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General: City of Titans Fully Funded

2

Comments

  • ThaVampThaVamp Member Posts: 48

    How much I loved CoX back in the days and would really like to see a next-gen version of it, I'm a bit sceptic about this project or any Kickstarter MMO for that matter. Kickstarter is great for smaller indie projects, but for a large scale MMO the money you'll earn with Kickstarter is just too little of a addition to the budget.

    On top of that, especially with a new superhero MMO, I would really like something with nice graphics, good animations, full voice acting, big storyline, regular content updates, etc. Something I don't see them doing with this project. If they really want to bring back the CoX feeling with a Kickstarter project, they might have better luck trying to get CoX and give it a major overhaul and keep actively supporting it. That sounds more doable then a whole new MMO.

    Still I wish them well and if they actually can pull it off I'll be the first one to say I was wrong. On top of that I will gladly give them money for a lifetime membership if the game is decent. 

  • JIUBHUNNY420JIUBHUNNY420 Member Posts: 131

    "something with nice graphics, good animations, full voice acting, big storyline, regular content updates, etc."

     

    DCUO, Champions, you already have games like this man.

     

    How about we get something with features that are ACTUALLY new?

    And before someone says City of Titans is unoriginal because its "Inspired" by COH, everything you like is inspired by one thing or another. 

     

    Shit, The Illiad was a sword and shield epic written by a blind man who based his stories on literally what he HEARD about war.

    J-Hun Lookin to Creep Yall!

  • steamtanksteamtank Member UncommonPosts: 391

    Id rather back this project than pay for another "we want to be everything" suckfest the recent slew of AAA MMO's have been.

  • SnarlingWolfSnarlingWolf Member Posts: 2,697
    Originally posted by Sovrath

    It's my understanding that Kickstarter is just that a "kickstart" to get a project off the ground. IS there something in the bylaws that specifically state that they can't get additional funding from other sources?

    In the rules directly? No.

     

    But, the reason many support people through kickstarter is directly to keep all of the corporate people who they see as the bad guys that force projects to become bland knockoffs out of the picture. If it comes out that a lot of the projects use those very big backers as well, then I am sure you'd see a lot fewer little guys pitching it to help.

     

     

    There is no rule in baseball that you can't watch your awesome home run as the ball sails into (or over) the stands. Yet every now and then when someone does it, a fight, or near fight, breaks out. Some times there are understood unwritten rules.

     

     

    I would never touch Camelot Unchained. The whole concept of a guy who made lots of money in the industry not funding his own start-up is a massive red flag for me to stay away.

  • SnarlingWolfSnarlingWolf Member Posts: 2,697
    Originally posted by LuchRi

    Trust me Wolf, we know all too well what it takes to make a game like this. I am not permitted to go into details but feasibility has been the prime focus of the upper staff from day 1. They have spoken with people all over the industry (Including a few former CoH Devs I won't name) and checked every angle that could be brought to them. It won't be easy. We have no illusions that it will 'just' happen. But It is far from impossible.

    If you guys pull it off without doing more kickstarters as the project continues, more power to you and I'd probably pick up a copy purely for supporting an indie company that actual finished what they said they did on the budget they said they would.

     

    I don't doubt that there was at least some research put into it. But research and real world can differ quite a bit at times. I'm in no way hoping you fail. I just have seen enough and heard enough to always be extremely skeptical of such endeavors. I'd rather you did succeed and were an example of things can get done, I just personally don't see it happening and it has nothing to do with any of you or your team personally, it is just me sticking to what I believe to be a realistic expectation.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    Originally posted by LuchRi

    Hay There everyone. I am LuchRi, a member of the Writing Staff for City of Titans.

     

    I saw this and honestly felt that I should clear a few things up quickly, specifically on the matter of money. 320K is not much at all. In fact when it comes to game development it is nothing. The cost of keeping the lights on alone is often more than this for major studios and paying even a few token employees would be far more than this. That is the beauty of the whole project though, we are not currently running things like most studios would.

    First, there are no employee costs, At least not yet. Personally I would love to have a check with my name on it from MWM some day. But the fact is that as of now we are an all volunteer staff. Most of the people working on this game as of now are professionals in other fields who simply felt a passion for the game and wished to see a spiritual successor in some form or another. This is not to say that we lack for talent by any means. Anyone currently in the 'inner core' of development has skills on par with professionals in the field for writing, graphics design or other such. In fact many of these professionals would be making a decided 'downward' move if they stayed on full time with us rather than keeping the jobs they have after launch.

