Project Eternity - Closes with >$4.1M

Well, Project Eternity closed earlier in the day with in excess of $4.1M by my calculations. The official Kickstarter total is $3,986,929 plus the latest Paypal total of…

Quick #ProjectEternity PayPal update: $140,099

…with an official final tally coming tomorrow:

We'll send out a recap tomorrow (our time) with figures from PayPal and when PayPal is closing down (which is VERY VERY soon.) Good night!

More information.

Now that's going to be a long mega dungeon, it has the potential to be quite spectacular. Congratulations Obsidian, now starts the hard part

Can anyone compare this budget to the budget of similar top down RPGs like BG, IwD, Fallout 1&2, etc?

Whilst I'm pleased they've been so successful (I was in on day one with this one!), I can't help feeling that 4.1m is a touch OTT given the 1m they were originally looking for (and will probably lead to longer dev times) when other RPG projects are struggling. If just a couple of hundred thousand of that went to the Brenda/Tom kickstarter (which reads like Wizardry9 + Anachronox 2) instead, we'd end up with 2-3 classic RPGs in development (not forgetting Arkanon ect).

My other fear is that such a budget will lead to "over-production". One of the charms of the older games was that they weren't created by "focus group" on massive hollywood-esque budgets.

Originally Posted by Irien
If just a couple of hundred thousand of that went to the Brenda/Tom kickstarter (which reads like Wizardry9 + Anachronox 2) instead…

You write it and still don't see the problem.

So I'm telling you my example. I've put some cash into Obsidian project without having second thoughts the very first day, the announcement was short but good enough for me, seeing who makes the game and what it should look (ok, not look but feel) like, I simply had to back it.

On the other hand, if Tom's project was announced as "we're making a spiritual successor to Anachronox" and if they dared to hide the fact that Romero is working with them, I'd probably throw some money into that project too. However, seeing it's not Anachronox 2, Anachronox reboot/remake and it's nothing like Anachronox, I simply decided to up my pledge on Eternity and forget about Tom.
Don't take it as a negative thing. One lost fight (and who knows, maybe they still make it) is not a lost war. Sooner or later, Tom will probably get a thing from the butt into his brain and kickstart an Anox-like project. I'll definetly back it.

Originally Posted by Frozen Fireball
Can anyone compare this budget to the budget of similar top down RPGs like BG, IwD, Fallout 1&2, etc?

It doesn't really compare. The Fallout games were around 3 millions each (90s dollars value), but this include $ for the publisher itself (marketing, retails setup, translations, etc).

For PE, most of the $ will go to the dev salaries. Of the Kickstarter money, a bunch will go to pay for all the swag promised in the rewards. PE probably won't have much marketing, no retails (except maybe in Europe because Obsidian will use distributors). As for the translations, Feargus said they had a really good deal with somebody they know and they are working with "fans" to get some of the language missed in as well.

Also the dev time is less, simple because technology is more advanced. In the 90s it took them 2 days to generate the backgrounds for each maps, now it's like 30 minutes. Oh and having Unity will save them times as well, being a complete engine with integrate tools. Feargus said the character tools are better than those found in Unreal and the Creative Engine (or was it the CryEngine???).

Does this mean Chris has to play Arcanum now? I'm glad it did so well, and look forward to the game, but I really wish polishing the game wasn't a stretch goal. (Well technically they said "enhancing the entire game") Shouldn't they be doing that in the first place?

It means they'll put the additional money into even more polish, instead of buying a swimming pool and a car for every team-member.

Yeah, it was just a reminder that the money is going towards the game, not toys and beer and pizza….oh wait, that live stream showed all that

Originally Posted by jwmeep
Does this mean Chris has to play Arcanum now? I'm glad it did so well, and look forward to the game, but I really wish polishing the game wasn't a stretch goal. (Well technically they said "enhancing the entire game") Shouldn't they be doing that in the first place?

Enhancing could me a lot of things. Maybe instead of 20 total spells, we get 60. Or double the number of specialty weapons/armor. More detailed conversation arcs, etc.

Maybe it simply means they'll spend more time beta testing it so we don't have 10,000 bugs getting fixed AFTER its been released.

i think that after this game, they will quit their jobs and start growing vegetables or something.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
It means they'll put the additional money into even more polish, instead of buying a swimming pool and a car for every team-member.

They can't do both?

Originally Posted by borcanu
i think that after this game, they will quit their jobs and start growing vegetables or something.

Nah. They don't work for Bioware.

Originally Posted by Melvil
Yeah, it was just a reminder that the money is going towards the game, not toys and beer and pizza….oh wait, that live stream showed all that

Some of that booze was sent directly by a fan who placed a rush order at HI-Time Wine Cellar (despite the name it sells the high end vodka and scotch they were shooting.)

Congrats to the team! And so it begins…!

So happy for Obsidian <3 and man, making the 3rd highest KS project so far is an awesome achievement!

I'm hoping that 'enhancing the whole game' includes a very good PC UI that is so well done (elegant, organized, tooltips, searchable quest journal, well catgegorized inventory, easy to use crafting interface, among other things) the player can easily find any piece of information (and the information is useful and meaningful) quickly so that focus remains on the gameplay.

Originally Posted by joxer
On the other hand, if Tom's project was announced as "we're making a spiritual successor to Anachronox" and if they dared to hide the fact that Romero is working with them, I'd probably throw some money into that project too. However, seeing it's not Anachronox 2, Anachronox reboot/remake and it's nothing like Anachronox, I simply decided to up my pledge on Eternity and forget about Tom.
Don't take it as a negative thing. One lost fight (and who knows, maybe they still make it) is not a lost war. Sooner or later, Tom will probably get a thing from the butt into his brain and kickstart an Anox-like project. I'll definetly back it.

If they had announced Shaker as a spiritual successor to Anachronox, I'd have zero interest in it, and I'm pretty sure it would be doing worse than it is.

A HUGE congratulations to the Obsidian team for a fantastically successful Kickstarter campaign!!!!

It would be hard to imagine how it could have been done significantly better.

And so it begins….