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What can I do with $30k? (see funding and budget below)
Voxel Quest (temporary name) is an open-ended world simulator. It is still early in development and I am making many design choices based on your input. Although I initially stressed it being a roguelike, there are other options as well. I am planning on supporting 3 modes of play so far, all of which are rather interrelated:
For the most up to date information on design choices, it is advised that you visit the forums. Also, full source is coming to Github soon.
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To say that what I am producing is like a given game would not really do it justice, but I think you might get additional insight from knowing the games that inspired me. The games pictured above are just a few of the ones I have enjoyed, in addition to many CCGs and board games (note: these are just that - games I have enjoyed, not necessarily games that VQ is based on). My favorite RPGs were probably Fallout 1 / 2 and Ultima 6 / 7. VQ’s design is inspired by many principles found in various games and genres. A few of these principles include:
Easy to learn, hard to master.
Only one difficulty level, which is very challenging but not unfairly so.
No grinding, no repetition.
Always engage the user mentally (never a "dull" moment).
Avoid boring chores, tasks, and cumbersome interface.
Isolate learning into small chunks - users should learn as they play (without annoying / forced tutorials).
Simple, but infinitely extensible mechanics in the spirit of most collectible card games.
Risk vs. reward is always heavily emphasized.
The majority of the budget will be allocated to salaries. If the campaign is successful enough, a small portion of the money will be used to purchase any necessary hardware and/or software. The funding will NOT be wasted on shipping t-shirts, posters, and other swag - in fact there are no physical rewards in this campaign.
The funding goal I have set is small but it will get the game to public alpha. I have other choices for funding as well, but Kickstarter is my first choice because it cuts out the middlemen (for the most part) and allows me to retain equity and control of my company. Retaining control is important because it ensures that I can make the best choices for the community. My fallback is to get the game as far as possible and then continue funding it with preorders and early access (via Steam or similar stores), if needed. I have already been Greenlit so this is potentially viable. My next choice is to go back to my initial investor (who funded the first year of development) and ask for more money, but he is not wealthy and this would not be an ideal scenario for either of us. My last choice, which is by no means ideal, is to get funding from another investor. While my initial investor has given me full control of the game, company, and business model, the same cannot necessarily be said for future investors (many of whom might want to cash out as soon as possible).
Ideally I can raise considerably more than the minimum amount (but I will be thankful for whatever I get!) - this will allow me to quickly ramp up my team (and hence my development speed and/or product quality). I am primarily looking to hire some additional artists and programmers, given sufficient funding. Music and sound will be done on a per-song or per-sound effect contractual basis. Hiring competent people is expensive (and equity cannot feed your other team members).
Below is an anticipated schedule for pricing. Note that the game will not go on sale (i.e. have reduced pricing) for a long time, to be fair to early backers. So, if you want a reduced price on the game, your best bet is to back this project now. I am providing this schedule so that you don't have to guess how long you should wait to buy the game. This schedule is subject to change, but I will try my best to stick to it.
As mentioned, there are no physical rewards. Organizing, creating or buying, and shipping out physical rewards is a time consuming process. I don't want anyone to miss out on anything, so I have tried my best to create a fair campaign that is easily affordable for anyone, while giving some special recognition to those who do put in a bit more money.
IMPORTANT NOTES ON THE REWARDS:
The reward dates on the list to the left designate the date which the game and soundtrack are targeted to "go gold" (i.e. ready to ship for review). The soundtrack will be delivered when it is complete, which could take years. The game keys will be delivered when it hits Alpha, which is currently anticipated at around January 2015 but could be later. Event tickets/passes may be issued early but the events will occur on their designated dates. In shorter words, everything will ship as soon as possible, but not prematurely. I reserve the right to give out a few additional limited rewards at my discretion (probably no more than 10-20 overall). These rewards will mostly go to those who backed my original game, Genesis, or were very active within its community. Also note that the highest tier grants you any reward, even if sold out already (really, if anybody does purchase that reward tier, I think that we should be thankful for them pouring funding into the project, rather than scornful that additional rewards were added).
Most reward tiers involve one or more of the following rewards:
There are no stretch goals. I have one product in my head, and my goal is to get it to you any way I can. That said, the more money I raise the more quickly I can ramp up in terms of hiring additional employees. Additional money will allow more polish for the game including more advanced effects and animations, more models, monsters, more items, more interactivity, more music, more platform support, and so forth, but will not effect the overall design of the game.
There are currently two songs for Voxel Quest, both of which I composed in Renoise, a tracker in the style of traditional MOD/IT tracker. The music is inspired by other games that used tracker-based music, like Star Control and Dune. The music style might seem anachronistic, but will make sense in the context of the plot, which I am not divulging yet (!). I personally don't have much time to compose, nor am I good at it, and I am still looking for an awesome composer to make the game shine (since March 2014, there have been 50+ submissions to make music for the game, but I will continue to evaluate every offer that comes my way).
Song 1:
Song 2:
(All engines below were built from scratch)
An old voxel engine:
A small 4-player racing game made for the Ouya:
Genesis (2004-2006):
Inventory icons were purchased/licensed from 7Soul on gamedevmarket.net:
http://www.gamedevmarket.net/asset/16x16-icons-for-rpg-pack-1-915/
Logo fonts are based on work from Daniel Guldkran's Free Fonts Online site:
http://www.algonet.se/~guld1/freefont.htm
Nature sounds are under the CC BY 3.0 License from:
http://archive.org/details/Sounds_of_Nature_Collection
All other sounds and instruments were from:
http://tracker.modarchive.org/
If Hollywood is to be believed, the gladiators had this concept of a "glorious death" - there was no better way to die than in a fight where the odds were very much against you. In the same way, if I am to fail, I would prefer to fail in pursuit of a worthy challenge.
The hard truth is that VQ is an ambitious project, and admittedly even I find myself doubting it sometimes. I believe in what I am working on (to the point where I have sacrificed the better part of my life on it), but I am not entirely naive and I know from experience that anything can fail. That said, failure is not black or white. I am already tremendously proud of what I have accomplished, and I think that the product will only get better with time. The end result might not be everything that I dream it to be, but I hope that I can at least make something that approaches my vision.
One thing you will NOT be disappointed in is my commitment to this project and my allocation of its budget. This project really means a lot to me - if all I cared about was money I would have already sold out. Investors have already offered me more money than I could probably raise in this campaign.
The main risks in this campaign mostly revolve around time (and if I rule out external investors, money as well). How fast can I deliver everything that I want to? How much time from my personal life (and how much of my health) can I sacrifice to make this project? How frugal can I keep the budget without sacrificing my sanity?
I have put a lot of work and money into this project, all in good faith that I am making something which you want to play. I hope that what I have at this point is enough to inspire at least a little bit of confidence in what I am capable of producing. Whether or not you decide to back this project, thank you for taking the time to read about it. Even if you can't contribute money, spreading word of this project helps me a lot.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterSorry, this is just my personality. More than one person nicknamed me "Eeyore" (the depressed donkey from "Winnie the Pooh." Even when I'm really excited about something (as I am with VQ), my personality does not at all reflect it. I do use a lot of smiley emoticons though when typing, just so people can tell I'm not being sarcastic or bitter. :) :) :)
Way too much to address here, please check the updates section of this KS campaign (they are all public).
Also Check the Steam Greenlight page here, although I've also copied and pasted the feature list to the top of here now:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/…
Additionally, check the design document here (old, needs updating):
- (30 days)