    So while I refuse to even suggest we suffer for it, currently the employee cost on every level is 0

    This is also being done online which has numerous benefits, including my own personal favorite. No Office. At this point we simply have no use for one and between geographical gaps for the Devs and the cost of keeping the lights on it is a huge saving when compared to how most traditional companies operate. Ignoring how nice it is to simply wake up, get on the computer right away and simply jam out lore until one has to run errands or go to a 'day job' we have basically zero cost for operating at this point because everything is done over the internet. Security is again handled by volunteers who know what they are doing and really an office would be a liability to us at this point.

    So that is another area where the cost is 0

    In the end what this KS pays for really boils down to a base fee to Unreal as part of our deal with them (covered in previous interviews with people higher up the ladder than I, so I will not go into detail here) and 'seats' for art programs so our artists can stop using free versions of rather poor programs that do not work well.

    This is still a considerable cost, and reason you should throw some money at us if you have not already. The more we have the more we can do. But this 320K is not the end cost of the game. We have slashed the overhead to ribbons, and will probably be looking at sources of funding outside of this campaign as things progress. The KS was and is simply a way for us to get the Artist types their tools so they may do their job properly here and now, so that they can keep up with those of us doing Composition or the programmers who are able to work with Unreal unhindered.

    I understand the worry, and to be honest I personally have my worries that we can do this at times. But speaking as someone on the inside I know that my fellow Devs and I are motivated, we are skilled, and we are driven to a singular goal. Matters of Ego have been settled and put aside. Matters of Money were never really the issue for any of us going into this. We simply want to make a game, and trust me when I say we are pouring everything we have into it, and we all think you will like the end result.

    Also for the TL;DR crowd

    This money is by NO means the end budget, and we have cut many of the costs usually associated with making a game. Kickstarting a game of this scale is, as far as I know, Unprecedented. But it is only to get us what we need to keep going, and because we are not doing this for profit on the outset we are actually offering MORE quality. This literally is not 'just a paycheck' for any of us.

    I respect that you're willing to come here and defend your project in the face of criticism.

    But while you've argued that you can keep costs down, the real issue is, can you deliver a decent game?  There are some parts of creating a game that tons of people can do.  But some parts are just plain hard.  Not impossible, but hard enough that most people can't do them at all.  How do you hope to attract and retain the serious talent needed without the inducement that most games can use:  a paycheck?

    The key to that isn't getting people to sign up to work on your project in the first place.  It's getting them to hang around even when things go awry.  What happens when you get busy with other things in your life?  What happens when you decide that you don't like where the project is going?  If it's your job and you need the paycheck, it's not hard to use the paycheck to justify continuing to work away as best as you can.  But if you're unpaid and become convinced that the game isn't going to end well, do you really continue to lend your time to the project?  Can you guarantee that everyone else will, too--or even just the people with scarce skills that would be really hard to replace?

    Programming can also have a long ramp-up time.  When you're trying to work with code that someone else wrote, it can take quite a while to understand what is going on before you can be productive.  When you're only sporadically working on the project in your free time, it's that much worse.

    This is why most amateur projects are vaporware.  If all it cost was your time and you decide to give up, oh well.  No one else is wronged by that.  But once you take money, you owe it to your backers to deliver.

  • LuchRiLuchRi Member Posts: 9
    Originally posted by Quizzical
    Originally posted by LuchRi

    But while you've argued that you can keep costs down, the real issue is, can you deliver a decent game?  There are some parts of creating a game that tons of people can do.  But some parts are just plain hard.  Not impossible, but hard enough that most people can't do them at all.  How do you hope to attract and retain the serious talent needed without the inducement that most games can use:  a paycheck?

    The key to that isn't getting people to sign up to work on your project in the first place.  It's getting them to hang around even when things go awry.  What happens when you get busy with other things in your life?  What happens when you decide that you don't like where the project is going?  If it's your job and you need the paycheck, it's not hard to use the paycheck to justify continuing to work away as best as you can.  But if you're unpaid and become convinced that the game isn't going to end well, do you really continue to lend your time to the project?  Can you guarantee that everyone else will, too--or even just the people with scarce skills that would be really hard to replace?

    Programming can also have a long ramp-up time.  When you're trying to work with code that someone else wrote, it can take quite a while to understand what is going on before you can be productive.  When you're only sporadically working on the project in your free time, it's that much worse.

    This is why most amateur projects are vaporware.  If all it cost was your time and you decide to give up, oh well.  No one else is wronged by that.  But once you take money, you owe it to your backers to deliver.

    First I would like to thank you for being both Respectful and Frank. Many people in favor of the game sadly do not accept how hard it could be, and thus far has been. Likewise many people on various locations seem to point out reasons they think it will fail based solely on the low cost or our status as volenteers. I, and to my knowledge all members of MWM welcome open and constructive questions or criticism. It is the only way you can learn and improve no matter the field.

