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I checked and missed the early birds, too (there were very few for the minis levels). They probably don't check here, but one good Kickstarter strategy I've observed in the past is to have enough early birds to basically hit your funding goal - avoids having anything slow before the basic funding level, since people are much more likely to jump in on a limited opportunity pledge level.
The figures look very promising, but the game seems to be promising a lot to me for very little in funding... it is awesome that it's ambitious, but it just seems like a big undertaking for them to make it and have it play well.
This looks cool. I like that they are doing the whole mobile/tablet app thing.. but is there a low tech pdf rulebook or anything? I think the tech stuff is great, and something I wanna do too.. but they should also have a backup in place for people that prefer printed stuff rather than just turning them away. There's lots of inexpensive print on demand options these days.
RiTides wrote: I checked and missed the early birds, too (there were very few for the minis levels). They probably don't check here, but one good Kickstarter strategy I've observed in the past is to have enough early birds to basically hit your funding goal - avoids having anything slow before the basic funding level, since people are much more likely to jump in on a limited opportunity pledge level.
The figures look very promising, but the game seems to be promising a lot to me for very little in funding... it is awesome that it's ambitious, but it just seems like a big undertaking for them to make it and have it play well.
Will definitely be watching as this progresses
Hey RiTides,
I'm one of the creators of the game. We do check here as well :-)
Thank you for your comments! Looking back I think we made a bit of a mistake with the early bird pricing of the miniature pack. We're first timers and still learning. We had to limit the number low as we actually lose money on the EB pricing. The full priced XL pack is also very close to our cost of the miniatures (4 GBP / miniature is quite cheap). We probably should have made the EB a bit more expensive and upped the number. Unfortunately mistakes like this are impossible to fix once the KS launches. We'll definitely learned a lesson here!
You're right. The project is ambitious. However, we're not starting to build it now. We've actually worked on it for more than 3 years now. We have built a very solid base on which we can now start building the extended features we're promising but are not live yet. You can see the core gameplay working in our battle report video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5NoLTyaUE8). We have played more than 100 test games with many, many external playtesters to get into the point where we are now. That is why we feel confident that we can promise what we're promising. All of the features we're talking about we know how to implement them. We understand the technical side and we have a plan. Many of them we have already prototyped internally for long time.
I know that in many sense it's still just my word I'm asking you to trust. I completely understand the healthy scepticism to claims in the internet! In any case, we run a very open approach to game development and I'm happy to answer any questions. We don't have secrets :-)
We also address some of these issues in this video we posted to our YouTube channel. I hope it clears some of the doubt.
Thank you for your thoughts!
Juhani
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Necros wrote: This looks cool. I like that they are doing the whole mobile/tablet app thing.. but is there a low tech pdf rulebook or anything? I think the tech stuff is great, and something I wanna do too.. but they should also have a backup in place for people that prefer printed stuff rather than just turning them away. There's lots of inexpensive print on demand options these days.
Hey Necros,
Thank you for your comment! We have a PDF rulebook and it won't be going anywhere. You can download the early draft version from our site here:
http://landsofruin.com/downloads.html
Our approach to the rules is that we want people to be able to start playing the game without forcing anyone to read a long rulebook first. But, at the same time we do now and will do in the future offer the detailed Rulebook to anyone who wants to dive into details of the game.
bocatt wrote: Welp. I was right about the juicy early bird but it got snapped up before I could get to them. The 2 and 4 hero pledges are great though I think. Plenty of value for not a lot of dosh.
I have a bad feeling about those words "unlocked to your account" though. the last thing I want is a miniatures game plagued by microtransactions. The very thought makes me shudder with fear. I know that payment model can make a lot of money very quickly but this game could be a great idea for a long term plan and I dont want to see it ruined by the greedy, easy cash grab and dump (after all you get to keep more of the profits if you dont support your product after launch right?) I'm really pulling for this one. Especially after the announced end of Golem Arcana.
Lands of Ruin could be one small step for "6th Extinction" and one giant leap for hybrid gaming. They just have to deliver what they already promised.
Hey bocatt,
Thank you for your comment. Your concern is totally valid. But: I ****** hate microtransactions in mobile games the way they're usually implement and there's no way I'll be putting them into a game that way.
I want to clarify what we mean when we say "unlocking into your account":
We will be selling digital heroes for you. What this means is that to add a character to your tribe you don't have to buy a miniature to play with but you can use your own or buy from someone else's range a miniature you like more than what we offer. You can simply buy the profile and start playing. This is pretty closely analog to other games selling you army books. In our case we can just deliver it instantly.
There will NEVER be in-game currency you buy with real money. There will NEVER be power items you need to buy with money to gain power. There will NEVER be way to pay money to skip some content etc.. I can't stress this enough. I hate the cash-cheat BS that is currently ruining mobile gaming! In fact, I wrote a blog post about that crap in 2012 http://www.zeitscribe.net/2012/10/pay-to-win-sure-way-to-kill-players.html.
What there can be as in app purchases (cash cheat has ruined this term but I think it can be used for good) is things that add to your gameplay. New characters, new scenarios, new visuals etc. These are things that when you pay you get something concrete more, more value, real value.
These are things that I'm passionate about! I do want to do this right. We will also engage our community in discussion about all these points. We want to be open and fair.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/02/20 17:25:27
Juhani
Co-creator - Lands of Ruin
www.landsofruin.com
Thank you for your comment. Your concern is totally valid. But: I ****** hate microtransactions in mobile games the way they're usually implement and there's no way I'll be putting them into a game that way.
I want to clarify what we mean when we say "unlocking into your account":
We will be selling digital heroes for you. What this means is that to add a character to your tribe you don't have to buy a miniature to play with but you can use your own or buy from someone else's range a miniature you like more than what we offer. You can simply buy the profile and start playing. This is pretty closely analog to other games selling you army books. In our case we can just deliver it instantly.
