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Reborn (sci-fi action RPG set in Neo-Tokyo) announced for PS3/PS4

S

Some Nobody

Junior Member
I sense this is going to be a trend. I didn't really follow Project Phoenix too heavily, did people slam them for the same thing?
 
M

MasterOfPastures

Banned
PC as stretch goal? The fuck?! The only platform with no licensing costs and it's their 3rd stretch goal?! Again, why not just ask Sony to fund them. 200k is a drop in the bucket for them.
Good luck.
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
jett said:
That is a ludicrous goal for the game they're purporting to be making. Only someone really naive would pledge money. This scam doesn't deserve a new thread, it doesn't deserve any attention.
Click to expand...

I just backed them! Not even sure I'm going to like the game either, or if it will be any good, but I kind of like the concept.

Will you guys be able to make this game with just a minimum of a $200,000?

Yes, we can! We already have the basic game functions written with more advanced functions currently being designed and implemented daily! Our team has considerably grown since the inception of REBORN’s initial team, and with this, we continue to enjoy this positive momentum moving forward. We know how skeptical many of you are, and we have read the forums, but we want to assure to the crowd-funding community and the gamers from around the world that we are very passionate, dedicated and an extremely hardworking indie development team.

We completely understand how expensive making a game is, after all it was our sheer love and passion for REBORN that most of our teammates worked for free despite the out-of-pocket expenses that each of us endured. Furthermore, with our minimum goal of $200,000 achieved, REBORN can only be available via the PlayStation Network, however higher funding through the ‘Stretch Goals’ we have laid out, will allow us to expand on the world and bring to you a more complete vision of REBORN, and possibly a retail release in a physical copy (upon reaching SG-TIER 6).

Please allow us to elaborate on our team’s compensation we have setup. Since most of the senior to mid-level teammates are industry professionals, when Franz approached each one of them, they did not require a salary at the moment therefore, where they could not dedicate time (during other paid projects), they did so by donating personal pieces that they felt would help to expand the vision of REBORN. When they did have the time to do work, they did so with the sheer thought of being a part of an exciting process of creating a video game; plain and simple, each teammate wanted to belong to a project that was creating something original, fun and of course something to call their own. That said, each teammate’s reward will be based on a back-end percentage through royalties of all sales REBORN makes, therefore it is possible for us to release REBORN without failure on PSN with our current development. Of course, with higher funding through our Stretch Goals, we will release on multiple platforms thereby giving our fans a greater accessibility to our game. We do not want to focus on some mythical mass market, rather we want to release REBORN to you, our loyal fans!

On another note, the money we will raise through Kickstarter will be allocated to enhance REBORN via already negotiated deals such as motion capturing via House of Moves and licensing fees for the Unreal Engine to say the least. Rest assured that we are not here to fail and we will ensure that all monies raised here will be allocate towards making REBORN. Finally, we are only here because of you, our fans who care and believe in this concept even if you have never heard of us before. We have taken this project to a personal level where it has become our daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most of us spend nearly 15+ hours a day working out the code base, refining the game design and working with each of our teammates across different time zones. To us, we have much to prove to the industry, and we want to get our fans to not only believe in this project and our team, but to take a leap of faith with us as we continue our development cycle. Through a successful Kickstarter campaign, and with your help, let’s make REBORN our reality!
Click to expand...
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
People do not appear to like reading, apparently. As someone said up above, or at least referenced, many people were curious about Project Phoenix as well being such a low number until they saw the people working on it and the answer to questions regarding it being that many of them were using their own money or working for free.

This appears to be much the same and as many people have posted NUMEROUS times (though no one appears to be reading it) this game was already being worked on for a decent time, with many of it's players working for free or putting money in. $200,000 may be just enough for them to continue the work without the trouble that doing it for free or with their own money has so far. Maybe some of them can't afford to work free or use their own money anymore as they're done with other jobs or their surplus above living expenses ran out?

This seems like it could be quite cool. Love the concept art.
 
S

Shrieve

Neo Member
Begaria said:
I read through that entire kickstarter page as well as the FAQ. They say they've been working on this for about three years and have a game they could deliver for 200k.
Click to expand...

That may be the case, but where in the Kickstarter have they supported that? On display they have some character and environment concept pieces, a few gameplay mock-ups, and a couple half finished models. If they've been working on this thing for 3 years, what do they have to show? Where's a greybox environment to show off some basic movement, or even better combat? How about some finished 3D assets so we can see what an environment might look like? They spent 10 minutes of their video talking up their art pipeline and narrative setting, only giving a few token sentences about actual gameplay and development progress.

