superdeluxe

Fun new project:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...ine-battle-rpg

Its a school based zombie playground ZPG?. Looks like it is online play, conceptial art looks good. Looks like it has some decent talent on staff as well.

Concept art spoilered for size.

mhg83

I don't get why something like that game can't get publisher backing. It's a cool cOncept that would sell well. Also what's stopping a company like Valve ripping off this idea and making there own game?

fumanstan

Well, they tell you why they're using Kickstarter.

I imagine a lot of people would see this and immediately want to make it more kid friendly rather then mature.

Jay G.

I think the problem is using kids as protagonists in mortal peril, and having kid zombies as the targets for killing. People are going to find it upsetting, even if the game is properly rated for Mature audiences.

As fumanstan noted, major publisher would either want to tone down the violence, making it kid friendly, or change the age of the characters, removing most of what makes the title unique.

Valve typically just hires/buys the people/company behind a concept they like. See Left4Dead, Team Fortress, Portal, DoTA2, etc.

superdeluxe

Totally, I remember Fargo's video about publishers wanting this/that change in the game.

RichC2

Artwork reminds me of Willy Beamish.

Jay G.

In honor of their Kickstarter hitting $200K, The Two Guys From Andromeda have released Prototype 2 of their demo, now with color, sound, and death sequences!

As before, the prototype has been released in the Chrome Store:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...jkioniffgcgopp

They're still working on getting it to run on other browsers (and potentially released on Apple's App Store).

There's an audio intro to the game here, but as it's 20 minutes long, I'll save you the trouble of listening to it. The basics for playing the game are:

• You can right-click to toggle between walking, looking, and touching objects
• There's 3 different death sequences worked into this version. Try and find them all!

I just finished playing it, and it really brought me back to the fun I had playing the original Space Quest games. The humor in the writing is spot-on in the same style, and just as good. It's great to have these two guys back together after 20 years.

For those that don't know, The Two Guys had a bit of a falling out prior to SQ5, and before this year hadn't spoken to each other since. They reconciled online and over the phone shortly before putting together this Kickstarter. Below is the video they took documenting their first face-to-face reunion:
http://vimeo.com/42309304

Jay G.

In general Kickstarter news...

EA is waiving Origin fees for the first 90 days for crowd-funded games. Wasteland 2 is on board:
http://beefjack.com/news/ea-origin-o...nd-2-signs-up/
I found a giveaway of 5 beta keys for Cloudberry Kingdom. Just leave a comment on this Youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1DDRax9vlI

Here's a video of gameplay for Cloudberry Kingdom beta:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul-lO4Irfmo

Duran

Played the SpaceVenture prototype 2, and it seems to be pretty good for what it is supposed to show. The same humor is definitely there, so it looks like it will be good from a design standpoint. I upped my pledge a bit.

They have stressed the final game will not be browser based, they're just using it for the prototypes in order to get them out more quickly.

Jay G.

Webcomic artist Kris Straub has created a strip promoting the Two Guys Kickstarter.

Shrunk for space:


Original:
http://starslip.com/twoguys.png

Jay G.

The developers of the space exploration game Kinetic Void have found a unique way of driving more pledges: rewarding referrals:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...n/kinetic-void
They only have until Wed to double their current pledge level.


Just found this project:

Zombie Squash (featuring the voice of George Romero)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...e-squash-game/

Jay G.

GOG has announced today that anyone who pledges $25+ to the Carmageddon Reincarnation Kickstarter will get a free copy of the original Carmageddon + Splat Pack, a $10 value.

Official announcements:
http://www.gog.com/news/coming_soon_...don_splat_pack
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...n/posts/234049

Duran

The Two Guys kickstarter made some extensive revisions to their reward tiers last night, including GOG credits for the original Space Quest (1-3 or 4-6)starting at $50. Their original tiers were kind of lackluster past the lowest pledge, so this is good news. Looks like folks are responding, too.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...s-of-space-que

superdeluxe

Carmegeddon has met its funding goal.


Space quest guys are at 48%, unless they get a huge upswing they might not make it. Although based on how republique and starlight inception both made it (heck starflight made 30% of its total in last 2 days

Jay G.

