Kickstarter: Project Giana (The Great Giana Sisters)

[Friendly]

Half the time is up, and so far only about $67,000 USD have been pledged. Hopefully it picks up near the deadline.

[Friendly]

$90,000 with 8 days to go....

I expected this to go better, given it's backed by Huelsbeck and how well his Turrican soundtrack kickstarter went. I guess there simply aren't that many people left who enjoyed Great Giana Sisters back in the day and still play video games at present. Or maybe the design just doesn't appeal to them.

[neorichieb1971]

The game should be of a high enough quality with $90,000 as it is.

[Friendly]

The game should be of a high enough quality with $90,000 as it is.

Oh Richie. That's not how kickstarter works. It's all or nothing. If they don't meet their funding goal, then they won't get any money.

[Friendly]

Update: Tomorrow, supporters of the kickstarter get to play 2 demo levels.

A few days ago, backers were invited to visit Black Forest Games in Germany. Here's a report by someone who went:
http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/08 ... est-games/

[Friendly]

And here's the demo for everyone, previously it only worked under Windows 7 (and Vista), just now they released a patch for XP:
http://project-giana.com/download/

[Friendly]

3 days left and $17,500 USD to go.

EDIT (10 hours later): $11,200 to go.

EDIT (14 hours later): $8,800 to go.

[Friendly]

5000 backers and $147,100 USD.

It'll definitely make it.

$2,900 more and it'll be funded.

62 hours to go.

[Friendly]

FUNDED !

[Friendly]

Final day. Two updates:

Of course there will be future content for Giana once it is released. We want to bring you all the things we have planned and more! And as an exclusive thank-you to the backers who supported us with so much enthusiasm, we are promising all backers who have pledged at 25$ and above ALL future PC content for Giana at NO additional cost!

That's a pretty good incentive to back the kickstarter.

Another update for today! Whooohoooo! Project Giana is now on Steam’s Greenlight process. This means you, our community, can head on over there and show your love for the game. Remember, once our game makes it onto Steam, backers will be eligible for a Steam key for the game.

So no worries, if you already backed us here, you won’t have to spend extra money to get the game into your Steam library. This does not mean you are exchanging your DRM-free copy for a Steam key. You will still get your DRM-free copy from us (or partner distributors).

Steam is also not the only platform the game will be available on. Other DRM-free digital distributors will carry the game once it is released.
Head on over here.

[Friendly]

The kickstarter will end in 7 hours, it's now at USD $174,000.

After some criticism, they created new cover art:

[Friendly]

And it's over. They had a live videostream going during the last few hours where you could ask them questions; even Chris Huelsbeck stopped by, via video conference.

The total is now at $190,000, that's kickstarter + paypal payments. They explained that their company had already spent $1 Million on Project Giana before the start of the kickstarter.
Unsurprisingly, no-one pledged $10,000 to get their only remaining Atari ST copy of Giana Sisters. This copy had actually belonged to Armin Gessert.
Maria (Giana's sister) will most likely only make a cameo appearance in the new game, but they said they have plans for her in the future.

Those people are an awesome bunch, I wish them luck and hope this goes well.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Runs like shit on my 2 year old PC. Glad I didnt drop cash on this.

[BulletMagnet]

It's been officially titled Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, and received another trailer - release date on PC is 10/23.

[EmperorIng]

The trailer raises my hopes for the game considerably. Looks to be a really fun platformer. I'm glad they were able to raise such a significant sum!

[Friendly]

Runs like shit on my 2 year old PC. Glad I didnt drop cash on this.

It's going to be on XBLA and PSN, too.

[Friendly]

So, the game is complete and will be released in 4 days. You can buy DRM-free digital copies here (pre-order for $11.24 or pay $14.99 after it's released):

GOG http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/giana_si ... ted_dreams
or at
Gamersgate http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-GSTD/giana ... ted-dreams

[njiska]

I shall hold out for the steam release. It's been greenlit so it should be on there close to launch.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Funniest "product placement" of sorts since the Cave jeans.

[Friendly]

I shall hold out for the steam release. It's been greenlit so it should be on there close to launch.

