KickStarter Apocalypse Now RPG by Monty Markland - terminated with extreme prejudice!

[MLMarkland]

Hey, I didn't see this: http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/14/14612286/apocalypse-now-video-game-kickstarter-killspace-problems

It's a good article and I enjoyed speaking with Adi Robertson.

The alleged quotes from some alleged anonymous game developers at a game studio ten years ago are complete fabricrations. I think normally people telling the truth don't feel the need to be anonymous about something that happened when George W. Bush was President and/or Obama was in his first year in office.

Larry Liberty mortgaged his house and I put in $100,000 to cover children's health insurance, people's mortgages, entire payrolls when Atari and Emergent went bankrupt. No one was unpaid. Everyone got every single dollar. Some of the people with an axe to grind were terminated for cause, but that happens at every company.

Anyone claiming otherwise is lying.

And surely they would have asked the Department of Labor for the alleged unpaid wages. It's very easy to get back compensation in California through an administrative hearing. No such hearings for Killspace ever took place because no one was unpaid because of Larry and I putting in money when we knew the company was already dead because it was the right thing to do. To take care of our people.

And unlike dozens or maybe hundreds of game companies from 2008-2012, Killspace never went bankrupt. Because Larry and I are good at our job.

American Zoetrope trusts us here nearly a decade later because we did the right things during the great recession. And we do the right things on a dozen video games since.

Including ensuring the delivery of games like Fallout: New Vegas and Wasteland 2.

Upwards of 80% of the real developers at Killspace have worked with Larry or I at some point in the past decade. We've gotten many of them jobs over the years. We launched many junior developers careers at Killspace. Some Killspace developers are back on the Apocalypse Now team.

But you can't make everybody happy in business, ever.

And if you try to you're living wrong.

But the article is fun fiction for sure and good reading.

And all press is good press.

Back to the main event.

https://apocalypsenow.com/pledge

 

[Zombra]

Wait, they remade Yar's Revenge??

 

[MLMarkland]

Wait, they remade Yar's Revenge??

Only by the grace of Lawrence Liberty.

Also it was dumb to remake Yar's Revenge in the first place.

We had a team filled with D&D experienced developers.

RPG developers.

And we said look, we've made NWN2, MOTB, a Planescape mod that would have been an expansion for NWN2 except Hasbro blocked it and a dozen other RPGs. Give us an RPG to make.

And Atari said nah and had us make Yar's Revenge instead of a D&D game.

That's why Atari went bankrupt. Because they made terrible stupid decisions like that.

Spoiler

 

[Bester]

I think normally people telling the truth don't feel the need to be anonymous about something that happened when George W. Bush was President

That's a complete lie. Of course they have to be. Otherwise they get the stigmata of being a snitch for their entire life, and their name would come up in regards to snitching, bad PR and possible NDA infringements whenever a potential employer would google their name. I have my name shit stained in the press in regards to such incident. Let me tell you, I'm fucked for life.

And all press is good press.

Sure is. If you didn't release this article yourself, you should've. Gives great exposure. The game that dragged me through the mud in the press got a boost of 100k sales from doing so, and it was a small indie game that just made 300k before that event.

 

[MLMarkland]

I think normally people telling the truth don't feel the need to be anonymous about something that happened when George W. Bush was President

That's a complete lie. Of course they have to be. Otherwise they get the stigmata of being a snitch for their entire life, and their name would come up in regards to snitching, bad PR and possible NDA infringements whenever a potential employer would google their name. I have my name shit stained in the press in regards to such incident. Let me tell you, I'm fucked for life.

It's an opinion, not a lie.

If I'm going to bag on someone, I put my name on the quote. Like I just did about Atari circa 2009.

But I appreciate your point.

And all press is good press.

Sure is. If you didn't release this article yourself, you should've. Gives great exposure. The game that dragged me through the mud in the press got a boost of 100k sales from doing so, and it was a small indie game that just made 300k before that event.

Agreed 100%.

I've asked people to ask more questions about Killspace and for the press team to encourage inquiries.

