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BLACKROOM announced (new game by John Romero, Kickstarter)

mrpeabody

Member
Looks like this will be failing.


I don't think so. These types of kickstarters can be succesful, but they have to be well run. Using your Bloodstained example, they had a huge lead up to the kickstarter, a lot of information on the campaign page, info about the engine they would use, and the development team Iga was partnering with. IGA also had a lot more goodwill than Romero does. If you want crowdfund and don't have actual stuff to show, then you better do a lot of hustling with you campaign before it launches, and during the campaign itself.

There was also a huge pent-up demand for another "real" Castlevania from the original creator. He made 50 of the fucking things, they're a known quantity, and people really wanted another one.

Are people really starving for another throwback shooter? Maybe. Do they feel like only John Romero can give it to them? No.

I also think attempting both singleplayer and multi is a scoping mistake. Just too much to take on for your studio's first project, and for your first modern FPS.

Keep in mind that Romero hasn't shipped a shooter since 2000, and hasn't shipped a game of any kind since 2005. The marketplace is different, consumer expectations are different, tools and teams are different. The games he was famous for came out a long time ago. He needs to make sure his new studio's first game is fun and polished. That means limiting the scope, limiting risk, and focusing on quality.

A title that delivers an awesome singleplayer or multiplayer experience will probably earn him funding for another game. A title that is mediocre at both probably won't.
 
Well Iga's Bloodstained got $5.5m on KS with nothing but concept art, two music samples and names of people attached to the project. Did they got lucky?
Bloodstained's KS was a greenlight pitch more than anything since we knew from day one that it was merely to prove there was demand so they could get funding from a third party. Iga is also known to be able to make good games on tight budgets and Inti Creates is known to be good at making platformers - bad management nonwithstanding. Iga's last game in the genre was also arguably the best Metroidvania to date while Romero is coming back to the genre after, well, Daikatana.

Bloodstained was also asking for 0.5m, with the rest coming after we had much, much more info and details, including footage of conceptual gameplay. They didn't get lucky, they had a well-managed campaign despite early hiccups and it shows.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder

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.....Why. Your still trying to sell people on past pedigree and now you brought out a widely hated figure to promote you. I guess Romero didn't learn anything from his wife's Kickstarter failure.
 

Nzyme32

Member

Kneefoil

Member
Damn. I should've expected a Kickstarter.

I would be very interested to see what Romero can cook up, but I've already been soured by other crowd funding campaigns in the past - at least ones that are pretty much just promises and concept art like this one.

And yeah, should've tried to find someone better liked than Pitchford to promote your campaign. I mean, this ship would probably still sink before leaving the harbour, but I'm just saying.
 
Lol, what are they thinking.

Anyone who knows who pitchford is (the only people who an endorsement from him might matter to) dislikes him for being a lying snakeoil salesman who does false advertising.

Way to torpedo your own campaign
 

Jigorath

Banned
I'm laughing at the idea of Romero reaching out to all sorts of people to get an endorsement, and Randy Pitchford is the only person who said yes.
 
It's so weird, I read Masters of Doom and when I saw he was doing a Kickstarter I actually had a reaction of "are you *F#$@#$@! kidding me?!"

The details in that book are fascinating, but they don't paint him in the best light.
 

Saganator

Member
What the fuck Romero?!

I heard the announcement of the announcement, I was ready to give my money.

Then I saw the kickstarter video and page.

Then I saw the Pitchford video.

I'm so ready for the type of game he claims he's going to make, how could he not have even just a tiny slice to show off?

smh
 

gabbo

Member
I'm laughing at the idea of Romero reaching out to all sorts of people to get an endorsement, and Randy Pitchford is the only person who said yes.

