I don't believe I've ever stepped up on the soapbox on Dakka and tried to make a plea to people before, and its certainly not something I intend to do very often, if ever again, but I feel personally obligated to get the word out in this case.
Full disclosure here: The makers of Exodus Wars have not paid me or Dakka anything, and quite the contrary, I have dropped a rather large chunk of my own money towards helping to fund this project.
Well, it is basically a video game being made by an indie developer who is trying to make a game that captures the gameplay and overall feel of a tabletop wargame, in particular an 'Epic' scale (6mm) sci-fi miniature game.
If you're like me at all, for years you've always wished that game companies would make video games that felt more like the miniatures games we enjoy as wargamers. Not in any way to replace tabletop miniature gaming (because there is no replacement for the tactile sensations of playing with miniatures on a 3D board), but simply as a supplement to our gaming experience...something to play when we get a knack to play a miniature game but don't have the time or opponents available for a game.
However, there's a reason that games like this never get made, and its because publishers have figured out that the pure tabletop wargaming market is incredibly niche when compared to the overall video game market and that's why when they do make games based off the IP of tabletop games they translate them into different (more popular) formats like action games or real-time strategy.
But tabletop gaming is all about careful planning and brilliant moves, so it desperately needs to be turn-based. Sure there are lots of turn based games out there, many of which are based around warfare. However there are very, very few (if any) of these turn-based strategy games that are modeled in a way that replicates the complexity of a true tabletop miniature game.
However, that time is here now. Somebody is making that game, but because a publisher would never touch this genre with a 100 foot pole, we as the wargaming community need to step up and show that there is a market for this game and this indiegogo campaign to fund Exodus Wars is the way to do just that!
So watch the teaser video below (remembering that this is still pre-alpha) and then visit their indiegogo page and please join me in helping to fund this game that is clearly being made by mini-gamers for mini-gamers. Heck, even a $10 contribution gets you a (digital) copy of the game when it comes out, so at the very least you hopefully can afford to shell out $10 for a (IMHO) incredibly worthy cause.
Thanks for reading!
P.S. - they also do have a general thread here on Dakka in the video games forum where the developers are answering questions asked. So if you've got a question about the game or the project in general, head there and ask it!
I completely agree, this Exodus Wars game is a much better and more interesting crowdfunder made by someone who actually owns a wargames company and has a genuine passion for the concept rather than the "minis with enemies" one, which comes across as a half-hearted effort to cash in on the "wargaming crowd" rather than caring about the product (they seem to have put more thought into their microtransactions strategy to make money rather than the core gameplay).
Whereas this one looks like it is coming from the approach of "gameplay first", and wants to charge only a small amount of money for a large-scale 3d tactical strategy game that replicates epic-scale wargaming directly.
$10 for a complete copy of the game isn't bad, you can't go wrong with this really, and I 100% recommend just throwing a little cash towards it to make it happen.
I work as an independent game developer myself, and can confirm that $35k is a realistic estimate of what will be needed to pull off a project like this. Basically, it's a case of a year's wages for 2 extremely dedicated people willing to work for peanuts while they're getting the game made.. or for one multi-skilled dev who never sleeps.
Hmmmm well since there are 30 days left, I'll be at least doing $10 (hopefully the get it out for macs or compatible with wineskin....). I'd like to do more, but I need to see how my financial situation is here....
Looks awesome though and I hope Dakka rallies round to help them out!
Does anyone know what this business is about limited edition minis being made? Is there going to be some kind of cool little 6mm game to go along with it?
Yak, is there any info on gameplay? Apologies workblocked from the links.
The video seemed show two opposing forces lined up opposite one another. A 40k deploy and attack affair would not be that interesting to me but I guess I'm reading too much into what was essentially a demonstration of the look of the game.
The final liberation game was quite good for its time but a turnbased game now would seem like a waste of processing power or have I missed the point and it's a straight TT wargames on the computer?
notprop wrote:Yak, is there any info on gameplay? Apologies workblocked from the links.
The video seemed show two opposing forces lined up opposite one another. A 40k deploy and attack affair would not be that interesting to me but I guess I'm reading too much into what was essentially a demonstration of the look of the game.
The final liberation game was quite good for its time but a turnbased game now would seem like a waste of processing power or have I missed the point and it's a straight TT wargames on the computer?
From the sound of it, I would expect some kind of turn-based affair. Their mission statement on the site is that this is the kind of game that would never get funding from a major publisher, short of in Japan with some of their RPGs, but there is nevertheless a niche of gamers who want it.
From the site:
Fractured Empire will replicate the tactile nature of tabletop wargaming in a way that no other computer game has to-date. We want the player to be able to pick up the units within a fireteam and move them, just as you would on a real-world tabletop.
The core gameplay of Fractured Empire is still being developed in an iterative process; however, just as the mechanics of all tabletop games differ in some ways and are similar in others but are always familiar thanks to their turn-based nature, so too will Fractured Empire be familiar to new and seasoned wargamers alike.
We're also working very hard to ensure the interface is as intuitive as possible so players can focus on import things like their strategy and tactics.
Whether you play games like Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse, Epic:Armageddon, Blitzkrieg Commander and Warmaster or not, we are confident you will pick up the mechanics of Fractured Empire quickly and easily.
We are aiming for strategic and tactical depth, though. Make the right decisions, plan your moves and execute at the right moment, and you will be rewarded.
I would guess that the video of them all lined up together is just a technical demonstration rather than an indicator of two armies just setting up 2-feet apart as it were, then shooting each other. God I've had enough of that over the years in various games and I thought it was finally being left behind, I would hate if they made the game like that!
Not my style of game, never been a fan of epic or warmaster or such, but with a friend of mine loving them and the Big Boss Ork telling us we should.... if i have the money i'll drop 5$on it come payday.
Back OT, I'm thinking about joining up on this one.
Ok fair enough. To elaborate:
"something to play when we get a knack to play a miniature game but don't have the time or opponents available for a game."
Personally I feel there is nothing a video game can offer which would compare to the things I enjoy about wargaming.
You already said what it offers: "something to play when we get a knack to play a miniature game but don't have the time or opponents available for a game."
"something to play when we get a knack to play a miniature game but don't have the time or opponents available for a game."
Personally I feel there is nothing a video game can offer which would compare to the things I enjoy about wargaming.
You already said what it offers: "something to play when we get a knack to play a miniature game but don't have the time or opponents available for a game."
That alone is pretty cool.
I was quoting the OP. If the video game doesn't compare in any enjoyable way then it's not really an alternative.
Looks sweet, but I don't see system requirements... they might not know that yet, but I'm on a netbook at home and thinking I probably can't run it :-/
Pacific wrote:Does anyone know what this business is about limited edition minis being made? Is there going to be some kind of cool little 6mm game to go along with it?
d-usa wrote:From the quick look I gave it is it seems to basically be just a 6mm mini to use in your existing 6mm games.
Hi guys. Looks like you actually spotted an error on our campaign page! I've clarified the bullet list to make it more obvious what's on offer. Let me know if it's still unclear, though.
notprop wrote:Yak, is there any info on gameplay? The video seemed show two opposing forces lined up opposite one another. A 40k deploy and attack affair would not be that interesting to me but I guess I'm reading too much into what was essentially a demonstration of the look of the game.
