AtomskEater
Member
I've never played Muv Luv and was aware of the genre shift even before the Kickstarter. It's a pretty poorly kept secret, if you do even a little bit of research on the game.
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"Dies Irae English Localization Project!" Kickstarter (Steam w/ Vita stretch goal)
- Thread starter Shizuka
- Start date
I've never played Muv Luv and was aware of the genre shift even before the Kickstarter. It's a pretty poorly kept secret, if you do even a little bit of research on the game.
AHA-Lambda
Member
Right, I'll chip in now seeing as it's funded anyway
Dandy Crocodile
Member
The meticulously managed Kickstarter that should serve as the model for all VN Kickstarters was the worst because it spoiled a fact already known by most big VN fans (aka the people who like VNs enough to back them on Kickstarter)?
Basileus777
Member
And something that was known by most people who have ever played it in English before they started it.
christaran
Member
That is literally what I said, so yes, those that played it knew. Those who were into VNs but had never heard of Muv Luv (me) had no idea. They absolutely lost sales due to this.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
Why do people keep using Awesome Japan?? They are the worst. Shenmue 3 got to 6 mil in spite of them not because of them.
Are they just really cheap or something?
Look at how Muv Luv was run. That was damn near perfection.
Are they just really cheap or something?
Look at how Muv Luv was run. That was damn near perfection.
Y'know, Frontwing managed Sharin no Kuni almost just as well, with the hand they were dealt with. Sekai Project has also really stepped up, I think it's just a matter of doing your homework and learning with everybody else's mistakes in order to minimize yours.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
Yup those are also some good examples. I haven't seen awesome Japan do anything well in their projects. They are anything but awesome.
calc84maniac
Member
Arguably shouldn't they have gained far more sales from people who weren't interested in a generic dating sim?
Basileus777
Member
It's not what you said. You complained that they spoiled the reason it blew up, but very few people have ever went into Muv Luv blind about what it was. People getting it first from the Kickstarter didn't get a different experience than those previous. Actually they got it better because they got to read it with a much better translation.
This is the first I heard about this complaint, and I hadn't heard of Muv-Luv either.
Anyways I put down my pledge for the $65 tier, so I guess we shall see what happens...
Kresnik258
Member
*shrug*. I had Muv-Luv somewhat spoiled for me by the Kickstarter but likely wouldn't have backed if they hadn't run such a storming campaign. It was my first ever Kickstarter pledge, things were just that good.
I wonder how much I'm gonna be charged for my $1 pledge to Dies Irae. With the charges I get from my bank for changing currency it may end up being like £3 lol.
I wonder how much I'm gonna be charged for my $1 pledge to Dies Irae. With the charges I get from my bank for changing currency it may end up being like £3 lol.
skLaFarebear
Member
I read about Muv Luv Alternative before i even knew there was an extra/unlimited. Almost no one would give a fuck about Muv Luv if they didn't even know about the existence of alternative, which is where most of the really great word of mouth comes from in the first place.
They chose a terrible company to run the kickstarter. They fired it out into the world without any warning before anyone was ready, including the people running it.
Then they abandoned it for days on end.
Then they announced lousy stretch goals.
Then they just continued being pretty rubbish.
What they did:
3rd December.
The PR team posted their first tweet on the twitter account (which had been created in November) - "Dies irae Steam is now on Twitter!")
They announced that they'd launched their prefundia.
On 4th (they reposted the previous days announcement, then did it again to fix a typo), 5th (thanks for following, here's how many people are), 6th (coming to kickstarter, show your support at the prefundia page), 9th (thanks for all your comments and questions), and 12th (update on the number of followers) December they tweeted about prefundia again.
On 14th December they posted "Slowly, but surely, we are on the path to KS campaign. Keep spreading the word, and prepare for the KS! #diesiraeKS"
15th December they launched the Kickstarter and linked to it.
They did this without giving any previous notice, and despite having said they were on the path to it "slowly, but surely" the previous day.
This tweet has been pinned since the campaign started.
16th December they tweeted the first day's progress (over 700 backers, over $60k pledged).
Then they fucked off for 4 days.
RIGHT AT THE START. That's a crucial time, and they could have gotten the campaign off to a flying start, but instead they were nowhere to be seen. It was completely baffling, and I genuinely don't know why they launched the project when they did if they weren't going to be around to handle it.