I'm hearing a lot of lofty ideas, and although they do sound sincere and passionate, nothing (to me) proves that their capable of fulfilling them in a year's time.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
OniBarubary said:
People do not appear to like reading, apparently. As someone said up above, or at least referenced, many people were curious about Project Phoenix as well being such a low number until they saw the people working on it and the answer to questions regarding it being that many of them were using their own money or working for free.

This appears to be much the same and as many people have posted NUMEROUS times (though no one appears to be reading it) this game was already being worked on for a decent time, with many of it's players working for free or putting money in. $200,000 may be just enough for them to continue the work without the trouble that doing it for free or with their own money has so far. Maybe some of them can't afford to work free or use their own money anymore as they're done with other jobs or their surplus above living expenses ran out?

This seems like it could be quite cool. Love the concept art.
Click to expand...

If they've been working on it for a while then they should show what they have. It could be the difference between the campaign making its minimum goal or missing it. I think generally if you're doing a Kickstarter without any actual footage of your game then you need to have some big name talent behind the project. Mighty No. 9 was funded because Inafune and a bunch of other major players in the industry were behind it. Because of that people had no doubts about the project. Project Phoenix was similar. While it's minimum goal was even lower than Reborn's, they had big name talent on board so there was no way that those people would be willing to risk their name on a questionable project.
 
C

chrominance

Member
shink said:
The Kickstarter page explains why it's only 200k
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1713834306/reborn?ref=recently_launched#project_faq_70205
Click to expand...

This doesn't sound like a solid business plan, to be honest. When asked, "how can you make this game for so cheap?," their response is essentially "most of the people involved in the project are doing it for free in their spare time because they love the game so much!" There's no breakdown of expected nor sunk costs--do they, in fact, have an Unreal license? When they say "Unreal" is helping, do they mean Epic, or just "hey we bought the UDK"? How much is that mocap going to cost? What's their relationship to Sony exactly? Can we assume the licensing costs have been taken care of? For the people who you say DO need to be paid in the original pitch, what do you expect to pay them out of the $200k? Since you say Reborn will be the only project they'd be working on, wouldn't you have to pay them full-time salaries? How many people are in this position and how much time are you expecting to pay them for? If the game already has basic stuff put in, is there an alpha gameplay demo or prototype we can see?

There are just so many questions and their response does nothing to answer any of them.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
SolidSnakex said:
If they've been working on it for a while then they should show what they have. It could be the difference between the campaign making its minimum goal or missing it. I think generally if you're doing a Kickstarter without any actual footage of your game then you need to have some big name talent behind the project. Mighty No. 9 was funded because Inafune and a bunch of other major players in the industry were behind it. Because of that people had no doubts about the project. Project Phoenix was similar. While it's minimum goal was even lower than Reborn's, they had big name talent on board so there was no way that those people would be willing to risk their name on a questionable project.
Click to expand...

I was just explaining the number. Any other concerns regarding what they show and how they answer questions are very valid. I just don't like seeing "the number is too low, total scam"
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
Uhm, they only need 200k to finish things up, but they don't have something more concrete to show, beside those artworks? Also set to release in just 1 year and again, nothing concrete to show?
Sounds very weird, not saying it's a scam, just not sure it'll get done.
 
S

Silky

Banned
Screens look good. Music is greaaaaaaat.

We completely understand how expensive making a game is, after all it was our sheer love and passion for REBORN that most of our teammates worked for free despite the out-of-pocket expenses that each of us endured.
Click to expand...

Um. Their FAQ sounds like something out of a comic book...
 
A

Aaron

Member
This might not be a scam, but like Clang I feel the people behind it are too ambitious and unrealistic in what they can pull off.
 
R

reptilescorpio

Member
Don't think I'll be backing unless there is some gameplay in that video, was a good read though and I hope they make it.

Very intrigued to find out who the SECRET SENIOR PROGRAMMER is. Going by the description I instantly thought CliffyB but who knows. Possibly sounds like the programmer will only leave his current company if the game is kickstarted.
 
S

Sotha_Sil

Member
The only way they're going to convince people to sign onto this is by showing what they've already got done. They've supposedly been working on it for a while (one guy in a video says he joined in 2011).