 

[Heretic]

Sorry, I don't trust anything The Verge (or any US coast based medium) writes.
There is a history of journalists looking for dirt at game personalities, anything to get those clicks - Brad Wardell, Denis Dyack, just now PewDiePie...
This sounds like just another hatchet job.

That said, I like the description of the game but I won't even consider pledging unless there is a meaty gameplay video, even if just from a prototype.

 

[Jarpie]

Sorry, I don't trust anything The Verge (or any US coast based medium) writes.
There is a history of journalists looking for dirt at game personalities, anything to get those clicks - Brad Wardell, Denis Dyack, just now PewDiePie...
This sounds like just another hatchet job.

That said, I like the description of the game but I won't even consider pledging unless there is a meaty gameplay video, even if just from a prototype.

My understanding is that old "traditional" media still fucking hates gaming industry, partly because they're "upcomers". Gaming companies will not get fair hearing in any fake news media.

 

[MLMarkland]

Sorry, I don't trust anything The Verge (or any US coast based medium) writes.
There is a history of journalists looking for dirt at game personalities, anything to get those clicks - Brad Wardell, Denis Dyack, just now PewDiePie...
This sounds like just another hatchet job.

That said, I like the description of the game but I won't even consider pledging unless there is a meaty gameplay video, even if just from a prototype.

My understanding is that old "traditional" media still fucking hates gaming industry, partly because they're "upcomers". Gaming companies will not get fair hearing in any fake news media.

100%

Which kek?

kek <------------- this one
kek
kek
kek
kek

I've been pushing to talk to Breitbart for 90 days.

Finally, I just reached out to the game & tech editor myself. We'll be talking soon.

 

[MLMarkland]

https://apocalypsenow.com/updates/update-3-gameplay-basics

There will be an RPG update in a few hours as well.

 

[Jezal_k23]

Feel bad about saying this but the latest update in which everything is literally stills from the film or other games, most of these games wildly different from each other, is not a thing that really inspires confidence or tells me anything.

 

[MLMarkland]

Feel bad about saying this but the latest update in which everything is literally stills from the film or other games, most of these games wildly different from each other, is not a thing that really inspires confidence or tells me anything.

We're speaking to a broad audience. Using a variety of images to get across ideas is a very effective way of communicating on the Internet.

We use hundreds of things to inform our work.

Basics first. Details second. More prototype stuff third.

When we crowdfund something you see more than just a final product.

The final product is six million dollars away.

Give it time.

We're not going to rush a piece of shit movie game out.

 

[Seaking4]

I've heard of typical modder but this thread makes it seem like we need a typical developer tag.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

get consolefags to contribute

"well some things had te be cut and the port just wasn't realistic"

 

[MLMarkland]

Welcome to shitty ideas from January 2017.

We're in the future now.

 

[Zombra]

Knee-jerks to the gameplay info:

* TAB to sneak? OK, I'm sure we can rebind this, but - make sure that run, sneak, and crouch can either be "toggle" or "hold" for PC. A lot of games make them toggles only due to console design. Horrible.

* I notice keybinds for lethal takedown and nonlethal takedown. I point this out not for your sake, Monty, but to draw other Codexers' attention to it as I'm sure they'll have entertaining comments.

* Difficulty modes look good, except - Realistic Mode combines high difficulty with minimal UI. Don't combine those. Let every player turn off UI elements if they want to without having to play high difficulty. I hate quest markers, but my twitch skills are crap. Let me play Normal but with minimal UI helpers. Take a page from the book of HITMAN™ which lets the player turn off each element individually.

 

[MLMarkland]

* TAB to sneak? OK, I'm sure we can rebind this, but - make sure that run, sneak, and crouch can either be "toggle" or "hold" for PC. A lot of games make them toggles only due to console design. Horrible.

Toggle and hold for sure. I prefer hold from ages ago 1990s probably? These keybindings are literally just what I prefer, people can definitely bind them however they want.

* I notice keybinds for lethal takedown and nonlethal takedown. I point this out not for your sake, Monty, but to draw other Codexers' attention to it as I'm sure they'll have entertaining comments.

