Realms of Arkania: Star Trail HD - less shovelware this time?

[Bubbles]

https://www.sternenschweif.com

Spoiler

Crowdvesting is the Next Big Thing in video game funding; whereas Kickstarter merely serves as a glorified pre-order mechanism to give shady companies your hard earned money with few mechanisms for reparations, crowdvesting platforms treat your investment as a loan to the publisher (i.e. you get your money back, but you won't get a free copy) and pay you dividends as well.

One of the biggest and most popular German publishers, UIG Entertainment, has decided to test the waters with one of the Codex's most beloved franchises. The site has not officially launched yet, but the same publisher is currently running a test project (already successfully funded) for another game with detailed conditions:

Gewinnbeteiligung: JA
Basiszinssatz: 4,5%
Minimaler Zeichnungsbetrag: EUR 100
Maximaler Zeichnungsbetrag: EUR 5.000
Vertragslaufzeit: 3,5 Jahre
Beteiligungsform: Nachrangdarlehen

If this holds true for the new RPG, investors would get a share of the profits and 4,5% interest (very good in today's market) over about 3-4 years, with a minimum investment of 100 Euros.
This is the chance for the Codex to make RPG history and earn some much needed site maintenance funds in the process.

And now for the "holy fucking shit" moment: the new project is Realms of Arkania: Star Trail HD

 

[Infinitron]

What? Do they mean investing in patches or what? It's already out. For a given definition of "out" at least.

 

[Bubbles]

You must have misread me! Check again.

 

[mastroego]

No, enough of everything.

I'll put my money of the next classic only when enough time has passed from its release that it can be safely argued that it's a classic.

 

[Bubbles]

Star Trail is already a classic, so there's no danger or uncertainty there. This project just wants to make a great game better.

 

[Infinitron]

You must have misread me! Check again.

Interesting typo you made there!

 

[Bubbles]

Interesting typo you made there!

Yeah, I constantly spell it as "Arcania", likely because the name isn't used at all in the German version. Fixed now.

 

[pippin]

Oh for fucks sake, the devs of the original had "legal problems" which kept this other remake abomination out of Steam for months and now this. Excellent, fucking excellent.

Poor Guido. And poor people involved with DSA. It's almost like Warhammer.

 

[Morkar Left]

The idea of bypassing banks is good.

Herre in praticular the idea of not getting a game copy or some goodie is retarded because nobody will see this as a serious investment. And Star Trail?

 

[hal900x]

If ever a series could benefit from a facelift, this is it.

 

[mondblut]

No.

 

[Cthulhu_is_love]

 

[Bubbles]

I feel like the mood in this thread has shifted since the title change.

 

[agris]

An investment model is a lot more financially rigorous for companies to be held to. It also requires a much greater degree of comprehension for the people doing the investment. Since we're talking about video game devs and players, this is destined to fail.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I think to some extent you can make an informed decision being a "player" and investing in game projects. But in this case, there are some red flags. It's subordinated debt (not too unusual) and they created a special purpose entity for the development, which means, it can go out of business without UIG having to pay up. So I wouldn't see it as an investment, but a Kickstarter like donation with the added benefit of getting the money back with some interest in case the game actually succeeds.

Larian should do it.

 

[HiddenX]

Where's the 'Nice boobs' option?

 

[vonAchdorf]

Where's the 'Nice boobs' option?

Expect some outrage in the German TDE crowd once this image gets known.

 

[Bubbles]

Where's the 'Nice boobs' option?

Fixed.

 

[Bubbles]

Star Trail HD has disappeared from Conda. I checked up on it almost every day, for obvious reasons, so this is a CODEX EXCLUSIVE report on a brand new development that could send ripples through the entire industry. What could it all mean? Feel free to speculate.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I missed the nice boobs. Where are they?

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

It's official. They are going to demake StarTrail too.

 

[Bubbles]

http://www.sternenschweif.com

- Unity 5.2
- Early Access planned for summer 2016, release for Q3 2016
- character import confirmed
- you will be able to enter ALL villages on the world map - a drastic improvement over the original game
- maps for new villages will be based on sourcebooks
- increased moddability
- radically improved animations and character models, as shown in the trailer:

Infinitron

 

[Morality Games]

Game literally couldn't have made more than a 1,000,000 USD and it's getting a sequel? This might make sense to me if it was developed in the Czech Republic, but it's 11-richest-countries in the world Austria.

The strange world of European RPG development.

 

[Bubbles]

Game literally couldn't have made more than a 1,000,000 USD and it's getting a sequel? This might make sense to me if it was developed in the Czech Republic, but it's 11-richest-countries in the world Austria.

The strange world of European RPG development.

Mein Name ist Christian Weinmüllner, ich bin Geschäftsführer und Projektleiter für das Projekt Sternenschweif HD. Da das Kernteam von Crafty Studios nur aus Ronald Haider und mir besteht, habe ich noch ein paar weitere Hüte auf, unter anderem bin ich für die Programmierung zuständig. Natürlich ist das nicht das ganze „Sternenschweif“-Team, neben einer hochmotivierten Truppe von Testern/Moddern/Umsetzungshelfern haben wir auch noch eine Reihe an externen Mitarbeitern, die je nach Bedarf für die Bereiche 2D- und 3D-Design, Programmierung und Leveldesign eingesetzt werden.

 

[NotAGolfer]

... haben wir auch noch eine Reihe an externen Mitarbeitern, die je nach Bedarf für die Bereiche 2D- und 3D-Design, Programmierung und Leveldesign eingesetzt werden.

Incompetent animators and modelers from the Unity asset store don't count, Christian.

radically improved animations and character models, as shown in the trailer: