Slippery Jim

Holy crap that Christian Allen guy raised the $200,000 he was looking for...barely. He reached the goal with only 2 hours left thanks to a tweet from Notch (Minecraft fame). Notch saved Christian Allen from his own incompetence.

That Christian Allen guy is an idiot, lol (the guy from the tactical shooter kickstarter). He says he has learned a lot about "marketing" from his failed Kickstarter and will try again. Out of desperation in the final days of the Kickstarter he has started to listen to people and decided the game needed a title. He started using the lame title "project takedown" as someone suggested. He comes across as having no vision for the game since he can be easily influenced by people's comments. My favorite comment from one of the backers was this:

Hmmm, calling it a "tactical shooter" is really stretching it. I think of Swat 3 and Rainbow Six when I think of tactical shooters. That link was interesting though, thanks. Thanks also to Gorlom for the Kotaku link. I agree with that article for the most part. The difference between a hardcore tactical shooter and a typical modern first person shooter is fairly small and is only appreciated by a small audience. Sadly most people seem happy with BF3 or COD Modern Warfare kind of games.

In regards to that "Hardcore tactical shooter" Kickstarter, it seems suddenly there is a fury of activity on the Kickstarter page. He has posted a lot more and even included a bit of graphics on the main page. Too little too late. Why on earth did this guy not do it sooner? I see in the Kickstarter comments that many people have complained about the fact that he doesn't even have a name for the game. Looks like he is considering one now. The guy may be a good game designer but he doesn't know much about advertising, lol.

No, I think it is too early. The only thing I have seen is that he has hired an amazing concept artist: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/blog/

Odd, Avast isn't complaining for me.

The first donation was March 2. I remember seeing the kickstarter news on Blue's News at the start of the month (I thought on March 1st) but that is probably just my bad memory. It usually takes a few days before news like that gets posted. As for you becoming "aggressive", I have a long history triggering that with people usually unintentionally. I don't know what I do but I seem to end up annoying the crap out of people with my posting style. I apologize for my part in this, lol. In my overly wordy fashion what I am saying is that I think Chris will run circles around this first person shooter guy in most respects if he makes a Kickstarter. Xenonauts already has such lovely artwork, a nice website, and is already deep into a well made alpha. Sorry for de-railing this thread slightly. The amazing news is that Wasteland 2 is fully funded!! Woot! It reached over 1 million dollars in just 2 days I believe.

You seem to be taking this personally and to be spoiling for a fight. I don't see what I posted in another thread relates to this. This guy has done nothing to develop this game other than ask for money. He has no concept artwork, no game title, no ideas other than I want to make an old-school tactical shooter. So far he has only made 1 video and has promised a second. He obviously isn't spending all his time on his website either. Just what is he doing to instil confidence in his backers? Really? I have worked in Film and Television for 17 years. The majority of actors spend most of their time unemployed. The few you see making the big bucks are the tip of the iceberg. Huh? He started March 1 and it ends April 1. Today is the 15th. Nope, not exactly reassuring or professional. Either there isn't enough interest in this sort of game or perhaps people don't trust him with the money (or both). Come April 1st we will see who is correct. In most ways I hope you are right. I just don't think this is the right guy to get this game done.

You are correct there have been updates so I phrased this poorly (two of the updates happened after I posted earlier). Three updates were posted as soon as the Kickstarter page went live and then the creator seemed to disappear. Up until just today there wasn't another video from him. There is no message from him for about 15 days when today he finally posts a blooper reel to a video he hasn't posted yet. (side note: in this new "blooper reel" video you can clearly see he is shooting himself without any aid. This doesn't exactly instil confidence that this is anything more than a guy who lives in his mom's basement trying to get funding) 7 updates sound impressive but most of them are just junk. No meat. Saying that you "signed" an actor is a joke. The majority of actors are unemployed and it extremely easy to hire one. This isn't something to brag about. "Hey, everyone I found an out of work actor to give money to!". His website, other than a forum, consists of nothing but a link to Kickstarter page. He was too lazy to even post the meager info that he has on the Kickstarter page on his website...he just linked to Kickstarter itself. $200,000 for a first person shooter is ridiculously low. This type of game is the most expensive to make. He sounds like he doesn't know what he is doing by asking for such a low amount IMHO. With $200,000 he barely has enough money to license an engine. He certainly can't create an engine from scratch, make all the textures, make all the maps and 3D skins and animations, record dialog and sound effects for that amount. His time to fund the project is half over and he has only raised less than 25% of his goal. Not going to happen unfortunately. A shame since I love that sort of game. edit: after re-reading my post once again I notice how I suck at communication. Ultimately my point is that the Wasteland and Double Fine success is really due to not only the nostalgia factor but the names of the people behind them. They have a proven track record. For the people that don't have this proven track record then you better try your best to reassure your potential backers that you can be trusted to get the job done. I don't think the guy I linked to making the tactical shooter has done this at all. No artwork, no game name, no concrete ideas or plans at all.

