Jump to content

What features would you like in the Funding Thermometer?


Chris

Recommended Posts

For the uninitiated, I've had the idea of a funding thermometer floating around in my head for a while. The basic concept is a kickstarter event where people can donate money, and once it reaches certain preset levels then we will add a new feature to the game.

It's partly a marketing gimmick to get more attention for the game, but also a serious way to raise more money. There's a couple of part-time team members who I'd love to bring on in a full-time role, most notably the lead coder and the weapon / vehicle concept artist. Unfortunately this requires a certain amount of upfront capital because they're not going to leave their jobs unless I can guarantee them a wage for at least a year (which is fair enough).

The idea would be to raise about $100k, which would pay for all the items on the list and also give me enough money to hire the lead programmer and the artist for a year. The three of us would then form the core of Goldhawk and would continue to contract out the other work as required.

If we do this, I think it's important that we make it worth people donating, so I'm trying to get a lineup of proposed additions to the game that get people excited. Here's what I've got in mind:

1) Soviet weapon pack - this is a replacement pack for the starting weapons, which are currently NATO weapons, so they are Soviet weapons instead. The player will be able to choose one or the other at the start of the game and they are identical in-game.

2) Tileset Specific NPCs - the civilians would be dressed appropriately for the tilesets they are in, rather than having general purpose civilians across all the maps. I think this will give a better impression of geography rather than the feeling everywhere is somewhere in or around America that often happens in games. This will also extend to the local friendly NPC soldiers, which is part of the reason why we have the Soviet Weapon Pack - you'd want Russian or Arab troops armed with AK-47s and RPGs rather than NATO style weapons.

3) Extra portraits - at the moment we have 25 soldier portraits. These repeat too frequently as is. I'd like to have 45-50 in the final game so there's more variation.

4) Alien Corpse Variations - at the moment we've got a corpse for each alien type, but as each variation costs about $50 each we've not done one for all of the different alien ranks (it'd cost several thousand dollars). Ideally though, we'd like to have a unique corpse for each alien race/rank combination that reflects their model.

5) Medals System - soldiers level up through combat experience at present, but there's no rewards for specific behaviour like getting seriously wounded in action, surving multiple missions or killing a dozen aliens. It'd be good to add a system where there were a dozen or so medals that soldiers could earn that would provide them small stat bonuses and add a little character to the troops.

6) Intro Movie - we don't have an intro movie at the moment. It'd be good to have one. I'm thinking something like the Homeworld one, which looks awesome but would also be affordable for us. It would cover the Iceland Incident and the origins of the Xenonauts, and maybe be 2-3 minutes long. Link to the Homeworld cinematic below as an example:

7) Community Prizes - I want to encourage people to help us out in the beta, most notably with mapping and the game balance. Therefore I'd like to offer a $1000 prize for the best mapper and the best balance patch, as well as smaller prizes for other outstanding members of the community in areas like generally being helpful or bugfinding. I'm hoping that will get a few people involved (as well as get a little press coverage).

8) Animated Ground Tiles - it'd be good to have some animated ground tiles for the ground combat, particularly in the UFO and the alien base. Glowing power cores and things floating in test tubes etc.

9) New GUI - This would basically involve rolling out the style of the Main Menu across the rest of the game. The idea is that instead of a glorified spreadsheet (which is how the game currently looks) we go for a more immersive hand-painted look that puts the player actually in the base. The layout of the screens wouldn't change that much, but I think it'd really improve the presentation.

10) Dynamic GUI - This is an improvement on the new GUI shown above. The basic idea is that your base and the personnel change as you perform in-game actions. As you research new technology, the people you're talking to change (so the head engineer might start with a blowtorch but by the end of the game has an alien cutting laser tool or something) and the backgrounds change too. So the research lab starts off looking pretty old-school but by the end has lots of advanced computers etc in it. I'd love to put this in.

11) Hire our staff full time - as mentioned above, this is the eventual aim. Having our lead coder go full time would help us immensely because he's working more than full time on his normal day job already and we're probably working at about 20-25% of the pace we could be because of that. Our weapon artist would basically be working for us at cost, which is pretty low given his rates for everyone else are about $100 an hour. Right now he's basically donating his time to us for free, which can't go on forever.