There will NEVER be in-game currency you buy with real money. There will NEVER be power items you need to buy with money to gain power. There will NEVER be way to pay money to skip some content etc.. I can't stress this enough. I hate the cash-cheat BS that is currently ruining mobile gaming! In fact, I wrote a blog post about that crap in 2012 http://www.zeitscribe.net/2012/10/pay-to-win-sure-way-to-kill-players.html.
What there can be as in app purchases (cash cheat has ruined this term but I think it can be used for good) is things that add to your gameplay. New characters, new scenarios, new visuals etc. These are things that when you pay you get something concrete more, more value, real value.
These are things that I'm passionate about! I do want to do this right. We will also engage our community in discussion about all these points. We want to be open and fair.
I think I'm in love. I really appreciate your engagement here with myself and others and what that says about your goals and values as a company/developers and as people. Your stance on the development of the companion app is reassuring and I have no reservations about backing this project. Hell, I would even consider the highest end, lifetime backer pledge just to help with the campaign and your business, rewards be damned. Need to scrounge up some cash for that one though Your kickstarter is professional grade and I'm really looking forward to what you do here and in the future.
As an aside, I would echo the desire for a physical rulebook, not specifically for the rules (which would be really awesome to have in hand) but also because I love background and art books to a fault.
Proud supporter of
It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb.
-Gabriel Angelos
This looks really nice. I like the idea of being able to use my own miniatures to play if I want even though I think these minis look great as well. Excited to see some new tribes released to open gameplay up even more!
Juhani - Just wanted to say thank you for the fantastic response, it is really impressive to see a creator check in on a forum like this when I know your game must be being discussed all over!
Also love how much you took the feedback, that is really encouraging! I have put in a placeholder pledge for now, and will see if I can up it before the end
They have added a second digital pack to pledges of Miniature pack XL which can be gifted to someone, basically making it a ultimate 2 player starter set
Single hero packs are now available as an add-on for £18.
In the latest blog posts they go into detail on the apps UI and the artwork of Lands Of Ruin from concept to what we see today.
There is also a final production picture of Malcibur and his cohorts
"We have been working on the Lands of Ruin Command Console app for the last 3 years. The current User Interface is a result of multiple iterations often starting from the scratch."
Backed this at the XL lvl, am very excited about this! Models look ace and I'm all ready looking for post apocalyptic terrain. Only prob will be getting my friends to play. I notice your location on the KS was London, have you visited any of the stores/clubs there and played the game?
overtyrant wrote: Backed this at the XL lvl, am very excited about this! Models look ace and I'm all ready looking for post apocalyptic terrain. Only prob will be getting my friends to play. I notice your location on the KS was London, have you visited any of the stores/clubs there and played the game?
Hey overtyrant,
Thank you for your support! Yes, it is always a problem with a new game. We're working hard to make it as easy as possible for any players to demo it to others who don't play LoR yet. We're also working to get community contacts setup with the Ambassador Program (http://landsofruin.com/2016/01/30/Ambassador_program_announced.html) and providing official support for the LoR Ambassadors to help communities and gaming clubs to get started. Community is something we feel very strongly about and we are definitely open to any ideas and thoughts. Please don't hesitate to ping us with any ideas.
And yes, we went around in the southern UK at the end of the last year to demo the game in few gaming clubs and once gaming event. We want to do another UK tour as soon as possible. The game dev side (which I'm part of as well) is based in Munich Germany and our business side (and our CEO) is in UK. The connections in the UK makes it very easy for us to come by and tour gaming clubs in there. We're planning to do another UK club tour in spring. Do you have a specific club you'd like us to come by?
Juhani
Co-creator - Lands of Ruin
www.landsofruin.com
Hi Juhani, I'll take a look at the ambassador program when I get a bit more time (at work ATM). I've already got a few people lined up for Demos at my local club so I should be good there.
2 early bird XLs opened up. I nabbed one of em. Originally I was only going to get the L pledge because the Laconides and Mulcibur sculpts are not my favorites ever, but getting two more for only £7/$10 more is a deal too good to pass up. And maybe the stretches will fund some Outlanders I can get instead.
Proud supporter of
It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb.
-Gabriel Angelos
I noticed on the Lands Of Ruin Facebook page, just as their Kickstarter launched that they were looking for some people to review the first run of Malcibur and his cohorts, so I jumped at the chance to get a set to review for my forum posts and blog and lucky enough I got a set, so here goes...
Like I already mentioned I got Malcibur and his three cohorts, they are "true scale" 28mm sculpted miniatures cast in resin. They are nice casts and sculpts with next to no mold lines, the sculpts are also really faithful to the renders, all the details that are in the renders, are on the minis.
Malcibur:
The details on him are nice, for weapons he has in his right hand an electrified tri-dent and in his left hand is a heavy duty chain with some sort of gun on his wrist. He is dressed in body armour from head-to-foot with extra handcuffs and a big pouch on his chain belt, on his chest there is what looks like the detonator for exploding his cohorts!
The cohorts:
All three of the cohorts are nicely detailed, each one is restrained by either chains, handcuffs or my favourite a straight jacket and strapped to them front and back are a bunch of C4 sticks. All the clothes worn by them are all ragged and torn, also each one has been gagged and has had a detonating receiver fitted to them so they are ready to explode!
It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb.
-Gabriel Angelos
2016/03/08 23:43:29
Subject: Re:Lands Of Ruin Is Now Live And Funded On Kickstarter LAST 48HRS
Your kickstarter is professional grade and I'm really looking forward to what you do here and in the future.
