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Re: Shadowrun Returns Funded; Mac Threshold Reached |
Apr 6, 2012, 00:01 |
Creston |
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The Half Elf wrote on Apr 5, 2012, 22:41:
I have a question. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but what happens when developers can't deliver? Are we going to have another dot com bust?
I would shrill like a happy kid if these all come to fruition, but at the same time, I'm a bit leery.
If they can't deliver, we're out of our money. I've worried about that myself, but I think that's the price you pay for getting some of these games to see the light of day.
However, there are some caviats and reassuring thoughts I can offer to that effect:
1) The two games I'm in on, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns, are made by teams that have shipped a LOT of games. Brian Fargo has delivered like 15 or something games. Jordan Weisman has been involved with like 9. These guys KNOW how to make a game, and they KNOW how to get one shipped. I would be very surprised if their funds run out and they're at 30% done.
2) Both teams so far seem to have a very good plan for getting it done, especially Fargo. They're going to spend 6 months in pre-production and get everything on paper, down to the last item, and only THEN will they hire the full team to get it coded. That cuts down on costs quite heavily. Weisman already has a pretty small team, so he doesn't have to worry that much about costs spiraling out of control. He knows exactly how much his guys cost, etc.
3) I reckon both these studios do have some cash themselves, because obviously they can't make a game with 400K (or 900K in Fargo's case.) and in the case of Wasteland 2, they got contacted by a wealthy software guy who said he'd fund the game if the Kickstarter didn't work out. Weisman seems to have already paid for licensing Shadowrun out of their own money.
4) Having no publisher involved is a massive difference. I'm positive teams waste 50% or more of their time and/or money just pleasing whatever fucking whim some cunt at the publisher comes up with that week. (which is confirmed by Fargo, who says that at least a third of stuff his team did was just nonsense for whatever a publisher wanted.) If these guys can just get down, build the game THEY want to make, they'll be happier, more productive, and more eager to get it done.
5) Game development really doesn't have to cost as much as we all probably think it does. A $50million budget for some multi-platform "AAA" game is probably $30M in advertising, $5M in fees to Sony and MS, $8M in paying the salaries of all those 6000+ worthless assholes and hanger-ons at whatever fuckhead publisher they signed up with and then finally maybe $7M or so for the actual game and their own salaries. EA have said that 75% of a game's budget goes into advertising, which is both fucking insane, and a sign that the large majority of "gamers" will buy whatever piece of shit is hyped enough.
6) Finally, and I think this is THE most important factor: Double Fine, Fargo and Weisman are breaking completely new grounds here. This is their absolute last and only chance to make that game they want to make, because every publisher has already told them to fuck off when they said they'd like to do Wasteland 2, or a Shadowrun game, or an adventure game. This is their chance to get it done, to get it done WITHOUT some cunt from EA who has never played a fucking game in his life bitching about how shit needs to change, to make exactly the game they want to make, and to potentially set up an entirely new way to get games funded.
I genuinely don't think they're just going to give up if they run into any issues. I see these guys working without salaries for several months just to get this started.
This entire 'fund games through kickstarter' movement is starting with them, and if they can't deliver, it would die with them too. Nobody would ever sign up anymore if they don't deliver.
These guys seem way too excited and just plain happy at being able to work without a dumb-ass publisher to let that happen.
The game may slip a bit, and it may not feature everything they promised they'd put in it, but I'm firmly convinced that come next year, I'll be playing a Shadowrun AND a Wasteland game that I helped fund. I genuinely believe this can be the start of a fantastic new era in gaming. Will this ever make another Skyrim? No, I don't think you can get a project like that funded through crowd-funding, but games like these are perfect for this kind of thing.
Creston
This comment was edited on Apr 6, 2012, 00:15. |
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