Also, don’t decide you can do better without a professional to help you understand business and tax laws after you’ve already paid them. I don’t know where War Balloon is based or what the tax laws are like there, but in Denmark we have a mechanic which I think translates to “deferral” which can let companies set aside money for future years (without immediately paying taxes). I really would be surprised if this was unique to us.
I do tend to agree that physical rewards should, at the very least, be located in avoidable tiers. While I’d personally rather not waste my money on it, I have nothing against other people doing so as long as INovae makes a net profit from it.
It’s still up to Keith and the Inovae devs, but I know I would love to have an infinity shirt. Having said that, if the costs of producing and getting the items to backers becomes a significant fraction of the total funds raised I would definitely forgo the shirts and what not only to get Inovae more of the money they need. At the end of the day I just want I:BS and consequently(in the future) the TQFE to be funded and successful. After all these years, Infinity is still the game that I’m dreaming about.
Of course, Inovae’s goal being an order of magnitude larger than Star Command might give them a larger portion of money, that would be a smaller fraction raised, to use on physical items whilst still getting discounts on bulk orders. I also have no claim that I know how much this would cost, or what reward tier physical rewards would be at so this is speculation.
The main difference here is about the amount of raised money: I-Novae will (hopefully) go far beyond 30k. It should be much more easier getting something like 1k T-shirt done for a lower price, per unit, than say 200.
However, i do agree that physical goodies can be cumbersome … but as long as it is planned in advance, it’s good.
I want a STICKER!!! and of course the shirt, I hope it’s not black. 99% of all gaming-shirts are black
Wait, forget the shirt, a sticker + the actual game will do.
Please don’t do physical rewards. You’re just wasting money which was meant for the development of the game.
If somehow you do decide to go with physical rewards, then please for each tier with physical rewards do a digital only tier which doesn’t have the physical items for those of us that don’t want that kind of stuff (I will be pledging for the game, not for everyone to get t-shirts, statues, stickers, …).
That’s when everything has been coming since four years ago when they released the initial tech demo video. At this point this game and engine are no more impressive than any number of other things on the table, whereas four years ago it was revolutionary and amazing. What’s the stretch goal going to be to get Quest for Earth, something that would actually be worth funding over the multitude of competitors that have beaten Infinity to market?
So, what you’re saying is they’ve been sitting and doing nothing for 4 years? Quite the contrary, they have got the engine from being able to show a Quite Interesting video, to being nearly ready to host a variety of games.
As far as I know, there is still nothing out there that quite competes with the scale I-Novae is offering. Elite: Dangerous may be the most similar, but again they currently have different goals. More to the point, if the I-Novae engine can be licensed to other game developers as well then that is a success in its own right.
Don’t despair! Infinity is still pushing the boundaries of what is possible with current technology. Now they just have to prove they can make a good game from it.
For myself, I hope the Kickstarter is nearly here if the video is ready to be recorded…
My goodness!
I have been away FAR too long. (Lurked for quite a long while, joined in 2008 and have only checked back once a year or so to salivate over tech-demos)
I, for one am eagerly anticipating the Kickstarter campaign, but I agree with Keith’s assessment about the video.
There’s a nice, dedicated community you guys have built here over the years, but he wants to appeal to the masses. He can be confident in our support, vocally and financially, but development is costly! Swing for the fences and drop a campaign on the space-faring internet with something truly impressive!
Being in film and video myself, I understand the process involved in creating an awe-inspiring video. And it wouldn’t be production if you didn’t hit a couple of snags on the way. You can’t expect to just waltz into Kickstarter after SC and E:D with a lackluster video or half-assed presentation. Those put their marketing to work for months and look at the numbers they carried away.
Infinity already has the most impressive engine to date.
I-Novae already has the team and the vision to change space-sims forever.
Give them time to craft their marketing materials to match.
That being said, I want my I:B… I want it baaaaaaad.
The prototype years back just wasn’t enough…
Yup. Totally worth putting the time and effort into developing a top-notch campaign.
Looking forward to it but would rather wait another 6 months than see a disappointing campaign.
AFAIK no, but don’t be surprised if they do. They want the absolute best they can possibly have to put out there. And if that means that they will put off the KS for an extra few months, that is what it will take. Which is fine by me.
I already know I won’t mind putting a couple hundred bucks into getting this thing in my hot little hands, but even though I’ve been waiting 6+ years for this, I almost can’t wait to see what kind of marketing campaign they’re going to launch with the Kickstarter.
Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous had the luxury of hauling in big guns in the form of names (Chris Roberts and “Elite”), I-Novae has nothing but their hard work to attract backers. They’re going to need a downright jaw-dropping display to hit the kind of numbers those others did.
I know we’ll all do our part in sharing and promoting, but I can’t wait to see what Keith has cooked up for marketing materials. Maybe it’s the production-geek in me, but I’m almost as excited to see their Kickstarter for the sake of an advertising perspective as much as an old-time Infinity follower.
Let’s have a jumping-off point here since I think Keith will update us when he has a better idea of a KS launch-
What announcement do you think would garner them the most backing during the campaign?
-Oculus Support?
-Multi-Crew Ships?
-Dedicated Matchmaking System?
Personally I’d love to see non-standard gamemodes. CTF, King of the Hill, and Deathmatch are all well and good but Capital Ship VIP, Resource-Extraction (mining from a contested Asteroid), or Ender’s Game Battle-School style objective would be a refreshing change of pace in space-combat arenas.
I think it was aforementioned that mining wouldn’t take part in Battlescape. Well, I’m actually just basing that off from one of my previous posts that didn’t get attention to the word “mining”. A mining gameplay hasn’t ever been addressed, but assuming Battlescape will not hold an economy, I don’t see how mining could be of any value.
@Zmann966:
You are right. There needs to be an economy before there can be mining. I think that Keith said that that could be a stretch goal.
Oculus support may be there from the start or as a close stretch goal as Flavien implemented it into the engine quite a while ago. He was working in the VR sector for quite a while so …
For starters the whole idea of Battlescape is pretty attractive in my oppinion … a full scaled system with StarWars fights? Sure!
Thoguh that depends if they’ll have that from the start or as a stretch goal. There was quite a discussion but in the end I-Novae has to decide. If it will be a stretch goal it will be the most potent one in my oppinion.
Now for anoucement boost … do you think holding back Occulus support is a good idea? As a marketing thing?
There is a very rudimentary form of “mining” that will be a part of a greatly simplified economic model that will be a stretch goal. Basically you will be able to place factories on planets/moons that automatically generate income over some interval X. We are also debating whether or not the factories will generate little NPC ships that have to fly the ore to a space station for processing before your team actually gets the money for that interval - thereby providing a way for the opposing team to intercept and destroy your buckets of money en-route. Either way it’s going to be a stretch goal .
Yes I do. While the I-Novae Engine has OVR support we’re currently not planning on including it in the game because it’s a niche product that will require a significant effort on our part to properly support due to forcing us to create an entirely separate UI/UX, etc.
The ‘mining’ gametype I was mentioning was similar to what Keith just mentioned,
Two teams fight over a contested region or object and collect resources over time and have to haul it back to a base or factory for victory. (Like Battlefield’s ticket system, except opposite)
It wouldn’t be actual mining or an economic-based resource system, simply a resource-collection arena-gametype.
and of course the shirt, I hope it’s not black. 99% of all gaming-shirts are black 
.