They have history in the Texas game scene from the 90's I'd think. that said, Pitchford is not high on most gamers list of respected devs, so this... yeah...
edit: When Pitchford is talking, all my mind can comprehend is that Ken Marino is talking to me about game design as his Vinnie Van Lowe character from Veronica Mars
 

Finalow

Member
Truth be told I think this campaign kinda deserves to fail. I only have the vaguest idea of what this game is gonna be and they expect me to put money behind that?
it honestly does deserve to fail. 2 pieces of bad concept art which explain nothing, and more nothing regarding everything else outside of some buzzwords thrown around and a silly video with romero in it.
people already mentioned it but Igarashi's kickstarter was hardly the same.
 

LordAmused

Member
Randy Pitchfork is the only individual I didn't want to see back this, along with Molyneux. I was interested but maybe not anymore.
 

Compsiox

Banned
Look at this shit update:
-The company will be at a convention where they won't even be talking about the game or the company
-They misunderstood. Kickstarter did not show them love. They only got less than 1/7 of their goal yesterday, the day that they would have had the most attention. They're screwed.

NIGHT WORK GAMES AT REBOOT DEVELOP

Night Work Games will be at Reboot Develop in beautiful Croatia April 28-30th. John will be giving a talk on the early days of id Software and the programming principles that they developed during that time. As co-founders of id Software, John Romero and John Carmack created the code behind the company's seminal titles. The principles they defined through experience in id’s earliest days built upon one another to produce a unique methodology and a constantly shippable codebase.

You can find out more about the event at - http://www.rebootdevelop.hr/

KICKSTARTER LOVES BLACKROOM

First day and Kickstarter has shown us the love!
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...new-fps-from-romero-and-carmack/posts/1557897
 

BiggNife

Member
A Pitchford endorsement literally makes me less interested in this project

But yeah I dunno. What's the last Romero project that people actually liked? Post Daikatana it seems like all he's done is a bunch of phone games I've never heard of and a couple of PS2 Midway games. That doesn't exactly instill me with confidence.

Also considering that Daikatana is one of the industry's most famous development disasters I am not sure I trust Romero to manage a project like this by himself

Also also saying "A New FPS From Romero and Carmack" is sketchy as fuck when I'm sure they know full well most people will think of John and not Adrian

And I think comparing this to Bloodstained is not exactly fair. IGA has a much more consistent track record than Romero does and at the pitch felt a lot more thought-out and specific than this one.
 

Onemic

Member
Who is Randy Pitchford and why is he hated?

A Pitchford endorsement literally makes me less interested in this project

But yeah I dunno. What's the last Romero project that people actually liked? Post Daikatana it seems like all he's done is a bunch of phone games I've never heard of and a couple of PS2 Midway games. That doesn't exactly instill me with confidence.

Also considering that Daikatana is one of the industry's most famous development disasters I am not sure I trust Romero to manage a project like this by himself

Also also saying "A New FPS From Romero and Carmack" is sketchy as fuck when I'm sure they know full well most people will think of John and not Adrian

And I think comparing this to Bloodstained is not exactly fair. IGA has a much more consistent track record than Romero does and at the pitch felt a lot more thought-out and specific than this one.

Most people dont even know who Adrian Carmack is tbh
 

Stiler

Member
Why not get John Carmack to make a video? What about Gabe freaking Newell?

I want this kickstarter to succeed so badly but it's like they didn't prepare for it.

Pitching a game on kickstarter you need more than a simple "idea" of a game, you need to show work in progress, you need to be clear about WHAT the game is, what do you do in the game? How does it play? The pitch video/write up isn't clear in the least about what the actual game they are pitching is.

I feel like they should scrap the kickstarter, wait 6'ish months, get some work on it and have a small very early concept video showing what the game is about, a vertical slice video of "why" people should be excited for the game and what sets it apart from other fps games.
 

dLMN8R

Member
I don't have the hatred that others do for Randy Pitchford, and I really love the Borderlands series and like what I played of Battleborn.

But regardless of what you think of him personally, he's the last person you want to use to convince people to buy into pre-release promises.
 
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