(... okay, so maybe it was 3 days. They posted a kickstarter comment on the 19th. It was still a rubbish thing to do).
20th December they made their first Project Update, and linked to it with a tweet.
21st they tweeted the progress so far (1173 backers, stay tuned for more information)
22nd they retweeted two of the many character profiles the translators had started posting on twitter entirely off their own backs to try and keep people interested while the PR team had vanished. They also retweeted the translator's funding updates from the $75k and $100k marks that they hadn't bothered to tweet about themselves.
Also on the 22nd December they posted the Project Update #2
They added some tiers which they made sound absolutely wonderful with their brilliant salesmanship (The first is the ”Gotta have it bundle 1." This reward tier is the $200 ”T-shirt + tapestry." tier without the rubber straps included.)
They posted about a kickstarter exclusive tapestry.
Then they linked to a review from one of the translators, and pasted in some of the character profiles the translators had been posting on twitter.
Then they vanished for a few more days.
On 25th December they tweeted that the Stretch Goals would be coming up this week.
On 26th December they posted Project Update #3 announcing the Stretch Goals, and tweeted about it.
The stretch goals were all worse than they had been during the prefundia. And locked to higher tiers.
To be fair, part of this was apparently down to light, but it was still a very bad look.
The prefundia goals should have been agreed and (somewhat) finalised before they were posted there. Some wiggle room is expected but nothing to this extent.
(Putting in a ludicrously high goal for a 16page booklet was just ridiculous. The Vita one hurt because the vita fanbase are vocal. The one that made me go wtf was actually the artbook though - taking a stretch goal that should be $240k for 4 four books and turning it into a $300k stretch goal for one is terrible).
They also retweeted some more character profiles.
On the 27th they posted a couple of comments about the changing stretch goal values 1, 2.
They also posted Project Update #4.
It had a promo video and an optional kickstarter exclusive add-on (a $70 lap blanket with Marie or Rusalka on it)
To be fair to them people liked the add-on, but it's not something that interested me at all so I wasn't impressed. Maybe if they'd given me one with some of the guys on I could have been swayed ¬_¬
Then they vanished for 8 days.
On 4th Jan they posted Project Update #5
It announced that the stretch goals had been reworked. It switched around the required funding for the Vita and Silly16PageBooklet tiers.
And of course, doing this makes complete sense because obviously the work put in to translating and printing a 16 page booklet and porting an entire game are comparable.
(Hey, I want the vita port too, but to say that exchange actually makes sense in any way is all kinds of weird).
It also talked about the 18+ patch, screen ratios for the regular game versus the adult content, and promised more add-ons would be announced the following day.
On 5th Jan they posted Project Update #6.
It announced some more kickstarter-exclusive add-ons, two $40 tapestries and a $40 phone case.
Then they did nothing for a few more days.
On 9th Jan they made a stupid twitter post which requires some explaining.
It was basically a misunderstanding, mostly because of their poor English and the fact they don't actually know anything about the game.
Basically, throughout the campaign people latched on to one of the characters, Rusalka, who also became the subject of a lot of the add-ons. I want to say it became a running joke, but some people probably weren't joking, so that's not entirely accurate. Basically one of the ongoing things was talking about Rusalka and a Rusalka-Route.
So then the PR posted this.
and when asked to clarify they doubled down
Thing is, that content isn't new. That, along with the wording 'content that was not originally planned in the budget' made some people concerned that this meant that some other content was also cut or not in the budget though.
They followed that up with this.
Which... wasn't much better, frankly.
They did eventually admit to misunderstanding, but they didn't post it on twitter where they posted their original stupid comments.
My personal belief is they'd gone to light going "Hey, people keep talking about Rusalka stuff" and light went "Yeah, sure, that'll be in there" and they went "What? We can tell people something they're asking for is actually happening? Quick! To the PR-mobile!". It doesn't explain their "this extra content that was not originally planned in the budget" bullshit, of course, because it's bullshit, but I imagine they thought it would make them look better. If they'd had some idea what they were talking about they might have managed it.
On 10th Jan they tweeted that there would be an AMA on Reddit with G-Yuusuke, one of the artists.
They also posted Project Update #7, but this time they didn't link to it from twitter.
On 11th Jan they posted Project Update #8 when the AMA started.
Some of the localization team were also involved.
I really need to read through it. I didn't get a chance to be there for it because it was at 1AM and while that wouldn't normally bother me I had to be at work at 6:30AM today. It just wasn't doable).
