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KickStarter Confederate Express - what is this I don't even

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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It looks like they're still trying to release something. The natural question at this point is "Why?", but I guess they have nothing else to do with their lives but try to salvage their name as designers. Maybe they just want out from under the obligation to issue refunds. One would think that changing their names and working in a Midwest gas station would be more sensible, but there you have it. Everything that made the game interesting in the first place has been summarily cut, leaving us with a "minimal visceral" zombie mole popper.

Update #12

Sep 23 2017

Budget and Scope

Based on original design, the scope of Confederate Express was enormous.

With 24 different playable characters, multiple classes, procedural world exploration and squad-action tactics - no wonder the estimated budget was a whopping $400k.

Our plan for kickstarter campaign was to intentionally set the donations goal low - that way we could at least get a solid vertical slice out of it to show later to investors. Even though our campaign's performance was stellar (earned $1 for every pageview) - we were not featured by KS staff; and therefore were left to figure out a way to get the rest of the money ourselves. That's where the ugly plan to pivot with Knuckle Club came from - ultimately leading us to a whole year of wasted time and effort.

At that point - there was absolutely no chance we could get outside funding, so the only way to finish Confederate Express was to roll up our sleeves and do it on our own - just the two of us.

First, we slashed the game's scope. No more procedural world exploration, no squad-action, no vehicle mechanics. The idea was to create 50 levels and just load them one by one - starting with easiest ones and saving most difficult for the last. This way we won't have to be stuck trying to reinvent the wheel or become an endless feature factory.

The end product was a minimal visceral exprience, focused on player control micromanagement and spiced up with handmade animated visuals engaging spectator's imagination.

Even though it saddens us to see Confederate Express not reaching it's original vision - we still got many exciting accomplishments out of it. First, we have created False2D™ - an incredible production tool that was instrumental in reducing workload greatly, saving us time and money. We also accumulated an extensive indexed library of animations, all adhering to a strict standard. This library is a foundation for the future work in aliasing - our proprietary image scaling technique - which we have great plans for. We strongly believe that aliasing has a great potential in competing with AAA 3D visuals in the future.

Fast forward to 2017, we are reaching the end of production, and the game is getting closer to becoming a reality every day. We are still shaping up things as we move along, but the core objective is to get the game shipped, at any cost.

Please join us next week for our Monthly Progress Report update, where we will showcase the work completed for the month of September as well as future plans.

We appreciate your support!

Dennis & Max
 

Zombra

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From the update comments:

Zombra 10 minutes ago
No mission generator, no party management, no economy, no squad mechanics, no classes, no crew portfolio, just walking through static levels clicking on zombies?
Why bother at this point?

Maksym Pashanin Creator 2 minutes ago
@Zombra
We love to make games. Whether people like them or not is unrelated.

:lol:
 

Merlkir

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I've played the demo. The controls are awful. I couldn't get far, because they're so unwieldy. What even is this?! The graphics are kinda nice.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
"We love to make games, Whether people like them or not is unrelated."

Scamming is their favourite game, obviously.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
... Steam page, coming in two weeks probably:



REVIEWS
“One of the biggest scams in Kickstarter's history”
Kotaku

“Confederate Express has been a scam from the beginning”
Destructoid

“The entire thing was a scam all along”
Gamasutra

ABOUT THIS GAME
Featuring one-of-a-kind tactical gameplay mechanics - Confederate Express is a masterfully handcrafted intense visual experience created by an infamous developer - Maksym Pashanin.

Set in dystopian future, you assume a role of a brutal exterminator trying to deliver a mysterious package. Navigate through 50 seemingly impossible scenarios, obliterating your enemies into an explosive waterfall of blood and gore, all while your skills are constantly being challenged by an increasing number of vicious enemies using deadly tactics.

Confederate Express boasts an unmistakable visual style - "aliasing" - powered by a proprietary extreme-performance rendering framework - False2D™ aliasing engine. This technology allows for an unparalleled visual fidelity, transforming a collection of over 50,000 hand drawn animation frames into a spectacular masterpiece of visual storytelling.
 
Joined
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Messages
1,370
Those system requirements tho. Is it a joke?
I suspect they used the "fake it 'til you make it" approach to programming. The alphas they released last year were notoriously inefficient, especially the Windows one (they developed it for Mac and later ported it to Windows)
 

Beowulf

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I wonder if there's actual gameplay now.
From the steam page:

Featuring one-of-a-kind tactical gameplay mechanics - Confederate Express is a masterfully handcrafted intense visual experience.
[...]transforming a collection of over 50,000 hand drawn animation frames into a spectacular masterpiece of visual storytelling
 

Black_Willow

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... Steam page, coming in two weeks probably:



REVIEWS
“One of the biggest scams in Kickstarter's history”
Kotaku

“Confederate Express has been a scam from the beginning”
Destructoid

“The entire thing was a scam all along”
Gamasutra

ABOUT THIS GAME
Featuring one-of-a-kind tactical gameplay mechanics - Confederate Express is a masterfully handcrafted intense visual experience created by an infamous developer - Maksym Pashanin.

