I can't quite follow, what's the story behind this?

 

...my long-year absence gap shows.

 

This should illuminate thigs:

http://www.spacequest.net/index.php/topic/656-paul-trowe-criticism-on-kickstarter-update/

https://www.facebook.com/corey.cole.792/posts/10151962049812899

But basically CEO of Replay Games has been acting like an ass.

OK I know the story about Paul Trowe and Serena, I'm just missing the connection between that and Oded's Bolt Riley. Care to enlighten?

Adventure Mob was the first group working on LSL Reloaded who got booted by Trowe, IIRC.

Oh I'm now reading the fb comments, thanks tomimt

The more I see from this guy, the more I realise he's not just some caricature of a bad business man; he's just an evil little shit.

The more I see from this guy, the more I realise he's not just some caricature of a bad business man; he's just an evil little shit.

 

Evil little shit. You know, that pretty much sums him up to a T. There's something wrong with a guy who would intentionally sabotage other Kickstarters out of spite. So yeah, those three words seem to fit him perfectly.

 

You may never know how truly evil he is (mostly because of events that won't be discussed here) but let's just say that not only does he look like Leisure Suit Larry, he's much lower in the primordial gene pool.

The awesome guys at Infamous Quests just launched a Kickstarter for an old school hint book for their Quest for Infamy retro-style adventure game. Complete with the red cellophane decoder that we all remember and love from the glory days of Sierra On-Line. Also, if you missed out on the original campaign, you can get a copy (physical big box or digital) on some of the tiers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1992695780/the-quest-for-infamy-companion-art-strategy-hint-b/

Steampunk is a genre that doesn’t get as much love as it deserves. Like its cousin, cyberpunk, it deals with themes of advanced technology (for its time, at least) and with the plight of a downtrodden people, forced to live in disgusting and poor conditions, while the upper class lives off of wealth. Unlike cyberpunk, though, its generally represented in a past setting (usually in the 1800s) instead of the near future. Enter Blackmore, the latest in an ever increasing stable of crowdfunded adventure games and paying homage to this underutilized subsection of science fiction storytelling.

The dreadful overall experience I had with Larry Reloaded* - or, to be more exact, the drama surrounding it - made me decide to turn my back on Kickstarter as a means of providing for a brighter and better future in gaming for good. The news of their user data being hacked really is just icing on the cake at this point: https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/important-kickstarter-security-notice

 

 

* The very game that made me sign up for Kickstarter, mind you!

You had to pick one of the nastiest projects to be your representative sample... why not pick SpaceVenture as your prototypical crowd-funding project instead? It may be running late (which doesn't make it non-representative at all) but the team is very respectful of its backer community, and has hired key supporters rather than having them volunteer (and then abusing them)

 

If you think of SpaceVenture as a flagship crowdfunded project, then crowdfunding as a whole won't be ruined for you, and someday you may hear of another project that will inspire you to join in.

 

P.S. I don't store credit card info on kickstarter; they let you enter it separately each time if you want

Despite what happened with Larry, I'm still going strong with Kickstarter, even with the breach of security. I still believe it is a viable alternative to developing and publishing games. And, as penguinfan said, they treat their backers with respect and most are willing to talk with fans on a personal level. Several are good friends of mine and they've brought in people to do volunteer work (or even paid work in a number of cases).

 

Case in point (and, yes, some shameless self-promoting here): http://www.adventure-treff.de/artikel/features/gastkolumne.php?id=8&lang=eng

Case in point (and, yes, some shameless self-promoting here): http://www.adventure-treff.de/artikel/features/gastkolumne.php?id=8&lang=eng

 

Right on, this is going to be a great year for adventure fans thanks to kickstarter. Go AGRM!

Dystopian and post-apocalyptic titles are pretty commonplace in media in any form, and with good reason. It takes a bleak look at what the future could hold for humanity should it ever stray towards the path of self-destruction. A warning letter to future generations to get their act together, if you will. And to stand out in the crowd you’d need to have some something unique to get people to take notice of it. Dead Syncrhonicity promises the standard trope and more. With a twist unlike any other that’s come before it.