    As for your concern, you are absolutely correct. Most fan projects are indeed Vaporware and for every one you see finished countless others are abandoned by the wayside with perhaps a single nod to it on some forum post buried deep in an archive page. I would like to simply offer the token 'because we care' answer and leave it at that. But that is little more than pointless optimism with nothing to back it up. Nothing gets done on Optimism alone.

    I cannot speak for everyone on the project. My reasons for staying are my own after all. I would like to offer something concrete beyond passion and a sense of community, something as reliable or 'predictable' as getting work in compensation for pay. I genuinely can't. I can offer that since we have this money, and since MWM is actually an company that those holding 'board' positions have an interest to avoid liability of various sorts, but really that seems like small comfort.

    The only thing close to real comfort that I can offer is that our intention is to keep this going even if by some shocking turn of events every single person drops out of the project. Everything is consolidated and everything can be made available for people to pick up and carry on in a worst case scenario. I personally feel more confident in the projects continued existence in the foreseeable future largely because I have spoken with and worked with the people who are on it with me. I have gotten to know them and I have seen what motivates them and what they are capable of.

    If it helps at all we have already had quite a few shakeups behind the scene. People leaving or cutting back involvement due to Health, due to Ego, or in a few rare cases people planning to come back with an education that will help us move forward. Each and every time we have bounced back and continued to push forward, and in most every case I feel we have made ourselves better for it.

    Though I will confess, even if I am motivated by higher ideals than pay on a personal level. If this works out I won't say no to a paying writers position.

  • JIUBHUNNY420JIUBHUNNY420 Member Posts: 131
    Originally posted by LuchRi
    Originally posted by Quizzical
    Originally posted by LuchRi

    But while you've argued that you can keep costs down, the real issue is, can you deliver a decent game?  There are some parts of creating a game that tons of people can do.  But some parts are just plain hard.  Not impossible, but hard enough that most people can't do them at all.  How do you hope to attract and retain the serious talent needed without the inducement that most games can use:  a paycheck?

    The key to that isn't getting people to sign up to work on your project in the first place.  It's getting them to hang around even when things go awry.  What happens when you get busy with other things in your life?  What happens when you decide that you don't like where the project is going?  If it's your job and you need the paycheck, it's not hard to use the paycheck to justify continuing to work away as best as you can.  But if you're unpaid and become convinced that the game isn't going to end well, do you really continue to lend your time to the project?  Can you guarantee that everyone else will, too--or even just the people with scarce skills that would be really hard to replace?

    Programming can also have a long ramp-up time.  When you're trying to work with code that someone else wrote, it can take quite a while to understand what is going on before you can be productive.  When you're only sporadically working on the project in your free time, it's that much worse.

    This is why most amateur projects are vaporware.  If all it cost was your time and you decide to give up, oh well.  No one else is wronged by that.  But once you take money, you owe it to your backers to deliver.

    First I would like to thank you for being both Respectful and Frank. Many people in favor of the game sadly do not accept how hard it could be, and thus far has been. Likewise many people on various locations seem to point out reasons they think it will fail based solely on the low cost or our status as volenteers. I, and to my knowledge all members of MWM welcome open and constructive questions or criticism. It is the only way you can learn and improve no matter the field.

    As for your concern, you are absolutely correct. Most fan projects are indeed Vaporware and for every one you see finished countless others are abandoned by the wayside with perhaps a single nod to it on some forum post buried deep in an archive page. I would like to simply offer the token 'because we care' answer and leave it at that. But that is little more than pointless optimism with nothing to back it up. Nothing gets done on Optimism alone.

    I cannot speak for everyone on the project. My reasons for staying are my own after all. I would like to offer something concrete beyond passion and a sense of community, something as reliable or 'predictable' as getting work in compensation for pay. I genuinely can't. I can offer that since we have this money, and since MWM is actually an company that those holding 'board' positions have an interest to avoid liability of various sorts, but really that seems like small comfort.

    The only thing close to real comfort that I can offer is that our intention is to keep this going even if by some shocking turn of events every single person drops out of the project. Everything is consolidated and everything can be made available for people to pick up and carry on in a worst case scenario. I personally feel more confident in the projects continued existence in the foreseeable future largely because I have spoken with and worked with the people who are on it with me. I have gotten to know them and I have seen what motivates them and what they are capable of.

    If it helps at all we have already had quite a few shakeups behind the scene. People leaving or cutting back involvement due to Health, due to Ego, or in a few rare cases people planning to come back with an education that will help us move forward. Each and every time we have bounced back and continued to push forward, and in most every case I feel we have made ourselves better for it.

