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[Frogacuda]

4 years of development with a budget of a million dollars? Are they a team of 5 people? How is that supposed to work out?

That's not what they're saying. They already have their development paid for, they just want an EXTRA million so they can expand and ramp up development further. Of course, we know that's bullshit since development doesn't work that way, but that's their story.

I seldom have a major objection to anyone running a Kickstarter, but this one is gross. It's someone who HAS financing, and who ALREADY GOT KICKSTARTER MONEY, coming back to the free money well a second time and utterly preying on the goodwill of their fans.

I have no idea why anyone would give to this if they understood it. There's nothing in it for them. The same game and the same features will be available after launch. Backing is just giving them early money for nothing, and taking a huge gamble.

 

[Frogacuda]

the only "return" kickstarter people have on investment is "the game possibly gets made"

And you know what? That's absolutely worth it sometimes. There are some games I backed that I waited years for, that I KNOW wouldn't have happened otherwise, and if only half of them come out decent, it will have been worth it. I will happily gamble on the chance of a new, full-fledged Tex Murphy game because it's something that means a lot to me, and something that needs it.

But in cases like this, where the game is going to be made either way, and the extra funds are for something as dubious as accellerating development (guess what: The same man-hours cost the same money regardless of length of the dev cycle), then there's literally NOTHING in it for backers. This is absolutely KS abuse, because there's no incentive.

There isn't even the Molyneux "I want to do this independent" thing because they're ALREADY working with outside investors who want a ROI.

 

[JJD]

I find it hard to call the guys straight out dishonest, or this KS a sham.

They were very clear that the first KS was to build a tech demo. They never promised a full game or a game demo right?

They got overfunded and decided to do a new KS for the game development. It's understandable. Who in same position wouldn't do the same?

Is this KS abusive? Well, maybe.

The question is, was the tech demo successful, and is it completely done by now? Is their tech competent and viable? If it is I see no problem with this KS.

And I'm not even into MMOs, so there's no way I'll ever fund this, I just find it amusing like so many people can easily point their fingers to anyone and claim things.

I remember that thread calling Vigil liars. Do we know what happened with the development of DS 2? Maybe a THQ suit desperate with the company bleeding money just demanded that the devs. released the PC version of their game already without the necessary polish.

I would think long and hard before accusing anyone of such things. Maybe I'm just too trusting.

 

[Frogacuda]

The dishonest part is that they need the money to get the game out faster. Money doesn't change the amount of man-hours it takes to make a game. They can spend the money now to make the game sooner, or they can spend it later and take longer, but the money doesn't change. If anything it's cheaper to do it faster because of operating costs like office rent and utils.

Other than that, they're fairly upfront, but they're still taking advantage of people's goodwill unfairly. They don't need this money.