Queen's Wish - Funded

Jeff Vogel's Queen's Wish: The Conqueror has already funded:

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror has funded!

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror funded on its very first day. It is well on the way to its stretch goals. We are very surprised, humbled, and grateful. We were optimistic about our Kickstarter, but the generosity of our fans has stunned us. Thank you!

We are aiming for Queen's Wish to be out May, 2019. Anyone who has watched us over the years knows we are very good at hitting ship dates. If something slows us down, we will let you know in a prompt and clear update. Your trust in us deserves no less.

Some have asked us about new Stretch Goals. To be honest, we are skeptical about this. I have a very clear picture of a game in my head. I genuinely think it will be a cool game, and I want to make it. I don't want to start changing things around now just for a bigger bucket of money, especially now that you have been so generous.

However, if you have a good idea for another goal or thing to add, please post it in the Kickstarter comments. I will try to respond with what I think.

Thank you again, so much. Now I'm going to get back to work on Queen's Wish. It's a long road, making a new series, but it helps a lot to know that people believe in us.

- Jeff Vogel

More information.

Vogel's recent post on his forum clarifies a few things, and keeps a couple others under wraps. Looks like some of the newer monies will go to creating new sounds, which I personally don't care about, but many might find enticing. Reading all this information has made me even more hopeful that, as development for this new game continues, we may see additional upgrades and changes.

I have one negative thing to say about all this and that is that I think his stretch goal (iPhone port) is simply pointless. iPad sure. In fact that's how I play his games. But I use a stylus and I'm on the 12.9 Pro! The game would be entirely unplayable on an iPhone so its money tossed in the hopper. Why not amp up the art assets with extra funding instead?

Oh I completely agree about the telephone version, just sounds like a waste of time and monies to me. I thought if I posted that on the kick starter comments I'd have everyone raging and calling me a negative Nancy, so I didn't go that route.

The negativity thing is baloney. Speak your mind and don't worry about it. Everybody is negative sometimes, and the "too much negativity" thing is just a bit of whinging about others being negative about the wrong things,

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Oh I completely agree about the telephone version, just sounds like a waste of time and monies to me. I thought if I posted that on the kick starter comments I'd have everyone raging and calling me a negative Nancy, so I didn't go that route.

There are some hardcore believers there and you’d get piled on. But how anyone can believe a phone port of this game will be playable in combat is just baffling. A stylus requires conductive energy hence a metal sleeve and there are none on the market that tiny. It would have to look like an old Nintendo DS stylus. Not sure if those work with IOS touch? You could make one but that’s ridiculous.

Well, Vogel's link to his most recent messages went up shortly after I made my post, so I'm hopeful that some of the comments made have been taken seriously. I wasn't the only one voicing concerns.

I think the problem is that as a one man shop there is not a lot he can add and still keep his timeline so he would have to become more creative to offer interesting stretch goals. He could offer things like previous games or bits done by third party like additional art but…

I trust in Jeff. He has a quirky writing style, but it has improved a lot, since he loved to use the annoying: "Two things happen fast at the same time…". I'm glad he outgrew it.

HE ALREADY DOUBLED THE MONEY!! Now ontoward tripling the amount!

Jeff has a very long blog on the game which explains why he chose the current graphic style among other things which is here:

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2018/…er-and-it.html

Some interesting tidbits:

Our earliest games, the Exile series, had a simpler top-down graphics style. Many fans have, over the years, asked us to go back to this. We're finally doing it. I like this style a lot. It's very graphically clean, and makes it clear what creatures are in what spaces, which is necessary for a game like this on small screens like the iPhone.

We're trying to give the series a nice unified look and interesting graphical effects. where you can always be sure what space you are selecting and where all the creatures are. Our games will never look that fancy. We can't afford it. But we do try to improve things with each new game.

Also:

I am obsessed with the history of Empires (successful and failed), and this comes through in the stories I write. This is appropriate. I am, after all, the citizen of an empire, and so are most of the people who play my games. I'm not ashamed of this. Sometimes Empires do good. (But often not.)

