Adventure Gamers - Forums

Hey guys. You may know me from my Lucasarts Adventurer blog where I have scanned all but one of the old Lucasarts Adventurer magazine:

http://lucasartsadventurer.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I am here because I am trying to revive the genre of Lucasarts style point and click adventures with a new 2D animated adventure called “Johnny Rocketfingers 3.”

Please check out the artwork on the kickstarter page and tell me what you think. I am looking for honest feedback from people who love Adventure Games.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1504145860/johnny-rocketfingers-3-hand-drawn-point-and-click

Thank you all and I look forward to your comments,
-Ryan

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I had a ton of fun with the first two Johnny Rocketfingers games on Newgrounds back in the day. Best of luck with the kickstarter!

In all honesty my initial impression of the first screenshot was unenthusiastic, but as I started looking at more screenshots, I got into the art style and began fantasizing about how good it could look in motion.

But then I thought “that would require a lot of work, they probably won’t fully animate this”... well, after reading I can safely say this is the first time Kickstarter that sells me with its “Risks and Challenges” section.

Backed, and now I have to check out the original Johnny Rocketfingers stuff.

I’m sorry to say this, but 390,000$ is unachievable goal, it’s a way too much for the current state of affairs regarding Kickstarter and adventure gamers enthusiasm.

I agree about the increase in cost. I might be due to increasing animation cost and be well budgeted, but to be honest it looks like a cash grab and trying to see if you can get away with it. The initial goal seems way to high. Maybe introduce some of the other artists who will be working on it and do a little Making Of, so people can get a better grasp of where the money goes.
The style doesn’t remind me of LucasArts in the least, be it gameplay or art and I think adventuregamers are getting tired of this specific comparison. But I’d say your main focus should probably be on the people who played the first two parts or at least recognize them and in that context the comparison might make sense, insofar as to remind them what those adventure games were again.
25$(20) for one guaranteed episode seems way to much, though, for what basically still looks like a flash game. Also eight hours of gameplay seems highly optimistic and would be huge jump from the old titles.
I’d also like to see some animation in final quality.
I think the new, more elaborate style looks fun, but you’d need to show me that you and your team are capable to animate in this higher level of detail. (The scene from the trailer where the thugs are walking towards the bar looks not so great, for example.) Maybe take a look at Edna and Harvey for an adventure in a somewhat similar style, which started out as a thesis project, on a shoestring budget.
My advice would be to lower the tier to get the first episode to 5 to 10 $ and target the people who played the first two games. Lower the scope, make the initial team smaller, consider to do more yourself and use stretchgoals to stock up the team, features and speed up development. But who knows, maybe there are enough fans around to make it work as it is.

Hey guys, I appreciate all the comments posted here.

I cut the game back from 8 hours per episode to 3 hours per episode. This cut the overall funding goal down by over 70%.

Check out my newly re-launched kickstarter with new pitch videos.

So far we have over 200 backers with still 30+ days to go.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1504145860/johnny-rocketfingers-3-hand-drawn-point-and-click

This time RON GILBERT is backing the project Which is pretty much a dream come true. Bob Camp is also backing the project for you Ren & Stimpy fans.

Thanks everyone,
-Ryan

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Thank you Mr. Underhill. You are not being a bummer, I actually agree with you. Looking at other adventure game kickstarters, it is a bit high.

To be fair, Johnny Rocketfingers is different from the other kickstarters due to the “frame by frame” hand drawn animation. Even though Kelvin & The Infamous Machine is 2D and it is hand drawn, it still uses “Puppet Animation” which is essentially like a Paper Doll.. you manipulate the joints to move around the limbs without drawing anything new. While this inexpensive style of animation works great for Kelvin and other Kickstarters, it is not the style of Johnny Rocketfingers which makes the funding goal significantly higher.

As adventure gamers, does this look like a game you would want to play? I posted the artwork and brief description in a facebook group for Adventure Gamers. However, 19 members saw it but only a couple ‘liked’ it. This sort of baffled me because I am an enormous adventure game fan and I am taking inspiration from them all: Sierra to LucasArts to everything in between.

I would love to know honest thoughts from people who share my love and enthusiasm for these types of games.

@AstroChicken, you said “In all honesty my initial impression of the first screenshot was unenthusiastic.”

Would you be willing to elaborate on why the screenshot made you unenthusiastic? To be honest I am slightly troubled by your statement because I have been using that specific screen shot the most in promoting the game. Mainly because I thought it was one of the more dynamic and interesting pieces. Am I wrong to think this?

