Game News Turn-based Isometric RPG Zaharia Now on Kickstarter

[OwNathan]

Well, not really. Being on kickstarter you should know it's all about presentation and smoke & mirrors

You’ve got a point there.

 

[hiver]

We're working to get the english fixed asap.

Or have a good looking female friend for the speech , as mentioned above, pledges will grow exponentially .

Does it sounds sad only to me? D:

Yes.

You want something good to be created? You want to make your good cause actually work instead of flunking - you will do that small step to help it.

I would not suggest anything or give any advice if i didnt think your cause if worth it.
Besides, you wont be lying or cheating anyone.

All you will do is provide western english speaking audience with a better, nicer intro.

Do it or die.

 

[Tormented Seph]

So the big plane is:

Bitches on the next video ---> BUNGA BUNGA! -----> PROFIT!

We need HIM....NAU!

Spoiler

 

[tuluse]

I have contributed to over 20 successful kickstarters and not one them has resorted to just shoving a pair of tits into the video.

Excidium is right that's it's about presentation, but it's about presentation of ideas.

 

[hiver]

I didnt say anything about tits. Did i say anything about it being cheap schlock?

Its about presentation of ideas? No shit. Look how far it got them so far and which is the most common critique of the first pitch.

Did i say they need to forget about ideas and presenting their drive and passion for the project?
Or did i just suggest a quick fix for one smaller problem?

get off your fucking high idealistic horses.



-
Nathan, there is two ways you can do this, if you go with it. One is a good way and the other is cheap bunga-bunga tits way.

I was counting on you knowing which one is better without needing me to explain it like youre some sort of codex village idiot.

 

[Mortmal]

We're working to get the english fixed asap.

Or have a good looking female friend for the speech , as mentioned above, pledges will grow exponentially .

Does it sounds sad only to me? D:

You will need a lot of advertisement, if you browse kickstarter its rare rpg projects from novice teams get 120K . Legends of dawn get 46K , conquistadores 77k . Send your prototypes to well known bloggers like angry joe at least .I've seen very promising stuff completely failing .

You should also show the juicy dialogue bits, like being able to swear you wont take the food and then betraying , the dark and gritty stuff. If darkest dungeon sold quickly there's a reason and they dont even have a demo. Iv've played the protoype so i know whats the game is worth but its not obvious when reading the page that the game is in fact quite close to age of decadence.

 

[Tormented Seph]

I have contributed to over 20 successful kickstarters and not one them has resorted to just shoving a pair of tits into the video.

Excidium is right that's it's about presentation, but it's about presentation of ideas.

Exactly...
I see a lots of ideas here...the problem is how to communicate them to potential backers who love turn-based RPG...
I think that the prototype could be the best way, because it's a real and tangible proof that shows how these guys aren't in the willing of joking...
But if people start thinking too much about "Form" and not enough about "Substance", this guys are fucked up...and it's not a good thing from my point of view: the project has some great potential...

 

[Lhynn]

I say Spoony would be more interested in this, also mrbtongue.

 

[hiver]

Dont be fucking binary simpletons. Both Form and substance need to be good and that means all smaller parts of that need to be good. The Devil is in the details - OF ALL SORTS.

There is no fucking choice between one or the other.

 

[NotAGolfer]

But if people start thinking too much about "Form" and not enough about "Substance", this guys are fucked up...and it's not a good thing from my point of view: the project has some great potential...

Define what you mean by form and substance. I guess what you mean by these words depends on your stance towards what makes a good game.
If substance entails story, setting and themes for you (so on the 'dex you're a storyfag) I would disagree because I think overdoing that stuff detracts from making a good game, you know, one that's actually fun to play (it's the same with board games, it doesn't matter what stories they tell if the gameplay formula is shit).
That's why I can enjoy a game like Risen that much which has incredible addictive gameplay (they were clever enough to just copypaste Gothic and give it the same smart enemy AI so fights become a real treat) but clearly no ambition when it comes to themes and any substantial brain fodder.

