss Avellone mentioned several times while doing wastleland 2 kickstarter that he plans to make spin-off of planescape:torment via kickstarter(not direct sequel because story line of the nameless one ended with PS:T).I don't know if full Obsidian will work on project or just smaller part but it's unlikely to happen before work on wasteland 2 is complete

Charles-cgr · June 6, 2012

killias2 said:
I think there's already a winding down happening.

Winding down or not $40k in a couple days isn't too shabby. And they're getting some good exposure to boot.

Starwars · June 6, 2012

Nameless one said:
You can buy game after it's released but point of kickstarter is to help games get made, as consumer I can get game via kickstarter, after release or year after makes no difference to me it hurts projects because they are competing with each other for limited money and attention(Criss England designer of xenonauts said they have problem getting press coverage because press got bit fed up with all kickstarter stories).I just belive that projects would get more money and press coverage if there where not so many of them at this time.

I'm perfectly aware of media moving on to other things once this hot new thing is no longer hot and new. What I don't understand is how does an individual consumer possibly get kickstarter fatigue? You either donate or you don't. If you don't, you can buy the game once it comes out.

So what on earth does it mean when someone says "oh man, I'm getting kickstarter fatigue"?

Ashbery76 · June 6, 2012

I like the concept but can you feel zombie tension with those graphics.

Charles-cgr · June 6, 2012

Ashbery76 said:
I like the concept but can you feel zombie tension with those graphics.

I could feel it with resident Evil on the first Playstation so if done well I would say it is quite possible.

Ashbery76 · June 6, 2012

Charles-cgr said:
I could feel it with resident Evil on the first Playstation so if done well I would say it is quite possible.

I am talking about the isometric viewpoint more than texture quality.This setting is all about tension.

curious · June 6, 2012

i'm pretty sure tension exists outside of graphics unless of course we're talking about illiterates (not those with grammatical and spelling atrocities) and or those without imagination.

tension is probably more somewhat limited by a turn-based system than the view perspective, take for an rts game without any pause feature. i will agree that a "fear" aspect could take place in a 1st over to a lesser degree third person. still since the game will involve strategy of a different scale than your typical action adventure zombie game the tension will be in the long term consequences of your actions more than twitch responses.

azarhal · June 6, 2012

Starwars said:
I'm perfectly aware of media moving on to other things once this hot new thing is no longer hot and new. What I don't understand is how does an individual consumer possibly get kickstarter fatigue? You either donate or you don't. If you don't, you can buy the game once it comes out.

So what on earth does it mean when someone says "oh man, I'm getting kickstarter fatigue"?

Players are exhausting their gaming budget.

Which each new RPG showing up on Kickstarter, the less money the demographics targeted have to pledge. This mean the chance of failure to fund is greater and sometimes failure to fund = failure to release.

DarNoor · June 6, 2012

killias2 said:
I think there's already a winding down happening. After Doublefine, there was an explosion of awareness, but there's already a lot less (noteworthy) Kickstarter news now than there was a few months back. Before long, I think Kickstarter will become an established part of the PC market, but it won't be the force it is now. Things will.. normalize.

All that said, I wonder if Obsidian is still considering their own Kickstarter? I think they could break Doublefine's record….

I agree with this. I think people are going to get much more selective.

Starwars · June 6, 2012

azarhal said:
Players are exhausting their gaming budget.

Which each new RPG showing up on Kickstarter, the less money the demographics targeted have to pledge. This mean the chance of failure to fund is greater and sometimes failure to fund = failure to release.

And again, with a consumer being able to buy the game after it's released, how does an individual get kickstarter fatigue? It's not like pledging is the only possible way of obtaining the game, or that you *have* to get on the train.

What I'm wondering about is this sense that there are people saying "oh no, *I'm* getting kickstarter fatigue". Even if *you* don't want to, or can, spend the money right now, is it not a good thing that interesting projects are getting announced and/or (as in this case) getting a bigger chance of getting actually released and the devs being able to work fulltime on the game?

Capt. Huggy Face · June 6, 2012

Ashbery76 said:
I am talking about the isometric viewpoint more than texture quality.This setting is all about tension.

curious said:
tension is probably more somewhat limited by a turn-based system…

I think X-com, which is isometric and turn based, has lots of tension. Perhaps it boils down to what you find as tense. I'm just not startled by things jumping out at me from around corners anymore. Jason popping up out of a lake or whatever in his hockey mask in a Friday the 13th flick just doesn't do it for me anymore, while a slow build through engaging narrative and characterization, like, say, Rosemary's Baby, I find much more tense.

(I know those movie examples are old. Cut me a break; I'm almost 40.

And does Hollywood make anything that isn't a CGI-extravaganza comic-book movie? Oh, OK, how about Drive? There's a modern example of a slow burn that's still quite tense. Cool flick.)

Dead State - Interview @ Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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