Hi there. The first teaser was deliberately kept straight-forward to reduce confusion as much as possible; as such, it shows a small game between two evenly matched sides in a tournament-style scenario.
The Gameplay Explained video attempts to describe the activation-based, interleaving style of play that the game entails, with one player activating one or more fireteams, and then passing the order opportunity back to his or her opponent. Once all players have ordered every one of their fireteams, that turn is complete and the next turn begins.
notprop wrote:The final liberation game was quite good for its time but a turnbased game now would seem like a waste of processing power or have I missed the point and it's a straight TT wargames on the computer?
Yes, it's intended to be as close to "real" tabletop gaming as we can make it.
Final Liberation is a personal fave, by the way, and still gets played now. Certainly, the absence of any kind of game like it since (I think) 1997 was a key motivator for making EW:FE.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Orlanth wrote:Does indiegogo skim a % of pledges like kickstarter does? I might be happy to pledge towards Exodus Wars, I am less happy giving money to Amazon.com.
Hi. Yes, Indiegogo does take a percentage off the top (4%, from memory). All the crowd funding platforms seem to do that to pay for their infrastructure costs, etc.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:It's probably already been mentioned (or thought of) but I seem to remember the combat mission games done this a few years ago.
Combat Mission has similarities, but from memory it's not an interleaving, activation-based turn structure...?
@ GROOV3R - thanks for he answers mate, If its anything like a pretty Final Liberation then I'll be in for a few bucks at least.
A few more questions if you dont mind since you are being so helpful.
One thing I do remember disliking about FL was that it was all very much on one level, will there be multi level buildings, terrain contours and the like?
I assume this will only include ground battles but will there be air support?
Will there be off table support like arty, orbital bombardments, air dropped assets?
Will there be a set campaign with AI to fight or is it a online 1 v 1 affair? Or both?
notprop wrote:@ GROOV3R - thanks for he answers mate, If its anything like a pretty Final Liberation then I'll be in for a few bucks at least.
A few more questions if you dont mind since you are being so helpful.
One thing I do remember disliking about FL was that it was all very much on one level, will there be multi level buildings, terrain contours and the like?
I assume this will only include ground battles but will there be air support?
Will there be off table support like arty, orbital bombardments, air dropped assets?
Will there be a set campaign with AI to fight or is it a online 1 v 1 affair? Or both?
Sorry ill stop now.
While the multi-level question is a valid one, the rest of them I think are answered fully on their indiegogo page if you read the whole thing.
notprop wrote:One thing I do remember disliking about FL was that it was all very much on one level, will there be multi level buildings, terrain contours and the like?
I assume this will only include ground battles but will there be air support? Will there be off table support like arty, orbital bombardments, air dropped assets?
Will there be a set campaign with AI to fight or is it a online 1 v 1 affair? Or both?
The Alpha build will have LOS and elevation from things like hills and gullies.
With regard to your question about multi-level buildings, because EWFE is operating at a Brigade level, things like multi-level buildings are not as important as simply having several units occupying the building and the height of that building. We have yet to implement buildings and their elevation in the current build, but our intent is to support building occupancy and the LOS advantage provided by their height in the Core game.
Infantry and armour units, including artillery, are already in what we're calling the "minimum spec" or "Core" game.
We absolutely want to include air and orbital support (including "dropped" assets— ), as well as super-vehicles like the Behemoths (which you can already see we're tinkering with in the videos), and we want to include them sooner rather than later. Buuut...when we'll be able to include them is subject to how successful our campaign is. As you'll see on the campaign page, there are certain funding milestones we need to hit in order to be able to incorporate support for the above unit types into the current schedule.
The minimum spec Core game will ship with two limited factions (the Guild vs. the Royal Empire of Man) in a basic infantry and armour only game, so you'll need someone to play against. There will be no AI in the minimum spec game, sorry to say.
The first Stretch Goal, though—which is unlocked if we achieve $50,000—does include a simple Skirmish AI, as well as super-vehicles, aircraft and spaceship support (yes—including "dropped" assets).
So, at that funding point, you'd have two complete factions and an AI to play against, and we've committed to providing at least two battlefields.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
RiTides wrote:Thanks for posting, Gr00V3R, nice to have someone on the inside watching the thread! (And fixing errors based on it- even better)
Mate, it's the least we can do. We are just so grateful to have yakface and the DakkaDakka community behind us—it's absolutely awesome.
I love talking about EWFE and all the great stuff we want to do, so I'm very happy to field any and all questions you may have about the game.
You guys know this is in the universe of their own mini game, right? Look at their company website. Though if I have a decent computer, I will purchase the game.
Exodus Wars Crowdfunder discount card that entitles the bearer to a 5% discount off all Exodus Wars miniatures until 30 June 2013!
Physical miniatures (presumably from Steel Crown?), DLC "miniatures" (as the other KS is offering) or something else?
This game doesn't sell virtual minis. It is based off of a physical minis line though, which is why one of the perks gets you an actual mini. So I'm sure this discount applies to that physical mini line.
So is this game going to be Mac/wineskin compatible??? What will need to be reached to make it compatible? That's the one thing keeping me from pledging now that I got paid and am looking to sell off some stuff!
scipio.au wrote:Hi there,
What exactly is meant by this?:
Exodus Wars Crowdfunder discount card that entitles the bearer to a 5% discount off all Exodus Wars miniatures until 30 June 2013!
Physical miniatures (presumably from Steel Crown?), DLC "miniatures" (as the other KS is offering) or something else?
This game doesn't sell virtual minis. It is based off of a physical minis line though, which is why one of the perks gets you an actual mini. So I'm sure this discount applies to that physical mini line.
That's what I suspect, but given the other business model being discussed on Dakka at the moment, as well as the current "Age of DLC" we're living in, I'd like to see it confirmed by the devs.
Mmmk the confirmation of it working on Mac means I just dropped $30 on it. Why not just $10? Cause I wanna see this game get somewhere and for a new CPU game you'd typically spend $30+ anyhow! Might drop more once some more stuff sells!
yakface wrote:This game doesn't sell virtual minis. It is based off of a physical minis line though, which is why one of the perks gets you an actual mini. So I'm sure this discount applies to that physical mini line.
Yep. That's right.
The Exodus Wars universe and its miniatures are owned by Steel Crown Productions, based out of London. Just to clarify, Membraine Studios, based in Sydney (that's us), just holds a license to make the Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire computer game.
SCP predominantly sells 6mm minis, and the Marcovian Behemoth available as a perk is one such 6mm mini, but if you check out their website on http://www.exoduswars.com, you'll see that they're on the verge of releasing their 28mm range too.
If you like the look of their Marcovian Royal Empire troops, for example, that 5% discount card could come in handy.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Benamint wrote:So is this game going to be Mac/wineskin compatible??? What will need to be reached to make it compatible?
Good news for you, then. The engine we're using, Unity, already supports OSX (as well as iOS and Android, by the way), and our intent is to release for the Mac on the same day (or as close to as possible) the PC version is released.