Also on the 11th they've posted Project Update #9 to say they'll add some additional expensive tiers to the kickstarter.
_
Now there wasn't something wrong with all of those updates. Some of them were okay, though I personally believe all of them could have been handled better.
The real reason I've insisted on listing out them all out is because I feel there should have been far more of them. The whole project should have had more engagement from the PR team. I mean, it's what they were hired for.
They kept telling people to be patient, and thanking them for their queries, and thanking them for their feedback, but it was all just words (and unfortunately they weren't even particularly good with words). They fluffed around with things that should have been finalised before they headed into the kickstarter itself, and it made them seem incompetent (but their incompetence might have helped with that).
The fact they kept vanishing for days on end just made it worse.
They launched it before they were ready, and they ran a shitty campaign.
_
And just to throw my lot in, I'm definitely on the "Muv-Luv was an excellent campaign" team. They were professional, engaged with their audience, kept us updated, and kept us interested. They hit all the right notes and convinced us to spend far more money than I'm sure a lot of us intended to
A competent team will do that.
... Meanwhile I'm still looking at my Dies Irae pledge trying to decide if I actually trust them to be capable of sending it out.
skLaFarebear
Member
Thanks for the breakdown on that KS. It definitely looked messy from that perspective.
This is my biggest concern, right now. It's... a risk, for sure. For me it was a matter of "trust them to send this out, or miss my chance at getting the physical game+OST?"
Funyarinpa
Member
Wow. O_O
Thanks a whole bunch for that breakdown. That explains it very well.
Though I never understood what made the Muv Luv campaign so good, haha- I didn't like Muv Luv all that much so I didn't follow thr campaign at all. (For the record, I think I went in blind but I ain't sure.)
Thanks a whole bunch for that breakdown. That explains it very well.
Though I never understood what made the Muv Luv campaign so good, haha- I didn't like Muv Luv all that much so I didn't follow thr campaign at all. (For the record, I think I went in blind but I ain't sure.)
FinaruDensetsu
Member
Man I backed Muv Luv at the $300 something tier and I still don't know what the one dude was talking about regarding spoiling the true genre.
All I knew is it had cool mechs and I love mechs.
All I knew is it had cool mechs and I love mechs.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Constant, quality updates reflecting the wishes of the backers and potential backers as much as possible, a team that seemed reliable and like they could deliver everything they promised, and tiers full of neat extras that all seemed super valuable pushing backers to pledge more than just the price of the game.
Plus other stuff like timing, renown of the game, etc.
Basileus777
Member
The mechs are what he was talking about. He's mad that they didn't try to sell the series as a harem comedy and revealed that it becomes something else.
FinaruDensetsu
Member
Their communication was SO damn good. Also holding multiple contests for things like a trip to Japan, which they did not have to do at all.
Also throwing in that free figma and the hardcover book when people were already pretty satisfied with their prizes in each tier. It's seriously unheard of for a KS.
Oooooh. Um... well I'm just one guy who didn't have prior history with the game, but I wouldn't even have backed at all if it weren't for the mechs. Instead, I went for over $300 never having played the game before.
axisofweevils
Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Muvluv team have been awesome supporting this campaign too. https://www.twitter.com/helrouis/status/819285077179797504
Amaze.
EDIT: 175K now. Looks like those expensive tiers worked.
Amaze.
EDIT: 175K now. Looks like those expensive tiers worked.
The funding is still going up! Stuff's happening again \o/
... but my happiness is still warring with my frustrations with the PR.
The base goal has been met, they've added new tiers, and we're now in what should be a "let's get everyone hyped and trying to steer them towards the stretch goal!" moment.
None of that has been posted on their twitter. Zip. Nada.
Nor has it been posted as a Project Update.
Now yes, they have posted a kickstarter comment thanking people for reaching the goal. That's something, I guess.
But if they posted a proper update it would send out emails letting people know things are actually happening now.
And on the kickstarter page they're dithering around.
Making updates? Hrm, not sure about that. Please be on the look out for the updates we may or may not post though!
Yes yes, they might be working on it now (might be), but these posts should have been already written and ready to fire off once the goal was hit.
... It only irritates me so much because I want to see it do better. And because I know it both could have and still can.
... but my happiness is still warring with my frustrations with the PR.
The base goal has been met, they've added new tiers, and we're now in what should be a "let's get everyone hyped and trying to steer them towards the stretch goal!" moment.
