cRPG

Melee: Battlegrounds => General => Topic started by: FRANK_THE_TANK on December 17, 2014, 09:29:59 am

Title: Post kick starter
Post by: FRANK_THE_TANK on December 17, 2014, 09:29:59 am
Just thought I'd toss an idea into the ring. Hopefully it's inoffensive...

What if you guys roll out the alpha earlier and we as a community push the whole thing strat included over and just ditch c-rpg. Perhaps we could all pay a very small monthly fee to play say 2 USD or what have you. It's not much and probably not enough but it's option :/ perhaps a terrible one.

What ideas do you (community writ large) have?
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: pogosan on December 17, 2014, 01:19:42 pm
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Leshma on December 17, 2014, 02:00:33 pm
Early-access rules recently changed. It's not easy to get into program as before but I think they won't have any issues since they have playable product.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: djavo on December 17, 2014, 02:44:09 pm
Well there are many options some are less or more risky. But as I see what could be done for example. Starting smaller ks goal spread the more word, get some community pr team at least and organize them better. Along with steam alpha access. And if there is some smaller amount of money missing you can get a loan from russian bank since they will go bankrupt soon. And let's not forget funding button on the melee web page.

Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Vibe on December 17, 2014, 02:56:25 pm
Steam Early Access / Greenlight imo, and just develop as you receive a steady flow of income (hopefully). I'm not sure what the rules are for getting your game on Steam Early Access / Greenlight these days, but it's imo one of the better options compared to Kickstarters and other founding shit that might completely fail.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Leshma on December 17, 2014, 05:39:11 pm
Hope that going greenlight/early-access means we'll get to play alpha a bit more seriously, not just testing stuff. Doesn't have to be polished as current cRPG but something akin early buggy cRPG would be awesome. Something is telling me they found a publisher and won't go another round of crowdfunding or steam greenlight, which sucks because in that case we'll have to wait for beta.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Kalam on December 17, 2014, 07:28:42 pm
Selling private shares to backers might work. I'm sure there's at least one finance lawyer in the playerbase who would help figure the details out.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: MeevarTheMighty on December 18, 2014, 12:07:15 am
It might be worth doing a Kickstarter re-do when the team is better prepared for marketing their game.

Walking into it, hoping to do it all on the fly was unfortunately naive. An advertising campaign needs a good plan, a sensible structure and schedule and it needs to be bulletproof. You can't do that if you're making it up as you go along.

I think having a web store offering various payment methods for kickstarter-like rewards is a must, whether the team tries Kickstarter again or not.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: agweber on December 18, 2014, 01:50:33 am
I still want to give you my moneys. Point me in the right direction on when/where/how to give you them. If you wanted to do a monthly subscription (http://www.patreon.com/) I would definitely devote a bit of my income your way to support the project each month.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: chadz on December 18, 2014, 12:52:29 pm
The most important thing now is to keep a cool head, consider all options, and make calm and rational decisions. What we are not going to do is make a quick hasty unplanned "let's at least grab the money from the community" attempt. The kickstarter failed for reasons, and it's important to study those results. There is a lot of valuable information burried in this campaign that we have to undig.

So don't expect any concrete plans from us this month (year). We need to plan what we can do, whats the best way of getting there, and how much funds we need for that, etc etc.

So stay calm, relax, and enjoy the show for now :)
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: MeevarTheMighty on December 18, 2014, 01:12:31 pm
Hope you're planning on having a relaxing holiday.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Hirlok on December 18, 2014, 01:13:02 pm
make a quick hasty unplanned "let's at least grab the money from the community" attempt.

honorable donkey.

Yet: it might be worth running one or more smaller campaign(s) (and not this "all or nothing" bs) on indiegogo, patreon, or similar, where they allow "flexible funding" and/or recurring payments, so you guys don't become skinny like an old Hermit...

Would also help to spread the word on different platforms and buy the time to come back to Kickstarter with a bang in a few months (with a bit more press/social media preparation, maybe, errrm, just saying...).
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Leshma on January 15, 2015, 01:22:38 pm
Kickstarter isn't dead for video games. Shadowrun: Hong Kong from Harebrained Schemes (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong?ref=category) (they already had successful Kickstarter two year ago and released two very good games) collected over 400000 USD in 48 hours, their goal was 100000 USD.