Anyway, I'm interested to hear if people have any ideas for other stuff we can add (NOT female soldiers) that would add to the appeal of the fundraising, or any comments on the above.

The funding would hopefully come mostly from people buying Standard and Premium pre-orders of the game on Kickstarter at the normal price ($20/$30), but we'd have a few other levels of commit too. We'd probably have a $2 and $5 'tip' level where you don't really get much extra for your donation (perhaps a wallpaper or something), and then some higher ones.

The higher ones would probably revolve around 'super-soldiers' which would have a 2% chance of spawning when you hire a new soldier. They'd have +5 to all their stats (so they're basically like a starting soldier). One level would give the super-soldier a chance to have your name and nationality, another would let you name it and choose a portrait, and the highest one would let you name it, choose a nationality and have us draw a portrait for it directly from your photo that you'd send to us.

So, yeah, thoughts? Do you like it? Does it come off as tacky? Interested to hear opinions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I support your ideas (except the increased +5 stats on the super soldiers)

The Animated Ground Tiles and Soviet Weapons would be very nice =) and an intro movie could probably double as a trailer.

I'm thinking what if people choosing the highest donate option (or donate 50$+ or whatever), get a creditation in the end credits?

Like; We offer a special thanks to these people for financial support in the developing this game; (a lot of names hopefully)

(Could be in addition to or instead of the picture/super soldier thing)

Edited by Lime
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like it, apart from no. 7. I can see that's exciting for those who know how to do it, but from the point of view of someone who has limited knowledge and likes to think he's contributed a bit already, I want to pay YOU to make the game good and add features etc. not randomly pay someone else, who could be me, but I just didn't have the skills required.

Otherwise good call and where do I sign up!?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two other ideas floating around in my head:

1) Geoscape AI Allies - At the start of the game, you only have one base and therefore can only protect part of the world at once. In order that part of the world isn't lost while you're powerless to protect them, it'd be good if each region had at least one NPC airbase in it that sent fighters out to engage the UFOs. These bases would be targeted by alien forces (maybe that's where the airborne terror sites could come in) and wouldn't scale up as the invasion did, so in a few months they'd almost certainly be destroyed. However it might buy you enough time to establish the Xenonauts wordwide and take the aliens on properly.

The second idea was for something we could do around the project - an art book containing the best artwork of the project and some information on the artists themselves. The idea is that premium pre-orderers would get it at cost, while it would be on sale at $10 more than that for everyone else. I'd have to look into the price for it (it may well not be worth it), but the one thing this project does well is the 2D art and it'd be good to start offering Premium pre-orders some kind of benefit...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yay art book! I have a fond love for art books :)

but anyways, i like alot of these ideas. as for the faction idea, I like it as long as you allow me to turn it off from time to time.

I like just me vs aliens! "You want the world? then your have to come past me!" is what i imagine my last xenonaut will be shouting when he is barley standing after being shoot, surrounded by his dead comrades xenonauts as the aliens come to claim him. :P

But i Love the rest of the ideas :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm liking all the ideas, especially the in-game additions like the Geoscape AI allies, Like if they formed a secret pact with the aliens then they wouldn't attack the aliens or send you on a wild goose chase with alien craft sightings, or if they're unhappy with your performance you may lose clearance to their airspace and they may attack you for patrolling in it or something like that.

Also like the idea of soldiers getting more photos and medals for doing certain outstanding things, kind of adds another layer to the soldiers and will make it even harder to lose a vet that has 'killed a hundred aliens' and gotten a shiny badge.

Edited by ZeElfenWaffe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again, I'm going to be the bad guy. Feel free to throw rotten tomatoes and eggs.

I'm not for the donation idea. You're not a charity. In fact I wouldn't donate anything to you unless I knew you would release something I look forward to. And this process is called "buying", not donating.

However, I would be glad to purchase cosmetic additions like new faces, a new GUI and such in a DLC form. Remember that DLCs aren't evil as long as they're non essential. This is the way Tripwire got more funds. They made useless character models and sold them as a mean to get money. And they got it. I didn't buy them because the skins were nice, in fact I found most of them fuck ugly. I bought them because the game rocks and I wanted to support them a little longer. It might work for xenonauts as well.

