Kickstarter projects of note

A place where you can chat about anything that isn't to do with games!
User avatar
ChurchOfSolipsism
Posts: 996
Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:12 am

Re: Kickstarter projects of note

Post by ChurchOfSolipsism »

I didn't understand what they were trying to do; they haven't changed any of the rules apparently (including throwing 2d6 for movement, which didn't even make sense in the 80s), but they used new inferior artwork and background, which probably means they didn't get the rights to the original stuff? "Dread magic", pffff....
n0rtygames wrote:[The wife] once asked me "whats a shoryuken?" so I gave her a real life demonstration. Except she was too close on the spin. So I actually SRK'd her. With full vocalisation too...
User avatar
BryanM
Posts: 6116
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:46 am

Re: Kickstarter projects of note

Post by BryanM »

Scam artist Richard Garriott, former creator of Ultima and blockbust MMO Tabula Rasa, seems to have released his own kickblaster thing a few years ago: Shroud of the Avatar.

The pathos and longing involved in the people who back these kind of scams are always the thing I find most fascinating about this stuff. It can't possibly be a mere game that they want to buy. They want to rewind time itself. If they don't want to be a teenager goofing around with their friends in another world, trying to recruit people into "Hulkamania" again, they just want Ultima Online to be as popular as it was in its hey-day.

Something you just can't ask from humans. If you want that 1990's release day hype 24/7, you'll have to fill it in with AI bots. They're getting there, but they're not quite there yet.

The game itself, as these things often are, is this dreary medieval slog that makes you appreciate the bright variety of colors you see in real life. I really don't get it - what kind of escapism is there in retreating to a fantasy world of miserable brown and grey..

The gacha aesthetic department goes in the exact opposite direction: Almost always sociopathically cute and upbeat. They practically scream "don't kill yourself man!!!" to the type of person who'd make the horrible life choice of becoming a gamer. The Wizardry Gacha game in development is also grounded in an art style that's a bit on the realistic side, but not depressingly so.

Of course, that game seems to have some humanity in it. You know, things like fun, passion, curiosity, exploration, lust, etc. Some actual appreciation of the past the nostalgia is built upon. Instead of only being about money.

Shroud of the Avatar was one of those mmo's that sold you in-game land and buildings before the game even exists. (My definition of "exists" here is some design notes scribbled on a few sheets of paper. As that would mean it at least exists inside someone's head. I know these fuckers never did anything like that.) Yeah. One of those.

Garriott went on to try an NFT game scam, announced last year. Its website looks to be defunct.

I guess this is all to be expected of a guy who set $30 million on fire so he could pretend to be an astronaut for a week. Textbook "never meet your heroes" guy. If he wanted to make video games, he'd be making video games. He'd be on Unoptima 13, the credits page would list like five people, under the music credits for "wicked flute solo" would be his nephew or whatever.

Ah, I want to spit on him.
User avatar
EmperorIng
Posts: 5065
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:22 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Kickstarter projects of note

Post by EmperorIng »

By way of contrast I want to bring up Alisa, which was a kickstarter of some Franco-Belgian guy who wanted to make his own 3D ps1-era survival horror game with prerendered backgrounds and tank controls. Or more accurately, he wanted the excuse to make a game where he modeled his girlfriend-turned-wife and made a central mechanic of the horror game would be her dressing up into all sorts of fetish outfits brandishing guns and being captured and preyed upon by ugly monstrosities.

As you can imagine, this is a passion project, this man had a vision and went for it. And luckily for him (and us), his girlfriend I guess was into it too, lol.
Post Reply