@OdysseyPoint I'm "the spokesperson" the article quotes. I'm Carlos. You can see my face in the "team members" section in the campaign page. I'm always there answering messages and emails and tweets and whatnot, and communication is basically my line of work in real life. We always welcome constructive criticism anyway. Thanks for yours!
@NoirConceit We don't have a "business model". We are three people trying to make a game from time to time if (heh) time and money allow. Our KS campaign for Xenocider for Dreamcast failed but then we decided we would develop our game in our free time anyway, were transparent about it and people were fine with preorders. We took almost 8 years to finish it, for these reasons (mainly the fact that we had to keep our real jobs and work on the game after hours, during the night, etc. when we could). But as we explained, we cannot afford to do that again. That's why we took many many things into account and then set a funding goal we considered reasonable for the manufacturing costs and for the additional pixel art and chiptune music and tools and testing the game would need. If users didn't consider the game interesting enough, or if Indiegogo was a mistake, well, that's life. 🤷
"A backup plan COULD BE"... Yes, could. But we DON'T have that plan. We don't have the budget and we don't have a publisher. We'll wait and see how far the campaign goes and... that's it. Now, if stars align and suddenly there's an investor or a publisher coming down from heaven to make the game happen, of course we'd reconsider 😆 But right now, as we speak, there's no backup plan. We tried and that's it. Again, sorry if there was any minsunderstanding.
@OdysseyPoint A number of factors in play here, but mainly the fact that we used Indiegogo and not Kickstarter (for, again, a number or reasons). The game not looking interesting enough visually for enough users may be a factor too, of course. But we know for sure it was not the defining one (believe it or not!). Whatever my personal political believes, the setting/background has proven not to be one of them either. But we totally understand if it's offensive to some users (even though we mean absolutely no offense as stated in the campaign, in the press releases and in the disclaimer in the game demo itself).
@h3s A simply misunderstanding, then. There are no reasons that I can think of why the Neo Geo enhancements cannot be carried over to the Dreamcast version, indeed. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
@slider1983 We absolutely have. Personally, I'd love to. And it was part of the original plan. But it's expensive to develop and to manufacture, and if the market for new DC games has been shrinking in the last couple years (or it's been saturated, who knows), the base of active Saturn users who would actually buy a game that has proven not to be interesting enough to meet its funding goal may be a bit too small to make it happen, I'm afraid.
@FourBs 100 € is the same we priced the limited PAL edition of our previous game Xenocider over 7 years ago. PAL cases are really costy to either obtain or manufacture ourselves. In order to try make up for it, we include the complete OST in a bonus disc, a poster and other goodies, as we did back then.
@OdysseyPoint All graphics are pre-rendered using similar techniques to the ones used in titles like Vectorman or DKC. Are we not as good as those studios were? Most likely. Do we have the budget they had? We have none, to begin with (hence the crowdfunding). But it's all explained in multiple interviews and videos. The graphics are created in Blender, then palettized and turned into Mega Drive sprites by our own custom tools. Then we had the help of people like Pyron (who is well known in the Mega Drive scene) to improve colours and sometimes even redraw the whole sprites, or Daniel Horvath (Pier Solar, Chords) to create background tiles. But again, what's been shown so far is a demo and it's all meant to improve and change (again, hence the crowdfunding).
@NoirConceit Why would it be a lie??? We don't have a plan B. We're 3 people, working after hours from our homes with no publisher behind. So unless we can come up with a new idea or strategy once the campaign is over, "we are well aware that it is hardly possible at this point" that the game can be made (if the funding goal is not met). Our campaign was a necessity, not a promotional trick. We cannot afford to keep working on a game with no budget. We did with our previous game and it cost us years and we cannot do that again. Simple as that. Of course, users are free to support what they believe in, and that's the way it should be.
@h3s Who said the DC version has to be inferior? We tried to make it clear that every version will have differences and they'll all be native, not emulated. So technically the DC version would be the best of the bunch.
@RossoftheRobots It's the same we priced the limited PAL edition of our previous game Xenocider over 7 years ago. PAL cases are really costy to either obtain or manufacture ourselves. In order to try make up for it, we include the complete OST in a bonus disc, a poster and other goodies, as we did back then.
@slider1983 It's a Mega Drive game. So yeah. We're upgrading it with different enhancements and new features for Neo Geo and Dreamcast. But all graphics for now are 16 bit. It's all pre-rendered, then turned into Mega Drive sprites with our custom tools and such in order to put together the demo. So of course it doesn't look like a DC game. For now!
@ArcadeRacingCENTRAL I don't know about ego or celebrity. But we're a 3 people team working in our free time from our homes with no budget at all and Adam offered to voice the game for free. He had fun, we had fun, should we have rejected him? 🤷 We could never afford voice talent anyway if we had to pay it (hey, hence the crowdfunding).
@Professor_Icepick We are NOT funding soviet propaganda. We imagine a parody world where the USSR won the cold war and turned the World into a nuclear wasteland. The main characters are clumsy, brainwashed cyborgs who think they're here to free you. From your freedom, that is. The whole game is unapologetic nonsense.
@zen-dev Which is exactly why we are not endorsing or supporting it in any way. The game intends to be a shameless, brainless, ridiculous parody, not a glorification of anything.