    Though I will confess, even if I am motivated by higher ideals than pay on a personal level. If this works out I won't say no to a paying writers position.

    +1

     

    Awesome response! Do you write for example, quest/mission-storylines? It sounds like it would be a dream come true for many of us, to write for a Superhero based...well anything!

    J-Hun Lookin to Creep Yall!

  • LuchRiLuchRi Member Posts: 9
    Well because I write quite a bit for personal use in Tabletop games (My other project currently is converting my old 3.5 D&D setting to pathfinder and getting arts so I can publish it) I am part of the composition team. That means the base lore for Quests, Factions, NPCs, and really pretty much everything falls into the lap of My contemporaries and Myself. Luckily we also have amazing Editors who work closely with us without trying to overwrite everything, so thus far it has been a pretty smooth experience as far as Collaborative writing goes.
  • MysteryBMysteryB Member UncommonPosts: 355
    I will never forget City of Heroes/Villains, I loved every minute I played those games, just donated to the Kickstarter, I dont have a ton to give but if we all pitch in we can make this game bigger, better and as a community we will all grow stronger in the long run.

    Mystery Bounty

  • TnecniwTnecniw Member Posts: 2
    Well, this seems interesting. I hope they just improve on the gameplay and the graphics. I LOVED the costumization. It was really deep. If they would change anything I would love them to make sure you can use all powers but not all costumizable options. ( like if you pick rock powers. You can choose any color you want. But if you pay you can use crystal instead, does the same things but look more cool )
  • TnecniwTnecniw Member Posts: 2
    I would love if they started the game with REALLY weak but really many enemies. Cause if you are a new villian ( barely known ) they won't send swat teams or anything. Just weak cops. It would be hilarous to have the first set of quests where you are destroying cop after cop. ( later they would ramp it up with bigger stuff and then supernatural. but not as many ) and they should add something imersive like. If you are super strong I think it would be nice if you punched a weak cop and he FLEW like 10 feet ( that would only work on really weak units but still ) or if you had my favorite ( in CoH ) sound powers, the cops would hold their hands to theirs ears while they where sinking to the floor. Something like that. Of course the higher enemies would be more resistant but it would be nice if they reacted to what power you had instead of just falling down defeated.
  • AlBQuirkyAlBQuirky Member EpicPosts: 7,432

    Thanks, LuchRI, for your input and clarifications :)

    I hope for the best on the project and do publicly wish it comes to fruition. I also enjoyed my time in CoH and look forward to seeing how your project progresses. It is daunting, for sure, but I feel (with your responses) that the team seems to be on the same page, thus far.

    For the first time, I will be backing a Kickstarter project :)

    - Al

    Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.
    - FARGIN_WAR


  • CalerxesCalerxes Member UncommonPosts: 1,641
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Sovrath
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by TheRealDarkeus
    Depending on how much money this makes, I wonder if NCSoft will kick itself in the ass....

    Well for starters 320k, even 1 million, even 10 million isn't a blip on a major companies radar.

    Then there is the fact NCSoft saw exactly how much they weren't making with CoH, so I don't think there will be any regrets.

     

    Lastly, this amount is not enough to make an MMO. I don't know how these guys plan on getting something out the door and how much quality they expect it to have, but I wouldn't expect this to bring in hordes of players on that type of budget.

    Keep in mind that they can get other investors (investment companies) based upon the interest they have generated.

    Those investment companies will invest x amount of dollars with the idea of recouping that money as well as a profit over a certain amount of years that they are in business.

     

     

    That would be very contrary to the entire point of kickstarter in the first place and since investors of that size would have say, it would also likely anger those who did toss some money into the kickstarter.

     

    I think it is far more of this huge group of people who wants X MMO to exist, or X MMO to come back, but at the same time doesn't quite understand the massive amount of time and resources it really takes so they set low kickstarter goals only to find out later they can't finish what they promised on the budget they have. We've certainly seen some video game kickstarter projects go down that very path.

     

    The guys who are making Pathfinder Online, Goblinworks used a kickstarter to make a tech demo to show potential investors what they were capable of. They then came back and did another kickstarter so they could raise funds to speed up the development and release after getting a good amount of investors interested with the original tech demo. Kickstarter projects can be used in many ways. Even Richard Garriot a multi-millionaire famous developer of rpg's is kickstarting his new venture. 

    This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up™ the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.

  • OrdeathOrdeath Member Posts: 22

    To Bad people are playing COH/COV illegally right now.

