Kickstarter thread

Thank You

A month ago, we were all pretty nervous. After almost two years of struggle, we faced a do-or-die situation. There was no other chance to get financing for our game than doing a crowd-funding campaign. No publisher was willing to risk their money on a weird, historical game for a “niche” audience. No investor was going to step in without proof that their investment was going to pay off.

It wasn’t all hopeless; we had research that proved that the ideas of our game were resonating with gamers. But other voices were skeptical – “Kickstarter’s popularity is waning.” “The Olympics will sap our coverage.” “We’re not true indies – Kickstarter isn’t for people like us…”

I was very nervous. I had done my homework. I had studied all the unsuccessful campaigns that asked for more than US$500,000, and I knew a lot about the campaigns for projects similar to ours that managed to raise way over one million dollars. Those that didn’t had done something wrong, or their games just weren’t good enough. But was our game good enough?

And what about the press? Were they going to like it? Hadn’t they seen things much better behind closed doors? Some unannounced, next-gen, big-budget RPG we could never compete with? Were they going to be interested in a weird game from a little studio from some small country far, far away?

Then there were our fellow citizens in the Czech Republic – the most skeptical and sarcastic nation on the planet: “You are crazy! Who is going to be interested in history! In OUR history! Nobody cares about us!”

Hell, we even had problems finding a PR agency to represent us. We tried to hire several two months before the campaign, but everyone basically ignored us. Everyone told us that they don’t do Kickstarters – that press doesn’t cover Kickstarter projects anymore. Luckily, we met Corey Wade from US agency Sandbox Strategies, who believed in the project and quickly brought in Claudia Kuehl and Patrick Schroder from DELASOCIAL to focus on Germany. They got us in front of the press and thankfully the journalists responded positively and posted thoughtful previews of the game early in the Kickstarter campaign.

It took us a whole weekend to shoot the Kickstarter video with me telling the story. It was a last minute recording, and we did it in English knowing that, if my accent was too thick, it could have a terrible impact. I’m not a native speaker - how could our video compete with their awesome work?

That’s what was in our minds when we pressed that green PUBLISH button on our Kickstarter page one month ago…

The day we launched our campaign, I woke up in the morning to find we were the lead article on the front page of GameSpot, with our artwork all over the screen. Wow. And there was so much more to come. The response from gamers was even better. Better than we could ever wish for. It became clear that there are quite a few people out there who have similar tastes in games to our own.

The main “reason” we were rejected by all the publishers turned out to be totally false. Not only do people not need fantasy or magic or dragons to enjoy a game, they desperately want games without them! Along the way, we were fortunate to receive support and promotion for the game from such personas as Chris Roberts, Brian Fargo, Sven Vincke, and others. It’s really been one helluva ride.

We have raised almost 400% of our original goal. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is among the 30 most-funded Kickstarter projects of all time and in the top 15 of videogame projects. We have 35 thousand backers, with an average pledge of US$52. Our YouTube channel has more than a million views.

Simply said: You are awesome! Thank You!

So, what’s next? Now we have to make the game! We feel a lot of responsibility and obligation to deliver on our vision after so many people put so much of their trust into our project. It’s going to be hard to satisfy all those expectations, but we will do all we can not to disappoint you.

I will finally have time to sit down with the designers and start writing the quests and storyline. Next month, we will be joined by twelve new colleagues (some of them quite experienced senior developers from the recently disbanded 2K Czech studio in Prague). In just a few months, we plan to grow to more than 50 people, so we can make the big game we first dreamed of.

Of course, we will continue to openly blog about development, as we have in the past. Since we don’t need to hide anything anymore, it should be even more interesting. You can follow our blog here.

And if you want to stay informed about what is going on, please follow our: Facebook page, Twitter and YouTube channel.

We will also continue to raise money on our own webpage, where you will be able to get most of the same, terrific rewards and early access to the game, if for whatever reason you didn’t or couldn’t pledge in the past month. Our shop will accept PayPal and Amazon Payments, as many of you asked. We will continue to add new stretch goals as we can.

As promised, we will release an Alpha version in about six months to all those who pledged Baron-level support and higher, and we’ll be carefully looking at your feedback on our forums, which are open to all of our backers. By mid-2015, we should release the Beta, followed by the final version of Act I.

So, on behalf of the whole team, thank you again for your generous support and enthusiasm. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we are going to have a little celebration!

Cheers!

Dan Vávra Creative Director, Warhorse Studios

randomname2005 wrote: »

Another unknown, this time a 3D brawler heartandslash which could be good, but might struggle to make their target.

The day has come when Heart&Slash becomes more than just a Kickstarter video. If you check the main Kickstarter page, you'll see four new links towards the top. Those link to our very first public Alpha!

As a developer, I can't but be nervous about taking this step. On one hand, many of you have showed amazing support for this project, and it's only fair we show you how far we are in its development.

However, it's true that an alpha is a very unfinished piece of software, full of errors and unpolished pieces. Much like reading an early draft of a movie script, playing an alpha and been able to see the game that lies at the end of the way, takes experience and skill.

