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Broken Sword - the Serpent's Curse Kickstarter [$819k funded w/ PayPal - Over]

Social

Member
haters gonna hate. This is AWESOME.
It looks great, amazing selling video right there.
Going to back 100 dollars.
 

Shiloa

Member

Yes, I read it. I don't believe it.

They've had a successful relaunch of two BS games on numerous platforms.

Cecil even said this:

"The enthusiasm with which our fans have received our games is humbling. Our success in self publishing has allowed Revolution, for the first time in our 20 year history, to self-fund and so create games that we know our fans want to play. We will shortly be announcing details of an original adventure game that has been in development for six months."
 

BluWacky

Member
They should add "full-2D characters" as a stretch goal reward!

I don't think they'll ever do that. It's really not cost-effective to do proper hand drawn animation these days. If you look at Daedalic's games, although the art is appealing the animation is rubbish - three frame walk cycles and characters basically sliding across the screen.

One can always hope, though.
 

Terra_Ex

Member
I'm interested, hopefully the final product is aesthetically closer to the old games rather than Pendulo's (imo inferior) work. Would also like to know where this sits in terms of the whole narrative, are they pretending 4 never happened, never finished that one myself but I seem to remember it being a drop off point for the series. Pleased to see it on kickstarter regardless, absolutely no problems with more devs breaking free from the traditional publisher shackles.
 
I don't think they'll ever do that. It's really not cost-effective to do proper hand drawn animation these days. If you look at Daedalic's games, although the art is appealing the animation is rubbish - three frame walk cycles and characters basically sliding across the screen.

One can always hope, though.

Just kidding, of course
:(
But I think that P&C developers should really begin thinking about more complex 2D animation models, like those used by Vanillaware (Odin's Sphere) or Banpresto (Super Robot Wars). It's true that it limits the perspective, but the animations are very smooth.
I know that a successful kickstarter recently helped launching a program for that kind of animation (Spriter), but I don't know if it's being considered by developers.

(sorry Minsc :D)
 

Acosta

Member
Yes, I read it. I don't believe it.

They've had a successful relaunch of two BS games on numerous platforms.

Cecil even said this:

"The enthusiasm with which our fans have received our games is humbling. Our success in self publishing has allowed Revolution, for the first time in our 20 year history, to self-fund and so create games that we know our fans want to play. We will shortly be announcing details of an original adventure game that has been in development for six months."

Don't like it, don't pledge.

It's their project, they can do whatever the fuck they want, same goes for you with your money. Even if they had the money and didn't need KS, they have all the right to use it without giving explications. Users will decide if they want to participate or not.

It´s getting tiring to go through this in every single KS thread.

Aside of that, mostly agree with the art concerns, they should stay away of Runaway style. However I will back it because I want to throw my hard earned money to Cecil.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
I really enjoyed the first two games, so definitely backing this. Hopefully the writing and pacing is closer to the first game, which will be hard to top. I think they're already at a disadvantage having this be about a stolen painting instead of a murder mystery, but they can't just do the first game again.

The look is definitely better than Broken Sword 3 or 4... but it would have been great if they made the characters 2D like everyone's saying. It just fits in better, and seems more charming in these games.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Don't like it, don't pledge.

It's their project, they can do whatever the fuck they want, same goes for you with your money. Even if they had the money and didn't need KS, they have all the right to use it without giving explications. Users will decide if they want to participate or not.
What does stating the obvious like that achieve? Do you seriously think he doesn't know he doesn't have to back it? He can still post his opinion on it without getting such condescending replies in response. Now, knowing that history, I also agree with him. I hope you won't tell me the same things all over again, as if I lack that much understanding of the situation.
 

wrowa

Member
I'm kind of confused.

Their backcatalog has been very succesful on iOS and Android, how come they don't have the money to finance the next game themselves? What have they done with it?
 

Larsen B

Member
I really enjoyed the first two games, so definitely backing this. Hopefully the writing and pacing is closer to the first game, which will be hard to top. I think they're already at a disadvantage having this be about a stolen painting instead of a murder mystery, but they can't just do the first game again.

The look is definitely better than Broken Sword 3 or 4... but it would have been great if they made the characters 2D like everyone's saying. It just fits in better, and seems more charming in these games.

Guy definitely gets shot during the robbery.

Try telling his bereaved family that wasn't a 'murder'.
 

mclem

Member
That's my main gripe so far, why not go full-on 2D? It's what the fans want (I'd imagine). The 3D models are pretty shitty looking as expected.