Music is nice, but we need to see something besides concept art.
 
S

Some Nobody

Junior Member
I had a lengthy conversation with the guy who runs their Twitter. He's trying to come on GAF but he mentioned having some trouble with their "shockingly long acceptance times".
 
G

Globox_82

Banned
200k? I say go and offer your skills to Sony, MS, EA, Acti, etc if you are able to make that type of game with SNES budget. Ask from big publishers 10% of every multimillion budget. For example if game is 20 million, ask for 2 million. Make the game for 200k and save the company 17.8 million. Everyone will hire you. You don't need this kickstarter...

EDIT: and don't tell me to read QA and how this is only to "finish" the game. All I see is concept art. So for all I know they haven't even bagan to work on this.
 
R

reptilescorpio

Member
Globox_82 said:
200k? I say go and offer your skills to Sony, MS, EA, Acti, etc if you are able to make that type of game with SNES budget. Ask from big publishers 10% of every multimillion budget. For example if game is 20 million, ask for 2 million. Make the game for 200k and save the company 17.8 million. Everyone will hire you. You don't need this kickstarter...
Click to expand...

They aren't spending $200k on the game, read the Kickstarter.
 
G

Globox_82

Banned
Reborn_2013_09-19-13_021.jpg_600.jpg
Click to expand...

This 11 year old boy has amazing body...I wonder what he eats...lol
 
R

Rogue_Ledr

Banned
I always find it bizarre in these sci-fi settings seeing people using melee weaponry, which presumably would be totally useless in a time when projectile weaponry would be even more advanced than now.

Bringing a knife to a gun fight isn't a good idea. Bringing a knife to a rail gun fight? Less so! :)

Anyway, its just cool to see another promising PS title being introduced,
 
U

UltraGunner

Banned
Rogue_Ledr said:
I always find it bizarre in these sci-fi settings seeing people using melee weaponry, which presumably would be totally useless in a time when projectile weaponry would be even more advanced than now.

Bringing a knife to a gun fight isn't a good idea. Bringing a knife to a rail gun fight? Less so! :)

Anyway, its just cool to see another promising PS title being introduced,
Click to expand...

Haven't you ever read Dune? Personal shields are so effective in the future that the only way to kill someone is to run up to the guy and stab them.

Anyways, the idea behind this game is really cool, its like a cyberpunk version of Shin Megami Tensei. I am a bit concerned about the amount they're asking for. I'd pledge away if I could see some snippets of gameplay instead of just concept art.
 
element

element

Member
The whole thing is confusing.

Why PS3?

We have been developing it on the UE3, but we are expanding it on the UE4 which is next-gen consoles PS4 and XBOX ONE.
Click to expand...
This makes zero sense. You can't just upgrade your game to UE4. If they hit their $200k, they will have to have two different games/codebases, one for PS3 and one for PS4. Don't even take into consideration if they have one on UE3 and UE4.

• Early minimal functioning prototype of REBORN working on PSVita.
• Early prototype of gameplay functioning on UE3 to PS4 port of REBORN working.
• Multiplayer mode already functional on the PS3, PS4, and Windows platforms.
• Nearly 9 months of already-developed feature sets and code base ready to be expanded.
Click to expand...
Show it.
 
X

Xater

Member
i-Lo said:
I've to ask, why the heels? Do designers ever consider realism pertaining agility and how it fits with heels?

Aside from that, the concept art looks very enticing. There has been a dearth of sci-fi rpg this gen; I hope this is a sign of things to come.
Click to expand...

Not just the heels are weird. There are at least three things that are just there so the character can have cyber armor and still be a sex object.
 
R

Rei_Toei

Fclvat sbe Pnanqn, ru?
Cool concept art, everything else just raises questions. Also worried about somewhat of a reversal of the "Japanese dev trying to cater to Western audience" trope. Other then that I've been craving for the rather rare cocktail of cyberpunk, RPG and the supernatural since, well, the MSX days (see: Illusion City), so more power to them if they come up with something interesting.
 
T

Triggerhappytel

Member
Shrieve said:
That may be the case, but where in the Kickstarter have they supported that? On display they have some character and environment concept pieces, a few gameplay mock-ups, and a couple half finished models. If they've been working on this thing for 3 years, what do they have to show? Where's a greybox environment to show off some basic movement, or even better combat? How about some finished 3D assets so we can see what an environment might look like? They spent 10 minutes of their video talking up their art pipeline and narrative setting, only giving a few token sentences about actual gameplay and development progress.

