Kickstarter - A VAMPYRE STORY: YEAR ONE

[Udvarnoky]

I'm not seeing a whole lot of attention for this, regrettably.  Cliff Notes version: with the sequel rights to A Vampyre Story tied up with a publisher that isn't funding it, Bill Tiller (of The Curse of Monkey Island fame) is turning to Kickstarter to try to develop an independent, episodic prequel.  The goal is $200,000 for the first (self-contained) episode, due out in the fall.  Others could follow if extra money is raised, but even the initial goal is looking tough right now.

 

It's got a charming video and some great rewards, so I hope they're able to pull a rabbit out.  Give it your sympathy:

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/876324751/a-vampyre-story-year-one

[Ben X]

Did anyone play the first game? The demo was pretty terrible.

[manny_c44]

I remember the demo being good; it has been a while.  Reviews were generally lukewarm~ though the setting and artwork of the game was incredible.  

[Udvarnoky]

The humor marred it, but overall I'd call it a very good, deliberately old school (the gameplay is Monkey Island 3 straight down the line) graphic adventure game.  The atmosphere is terrific thanks to the background art and the above average soundtrack.

 

I think Bill's studio has the potential to turn out something truly stellar if they could put out more product and hone their writing skills, but from the sounds of things all graphic adventure work he's been doing since Ghost Pirates has been on his own time.  I just want to see more games from this studio, and my fear is that there won't be an opportunity to see that if this isn't successful.

[manny_c44]

I think Bill's studio has the potential to turn out something truly stellar if they could put out more product and hone their writing skills, but from the sounds of things all graphic adventure work he's been doing since Ghost Pirates has been on his own time.  I just want to see more games from this studio, and my fear is that there won't be an opportunity to see that if this isn't successful.

 

Yeah agreed, I liked a lot about AVS and GP.

 

Maybe they will be able to tightly edit a short-form game and reach new heights.

[Tanukitsune]

Vampyre Story was OK-ish enough, but I hated their Voodoo whatever Monkey Island "inspired" game, did they make anything else? They don't inspire that much confidence in me.

[Udvarnoky]

I thought Ghost Pirates was of comparative quality to AVS.  In no way did it feel like a Monkey Island ripoff to me.

 

And yeah, that was all they put out.  AVS2 got stalled by the publisher and Bill was forced to take other gigs since then.  This prequel is Autumn Moon's first project in awhile.

[syntheticgerbil]

I own both Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, but I have yet to play either. I haven't heard good things about the design or writing of either. I'm actually wondering if I should just drop them off at the used book store.

 

I mean are they really that worth it or are they just mediocre adventures with gorgeous backgrounds? Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to at least finished the first Vampyre Story before the end of this Kickstarter to see if I want to give money for it.

[Tanukitsune]

You could just watch a YouTube Playthrough if you think that might help, for adventure games... it's almost as good as playing the game, only while cheating?

[Udvarnoky]

I own both Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, but I have yet to play either. I haven't heard good things about the design or writing of either. I'm actually wondering if I should just drop them off at the used book store.

 

I mean are they really that worth it or are they just mediocre adventures with gorgeous backgrounds? Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to at least finished the first Vampyre Story before the end of this Kickstarter to see if I want to give money for it.

 

I don't know what's so bad about the design of either game.  The dialog being pretty lame and relentless at times, especially in AVS, is basically what it all comes down to.  How bad this drags the game down is going to vary from person to person, but certainly there's more to the game than the backgrounds or the dialog.  I've loved the characters, setting, soundtrack and general storyline, and the puzzle design is certainly passable at absolute worst.  Whether or not some pretty groan-inducing and belabored patter is enough to ultimately make "mediocre" occupy the right side of the equal sign is going to have to be the result of personal calculus.  I personally think both crush down to some pretty solid graphic adventure games.

[Ben X]

Thread for the original game here, btw.

[Tanukitsune]

Man, it looks almost nobody played it and even less actually liked it. And I think their other game was even worse, this does not bode well.