Cost savings. It's a hell of a lot cheaper to pose a model five times and make a screenshot of each than it is to draw five distinct drawings of the character.
 

Acosta

Member
What does stating the obvious like that achieve? Do you seriously think he doesn't know he doesn't have to back it? He can still post his opinion on it without getting such condescending replies in response. Now, knowing that history, I also agree with him. I hope you won't tell me the same things all over again, as if I lack that much understanding of the situation.

That's his opinion, that's my opinion about his and yours opinion:

I don't care, it´s irrelevant and it´s tiring to see posters that think they need to post their opinion about something should or shouldn't be a Kickstarter. I want to talk and discuss about the project, the pledge and the possibilities, what we like, what we don't.

I don't want to hear your opinions about the validity or not of a project, and you don't want to hear me about my opinions of your opinions. I guess we have a tie!

Deal with it.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
That's his opinion, that's my opinion about his and yours opinion:

I don't care, it´s irrelevant and it´s tiring to see posters that think they need to post their opinion about something should or shouldn't be a Kickstarter. I want to talk and discuss about the project, the pledge and the possibilities, what we like, what we don't.

I don' want to hear your opinions about the validity or not of a project, and you don't want to hear me about my opinions of your opinions. I guess we have a tie!

Deal with it.
It seems you're the one not dealing with it well. I didn't say anything about posting your opinion of his or my opinion, just that it's silly to think he's not aware of those basic facts you outlined. The only opinion part there seemed to be how you're tired of this or that. Whatever, I didn't comment on that at all. If thinking he's ignorant of those basic facts was also actually part of your opinion piece, then just consider my post as simply letting you know that part of it was actually wrong, as everyone is aware of it all. If you don't want to learn of other people's opinions on certain topics, clicking into forum threads for said topics is probably a bad choice.
 

ThatStupidLion

Gold Member
characters and style look like ass. really didnt capture George at all in that design.

animations are worse than bad.

i dont get why people are okay throwing money at these kickstarters. nostalgia i assume.
 

Acosta

Member
Back to track, I finally watched the pledge, it was brilliant! Really recommended.

I like BS but I'm not a super fan, I would be way more excited for Beneath a Steel Sky 2. I think I will go with the minimal pledge and "preorder" the game, I may go up to 25$ but I'm sure they won't have problems with the money.
 

Shiloa

Member
That's his opinion, that's my opinion about his and yours opinion:

I don't care, it´s irrelevant
The project being a Kickstarter is part of the news so I do think it relevant to discuss. As I posted above, Cecil himself talked about self-funding. Why does this suddenly need us? To me it looks like he wants to reduce his risk, rather than it being a case of publishers taking a share. I was just questioning his belief in his own product.

Point and click games and adventures have had a bit of a renaissance and BS has too. I don't see the reason for it needing a KS.
 
Never finished the first one on PSX, I think I finished the second one on PSX and finished the third one on Xbox. But that was years ago.

Interested by this, but the 3D characters are really bad and stick out too much from the background. In the video from the kickstarter, they showed an animator working on the pencils for George's 'walking up the stairs' animation. Could it really be 2D? Hmmm. He'll have to be more clear.

Also, I never played the Director's Cut of the first one. Just bought on Steam. Is there a remaster of the second one?
 
I'll probably back this. Those rewards look great and BS1 is one of my all time favorite adventure games. My only beef is that with a $400K goal and all those rewards, if they do reach their goal it looks like they'd have to spend a lot of that on rewards. Also, like others have asked, they don't have the money to fund this themselves?
 

Axiom

Member
Right, that's off the list and backed by me.

So between this, new Larry, new Tim Schafer and Jane Jensen's adventure games, I just need another Longest Journey and I'm pretty set.

I put more into this than Larry because the rewards are superior and it's a new game. Similar with Jane's game, the rewards weren't as great and it didn't have a clear focus at the get go.
 

Shiggy

Member
I'll probably back this. Those rewards look great and BS1 is one of my all time favorite adventure games. My only beef is that with a $400K goal and all those rewards, if they do reach their goal it looks like they'd have to spend a lot of that on rewards. Also, like others have asked, they don't have the money to fund this themselves?

It looks like these 400.000 are just an additional budget to incorporate additional features. They say it would be released no matter what, the Kickstarter will only impact certain features and the releasedate.
 