None of that has been posted on their twitter. Zip. Nada.
Nor has it been posted as a Project Update.
Now yes, they have posted a kickstarter comment thanking people for reaching the goal. That's something, I guess.
But if they posted a proper update it would send out emails letting people know things are actually happening now.
And on the kickstarter page they're dithering around.
What, you guys want to know what you could actually be working towards? Meh, we'll think about it.
Making updates? Hrm, not sure about that. Please be on the look out for the updates we may or may not post though!
Yes yes, they might be working on it now (might be), but these posts should have been already written and ready to fire off once the goal was hit.
... It only irritates me so much because I want to see it do better. And because I know it both could have and still can.
Kresnik258
Member
Christ, they might actually reach the Vita stretch goal.
Since I don't trust this campaign at all, I can still pledge for a Vita version in backerkit right?
I'd like them to clarify whether they'll be able to get EU codes or not before I commit.
Since I don't trust this campaign at all, I can still pledge for a Vita version in backerkit right?
I'd like them to clarify whether they'll be able to get EU codes or not before I commit.
axisofweevils
Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
190k. Wow. Insane last minute surge.
StereoVsn
Member
Yes I am sure that would have gained sales then instead of completely bombing. /S
Muv-Luv was one of the best run Kickstarter campaigns period, not just a VN one. They had excellent tiers, constant engaging by the team, updates, new materials released, etc...
I am not a big fan of VNs (except for Steins;Gate) and normally I wouldn't have backed a Kickstarter for one, but damn if I didn't put down $100 for Muv-Luv (heya Vita physical where are you
). Muv-Luv should be an example other Kickstarters, especially VN ones follow.
This will be available in mangagamer right?
I will buy there because I have one KS that didn't deliver my physical rewards
and I paid $200 for it...
My rewards is just a disk, an 18 page art book and a signature but they delay the delivery for almost a year and not even a picture from the developer.. at least I get the game...
I will buy there because I have one KS that didn't deliver my physical rewards
Project Scissors: Nightcry
My rewards is just a disk, an 18 page art book and a signature but they delay the delivery for almost a year and not even a picture from the developer.. at least I get the game...
Kresnik258
Member
Ughh.
Do I take the gamble on this? I really don't trust them, but I want this game...
Yeah, I've been wondering the same. Pledged a dollar but without a confirmation pledging higher is useless.
I wouldn't take the gamble. If anything, just get it directly on PSN when it's out.
Kresnik258
Member
That's true, it looks like it's going to get funded regardless of me adding $40.
I suspect this'll get a physical run down the line too, so I'm in for backerkit and then see what they do with that.
Cheers. I'm gonna stay at $1.
purseowner
Member
I really want the $50 physical tier.
Never opted solely for Backerkit access before - would pledging $1 allow me to upgrade to that at a later date?
Never opted solely for Backerkit access before - would pledging $1 allow me to upgrade to that at a later date?
You need to select the specific $1 tier and you'll be able to upgrade to the $50 once they open BackerKit access.
purseowner
Member
Thanks - shall do that then.
LRG has it on their list of POSSIBLE physical releases.
Let me back up.
Someone on their forums listed a whole bunch of "rumored" games, and Douglas removed all of them that they for sure weren't releasing.
Dies Irae was still on the list. That makes me think that they have been in contact with the localization team.
I backed at $1 and will likely increase my pledge if they announce a physical
Let me back up.
Someone on their forums listed a whole bunch of "rumored" games, and Douglas removed all of them that they for sure weren't releasing.
Dies Irae was still on the list. That makes me think that they have been in contact with the localization team.
I backed at $1 and will likely increase my pledge if they announce a physical
Funyarinpa
Member
<$1000 to go until the Vita goal with 10 hours left, whahahahahahat the fuck
Organized trolling again or something?
Organized trolling again or something?
It better not be!
Funyarinpa
Member
axisofweevils
Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
I think the trolling was just simply from people that thought the campaign would be better off restarted, and a few elitist "WTF. Nooo. I learned Japanese to play this" people. Once it hit 160k, the trolling stopped.
Funyarinpa
Member
I really don't understand why KS doesn't have measures against this sort of stuff. Honestly half expecting that to happen, myself.
There is a 10k maximum limit for each backer, but really aside from the 2.5k tiers the increase was incremental. which is a good sign.