Keiji Inafune's Mighty No.9

[Lork]

I'm prepping for something mediocre. I really haven't kept up with videos but it doesn't look awful to me. Functional, sparce, but I assume that's an intro level or something? The whole Red Ash Kickstarter and the way they handled this one smells a bit cynical, like they thought 'we need to launch this before MN9 just incase that tanks'. The second KS for this soured a lot of enthusiasm, I think, and knocked backers' confidence. I'm interested to see how Shenmue and Bloodstained progress. Shenmue in particular has a lot to prove after their bungled campaign.

What platforms are people getting this for? I'm going with 3DS. Love dat portability.

How was the Shenmue campaign bungled, if I may ask?  I've seen vague mentions of that around the internet but no reference to what it's referring to.  It seems kind of odd considering that they made a record amount of money, but maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the specifics.

[Gaizokubanou]

Maybe dartmonkey was referring to how Shenmue was marked for $2,000,000 but Suzuki said he would need at least $10,000,000 to make it as open ended as previous games AFTER kickstarter goals have passed?  I personally thought that much was obvious because $2 mil for open ended game of that scope is laughably unrealistic (even $10 is pretty tight, guess we will see what corners they cut compared to other AAA open world games) but I guess people who really didn't think about that felt they were mislead on the budget, which is true to a point but there is lot of that going around on these kickstarters and articles surrounding it (to make up for more dramatic story).

[Ninety-Three]

Maybe dartmonkey was referring to how Shenmue was marked for $2,000,000 but Suzuki said he would need at least $10,000,000 to make it as open ended as previous games AFTER kickstarter goals have passed?  I personally thought that much was obvious because $2 mil for open ended game of that scope is laughably unrealistic (even $10 is pretty tight, guess we will see what corners they cut 

 

They're not just funding from Kickstarter, and I suspect not even primarily. Suzuki acknolwedged in deliberately vague terms that Sony has a hand in the production, marketing and publishing (which is to say, all of it). I'm certain that there was a meeting in which an exec said "We'd fund your game, but we just don't believe there's enough of an audience for it", to which Suzuki responded "What if I ran a Kickstarter to prove people were still into it?"

[Gaizokubanou]

But that's not unique to Shenmue 3.  Bloodstained if anything has done far worse in that regard.  But it didn't jibe well with the anti-publisher (Konami specifically but it had spilled over to more generic sense) hype that it was riding on so I guess maybe that's why people generally didn't bother to get upset on that one on Bloodstained...?

[dartmonkey]

I think mixed messaging and vagueness stymied the whole thing. I think it could have reached $10m no problem. It had an unprecedented wave of goodwill that could have carried it much further if the set-up was clearer. Why not just state the deal? If Sony agree to match every dollar, or a lump sum once a certain total has been reached, they should have made those circumstances clear. Any concern that makes me doubt the budget should have been answered. Even if they can't disclose the details, they need to acknowledge outside funding - I've never made a 3D 'realistic' game in an openish world, but I know $10m is a piss in the ocean. And some of that is going to produce character busts and doohickeys. They should have addressed those concerns, especially in light of Shenmue's budgetary history.

The Playtonic KS was extremely well thought through. I don't feel like they're promising anything they can't deliver. Shenmue felt a bit more like a well-meaning lottery.

[Gaizokubanou]

I think it could have reached $10m no problem.

 

That is a thing that I'm most curious about.  I know that it's passed off as common knowledge that higher KS limit == less people donating cause they fear KS project not succeeding (excluding the notion that KS project creator just want to see any proportion of KS, so they low ball it), but I wonder if that is true at all?  Like you said, perhaps Shenmue 3 could have reached $10mil even if they set it as their initial goal?

 

On the other hand it sounds like Suzuki just wanted to make a Shenmue game even if it wasn't going to be an open world 3d game (but what would that even mean?)... wonder what kind of game he had in mind with $2 mil cause even then it's kinda small.

 

 

Even if they can't disclose the details, they need to acknowledge outside funding

 

So true and I'm still amused by the fact that Bloodstained is on anti-Konami hype train so well that the information buried in an interview about '90% will be funded by publisher' never really caught on outside of few people, most notably in my mind the team members behind Skullgirls because they had a strong history of getting lot of shit for actually posting honest but still low ball estimate for cost of a character in a 2d fighting game (think they said it was around $50k minimum per character, backers were mad about that being wasteful).

[dartmonkey]

Well, I downloaded the Special Delayed Demo Without DRM from Humble this morning and played the first level. First impressions weren't great. It looks functional. The menus are pretty sharp. The pace of the opening is not good. The gameplay is interrupted by some slow, stodgy dialogue and cut scenes that would benefit from an edit. Beck controls fine, though I don't think my 360 pad suits it. My thumbs feel like they're too far 'around' the controller - I think it'd feel better on any other pad.