Despite what happened with Larry, I'm still going strong with Kickstarter, even with the breach of security. I still believe it is a viable alternative to developing and publishing games.

I agree that crowd-funding is a great alternative. However, I have some real concerns about Kickstarter, now that it has been shown that they tried to censor a movie project about a serial killer. I still use Kickstarter, but hope that other platforms like Indiegogo rise in popularity.

Can you be a little more specific about that, Purple?

Agustín Cordes, the Scratches/Asylum/Serena guy, tweeted something about Indiegogo being a horrible platform that withheld on promises and mismanaged people's funds. He did not provide a source other than citing other devs that had experienced problems, though.

 

Anyway, I suppose with any platform that manages so many donations - and, in the case of Purple's example, managing people with, shall we say, alternative creative ideas - is bound to run into some difficulty at one point or another. This is still a burgeoning field, and it has to do with that tender concept of money. No one's gonna get that right all the time. ;)

“In 1945 a group of captured soldiers were placed in a POW camp and told they would never escape. Using their specialist skills, these man promptly devised a plan to attempt their most daring breakout yet.”

 

So if you can steal enough supplies,

and sneak past the guards,

and if you can get over the fence…

 

maybe you’re ready for…

 

The BREAKOUT!

The tales of H.P. Lovecraft are timeless for those who enjoy a good horror story. And with good reason. His stories have inspired generations that have come after him just as Edgar Allan Poe had influenced his writing. Delving into many aspects of what makes a person lose their mind and drawing from their deepest, darkest fears is what brings people back to classics like the Cthulhu Mythos. And the latest game to tackle these themes is The Eldritch Cases: Dagon, an adventure game that sets its sights on one of the most iconic villages ever put to pen by the seminal author.

One project that I want to give a shoutout is Outcast HD Reboot. Being a huge fan of the original 1999 game, I'm thrilled that the original people behind it have regained the rights and are now planning to give it an overhaul, using the original source code and assets as a base. Knowing that pretty much everyone here likes sci-fi, you should consider backing. There's no way it can disappoint.

Oooo everyone has been raving about the original and I grabbed it on GoG, but havent played it yet. Props for being involved, Frede!

While I was never that interested in the Outcast reboot (there's already an overwhelming lack in creativity and original thought over at the big studios, so let's keep the constant rebooting/-imagining/-gurgitating limited to those, please!), I never would have expected that something with the Outlast nametag attached to it could fail this spectacularly. Any ideas as to why this didn't connect with the intended audience?

I'm sure it did connect with the intended audience, but it never connected with anyone else. In hindsight, they aimed this at the die-hard Outcast fans. And I'm not sure that group could ever have raised 600k, unfortunately. They only added substantial info for newcomers with some of the updates, and that's just too late.

 

These guys aren't even close to their goal, but I like the concept and I know fans of retro 1980s games will like it too.

Play as EMILY, a teenager who fell victim to a vicious pandemic. In a desperate attempt to counter the infection, she was injected with an untested vaccine containing Nano-bots. However, a malfunction in the system caused the Nano-bots inside her body to overload, resulting in total absorption of her DNA, morphing her physical body into a mechanical structure.

 

The play puts me half in mind of a hybrid of Metroid and Castlevania, I think you guys will really dig it. They need a lot of help so spread the word to your friends and if you don't have any friends, tell your enemies and tell them you hate people named Emily.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelworm/e-m-i-l-y

Hmm. Since I'm working on the history of vaccines and vaccination in the public imagination, maybe I can claim back a pledge from work... :)

Someone needs to bring up The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Based on H.P. Lovecraft's story and created by Agustín Cordes (the dude behind Scratches and the short game Serena, which Frederik, Simo Sakari Aaltonen and yours truly helped write).

 

Our pal Simo is on board helping with the writing, and Jenny Pattinson (Quest For Infamy) is doing some art.

 

Agustín is perhaps the person in this world best suited to do a truthful adaptation of Lovecraft's work (hey, the dude named his adventure game engine "Dagon"!), and he's also incredibly sexy.

 

Kickstarter is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/agustincordes/h-p-lovecrafts-the-case-of-charles-dexter-ward

 

And sexiness is here:

https://twitter.com/AgustinCordes/status/519869173724635137