RPGWatch Feature - Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness Interview

Oh look broke my rule about not posting again in this thread.

Moving on it looks like it will be funded in a few days, but like others have said I'm not that happy about the developers not sharing any new game-play videos.

Also it's good to see a kickstarter game funded as most fail nowadays.

@Ripper I think you should launch your project ASAP while it's still in fad

Originally Posted by Ripper
Next time you see an Infinity Engine clone with very little content, don't back it, because it will be me, trying my luck. Don't tell anyone.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
@Ripper I think you should launch your project ASAP while it's still in fad

Maybe a new detective style Infinity Engine clone. The protagonist can even have a dog who helps sniff out corruption, and scams. Don't forget to ask for at least $100,000.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Maybe a new detective style Infinity Engine clone. The protagonist can even have a dog who helps sniff out corruption, and scams. Don't forget to ask for at least $100,000.

I'm in, if it offers a cat as well as a dog

I like it. I can almost smell the delicious backer money.

The best case scenario, of course, is that Black Geyser is funded, turns out to produce a fine RPG, and proves me wrong.

On the other hand, if it turns out to be a farcical disaster, I will get to do my "I told you so" dance, which I'm sure everyone is very much looking forward to. But, I think a successful game would be marginally a preferable outcome.

Depends on the dance.

Interesting concept, this greed thing. I wonder why no developing studio had been taken that before ? I mean, nowadays games want to be oh so realistic in so many parts (especially in combat) - but then not in this ?

Funded! Congrats to the Black Geyser team.

And there's a new gameplay video: https://youtu.be/-pSJz12US9g

Yeah, trouble is, that's awfully similar to what they already showed two years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOaz0_h05AU

It doesn't do much to persuade me there's much more content to be seen.

If you mean similar in that it's obviously the same game, yeah.

They've revamped the UI since then, but I'm not sure how different it's supposed to be now considering it didn't look too shabby as it was.

If I do have a complaint though it's that something seems a little off about the speed of the combat.

They actually had the current UI back then. This was an even older video, which is why they titled it with "old UI".

What I'm saying about the video relates to what we were talking about before - my suspicion that the game is nowhere near as complete as they claim, and whether there would be a video that would do something to show off more diverse content.

Well done on crossing the finish line!!

Originally Posted by Ripper
They actually had the current UI back then. This was an even older video, which is why they titled it with "old UI".

What I'm saying about the video relates to what we were talking about before - my suspicion that the game is nowhere near as complete as they claim, and whether there would be a video that would do something to show off more diverse content.

More diverse than what? What they show looks to be a fairly complete system, and they've shown more gameplay than most kickstarters I've seen. Of course it should be considering how long they've been working on it.

How complete do they claim it to be?

In the other thread, Morrandir suggested that they might have had trouble getting investors because they didn't have much to show that was in a presentable state. The PR guy replied:

Originally Posted by Rothgor
Fortunately, the game is much more than just presentable. It's almost finished.

And on the KS page, it reinforces this:

We are not launching this campaign to start from scratch, but to get through the finish line. The engine (a tailored, extended version of Unity) and the most important features of the game are already finished. Most of the game content is also done.

So, a number of people have questioned why, if that's the case, have they not showed more and varied content, rather than media that is from two years ago, or new media showing similar things in the same areas.

For me, rightly or wrongly, I suspect that they are not being straight with us, that it is nowhere near complete, and not well-funded by investors. I just said before, that if they showed us a good selection of content from different areas, that would help to change my mind. They probably don't care very much about convincing me - it's just what I'd like to see.

Well anyway…. congrats guys!

the most important features of the game are already finished.

Well they have their combat system in place, multiple enemy types, different areas complete with terrain and buildings, dialogue system, animations, etc. The game looks largely finished to me at least as far as the underlying system is concerned. He could be telling the truth there, but what the "most important" features are might be different depending on one's perspective.

They've shown both combat and non-combat situations in different areas. I suppose they could show those things even more just for the sake of showing more areas, but I guess they don't feel the need to. I think they're being honest about the core features being complete, but that doesn't mean there isn't still a lot of work to do. I would like to know how much of the actual game world is fleshed out.

I'd also be interested in hearing what their estimate is regarding overall game length. Have they mentioned that somewhere?

They've said around 80 hours for the main campaign, and two expansions of 15-20 hours. So, that's a similar scale to POE, for which the systems and content of the main game are almost complete. If that's the case, an awful lot of work has been done, and a great deal of money invested.

That's a lot more than I was expecting. It could be true, but it doesn't say anything about quality. For instance, how many different enemy types, etc, compared to PoE. If it's that long but without enough variety to keep it interesting, I'll be pretty disappointed.

I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Yeah, and I just find it doubtful. My guess is they've blagged a few things, and they have unrealistic ambitions for what they're going to do with 50 grand.