As Adventure Gamers, could you tell me what screenshots speak out to you the most?

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Mr Underhill, thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful reply I would like to address a few of the topics you brought up.

My predominant influence is Monkey Island 1 and 2, and Day of the Tentacle.

Gritty live action film is also an influence, so the Adventure Game genre fits perfectly as it leans heavily toward story.

You said, “I’d love to see a side scroller from you, I think you’d really shine there.”
Making video games is not what I do. Storytelling is my strength which is one reason I am choosing this genre. Adventure Games are interactive stories with fun puzzles thrown in that progress the story. Suggesting I create a side scroller is kind of shocking.. as it is just running, jumping and shooting.

Johnny is not an action game, at all. It has cut scenes which involve action, but they are not interactive. It is like watching a movie. When the cut scene is over, then the player begins exploring environments, picking up objects and solving puzzles.

Essentially the gameplay is akin to Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island. Johnny Rocketfingers just has a different art style with adult themes.

Sierra games had the adult themes which is where I draw my other influence (Police Quest, Gabriel Knight, Leisure Suit Larry). But in Johnny Rocketfingers you won’t get screwed over by getting killed or not having picked up the right item. Johnny will die a plenty, but you will resume back to the choice which led to your death.

The drawing style, violence and adult themes may not be LucasArts style.

But here is what is:

- Humor, Sarcasm
- A Character with personality that interacts with you and cares that you are there
- Fun Puzzles that Reward you with story progression and cut scenes
- Similar Icon & Inventory System
- Interface Specifically modeled after SCUMM

One thing you said that also surprised me.. “I just think overall people expect colorful eye-candy when you compare your product to Lucas.”

Is this not colorful or eye popping…? I mean he’s exploding out of a building for crying out loud!

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+1 to using animated gifs to showcase the art. The animation is the main thing about the project that catches my eye.

+1 to dropping the comparison to LucasArts games. You can still explain in the description that the gameplay will be like point-and-click LucasArts adventure games like MI1&2 and DOTT. But when you have the LucasArts comparison in the title, people are going to assume you’re referring to the “look and feel” of those games, when in fact the look and feel you’re going for is very different.

Personally, the gritty, violent urban style is not my cup of tea, so even though I think your game looks well-made, there’s really nothing you could do that would win me over except make a different game, which I’m sure isn’t what you want to hear. Fortunately there are probably other players who would like this type of game, you just need to get a sense of how many and think about how that impacts your funding goal and the scope and feasibility of your project.

I imagine you know this part since it’s basically part of Kickstarter lore at this point. But it seems like your biggest issue is that you didn’t have a strong enough launch on the first few days. I have no Kickstarter experience aside from backing several and helping a friend with his campaign, but from what I’ve seen it becomes virtually impossible to recover momentum if you don’t hit 20% in the first week, no matter what drastic course correction you may try. So one way to figure out an attainable goal is to take 20% of it and consider if you can hit that amount quickly enough. Once you get to 30%, that’s the magic threshold for probable success.

Getting the press to cover a Kickstarter campaign was always hard and is only getting harder since these campaigns are not a novelty anymore. You have some nice shout-outs on your campaign page, so I want to give you the benefit of the doubt that you tried to market your campaign and couldn’t get traction despite some coverage. But if you launch again, you should be here and on other forums before you launch. Let people know the launch is coming, show them stuff to catch their interest, and try to get them to back on day 1. Or maybe you should wait until day 1 and announce then so that people’s interest can immediately turn into action. That’s debatable. But either way, coming to forums after the first week is already kind of too late unless the campaign already has momentum.

You’ve probably done this, too, but you may want to try talking to some other adventure game devs who used Kickstarter just to get a sense of their experiences. There’s a list of adventure campaigns here and here. Talking to those devs might help determine best practices, but it will also help show that there’s more than one way to go about things. The Bolt Riley dev, for example, decided to run a 7 day campaign, unlike the typical 30 day one and the opposite of your 60 day one. The main reason was personal—it’s less exhausting—but it did work out in that case. The Last Life dev had only a few reward tiers and mostly eschewed physical rewards. So you don’t necessarily have to follow the conventional wisdom.

Those are the thoughts that come to mind. Best wishes.

Edit: Oh, and maybe drop the “3” from Johnny Rocketfingers or exchange it for a subtitle. Not sure if this is a big deal or not since the first two games are free on Kongregate, but if you’re trying to expand your fanbase, not having the “3” could be more welcoming to newcomers.