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General: The Far Reaches: Open Ended Sci-Fi MMO Launches Kickstarter
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Far Reaches is an open-ended sci-fi themed MMO that has just recently launched a Kickstarter initiative. The site describes the game as one that will push the boundaries of today's virtual worlds. The team is hoping to raise $60,000 in the next nearly two months.
TFR is an MMORPG that's designed from its foundation to feel and function more like a simulated universe than a traditional, theme park style MMO. TFR offers a tremendously open ended experience and next generation gameplay to produce the most immersive, fun environment possible.
TFR features an immense variety of gameplay, facilitated by its profession and skill based system of character progression.
Players have an unprecedented ability to change the worlds of TFR, through its system of player structures, player cities, and variable NPC dynamics.
TFR's NPCs do much more than wander and fight. They build structures, craft items, spread rumors, have personalities, and maintain relationships with players. Plus much more!
Crafters matter in TFR. They produce virtually every usable item in the game through an intricate crafting system that requires skill and smarts to master.
TFR features a high stakes, faction based, world PvP system that encourages large scale battles that change the world.
TFR has no classes, levels, or instanced content whatsoever, representing a major departure from themepark style games.
Check out The Far Reaches Kickstarter page.
Comments
As long as its your money being risked.
Frankly, I am tired of KS projects promising the world for such a nominal amount of money- Yeah, 60K and they are going to do al this. This will ebe another case of continuing to go "back to the fans" because you "under-estimated costs" and since the fans will already be vested- They pony up more money or the game never comes. I imagine several times this project will "need more money" for things they never could have anticipated.
This will more likely be another greed monger- Perhaps not as scammy, but scammy nevertheless.
Good luck- I want a similar game to SWG- If it can be done by amatures for 60K they will make millions and tons will play. Will see at release.
Spoiler: Dont hold your breath though
EDIT- Seems to me these "devs" keep under-estimating the costs by a margin of at least 5 fold (or more)- Thing is, if they had asked for a half million they would never reach the goal but asking for 60K a bunch of times is easy...Almost looks planned that way- Nah...Just inexperience I suppose =P
No man- This sounds WAY better tha repopulation- Hell, this game souds like its goingto be perfect damn near.
And all for a mere 60K.
I am thinking of selling my home to fund a game. I will have at least twice that amount and then I can make a hell of a game- OR I could sell my house and use the money for a slick KS production and make 100 times my money doing almost nothing. The I can release a shitty alpha for arouund 20K and say "oops I failed- Sorry" and buy a bigger house with 2 half naked french maids and a butler/bodyguard.
Seems to be working great. The right promises and buzz words and the people will throw money at your feet.
JUst need to hurry up and do this before people catch onto the KS scams and quit being sooo trusting. Each scam that rolls in will hurt my pocketbook on my own scam...er..project.
I guess I've been lucky so far. Im 1/2 with kickstarter projects I backed actually producing something. Shroud of the Avatar has had 5 playable alphas already. Camelot Unchained, well lets just wait and see. The thing with kickstarter is it is a risk. But who knows what someone can accomplish if they never have the opportunity.
Yes, I have had good lucj with KS as well (that isnt my point to tar KS with a broad brush)
SOA wasnt asking for 60K to make their game and promising the world- It was actually a believable premise for a realistic amount of money and set goals.
Greed Monger asked for 30 K to make "the ultimate sandbox" and ended up getting waaay over 100K and still have jack shit to show for it almost 3 years later (if I remember) and with the alpha over a year late and backer rewards not yet sent. I am comparing this to Greed Monger and not SOA or SC or FTL or any of the games that have taken a somewhat realistic appraoch to crowd funding and not merely promise the moon and stars for less money than I make in a year (and I am poor , dammit)
You cannot make a game of any scope (especially MMORPG) for 60K. Period. And these scammers know this and either have no intention of making a game or plan to keep going back and begging for more because of "unplanned events" or whatever excuse they will use at the time of the next begging (assuming they make their goal the first time)
EDIT0- If you feel they " just need a chance" break out your credit card brother A whino on the street asking for food "just needs a chance" too and yet he will probably take that $20 you gave him to eat and pillage it on booze. True story.
I completely understand your position, with kickstarter you defiently need to have alot of confidence in what your backing or it could be disastrously dissapointing not only for yourself but the company involved.
On the same subject though, Im not quite sure what you feel is being presented with TFR that is overzealous or unbelievable.
If it solely rests on the 60k KS goal, you have to understand that this is a small team with a very focused central gameplay mechanic. Mainly an open sandbox with tons of world building and character progression/custimization.
There was actually an interesting video from GDC about indie developers and how they actually needed to "scale back" their games scope to be more realistic.
Think about games like everquest that literally had only a handful of monsters at launch and most of them were different colors and that was about it. Alot of indie devs try to make their game too elaborate in places that it doesnt need to be, and jack their costs up by being very inefficient and unrealistic (As you said).