Why? The one on GOG is DRM-free. You get the file and can install it as often as you like, without having to use any client like steam.

[emphatic]

It's going to be on XBLA and PSN, too.

This is kinda exciting. I guess.

[njiska]

I shall hold out for the steam release. It's been greenlit so it should be on there close to launch.

Why? The one on GOG is DRM-free. You get the file and can install it as often as you like, without having to use any client like steam.

Because I like Steam. I like having an easy system for management, installation and keeping track of updates. Plus I actually tend to play shit in my Steam list while the pile of GOG downloads I have sit relatively untouched; The Incredible Machine notwithstanding. Besides, if I ever need a DRM free installer in the future, should Steam become unavailable (not likely), it will be floating around and I won't feel the least bit guilty about downloading it as I've already paid for the game.

[Friendly]

Here you go: http://store.steampowered.com/app/22322 ... uggest__13
10% off until October 30th.

[Mischief Maker]

First Impressions: The game Trine should have been.

I'm not a huge platformer aficionado and probably wouldn't have bought the game save for the Machinae Supremacy soundtrack, so I might sound as silly as some pro reviewer singing the praises of a euroshmup.

That said, the game keeps from going overboard with the player powers. Each sister has a theme specific double jump: blonde sister has a twirl that's good for extending lateral jumps and slowly sinking into pits, manic panic sister has an aimable flame dash that can bounce off walls, kill enemies, and is good for high jumps. If you bonk or otherwise kill an enemy mid-jump, your double jump is refilled. A nice touch is that the game automatically world-shifts whenever you hit the button for that appropriate double-jump.

The graphics are gorgeous, and the gameplay itself runs smoothly, but I think the menus are in need of some optimization because the framerate is slideshow city when selecting stages.

Once you're past the tutorial segments the game seems pretty good about throwing technical challenges your way. There's a real sense of accomplishment here that was missing when muddling my way through Trine.

[njiska]

Here you go: http://store.steampowered.com/app/22322 ... uggest__13
10% off until October 30th.

And purchased.

[njiska]

Well that was... interesting. The platforming is really fun, but I do have a few small problems with the game. First and foremost is the inconsistent frame rate. Now I may not be running this game on a brand new system, but my specs greatly exceed the recommended sys reqs and it baffles me why certain effects, such as the waterfall at the start of 1-2, bring the frame rate down to sub 20 FPS territory. Other than a few moments like that the game runs incredibly smoothly, even during the world transition.

Gameplay is fast and exciting, but I'm starting to find that little piece just are feeling polished. During stage 1-3 there are a number of occasions where I flame-dashed into an enemy, bounced upward off them, struck an off screen enemy and died. That should never happen. The game is more than capable of zooming out to show when there is an enemy in range that I may uncontrolably hit, but it does not. I've also had some difficulty with flame dashing enemies on slopes because the game decides to count the few pixels in from of them as ground that stops the dash. Basically it looks like you're doing a successful dash, but you get hit by the enemy.

Lastly, and this is just a personal thing, not being able to jump down through platforms that you can jump upward through is annoying when gem hunting. SOmetimes you don't know if jumping through the platform will get you stuck and keep you from coming back to explore. This also proved to be a problem with a couple of spots where you dash an enemy and bounce upward through the floor. Curiously some platforms that look like you should be able to jump through them, do not allow you to do so.

Despite these complaints I've been having fun and feel like I'm going to get my monies worth. Definitely feels like their's going to be some real challenge later on. I do like how some sections are set up to use the flame dash like a homing attack and it's nice that the sister's have separate buttons for their unique actions, so you don't have tom manually switch between them when you want to use their moves.

[Friendly]

Very positive review at Destructoid (8.5/10) http://www.destructoid.com/review-giana ... 7125.phtml

Btw, all backers have received download codes for the PC game by now, but the physical copies haven't shipped yet.

[hermit crab]

Some kind of sequel for this has just been released; "Rise Of The Owlverlord".

http://store.steampowered.com/app/246960/

Seems to be a tad too much for my PC to handle, ran slower than a snail.