We are making the Alpha public because it's the fair thing to do. But when you play it, if you want to play it (if you have backed and are not that interested in given feedback, I would recommend waiting for the final game so that the experience is not spoiled, or even for the Beta) remember this is not how the final game will look, play or sound. It's only a draft of the game, with most systems implemented and working, but still not feeling as they should feel. If you notice a floaty animation, a shotgun without punch, a wandering AI that gets stuck sometimes... Believe us, we have noticed those too, and want and will do our best to improve those aspects until we can be happy with our work!

I want also to mention sound specifically, since in a way releasing the alpha as it is now is a disservice to our awesome sound designers, who are working hard at implementing the first layer of sounds into the game. However, we could not merge the two working versions on time, and thus, we decided to release the alpha with really bad placeholder sound. As soon as we get hold of the real sound files, we will be fast in updating this alpha so that you guys can listen to it.

Also, we will be reading all feedback you guys want to provide on the alpha, and will be reading it very carefully, for this alpha also gives us the first chance at seeing what people think of the game and that feedback will be fundamental in helping us improve the game!

With all that said, if you can understand what an alpha is and want to have a first (uneven) taste of Heart&Slash, go to our Kickstarter main page and download it!

I hope you enjoy it,

Juan Raigada

Lead Developer - Heart&Slash

The End Times (of this Kickstarter) Are Upon Us!

Chris, Kelvin, Keir and I cannot believe that there are only 1.5 days left. Its has been an incredible ride, and we'll write more about that tomorrow.

But today's order of business is:

New Stretch Goals!

We've been so fortunate to have your support to make Darkest Dungeon funded this well so far!

Although our most distant stretch goals ($400k+) look to be impossible at this point, we have been putting our heads together around the Red Hook office and having intense discussions about how we can deliver the best game possible to all of you. We've also listened a lot to your comments about the upcoming exciting stretch goals, especially concerning Cinematics (told in the style of our "Terror and Madness" and "House of Ruin" trailers) and Steam Workshop support (to allow mod creation!), for which there is a ton of support all around.

In talking and planning, we explored how both of those key stretch goals actually require different personnel and can be done in parallel. We also talked a lot about how much we, ourselves, want them both in the game. Given how well the campaign has done, we believe that if we hit that $350k Cinematics goal, we can find a way to do BOTH.

So, here are two Stretch Goal changes that we hope you'll be as excited about as we are:

$285k mini-goal: The Ancestor's Items - 6 rare and powerful trinkets dropped from the expedition of your Ancestor in which he uncovered the Darkest Dungeon, to his eventual demise. You can find these powerful and mysterious items while adventuring.
$350k MEGA-GOAL: Steam Workshop support has been reduced from $400k and has been added to the $350k Cinematics goal, creating a monstrous, lumbering MEGAGOAL- ZOMG! Why choose chocolate or peanut butter when you can have both?!

Behold: the MEGAGOAL!
What You Can Do to Help

First of all, just by backing, you have done an amazing amount and we thank you! No further action required, of course!

But if you love that MEGAGOAL as much as we do, then consider spreading the word about Darkest Dungeon in these final hours on your favorite websites, forums, and social networks.

You can remind people that there are several huge benefits to backing:

BACKING BENEFITS

Get rewards that you won't be able to get when the game releases
Become part of ongoing backer polls and see concept art and game ideas throughout development (WANDERER $20 tier and higher)
Even if you just get the basic game (NOMAD $15), you're getting it for a discount over expected retail price.
Your support as backers is not only enabling Darkest Dungeon to get made--it is making the game BETTER. You have a very real effect on this game.
Thank you for all that you do!

Grave Robber Revealed!

Nimble, versatile and self-sufficient, the Grave Robber sparkles with value like a gold ring on the finger of a fresh corpse! She's able to deftly evade incoming hits and make lethal use of her poisoned daggers at range or in close quarters. The Grave Robber's real speciality however, is navigating long-forgotten tunnels silently, disarming traps, seeking out hidden passageways and uncovering ancient caches of valuable treasure!

An open-world psychological FPS set in ghoulish 1940s America, from veterans who worked on Silent Hill, F.E.A.R. and The Witcher.

Death In Candlewood is an open-world psychological FPS heavily influenced by the gothic fiction of Edgar Allan Poe and classic horror films. A love story between the living and the dead, the game plunges its player into the darkest corners of 1940s America.

The game spans a single night in the life of Ray Dune, a doctor whose relationship with reclusive psychiatrist Lester Caravan has reached a deadly crisis point. When his vulnerable adopted son Rizzo mysteriously disappears, Dune is forced to act. Navigating the dark paths of Candlewood Mountains and a terrifying onslaught of inhuman assailants, Dune sets out on a desperate bid to save himself and his son from the bloody machinations of a madman.

Though Death In Candlewood is played mostly from a first person perspective it is not a traditional FPS. The game world is expansive - including over 1,000 navigable buildings in Candlewood and 6km² of surrounding mountain ranges - and you can move around this vast landscape any way you choose. In Death In Candlewood you’ll drive cars and motorbikes, swim through deep waters, use uncommon weapons and face uncommon enemies as you unravel a dark and twisted romance.