Famassu

Member
What does stating the obvious like that achieve? Do you seriously think he doesn't know he doesn't have to back it? He can still post his opinion on it without getting such condescending replies in response. Now, knowing that history, I also agree with him. I hope you won't tell me the same things all over again, as if I lack that much understanding of the situation.
Because it gets tiring to get that stupid shit in every Kickstarter thread, often even from the same people. You don't like they are going with Kickstarter? Then please just shut up. Of course if you have some legitimate criticism (like if they are taking some element into a direction you don't like or if some detail raises your eyebrows), please do voice those. But if it's just the usual bitching about "Kickstarter is the d000000mzOrZ of gaming", "Why people so stupid they donate money for a game that hasn't even begun/is early in development", "these people are tricking people of their money! THEY ARE MISUSING KICKSTARTER!" yada yada yada, then none of us want to hear it anymore.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Guy definitely gets shot during the robbery.

Try telling his bereaved family that wasn't a 'murder'.

Oh good news for me, not so much for his family. That's more like it, next time I watch the video closer instead of just reading the plot summary.
 
Hey guys! Little help!

Just bought BS1: Director's Cut on Steam and I tried running it with Windows 7 (dunno if it's the cause of the problem) but it stutters and it's extremely slow, even in the menu with the mouse. There's a delay on everything.

I tried looking around but it's not known.....

Do you guys have any idea what may cause this?
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Because it gets tiring to get that stupid shit in every Kickstarter thread, often even from the same people. You don't like they are going with Kickstarter? Then please just shut up. Of course if you have some legitimate criticism (like if they are taking some element into a direction you don't like or if some detail raises your eyebrows), please do voice those. But if it's just the usual bitching about "Kickstarter is the d000000mzOrZ of gaming", "Why people so stupid they donate money for a game that hasn't even begun/is early in development", "these people are tricking people of their money! THEY ARE MISUSING KICKSTARTER!" yada yada yada, then none of us want to hear it anymore.
I don't know why you think that responds to anything I said there or in my other posts but it actually doesn't, it's just a somewhat embarrassing rant that has nothing to do with what I said or what I replied to or what I think of Kickstarter or this project. Weird.
 

Shiggy

Member
Hey guys! Little help!

Just bought BS1: Director's Cut on Steam and I tried running it with Windows 7 (dunno if it's the cause of the problem) but it stutters and it's extremely slow, even in the menu with the mouse. There's a delay on everything.

I tried looking around but it's not known.....

Do you guys have any idea what may cause this?

It's definitely not caused by W7. The (superior) GOG.com version works well on my W7 PC.
 
Very informative interview about Broken Sword 5, the history of religion aspect, 2D look with 3D derivation, getting the original team back, and financial troubles:



The puzzles, the difficulty of them, 5 million downloads, German voice acting, PC/Mac/mobile, stretch Kickstarter goals, release date, possible Dave Gibbons collaborations in the future:

 

mclem

Member
Guess it won't be coming out anytime soon. Has any kickstarter game been released yet? I can't think of one.

Dozens. None of the high-profile ones from the start of the year as far as I'm aware (Of those I backed, FTL is released in September, all being well; that'll be the first), but kickstarting games didn't start then; indeed, GAF's very own Feep used Kickstarter to fund Sequence:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jwishnov/sequence-a-rhythm-roleplaying-game?ref=live

And the PC releases of Zeboyd's games did similar:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...the-world-enhanced-version-for-pc-an?ref=live
 
Oh good news for me, not so much for his family. That's more like it, next time I watch the video closer instead of just reading the plot summary.

He even adds that the stolen painting was not valuable, so the guy being shot is the important string of the story I think. It remeind me a lot of the start of the first game, just adding Nico already as a girlfriend.

Just kidding, of course
:(
But I think that P&C developers should really begin thinking about more complex 2D animation models, like those used by Vanillaware (Odin's Sphere) or Banpresto (Super Robot Wars). It's true that it limits the perspective, but the animations are very smooth.
I know that a successful kickstarter recently helped launching a program for that kind of animation (Spriter), but I don't know if it's being considered by developers.

(sorry Minsc :D)

The thing is Vanillaware does not use real traditional animation that would be what this game really needs. They use a cut out method animation that works really well with their games, but what this game really needs is frame by frame traditional animation, and thats is insanely costly in our days, anything else would feel choppy, sadly.
Even the original animation in Broken Sword 1 was not really that smooth, but worked well because it was not a really big resolution, now with HD the tradicitonal animation blows the cost out of the water.
 
It's definitely not caused by W7. The (superior) GOG.com version works well on my W7 PC.

Yeah, I just grabbed it on GOG now. Ran the original and had problems with the save feature. Had to download SCUMMvm and start the game with that.

We'll see how the Director's Cut plays when it finishes downloading.
 
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