Seven Dragon Saga - Funding Canceled

[Archangel]

If they also come back with 20$ early bird offer I will back them this time

 

[mercy]

I'm glad they canceled funding this time. Wrote to them about the video and they replied they cannot re-cut it and put it back as KS won't allow modifying existing pitch video. Also coming back with a much stronger Kickstarter is an excellent idea.

They learned a lot and I have high hopes their real next Kickstarter will be a blockbuster success!

 

[wolfing]

- Redo the video. Show more of the game and sooner. IIRC the first several minutes of the video were about some dude talking, gameplay was shown like almost halfway through.
- Add early backer tier(s). Most kickstarters I've seen behave like a rocket leaving Earth, they need a lot of speed early on to succeed. Early bid tiers help achieve this by giving people an incentive to put their money in, instead of just waiting to see if the project will succeed.

 

[DArtagnan]

I can't really afford to back any games at the moment, but this one got close for me - because I'm such a huge fan of the old SSI games.

Maybe next time, I'll check into it and back it.

 

[henriquejr]

Also, I sort of like the fact that, because of Kickstarter, teams without 'big names' can make a game I would like to play. For the small amount of money involved, I 'm willing to take the risk.

Agreed!

Curiously, the absence of an 'Early bird' tier is what made me not back SDS's campaign.

Fully agreed ! If I could, I'd back both DoA and SDS, but money runs short…. so I opted for backing DoA, because they were asking less for "Early Bird" tier and also because they had something more concrete to show us up.

 

[crpgnut]

I could back everything I guess, but I try to pick those projects where I feel the passion of the team doing it and I reward those who have put in a lot of groundwork before kickstarting. These guys thought saying Gold Box would get all the girls to drop their drawers and it didn't work TSI doesn't mean one letter better than SSI...

 

[daveyd]

Whether or not they do an early bird tier, I think they need to rethink the pricing for the entry level / digital copy tier. Some of the backers suggested that $25 was too high for Kickstarter early on in the comments. TSI didn't really seem to understand what we were saying; rather they acted a bit offended as if we implied that their game wouldn't be *worth* $25, and so attempted to assure us that the game would have a good deal of content. But the problem is that when you're asking people to put up money for a game a year or two before it is released, many people are going to expect a really sizable discount to minimize the risk. And looking at all of the most successful Kickstarter CRPGs, most had entry points of $15 or $20.

 

[rjshae]

If there's one thing they need, I'd say it's a good writer. (No offense intended, of course.)

 

[Ripper]

If there's one thing they need, I'd say it's a good writer. (No offense intended, of course.)

I think that's a fair point. When the person writing the updates doesn't have a mastery of grammar and syntax, it doesn't help to create the impression that these are pros who know what they're doing.

 

[Void000]

Bad PR move, looks like they bit off more than they can chew. They are going to lose a lot of backers if they pull this stunt again. Bummer, as I was looking forward to get this game!

May be a good move, since I'm looking forward to Dungeons of Aledorn more. A staggered release is always good.

 

[Zloth]

Well that's a surprise to me - and good news, really. I just backed Looking Glass Reborn and the next Shadowrun so I wasn't real eager to back anything else. I'll probably be more interested in backing next year. (And please abbreviate it as 7DS instead of SDS when you do!)

I should know: I'm really good at marketing badly.

Oh come now, everybody knows about your game! Well... everybody that IS somebody.

 

[Dajjer]

Based on the read, I'm not so sure these guys get Kickstarter at all. And I find that odd because we are talking about a platform that has been around a few years and the development teams seemed to be made up of industry veterans.

and to open with this statement:
come to the conclusion that we can’t create the level of RPG today that we know we’ll be able to create tomorrow.

Sound like BS to me. Why couldn't they just come right out and say they designed a poor campaign and will be back after they polish their presentation. And this time will give them a chance to showcase more in-game material.

 

[bjon045]

Yep, come back with a 15-20 entry tier. Half the target and have a decent amount of content i.e. more screenshots, videos. Re-target the game to be slightly less oriental. Should make 500k.

 

[Lemonhead]

I'll back it again. I was put off by the video because it felt amateurish and a bit lackluster but I wanted to give them a chance. So if they come back with a better presentation and more content I'm sure more people will take the plunge and hit that pledge button.

 

[rjshae]

They should also just drop the physical rewards, like S:HK did.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm surprised the funding didn't skyrocket just due to the SSI and Goldbox connections! Seems like a modern game in that vein would be highly, highly sought after by folks like us who love vintage RPGs.

 

[Couchpotato]

I'm surprised the funding didn't skyrocket just due to the SSI and Goldbox connections! Seems like a modern game in that vein would be highly, highly sought after by folks like us who love vintage RPGs.

Well I have seen other well known RPG developers fail to get funded on kickstsrter Fluent so this doesn't surprise me. I still remember Guido Henkel's Deathfire.

Link - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/g3studios/deathfire-ruins-of-nethermore?ref=live

He struggled to reach $400,000, and barely made $204,344.

 

[Deleted User]

Don't get me started on Deathfire! For the guy who helped create the Realms of Arkania series, not getting his new game funded was a true Kickstarter tragedy.

 

[Scrav]

I'm surprised the funding didn't skyrocket just due to the SSI and Goldbox connections! Seems like a modern game in that vein would be highly, highly sought after by folks like us who love vintage RPGs.

I don't whether Goldbox or SSI is all that relevant these days outside of nostalgic value. While I loved those games back in the time - it was 20 to 30 years ago - a completely different climate for pc games.

 

[Ripper]

I don't whether Goldbox or SSI is all that relevant these days outside of nostalgic value. While I loved those games back in the time - it was 20 to 30 years ago - a completely different climate for pc games.

Yes, they may well have had the backing of most of the audience that really cares about Goldbox games anymore. After that, they rely on making a compelling pitch to a new audience.

One problem, IMO, and one which applies to other projects struggling at the moment, is that they appear just too generic. They may have talented and passionate people on board, but when you browse through Kickstarter games, it's a sea of generic fantasy imagery - "Dragons This" and "Dungeons that". They need to put some more thought in to how to stand out from that crowd. They need a better hook for the general audience.