I'm hearing a lot of lofty ideas, and although they do sound sincere and passionate, nothing (to me) proves that their capable of fulfilling them in a year's time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the whole thing looks and sounds great, but getting a finished product out there in 12 months on just $200k on multiple platforms seems a little low considering how obviously ambitious it is.

chrominance said:
This doesn't sound like a solid business plan, to be honest. When asked, "how can you make this game for so cheap?," their response is essentially "most of the people involved in the project are doing it for free in their spare time because they love the game so much!" There's no breakdown of expected nor sunk costs--do they, in fact, have an Unreal license? When they say "Unreal" is helping, do they mean Epic, or just "hey we bought the UDK"? How much is that mocap going to cost? What's their relationship to Sony exactly? Can we assume the licensing costs have been taken care of? For the people who you say DO need to be paid in the original pitch, what do you expect to pay them out of the $200k? Since you say Reborn will be the only project they'd be working on, wouldn't you have to pay them full-time salaries? How many people are in this position and how much time are you expecting to pay them for? If the game already has basic stuff put in, is there an alpha gameplay demo or prototype we can see?

There are just so many questions and their response does nothing to answer any of them.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It sounds great at first glance, but the write-up doesn't really seem to address a proper business plan.

Aaron said:
This might not be a scam, but like Clang I feel the people behind it are too ambitious and unrealistic in what they can pull off.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a small indie team making a full 3D action-adventure with 20 hours' worth of content in just 12 months time just seems like overreaching at this point. As someone mentioned, at least show work-in-progress footage to prove they've got something. Even if it's just combat animations or levels built with the character running through, but lacking textures or final polish.

reptilescorpio said:
Don't think I'll be backing unless there is some gameplay in that video, was a good read though and I hope they make it.

Very intrigued to find out who the SECRET SENIOR PROGRAMMER is. Going by the description I instantly thought CliffyB but who knows. Possibly sounds like the programmer will only leave his current company if the game is kickstarted.
Click to expand...

If they had a famous programmer on board they'd be foolish not to tell us who. It would help reach their goal immeasurably.
 
Apocryphon

Apocryphon

Member
I knew I'd seen the image in what was alluded to be a blurry screenshot before..

rdrUArh


OoudZvg


At they just completely full of shit or is all this art just mockup stuff for a pitch? Seems really fishy and the video didn't exactly fill me with confidence.
 
R

Rogue_Ledr

Banned
UltraGunner said:
Haven't you ever read Dune? Personal shields are so effective in the future that the only way to kill someone is to run up to the guy and stab them.
.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but Dune is like what? 12,000 years in the future.

Totally different technological level. Personal shields are going to remain sci-fi for some time to come.
 
S

Skinpop

Member
i hate the concept art. generic dudebro concept artist stuff with no imagination. It doesn't feel like tokyo at all, it looks like an american idea of a cyberpunk city with japanese character slapped on.

Character concepts look off to me, anatomy is not right, foreshortening wrong but some parts are decent, I get the feeling they've used parts from other artists work or made paint overs.
 
S

Some Nobody

Junior Member
Skinpop said:
i hate the concept art. generic dudebro concept artist stuff with no imagination. It doesn't feel like tokyo at all, it looks like an american idea of a cyberpunk city with japanese character slapped on.

Character concepts look off to me, anatomy is not right, foreshortening wrong but some parts are decent, I get the feeling they've used parts from other artists work or made paint overs.
Click to expand...


....Aaaand that's it. Dudebro just officially became the new "hipster". Funeral to be held a week or so from now.
 
K

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
Robert at Zeboyd Games said:
It's really hard to believe that they're trying to finish the game up when they have yet to show any actual footage.
Click to expand...

Yea. I don't know how anyone can feel safe throwing their money at something with nothing more than a "trust us, it looks great!" =/


Edit: Did no one else realize that at least two of the guys in the video are clearly reading off a script?.... Idk guys. Bad vibes about this one....
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Sci-fi action-RPG? Why, that sounds interest--

Reborn_2013_09-19-13_025.jpg_600.jpg


....Urrrrrgh. Fuck you.

Also, LOL @ their KS page. Just need a bit of money to finish things up, but have no footage? All that suspicious BS about the art? And they brag about their QTEs, good grief. I think for the first time ever I actually want them to fail.
 
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