Reason for M:BG failure can't be just Kickstarter, there is obviously something else that led to it. You need better marketing, real hype and people who can pull it off.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Dupre on January 15, 2015, 05:49:46 pm
Kickstarter isn't dead for video games. Shadowrun: Hong Kong from Harebrained Schemes (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong?ref=category) (they already had successful Kickstarter two year ago and released two very good games) collected over 400000 USD in 48 hours, their goal was 100000 USD.

Reason for M:BG failure can't be just Kickstarter, there is obviously something else that led to it. You need better marketing, real hype and people who can pull it off.

"The team that brought you the award-winning Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut is back with an all new, full length standalone cyberpunk tactical cRPG set in Shadowrun's magically Awakened Hong Kong of 2056."

"Melee: Battlegrounds is a pre-alpha stage standalone, 100% independent game being developed as the spiritual sequel to the popular Mount & Blade Warband mod cRPG"

Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Beauchamp on January 15, 2015, 06:44:04 pm
Kickstarter isn't dead for video games. Shadowrun: Hong Kong from Harebrained Schemes (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong?ref=category) (they already had successful Kickstarter two year ago and released two very good games) collected over 400000 USD in 48 hours, their goal was 100000 USD.

Reason for M:BG failure can't be just Kickstarter, there is obviously something else that led to it. You need better marketing, real hype and people who can pull it off.

marketing and hype sound like distant objectives, for start i'd begin with communicating with the fan base :D
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: lombardsoup on January 15, 2015, 07:01:03 pm
marketing and hype sound like distant objectives, for start i'd begin with communicating with the fan base :D

There's also the nigh non existent track record to consider compared to other indie devs
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: traxits on January 16, 2015, 09:28:04 pm
hi can i buy a .5% share of donkey crew for $3,000 canadian dollars pls

(actual srs question)
(i want to be more rich than lombard)
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: lombardsoup on January 16, 2015, 10:44:55 pm
hi can i buy a .5% share of donkey crew for $3,000 canadian dollars pls

(actual srs question)
(i want to be more rich than lombard)

Save your money, srs answer
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: imisshotmail on January 16, 2015, 11:37:00 pm
There's also the nigh non existent track record to consider compared to other indie devs

Actually they have a large track record of ruining the one thing they have done.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: lombardsoup on January 16, 2015, 11:37:58 pm
Actually they have a large track record of ruining the one thing they have done.

HYPE

Assuming the work in progress doesn't become vaporware along the way
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: HappyPhantom on January 16, 2015, 11:46:37 pm
Wow you guys really are fucking buzzkills.

Sure Donkey Crew could have done a lot of things better but I'd like to see how well you all would do making big sacrifices in your life to a) dev a mod for free for over 3 years and b) follow your dream and cover all required bases 100%... oh but wait, you haven't so STFU.

Constructive criticism is great but jesus, reading you moaners makes me want to slit my wrists.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: lombardsoup on January 16, 2015, 11:49:38 pm
Wow you guys really are fucking buzzkills.

Sure Donkey Crew could have done a lot of things better but I'd like to see how well you all would do making big sacrifices in your life to a) dev a mod for free for over 3 years and b) follow your dream and cover all required bases 100%... oh but wait, you haven't so STFU.

Constructive criticism is great but jesus, reading you moaners makes me want to slit my wrists.

Enjoy~

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Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: HappyPhantom on January 17, 2015, 12:15:26 am
Enjoy~
(click to show/hide)

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Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: imisshotmail on January 17, 2015, 12:54:35 am
Wow you guys really are fucking buzzkills.

Sure Donkey Crew could have done a lot of things better but I'd like to see how well you all would do making big sacrifices in your life to a) dev a mod for free for over 3 years and b) follow your dream and cover all required bases 100%... oh but wait, you haven't so STFU.

Constructive criticism is great but jesus, reading you moaners makes me want to slit my wrists.