It's preliminary, but I want to see multiple tactical modes that aren't hard coded but rather emergent from the gameplay tools we provide (Hitman: Blood Money is probably one of the best at this). Those portions of the design are starting points for stuff like that (along with Trapping and Throwing being usable in and out of combat among other things).

* Difficulty modes look good, except - Realistic Mode combines high difficulty with minimal UI. Don't combine those. Let every player turn off UI elements if they want to without having to play high difficulty. I hate quest markers, but my twitch skills are crap. Let me play Normal but with minimal UI helpers. Take a page from the book of HITMAN™ which lets the player turn off each element individually.

Great point. Probably just my initial bias of having strong twitch skills and not liking a lot of UI. I think fully customizable HUD and non-HUD ui elements is an easy engineering, design and UX task.

 

[MLMarkland]

https://apocalypsenow.com/updates/update-4-roleplaying-game-design-part-1-of-5

First of at least five RPG design updates. This one focused on the fundamentals of characters. Very few images for those logophiles ITT

 

[Zombra]

I have an important question, one that should be considered carefully before answering. This is not a joke or a dream.

Will Willard have legs in this game?

 

[CreamyBlood]

community
engage
engaging space
dialogue
"narrative"
the people
platform
the community

My favourite modern words.


Anyways, I liked the concept of what I was envisioning at the beginning. Might throw a few bucks into the fountain when the boat begins to float.

 

[MLMarkland]

community
engage
engaging space
dialogue
"narrative"
the people
platform
the community

My favourite modern words.


Anyways, I liked the concept of what I was envisioning at the beginning. Might throw a few bucks into the fountain when the boat begins to float.

Thank you.

I know there's going to be hardcore early backers and people that want to see how it develops over time. Thanks for giving it a chance.

I'm guilty of making up stupid buzzwords too.

Sometimes you have to get some asshole who used to be a toothpaste CEO to understand wtf you are on about.

But It means fuck all when explaining something to the public / audience.

I have an important question, one that should be considered carefully before answering. This is not a joke or a dream.

Will Willard have legs in this game?

Yes haha. How would you carefully step over a punji pit or tripwire if we just had a torso of Martin Sheen flying around the world lmao

 

[Feyd Rautha]

So this game now has $857,560 in pledges! That's almost reaching their old kickstarter goal of $900,000. However their new goal is $5,900,000 so we'll see if they'll ever make it.

I think I'll pledge when I get my next salary, this could be pretty cool.

 

[imweasel]

That is an average of 788.92 dollars per pledge. Ahem. ^^

 

[MLMarkland]

That is an average of 788.92 dollars per pledge. Ahem. ^^

Our Enlisted & Officer tiers have an average pledge of $200. Quite high. Higher than almost every other game with a crowdfunding component (Star Citizen is probably higher than that. Pillars, Torment, WL2 all averaged around $60ish).

The Advisor tiers knock things out of whack significantly. We have at least one backer at each advisor tier except the $1,000,000. We also include committed third party finance in the total figure (but we do not do crowd equity -- any investments we do are the old fashioned way).

This project is happening, but just like it took the team years to get to the point where we knew it, it will take the public a year to understand as well.

New videos in a new engine coming this week along with the full GDD (and two significant announcements up next).

Join our growing community at https://discord.gg/7BGsXSG

 

[Aenra]

Haven't followed this, after my initial questions and the typical, empty, PR shit for a reply, i went back to popcorn mode :D

But seeing they're still around taking pledges.. are these the non-refundable kind? ^^

I do commend the dude's calm and persistence though. I always wished i could do that, fuck around with other people's money and play it righteous. Sadly, was just not raised thus.

 

[MLMarkland]

Haven't followed this, after my initial questions and the typical, empty, PR shit for a reply, i went back to popcorn mode :D

But seeing they're still around taking pledges.. are these the non-refundable kind? ^^

I do commend the dude's calm and persistence though. I always wished i could do that, fuck around with other people's money and play it righteous. Sadly, was just not raised thus.

We do not charge backers when they pledge. We only collect the pledges one year from now.

We're not fucking around with anyone's money.

Also anyone can change or cancel their pledge at any time.