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On October 17 2012 02:14 gruff wrote:
How much is really 3 and a half million compared to other new titles? I think I've seen games that's reportedly cost from $20m and upwards (bigger name titles). Can anyone give any examples of current games with roughly similar development costs? Or will Obsidian get more funding from other sources in addition to kickstarter?
Baldurs gate, Fallout 1-2, Arcanum and all those other games that this was inspired by had development costs very similar to this. 2-5 million was pretty standard for a game like this back then. Wages in the industry are a bit higher now but tools and hardware are a lot more developed. You don't have to think as much about performance or memory when you make a game like this today. Overall I think the development costs will be similar to those older games for the same amount of content. This game basically markets itself too, so they wont have to spend much money on that.
I think we can expect an RPG with content size and quality similar to BG2 but with higher quality graphics.
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Holy shit. 3'600'000?? People have really a lot of faith in Project Eternity.
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It's a pretty good gamble to pledge $25 for the digital download to me. It might be absolutely terrible, which would suck. Of course Obsidian would pretty much be done if that happened as the public would never trust them again and they wouldn't have publishers to blame. Certainly they would never get another kickstarter project funded. But if it lives up to any of the baldur's gate/ice wind dale/planescape games it will be a steal and risking $25 isn't that much to lose if it bombs. Plus Obsidian stands to gain substantially more sales from gamers who just won't back kickstarters for any number of reasons, others who don't hear about it, or people who want to read some reviews before they pay. If the game is as good as we hope it will be then they could really become a power developer and we could see alot more RPG's of this style from them in the future. $25 was worth the gamble for me to find out if they can deliver not just this game, but more games like Baldur's Gate in the future.
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On October 17 2012 02:43 DrainX wrote:
Baldurs gate, Fallout 1-2, Arcanum and all those other games that this was inspired by had development costs very similar to this. 2-5 million was pretty standard for a game like this back then. Wages in the industry are a bit higher now but tools and hardware are a lot more developed. You don't have to think as much about performance or memory when you make a game like this today. Overall I think the development costs will be similar to those older games for the same amount of content. This game basically markets itself too, so they wont have to spend much money on that.
I think we can expect an RPG with content size and quality similar to BG2 but with higher quality graphics.
The only issue with the kickstarter in my mind is that if you do no marketing, you run the risk of not selling many more copies than the ones given out for the kickstarter.
Remember in order for this stuff to actually make the company money, they need to actually sell copies after it comes out. Giving away copies to fund development is great and all, but you still need to move copies to make money. So hopefully they do some marketing. Even though I doubt this will be much of a problem for this particular title, but for kickstarters in general I think it applies.
Though it is nice that the company won't have to repay loans and the like since the backers have all been "paid" up front. Its a great business model really.
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On October 17 2012 03:40 Rayeth wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2012 02:43 DrainX wrote:
Baldurs gate, Fallout 1-2, Arcanum and all those other games that this was inspired by had development costs very similar to this. 2-5 million was pretty standard for a game like this back then. Wages in the industry are a bit higher now but tools and hardware are a lot more developed. You don't have to think as much about performance or memory when you make a game like this today. Overall I think the development costs will be similar to those older games for the same amount of content. This game basically markets itself too, so they wont have to spend much money on that.
I think we can expect an RPG with content size and quality similar to BG2 but with higher quality graphics. The only issue with the kickstarter in my mind is that if you do no marketing, you run the risk of not selling many more copies than the ones given out for the kickstarter. Remember in order for this stuff to actually make the company money, they need to actually sell copies after it comes out. Giving away copies to fund development is great and all, but you still need to move copies to make money. So hopefully they do some marketing. Even though I doubt this will be much of a problem for this particular title, but for kickstarters in general I think it applies. Though it is nice that the company won't have to repay loans and the like since the backers have all been "paid" up front. Its a great business model really.
On the postive side for people who contributed, their desire to create more sales means they will be less likely to just mail it in because the game has already "made 3.6 million". Plus the digital copies they "gave out" started at $20-$25 which I suspect is close to what they were getting from published games after the publisher's cut was taken out.