Just because they 'followed their dreams' does not mean they deserve anything, this isn't kindergarten and you don't get a GREAT JOB sticker for effort. The facts are that if you look at their game from an objective standpoint everything about it is hilariously incompetent and bad. The only previous experience they have in developing games, is an unimpressive mod of Warband, and as they changed more things in the mod to differ from the base game it got worse and caused less people to play it. The only reason Melee: Battlegrounds has any hype at all is a mixture of emotional investment, blind fanaticism and people wanting a game like that to be good so much that they choose to ignore all evidence to the contrary.

All of the videos released of the game look awful and while that might be expected of a game in alpha, why would a sane person put faith in it eventually coming good when everything screams otherwise, from the terrible track record when branching out from Warband mechanics in cRPG, to the appalling attitude of the developers and the sheer incompetence of the way they have handled development of the game so far.

If there is one thing this game deserves, it is complaints.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Sharpe on January 17, 2015, 01:26:43 am
Just because they 'followed their dreams' does not mean they deserve anything, this isn't kindergarten and you don't get a GREAT JOB sticker for effort. The facts are that if you look at their game from an objective standpoint everything about it is hilariously incompetent and bad. The only previous experience they have in developing games, is an unimpressive mod of Warband, and as they changed more things in the mod to differ from the base game it got worse and caused less people to play it. The only reason Melee: Battlegrounds has any hype at all is a mixture of emotional investment, blind fanaticism and people wanting a game like that to be good so much that they choose to ignore all evidence to the contrary.

All of the videos released of the game look awful and while that might be expected of a game in alpha, why would a sane person put faith in it eventually coming good when everything screams otherwise, from the terrible track record when branching out from Warband mechanics in cRPG, to the appalling attitude of the developers and the sheer incompetence of the way they have handled development of the game so far.

If there is one thing this game deserves, it is complaints.
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: HappyPhantom on January 17, 2015, 05:29:40 am
Just because they 'followed their dreams' does not mean they deserve anything, this isn't kindergarten and you don't get a GREAT JOB sticker for effort. The facts are that if you look at their game from an objective standpoint everything about it is hilariously incompetent and bad. The only previous experience they have in developing games, is an unimpressive mod of Warband, and as they changed more things in the mod to differ from the base game it got worse and caused less people to play it. The only reason Melee: Battlegrounds has any hype at all is a mixture of emotional investment, blind fanaticism and people wanting a game like that to be good so much that they choose to ignore all evidence to the contrary.

All of the videos released of the game look awful and while that might be expected of a game in alpha, why would a sane person put faith in it eventually coming good when everything screams otherwise, from the terrible track record when branching out from Warband mechanics in cRPG, to the appalling attitude of the developers and the sheer incompetence of the way they have handled development of the game so far.

If there is one thing this game deserves, it is complaints.

Perhaps I should be clearer with the point I was trying to make: your criticism is so vitriolic, I don't see it helping (anyone but you). You are only serving yourselves, and obviously you think the game is crap, so why are you bothering? Just move on.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: MeevarTheMighty on January 17, 2015, 06:22:30 am
Constructive criticism is great but jesus, reading you moaners makes me want to slit my wrists.

Couldn't decide whether to upvote or downvote this.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: lombardsoup on January 17, 2015, 06:41:37 am
Couldn't decide whether to upvote or downvote this.

Coin flip
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Golem on January 17, 2015, 07:40:31 pm
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

You're thinking hyperbole, and yes that is an actual literary device.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: StonedSteel on January 17, 2015, 11:45:43 pm
Just because they 'followed their dreams' does not mean they deserve anything, this isn't kindergarten and you don't get a GREAT JOB sticker for effort. The facts are that if you look at their game from an objective standpoint everything about it is hilariously incompetent and bad. The only previous experience they have in developing games, is an unimpressive mod of Warband, and as they changed more things in the mod to differ from the base game it got worse and caused less people to play it. The only reason Melee: Battlegrounds has any hype at all is a mixture of emotional investment, blind fanaticism and people wanting a game like that to be good so much that they choose to ignore all evidence to the contrary.

All of the videos released of the game look awful and while that might be expected of a game in alpha, why would a sane person put faith in it eventually coming good when everything screams otherwise, from the terrible track record when branching out from Warband mechanics in cRPG, to the appalling attitude of the developers and the sheer incompetence of the way they have handled development of the game so far.

If there is one thing this game deserves, it is complaints.