I would not recommend making gameplay DLCs though (geoscape AI). Players would feel like you're selling them the game bit by bit. You wouldn't want that. I would hate that.

My suggestion is that you make cosmetic DLCs (2$ here, 3$ there) and when you sell enough of them, make a free gameplay update for everyone.

Whenever you'll release a cosmetic DLC, more people will come to your website. You'll get advertisments on steam and desura... New customers will realise that the game is still supported and you will get new sales, even if they won't actually purchase the DLC.

Whenever you'll release a free DLC, people will be so grateful that on every forum, the xenonauts topic will get upped with an "I love Chris" message. This means more advertisments and more sales. Besides, you'll only release those free DLCs when they are already paid for by the other cosmetic DLCs. If you don't get enough support from the paying DLC, just move along. This is a win-win situation.

Oh, and two more things. First, do not make any promise concerning the free DLC, like "If I sell enough GUI DLC you'll get this and that" or you'll get a shitstorm from people who wanted something else in the free DLC, and you'll get another one if you don't release it. In fact, you'd better not talk about it. Surprise us. And secondly, make the gameplay enhancement optional, or else you'll draw an "I hate change" mob as well.

Edited by Nemeo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not quite sure I follow your logic, Nemeo - the idea's just an extension of the current pre-order structure, which is you pay now and the game will be better for it. This is just providing specific instances of how the game will be better if sufficient numbers of people buy it and we can raise that amount of money. And giving people the option to donate extra if they want to.

If the funding thermometer gets hit, everyone gets all of the features in the intial release of the game and I imagine the majority of there revenue would come from people buying the game by donating either $20 / $30.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11) Hire our staff full time - as mentioned above, this is the eventual aim. Having our lead coder go full time would help us immensely because he's working more than full time on his normal day job already and we're probably working at about 20-25% of the pace we could be because of that. Our weapon artist would basically be working for us at cost, which is pretty low given his rates for everyone else are about $100 an hour. Right now he's basically donating his time to us for free, which can't go on forever.

Anyway, I'm interested to hear if people have any ideas for other stuff we can add (NOT female soldiers) that would add to the appeal of the fundraising, or any comments on the above.

The funding would hopefully come mostly from people buying Standard and Premium pre-orders of the game on Kickstarter at the normal price ($20/$30), but we'd have a few other levels of commit too. We'd probably have a $2 and $5 'tip' level where you don't really get much extra for your donation (perhaps a wallpaper or something), and then some higher ones.

The higher ones would probably revolve around 'super-soldiers' which would have a 2% chance of spawning when you hire a new soldier. They'd have +5 to all their stats (so they're basically like a starting soldier). One level would give the super-soldier a chance to have your name and nationality, another would let you name it and choose a portrait, and the highest one would let you name it, choose a nationality and have us draw a portrait for it directly from your photo that you'd send to us.

So, yeah, thoughts? Do you like it? Does it come off as tacky? Interested to hear opinions.

You could always try to contact a publisher like Paradox Interactive!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mmmmm, it's possible. I was in contact with them about 9 months ago but they turned us down. Admittedly the game looked rather different in those days though. However, I suspect they'd want too much of a cut of the profits to make it worthwhile for us to do it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mmmmm, it's possible. I was in contact with them about 9 months ago but they turned us down. Admittedly the game looked rather different in those days though. However, I suspect they'd want too much of a cut of the profits to make it worthwhile for us to do it...

All I can say is that's their loss, you guys have done a great job so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could always try to contact a publisher like Paradox Interactive!

God no, not those guys. They force devs into unrealistic schedules which makes them release games far too early. Sword of the Stars II and Combat Mission Shock Force are just two examples that come to mind. Chris have you approached Matrix Games/Slitherine? They always seem supportive of indie developers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am all for this to get my portrait in the game. I think it'd be pretty rad to have some of the community members show up every once in a while in the game.

Edit: After reading page two of this thread, I agree with the idea of a Xenopaedia art book. I am way down for this. Hook it up ASAP so I can send you all my money, Chris.

Edited by Assoonasitis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...