Mortmal:
You don't know how to insult Germans? Are you kidding me? We're like the most butthurt nation on earth when it comes to mentioning WW2.
If Nazi is too mean for you taste, hun gets the job done as well. And we know our cuisine and everyday culture sucks compared to yours (we don't even take our time eating, more than 15 minutes is wasting time) so "barbarian" stings too.
Just act culturally superior and we'll be defensive.
And our school system sucks ass too, too many cooks ...

You're not helping yourself...

Speak for yourself only.

 

[Tormented Seph]

Dont be fucking binary simpletons. Both Form and substance need to be good and that means all smaller parts of that need to be good. The Devil is in the details - OF ALL SORTS.

There is no fucking choice between one or the other.

In my opinion it is a matter of weight.
I mean, if a grammatical error in this case is worth more than the quality of the dialogue system or the C&C system, then that means you are giving more weight to form than substance.

You did well to report it, don't get me wrong, but here we risk to lose the real focus and purpose of an RPG like Zaharia.



NotAGolfer : I use a fast example: Alpha Protocol...
Shitty form (about bugs, stealth, gunplay and level design for example), but great substance for an RPG (about writing, non-linear narrative, dialogue system, perk system, using of dossier, impressive quantity of true C&C [not fake ones])...
Another example is Arcanum....the combat system is outrageously shitty and unbalanced/buggy (idem for some skills)...but the rest?
Mask of the Betrayer? Shitty combat and camera, but superb narrative, story, dialogues, writing, companion, using of stat/skill check, etc...
There are a lots of other examples (Bloodlines? FNV? ToEE? Etc...)...

Ok, the gameplay is an important part of a videogame, you're right.
But it is a matter of weight and depends also on the context (in this case RPGs), as I said.


By the way:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/753216

Fargo one of us! Fuckyes! o/

 

[hiver]

No, thats just because your thinking is binary extreme.

- those examples you mention are all from very well known developers and companies.

 

[NotAGolfer]

I'm still a little fuzzy on what you mean exactly because you can't handwave away the shitty combat in Arcanum and NWN2 as bad form imo. Seems too arbitrary, claiming that the gameplay part in games was just "form" because you like some particular games that much and you believe that their reactivity and C&C outweigt everything else.
But then again me assigning setting and story to mere form might be not that fair either. ^^

Anyway, I doubt this Kickstarter will take off anytime soon, which was to expect. No old fame/gaming industry background and the prototype features the usual 3D indie graphics (Unity again?) you see everywhere these days so it doesn't stand out ...
And the pitch video is too longwinded.
Anybody else thinking Fabio sounds like Borat? :D
...
Damn, I really like these guys, somewhat wish them to succeed, even if I don't have enough faith in their competence to pledge. That's the problem with kickstarter, I'm just not able to examine their pitch with the same scrutiny a publisher could and I know for a fact that most guys with dreams don't have the talent to match them.

 

[Decado]

Well, not really. Being on kickstarter you should know it's all about presentation and smoke & mirrors

You’ve got a point there.

Kickstarter is all about marketing, like it or not.

 

[Decado]

Also, Fargo just repped this game on their latest update. They will likely get a good dose of publicity from that.

 

[Lhynn]

Fargo is a bro, can i request the tag they gave to dildolos?

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Fargo is a bro

Did you read his latest interview? That sleazy salesman was stealing the credit of Fallout from Tim Cain.

can i request the tag they gave to dildolos?

 

[Dokkalfar]

Fargo is a bro

Did you read his latest interview? That sleazy salesman was stealing the credit of Fallout from Tim Cain.

can i request the tag they gave to dildolos?

You're kidding right? I don't think I could name a CEO who is as passionate about CRPGs as Fargo, every interview he does shows he has his heart in the right place and just wants to make good RPGs for the niche audience. I think he comes across as a very genuine person. He is for example far more in sync with his audience and their feelings than say Obsidian and their CEO Feargus, who's interviews range from ideas of making episodic Skyrim clones, to The Walking Dead clones. I would much rather Fargo, someone who understands the mentality and values of traditional CRPG gamers right spot-on, and thus can deliver to them what they want, then Obsidian, who on one hand say they are on the side of PC RPG and are making PoE, but on the other hand willing give blowjobs to publishers and shovel out garbage like South Park and other console action games. Only in retard Codex land can someone complain that there's now an entire mid-sized company, in glorious Orange County, California developer land, which is effectively now dedicated to making games exactly for their small genre niche. You're like the lucky chap getting a head job from Emma Watson, only to viciously knee her in the face, and then say 'Stop that! Your pandering to me!'