I love my country. But this doesn't keep me from thinking about my homeland and the power it holds, and what that means. These thoughts work their way through my brain, bubble and transform, and come out as game designs.

So this is another game about an Empire. But with a big difference.

You are not some peasant or bottom-rank soldier changing things from the bottom. In Queen's Wish, you are a prince or princess. You have power. You make the decisions, and you have to clean up the consequences.

You will be dealing with other nations, poor but proud, weaker than Haven but just as brave and determined. Each has its own history, beliefs, grudges and resentments. I want them to feel real, both sympathetic and infuriating, and then force you to deal with them..

And:

We're getting older, enough so that the end of our careers is in sight. We only have so many new stories in us now. That is why we've put a lot of work into planning Queen's Wish. I've been designing it in my head for years. It's a very personal project in a lot of ways, and I've thought a lot about what I want to say.

I don't know why Jeff thought this was too much information for the Kickstarter page. I personally think its a much better pitch than the one actually made.

Actually found the blog post more interesting than the kickstarter presentation.

Absolutely agree Kordanor, the pitch would have been much more substantial with some of that information included. Again, goes to that the sally forth could have been better, but at least the folks at Spiderweb seem to be listening to any and all comments.

He better start thinking about a 100K goal…

Interesting blog. I think it's great that he's funded, and that he follows his vision. But unlike his previous efforts, this game is not for me (I think). I'm fine with that and wishes him the best of luck.

pibbur who in the real life realm operates strictly from a 1st person perspective.

Yes, nothing to worry about here. Barring extreme circumstances, I'm sure the project will be delivered as described, and the people backing will be satisfied.

Given the product, at least from what I've seen of it, that's not really saying much.

No, and it doesn't do much for me. But, each to their own, and it doesn't make me think there's a whole lot of bullshit going on.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Yes, nothing to worry about here. Barring extreme circumstances, I'm sure the project will be delivered as described, and the people backing will be satisfied.

This is spot on. That being said…

I really like spiderweb games. I've been in since the first Avernum (not Exile), played all Geneforge, all Avernum remakes (including the last one which I enjoyed), and all Avadons (his weakest series IMO).

Finally a new series and he's even doing kickstarter, exactly what I've been wanting and waiting for. And….I'm not backing. If you had told me last year that Jeff would announce a new series and do a kickstarter and that I would not back I would have told you that you were crazy.

It's not bad, but it's nothing new. I don't need bleeding edge graphics but I admit I was expecting some kind of upgrade. He can't even get new freaking character portraits for his kickstarter pitch!! Come on man.

But then again it looks like he's going to triple his goal or more. Good on him. Once it's out I expect I'll buy it on sale and enjoy it. But I won't back the kickstarter. And I'll continue to believe that without that much more effort he could have had a much more successful kickstarter. I know he could have got me.

Why iPhone but not Android? Android is perfect for this type of thing. I have an 8" tablet (want a 10"+…soon) with a nice carbon stylus and these isometric RPGs are great on it. Jeff's previous attempt at an Android release had 1000 sales, which is very low for the platform. I remember being shocked that it only sold 1000. He could do a lot more business on there with these types of games if he pushed it more. I used to regularly see cheesier, lower budget games on there that weren't nearly as interesting as his stuff with 25,000+ downloads. He could do much better on there if he tried.

There is still a large opening on Android for quality CRPGs. Baldur's Gate was a massive success there.

Originally Posted by xenocide
This is spot on. That being said…

It's not bad, but it's nothing new. I don't need bleeding edge graphics but I admit I was expecting some kind of upgrade. He can't even get new freaking character portraits for his kickstarter pitch!! Come on man.

.

For what it's worth I posted on his blog that he should make the 100k goal more portraits, tile sets, and music. I'm hoping (encouraging even- hint, hint) other will do this as well, because his games could use more visual variety.