SubJeff on 14/7/2013 at 12:10
It's not bad.
The voice acting on the "guard" is terrible though, and you sure have to make a lot of noise to be noticed.
addink on 14/7/2013 at 12:36
As Muzman mentioned Kickstarter.. have you considered a Kickstarter campaign? Or any other type of crowdfunding?
The responses you're getting from the publishers seem to fit perfectly with the average kickstarter developer's "why kickstarter is awesome"-stories.
Your proof of concept is pretty cool. I'd back it. Though I have to say a bit more backstory would do a lot for me. Why do they sound like robots? Why are they all armed? What does this industrial complex actually do? I know that doesn't really change the game play, but it does create a certain atmosphere, something we're all looking for when judging a game, as do publishers.
If you're looking for things to entice people I'd say improve on the guards' mumblings. There's a lot of opportunities for making them more alive and comical. "Okay..? What was that? It sure wasn't my grandma.." is not something a guard would say out loud when just hearing a shot and noticing a light failing. "What-the..." followed by a "Is that you..? ...Steve?" or something somewhat later would work better (IMHO). It allows the player to scare the NPCs somewhat and feel power over them, instead of just being afraid of them.
I'd link the "...sure wasn't my grandma" with the 'return to regular tasks' event. Perhaps even indicating a permanent raised awareness.
I know a proof-of-concept doesn't need to be perfect, but if it isn't, it asks a lot of creativity and imagination from the reviewer. And generally creative types don't end up working at publishers.
Flux on 14/7/2013 at 13:39
Guard voices are "ascottk, the animator having fun". I thought it is obvious that they're placeholders. Female voices are text-to-speech stuff, heck she even says "I'm a place-holder mission hostess":p
Guards' hearing threshold and their alertness to player's noise can be adjusted on the fly. James did an excellent work on "archetypes". Which is, each designer can create totally new AI, weapons, new hacking tools, damage systems, puzzles, menus & inventories right within the editor, without touching a single line of code, easily implemented, just drag & drop style.
I'm not from US or UK so I can't use kickstarter, perhaps only with a co-producer/co-designer who is from US/UK
Apart from cutscenes and professional voice actors, almost the whole content for the game is done, just needs polishing.
Assuming we rise 20.000 usd from kickstarter, I still wouldn't know where to spend it. Yeah, polish this and that, hire semi-pro actors to do voices. The question would remain, which platform to sell?
Before, Steam would reply to indie producers' emails every 6 months, now they don't even have to at all. They say "Apply to greenlight system. Get as many as votes possible." Which is fine, after all it is commercial platform. Even if the whole "ttlg" back up this game, it is still in the dark, to be accepted on steam or not.
Heck, part of me says, with the whole content & system we have we could have easily implemented a "survival-horror" game, which wouldn't be me...but...sells easier...
For the story, it is not very original I know, but it is flexible enough to let the player, who is a rogue stealth-agent on the run, traveling to exotic planets & space stations & ships and infiltrate to obtain and sell "data" on the market and gather new cool gadgets, only to discover the very company he works for is more than just a company, a giant network of ai simulations that aim to rule the entire galaxy.
TTK12G3 on 14/7/2013 at 14:43
Good voice actors apparently cost more than a car to read a few lines, considering how rarely they are used, so you are probably going to spend everything on that.
van HellSing on 14/7/2013 at 18:18
Regarding the platform, have you tried contacting GOG?
EvaUnit02 on 14/7/2013 at 23:18
(
http://youtu.be/6WaGVW6qXgA?t=2m17s) @2:17 is a missed opportunity to use 451.
If you're gonna take anything from DX1, don't use its utterly unengaging hacking where you just stand there and hold down a button. Be inspired by Human Revolution's hacking, it's the one of the few games I've encountered where it isn't just a time filler (or terrible like, Bioshock 1's Pipe Dream), it's actually fun and engaging.
EDIT:-
Wait, this thread gives the impression that you're trying to sell the game as "scifi Thief"... then (
http://youtu.be/6WaGVW6qXgA?t=5m19s) @5:19 the gameplay video goes out into all FPS manshoot mode where you're a bullet sponge. In Thief your player character was very fragile and thus ideally you would want to avoid direct combat whenever possible.
Flux on 15/7/2013 at 00:33
Isn't GOG for "old" games that are released elsewhere?
Quote:
In Thief your player character was very fragile and thus ideally you would want to avoid direct combat whenever possible.
Same here, more or less. This is more like a "proof-of-concept" video to showcase what is written in the design document is actually working. Hence, the machine gun is working. But with this player settings, you'll want to avoid direct combat as much as possible, the guns are for more "defense" and distraction purposes.
Also this thread in my wish is not about "hey guys I made a cool game, check it out" but rather "Hey, ttlg, I really did some sort of game, it has really stealth ai in it but the publishers' feedback gave me real headache, whaddaya say?"
It is for sure not about trying to sell anyone "scifi Thief", the game can't even be on any platform to be sold...at the moment...
Bakerman on 15/7/2013 at 00:49
Quote Posted by Flux
Isn't GOG for "old" games that are released elsewhere?
You'd be surprised :p. You might also look at alternative digital distributors like Gamersgate or Desura.
Chade on 15/7/2013 at 01:53
What about trying the Might & Blade model?
Get an unfinished version out there asap, publish it yourself to hardcore gamers, charge low amounts for the beta version and ramp the price up as you make progress. You can use any money towards further development, and if you succeed in building up a loyal community, you can use that as proof that the market is out there.
This could presumably be combined with kickstarter at some appropriate time too, if there are items that can't easily start off small and be grown over time. (For example, professional voice acting, or maybe just getting your first beta out there.)
Yakoob on 15/7/2013 at 03:13
Dude this thing looks AMAZING, with a really nice level of polish for an indie game, big kudos. IT's the kind of a game I'd absolutely love to help with on the design and coding front... but unfortunately I'm a bit preoccupied (
http://postmortemgame.com) with my own game coming out August 15th.
You also mentioned greenlight - I just went through the process and put my game on it, it's not really that hard to get the page up and the $100 fee isn't much all things considered. Marketing and getting approved is gonna be a whole different story, of course, but I wouldn't discredit it if I were you. You got some quality material right there, good chances given the kind of stuff getting approved on Greenlight.