BOOOOM

fuckin NAILED it.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: The_Bloody_Nine on January 18, 2015, 12:12:01 am
well, I liked most videos and stuff of M:BG so far. And despite they are doing many mistakes (like allways trying to hit that one big update/video/whatever instead of just doing small steps and talk about those and things in general) I like the overall approach and ideas chadz and his stuff are having. They are not conventional, but I like their style and I am very confident that if they get the time and money they'll produce something awesome.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: //saxon on January 18, 2015, 06:10:49 am

going on her yard, giving her the muay thai in her dojo, you know the ones there.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Molly on January 18, 2015, 08:47:31 am
Just because they 'followed their dreams' does not mean they deserve anything, this isn't kindergarten and you don't get a GREAT JOB sticker for effort. The facts are that if you look at their game from an objective standpoint everything about it is hilariously incompetent and bad. The only previous experience they have in developing games, is an unimpressive mod of Warband, and as they changed more things in the mod to differ from the base game it got worse and caused less people to play it. The only reason Melee: Battlegrounds has any hype at all is a mixture of emotional investment, blind fanaticism and people wanting a game like that to be good so much that they choose to ignore all evidence to the contrary.

All of the videos released of the game look awful and while that might be expected of a game in alpha, why would a sane person put faith in it eventually coming good when everything screams otherwise, from the terrible track record when branching out from Warband mechanics in cRPG, to the appalling attitude of the developers and the sheer incompetence of the way they have handled development of the game so far.

If there is one thing this game deserves, it is complaints.
Good thing you have the scholar feather and actually played the al... wait a moment...
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: lombardsoup on January 18, 2015, 04:06:21 pm
Good thing you have the scholar feather and actually played the al... wait a moment...

He didn't miss much
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Nebun on January 19, 2015, 08:49:38 am
Just because they 'followed their dreams' does not mean they deserve anything, this isn't kindergarten and you don't get a GREAT JOB sticker for effort.

sure but its a good driving force
everything else u've said is just a lot of stupid shit, CRPG/strategus is just the best mod me and my friends played. There is nothing to even compare it too. It changed dead end multiplayer game into something worthwhile. Never played any mod or game as long as i played this one.
And maybe they didn't have that much real experience in developing games, chadz worked out very well what players would enjoy with that mod (better then the company who developed the game). And now he is building new game based on it.
To me its the most promising game of that kind at the moment. LiF Building plans for a year doesn't even mention MMO. Bannerlord is maximum multiplayer with no leveling, few weeks of fun and then stupid competitions 5v5 for the rest of the life.
The only game that looks like can deliver any proper wars with great fighting mechanics of medieval period is Melee Stronghold and if they will go for epic at some point.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Beauchamp on January 22, 2015, 12:17:13 pm
1 thing i dont really understand is why the game wasn't promoted before ks on any level. there was silence for 2 years and then i got an email in my inbox out of the clear sky in short telling me something like aren't you templar_beauchamp dude? if so this game needs you, pls fund us, tyvm, bye. there were no web pages for the game, there were no forum posts about the game from devs, no presentation, no screens, just nothing. i gave it those basic funding outta nostalgia, but if i wasn't really hooked to crpg long time ago, i just would not give a fuck really. from my point of view it can have 3 explanations - you don't care about kickstarter so nothing really changed, you don't care about possible fanbase or you don't even care about your game. i just hope its option nr. 1, but i'm not really sure about that.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Tristan_of_Erzoth on January 23, 2015, 03:24:17 pm
Y'all are a bunch of haters. I say props to Donkey Crew. You all say the mod has gone to shit, that the mod has died, etc. Well I've been playing this for nigh 4 years now and I still play daily. If you guys make a game I might as well drop out of college and quit my job because I'll probably lose the rest of my life from just playing it. I believe in you guys. Make it happen. If you need anything hit me up, never know what a poor film major can do when it comes to marketing.
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Dupre on January 23, 2015, 11:58:44 pm
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LenaLeRay/20150120/234525/On_downloadable_press_kits_and_info_the_press_needs.php
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: kinngrimm on February 06, 2015, 01:42:09 pm
1 thing i dont really understand is why the game wasn't promoted before ks on any level. there was silence for 2 years and then i got an email in my inbox out of the clear sky in short telling me something like aren't you templar_beauchamp dude? if so this game needs you, pls fund us, tyvm, bye. there were no web pages for the game, there were no forum posts about the game from devs, no presentation, no screens, just nothing. i gave it those basic funding outta nostalgia, but if i wasn't really hooked to crpg long time ago, i just would not give a fuck really.
This.
Also quite off puting it was to read that there was more money to be needed again.
At the time you got my bucks and collected more from others, it was quite an impressive sum and while i followed the development stages, from what i saw sofar there are 'at least 1-2 more years' you will need to finish at this pace. I guess you are aware of that, if not then it would be my opinion you would be overestimating your capablities. After the first financing round, there were vocies to be heared which said, that would be sufficient and so the impression which we backers got was it would be sufficient. I and many others did back not to have a product at a certain point in time, but to have a finished game at some point. The differenace is how then to use the money, if you only pressure for release, you will brun through the money rather fast, if you but know a certain amount will need to be sufficent till release, that would make you have jobs and the overall time would be then also increased. With that, i wouldn't have had any problems, but after 2 years coming and saying 'lads we need more', sorry but my gold shitting donkey is just now not available.