They will get some marketing from reviews on all the popular gaming websites when the game goes live, and it is going to be on Steam and GoG.com at release making it easy to find. Additonal marketing could help, but word of mouth can do wonders too. If the game lives up to it's predecessors, I suspect the sales will be exceptional and we will see more RPG games like this from them in the future.
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On October 17 2012 03:40 Rayeth wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2012 02:43 DrainX wrote:
Baldurs gate, Fallout 1-2, Arcanum and all those other games that this was inspired by had development costs very similar to this. 2-5 million was pretty standard for a game like this back then. Wages in the industry are a bit higher now but tools and hardware are a lot more developed. You don't have to think as much about performance or memory when you make a game like this today. Overall I think the development costs will be similar to those older games for the same amount of content. This game basically markets itself too, so they wont have to spend much money on that.
I think we can expect an RPG with content size and quality similar to BG2 but with higher quality graphics. The only issue with the kickstarter in my mind is that if you do no marketing, you run the risk of not selling many more copies than the ones given out for the kickstarter. Remember in order for this stuff to actually make the company money, they need to actually sell copies after it comes out. Giving away copies to fund development is great and all, but you still need to move copies to make money. So hopefully they do some marketing. Even though I doubt this will be much of a problem for this particular title, but for kickstarters in general I think it applies. Though it is nice that the company won't have to repay loans and the like since the backers have all been "paid" up front. Its a great business model really.
I'm pretty sure people will preorder and buy this game once it is released. Lots of people probably don't know about it yet or don't want to donate ahead of time. The main audience for this game is old gamers who are nostalgic about RPGs from the 90's. It is much easier to reach an audience like the through word of mouth than through some large add campaign. I'm guessing that they will be able to fund an expansion and later on a sequel from the sales at launch. If it doesn't bomb completely.
And even if they don't sell a single copy of the game after release, they will still be breaking even. They will have had their wages payed for the 1,5 years. It wouldn't be any different from what would have happened if a publisher did the funding and took all the profit in the end. The difference now is that they do have a chance to gain some money, and all the money the do gain at launch goes directly to them. They also own the IP which means that they can decide when and how they are going to make a sequel.
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I just backed it...feels great and this project is as good as it gets in terms of a game with a really experienced team to create it.
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Please delete, reposted on accident  .
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Pretty generic final stretch goal lol. Enhance the whole game. All the music being done with live instruments would be very cool though.
Hmm they just removed that update. Wonder if they thought it was too generic and are going to be more specific when they put it back up.
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$3,726,701 at the moment on kickstarter and another $150,000 on paypal, they are streaming the final few hours from their office www.twitch.tv/obsidian, though i dont know how exciting it is to watch them read questions from watchers.
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On October 17 2012 05:19 JJH777 wrote:
Pretty generic final stretch goal lol. Enhance the whole game. All the music being done with live instruments would be very cool though.
Hmm they just removed that update. Wonder if they thought it was too generic and are going to be more specific when they put it back up.
They probably thought it would be hard to meet all the goals and are stumped on good ones to put up now  .
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more polish is always a good thing
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My sympathy levels for this are rising by the minute.
Thanks to the guy who directed me to their website earlier to find the paypal donation option.
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$3,792,206 (Kickstarter)
+
$131,252 (paypal)
=
$3,923,458
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OK! After much team deliberation we have one final ultimate stretch goal. At $4.0m we will be enhancing the whole game. We will use live instrumentation for the soundtrack, add developer in-game commentary, and use every dollar between $3.5m and $4m to enhance the game. Also at $4.0m Chris Avellone will be forced to play Arcanum.
LOL.
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On October 17 2012 07:28 CrimsonLotus wrote:Show nested quote +OK! After much team deliberation we have one final ultimate stretch goal. At $4.0m we will be enhancing the whole game. We will use live instrumentation for the soundtrack, add developer in-game commentary, and use every dollar between $3.5m and $4m to enhance the game. Also at $4.0m Chris Avellone will be forced to play Arcanum. LOL.
I'm going to watch that.
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Watching the livestream convinced me to back up the project.
Those guys know what's up.
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EPT
