Thimbleweed Park, a new old point and click by Ron Gilbert

Started by Trapezoid, Tue 18/11/2014 19:45:44

Previous topic - Next topic

miguel

Ahhhh, the hat fit on somebody's head. And what a noble head it is. If this wasn't the internet I'd be really emotional now.
There's only one reason Gilbert asks for 350,000 instead of 15: because he can.
Working on a RON game!!!!!

[delete}

As both avid fan and fair-minded customer, I'd like to see more public attention and commercialising for AGS games.

cat

Quote from: Amy on Fri 21/11/2014 01:45:43
As both avid fan and fair-minded customer, I'd like to see more public attention and commercialising for AGS games.

To be honest, I'd like to see more public attention for non-commercial AGS games. It seems that games get much more coverage and attention if they have a price tag slapped on them. In other game forums freeware games are given a patronizing smile and called "Fan-adventures", even if they are in no way related to any existing franchise.

m0ds

Ha :) Live to see the day? The issue there is that, as others have mentioned, there is no real "industry" there. Industry generates money, which is what the world apparently rotates on, so if it doesn't involve that it doesn't get so noticed. When the freeware community can offer something other than just free games or harness something truly industrial (in a world where industry = money) it would stand a bigger chance. As it is for now, it's just a nice thing.

Mandle

I might be being Captain Obvious here but I noticed that if you pledge at least $20 then you have already bought the game...

I guess $20 is a bit over the asking price for an adventure game these days but at the same time you are buying it from guys who have built up their names and reputations from the very start of the genre. If you can't raise the price $5-$10 per head (the average price of a deluxe coffee purchase from Starbucks) after a few decades of experience in the field then...

So anyways, this means that a LOT of their post-production sales income has already been absorbed into their pre-production kickstarter fund. Which means they are probably just testing the waters to see how many sales they can expect before doing something as insane as exiting real-life employment for 2 years to work full-time on this project (yeah, I know they probably have royalties from past publications, and will most likely still be freelancing for companies on the side as consultants, but that's like high-wire performers using a safety net really)

Colour me all naive if you wish, but I actually believed their sales pitch about this being their dream to time-transport a forgotten Lucasarts adventure game from the late 80's/early 90's into a forgotten drawer in your dusty old desk...

And I wish them all the luck in the world!

* Mandle is -$20

Snarky

Quote from: Mods on Sun 23/11/2014 05:04:20
Ha :) Live to see the day? The issue there is that, as others have mentioned, there is no real "industry" there. Industry generates money, which is what the world apparently rotates on, so if it doesn't involve that it doesn't get so noticed. When the freeware community can offer something other than just free games or harness something truly industrial (in a world where industry = money) it would stand a bigger chance. As it is for now, it's just a nice thing.

I would almost turn that logic on its head: Anything that gets a lot of attention becomes an industry, because it offers an opportunity to make money, which most practitioners will choose to take (for various practical reasons, among them the fact that it allows them to devote themselves to the work full-time).

I mean, you see that even with AGS: almost every creator who's achieved significant success with freeware titles has eventually gone on to work on a commercial game.

Creamy

$343,603 already :confused:
 

[delete}

Respected names, LucasFilm Games and nostalgia will make the pitch quite successful.
With a modern twist, this could turn out quite good.

m0ds

Well i don't disagree Snarky. An industry without any spearheads perhaps. Any real industry leaders. In the freeware industry? Well I don't know each to their own, as adventure gamers we probably know more than others. Yahtzee? Who would you name? I'm not saying Ron G should. I'm just saying no-one like him really does.

TheBitPriest

#49
Quote from: Mods on Thu 20/11/2014 17:56:46
Very true.

Art + Coding 63% of $350,000 - $220500 (£140,322) / 2 (cos thats basically Ron and partner pay) $110,250 (£70,275)

Somewhere in the region of £30-35k a year each if it took 2 years perhaps. I suppose that's a fairly normal annual wage for a lot of folks.

I don't know about the cost of doing business in the UK, but on the major coastal cities of the US (LA, NYC, SF, Seattle), a good estimate for producing a thumbnail-budget for a software project is to count on $150 - 200k per developer per year of work (actual budget will vary based on the details, and some may consider those numbers low).  That's salary plus overhead, of course.  Isn't London just as expensive?  What are programmers making over there?  If they're making £30k what's the multiplier for overhead?  £30k would be acceptable, but low, in NYC.