And in a similar vein, if there are any Linux users in residence, the latest version of Unity—which is expected to be released in a few weeks—also supports Linux, so we'll be releasing a Linux version as soon as we can too.
Hope this news brings much happy joy-joy to the Mac and Linux users here.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
vinsal wrote:Ditto on MAC question. Do i need to jump through hoops, or will it work "straight out of the box" as it were. If it is straight up MAC compatible I am sold.
It's straight-up Mac compatible thanks to Unity's in-built Mac support—there's additional effort making the Mac version, of course, but we'd already accounted for that in the $35,000 Core game (minimum-spec) budget.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
scipio.au wrote:That's what I suspect, but given the other business model being discussed on Dakka at the moment, as well as the current "Age of DLC" we're living in, I'd like to see it confirmed by the devs.
Hi Scipio. Hopefully, I've adequately answered you questions above about the miniatures discount and the intent of that perk offering; if not, though, let me know—always happy to answer questions about the game.
With regard to your query about DLC, while it's way to early for us to have nailed down our long-term plans, I can say that DLC would most likely be reserved for major releases, such as whole new armies—not so much a "get this special mini!" microtransactional model, which seems to be something you guys think would suck (yes—we got the message, guys).
Sorry to post again, but wanted to let you all know that Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire has been featured on Rock Paper Shotgun's "Kickstarter Katchup" column!!
Getting air-time with the major games media players and engaging with the wider gaming public was always going to be pivotal, so it's awesome to see this starting to happen now.
Please head on over to the RPS column via the link above and add your voice to the discussion.
And by all means...feel free to talk up Fractured Empire and let everyone know there is a market for games like this.
I never thought I'd be moving away from PC based games, but you can't take them with you. I have quite a few mindless games on the Ipad, but this one looks really cool. And it sounds like this could be making it's way to that platform as well.
I've still got a copy of FL and have tried to play a few times, but can't use the video files and never got to download the other sprites. Looking forward for this to get done.
Would the miniature company be inclined to let you guys start using single mini's for goals?
adhuin wrote:Not to be party pooper, but they're using "Flexible funding", which is different system than kickstarter uses. What does it mean? If they don't raise enough money (i.e the target) to make the game, they still get to keep your money! Game itself sounds interesting, but I won't trust any company using Flexible funding, unless it's already funded. (and even then I'd be wary)
Hi adhuin. Thanks for your feedback. You're correct in how Flexible Funding works—and I absolutely understand your concerns.
All I can say is that we're making the game regardless of how our crowd funding campaign goes—we've already poured way too much love and (to be blunt) our own hard-earned into it to not make it. We're making it.
The purpose of the crowd funding campaign is to accelerate our development by enabling us to focus our efforts on Fractured Empire full-time, at least up to the release of the Core/minimum-spec game, and the stretch goals are to fund expanding the feature set offered by the game beyond the minimum spec described on the Indiegogo page.
Let me know if you have any further questions. More than happy to answer any questions about the game.
Hey do the rewards stack? Like if I donate $10 to get the game and then later donate $40, do I get the Alpha pass etc? Or do I have to donate the full $50?
Benamint wrote:Hey do the rewards stack? Like if I donate $10 to get the game and then later donate $40, do I get the Alpha pass etc? Or do I have to donate the full $50?
Yes, your contributions can stack—not a problem.
The system records contributions individually, but we'll be able to manually combine people's contributions into a singular amount at the end of the campaign.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Bringing the conversation from another thread into this thread to make it easier for everyone to follow. Hope that's okay.
AllSeeingSkink wrote:Looking good. It's a shame you haven't gotten more support thus far.
Hi, AllSeeingSkink! Thanks for the kind words. I thought I'd better let you know my thinking, though, in response to the above as it's not all doom-and-gloom—far from it.
We recognise that, at just under $5,000, it may not look like we’re doing well...but we’re actually pretty stoked!. Here's why we think this:
The media response has really been pretty phenomenal, especially considering the "vibe" in the games media around crowd funding right now. Getting a mention on Rock Paper Shotgun (even in the context of negativity about a Flexible Funding campaign) was HUGE for us—and they put up one of our vids!
I reckon we're helped a lot by the fact peeps really do want this game—that much seems clear. So, at the very least, I think it's clear now that there is a market for this game, which was one of the major purposes behind running this campaign. Whether or not that market will contribute to a crowd funding campaign is a totally different kettle of fish, of course, but we remain hopeful.
So we're currently approaching $5k with 25 days to go, but I reckon most of "the action", as such, will happen in the last week—that seems to be the pattern.
It seems to go like this: You either have a big burst of enthusiasm from the crowd (probably applies only if you already have an established fan-base, which we didn’t) or you start slowly, like we have. Then you see a lull in contributions as non-fans join and watch/wait. And then you either see a surge in the last week as the watchers get into the game...or you fizzle out.
We're doing everything we can to ensure we get a surge and not a fizzle.
And that's where we are now; while things are going pretty well, we of course still have a lot of work to do to show the community that we're worthy of their support.
Another thing worth mentioning: we've had almost 10,000 people visit our campaign page, so there are a LOT of peeps out there who know about the game and know what we're trying to achieve...we remain hopeful that a good number of those will decide to support us, especially given some of the cool stuff we'll be releasing in a few days.
AllSeeingSkink wrote:I've posted threads about the game over on a couple of gaming forums, so hopefully you get some more support for it! You guys should contact local gaming clubs, gaming stores and PC gaming/table top gaming internet forums to get the word out.
Thank you! That's an awesome thing to do for us—we really appreciate it!
Sadly I missed out on Final Liberation, but I remember Shadow of the Horned rat, and was a big fan of turn based tactical RPG's such as Warsong, Shining Force and Vandal Hearts.
So I know I enjoy turn based gameplay on computer games.
My biggest concern is the lack of a single player mode, add that in and I'm all over this game, when it comes to video games I'd rather have the option not to interact with people
We've been humbled by the almost unanimously positive feedback we've received for Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire. We do hear that many people want an iOS version alongside the PC and Mac releases, though, rather than a few months later.
Josh, Glenn and I have spent the last couple of days creating alternative project schedules to see what is possible, and we have some great news for you:
If we meet our target of $35,000, we will be releasing the iPad version of Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire alongside the PC and Mac versions.
There is a small caveat in that Apple's App Store review process can take a while, so we can’t promise the iOS release will be a same-day release alongside the PC and Mac versions, but it will be very, very close!
To everyone who has supported us so far, thank you again—it means the world to us. To everyone else, we hope the above news demonstrates our commitment to this game and to the wargaming community, and we very much hope you will contribute to our Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire campaign.
R3con wrote:My biggest concern is the lack of a single player mode, add that in and I'm all over this game, when it comes to video games I'd rather have the option not to interact with people
Single player appears fairly early on the road map (a high level road map appears on the campaign page), so even if we only release the Core/minimum-spec game initially, revenue from sales of the game will be reinvested back into the game's development, so you'll hopefully see single-player arriving very quickly if sales are reasonable from the get-go, which we of course think they will be.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
xole wrote:I will be supporting this...once my wallet recovers from dropzone commander and sedition wars.
