Elite on Kickstarter...

[axel000]

Obsidian better known than Elite ? Where did you pull that factoid from ? I honestly don't think 30 is that high. The double fine RPG was ridiculous, no gameplay footage was even show; hell, no game design was even shown.

[pogo]

You really need to compare like with like, the companies. Here's a list of games made by Obsidian:

Code: Select all

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords
Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
Alpha Protocol
Fallout: New Vegas
Dungeon Siege III
South Park: The Stick of Truth
The Wheel of Time
Project Eternity

And here's the (longer as they've been around twice as long) list for Mr Braben's Frontier:

Code: Select all

Frontier: First Encounters
Darxide
V2000
Infestation
Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo
Darxide EMP
RollerCoaster Tycoon (Xbox port)
Wacky Worlds and Time Twister expansions to RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
Dog's Life
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
Soaked! and Wild! expansions
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Thrillville
Thrillville: Off the Rails
LostWinds (WiiWare game)
LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias (WiiWare game)
Kinectimals
Kinectimals: Now With Bears
The Outsider
Elite: Dangerous (previously called Elite 4) (upcoming game)
Kinect Disneyland Adventures
Coaster Crazy

Both lists from Wikipedia. I would say the games in the first list are far better known. Obsidian have in a only a few years made quite a name for themselves making RPGs. I could not tell you what Frontier is known for.

[Jamesac]

Yeah, sorry. Obsidian is better known than Elite. There's not a lot of wiggle room in there. Among the gaming crowd, Obsidian has done a load of stuff recently, and has the highly-anticipated South Park game on the way as well as Fallout: Vega under its belt. Elite? Those who remember it know it as a wire-frame space shooter from the 80s. One is a going concern, the other is a long time gone.

30 GBP, though? What the hell are they thinking? The object is to fund a game, not sell it full price. 20 GBP was the top of what I considered reasonable, and that's pretending you can actually do a dollar to pound conversion on what constitutes impulse buying. I may have to revise my opinion on the Kickstarter succeeding.

James

[Muttley]

In comparison two of the most successful recent games Kickstarters, Wasteland 2 and Double Fine Adventure, were rather cheaper: the full game was only $15, less than a third as much. They raised $2.9 million and $3.3 million each.

The game that raised the most of all ? Project Eternity by Osidian. And they also had a limited early-adopter price. But that price was only $20, was available to 25,000 backers, while the fallback was $25, only $5 more. Both prices were less than the £20 which you can no longer get Elite for (and Obsidian is rather better known).

I think they've really missed the boat on this: £30 is the most you pay for a boxed PC game today. Most are cheaper, and download-only games cost a lot less even high quality ones like Torchlight. If you want people to take a chance on your unfinished game you have to ask for less, a lot less, more like £10 than £30. Keep the £20 and £30 price levels for game + extras. Make backers feel they're getting a good deal getting in early, not overpaying for something that will certainly cost less once it hits Steam. If they'd done this instead of asking so much they'd be much closer to their goals now.

You argument is not really relevant until the final price is set for any of those games once it's completed. You have absolutely no idea how much they will be sold for to people who didn't back the Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is not a pre-purchase system, it's a way of funding development of a game.

[Darkflame]

Obsidian better known than Elite ? Where did you pull that factoid from ? I honestly don't think 30 is that high. The double fine RPG was ridiculous, no gameplay footage was even show; hell, no game design was even shown.

RPG? I thought it was a point and click?

Then again, at least one person I know backed it thinking they were getting Physconauts2....seem to be a lot of confusion at the start.

[Istar]

Not least regarding how to spell 'Psychonauts'...

[Little stoned kiwi]

Running out of 20's and moving on to 30's is very smart. It's no different from the odds on a popular horse changing if you wait to make your bet. The snowball effect will be amplified as the amount pledged will increase provided the increase doesn't effect the number of new backers. Some people not willing to bother with a struggling start-up will put money down on what they think is a sure thing.
It's either an incredible coincidence or a well thought out plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.

[axel000]

I don't get the mindset that its too much anyway, this is not a pre-purchase of a game, its funding a game that likely would never see light of day in its current design. Look at the sh!t that makes up modern gaming.

I'll gladly pay over 50 GBP to get what I consider outstanding games of high calibre made. We paid more in the SNES days for a lot of carts...

[Misfit]

I don't get the mindset that its too much anyway, this is not a pre-purchase of a game, its funding a game that likely would never see light of day in its current design. Look at the sh!t that makes up modern gaming.

I'll gladly pay over 50 GBP to get what I consider outstanding games of high calibre made. We paid more in the SNES days for a lot of carts...

For me I'm only vaguely interested as my hardware probably won't be good enough for it and I don't really tend to game on the PC.

A lower entry point to get the game digitally and I wouldn't have though twice. But at £30 I can easily leave it, especially at this time of the year.

[Darkflame]

Not least regarding how to spell 'Psychonauts'...

Give me a break, I have trouble enough with real words

[Darkflame]

Not any real eye candy - he talks mostly of designing the game in a way for cool features to be added later.
For example, going down on planets with cities and life...not just heightmaps.

He also briefly mentions sneaking onto other players ships - I love that idea.

[The ghost of raids past]

The cynic in me sees it as a way to release endless dlc.

[Firefox]

Anyone remember the one that came before elite with the big balls, wouldnt mind seeing a remake of that

Yeah! It was really good! Very tense, when you hoped you'd got your timing right and wouldn't be crushed...

(I think I actually played it after Elite, but it was definitely made before.)

[Kelloggs]

Gyron?

[Istar]

They're trending below target, so I've upped my pledge.

Would I pay 50 notes for the game on release to get it, plus the novella, music, my name in the NPC database, and access to the private beta? Maybe not, I'd probably pay £30. Which means my original pledge remains the same, to get the game made, and I've paid for it up-front if it does. And, of course, nothing if it fails to meet target.