Blackroom Kickstarter Postponed

[Capellan]

j4rio said:

The game is already done once there is something playable to show.

This is utter nonsense. You only need to look at Doom's own development to see that: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_v0.2

And people aren't even asking for a true alpha. They're saying "hey, you at least need to show us that you can run around in your game for a minute or two and shoot an enemy".

[j4rio]

Would you honestly be sold by such a demo nowadays? Times change, bunch of inanimate sprites and non-functional weapons wouldn't attract anybody, quite the opposite.

[Shadow Hog]

It'd still be something more concrete than an idea.

Of course, context means something, too. Doom v0.2 was there to showcase the sort of graphical style they were going for, and the engine advancements beyond Wolfenstein 3D they'd made (textured floors/ceilings, non-orthogonal walls, and lighting diminishing into the distance), which were relatively new things at the time (I suppose Shadowcaster did a lot of them too, but was comparatively obscure); the engine was the star there. Blackroom, having a very different focus (reproducing retro FPS gameplay, instead of trying to push new software algorithms that John Carmack made in his spare time), is just trying to convince people that it'll play well; they'll probably save dough on art assets and just get out pre-alpha gameplay to showcase how they want the guns to feel, how the level design should be, et cetera.

[Fletcher`]

j4rio said:

Would you honestly be sold by such a demo nowadays? Times change, bunch of inanimate sprites and non-functional weapons wouldn't attract anybody, quite the opposite.

That's what Overload did, and goddamn it worked.

[j4rio]

It's also what a myriad of other kickstarters didn't do and managed to succeed anyway. I don't believe a basic demo like that would increase chances of reaching those leftover almost 600k much. The price is just too high in the first place.

[Chezza]

Also the Kickstarter hype has dimmed. It has to be something really impressive to throw money early and wait so long you forget about the game's existence.