Wasteland 2 Kickstarter

[Slippery Jim]

Incompetence - I dunno. He sucks at marketing. Doesn't mean he can't create a game. =P

Perhaps, but I think they are connected skills. It shows a lack of creative thinking on his part. It shows a lack of effort.

Below are a few interesting quotes from people on other forums:

Roshin says:

As an old fan of tactical shooters, I should be all over this, but I’m not. I’m just not convinced that they can deliver a decent tactical game. It was handled badly from the start and it’s still not certain thing, as they apparently have to court investors now.

Drake Sigar says:

I think anyone who paid for this is even more insane than those people who blow a hundred quid on a special edition boxset. This guy doesn’t have a massive reputation like Schafer or Fargo, he uses images without permission, and asks for large sums of money with the end goal of enticing his mysterious ‘financial investors’.

Khemm says:

A few people I talked to were reluctant to support this project because of the whole “we need to go to publishers anyway”, the fact they had no assets/concept art to show and that what little they showed were photoshopped pictures. It really was a kickstarter done in a very unprofessional way from the start.

Personally I think this guy will take the $200,000 and use it for living expenses. He will fly around the country first class trying to court investors and will produce nothing. I hope I am completely wrong since I love tactical shooters like Swat 3. I hope he gets his act together.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Slippery Jim

[Ziggarius]

Perhaps, but I think they are connected skills. It shows a lack of creative thinking on his part. It shows a lack of effort.

Below are a few interesting quotes from people on other forums:

Personally I think this guy will take the $200,000 and use it for living expenses. He will fly around the country first class trying to court investors and will produce nothing. I hope I am completely wrong since I love tactical shooters like Swat 3. I hope he gets his act together.

Linky: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/355932838/crowdsourced-hardcore-tactical-shooter/posts/200947?ref=activity

Hey all,

It has been a crazy couple of days, but we wanted to post an update to let you know what was going on following our successful funding drive.

First off, we are immersed in boring business stuff. Lawyers, accountants, contracts, etc. Unfortunately that is part of running a business, even an indie studio. We are also knee-deep in resumes, and need to sort through them, please keep an eye out at Serellan.com for a special email address if you are interested in sending your resume.

Next, we have lots of meetings with investors in the next few weeks. The great news is that the attention paid to the Kickstarter project has drawn the attention of multiple different investor groups, so instead of a few as we had before, now can shop around for the best deal with the understanding that they will allow us to make the kind of game we know you want. In fact I am flying out tomorrow to meet with one.

The forums will also be going through a restructuring, to support the different Kickstarter levels of involvement and transition from a “get this done” setup to a “what do you want” setup, keep an eye out at www.serellan.com/forums and if are a KS supporter and don’t have your access, search for the Kickstarter thread to get your badge and forum access.

We have been getting A LOT of message from folks who missed the KS campaign but still want to be involved in the project, and how they can attain an equivalent KS level. We are investigating a Paypal solution for this, and hope to have it up within the next week.

Lastly, we need to breathe. I especially need to spend some time with my family, who have rarely seen me in the last few weeks, so I am going to take them on vacation (with a few days broken up to fly out and meet with investors). And for you cynics, NO this is not on Serellan LLC (or KS pledge’s), dime, I booked this a few weeks ago. You won’t see pics of me waving money around, we are here to make a game, nothing else.

Look to see more press about TAKEDOWN, as we have received a TON of interview requests from various news sites. We will be a bit selective in the ones we approve, favoring the sites that took time to cover us when we were “nobodies,” and not the ones who just want to run stories after the fact.

If you have sent a message on Kickstarter, please know that we have hundreds to work though. We will get to yours, and get back to you, but it will take some time.

It’s been a crazy month, and a crazy few days. Thanks again for your support, and please come to the forums and participate at www.serellan.com/forums. We’ve had to up our server bandwidth due to the massive traffic recently, so come take advantage of it!

Thanks,

Christian Allen

@Serellan

Creative Director

Serellan LLC

Sounds like you're already wrong Jim. Time will tell on just how good of a game comes out of this though.

[Chris]

Well, good luck to the man then.

[Ziggarius]

Yah, I hope he does well with it. The guy definitely came across as more of a programmer and mechanics than a story/designer type, but I think he can make a solid game from the mechanics side. The question is if he can pull in the people needed to make it good story, and art.

[Gorlom]

are we talking about Brian Fargo or Christian Allen. I get confused by the title of this thread =P

[The New Romance]

are we talking about Brian Fargo or Christian Allen. I get confused by the title of this thread =P

Christian Allen. This is now the official "All Things Kickstarter" thread, or so it seems.

[Kilrathi]

Now there are also Kickstarters for a Shadowrun game and a remake of Leisure Suit Larry (which amazes me, given that even at the time it was released, that didn't seem all that interesting, and you'd think those horny teenages would have grown it into adults with something better to do - or did I miss the boat on that one?.