Comments 14
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@OdysseyPoint I'm "the spokesperson" the article quotes. I'm Carlos. You can see my face in the "team members" section in the campaign page. I'm always there answering messages and emails and tweets and whatnot, and communication is basically my line of work in real life. We always welcome constructive criticism anyway. Thanks for yours!
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@NoirConceit We don't have a "business model". We are three people trying to make a game from time to time if (heh) time and money allow. Our KS campaign for Xenocider for Dreamcast failed but then we decided we would develop our game in our free time anyway, were transparent about it and people were fine with preorders. We took almost 8 years to finish it, for these reasons (mainly the fact that we had to keep our real jobs and work on the game after hours, during the night, etc. when we could). But as we explained, we cannot afford to do that again. That's why we took many many things into account and then set a funding goal we considered reasonable for the manufacturing costs and for the additional pixel art and chiptune music and tools and testing the game would need. If users didn't consider the game interesting enough, or if Indiegogo was a mistake, well, that's life. 🤷
"A backup plan COULD BE"... Yes, could. But we DON'T have that plan. We don't have the budget and we don't have a publisher. We'll wait and see how far the campaign goes and... that's it. Now, if stars align and suddenly there's an investor or a publisher coming down from heaven to make the game happen, of course we'd reconsider 😆 But right now, as we speak, there's no backup plan. We tried and that's it. Again, sorry if there was any minsunderstanding.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@OdysseyPoint A number of factors in play here, but mainly the fact that we used Indiegogo and not Kickstarter (for, again, a number or reasons). The game not looking interesting enough visually for enough users may be a factor too, of course. But we know for sure it was not the defining one (believe it or not!).
Whatever my personal political believes, the setting/background has proven not to be one of them either. But we totally understand if it's offensive to some users (even though we mean absolutely no offense as stated in the campaign, in the press releases and in the disclaimer in the game demo itself).
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@h3s A simply misunderstanding, then. There are no reasons that I can think of why the Neo Geo enhancements cannot be carried over to the Dreamcast version, indeed. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@slider1983 We absolutely have. Personally, I'd love to. And it was part of the original plan. But it's expensive to develop and to manufacture, and if the market for new DC games has been shrinking in the last couple years (or it's been saturated, who knows), the base of active Saturn users who would actually buy a game that has proven not to be interesting enough to meet its funding goal may be a bit too small to make it happen, I'm afraid.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@FourBs 100 € is the same we priced the limited PAL edition of our previous game Xenocider over 7 years ago. PAL cases are really costy to either obtain or manufacture ourselves. In order to try make up for it, we include the complete OST in a bonus disc, a poster and other goodies, as we did back then.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@OdysseyPoint All graphics are pre-rendered using similar techniques to the ones used in titles like Vectorman or DKC.
Are we not as good as those studios were? Most likely. Do we have the budget they had? We have none, to begin with (hence the crowdfunding).
But it's all explained in multiple interviews and videos. The graphics are created in Blender, then palettized and turned into Mega Drive sprites by our own custom tools. Then we had the help of people like Pyron (who is well known in the Mega Drive scene) to improve colours and sometimes even redraw the whole sprites, or Daniel Horvath (Pier Solar, Chords) to create background tiles.
But again, what's been shown so far is a demo and it's all meant to improve and change (again, hence the crowdfunding).
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@NoirConceit Why would it be a lie??? We don't have a plan B. We're 3 people, working after hours from our homes with no publisher behind. So unless we can come up with a new idea or strategy once the campaign is over, "we are well aware that it is hardly possible at this point" that the game can be made (if the funding goal is not met).
Our campaign was a necessity, not a promotional trick. We cannot afford to keep working on a game with no budget. We did with our previous game and it cost us years and we cannot do that again. Simple as that.
Of course, users are free to support what they believe in, and that's the way it should be.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@h3s Who said the DC version has to be inferior? We tried to make it clear that every version will have differences and they'll all be native, not emulated. So technically the DC version would be the best of the bunch.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@RossoftheRobots It's the same we priced the limited PAL edition of our previous game Xenocider over 7 years ago. PAL cases are really costy to either obtain or manufacture ourselves. In order to try make up for it, we include the complete OST in a bonus disc, a poster and other goodies, as we did back then.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@slider1983 It's a Mega Drive game. So yeah.
We're upgrading it with different enhancements and new features for Neo Geo and Dreamcast. But all graphics for now are 16 bit. It's all pre-rendered, then turned into Mega Drive sprites with our custom tools and such in order to put together the demo. So of course it doesn't look like a DC game. For now!
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@ArcadeRacingCENTRAL I don't know about ego or celebrity. But we're a 3 people team working in our free time from our homes with no budget at all and Adam offered to voice the game for free. He had fun, we had fun, should we have rejected him? 🤷 We could never afford voice talent anyway if we had to pay it (hey, hence the crowdfunding).
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@Professor_Icepick We are NOT funding soviet propaganda. We imagine a parody world where the USSR won the cold war and turned the World into a nuclear wasteland. The main characters are clumsy, brainwashed cyborgs who think they're here to free you. From your freedom, that is. The whole game is unapologetic nonsense.
Re: "We Are Well Aware That It Is Hardly Possible At This Point" - You Still Have A Week To Make This Promising New Dreamcast Game A Reality
@zen-dev Which is exactly why we are not endorsing or supporting it in any way. The game intends to be a shameless, brainless, ridiculous parody, not a glorification of anything.