(Kickstarter) InDee Toons - Customizable Animated Game Characters

  • #10, by DeeFriday, 11. April 2014, 23:03 10 years ago
    Oh yes, I loved Simon the sorcerer, too. Never really played it to the end, but I was always fascinated by the graphics.

    The last screenshot you posted is awesome, I love the colors and the shading of the bald head guy.

    I don't really care about 3D adventure games either, Simon 3D was horrible, Monkey Island 4 was the greatest disappointment ever.
    But some of the 2.5D games with 3D characters really rock, like The Book of unwritten Tales and A Vampyre Story.

    Unfortunately, Bill Tiller failed with his Kickstarter for the prequel, just like I most likely will with mine wink

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  • #11, by afrlmeFriday, 11. April 2014, 23:24 10 years ago
    I've not played the Book of Unwritten Tales or A Vampyre Story.

    Speaking of disappointments... Broken Sword 5 - Serpents Curse. Disappointment in every which way imaginable. Graphics, animation, lack of locations, lack of characters. My main disappointment in the game was that the character animations featured what I call lazy animations, these being generic interaction animations in which the character seems to reach out to some random spot in the air & then something in the scene disappears or is changed. The first 2 Broken Sword games were well drawn & well animated - individual animations for each interaction, even animated items being put into or taken out of the inventory. There was also random people moving around in the previous games or looking busy in the background that the protagonist couldn't interact with. In Serpents Curse the only characters that were on screen were ones you could interact with & they were pretty much statically positioned. Dull.

    Simon the Sorcerer 1 is well worth playing & finishing for the story, the art, & the music. Also the protagonist was voiced by Chris Barrie aka 'Smeg Head' Rimmer of the hit comedy British TV show Red Dwarf of the late 80's through 90's.

    Still plenty of time left on your Kickstarter campaign but you really need to kick something up a notch to get more people interested. If it fails there's always other crowdfunding platforms you can try or you could even set up some kind of self crowdfunding system on your own website with selfstarter http://selfstarter.us/ or something similar. Indiegogo also have 2 options available for crowdfunding. 1 is same as kicstarter where you need to meet the base target (reduced tax) or 2. keep what you make (higher tax). Some options/ideas for you to consider.

    & again... Good luck with your campaign! wink

    *edit: tweeted your campaign via our official en twitter account. not sure what good it will do mind as not many people know it exists! (our account I mean) razz @VisStudio_En.

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  • #12, by DeeSaturday, 12. April 2014, 13:29 10 years ago
    Well, I never played the Broken Sword series, but the problem you named seems to be a matter of budget.
    I love the approach the creators of "The Book Of Unwritten Tales" took: They had the sequel funded by a publisher and went to kickstarter to ask for money to implement special features and all these things that bring an adventure game to life, and some extra goodies like different equipment for the main characters.
    The success of this shows that people are actually willing to give money for a lovingly made adventure game.

    Of course I have noticed that you tweetet about my kickstarter. Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that.
    I am working on some more material to show next week, and maybe I will put up a freebie for people to play with.
    However I am not sure if this would be enough to turn the tide. There's just too much confusion in the reward levels and I'm afraid I will have to rework the main reward and the costs.
    Still, there is no law against relaunching the campaign with kickstarter with a simplified concept (and if you are missing something that would make the project more attractive, please let me know).

    Thanks again for all the good wishes, nice feedback and for tweeting about InDee Toons.

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  • #13, by afrlmeSaturday, 12. April 2014, 14:38 10 years ago
    Yeah I know it's possible to relaunch the same campaign or a failed campaign again in the future. One of the members on here was successfully funded on his game the second time around.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1878730846/reincarnatio... (failed)
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1878730846/reincarnatio... (success)

    Broken Sword - budget? not really I believe they got funded plenty enough. I Think the problem lies in them not putting their heart & soul into the project like their previous games (earlier years).

    They made over $750k, with a base target of $400k. How much money does one actually need to make an point & click adventure game?

    Then you get Double fine saying that they didn't have enough money for Broken Age, which made no sense to me at all as they raised over $3,000,000 & they only asked for $400k.

    -- * --

    I don't really know what to suggest for you in regards to your campaign or possible next campaign attempt other than to include more varied character styles (body shapes, textures, 3D, vector, graphic novel-esque, more realistic, cartoon etc), more customization options on swapping hair styles, facial hair, eyes, nose, mouth, accessories etc such as jewelry (watches, earrings, piercings & so on) - also look into some form of advertising beforehand, try get an article/advertisiment/review in some online game magazines or something. Tweet about it, resort to using the dreaded facebook, post abut it in various forums & groups, & whatever else you can think of. wink

    * edit: Can't forget about the polls. We don't have a poll system on here yet but there are websites for creating polls I think? You could use them to drum up some interest & see what people are most interested in. A great way for getting some statistics & ideas on what to work on.

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  • #14, by DeeSaturday, 12. April 2014, 19:03 10 years ago
    Yeah, probably the creators of Broken Sword just wanted to milk some more money out of their past success, we know that phenomena from movies and albums, don't we? wink

    But I don't think you can compare that to Double Fine, as I believe they used the money to really improve the game. They could have just spent the 400k on the game and take the rest as a profit, but if you get the chance to make a dream come true, you just need to try to make the best out of it.
    Everyone who has ever worked on a game with all of his heart knows how easily you drown in all the great stuff you want to add.
    I also thought it was ridiculous at a first glance, but I would still back Broken Age if I had to do it again.

    Thanks again for all that great suggestions.
    Varied character styles, different shapes and all that is something I am already working on. Maybe the problem is that I don't have enough material yet to show how diverse the toons will be.
    This originates in the massive concept change I had to do after the first days of the campaign, all the new stuff is just in the process of getting some flesh to the bones.
    I do regularly tweet about the project (maybe still not enough, but I don't want to annoy people every day if I really haven't something new to show), I have a facebook fanpage for it, and I am active in some more forums. I also emailed to about 15 people and websites and kindly asked if they would feature the project - none of them even answered.

    The poll thing is a great idea, I'm going to look into that.
    I highly appreciate all your input, it is very kind of you to share all that.

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  • #15, by afrlmeSaturday, 12. April 2014, 20:25 10 years ago
    I've only played about an hour or so of Broken Age, but to be honest I wasn't really that impressed by it. Sure the artwork & storyline was kind of strange & quirky, but the game didn't seem to drag me into it. I got bored pretty quickly... I'm not sure what exactly they did for it that required that amount of money. I guess it doesn't matter all that much really.

    No problem. I'm often here to help. But I also have the tendency to be quite direct & blunt when it comes to my opinions & thoughts on certain things. A hazard of being a Briton, I guess! razz

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  • #16, by DeeSunday, 13. April 2014, 10:51 10 years ago
    Honestly, I didn't have the time to play Broken Age for more than half an hour, too. smile

    I appreciate your being direct and blunt, this is what actually helps to improve things.

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