GOG has the old Tex Murphy games on sale this week for 50% off. They plug the Kickstarter project in their announcement post:
http://www.gog.com/news/special_sale_tex_murphy_week

Jay G.

Battle Chess is ending in two days, and unless a miracle happens, won't make their funding goal.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/.../battle-chess/

It's a shame because the game looks mostly finished. Some example animations:


http://youtu.be/ERSHpcWNCg0


http://youtu.be/V1rp_tXtjMc


http://youtu.be/jwaR5Xwh5EI

I wonder if unsuccessful Kickstarters don't suffer from a viscous cycle where if it looks like it's not going to get funded, most people tend to not bother pledging money to it (even though they won't pay unless it is successful), thus making the project appear even less likely to succeed. I put in $15 for Battle Chess to show my support, even though I doubt I'll pay it, but I may be the exception.

Kedrix

I admit, I wait until the last couple of days typically before I give my support. Honestly, I'm not sure why, but I guess it is the notion that I want to make sure its get funded. The booty or swag is awesome often times, but more importantly I don't want to get my hopes up if it didn't get funded. Silly I know but I am pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Jay G.

Steam has the Space Quest Collection (games 1-6) on sale for $4.99, 75% off their regular price:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/10110

So if anyone was looking at the Spaceventure Kickstarter but hadn't played the original Space Quest games, now's your chance to try them out cheap.

Space Quest 1 in this collection is the VGA remake of the game instead of the original. Space Quest 1 VGA was actually the first SQ game I played, and it retains the humor of the original with improved graphics and a simpler mouse-driven point-and-click interface, making it the better version for newcomers. Still, it's a shame the original SQ1 isn't included for completeness.

Note that some Windows 7 users are having problems playing in Full Screen mode. A few suggested solutions are here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1174559

Kedrix

If anybody wants the disc version and willing to pay a couple of dollars more (I am certainly), here you go:

http://www.amazon.com/Sierra-Space-Q...8469163&sr=8-2

Jay G.

If you buy the disc version, there's a patch here to get it working on newer Vista/7 machines:
http://www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Up...xUpdaters.html

Kedrix

Even better, muchas gracias.

Jay G.

Space Quest 1 commentary tonight with Scott Murphy & Mark Crowe:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...e/posts/237655

Jay G.

Grim Dawn has the pre-order with game key back up for sale on their site:
http://www.grimdawn.com/contribute_buynow01.php

On a related note, Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road Studio has apparently decided to leave their "Join our CSA" pre-order on their site open indefinitely:
http://pinkertonroad.com/join-csg/

Jay G.

The SQ1 commentary by the Two Guys From Andromeda was moved from last night to noon today (6/1). For those that missed you you can view it here, although due to video capture issues, you have to download and play the audio separately:
http://www.twitch.tv/andromedaguys/b/320034637

It's somewhat interesting, as instead of playing through the game they instead had screenshots of every command and action in the game. So aside from the between animations (like watching the character walk), it was very close to watching someone play through the game.

They're doing another commentary for SQ2 tomorrow (6/2) at 12pm EDT. You can catch it live here:
http://www.twitch.tv/andromedaguys/

I'm guessing if these commentaries stay popular, they'll go through all of the SQ games.

Gamasutra has a 3 page article on their Kickstarter:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...nt_of_the_.php



In other Kickstarter news:

Battle Chess failed to reach funding.

The developer of the game Drifter talks about how he managed his Kickstarter campaign:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/edito...drifter-campai

Gamasutra has a few thoughts on Kickstarter:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LuisL...ickstarter.php

Jay G.

The Two Guys From Andromeda are doing another commentary for SQ3 Sunday 6/3/12 at 2:00pm EST:
http://www.twitch.tv/andromedaguys

I actually watched the SQ2 commentary live, which was fun, since they respond to messages in the chat window. They also commented over video of a playthough of the game this time, so a little more lively than the last one.

Their archive of both shows lack audio due to some sort of glitch with the way justin.tv is rendering the sound. It works fine live, but I think the fact that the 3 speakers are each in different places (I think they're using Skype to voice chat) is messing it up. They're working on getting them up with both video and audio.


Speaking of SQ2, there's a fan-made VGA remake of the game that's available online for free:
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/h...x.php?page=sq2