[Slippery Jim]

Sounds like you're already wrong Jim. Time will tell on just how good of a game comes out of this though.

Not yet I am not. Anyone can say "I have meetings with private investors" and it doesn't make it so. Christian Allen only raised $200,000 in the hopes of getting some investors and hasn't promised to make a game with that. He can blow the seed money any way he wants.

I especially need to spend some time with my family, who have rarely seen me in the last few weeks, so I am going to take them on vacation (with a few days broken up to fly out and meet with investors).

...and so it begins. He barely did anything for the first 3 weeks of his Kickstarter. Claiming his family didn't see much of him is a joke unless he spent all that time at the bar

Edited April 5, 2012 by Slippery Jim

[Gazz]

Now there's a heap of accusations. Can you prove 'em?

[Gorlom]

I think Slippery Jim secretly pledged 50 000 of those 200k and is very hopeful about this project, but is now badmouthing it so he doesn't get his hopes up too much.

[Slippery Jim]

lol, no I didn't back the project. I am just very interested in the sort of "old school tactical" game this fellow is trying to make. I really hate to see a Kickstarter done so badly and not just for this genre of game. I hate to see people who might abuse the Kickstarter process and possibly lower the confidence that people have in it now.

I know I am taking it too personally. Christian Allen may turn out to be completely 100% a good, honest guy. Crazier things have happened, lol.

[Gorlom]

Slippery Jim if you want to check out someone that has truely failed at makeing a kickstarter page search for "free will". You will get a few results but the one you want is a graphic novel project named "Free will" and has 5 or so robotic kids as the main image.

It's one image.

The text is just a summary of the story

He doesn't introduce himself (beyond a name and location) or tell us what the money is going to.

He hasn't made a single update

He has a link to a homepage which appears to be a collaboration of a few graphics designers. The free will project is listed under "movie ideas" instead of graphic novel. Nowhere on the homepage is his name listed so for all we know the person makeing the kickstarter project just stole the image and copypasted the summary.

He has a ridiculous high goal of 25 000 for a graphic novel. atleast compared to other projects.

He offers a poster at 50 dollars and a copy at 100 dollars reward ters which just boggles my mind.

He doesn't seem to have made any advertisement outside of kickstarter for it. (There isn't even any on the homepage he has linked which just contributes to the copypaste theory)

He launched it on march 19 and last login was march 26 so he has acctually checked back in at least once. But still hasn't managed to get any pledges in 15-16 days.

I don't think this guy has done anything right except possibly meet the minimum requirements for launching a project.. if you consider that "doing something right"

If this isn't either a scam or something set up to deliberately fail I'm going to have to travel to USA just to ask wtf is wrong with him.

(PS. if it is a scam or deliberate fail I know what's wrong with him and therefor don't have to ask)

Edited April 5, 2012 by Gorlom

[Gazz]

And speaking of against-all-odds projects, Shadowrun returns.

[Slippery Jim]

Slippery Jim if you want to check out someone that has truely failed at makeing a kickstarter page search for "free will".

Yikes! I almost feel sorry for that guy (or perhaps embarrassment). 0 backers. Harsh

[Jean-Luc]

Here's the first piece of WL2 concept art:

Along with the latest update.

[thothkins]

I'd not heard of this one. I have played the tabletop RPGs that the developers were involved in and enjoyed them. It's a really good added perk in these forums, picking up on games that would have totally passed me by otherwise. I'll take anotehr nose at this one.

[Hellstormer]

I do NOT know how I missed this one but I did! ARGH - me wants soundtrack

[Commissar Pancakes]

Gah!!! Completely forgot about Wasteland 2!!

[BobbyDylan]

Also missed the boat on this. I only boarded the Kickstart train after it was mentioned here, and there was word that ther might be a Nexus: The Jupiter Incident 2 kickstarter comming in a few months.

[Gorlom]

Slippery Jim: You are going to love this kickstarter I just found

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jasondelaney/cyber-shot?ref=category

He's even worse off then Christian Allen was. He's a college student and doesn't seem to have any additional funding unlike Christian. Yet he is asking for just as much money... You will love him

His pitch: "We will focus on the singleplayer campaign and create a strong and immersive story/campaign." (plus he intends to include a lot of cool feautures that will probably take away from the story )

[Gauddlike]

I like his breakdown of where the money will go.

~50% Will go towards paying the team to make the game

~30% for programs and equipment

~10% for the KickStarter Rewards

~10% Misc/unforeseen expenses

So basically 150,000 dollars to pay this bunch of college kids to make their own game.

[Gorlom]

I'm amazed that people have already pledged to it.

I wonder what licensing the unreal engine 3 will cost? Do they want upfront payment or take a share of the profit? How would that work with kickstarter in some regards essentially is a preorder platform?

[Gorlom]

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-power-of-kickstarter-behind-the-scenes-of-the-successful-drifter-campai

Someone elses thoughts on his kickstarter campaign.