 

I'm not going to KS a company I have no confidence in. :|

[syntheticgerbil]

Yeah I think I'll pass, I already have enough somewhat mediocre Daedalic games I'd rather play, because they look super good but lack in the writing, voice acting, and puzzles (or so I hear, only played the Whispered World and that's pretty much what happened there).

 

Bill Tiller has always been a great artist, but does not seem to have anything more going on in the way of design and writing, which is probably part of my hesitation on playing any Autumn Moon games, even though I own them, just like most of my backlog. I mean most people in games don't end up so multitalented, so it's somewhat understandable.

 

Speaking of, I thought there was supposed to be a Kickstarter for Insecticide Part 2 at some point. I actually enjoyed that one even though it seems no one else really did.

[Tanukitsune]

I liked Insecticide too...

 

The Whispered World was practically their first adventure game, they've gotten better.

[Udvarnoky]

Ugh.  I'm crestfallen by the idea of A Vampyre Story being casually slotted into the same quality category as, well, 90% of adventure games, but perception is reality I suppose.  On a related note, this Kickstarter has screeched to a complete stop.  You're behind the eight ball from the off when you pitch a prequel to an unfinished story, but cripes, I was rather greedily hoping this would summon something better than 3% of what Dreamfall Chapters did.  I pity Bill.

 

Glad to see some Insecticide love.  Ahern/Levine actually indicated the possibility of a graphic adventure sequel to the game, rather than the completion of the second "bisode" (which I imagine is good and dead now), but I've heard nothing at all on that IP lately.

[Ben X]

Ugh.  I'm crestfallen by the idea of A Vampyre Story being casually slotted into the same quality category as, well, 90% of adventure games, but perception is reality I suppose.

 

You mean "people thought it was bad"?

[Thrik]

It looks like the total has actually gone down between times that I've looked at it.

 

The quality of the original AVS aside, as a Kickstarter campaign it's pretty bad. Rather than using the designated 'updates' area Tiller seems to have put them all at the top of the main Kickstarter page too, meaning that you literally have to scroll down nine pages to even get to the basic description of what the Kickstarter's all about. There's 90% of potential backers turned off straight away.

 

When you do get to the information, it comes across as the most dull-sounding game that even I — a huge adventure game fan and lover of Tiller's art — couldn't bring myself to back it. Broken Age's description was short but immediately drew me in: a girl who's up for sacrifice, and a boy who's isolated in space. That's a one-sentence story I want to play. Tiller's game: going around some old castle because you can't get out, even though you're a god damn vampire, in a prequel to a game that had a universally lukewarm reception and that nobody will ever play.

 

It just seems that he got so preoccupied with blathering on about backer rewards and relatively unimportant details that he forgot to come up with a compelling pitch. It just doesn't sound very interesting. He'd have been much better off coming up with some awesome new game than recycling an idea that didn't work very well the first time around. There's a reason publishers said 'piss off' to AVS2 and it probably wasn't the recession.

[Udvarnoky]

There's a reason publishers said 'piss off' to AVS2 and it probably wasn't the recession.

 

Perhaps, but I think you'd be pretty confused to believe that it didn't still come down to money.  The story that I infer is that when AVS1 went over budget, the publisher (who had signed both games, which were to be back-to-back productions) essentially viewed that as money deducted from AVS2's budget.  So from the developer's perspective, AVS2 had its funding cut off, and from the publisher's perspective, the budget allocated for the dual productions was exhausted and a game was paid for that wasn't delivered.  Since the publisher nonetheless retains AVS2's rights, the two parties have been slowly trying to work out a business arrangement for completing the game that probably involves Autumn Moon putting up some of the dough itself. 

 

Those conclusions are guesswork, but I base them on a decent amount of public evidence.

 

Anyway, real reason I bumped this is to point out that even with ten days left and the goal not even being flirted with, Bill http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/876324751/a-vampyre-story-year-one/posts/514906'>made a new update that baffling implies hope that this can can still succeed.  And this:

 

And even if we do not get fully funded, my team and I have decided to do the game anyway on our own. Though, we haven’t ruled out doing another Kickstarter for the project later. This has been a great learning experience, and I want to put into practiced all that I have learned.

 

I have a mental image of Bill's kids being assigned a day of the week in which they're permitted to eat.