Thanks! And I sympathise on the cash front, brother—so many competing awesome toys coming out right now...but it's a good time to be a wargamer.
We may also get hammered by the release of 6th Ed 40K, we think—but, then again, $10 gets you the full game upon its release, and hopefully that's a compelling enough price point that peeps will back us just so they can pick up a low-cost copy now.
They want $35,000 to develop this game. Fine. They're using flexible funding, which means they'll get whatever cash is invested even if they don't hit their targets.Fine.
Since they are only raising about $300 or so a day, and there are 20 days left, it seems unlikely they will meet their $35k goal. What happens then? Since it's flexibly funded, they keep the money, but do they have any real obligation to ever finish development on the game?
They've already stated (and I think it may be on one of the update pages as well) that they will be releasing the game no matter what. But if they don't raise their minimum goal then they will have to shove other projects into the queue in order to help pay for Exodus Wars development.
So basically we're just talking about a delay in release if they don't hit their goal.
Yeah, sorry about that - someone asked about that on the second page already and I missed it.
OK, so here's an actual question - since you mention that this is going to be PC\OSX\and maybe IOS, what language are you writing this in? Will this be using DirextX registry hooks for Windows, or is this something that could be run off a thumbstick\portable drive? If it's installer-less I might be able to rope some coworkers into donating, lot of flash gaming happens on slow nights.
Ouze wrote:since you mention that this is going to be PC\OSX\and maybe IOS, what language are you writing this in? Will this be using DirextX registry hooks for Windows, or is this something that could be run off a thumbstick\portable drive? If it's installer-less I might be able to rope some coworkers into donating, lot of flash gaming happens on slow nights.
Hi Ouze. The middleware we're using is Unity, the graphics engine of which uses Direct3D (Windows), OpenGL (Mac, Windows) and OpenGL ES (iPhone OS). The web player presumably also uses those APIs, but I'll have to confirm that with Josh to be sure.
I'll also need to let Josh answer the USB stick question, sorry.
Hi lukyboi. I'll reverse the order of your questions if that's okay.
lukyboi wrote:would you be able to choose what your army is made up of?
Definitely—army building (i.e. army list development) is absolutely key to the tabletop wargaming experience, and it's possibly the most strategic aspect of the Exodus Wars game, and the greatest effort to-date has actually gone into the game's design to ensure balance is inherent to army list development.
lukyboi wrote:as it's turn based, would 2 (or more) people be able to play on one computer? (like worms)
It's an on-going discussion, to be honest. Hot-seat play (where the players jump into the seat when it's their turn) is possible, but Exodus Wars' Overwatch mechanic makes hot-seat play potentially problematic.
If you can imagine playing a game where both sides are putting a lot of their fireteams on Overwatch orders (where they can fire upon enemy fireteams that move through their firing range), you and your friend could be swapping seats very frequently, and that could be annoying for players.
Having said all that, though, I'll reiterate that it is an on-going discussion, and so the best answer I can give you right now is sadly "Maybe". Sorry.
swapping seats is not so mucn an issue on an iPad though, for example.
Pass 'n play games work quite well for a lot of digital boardgames already out (EA's rather frugal risk version, but ticket to ride might be a better example).
ThomasPolder wrote:swapping seats is not so mucn an issue on an iPad though, for example. Pass 'n play games work quite well for a lot of digital boardgames already out (EA's rather frugal risk version, but ticket to ride might be a better example).
Hmmm. ... Good point. I'll flag the iPad hot-seat angle you've raised, and I'll let you guys know how that pans out.
Thanks for the feedback, guys! These sorts of comments are really helpful while we're in pre-Alpha, as we can change our minds about things rapidly with little to no impact on the development schedule.
Benamint wrote:Any timeline for when Alpha or beta might drop???
Hi Benamint. No change from what's shown on the campaign page at this stage—Alpha is still expected to drop around September/October of this year if we reach our funding target. If we don't hit our target, it will obviously be later as mentioned above, as we'll need to fill our pipeline with other, revenue-producing projects.
I'm back with another update. See, we're pretty stoked here at Membraine HQ, and I thought I'd share with you why that is.
iPAD AND LINUX SUPPORT ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO Our community members already know from an earlier update, but here it is again: Fractured Empire, is now targeting Windows PC, Apple Mac and iPad, and Linux all on Day 1. (When Day 1 will be is still undecided, of course, as our crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo.com still has around 20 days left to run, but we remain quietly optimistic.)
We're ready to share the news that we'll now be shipping iPad and Linux versions of Fractured Empire alongside the PC and Mac versions with the wider gaming public, so we're doing a press release to iPad-related gaming sites. To that end, we've also put together a little vignette explaining why we're announcing iPad support.
WE'RE EXCITED!! Rock Paper Shotgun's mention of us today called out the fact that we seem to have stalled this week, seeing just $600 in contributions. While we'd of course much rather see lots of contributions each week, and the obvious math is that we need to see about $1,500 a day roll in from here on in, we're nonetheless very excited because the media response has really been pretty phenomenal, especially considering the "vibe" in the games media around crowd funding right now that we were discussing.
Getting a mention on Rock Paper Shotgun (even in the context of negativity about a Flexible Funding campaign) was HUGE for us—and they put up one of our vids! And then we got mentioned by Rock Paper Shotgun again this weekend! That the guys at RPS are watching us is HUGE, and (as you can probably tell) that's got us pretty pumped.
We're helped a lot by the fact the gaming community really does want this game—that much is clear now. So, at the very least, we know there is a market for this game, which was one of the major reasons for running this campaign.
We've just passed the $5,000 milestone with just under 20 days to go, but it seems to be the case with crowd funding campaigns that most of "the action", as such, happens in the last 10 days, so we remain hopeful.
It seems to go like this:
* You either have a big burst of enthusiasm from the crowd (probably applies only if you already have an established fan-base, which we didn’t) or you start slowly, like we have.
* Then you see a lull in contributions as non-fans join and watch/wait.
* And then you either see a surge in the last week as the watchers get into the game...or you fizzle out.
We're doing everything we can to ensure we get a surge and not a fizzle.
SOME VERY POSITIVE NEWS Now let me give you some VERY positive news, which is that, whatever happens with our campaign, we’ve been shown that the market really does want this game—so, come hell or high water, WE ARE MAKING IT. It will just take us longer if we don’t achieve the funding levels we need. So the crowd funding campaign has become all about when we can get it to you, not if. I hope those words are as good to read as they were to type.
If the campaign is successful, we’ll be able to focus our efforts 100% on completing the game. If not, it just means we’ll need to continue focussing on our consulting work and casual games in order to fund EW:FE’s development—which is what we’re doing now and, as you can see, the game's coming together...it’s just been coming together vvveeerrryyy sssllloooooooooowwwllllyyy to this point (because we keep getting distracted by needing money for frivolous things like food and heat).
So that's where we are now; while things are going pretty well, we of course still have a lot of work to do to show the community that we're worthy of their support.
Hopefully, you think we're doing just that, you're reaching for your wallet to buy a perk and back us, and you're telling your friends about us. (I am The Eternal Optimist.)
Tried to donate but there seems to be an error and the counter shows 17 days left, might be hurting your pocket if the indiegogo site doesn't work at the moment. Let me know if it is working again and I'll sign up!
Reaper Man 2020 wrote:Tried to donate but there seems to be an error and the counter shows 17 days left, might be hurting your pocket if the indiegogo site doesn't work at the moment. Let me know if it is working again and I'll sign up!
Hi Reaper Man. Is that error still showing for you? This is the first I've heard of an issue, but I can write to Indiegogo and ask if you're still seeing that error.
Thanks, guys. Will be announcing the winners shortly.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Competition winners have been drawn and notified. As soon as we have their permissions to name them, we'll announce on the Indiegogo page.
So, we're down to the final 10 days of our campaign—the last mile!
This is where the action is. If you've decided to support us, but you've been holding fire until the last stretch, NOW is the time to show your support for Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire by buying a perk. I can recommend the $25 Beta perk, which entitles you to early access to the game (without any kind of pressure to actually help us with testing—you can pretty much just enjoy the game and play other Beta participants before the mainstream gamers get online).
If you've been umming and ahhing about backing us, but leaning toward buying a perk, I recommend the $10 perk that gets you the game at a low, low price. You probably spilled more than $10 worth of coffee last week. Please back us!
If you have friends who are undecided on whether to back us, or who are just as-yet unaware of our campaign, NOW is the time to apply MASSIVE AMOUNTS of peer-group pressure and guilt them into contributing to our campaign so that we all get to play EW:FE much, much sooner! Or you could buy the $100 perk that nets you FOUR copies of the game, including FOUR access passes to our Alpha testing programme (and let's not forget the credits in-game as QA testers!).
Just a reminder that, whether or not our campaign succeeds in netting the funding required to enable us to focus full-time on developing the core game, Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire is guaranteed to ship—eventually. How soon "eventually" is, though...that's in your hands.
We'll of course continue to lobby this great wargaming community right up until the end of our campaign, but be assured (or possibly annoyed) that we will continue to update you all on EW:FE's progress after the campaign, when it hits Alpha and Beta, when it gets previewed by journalists, when we start offering the game for Pre-Orders, after the game ships, and well after you're all completely sick of hearing about anything to do with Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire...so we're respectively both very glad we can do that for you but also somewhat apologetic (sorry, but we just can't help ourselves—the game is TOO AWESOME!).
Thanks for reading. To those who have backed us already, we offer our sincere and heartfelt gratitude, and we look forward to playing you in the game (be it the Alpha, Beta or the Final build depending on the level of perk you purchased).
To everyone else, we still love you—just not quite as much as those who have already backed us. But please GO NOW to our campaign page and buy a perk so that can be rectified.
Thanks for the well-wishes, guys, and the show of support. Always appreciated.
To-date, while we've only had 174 people back us, we've had more than 17,000 unique visitors to our Indiegogo campaign page!
Given the general lack of exposure in the media (lots of reservation about covering a crowd funding campaign since the Penny Arcade article), our analysis suggests the bulk of these visitors are wargamers—many of whom are from Dakka Dakka thanks to yakface's encouragement and support—so we remain hopeful that, by posting on Dakka Dakka and other forums, we can convince at least a percentage of those gamers to back us.
After all, we really only need 15% of those visitors to get off the fence and support us and we'd hit our target. Surely we as a community can achieve that? We remain hopeful.
Worth mentioning that there is a very positive flip-side to those visitors not getting off the fence, of course, which is that, once the game has been made and is available for sale, there are more than 17,000 people out there interested in playing EW:FE who would be paying full price. That means more revenue than that received from the crowd funding campaign, given the $10 price point to get the game, which means more money we can pour into on-going development of the game! YAY!
Certainly, I'd say it's an axiom that we can expect much greater take-up of the game once people can buy it and play it same-day.
Yay more backers! In all seriousness this game looks awesome and I really like the idea. There really is NO reason not to support this game, even if you aren't big on the plot or setting. If you are a wargamer, this is a must!
Look at it this way, if this isn't "your kinda game" but you wish something similar was made for your game? Donate! This will show support for this style of game! Maybe it will catch on and companies will start producing off this model!
Plus look at the price..... It's $10 stinking dollars! I mean come on people, can you really deny the cheapness of it? If you step back and looks at your budget, I'm pretty sure $10 won't break the bank (if it does there might be something wrong) I mean seriously, would you rather spend the $10 now and wait, or wait and spend more ($20 or $30 maybe?) I think it pays off now to get the jump on it and help make it come out sooner!
I wanted to back this at the $10 level for a digital copy of the game, but when I go to check out via PayPal, while the $10 amount is correct, it keeps saying I've selected the "4x copies of the game + Alpha testing" perk - huh?
I had it pop up too, I thought its was just me though.... From what Mark has told me it just goes into a pool under your name then you can delegate it out. It fixed itself after I refreshed though....
NEW VIDEO RELEASED: GAMEPLAY EXPLAINED — PART 2! http://www.indiegogo.com/EWFracturedEmpire While the game is still a fair ways from what you could reasonably call "stable" (it's pre-Alpha, which means it's not fully featured or properly playable just yet), we have been able to edit together a sequence of play (Turns 2 and 3, on the larger Desert map) in a new video, which is at the top of the list of videos on the campaign page. The new video demonstrates a combined assault by Guild forces against a REM position. Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire's gameplay has been edited together with explanations of what is happening and why to give you a feel for how it plays.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions about the game mechanics shown or anything else to do with the game!
Alpharius wrote:I wanted to back this at the $10 level for a digital copy of the game, but when I go to check out via PayPal, while the $10 amount is correct, it keeps saying I've selected the "4x copies of the game + Alpha testing" perk - huh?
Sounds like a bug with Indiegogo. Irritating. Apologies for the inconvenience and we'll look into it some more, but there's probably not much we can do as we have no control over Indiegogo's codebase—sorry. :(
Alpharius wrote:I wanted to back this at the $10 level for a digital copy of the game, but when I go to check out via PayPal, while the $10 amount is correct, it keeps saying I've selected the "4x copies of the game + Alpha testing" perk - huh?
Sounds like a bug with Indiegogo. Irritating. Apologies for the inconvenience and we'll look into it some more, but there's probably not much we can do as we have no control over Indiegogo's codebase—sorry. :(
Go ahead and back it at the $10 amount. I did the same and got the "you selected alpha blah blah" message. The confirmation on the next page had the correct $10 perk.
scipio.au wrote:I was just thinking - what's the DRM for this going to be?
Hi Scipio,
In terms of DRM, it will be the minimum required on the target platforms (e.g. platforms like Apple and Steam have requirements for DRM).
You will also need to create an account for online play. We will (leniently) restrict the number of IPs that can use an account.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
RiTides wrote:I think the perk levels might be to blame, hard to justify contributing much more than the "get the game" levels.
Thanks for the feedback, RiTides, and I take your point. We spent a lot of time trying to develop meaningful perks that would appeal to people and that wouldn't break the bank trying to service them after the campaign ends—you may have seen articles by other teams lamenting the cost burden of providing the perks promised to people once postage comes into it, which is why we kept physical perks like the new Behemoth super-vehicle model to a minimum. We did revisit the perks several times throughout the campaign, though, and our changes (based on community feedback) were generally received.
