Typical. You wait 20 years for a decent scale space game and 2 - 5 come at once.
While waiting to hear news of a date for beta 2 of Elite, I thought I would come back here to wait for news of a date for the Battlescape Kickstarter.
Almost there with the Kickstarter I hope? Good luck!
If you can convince me that the game-play will be comparable to Planetside 2 but with more depth and a bigger scale, and more of a meta game I will send lots of money your way! (Or at least if there are decent reward tiers )
We havenât decided yet if weâre going to give certain community members early access before we go live. We will provide crowd funding access via our main site at an increased price after our official Kickstarter campaign finishes. Some pledge tiers may also only be available during the actual Kickstarter itself.
We are still nailing down our pledge tiers so donât hold me to this but some of the ideas weâre currently playing with are exclusive skins and physical goods that will be only available to people who actually pledge the Kickstarter. For example one thing we are considering is offering a special t-shirt starting at a specific pledge tier that will only be available to those who pledge our Kickstarter. The reason for this is so that at future fan events, such as PAX, you will be able to distinguish yourself as one of our original fans/supporters. Weâre actually looking into making this a very high quality t-shirt (so that youâd actually want to wear it) but due to the associated cost increase itâll likely only be available to higher pledge tiers - assuming of course we actually end up making it a part of one of our pledge tiers.
Weâre currently planning on making early access to mod tools available to those who pledge the requisite pledge tier. I canât provide any information on the other details of the pledge tier, such as its monetary value, at this time.
Also, donât decide you can do better without a professional to help you understand business and tax laws after youâve already paid them. I donât 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 âdeferralâ 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 Iâd 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.
Itâs 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 Iâm dreaming about.
Of course, Inovaeâs 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, itâs good.
I want a STICKER!!! and of course the shirt, I hope itâs not black. 99% of all gaming-shirts are black
Wait, forget the shirt, a sticker + the actual game will do.
Please donât do physical rewards. Youâre 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 doesnât have the physical items for those of us that donât want that kind of stuff (I will be pledging for the game, not for everyone to get t-shirts, statues, stickers, âŚ).
Thatâs 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. Whatâs 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 youâre saying is theyâve 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.
Donât 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 recordedâŚ
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 Keithâs assessment about the video.
Thereâs 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 wouldnât be production if you didnât hit a couple of snags on the way. You canât 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 wasnât enoughâŚ
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.
)