My point here is, I dont feel that is the case with TFR, it seems fairly realistic in their needs for execution, but I do implore you, go on their forums and ask for a breakdown of why they need the 60k, what is it for, why do you need X amount for X system.
If you are actually looking to back the game of course, theres nothing wrong with questioning a developer, and im sure the developers of TFR would be more than happy to answer your questions as they seem very consistent in their communiy involvement.
Dude, +10000 for having a respectable comment even though you disagree with me. Seriosly. Lots of respect for you.
I have been on this damn forum far to long to spend any more time and give an appropriate response.
Suffice it to say- I hope a game this happens. really. I just more wanted to comment towards you to give you props for a great and well though out response at someone who sees things differnt than you.
-Thanks.
The trailer looks like garbled crap.
The Kickstarter page doesn't make it look any better.
Not even remotely intrigued.
This is one reason I'm so dismayed by the volume of cash Roberts has pulled in over the last year+. It will draw every scammer, would be designer, and con artist to the world of crowd funding video games. What began with a nice idea to get some player focused (rather than developer focused) ideals back into games, is drawing a worse crowd: The Scammers.
Not only will it draw the con artists, but would be developers are going to believe they can turn any KS into a weekly paycheck with stretch goals. I don't know where we go from here. I admit to taking a couple of risks early in the KS cycle, hoping and we'll see how that turns out, but these days, I'm not risking anymore..shame too..
I dont understand this mentality. I am in no way trying to convince you to put money towards this game, or even show a general interest in it.
But to compare it and the developer to Scammers and Con artists, based off literally no information or research into the game just doesnt seem right.
This developer is being very transparent about the process, speaking directly to the small, very niche community he hopes to bring to the game, and even outlined the past 2 years + of development in a post describing how he has made it to the this point, and how he has a 500+ page development plan for the rest of the game.
Again, I am not trying to convince you that this game will release, be good, or even deliver on every promise it puts out, but comparing the hard working people involved to scammers and con artists is just down right insulting, and unfounded.
I am neither for nor against Greed Monger in any way or form but just to be fair towards their Kickstarter they asked for 30K and were funded with 90K. This was on November 30th 2012. The fact that the promised alpha still isn't out and doesn't even seem to be in sight (judged from quickly skimming through their website) I'd say that the backers shouldn't be keeping their hopes up.
Now, with that said I completely agree with you that 60K is no where near the amount of funds that is needed for a game like TFR. The game does sound amazing indeed and it's right up my alley, especially with the whole SWG'ish take it has on everything. But for 60K? Not by a longshot, unfortunately
I have found in my lifetime, that the beauty of hating stupid people is, that it crosses all racial boundaries.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Hi, everyone - I'm Sam Ruggieri (the guy running the KS and developing TFR). I just came across this thread, and there's a lot of really good discussion going on. I thought I'd reply over here to talk to anybody in the community with questions about the game.
I quoted a bunch of Jacxolope's post, because it's honestly good stuff. If I saw TFR, my gut reaction would be similar. Oftentimes, if something sounds too good to be true, then chances are that it is. I'd like to try to address some of the common concerns that Jacx articulated here and talk to you guys about precisely how TFR is being developed.
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>I imagine several times this project will "need more money" for things they never could have anticipated.
This is a valid concern, and it's the question that many people seem to be asking. How can one person program an MMORPG for $60k? I've tried to provide a brief answer to this question in TFR's first KS update, which can be seen here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/440978664/the-far-reaches/posts/845415?at=-_POST_TOKEN_-&ref=backer_project_update
Or you can watch the quick video explanation here:
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Now, I'll start by noting that the project has been in full time development for a little over a year, and that I've invested roughly 50k of my own money in development thusfar. If the KS is funded (which it may very well not be), that would bring the total cost of development for the 1.0 release to a bit over 100k. That still sounds pretty low though, right? So how is it possible?
The chief reason that it's possible is because of advancements in game development middleware. TFR is built on top of boxed solutions that, in the hands of a competent software engineer, can be used to greatly accelerate game development. To start, I can't say enough great things about Unity and its asset store. I've purchased game assets (3d models and the like) that would normally cost an order of magnitude more and dropped them right into TFR. Unity's architecture is phenomenal, and it facilitates rapid development of the client's interfaces, input handling, and logic.
The server, too, relies extensively on existing middleware. Many of the low level details of connection management and communication protocols are handled by out-of-the-box solutions. It's a nearly universal addage of software engineering that, "It's cheaper to buy it than to build it." I live by this mantra. There are so many elements of an MMORPG that can be created by adapting existing solutions to fit a game's specific needs. Things like efficient communication protocols, high speed serialization mechanisms, frameworks for massively parallel processing - these things already exist, and there's no need to reinvent the wheel.
