Queen's Wish: The Conqueror - Vogel Kickstarter

Jeff's got a wild look in his eye. Kind of disturbing ( reminds me of that serial killers documentary).

Anybody else think just a little more spending to increase production value, into the graphics department specially, will more than be worth the increased user base it'll get? I feel the same about Soldak games.

Originally Posted by SonOfCapiz
Anybody else think just a little more spending to increase production value, into the graphics department specially, will more than be worth the increased user base it'll get? I feel the same about Soldak games.

Exactly. Sadly Jeff thinks that he can survive well enough without risking anything. And the kickstarter seems to have approved that. Bummer for me, who wants to play his games but need just a little bit more extra on the graphic / production value side.

Grats to him on Avernum 16. I can't see this as anything but a squandered opportunity.

I don't object to his games as they are what they are but the kickstarter is one of the worse i've seen both with regards to presentations and backing options. Kind of sorry it succeeded because this kind of slackness shouldn't be rewarded (or maybe it succeeded because he treated this as a pre-order and set the $$ bar very low). I suppose you could argue that this is a one person show but i don't think this will attract any (or many) new players.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
and part of the key to that has been not overstretching himself and being very conservative.

The other part is a customer base that put up with that and he can milk at will.

Love the Spiderweb company and games, but this was a hugely missed opportunity, and I don't know that they'll get another chance to have quite the impact that they could have. Being disappointed in this is an understatement, I still gave because I know I'll play it, but I would have given much more for a solid pitch.

I found this comment on KS page interesting:

@Astrobia - I'm not sure what other stretch goals to add. I already have a very specific game in my mind. Part of me wants to be satisfied with having less Kickstarter money if I get to write exactly the game I had planned. But I'll think about other goals.

Many people are suggesting paying artists for additional tile sets and cut scenes, as well as buying more music. Those seem like good suggestions to me, since he's probably invested in the art pieces and engine he's picked out, even though I don't think to much of them. Some new character portraits would be good too.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
I found this comment on KS page interesting:



Many people are suggesting paying artists for additional tile sets and cut scenes, as well as buying more music. Those seem like good suggestions to me, since he's probably invested in the art pieces and engine he's picked out, even though I don't think to much of them. Some new character portraits would be good too.

Yep, like I said before. It would be especially clever as he could just re-use most of the stuff in the next couple of games as well.

Well he could import his own picture, would save him some trouble there.
Trim it down in photoshop, kind of looks good for a mage:

Originally Posted by you
I don't object to his games as they are what they are but the kickstarter is one of the worse i've seen both with regards to presentations and backing options. Kind of sorry it succeeded because this kind of slackness shouldn't be rewarded (or maybe it succeeded because he treated this as a pre-order and set the $$ bar very low). I suppose you could argue that this is a one person show but i don't think this will attract any (or many) new players.

He put as much effort into the presentation of the kickstarter as he does his games.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
I found this comment on KS page interesting:



Many people are suggesting paying artists for additional tile sets and cut scenes, as well as buying more music. Those seem like good suggestions to me, since he's probably invested in the art pieces and engine he's picked out, even though I don't think to much of them. Some new character portraits would be good too.

I once gave a suggestion about looking at a superhero based rpg to go where most companies don't and was told to pound sand basically….

So he needs our money to downgrade the graphics?

That quote is pretty telling; the guy has been rehashing the same stuff for so long that any bit of creativity has long since evaporated. He is incapable of brainstorming ideas for stretch goals because they would fall outside the bounds of what has become his universe of complacency.

Looks like the "living legend" is gonna triple the amount he asked for. Which is probably what he planned anyway. I wonder on what the heck he is gonna spend this amount of money? Giving an artist 30K dollars in advance and waiting for amazing graphics, which the artist doesn't deliver, but swallows the money, like how that other funded Kickstarter project leader has done?

For example: Telepath Tactics creator recently announced he spent a couple hundred dollars on new icons for his game. Well the icons look okay, but they should have cost four dozen dollars max.. Craig Stern used a horribly botched slow slow slow Adobe Air engine ""powering"" Telepath Tactics which is on Steam, on sale, generating some revenue. I think the engine is recognizably slow even during the tutorial with one enemy. WOW :-OO Users complaining, how slow the engine is in big battles with lots of enemies, which he now realized how horribly slow it is and now "cannot stand being left so, because he is so honest" and he is now fixing it by replacing it with a new engine, which he should have done from the start… But of course he then wouldn't have the Steam money. Money gives energy & future hopes for development, so its essential, like a blood transfusion for a near-fatal traffic accident victim. Well, he is at least fixing the speed.

What I don't understand is if the gameplay + art we see in the video is just placeholder or if the kickstarter money will help him replace all that?

Originally Posted by Lemonhead
What I don't understand is if the gameplay + art we see in the video is just placeholder or if the kickstarter money will help him replace all that?

To answer your question, here is Jeff's response in the Kickstarters comments:

"A few words about art.

The creature and terrain art in the Kickstarter video is pretty close to final. A lot of work went into those creatures/walls/floors, and I'm quite happy with them. The money is to get a lot more art. Much more creatures, terrain, chapter art, map art, interface art, button art, portrait art for NPCs, portrait art for PCs, status icon art.

There is so much art still needing to be done, and the costs add up fast. Fortunately, I can get artists to do the job right now, thanks to all of your generosity.

The interface in the video is totally placeholder. So are the button icons. So are the portraits. So are the fonts. Lots needs to be totally redone."

Some prepare their KS for half a year to a year.
This one was given two months of work.

Mercy, I hadn't heard that at all about Telepath Tactics, and I call that excellent news! I stopped playing that game at some point simply because it kept hanging up and crashing on a certain mission, and now I have hope that I can go back and replay it at some point. Yes, it stutters and run slowly on some missions, but man, the game itself is pretty nice, and hearing that it might get optimized at some point is the best news I have heard in a bit!

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL

"A few words about art.

The creature and terrain art in the Kickstarter video is pretty close to final. A lot of work went into those creatures/walls/floors, and I'm quite happy with them. The money is to get a lot more art. Much more creatures, terrain, chapter art, map art, interface art, button art, portrait art for NPCs, portrait art for PCs, status icon art.

There is so much art still needing to be done, and the costs add up fast. Fortunately, I can get artists to do the job right now, thanks to all of your generosity.

The interface in the video is totally placeholder. So are the button icons. So are the portraits. So are the fonts. Lots needs to be totally redone."

It still a little confusing, but it seems to me that he is not interested in replacing the art and animations. He just wants to add more of the same and only replace the interface. A shame really.