EDIT:

And for a game?  $300k?  That's almost a 90's budget, too.  Just for the development team.  I know of a few late 90s games that were much less interesting and cost three times that to develop.  I've never had a window into costs for the publisher.  But this site gives an idea of the total costs:
http://kotaku.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-big-video-game-1501413649

Of course, these numbers are for developing a cutting-edge engine, producing cutting-edge visuals, etc.   I guess what makes it surprising to us is that we like making adventure games, and we are willing to do it for peanuts in comparison or nothing at all. 




Stupot

Here's a trailer.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EFPnAbYqmMw

(I've totally forgotten how to embed YouTube videos. Tried everything.)

Mandle

Quote from: Stupot+ on Wed 05/08/2015 22:37:35
Here's a trailer.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EFPnAbYqmMw

(I've totally forgotten how to embed YouTube videos. Tried everything.)

OMG game looks great! And....that music!!! WOW!!!

Babar

A lot of people here initially complained about the high funding goal set in this project, so this might be an interesting read in that regard:
Thimbleweed Park - Budget
The ultimate Professional Amateur

Now, with his very own game: Alien Time Zone

Stupot

Quote from: Babar on Thu 10/09/2015 11:23:16
A lot of people here initially complained about the high funding goal set in this project, so this might be an interesting read in that regard:
Thimbleweed Park - Budget
Great read. Nice to know that Ron seems to really approach his accounting with lots of forethought and care.

Mandle

Quote from: Babar on Thu 10/09/2015 11:23:16
A lot of people here initially complained about the high funding goal set in this project, so this might be an interesting read in that regard:
Thimbleweed Park - Budget

In the comments section everyone is getting snarky about how posting an article called "Budget" must mean they are running out of money...

Best comment by far:

Quote
Mattias Cedervall - Sep 08 at 04:18

Rumor has it Ron will sell a kidney. I don't know whose kidney.

(laugh)

Snarky

Quote from: Mandle on Fri 11/09/2015 23:30:22
In the comments section everyone is getting snarky about how posting an article called "Budget" must mean they are running out of money...

Oh FFS... If I were to run a Kickstarter, I think I would offer practically no transparency whatsoever, because god dammit people are stupid. Anything that isn't a bland "everything's going great, now look at this pretty picture" will inevitably cause some people to freak out. Tell people the truth? You can't handle the truth!

selmiak

Quote from: Mandle on Fri 11/09/2015 23:30:22
In the comments section everyone is getting snarky about how posting an article called "Budget" must mean they are running out of money...

Best comment by far:

Quote
Mattias Cedervall - Sep 08 at 04:18

Rumor has it Ron will sell a kidney. I don't know whose kidney.

(laugh)

further down the comments:

Bogdan Barbu - Sep 08 at 14:39
I can already see the next post where Ron feels the need to clarify that they have in fact not run out of food.

Arto - Sep 08 at 14:50
I think Ron has lost weight though...

Monsieur OUXX

I've watched most of the development videos, and I came to the heartbreaking conclusion that I'm apalled by Gilbert's decision to program his own engine instead of using AGS (or with any engine). He received some money from people: Money that he could spend on adding content.
But instead he seems to have a lot of fun re-programming things that already exist for free.

I think programming is fun. But he didn't receive money to fulfill his programming hobby. Like, his engine has a few lighting effects, but nothing that could not be done with a quick AGS plugin. When you watch development videos, he's all like "yey, look, I created walkable areas!".
He justifies his choice by saying that "this way he can change anything he wants quickly". I think that at the age of Unity or other engines, you can change anything you want just as quickly.

 

Snarky

The game is being developed for Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile, and Xbox One, with the hope of porting to other consoles. AGS? Get real.

Monsieur OUXX

Quote from: Snarky on Tue 22/09/2015 11:59:22
The game is being developed for Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile, and Xbox One, with the hope of porting to other consoles. AGS? Get real.
I said AGS or other engines. However AGS does all the systems you mentionned except XBox (and there's even a half-finished converter to XBox).
My point was: recreating an entire point n click engine for something as low-demanding as this type of game, is a waste of money and time, from a purely business perspective (which is a central aspect of crowd-funded projects)
 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk