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i will be looking into this, it seens worthy to donate to!

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

Hi everyone. Just a quick update.

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.

Thanks for reading.

I will be supporting this...once my wallet recovers from dropzone commander and sedition wars.

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.


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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.

Edit: this was already asked and answered, sorry!

Ouze wrote:Alright, I'm confused about something.

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.

as it's turn based, would 2 (or more) people be able to play on one computer?
(like worms)

also, would you be able to choose what your army is made up of?

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).

COOL looking game!!!! hopefully a game developer will become interested in aiding the project.

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.

Any timeline for when Alpha or beta might drop???

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.

Hi everyone!

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 think you'll like it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEe_RvEIeY0

We look forward to reading your reactions.


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.)

Cheers!
Mark (GR00V3R)

I need 10 bucks huh, Swap Shop here I come!

buying one of your games now

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!

Dropped another $20 for a total of $50! Yay Alpha pass!

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 for letting us know!

COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT!
We’re running two competitions on www.indiegogo.com/EWFracturedEmpire!

Competition 1
One random new contributor from the next 72 hours will be selected to receive ALL THE PERKS. Yes—all of them!

And because it’s not fair to only offer this chance to new backers:

Competition 2
One existing backer will be selected now to be upgraded to receive ALL THE PERKS.

The winners will both be announced at 10:30pm AEST (which is GMT +10) on 8 July 2012. Best of luck!

Contributed. Good luck.

Contributed, but looks like we will be waiting a while if the contest push doesn't increase backers. :(
Oh well, looks to be worth waiting for.

Contributed today and the site worked fine, bug fixed!

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.

Thanks for your interest.

I can't help but feel this would have done so much better on Kickstarter, rather than Indiegogo... I hope it makes it!

Hi everyone!

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.

http://www.indiegogo.com/EWFracturedEmpire

Truly sad this seems to have stalled. Hope it finds some more publicity and backers. (I'm backing)