That's good, and I meant it more generally... it seems hard to offer great perks for a software Kickstarter, as opposed to a modelling one where more models / painted models / etc are easy to add for higher levels.
I think the perks you came up with are a good attempt, but most people would go for the lower ones, so even with around 200 contributors, the average contribution isn't high enough to look like it will reach the goal.
I didn't have a solution, it's just a bummer because obviously lots of people are interested. If nothing else, it's getting you tons of exposure!
RiTides wrote:...it's just a bummer because obviously lots of people are interested. If nothing else, it's getting you tons of exposure!
This is absolutely true!
We're of course bummed that it's looking unlikely we'll hit our goal of $35,000...but we're also MASSIVELY PUMPED because of the profile the game has achieved in a short period of time. (Much of that is thanks to yakface and the Dakka Dakka community—so thank you all again.)
As a case in point, here's an extract from a draft for the press release we're sending out Monday morning:
Membraine's campaign to crowd-fund Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire has raised less than $7,000 so far from its $35,000 goal, and is unlikely to hit the target with just 5 days to go. Membraine is upbeat despite this, though, saying not only that it will still ship the game—albeit at a much later date given it won’t be able to focus on the game full-time as hoped—but also that it has obtained other valuable information from its campaign that gives the team hope for the future.
Mark said, “Right now, we’ve raised $6,885 from 184 backers...but that’s with just 17,600 unique visitors, so an average of $0.39 per unique visitor. Very high by crowd funding standards.”
Development Lead Josh Anderson added, “We believe that’s a reflection of two things: that gamers want to play a tabletop-style, turn-based strategy game on the PC, Mac and iPad as much as we do; and that, even though it’s early, pre-Alpha imagery, what they’ve seen so far of Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire’s gameplay is of sufficient quality that gamers believe we can deliver on the promises we've made.”
“These things give us great hope for the game’s sales once it’s released, or even for its pre-sales once we have a playable build,” Mark added.
So don't be too bummed out—this cloud definitely has a silver lining.
scipio.au wrote:I was just thinking - what's the DRM for this going to be?
Hi Scipio,
In terms of DRM, it will be the minimum required on the target platforms (e.g. platforms like Apple and Steam have requirements for DRM).
You will also need to create an account for online play. We will (leniently) restrict the number of IPs that can use an account.
Unfortunately, that's a bit of a non-answer.
For the PC version, what will the DRM be? Unless you have an exclusive deal with Steam for PC distribution (which is not especially common for indie games) then your PC version will be in the wilds of the PC space, which doesn't require any DRM.
If you're talking about stored, limited IPs, then you can kiss any chance of me ever buying or supporting you goodbye, as it'll mean that I hit my limit very quickly due to my dynamic IP (reset by my ISP occasionally, or whenever I reset my modem). Not to mention installing on my laptop and playing from anywhere other than home. Could you elaborate, please?
In the case where there is no third party requirement for DRM, then:
We do not intend to add DRM for offline play.
For online play, I know enough to say the methodology is more lenient than stored, limited IPs, but I'll need to defer to our development lead for a deeper answer than that; I'll touch base with him and come back to you shortly.
I'm interested, as DRM can very much affect the longevity of a game. There can be a big difference depending on if you intend to maintain something like a central server like Cyanide and BB (and if you ever go out of business, the online game ends forever) or if people can connect directly - either IP to IP or via a LAN.
If you can elaborate on LAN play as well, that would be great. Not a big fan of online-required to play with the person sitting next to me (D3, many XBL games).
I relayed your query. I've cut-and-pasted Josh's response below in its entirety.
Hi mate,
- Where platforms/distrubutors require DRM, we will do as little as possible to meet their requirements.
- If we're self-distributing, for the offline game modes, we're currently not planning on having any DRM
- For online game modes, we will need players to create an account (to track achievements, Indiegogo perks, etc.). Our current thinking is that we should limit the number of IPs per user - this plan can change, but, to give you an idea of how lenient we're already talking, the number we're discussing right now is 10-15 unique (external) IP addresses per week. This could become 30 per day, or even never enforced -- we're not sure yet.
Our goal is "play anywhere". We want users to play a turn at home, a turn on their 3G device on the train, a few turns fom work, again via 3G, etc. If that means that limiting users by # of IP addresses doesn't work, we'll do something else (or nothing at all).
This is something we've planned to test thoroughly during Beta.
By my reckoning, the 10-15 IPs per week should be overkill, but, as Josh says, we'll be keeping a close eye on such things and sanity-checking our thinking at every step.
scipio.au wrote:If you can elaborate on LAN play as well, that would be great. Not a big fan of online-required to play with the person sitting next to me (D3, many XBL games).
I've forwarded this one to Josh as well. Let me know if you have more technical questions, and I'll be happy to act as relay with Josh again.
I have to disagree with the OP. Personally, I really don't appreciate the fact that they're looking into a $35k goal.
There have been plenty of indie developers that have done incredibly good looking and, more so then merely good looking, even greatly better made games for much, much less money and resources. What's more, there have even been incredibly well polished and completed mods (modifications) developed with legitimate, bought software that have been released over the years, some of which have had even better resulting production value than actual commercial games; and some of them with six or more team members.
It feels, to me, that Membraine is trying to fund a whole studio with the monetary goal they're aiming for, not merely the developmental needs of this particular game, as is. Either way, it doesn't cost thirty five grand to make a game of that magnitude, especially by and through any particular indie developer to their scale.
I don't see the potential outweighing the facts enough for them to justify asking for any complimentary pledge of money for something that would (highly) more likely than otherwise, not take so much to produce what they're developing.
I appreciate their efforts and commend them for assuming the role of filling the video game world with such a game/genre, but, again, I can't find any justification for that kind of monetary goal needed for any such indie game and it doesn't feel right for me to pledge anything as of yet.
I also find it highly doubtful they have "invested more than $47,000 in the game from [their] own pockets" -- that is simply unheard of, especially in indie development, at least in regards to their claim in investing that solely into the game itself. All in all, it seems really fishy to me. Development of a product like this, especially for a "currently three-man team" to be the only ones developing it, doesn't take steady money-flow on that scale. That's a red-flag for their claim to have spent so much into this project, in and of itself.
Albeit their goals are high, it seems they're aiming a little too steep for everything they want to do, too, especially considering their team is so small and Exodus seemingly being their first foray into traditional development. It should be one step at a time, not all in one go (e.g. --"Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire, is now targeting Windows PC, Apple Mac and iPad, and Linux all on Day 1.. The plan is to initially launch on PC and Mac and .. mobile platforms like iOS and Android"). With that kind of ambition, it could even spell disaster for them altogether; though I truly hope that doesn't happen.
Salud to those more readily willing enough to help fund them. I wish only the best for the dev-team, too.
With respect, I believe you're comparing a studio formed of three (what I'll politely call) "veteran" professionals (sounds nicer than "old dudes") against groups of talented youths. Glenn is an architect; when he's not making our game art assets and awesome 3D models, he does private jobs as a sideline so we can keep our overheads to a minimum. Josh is a experienced software engineer who Membraine now contracts out as a consultant to shore up its revenue. Both Josh and Glenn work on custom software projects when we're engaged to develop apps for clients. And me, I've been working in IT for near enough to 18 years now. ... Okay, so maybe "old dudes" was apt.