Also  from my point of view it can have 3 explanations - you don't care about kickstarter so nothing really changed, you don't care about possible fanbase or you don't even care about your game. i just hope its option nr. 1, but i'm not really sure about that.
It is definetly not about the game or the fanbase, for that i have seen them put too much effort in the cRPG mod aswell into their loveschild game. There had been serious efforts also been made to connect to the fanbase, from what i can remember(If done i cant say for that i was at least the past year not active enough).
I would also not quite say that it would have to do with not caring about kickstarter, but what hinted towards earlier by someone else. That a constant press/media coverage would need to be reached. A open website, not a forum, with constant updates to the game, with new videos, with desgin & screen art, with some quotes out of the community here in the forum and then conntacting the media outlets or having them in a subscriber email ... you know longterm planned marketing shit.
So that when at times there are financing issues accure, they don't need to make a big hustle to get something going, but build up on an existing perception which is regularly adjusted within the media.
That then has also nothing to do with that they are a new indie developer company, fuck such an excuse.
As long there is a will to get it done, there are ways to do it.

Another question which came to me with the kickstarter campange:
 :oops: The things which had been offered there to new backers, would those also be granted to those which have already been backing the project? Not sure what was the deal back then when we initially backed.


In any case, donkey crew i wish you all the best to get it done. Do it  :!:
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: Bittersteel on February 06, 2015, 01:48:52 pm
Oh god, why have thee come back with your wall of texts who it takes hours upon hours of reading. Stay in ye cave
Title: Re: Post kick starter
Post by: The_Bloody_Nine on February 08, 2015, 11:24:32 pm
Also quite off puting it was to read that there was more money to be needed again.
At the time you got my bucks and collected more from others, it was quite an impressive sum and while i followed the development stages, from what i saw sofar there are 'at least 1-2 more years' you will need to finish at this pace. I guess you are aware of that, if not then it would be my opinion you would be overestimating your capablities. After the first financing round, there were vocies to be heared which said, that would be sufficient and so the impression which we backers got was it would be sufficient. I and many others did back not to have a product at a certain point in time, but to have a finished game at some point. The differenace is how then to use the money, if you only pressure for release, you will brun through the money rather fast, if you but know a certain amount will need to be sufficent till release, that would make you have jobs and the overall time would be then also increased. With that, i wouldn't have had any problems, but after 2 years coming and saying 'lads we need more', sorry but my gold shitting donkey is just now not available.

wat? It was from very early on an very active thought, even suggested and supported by community to do an additional kickstarter campaign. Also guys stop think the KS failed because too few early backers backed again.

Another question which came to me with the kickstarter campange:
 :oops: The things which had been offered there to new backers, would those also be granted to those which have already been backing the project? Not sure what was the deal back then when we initially backed.

The plan was to give us the rewards new backers would get for 65$ without giving any new money.

But yes, overall it was stupid not to give these informations via email to those who do not read the forums regularly. And I think the explanation for that beuchamp is just that, it was a stupid mistake.