Whew! Glad you were here to inform us of these things. Sorry, I am just being a jerk, lol.

Here is an example of a failed Kickstarter that should have worked if he had done it better: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/355932838/crowdsourced-hardcore-tactical-shooter?ref=category There are a lot of people who love tactical shooters (especially the Germans!) and really miss the old days. Now all we get are Call of Duty style arcade shooters. The guy has worked on some good classic games. What went wrong in my opinion? - His video is not well done. Doesn't build confidence with his potential backers. - After his initial post he has disappeared. No updates - Doesn't mention who his team members are. Is he just some guy in his basement? - He has worked on console games lately. PC gamers, who are into realism, would be scared by this. - His budget was unrealistic. $200,000 to make a 3D shooter? Doesn't sound like he knows what he is doing. - No artwork, specific design ideas, nothing. Makes it look like a pipe dream. Xenonauts would have a ton of great artwork, screenshots. Sure Chris doesn't have a long game production history behind him but he has already accomplished so much.

As I keep saying, after Double Fine's success I expect there will be a flood of "nostalgia" games. We have seen recently a Ravenshield/Ghost Recon remake and now this. Time to make that Xenonauts Kickstarter or get lost in the crowd! Okay now you are making me feel old. Wasteland was an awesome game (at the time). You should know though that the original style was completely different than Fallout 1 & 2. They were part of a whole genre of games that I loved ie SSI's gold box AD&D games, Wizardry, etc.

I always wonder if people consider how valuable Chris' time is when they ask him questions on the forum. Every time someone chats him that is just less time he has to concentrate on making the game

Perhaps they should delete the old cookies for the forum, then revisit the website. In Firefox go to OPTIONS> PRIVACY tab > click link "remove individual cookies" > type "goldhawk" and all of the cookies should show up to delete. Make sure you aren't in the forums when you do this though.

Much thanks Chris + Team. It is a shame you had to deal with two horrible messes lately ie website hacks & personnel issues. Glad to see you are back being creative. (click to enlarge image)

I guess I should have also said that once I see the Kickstart page go up I will probably open up my wallet, blow the dust and cobwebs out, and donate.

I would also like to say thanks for the update. I must admit that I too have been waiting to see how things progress before cracking out my wallet. Money is tight right now so I have to be careful what I spend on. As a mod maker I know how easy it is for projects to lose momentum (or sadly even die). I have been watching the situation with the AI and I am glad to see Chris has taken the difficult steps to get it back on track. Personally I think that getting the Kickstart fundraising going should be high priority considering the recent success of Double Fine. I think many people have become aware of this great system to fund projects and we will see a massive flood of "nostalgia" game start-ups. Don't get lost in the crowd.

Oh God, please no BSG references. I absolutely hated what they did with the new series. Almost as bad as the Stargate series. (Is this a good time to also bring up the fact that I HATED the Starship Trooper films? Read the classic novel instead). PS: Bah hum-bug

Is it time for a group hug? Don't make me do it since I haven't showered today yet.

Anyone remember the game Millennium 2.2 for the Amiga? I enjoyed that a lot but haven't been able to find a modern day game that is similar: http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=755 Update: I came across this free remake...gonna give it a shot later tonight: http://glitch01.wordpress.com/

Completely unimportant, but why the jump from 8.62 to 8.9?

Awesome artwork and design. I actually love the attitude from the scientist...as if he is too busy to talk to a control freak military man.

Yes, it definitely is a great idea to free up Chris to do other things. As a (hack) mod maker myself, I am always impressed to see how well Chris multi-tasks. The forums alone must suck up a lot of his free time. Welcome Matthew. Is working Q&A as mind numbingly boring as it sounds? I always wondered.

I volunteer to sacrifice a virgin in the name of Chris. Well, perhaps chat one up if anyone knows where I can find one (females need only apply).

I agree with Chris, the only "remake" worth getting is UFO Extraterrestrials. With the community mods the game is pretty good at filling the X-com craving.