I certainly like to think we have all the talent of those groups of youngsters I mentioned—Glenn's designs often amaze me with their awesomeness, and Josh is hands-down the best software developer I've ever worked with—and I've worked with a lot in an almost 18-year IT career. Where we can't compare or compete with those teams is in terms of overheads. We need to pay for things like Josh and Glenn's salaries, and as such we have overheads that groups working in their spare time and living in Mum and Dad's house do not.
Bear in mind that Glenn, Josh and I all started out working on games in our spare time, so we know exactly what it's like to work like that—the only difference between then and now is that we have taken the step of trying to turn our passion for games development into a full-time business, which is something that only a few of the spare-time teams who mod or make stand-alone games actually try. (As an aside, I have no way of knowing or showing what the real stats are and there's no way to find out, but if there were...I would be willing to bet real money that the number of mods that actually get completed is less than 1%.)
If you want to compare us with other established studios with full-time, dedicated staff, I think you'll find that the $35,000 figure suddenly seems low.
Let's talk about that $35,000 figure, then. Membraine is in a good position to know exactly what our time is worth thanks to the consulting work we do, not to mention the custom software development projects we undertake for clients (for details, see our website: http://membrainestudios.com). As such, when we mapped out the schedule for Fractured Empire, we were able to identify the dollar cost of the effort required to make the game,end-to-end. Such things are only ever an estimate, of course, but it's a very well educated estimate, given we really know our stuff (and we really should by now).
So we started beavering away, and we got to where the game is currently, achieving something not-quite playable, but really only a few months off, and the dollar cost of that effort, between all three of us, was just over $47,000. We had, by this time, decided to run a crowd funding campaign in an effort to put together enough capital that we wouldn't have to pimp Josh and Glenn out anymore to corporate clients, and we agreed that the goals of that campaign should align with our major feature deliverables, so these became our funding target and stretch goals respectively, where the first goal at $35,000 provided for the basic infantry-and-armour game as described on our campaign page.
(Please forgive that I've merged a couple of your paragraphs together above for brevity.)
So it's doubtless obvious that I disagree with your reasoning and assessment, and I've tried to outline why that is; I absolutely respect your position, however. I only hope that, once the game is released, you and others who share your opinion will buy a copy to join in for a few games. Of course, you won't be getting the game for $10... *cough*
I've probably already addressed this sufficiently, but I had to call this statement out specifically in order to address the "doesn't take steady money-flow on that scale" comment: when you have kids to feed and a mortgage to pay, you absolutely need an income stream. Some seem to think that it's a good idea just to live off your savings while you make the magic happen—but trust me...that's a bad idea.
I reckon this is probably one of the most common mistakes that many start-up games developers make—they look at the road ahead, look at their savings, and say "Yep! I have just enough savings to get me there!" And then, when things don't quite go to plan (as they usually don't), they have nowhere to go because everyone costs money and they have none left. That's okay if you still live with Mum and Dad. When you are Mum and Dad...I'm sure you can imagine what a nightmare that would be.
Thankfully, the Membraine team does not need to worry about that because we're not relying on our savings; we are a real business that has alternative revenue streams and that enable us to pay salaries to our employees. The goal of our crowd funding campaign has been to enable us to not require those alternative revenue streams while we finish Fractured Empire full-time.
Again, thank you for your feedback. We genuinely want everyone to get the chance to enjoy playing Fractured Empire as much as we do, but we do understand that not everyone will want to back us in a crowd funding campaign.
I can see this has already been answered above, but, just to provide further clarity, we are using the Unity middleware, which does a great job of facilitating multi-platform releases like Fractured Empire. Fundamentally, the major issues that face us in mutli-release are the disparate interfaces and platform-specific optimisations—luckily, Josh is a freakin' guru developer. (No pressure, Josh!)
It is a shame to read so many negative posts here, I think this is a really cool looking game and if they have aimed for a figure and taken some time to price it up then fair enough. Who cares if they are looking for $35,000 all they are asking from each individual is $10, or more if you want. Lets take the worse case scenario, it's all a scam and I lose my $10, big deal so I have lost the cost of a meal at McDonalds. On the other hand if they complete and release then I get a copy of the game for $10! I have helped to support an idependent rather than feeding a corporate giant like EA. I hope they do reach their target and I can't wait to play!
Thanks, Reaper Man. We very much appreciate the support and kind words.
We have just over 24 hours left in our campaign, so, to those of you who have remained undecided until this point: it's NOW OR NEVER! (We, of course, very much hope you decide to go with the NOW option.)
Thanks again to everyone that has supported us already, and to those that have actively engaged to provide your feedback (positive and negative). But we are grateful also to those of you haven't backed us but have considered backing us and talked about us with your friends—without the community looking at what we're doing and discussing it, we would never have even gotten this far.
To reiterate from one of my earlier posts, you've shown us that you want this game, and so WE ARE MAKING IT—it's just going to take us longer than we'd hoped to get it to you. The funds collected to date will be put 100% toward advancing the build as far as we can take it with those funds—hopefully getting it to a playable state so we can make it available to our Alpha testers.
As ever, please let me know if you have more questions, both before the end of the campaign and afterward. Thanks for reading.
So our Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo is finished, and it achieved just $7,430 of our $35,000 target. While we're of course bummed that our crowd funding campaign did not achieve its goals, nonetheless (and to reiterate from one of my earlier posts), the gaming community has shown us through its commentaries and questions that it really does want this game, and so we are committed to making it—it's just going to take us somewhat longer than we'd hoped to get it to you.
The funds collected to date will be put 100% toward advancing the Fractured Empire build, and we'll take it as far as we can with those funds—if possible, we want to get it to a playable Alpha state so we can make it available to our Alpha testers and the media people who expressed interest.
We'd like to once again thank each of our contributors for supporting us. And, of course, please feel free let us know if you have more feedback or questions for us on our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/membraine) or Twitter (http://twitter.com/membraine_ftw).
We hope you'll keep an eye on us, because this is not the end of the road—this is just the beginning.
Seems that indiegogo doesn't distinguish between successful and unsuccessful campaigns and reaching any goals, they collect the money in any case. Weird, but good to know.
Kroothawk wrote:Seems that indiegogo doesn't distinguish between successful and unsuccessful campaigns and reaching any goals, they collect the money in any case. Weird, but good to know.
It depends on whether or not the one who started the project selected the "Flexible Funding Option" If yes, as this one did and was stated on the page, then they get the money regardless, if no, then they don't unless it hits it's goal.
Kroothawk wrote:Seems that indiegogo doesn't distinguish between successful and unsuccessful campaigns and reaching any goals, they collect the money in any case. Weird, but good to know.
Hi Kroothawk. Yes, the type of campaign we ran is called a Flexible Funding campaign, where all funds contributed are received by the campaigners. (UPDATE: D'oh! I see others answered your question before I finished typing. Sorry for the duplication!)