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Oh hi there. You must be Fargo's New butt boy.

 

[twincast]

On topic: Yeah, as others have pointed out: It sounds neat, and one can understand the text; doesn't change all the bad English leaving a bad impression. And kudos for setting a realistic goal, but ~$200k for a no-name indie game is simply asking for way too much to be successful, especially when other than a bunch of buzz words you only have a somewhat lesser used setting to stand out from all the similar-looking RPG's. The campaign itself is a lost cause, but use it to build yourself a reputation for Greenlight and Early Access?

Mortmal:
You don't know how to insult Germans? Are you kidding me? We're like the most butthurt nation on earth when it comes to mentioning WW2.
If Nazi is too mean for you taste, hun gets the job done as well. And we know our cuisine and everyday culture sucks compared to yours (we don't even take our time eating, more than 15 minutes is wasting time) so "barbarian" stings too.
Just act culturally superior and we'll be defensive.
And our school system sucks ass too, too many cooks ...

Hun? Huh? That makes no sense at all.

And while the Germanosphere's hot meals may for the most part be not particularly refined, it is the Kingdom of Bread, having by far both the most and the best specimens. ("French" baguettes and croissants are just slightly altered copies of traditional Viennese recipes. Bagels have also had some German influence to them. And the few truly non-German-or-Austrian breads suck hard - most due to being devoid of almost any taste whatsoever, the original Japanese ones due to being hella weird at best.) That said, the north is worse in all those aspects than the south, of course, and the latter has its big capital of cuisine (Vienna) split from it, so Germany can't lay claim to those quality meals.

And finally, our (Austrian) education system is at least as bad. What's so hard about simply adopting the Nordic system? Damn conservatards.

 

[cherry blossom]

I tried the prototype. The camera, man. The fucking camera. Not gonna be duped into another shitty Camera Manager The Role Playing Game.

The dialogue system is intriguing, I understand and like the idea behind it but the execution is very sloppy. The dialogue in the game is quite simply boring. It is too long winded, with too many choice-steps which don't look like they are significant at all short of the ones where you can use a skill. I understand that you probably want to build dispositions on the long term, with every little attitude choice adding over time but I can't imagine playing a finished game with such a high frequency of such small choices through the entire game. IF the writing were really good and interesting, then it might have been excused but to be realistic, the sooner you recognize that you won't get the writing to such a good level the better and change the design.

Also, I found the choices to be annoying, limited or stupid at times. A more naturalistic approach where options are present as part of an open ended dialogue system with procedural responses based on preset parameters and open to modification via skills might be a better fit (if that is the sort of thing you were aiming at) because currently, it's just traditional dialogue trees with easy labeling but the content of choices and the labels don't always match up, probably a byproduct of poor English. And given the state of your English, I imagine it will be huge pain in the ass to get all the quests and writing down in the game the way you want it. I predict a lot of communication problems in that area.

I actually sort of like the graphics.

What I don't really fancy is the overly simplistic character system. I am not certain how to explain this but the character creation lacks a particular brand of "magic". To me at least, character creation is supposed to be interesting, with choices that make you split hair. The proto has it too straightforward and simplistic. And I'm not particular fond of the "surprise" ability unlocks/relocks as you increase or decrease attributes. Oh and about that: that much change over main attributes rubs me the wrong way. Sort of like a Diablo kind of game way.

 

[Severian Silk]

I really like the idea for this game. But yeah, the video is a problem.

 

[OwNathan]

I really like the idea for this game. But yeah, the video is a problem.

We're working on it. No teaser, less maccheroni, more gameplay.