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BLACKROOM announced (new game by John Romero, Kickstarter)
- Thread starter Nibel
- Start date
I totally agree. Also, I'm pretty sure Romero can get in touch with his old partners from Raven Software. People who made Heretic and Hexen under his guidance could give him a much more valuable shout-out than Randy Pitchford.
crazygambit
Member
Can you elaborate?
crazygambit
Member
Given you understand that, why would you want this to succeed? It just shows to me these guys have no clue what they're doing and have absolutely no faith they can deliver on a modern videogame.
As for your suggestion they scrap the kickstarter, it is abundantly clear they have no intention of doing any work on this project unless they're getting paid first. They will risk 0 dollars of their own money to make this a reality.
Haha, crazy you should mention that. When Ion Storm was first announced (as Dream Design), it happened around the same time that Molyneux left Bullfrog. There was a lot of reports and speculation on sites like Bluesnews and the like that he would be joining Romero, Hall, and Wilson, but, alas, they held out for Spector, who was about to make a Command and Conquer FPS/RPG for EA.
Founder of Gearbox software who has the reputation of being the closest thing the video game industry has to a snake oil salesman
Most notably he did a lot of promotion for Aliens Colonial Marines, which was advertised as being developed by Gearbox, when in fact the majority of content was outsourced to C-Tier dev houses, which wasn't revealed until right before release. There's also scuttlebutt that Gearbox intentionally used funds from Sega intended for Aliens to continue production on the Borderlands games but that was never proven AFAIK.
Basically he has a long history of spouting a lot of lies and bullshit to promote product. So he is exactly the last kind of person who should be promoting a kickstarter like this.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Stiler
Member
Why do I want it to succeed? Because I think John is a very talented developer who gets way too much flak for ONE bad game (Daikatana) which people associate with him instead of Doom/Quake/Heretic/etc.
I'd like to see him come from behind that shadow and make a good new game that people like.
I just think they went about the kickstarter/pitch the wrong way and should have took more time.
KratosEnergyDrink
Member
A shooter...
What else did you think he was going to make after he did those new DOOM levels?
More_Badass
Member
I get that he created that genre with those games, but I think it's kind of crazy to entrust him to make a game now without any idea or notion of what the game will be like. If he still has the chops to make a good game (and no, it's not a given).
Like look at Overload. It was from the creators of Descent. They had a prototype that showed yeah, they still can make a solid 6DOF shooter with tight responsive controls.
I feel It's ridiculous to blindly be excited for a new game because the developer made acclaimed games years and years ago, regardless of how groundbreaking those games were
Fatal Futanari
Member
Well he at least has made a Doom level recently to show he still gots it (level design wise).
MrCunningham
Member
That's a bold statement to make. While I will agree that this is a poorly executed Kickstarter, the idea is not a bad one.
Compsiox
Banned
I never said the idea was bad or even inferred it. The Kickstarter itself is in fact...A FAILURE!
StrategyFan
Member
all things considered, blackroom is probably still our greatest hope for a singleplayer FPS that has a chance to be better than 90s doom & quake
it's a tragic state of affairs, but this is the world we live in
it's a tragic state of affairs, but this is the world we live in
randomlee26
Member
There's just a lot of stuff about how Ion Storm was completely self-indulgent and how Romero was more interested in being a gaming rockstar than actually producing product. It tells the story of "John Romero is going to make you his bitch" as if Romero was hesitant to use the ad, but given the attitude of "Daikatana is gonna be awesome because yeah" it's easy to see why he would find it acceptable.
MrCunningham
Member
It's at $100k so it isn't a total failure yet. This one could end up being a slow burn to the end. But all the same, they did not start this one off well. A large information dump with a few pieces of concept art and no real content to showcase.
More_Badass
Member
Idk. I honestly don't think that's a good indication. I'd argue there's a difference between making a level in an already-made game with controls and an engine you're intimately familiar with, and making a totally new game in a new engine with a new theme, new aesthetic, new controls, etc
kinaesthete
Member
This is the biggest bummer ever so far. The pitch seems to be targeted directly at (pandering to) me and it's led by someone who's made some of my favorite games ever and yet, this doesn't even come close making me comfortable backing it. It's hard to believe that Romero, even in his modern, slightly humbler form, could have so badly read the climate for crowdfunding and his own reputation. The lack of ANY prototype at all, the awful concept art, lack of team members outside of the headliners, the Pitchford endorsement... There's just no excuse for not having SOME playable prototype when pitching from Romero's position, especially since it's a years old design apparently, they intend to use UE4, and he's already an experienced programmer not doing much with his time. The closest comparison I can think of is the Underworld Ascendant KS, they didn't have a lot going into that but ideas but they had the decency of putting together a small (and knowingly ugly) prototype. Paul Neurath's relevancy has been about the same as Romero's for the last 15 years but then again he never tried to make anyone his bitch.