Set in dystopian future, you assume a role of a brutal exterminator trying to deliver a mysterious package. Navigate through 50 seemingly impossible scenarios, obliterating your enemies into an explosive waterfall of blood and gore, all while your skills are constantly being challenged by an increasing number of vicious enemies using deadly tactics.

Confederate Express boasts an unmistakable visual style - "aliasing" - powered by a proprietary extreme-performance rendering framework - False2D™ aliasing engine. This technology allows for an unparalleled visual fidelity, transforming a collection of over 50,000 hand drawn animation frames into a spectacular masterpiece of visual storytelling.

Those reviews :lol:
 

Zboj Lamignat

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8i1e7nG.jpg


Gotta hand it t them, this is pretty funny:lol:
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
What? What patch?: http://steamcommunity.com/games/771370/announcements/detail/1656636766762123603

Patch 1.1

- macOS support added
- Russian localization implemented
- Scene 04 now contains a Store
- Lynx Dash cooldown increased from 1.05s -> 1.2s
- misc. bug fixes

I guess it also magically reduced system requirements:

RECOMMENDED:
  • OS: 10
  • Processor: 3.7 GHz Quad-Core i7
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: GTX 680 4GB VRAM, OpenGL 4.5
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: Display Resolution 2560x1440
 

Zombra

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He also updated the "ABOUT THIS GAME", even more amazing than before:

ABOUT THIS GAME
AUTHOR'S NOTE
In the era of Fake News and deceptive media, my game is a poster child of a witch hunt gone wrong.

The video game journalists said this game was a sure scam.
The news media slandered me for exercising my legal rights.
And the backers, given up on me years ago, were happy to fuel the fire.

But the thing is, these tricks didn't work. Against all odds, Confederate Express is finally here, and it is simply superb.
With unmatched visual fidelity and state-of-the-art rendering technology, there are no analogues available anywhere. Confederate Express is a pinnacle of technological advancement in 2D gaming, 5 years in the making.

GAMEPLAY

Featuring MOBA-like tactical gameplay mechanics - Confederate Express is a serene visual experience with a tranquil atmosphere. As it starts off with a relaxing stroll - the game progresses - and you are faced with an ever increasing challenge, at times seemingly impossible to overcome. Difficulty was meticulously tweaked and balanced, making it fun to play and challenging at the same time. Reaching the last level 50 is an achievement on its own, as the game features unforgiving permadeath.

LORE

Set in dystopian future, you assume a role of a brutal exterminator trying to deliver a mysterious package. Navigate through 50 seemingly impossible scenarios, obliterating your enemies into an explosive waterfall of blood and gore, all while your skills are constantly being challenged by an increasing number of vicious enemies using deadly tactics.

TECHNOLOGY
Confederate Express boasts an unmistakable visual style - "aliasing" - powered by a proprietary extreme-performance rendering framework - False2D™ API. This technology allows for an unparalleled visual fidelity, transforming a collection of over 50,000 hand drawn animation frames into a spectacular masterpiece of visual storytelling.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
He also prepared his own EULA than the standard Steam subscriber EULA: http://store.steampowered.com//eula/771370_eula_0

I think it's not that common a small indie game on Steam to have its own EULA. It seems fairly standard to me (disclaimers, fan creations, class action waiver [yeah], and others), but I am not a lawyer and didn't bother to read it all.
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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There's some amazing stuff in that thing. My favorite part so far:

Don't forget that Maksym Pashanin still owns Confederate Express and related content, and if Maksym Pashanin wants, Maksym Pashanin can take away your permission to use Confederate Express at any time if necessary.

Also, didn't this guy used to have a brother? Probably buried him near where they hid the gold.
 
Last edited:
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There's some amazing stuff in that thing. My favorite part so far:



Also, didn't this guy used to have a brother? Probably buried him near where they hid the gold.
Yeah, Dennis Pashanin IIRC. They both appeared in the original Kickstarter pitch video.

Maybe his brother ate him, or he's living in some meth den in the midwest, who the fuck knows...
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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When I saw that EULA, I found myself in the novel situation of desiring to pirate something I already had legal access to. :lol:
 
Last edited:

Modron

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Maybe his brother ate him, or he's living in some meth den in the midwest, who the fuck knows...

The brothers were the two who basically sequestered themselves in that air bnb and didn't leave it for like a near a year abusing some kind of renter laws or something right?
 
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The brothers were the two who basically sequestered themselves in that air bnb and didn't leave it for like a near a year abusing some kind of renter laws or something right?
Yeah, those are the guys. I hate that type of law; it's supposed to prevent abuse but ultimately ends up being abused by social parasites. I have seen that too many times in this corner of Spain, we have similar laws.

To make matters worse, the landlord cannot just cut off utilities or stop paying for them.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
He removed Kotaku and Destructoid's "reviews" and the author's note. I guess it's due to Valve's "suggestion."

Also: http://steamcommunity.com/app/771370/discussions/0/1697169163409831948/

Backer keys?
Hi there,

Since the game is coming out in a few days and there are patch notes already, when will those of us Kickstarter backers who were supposed to get early access codes be receiving one?
There will be no rewards sent.
Instead, every backer will receive a refund - first round starts in Q4 2018.
 

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