     

    Only the Dead See the End of War

  • LuchRiLuchRi Member Posts: 9
    Originally posted by Ordeath

    To Bad people are playing COH/COV illegally right now.

     


    It happens with almost every 'dead' MMO at one point or another. SW Galaxies Online, Phantasy Star Online, You name it and there are private servers and hacked code for it. I think personally that it is a very grey area, morally at any rate. what NCsoft did was wrong, and its not like people are simply seeking to turn a buck off of the IP. But it is not theirs sadly. NCsoft has it, they will sit on it and the reality is it could end up harming us if NCsoft decides that they can try to legalstomp us by tying the game up in court till it goes away.

    Naturally they could try that anyways. if and When they do I expect them to find a few nasty surprises in store for them sine it is indeed an unethical process and we are not defenseless in that regard.

    I don't like to think about the bad things that could happen from it, and yes it is illegal. But I have a hard time calling it outright immoral. We all miss the game. It isn't like most single player games where you can go to some site and buy a cart or CD of something you miss for ten bucks or dig it out of the boxes you left in your Moms Basement when you moved out. That is the part that hurts the most. I can still go back and stick in my ten year old memory card for my PS2 and play my old Summoner file if I want. But These people are unable to go back to Paragon without skirting the law.

  • lumpking69lumpking69 Member Posts: 18
    Considering how small and niche the comic book video game market is, I dont see this doing very well for very long. Throw in the fact that it will have to compete directly with DC and Marvel who now have their own games out and shit gets dicey! I do wonder what Matt Miller has to say about this though. I would love his two cents!
  • XthosXthos Member UncommonPosts: 2,740

    Well, a positive for them is they are not going to have to pay for the super hero IP, if they are not using marvel/DC, so this will help them with profit.

     

    SWG would probably of never been NGE'd or killed if it wasn't for the IP control/payments.

     

    A IP is great at getting you more customers, but I think it more often ends up being a negative in the end.

  • jpnolejpnole Member UncommonPosts: 1,698
    There's no point to any of this with Marvel Heroes currently sitting atop the super hero genre.
     
  • LuchRiLuchRi Member Posts: 9
    Originally posted by lumpking69
    Considering how small and niche the comic book video game market is, I dont see this doing very well for very long. Throw in the fact that it will have to compete directly with DC and Marvel who now have their own games out and shit gets dicey! I do wonder what Matt Miller has to say about this though. I would love his two cents!

    With all due respect to both Marvel and DC, the thing that works in our favor at CoT is that many, MANY people who fit into that super hero Niche like neither game. DCs offering has its loyal following but many who played CoH can find very little to enjoy about it due to a lack of agency in many regards. As for Marvel, well to be frank that game is very much cast in the Diablo mold. It is akin to other games that have been made in the past by Marvel (among them the wonderful Rise of Apocalypse) but is in every case a grindy dungeon crawler, almost the exact opposite of what we are making in many regards.

  • TamorandTamorand Member UncommonPosts: 18
    For those stating that CoT isn't being forthcoming enough - just go to the KS page.
    It's full of info, not to mention the CoT website - www.cityoftitans.com
    All questions any of you have asked has already been answered on the KS page. Check it out its worth your time.

    image

  • MagereBirdMagereBird Member UncommonPosts: 8
    Originally posted by lumpking69
    I do wonder what Matt Miller has to say about this though. I would love his two cents!

    Well, Matt Miller (Positron) has backed the project.  War Witch backed the project also.  So have I.  Not super thrilled about an 'all volunteer' project, but it seems worth a shot.

  • GladDogGladDog Member RarePosts: 1,097
    That $320,000 may be the asking price for the City of Heroes engine and city maps.  If so, that is cheap!  Once they have that, they can build a game very easily, and as has been stated, there are probably a lot of investors ready to kick in once they make specific goals.


    The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!


  • LuchRiLuchRi Member Posts: 9
    Originally posted by MagereBird
    Originally posted by lumpking69
    I do wonder what Matt Miller has to say about this though. I would love his two cents!

    Well, Matt Miller (Positron) has backed the project.  War Witch backed the project also.  So have I.  Not super thrilled about an 'all volunteer' project, but it seems worth a shot.

    Well like I said I at least would be HAPPY to take a paycheck. It would be far better than looking for seasonal work at Kohls while my Engineering degree continues to do me no good. But we if they paid us, or even those of us who don't make more at our 'day' jobs the game would never get made. Some of us who work on it now may well stay on after for pay when the game can sustain staff. Speaking for myself though, I treat this the same as I would a paying job and those I have spoken to at least do as well.

  • ArconaArcona Member UncommonPosts: 1,182
    14 hours left, looks like aroun 700k, nice
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