It's probably impossible at this point since the whole campaign has probably been planned out and paid for by now but it should get terminated ASAP and come back with some kind of playable thing to show, otherwise this thing's going to cap out at like 300k.
It's probably impossible at this point since the whole campaign has probably been planned out and paid for by now but it should get terminated ASAP and come back with some kind of playable thing to show, otherwise this thing's going to cap out at like 300k.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
Id rather subscribe to a patreon of him making new doom/quake maps every few months to be honest.
disappeared
Banned
Holy shit now that's an idea.
funkystudent
Member
Kind of slow going
I think the Kickstarter well has been bled dry a bit from previous "hey remember me! I made that game from the 90's you liked. Give me money to make something similar"
If this was a years ago this would be funded already.
I think the Kickstarter well has been bled dry a bit from previous "hey remember me! I made that game from the 90's you liked. Give me money to make something similar"
If this was a years ago this would be funded already.
Leafhopper
Banned
RowdyReverb
Member
Man, I want to fund this, but I really need to see more. Even a pre-alpha early prototype to at least show they have some tools to build levels, which is Romero's forte. Show me that they're tossing him a pitch that he can hit
The Real Abed
Perma-Junior
I really really hope he eventually releases all 9 maps and then a special WAD with all of them in one. I want to play a brand new reimagined DOOM Episode 1.
Maybe this is how he's prototyping the game? maybe these ARE the game?
johancruijff
Banned
FairFriend
Member
You know what would be a good kickstarter idea for this two guys? A book about level design written by John Romero and illustrated by Adrian Carmack. I'm sure it would make for a very informative reading and it would be a safer bet.
I really recommend the Devs Play Doom series where John talks through the levels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6...p4-kmjpzI&annotation_id=annotation_3199611125
kinaesthete
Member
At what point in the campaign do they get desperate enough to add the $800,000 Brutal Blackroom stretchgoal? Give the people what they want, the only thing blacker than Blackroom...
Newell supported the Clang KS campaign by way of a small cameo in the pitch video and the project ultimately failed, with Neal Stephenson and co. not delivering anything side from t-shirts and other small backer rewards. I'll be surprised if he goes near another crowdfunding campaign again.
TheJollyCorner
Member
Aww yeah, I needed another middle aged white dude protagonist
Yo, Robert Patrick?!?!?
"Building the best first person shooters today..."
- Creator of Aliens: CM and Battleborn.
I know I don't even like Borderlands cause it's a good FPS, it's all about the loot and crazy world they made.
There was also the issue of what his cameo in that KS implied. Can't imagine it'd go over well if they did something like that again.
LMAO! Just look at Pitchford's eyes. He's reading from a script. He's looking at it every 3 seconds.
Randy Pitchford ...... oh man. Comedy gold.
More_Badass
Member
Most of the time I agree, but it isn't concrete. Developers involved, delivering on past Kickstarters, scope and scale, the infomation given, etc all matter
ie Harebrained's Battletech vs Romero's Blackroom
I missed this post before, but are John Carmack and Romero even on good terms at this point? I assumed Romero's split from ID left them on less than amicable terms.
And I can't imagine John is happy with the "Romero & Carmack" branding knowing full well people will assume he's the Carmack working on it.
Edit: The more I think about this, the more I'm willing to bet this campaign will fail, but they'll pull a Consortium and come back on FIG with a more fleshed out proposal. They could probably get some big investments from overly passionate DOOM fans.
Hate to break it to you, but this is the case for most of these pitches and video promos; it's just that on most occasions you can barely tell.
FairFriend
Member
, thank you anywayDyson Industries
Banned
Relaxed Muscle
Member
Nothing inspires me more confidence than Randy Pitchford giving his support to this.
Yep, nice going Romero.
/s
8 X 11 Printer Paper
Member
The first three day total is looking like it has managed to out due my expectations (negatively) of it hitting 22% funded. On the plus side I don't think I need to make a new graph showing it chances compared to a few close (under 110% total funded) Big Money Kickstarters in how they hit past the 100% mark.
Killer Queen
Banned
These names are seriously awful.
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