Adventure Gamers - Forums

I’m not fatigued, but I was backing every half-decent adventure game for a while and am not now. A mixture of financial problems and - so far - a lack of projects actually being released (only Shadowrun Returns and Legends of Dawn, the latter of which was a disgrace, have been released from the many I have backed) have me becoming far more selective and wary (thanks Double Fine) of what I back.

The only active Kickstarter I’ve pledged to at the moment is Project Phoenix (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1300298569/project-phoenix-japans-indie-rpg-feat-aaa-talent) as it looks very exciting and seems to have a very polished plan. I did back CANDLE (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaniardmike/candle-a-dynamic-graphic-adventure) recently though as it looks irresistible. But many like Precinct I’ve not even bothered to back for the reasons above, plus in Precinct’s case (even though I was over the moon when I heard Jim Walls planned a Kickstarter) it never had anything close to a coherent and polished vision.

To be honest, it’s not so much fatigue as it is the fact that these other projects simply don’t have the fan base as earlier projects. I kind of feel like all the really big adventure game Kickstarters have already happened. We’ve got Tex Murphy, Leisure Suit Larry, Broken Sword, Dreamfall/TLJ, Neverhood, surrogate Space Quest and Quest for Glory, and Tim carrying the LucasArts torch… So what’s left? I already feel like almost everything on my wishlist has been granted at this point.

Games like Vampyre Story just don’t have that kind of pull. It was a good game, but not really a great one, the game being pitched was a smaller, episodic title, and it’s not like the series has been gone that long or was ever that popular to begin with. Police Quest likewise doesn’t really have a huge cult following anymore, and the new game didn’t look like anything special.

Would these games have done better if they launched a year ago, in the middle of all the Kickstarter fever and excitement? Probably, relatively speaking. But projects like Armikrog and Satellite Reign are showing there’s still plenty of people willing to give for projects they feel passionately about. If Ron Gilbert showed up looking to make a new pirate adventure, or Roberta Williams wanted to make a new fantasy game, you better believe people would be opening their wallets.

zane - 25 August 2013 12:13 PM

*pinkerton’s original developer for moebius vanished, mgx seems to be imploding.

Even though Jane released a video of Signus very early during the KS campaign, Phoenix Online has always been the developer for Moebius from day 1. At one point, we considered having Signus help us with some of the art, but that never materialized. Moebius is on track, on time, and on budget.

MGX is the one that has had issues, but not to the point of imploding. There’s just some hurdles along the way that need to be figured out. We are helping Jane to make sure it’s all good to go.

I would be curious to see a master list of Kickstarter Adventure games and how many of those games have actually been released.

KatieHal - 27 August 2013 04:00 PM

And, Cognition is also very close to being done! We’re coming up on Episode 4 being out soon—and we were pre-the Kickstarter boom, too.

Along with Resonance, your’s is probably the best Kickstarter backed game (series) I’ve played yet. I bought them after the campaign as I didn’t really become aware of Kickstarter until later, but it’s good to see some games have turned out very well from Kickstarter. Still waiting for so many I have backed…

BTW have you put any thought of going back to Kickstarter for future projects? There would be even more good will and backing now I’d wager.

KatieHal - 27 August 2013 06:40 PM

Thank you! We have considered it, definitely, it worked well for us and even better for others—no reason not to! But not until Cognition is completed, certainly.

I actually didn’t realize Resonance was a Kickstarted game either!

I appreciate that you seem to be a company that knows your limits. Focusing on what you have to do to deliver what you’ve promised before you move forward with new projects. A lot of companies are much too enthusiastic and don’t seem to get the basic principle of KISS when it comes to development.

KatieHal - 27 August 2013 06:40 PM

Thank you! We have considered it, definitely, it worked well for us and even better for others—no reason not to! But not until Cognition is completed, certainly.

Have you guys considered porting Cognition to other platforms? Personally I have a ton of stuff to play on PC, and as such some things are put on hold - sometimes indefinitely. However, I lack good adventures on the go and I can’t imagine I’m the only one. Porting the game to stuff like PS Vita or other mobile devices would be awesome.

Oh, I didn’t know it was out on iOS, my bad! I’ve got an Android tablet so I’ll definitely pick it up there unless you come around and surprise me with a Vita port, which would be the best. Mmm, trophies