Grim Dawn - Update #11, Stretch Goals

I'm on the road at the moment, so the next couple of news updates will be late and jumbled.
Crate has posted their 11th Kickstarter update for Grim Dawn with 7 days to go ($324k), offering a number of stretch goals and a new music track:

The Kickstarter leg of the journey is coming to an end though. We're heading into the final week and I know we all want to do our best to make sure we have a strong showing before the clock runs out. There is still so much we could do with extra funding and you've all been asking to see some more clearly defined stretchy goals. Below are some specific things we can commit to delivering at various levels. Along with these specific goals, we'd also be incrementally expanding the general content. While you look through them, here's some new music for you too. ; )
$350k

• Dual wielding pistols (feature tech and new animation set)

$360k

• 25 extra pieces of unique item art

$375k

Additional end-game boss monster (total of 2) lurking somewhere out there in the darkness for you to find... [...]

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More information.

some of these steps sound really poorly thought, 10k extra for unique items art compared with 15k for new evironment.
I don't know.. he should've thought them out better, so they actually reflect the money.

If it were me, I would give a bundle of things for each step.

The main thing is to attract as many people to this, and have a good product so you can go on creating good products and have the faith of costomers. Not gain as much money as possible.

They certainly gave the goals some thought (they took a while to provide their goals instead of simply throwing some together in a few minutes).

Also, what is listed is not everything that will be added at that level. From the text (emphasis mine)

"There is still so much we could do with extra funding and you've all been asking to see some more clearly defined stretchy goals. Below are some specific things we can commit to delivering at various levels. Along with these specific goals, we'd also be incrementally expanding the general content."

Until a development studio actually delivers on their stretch goals in a timely manner, I think it is very wise to go with more conservative stretch goals. I think Shadowrun specifically is going to be a huge disappointment when it releases, but time will tell. I think Grim Dawn is playing it smart by keeping goals reasonable and not just throwing wild claims out there in an effort to greedily rake in more cash. After all, these developers can promise all they want, but in the end they are under no obligation to deliver at any sort of satisfactory level to people.

Unfortunately, the one goal most people would love to see is closed servers, but that would cost beyond what could be raised in this campaign.

Kardiophylax said:

After all, these developers can promise all they want, but in the end they are under no obligation to deliver at any sort of satisfactory level to people.

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Actually if they want to stay in business, using crowd funding as the main way to fund their projects, it's better for them to deliver their product with some satisfactory level. Otherwise things might not run well on the next project.
I believe that most of these developers want to go on using kickstarter (or identical), for their future projects.
So maybe things won't deviate so much... let us hope.

Von Paulus said:

Actually if they want to stay in business, using crowd funding as the main way to fund their projects, it's better for them to deliver their product with some satisfactory level. Otherwise things might not run well on the next project.
I believe that most of these developers want to go on using kickstarter (or identical), for their future projects.
So maybe things won't deviate so much… let us hope.

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Von Paulus said:

Actually if they want to stay in business, using crowd funding as the main way to fund their projects, it's better for them to deliver their product with some satisfactory level. Otherwise things might not run well on the next project.
I believe that most of these developers want to go on using kickstarter (or identical), for their future projects.
So maybe things won't deviate so much… let us hope.

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For respected developers, I agree, they have a reputation to uphold. The guys at Harebrained Schemes are a bunch of unknowns. They will produce something with the money, and deliver on the fine print items they promised, but I am doubtful they can produce anything of quality. Only one of them has any clout, and that comes from the pen and paper games he developed. He isn't listed in the credits of designing the games he is modelling this one after. I waited and waited to hear about tangible design elements and heard nothing but "Gosh, we are overwhelmed with all the fat cash. Please send more and we'll add umm… stuff! First we need to finish up this tablet game we're making though..."

I think their whole campaign was a cash grab when they saw an opportunity to get in people's pockets due to the nostalgia money Wasteland 2 was pulling in. I contributed to Wasteland 2 because Brian Fargo has a clear vision and has a long reputation as a computer game designer and producer.

Anyway, for more on Crate's situation with Grim Dawn, read medierra (Arthur Bruno)'s latest response on his forum. It is very clear why their strecth goals are not as lofty as some would like.http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showpost.php?p=56360&postcount=869

heh, reading you guys makes me give you some credit, if that is what you think, than they must have sincerely put thought in those goals, the problem is we ' re just not on the same page . That is a thumbs up for you, either way its a thumbs down for me.

Kardiophylax said:

Only one of them has any clout, and that comes from the pen and paper games he developed. He isn't listed in the credits of designing the games he is modelling this one after. I waited and waited to hear about tangible design elements and heard nothing but "Gosh, we are overwhelmed with all the fat cash. Please send more and we'll add umm… stuff! First we need to finish up this tablet game we're making though…"

I think their whole campaign was a cash grab when they saw an opportunity to get in people's pockets due to the nostalgia money Wasteland 2 was pulling in. I contributed to Wasteland 2 because Brian Fargo has a clear vision and has a long reputation as a computer game designer and producer.

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I have contributed to all three of these, so I don't want to set one against the other but you are holding Shadowrun and Wasteland to different standards. Harebrained are a bunch of unknowns? How many inXile staff can you name other than Fargo?

What tangible design elements has Fargo laid out that Weisman hasn't matched? In fact, we know close to nothing about W2 - we actually know more concrete elements for SR (two cities, some specific classes).