Original Sin - 5 Days of Kickstarter

Myrthos

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Swen Vincke shares some info and statistics in his blog after 5 days of the Kickstarter campaign for Original Sin (which was monday).
This going to be a very short post because I need some sleep, but I just wanted to mention how motivating it is to see all these shows of support and how helpful all our fans and backers have been. I’m exhausted but reaching 63% of our funding goal (252K at present) in 5 days is just amazing and it’s very easy to find energy amidst so much support. And the feedback we’ve received is worth gold – that alone is a reason to do a campaign like this – now I understand what Brian Fargo & the guys at Obsidian were shouting about all the time. It’s one thing to be reading about it, it’s a completely different thing to be in the middle of it. Anyway, that’s it – I actually just wanted to share a few stats from our campaign
The average pledge amount so far is $44.23 (really high imho so we have generous backers). We’ve had 30118 video views and of those 17,78% finished the video, both numbers low imho so we need to do something there. We are now at a conversion rate of 18,9% so that’s dropped but it’s still pretty high.
Tomorrow we’re going to launch an update that is going to change our approach a little bit, focussing less on the features of what we’re doing and telling more of the story & world that we’ve been creating. We’ll also modify our rewards as much as we can & introduce a few new things. And, we’ll emphasise single player a bit more – it’s true that we didn’t do that enough whereas it’s actually the most important bit. And with a bit of luck, there’s also be Dragon Commander news, because obviously, that team hasn’t been sitting idle!
More information.
 
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Everything looks great except the art style and the way they focus on armour and weapons. To be honest, Divinity 2 art direction was annoying with all of those jagged edged and blades everywhere.

Also don't understand why they keep going with the Divinity setting. It's pretty bland and the devs could probably do better with something new.

Otherwise looks perfect on the RPG gameplay side. I would contribute if I wasn't broke.
 
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Come on, come on… succeed already. :) Tapping foot, waiting for PayPal option...
 
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yeah, designers nowadays have 3 options, cyberpunk, fantasy postapocaliptic. there is no contemporary, no sf, no history

they say they're happy to rid of the publishers, but the publishers have already changed the way they think
 
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Come on, come on… succeed already. :) Tapping foot, waiting for PayPal option…

same here and i cant wait to give them my money. never thought is would say such a thing..
 
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Their kickstater started with a bang and then 'flat-lined'. I agree with a previous comment about rewards/tiers - I'm only in for $25. All the other KS's I pledged too are much higher - $80 for Torment etc. Because I like what they are offering. With Divinity I get a 'potion' and for +$10 a soundtrack. And for another increment, a second copy of the game… again, why do I need that? What am I supposed to do with that? So I stuck with $25. The next decent reward tiers are much higher up…I think part of the issue is that their game is effectively near complete, so there is less scope (or desire?) to add in interesting tiers…?

EDIT: ok, perhaps I should read the news bits before posting ;-) I see he has acknowledged their shortcoming on the tiers...
 
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yup, they beefed them up a little, but you can whine in the comment section if there is something specific you'd like. They might provide it.

I m nihilistic unfortunately. As much as I want to give them more money, I feel bad paying for shit I don't like/want/use
 
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They didn't really flatline more than usual with all Kickstarters, rather their original bang was maybe not big enough - probably a mistake not to stir the pot a bit more before the start, and wait until easter, and maybe until Torment and SotA drives are over. Apart from that I think it's simply less attractive for a lot of people to support a game that will be released anyway rather than making a game happen that will otherwise not exist. And finally Divinity, Larian and Vincke simply do not quite have the same name recognition value, than e.g. Torment, and Brian Fargo. I think people put too much stake at the reward tiers, everybody's a KS expert, and want every campaign to conform to the same template. That gets boring, actually. Personally I liked their reward tiers, especially the message in a bottle etc. is a fun idea for coop. I thought the OS + DC deal was great so I went for that.
Anyway, I am pretty sure they'll make it.
 
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Yeah, same here. I backed at 65$ a little while back, seems like a decent offering, you get both Original Sin and Dragon Commander at that price point.
 
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yeah, designers nowadays have 3 options, cyberpunk, fantasy postapocaliptic. there is no contemporary, no sf, no history

they say they're happy to rid of the publishers, but the publishers have already changed the way they think

Personally I never tire of fantasy although I appreciate good science fiction which is technically fantasy just in a different direction. And fantasy/sci fi have elements like magic/modern technology which add a new dimension to story-telling or game mechanics.

Contemporary wouldn't do anything much for me though. I play games because of escapism - I want to battle orcs or negotiate with aliens. I want to completely distance myself from the current state of the world. :(
 
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Personally I never tire of fantasy although I appreciate good science fiction which is technically fantasy just in a different direction. And fantasy/sci fi have elements like magic/modern technology which add a new dimension to story-telling or game mechanics.

Contemporary wouldn't do anything much for me though. I play games because of escapism - I want to battle orcs or negotiate with aliens. I want to completely distance myself from the current state of the world. :(

Yeah, I really wouldn't mind seeing some old school-like, multi-character Lensman space opera RPG, complete with a galactic empire, space pirates, blasters, evil aliens, telepaths, FTL ships, strange worlds, ... all with a modern gaming implementation. Fun times.
 
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Well KS has already brought us two historic RPGs ( in development: Conquistadors and Meriwether.
 
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Well KS has already brought us two historic RPGs ( in development: Conquistadors and Meriwether.

Backed them both. Dig the historical settings.
 
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How do they get these referrer stats?
 
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Dear Green Place
Kickstarter provides them, but only to the creators of the Kickstarter.
 
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But how do they technically work? I thought links work like text, I could copy, click or use otherwise and the website will never know the source.
 
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Dear Green Place
Ah, but it does. When you click a link you will be referred to the page you click on. The protocol used for this is HTTP. That protocol has parameters that are set just because you click on a link. One of these parameters contains the referrer information, which is the site you were at when you clicked the link.
It is empty when you directly enter the link in the address bar or copy the link open up a new tab and enter the copied link in the address bar or use a means of 'safe browsing'.
 
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