We thought that was most appropriate for our situation. It seems to have been something of a double-edged sword, though, in retrospect, as we received feedback from several people that the Flexible Funding campaign put them off contributing, as they saw EW:FE it as an all-or-nothing proposition rather than a help-us-complete situation. Seems Kickstarter has trained everyone into only doing things the Kickstarter way. But we also clearly needed to do a better job of explaining that we were already pretty much committed to making the game—roughly $47,000 worth of commitment; not an investment you walk away from lightly.
Oh well; 20-20 hindsight and all that. If we ever end up running another crowd funding campaign, we've certainly learned a number of valuable lessons that we can apply.
For now, though, we're all about moving forward and progressing the current EW:FE build to try and get it to a proper playable Alpha using the funds received from our campaign. Stay tuned!
Alpharius wrote:Some additional insight into Indegogo might help here too. I think the 'flexible funding' option comes at a price though, doesn't it? Doesn't Indiegogo take a higher percentage if you chose that option and the ultimate goal isn't reached?
Hi Alpharius. You're correct. They take, I think, 4% if you reach your goal, and 9% if you don't. A pity, but part of doing business with Indiegogo.
Just while we're talking about this, we've done a lot of navel-gazing as to whether we should have go with Fixed Funding instead for Flexible Funding, and how many potential backers (we had more than 19,000 visitors go through) may have been put off by the fact we were running a Flexible Funding campaign. Realistically, though, given how high our contribution-per-visitor ratio was in the end (around $0.40, which is very high by crowd funding standards), we remain of the opinion that what hurt us the most was the reticence of the major games media players to cover our campaign. If we'd been able to get 100,000 visitors through, we probably would have hit our $35,000 target.
I should mention we did everything we could to engage with the major gaming media, and it's worth mentioning that Gamespot is carrying our videos, but they're just not interested in supporting crowd funding campaigns by talking about them. It makes me a little sad, really, as it pretty much spells the death of the crowd funding dream for new indies—established players only need apply, it seems—but then again I can see there's a certain Darwinian fairness to it.
But all is not lost. We have other avenues we're exploring, and the funds we did receive are helping us get the game closer to playable so we can share it with potential investors and so on.
Honestly guys, Indiegogo is an extremely poor choice compared to Kickstarter - both in terms of going with the well-known big dog and also in terms of the way they handle pledges - taking funds immediately.
I'd say that anyone who wants to crowdfund a project really should go the extra mile and do whatever it takes to get their project on Kickstarter rather than IGG...
scipio.au wrote:Honestly guys, Indiegogo is an extremely poor choice compared to Kickstarter - both in terms of going with the well-known big dog and also in terms of the way they handle pledges - taking funds immediately. I'd say that anyone who wants to crowdfund a project really should go the extra mile and do whatever it takes to get their project on Kickstarter rather than IGG...
We're not a US-based team, and so we could not use Kickstarter without jumping through some serious legal hoops to set up a US Amazon Payments account.
Kickstarter is an avenue we continue to look at, but it's not something we could realistically have taken on when we started our campaign, and indeed still couldn't now, as we don't have a US-based team member to act on our behalf.
For the time being at least, then, we're focussed on more traditional methods of capital raising.
So what happens to all those who have pledged? Now that the project is going to take X-amount of time (longer) to complete, when will they see their "perks"? Or was this a different arrangement where no perks were promised?
Delephont wrote:So what happens to all those who have pledged? Now that the project is going to take X-amount of time (longer) to complete, when will they see their "perks"? Or was this a different arrangement where no perks were promised?
Hi Delephont. There certainly were perks offered, ranging from licenses for the game through access to the closed Beta and even Alpha testing programmes.
ABOUT THE BEHEMOTH PERK
There was also a "physical" perk in the form of the awesome new Marcovian Behemoth model from Exodus Wars. Those minis have either already been dispatched by Exodus Wars or they are about to be, so those people who bought the Behemoth perk should have them in their hands relatively quickly (I know at least one of the minis was destined for Australia, and those people are at the mercy of the usual international postage timeframes—which is why I employ the term "relatively"; my fellow Aussies on here will be familiar with that old pain...<sigh> ).
ABOUT THE ALPHA AND BETA PERKS
The Alpha and Beta-related perks will be made available to those backers as soon as those builds are available, and we'll of course be keeping the whole community abreast of where we're at as development progresses.
Alpha Testing For those not familiar with software development, an Alpha build is a functional build of the game that has a lot of the final features and assets incorporated so a to make it playable. The main goal of Alpha testing is to ensure the game design works as intended and makes for fun gameplay. It also serves to help us identify any significant gaps or logic errors in our design, as well as any glaring bugs (in things like our networking code). The Alpha will basically offer a single scenario with two fixed sides (that is, not army building yet) that enables the QA testers (which is us and those backers who bought the Alpha perk) to play the game and identify any issues along the lines mentioned above. Alphas typically crash a lot, but it should nonetheless make for a fun game if our design holds up the way we think it will.
The Alpha build is the one we're working on currently, albeit in a less focussed way now that our campaign was not successful—we're back to working concurrently on three projects: EW:FE of course, but now also two as-yet unannounced casual titles (we need to secure our revenue streams, and casual games aimed at iPhone, iPad and the web are how we'll achieve that). As soon as we have a good idea of when the Alpha will drop, we'll be communicating with those backers who are joining us for the Alpha testing.
Beta testing Beta will come some time after that. Again for those not familiar with the terminology, a Beta build is the functionally complete game, but it may not necessarily have all the final build's polish. Betas often have a non-final UI, for example, and will still have a number of bugs to be identified and resolved. The QA testers and our Beta participants will play the game and again identify any issues they may experience.
ABOUT THE FINAL GAME
Once Beta testing is complete, we'll be putting the final spit-and-polish on the game and shipping it on all target platforms, same day as promised. How soon it then appears for sale will depend on how distribution works on the target platforms (currently unknown for PC and Mac, but we'd love to get on Steam, and App Store for iPad; Linux will almost certainly be via direct download from our website).
That's probably more information than you wanted, but hopefully I've answered your questions.
It's been an awesome month here at Membraine Studios. After raising $7,430 via IndieGogo we are determined to get as much value out of your contributions as possible. To that end, we've individually kicked in another $2,570 - pushing us up to a total of $10,000 raised for further development.
With this nice round figure, we have a plan to push as as close to Alpha as possible. We're also chasing alternative streams of investment, to ensure that Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire is the very best it can be.
During August we had to focus on our consultancy and casual games work. However, we were able to implement our Command & Control system - our revolutionary unit and formation movement system that meshes the tactile nature of tabletop wargaming with the speed and efficiency of our computers. This is a huge win and we can't wait to share it with you!
Once again, we'd like to thank everyone who is following us and especially those who have helped fund us so far. Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire is in production, but we have challenges ahead to ensure its delivery and quality.
), as well as super-vehicles like the Behemoths (which you can already see we're tinkering with in the videos), and we want to include them sooner rather than later. Buuut...when we'll be able to include them is subject to how successful our campaign is. As you'll see on the campaign page, there are certain funding milestones we need to hit in order to be able to incorporate support for the above unit types into the current schedule.