 

I haven't tried anything else. I'll probably wait until they give me the 3DS copy to play more. There seemed to be an awful lot of empty screenspace on my monitor which should be reduced on 3DS. I dunno. Enthusiasm's kinda sapped. I've forgotten why I backed it in the first place. There are essays to be written on the waves these Kickstarters generate and specific graph points showing how and when devs either rode or squandered them. I think the 8-4 crew probably piqued my interest for MM9 but once they were jettisoned, things seemed to go steadily downhill with community communication.

[melmer]

Deadpool narrates new trailer!

Eye roll emoji

God I have absolutely no interest in this game. Dash through enemies to boost your utterly meaningless score oh wait... Thats all video games

[Tanukitsune]

Oh dear.... Why did I watch this trailer? I think I regret KSing this game... 

[Gormongous]

Deadpool narrates new trailer!

 

I love that it slams anime while being a spiritual sequel to Megaman.

[mikemariano]

I love that it slams anime while being a spiritual sequel to Megaman.

 

 

Why is this happening?

[Gaizokubanou]

One good thing that came out of that trailer is that it instantly brought back fond memories of me eating cheap ass local pizzas for school lunch during my second year in USA.

 

$1.25 for slice of large cheese pizza, $0.50 for can of soda, it was good $1.75 well spent, good times.

[manny_c44]

Man, dreadful trailer...it's like a slap in the face of the fans who backed the project: "Oh do you like video games? You nerd? Did you back this project? Hmm? Why are you hitting yourself? Huh?"

[Tanukitsune]

Wow, could the release be any worse? Half of the version are not ready yet, the Vita and 3DS versions are still in development and the "Better than nothing" comment is just.... appropriate? 

[Kolzig]

I haven't even received my code. I wonder will I ever receive it.

My biggest mistake in Kickstarter...

[Twig]

My biggest mistake(s) are several things I backed where they just disappeared over time. It's fine, though, I didn't put much money in them as I knew they'd be risky. Well most of 'em. There's one that really stings. >_>

 

Glad I didn't back this one, though!

[Kolzig]

Other KS mistake I did is a Greek dev's The 90's Arcade Racer which has gone a crazy bullshit few years development time with almost no development update posts and especially after Nicalis appeared as publisher everything went to hell.

[Lechimp]

So what's the deal with the Sonic Twitter account being a massive dick to game developers?

[jonbjohns]

So what's the deal with the Sonic Twitter account being a massive dick to game developers?

 

Has that twitter account done that to other devs? I've seen a positive response it gave to Overwatch. At least I saw it as that.

[Twig]

Sonic Twitter made a dumb joke about a really really dumb joke in a really awful trailer and that's being a massive dick? Or am I missing something?

 

Sonic Twitter is just meme central these days.

[Kolzig]

Sonic Twitter account is just about making jokes.

Sonic Twitter made a joke about what the dumb Comcept guys said in the final Twitch stream when they just weirdly said "It might not be a perfect game, but it's better than nothing."

So they basically admitted that they made a bad game.

[Twig]

Ah, so they did something new.

 

Sonic Twitter is Twitter.

[undermind9]

for actual game thoughts - i put in 45 minutes and did opening level, the Ray DLC, and gave up on Pyro (#1). It...doesnt look or feel like a game that took this long.  The modeling is clunky and level design is uninspired, dont even want to start about the story & voice actors

 

 

I'm going to keep going, their updates filled my inbox long enough - should at least give it a full play through before moving out of queue

 

 

If my opinion changes i'll report back, but this one is feeling like a regret.

[Kolzig]

The game was released in the European Wii U eShop today morning. It's available for purchase.

But apparently Kickstarter backers are not as important as regular users. My backer code is still nowhere to be seen and Comcept are not replying to emails. I sent them a mail about the backer code to the mail that was listed in Humble Bundle pages.

[Tanukitsune]

I've played and.... wow, what is this even? Where is the music? No wonder people call this a lifeless clone, it's so boringly silent!

 

I feel terrible because.... I quit, the sniper stage is just BS.... it seems to have NO CHECKPOINTS! 

 

Apparently once you free a boss it will help you in some stages? The electric boss suddenly appears and makes some electric puns saying it helped but.... I don't see how? Maybe she deactivated a trap I couldn't see?

 

Every stage seems to have two mid-bosses that are super forgettable... The levels feel longer and harder and well, not well thought out? What's the point of these dumb power ups you get when absorbing enemies?

 

The "helper bot" only drops temporary power ups that are useless, I keep dying in the platforming sections, can't I have a Rush Jet or Beat helper instead?

 

I hate how the boss battles works, it's kinda like a Mega Man except they heal if you don't "dash absorb" them at the right moment... When you're fighting a flying boss on very tiny platforms, you just don't have that many openings for this, speaking of which the Aviator battle was SO boring...

 

I kinda don't want to play more, I'm at peak disappointment now...