Neofeud

[SilverSpook]

Thanks for your kind feedback and continued support, AnasAbdin!  I shall do my best to stay on the ball and keep updates coming.

[Sslaxx]

Thanks for your kind feedback and continued support, AnasAbdin!  I shall do my best to stay on the ball and keep updates coming.

Is this going to be a commercial game?

Too bad Wadjet Eye isn't doing external publishing right now, considering some of their other stuff recently this'd make a good addition to their repertoire.

[SilverSpook]

Is this going to be a commercial game?

Too bad Wadjet Eye isn't doing external publishing right now, considering some of their other stuff recently this'd make a good addition to their repertoire.

I do intend to eventually make Neofeud a commercial title.  Having Neofeud published / finalized by Wadjet Eye is a best-case-scenario for me.  I understand Dave Gilbert and friends are busy people and want a nearly-completed game, though.  So I'll cross my fingers and keep working for now. 

[Fitz]

Oh, that trailer resonates with me on so many levels. I dabble in dystopian sci-fi myself, and that kind of disgruntled underdog type of hero, living in a world of technological advancements that either change nothing or change everything for the worse (the cig was a brilliant touch!), is exactly my kind of thing. I read the short story, too. I liked the stylized language, incorporating the tech terms in very inventive ways (I had to laugh at the "dongle"). And by the way, are you familiar with Afrofutirism? My only encounter with the aesthetic was the music of Janelle Monae, and it touches upon issues of white supremacism and slavery in the guise of flesh vs. machine, too.

[SilverSpook]

Thanks for the supportive feedback, Fitz!

I am not personally familiar with Afrofuturism, although Neil Blomkampf is on my shortlist of directors.  Not sure if that counts as Afrofuturism but he is South African as I understand.  Also, the Proto-J short story set in the Neofeud world was inspired at least in part by Die Antwoord, the South African rap-rave group who also starred in Blomkampf's Chappie.

I do love me some dystopian sci-fi, and biting satire

[Fitz]

Oh, I'm familiar both with Blomkamp's movies and Die Antwoord (of whom my girlfriend happens to be a fan). I also highly recommend "Zoo City", by Lauren Beukes (also a native of the RSA) -- a dark urban fantasy novel. There was a pretty awesome soundtrack for the book available for listening online, but it looks like the publisher took it down (probably when they noticed it being played on loop by me )

[SilverSpook]

I've read portions of Beukes' Moxieland but have not gotten around to Zoo City.  She has rave reviews from the cyberpunk godfather, William Gibson, so I guess I'll need to get around to reading that too at some point.

[SilverSpook]

Working on le protagonist extraordinaire's forward march.

[SilverSpook]

Just a little update on Neofeud for everyone:

Neofeud development continues to continue. At the moment we have about 25 backgrounds completed, 40 or so character animations, and at least a thousand lines of dialog.

Here is a variety pack of vehicles from our 2030 flying car fleet!



I have been approached by a few social media marketing companies offering to handle hyping / buzzing Neofeud up, guarantying a thousand new followers per month and such. Here's an open question to any fans listening: do any of you have experience with such campaigns? Would you recommend a company such as Silver Spook games and specifically our Neofeud project bring such a marketing company into the relatively shoe-string-budgety fold at this point?

One other thing: I am considering starting a Kickstarter, or another method of creating sustainable funding for the project, so that I can continue to live inside of the $1400 studio w/ no utilities that gentrifying megatropolises like Honolulu, SF, and New York continue to prove. (We're based in the former.) So please, Kickstarter, Patreon, funding advice is super welcome! I really want to take this project to completion, if at all possible.

ALSO! I've just recently started my own Youtube Channel with "Let's Play!" vids, so please like, comment, subscribe, etc.!

[embed=960,720]http://youtu.be/1lErjsZ-QI0[/embed]

[Problem]

I have been approached by a few social media marketing companies offering to handle hyping / buzzing Neofeud up, guarantying a thousand new followers per month and such. Here's an open question to any fans listening: do any of you have experience with such campaigns? Would you recommend a company such as Silver Spook games and specifically our Neofeud project bring such a marketing company into the relatively shoe-string-budgety fold at this point?

Such campaigns can be really helpful, but not during an early stage of development. You want the hype when you need it the most, and this is when you run a Kickstarter or try to get your game through Steam Greenlight. This is when marketing companies can really help. If you run a marketing campaign now, most of the target audience will have forgotten about it by the time you run a Kickstarter, start a Greenlight campaign or simply release the game. It's really important to get the timing right.

One other thing: I am considering starting a Kickstarter, or another method of creating sustainable funding for the project, so that I can continue to live inside of the $1400 studio w/ no utilities that gentrifying megatropolises like Honolulu, SF, and New York continue to prove. (We're based in the former.) So please, Kickstarter, Patreon, funding advice is super welcome! I really want to take this project to completion, if at all possible.

Kickstarter campaigns for adventure games aren't as easy as they were a couple of years ago. There were quite a few excellent looking campaigns that didn't reach their goals this year. However, Kickstarter is still the most promising crowdfunding method for indie games, but it's a lot of work. If you don't have a large fanbase, you'll probably need a good marketing campaign to spread the word. For the same reason I don't think a Patreon will get you any money, unless you have a large and faithful fanbase. If you are unknown, a Patreon won't help.

[Dave Gilbert]

Those social media companies are useless. Most of the 1000x followers they give you are either A - fake bot accounts or B - other accounts that signed up with that company (they will ask you to follow a certain number of client accounts in return). The only benefit it gives you is that large follower count, which make you LOOK more popular but that's it. It doesn't solve the problem of getting interested users to engage with you since the followers you get aren't actually interested in your game. Ignore these guys like the plague.

You don't need a marketing company to get on Greenlight. Valve is handing out Greenlight approvals like candy. Just put your game on Greenlight and wait a few months. It will get there.

Regarding Kickstarter... it's not the magical money magnet it once was. The honeymoon is definitely over, and that goes double so for point-and-click adventures. The sad reality is that a lot of the "big" kickstarted adventure games were big disappointments, and the press isn't as eager to cover them like they used to. So you'd need to push your campaign yourself, and that's a full time job in itself. Which is why I don't do it.

Anyway, your game looks fun. Good luck with it!

-Dave

[SilverSpook]

@Problem: Thanks for your two cents on the topic of SM marketing* and Kickstarter.  I have a friend of a friend who recently successfully ran a Kickstarter and gave me a 5-point seminar on how to do it, but it was not an adventure game, so that could be a problem.

@Dave Gilbert: Thanks also for your advice.  Means a whole lot coming from THE Wadjet Eye.  Anyway, I was getting a seriously creepy vibe from this one particular marketing company.  Like, at first the guy seemed like a genuinely interested fan with a startup marketing company, but in the second email they used long strings of superlatives ending with multiple exclamation points ("You absolutely must get your fantastic game out there with our time-tested, cost-effective, H2H smarketing...").  Just sounded too much like a Ponzi scheme.

Thanks also for the positive nod to Neofeud!   I have played and loved pretty much every Wadjet Eye title I can get my hands on and they are major inspirations.

(*SM Marketing - Social Media, but sometimes it feels like masochism to me!) 

[selmiak]

What Dave said. But as an unknown dev having quite some followers on facebook, even if they are bots might make some people finding out about neofeud think that it must be a good and popular thing if so many people like it and share it even more. Could happen, doesn't have to happen, hell, if you could plan that, the company approaching you would not be approaching you, you'd approach them. You can buy followers for any kind of social media shizzle on fiver, these are probaly the same empty bot accounts that are not interested in the game at all but make you look popular as a starter, only a lot cheaper.

[Problem]

Dave is absolutely right about followers. Fake followers won't buy your game, and people who follow you because you look popular (because of fake followers) also won't buy you game. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't care about marketing and PR though. This is important, and it can be a big relief if you have some people who do this for you, because it's an unbelievable amount of work. But this is more or less what publishers are for, so you might want to look for a publisher if you are really convinced of the quality of your game.

[Jack]

Interesting looking game.

Your artist is Marty from SQ:VSB, right?

[Blondbraid]

This game looks absolutely fascinating and I love the Bladerunner vibes. The art style is pretty
interesting too, the smeared paint and blurred lines seem to fit the theme perfect.

[SilverSpook]

@JackLucy: Thanks!  I do pretty much all the in-game art.  I have a professional artist friend who is helping with concept art and brainstorming, but he's a busy guy and I can't afford to pay him his market rate right now, which is like multiple month's worth of my salary.  SQ:VSB looks pretty awesome, though, I'll have to try it!

@Blongbraid: Thanks, I'm glad it works for you!  There are definitely a lot of Bladerunner chromosomes in Neofeud's DNA.  I have a hard time actually not going full-Bladerunner, which is why I set the game at least partially not at night, and took the protagonist's trench coat off (to much sobbing and gnashing of teeth).  But the gritty sci-fi spirit is there.

[SilverSpook]

Housing WIP.

[SilverSpook]

(Click for full size)

Sunshine Apartments!

A mixed-species, mixed-income, mixed-use community!

A Project of the Sybil Clinton-Bush Foundation.  Commited to the idea that all people, machines, and hybrids deserve the opportunity to live full, meaningful lives!

[AnasAbdin]

Oh man I love this background!