Russell Tomas the Creator/Team Lead of Graywalkers Purgatory was interviewed on The Id DM to answer a few questions. Here is a small part of the interview.
More information.
Graywalkers - Interview @ The Id DM
- Thread starter Couchpotato
- Start date
Wasn't sure what to make of this. On one hand it's better fleshed out than many failed Kickstarters. On the other, games in this genre tend to have budgets in the millions and it's hard to see them making a turn based RPG that competes with even Shadowrun Returns with 100k, never mind Wasteland 2 or D:OS.
Well, the thing about game budgets that you have to keep in mind is that not all developers enter KS in the same situation… Graywalkers already has a pre-alpha build they have been working on and they are almost ready to release a demo to their backers and the press. We don't know how much of their own money the developers have effectively put into the game (they may have a private investor, or the team may have simply been working on it for free in their spare time). IIRC Numantian games said they had put over $300K into Lords of Xulima before turning to crowdfunding.
Games like SRR and Wasteland 2 had absolutely no work done when they launched on KS (it was just a rough concept) and a large part of their funds was used to recruit additional team members and possibly pay Micro$oft IP licensing costs in HBS case.
Ultimately, if you're going to back any KS game, you have to place trust in the developer that they know how much money that they need to finish their game and that they actually ask for what they need rather than what they think they can get. Of course it's harder to place trust in an unknown developer than one which has already released some games, but that's the purpose of them creating an alpha demo- so would be backers can see if their game is on the right track.
Yes, but that's the point really - I didn't know enough about the game to make a decision and have flushed enough $ down the Kickstarter toilet 
. I'd probably have given it the benefit of the doubt 2 years ago or so ago, but since then it has become a lot clearer just how hard it is to make decent games in this genre and much of the stuff that has emerged has been somewhat lackluster. That's not to say I won't consider backing it if they relaunch - I will, but they will need to do a lot better with their Kickstarter and be more transparent about how they are going to pull it off.
. I'd probably have given it the benefit of the doubt 2 years ago or so ago, but since then it has become a lot clearer just how hard it is to make decent games in this genre and much of the stuff that has emerged has been somewhat lackluster. That's not to say I won't consider backing it if they relaunch - I will, but they will need to do a lot better with their Kickstarter and be more transparent about how they are going to pull it off.
Obviously such a game costs more than 100k. The question is how much unpaid time the developers want to put into the game in hope that sales will pay their salaries when the game is complete. I think a lot of succesful kickstarters have had a lot of unpaid labor hours or a private investor before they even become kickstarters. Only a team with really big names, who are selling nostalgia is usually going to get funds with just a concept.