Now, that being said, there still is an incredible amount of code that has to be written, even if middleware is leveraged properly, to adapt it all to your game's specific needs. The way I make it happen is by applying the rigorous process and discipline to development. I can't tell you how many software projects fail simply because engineers refuse to employ a disciplined development process. If someone just sits down and decides to start coding an MMORPG, unless they're the Mozart of programming, it's never going to work.
Instead, one has to think, plan, and design before coding. TFR's development is accompanied by hundreds of pages of project scoping, requirements definition, functional specification, and most importantly, technical design. The reason that so much development on the game happens so quickly is because of all the planning that occurred (7 months worth) before a single line of code was written. The blueprints for TFR are all drawn up to a high degree of technical detail. Coding is simply an exercise of implementing those blueprints.
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>Seems to me these "devs" keep under-estimating the costs by a margin of at least 5 fold (or more)
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If it would help, I'd be completely willing to share the project's cost breakdown and specifically describe how the 60k number was reached. Don't worry! It wasn't pulled out of a hat. Rather, a full year of development, having employed contractors to make all the existing art assets, and consultations with managed server solutions have all gone into the figuring.
Now, there are some things that the project isn't going to deliver, but I think they're all clear from the KS page. For example, I'm not a 3d modeler, so I have to purchase art assets from contractors. Can 60k buy me AAA+ photorealistic graphics? No, it certainly can't. So TFR's graphics look a decade old. That's OK in my book, because I think they look nice, and I'm glad that I went with the full 3d approach, rather than opting for the lessened art requirements of a 2d or isometric game. TFR is all about its gameplay, and that's what I can create myself through the code.
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>Nah...Just inexperience I suppose =P
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One of the interesting things about my experience in the last few days has been a crash-course in the importance of name recognition. "Sam Ruggieri" isn't a name that people in the game industry know. I didn't realize that would count for much, but I'm starting to understand why it does. People can't see any titles I've worked on, so the assumption is that I can't possibly build something like TFR. As I reflect on this assumption, it's certainly not baseless. Who is this guy? Why does he think he can do this?
Well, I can't talk about any titles I've produced by myself, but I've worked as a software engineer for 7 years, and a few of those years were spent working in developing "serious" games (a term people use for games that are made for training purposes). My main experience in 3d game development is in working with VBS2, which is basically the military's version of ARMA2. I've worked on DARPA-funded AI research projects, and much of my experience is in developing AI and AI frameworks. I really love writing this sort of code, and that's why TFR's NPC system is what it is.
Much of the rest of my work has been on massively distributed simulation systems, which, at their core, are fundamentally similar to MMORPGs. I doubt anyone will know what JSAF is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Semi-Automated_Forces), but much of my exposure to networked simulation systems comes from JSAF related projects.
Software engineering is what I do - planning, building, testing, and successfully deploying software is my job. I know this isn't as cool as a video or anything like that, but feel free to take a look at my work history on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/samuel-ruggieri/23/658/b61
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So, my question to you guys is, what could I do from my end to help reduce some of the skepticism? Is there anything I can do to that end short of releasing a finished game?
I'd be glad to share the hardcore project planning / documentation / design, if anyone is interested in technical specifics. I'd have to edit a few pieces out (pieces that malicious gamers could exploit if they were trying to write hacks), but would it help if someone technical with reputation in the field could review TFR's architecture?
I have a bunch of gameplay videos posted on the website, but I just released a KS update this morning to show some of my favorites in one place:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/440978664/the-far-reaches/posts/845467
Would more gameplay videos help? Would a live stream of TFR, in its current alpha state, help?
I want to bring as much scrutiny as possible to TFR, because I think if I can show people who are technically in-the-know what I'm doing, they could recognize that it is, in fact, feasible.
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The ultimate irony that I'm sorta' facing at this point is that because TFR is so ambitious and its budget so small, I think people are brushing TFR aside as a scam. Never did the thought occur to me that the common reaction to the project would be one of doubt instead of excitement, but upon further reflection, it makes total sense. The doubt about its feasibility may ultimately wind up sinking the campaign.
Had I set out a year ago to produce another 16 bit platformer or isometric RPG, I may have had a better chance at generating interest than with something as ambitious as TFR. It's interesting the way these things work out sometimes...
Anyway, I hope I can engage people, talk to them, and try to show that TFR definitely isn't a scam or an impossibility on the stated budget. If there's any further feedback you guys could provide, I'd be really excited to hear it. Everything in this thread so far, including the entirely justified skepticism, has been a big help to me, though!
This person is either the best MMO scam artist I've ever seen or they just might have what it takes to come up with the next big game. If they're the latter then I'd rather invest than dontate on Kickstarter. If you donated then you lose everything and can't sue if the project goes dead.
Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.
Honestly, the right road for TFR might just be self funding. I get why it seems too good to be true, and the only way to dispel that notion might be to deliver the game.
I'll see how things go on the KS front, but we are in a stage of Kickstarter where crowd funding is getting to be shadier and shadier with people making bogus projects.
If I return to my old job, I can always keep developing TFR at night. It would take a few extra years to finish it, but nothing worth doing is easy.
**Edit**
And I had to chuckle, but I'm afraid I'd make a painfully incompetent MMO scam artist, as I can't seem to convince anyone that TFR is worth pre-ordering.
I said that you "might be the best MMO scam artist I've ever seen" because you appear to have your s*** together. You were prepared for skeptics and tried to provide answers and explanations to common concerns, AND you were also --> HERE <-- on site to view and address these concerns just like a good developer should. That is exactly the type of behavior players want within the gaming industry. You're not trying to dodge important issues or pay-off gaming news sites to report only positive news and delete unwanted criticism. This puts you a step up in my book.
Now, I did watch the posted video. When you say that TFR's graphics look a decade old you aren't kidding, and at this point in time it is an understatement. My favorite MMO launched ten years ago and it had better graphics way back then. I do hope you are intending to update those, otherwise the game won't fly on anything other than a smartphone or tablet.
As you know, there have been enough Kickstarter failures to make people very wary of donating money with little to no guarantee of a project's completion. People want more assurances, or even insurance so that they know their money is being spent in a way they expected it to, and they want to know that competent people with good reputations are the ones doing the spending. Not being widely known in the industry as other well known developers and executives obviously doesn't help. The best thing to do there is to get your butt to conventions and tradeshows and get plenty of face-time in front of cameras and giving interviews. And if you're already doing that, STEP IT UP! Keep it up and don't be afraid to talk to the little people because it'll eventually be the little people that buy your product (game), not the industry execs that spend all day making money instead of parking their butts in an office chair playing games for hours on end.
The video and details of TFR do seem promising. I honestly think the game would have a good chance in today's marketplace that is saturated with themepark and themepark/sandbox hybrids. I would definately be interested in donating to Kickstarter for TFR if it weren't for the fact that I prefer PvE to PvP. I'm a terrible PvPer and I get my butt handed to me so often that I rarely do it. That being said, I'm not interested in playing TFR so I have no reason to donate to Kickstarter because I'd get no return for my money. And as far as Kickstarters go I'm already setting aside some cash for another game in development that is being produced by a virtual studio with an all volunteer development staff. Said staff also have stated that they won't begin their Kickstarter until the game is at least 80% complete as this shows their level of commitment to the game and the players they are building the game for. Granted, an all volunteer staff working outside of a traditional studio setting with little money means that such a project will take longer, but this offers it's own early protection from Kickstarter scams and failures. I only wish that I could invest in the project directly rather than having to settle for a late Kickstarter.
Now when it comes to your game, investing sounds like a better possibility and a safer bet. All the right buttons have been pushed and I would feel confident opening my checkbook to get this thing moving if I knew I had a decent chance to gain back all of my money, and then some, over time. As I said before, donating gets me no return for my money no matter how well TFR may succeed in its lifetime.
I haven't read into any of the links you provided (because I'm not interested in playing TFR). If you're providing some sort of investor packets or information outside of Kickstarter then send me a message here and we can talk. Otherwise I will wish you well on both your Kickstarter and development of TFR.
Good luck and good gaming.
Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.
Sorry, my chuckle was half in jest. I just meant that there are much better scam artists out there than me.
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>When you say that TFR's graphics look a decade old you aren't kidding, and at this point in time it is an understatement. My favorite MMO launched ten years ago and it had better graphics way back then. I do hope you are intending to update those, otherwise the game won't fly on anything other than a smartphone or tablet.
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You're right on all counts. There's not a ton I can say about the graphics, beyond acknowledging that a lot of people will really dislike them, and many will find them prohibitively bad. By trade, I'm not a 3d modeler or graphics artist, so this is the piece that I have to rely on my contractors to provide. Talking budget with them, it was abundantly clear what an indie project on my level could and could not afford.
The cost of producing assets and models for a true 3d environment is why most indie games you see opt for 2d or isometric approaches. It was a road I could have gone down with TFR, but my preference was for full 3d. It feels much more like the MMOs I've enjoyed, even if it doesn't look nearly as good.
As an aside, have you ever played Dwarf Fortress? It may be the best single player game I've ever played, but its graphics are all ASCII. Not even sprites, running the unmodified version of the game. Its gameplay is unreal, though, and there's almost no way to describe how incredible it is. It's probably the most robust world simulation I've ever encountered, and I love it for its gameplay. The graphics matter, but I can look past them. Many people can't.
Anyway, I'm getting a bit off topic here. Lots of people outright won't play TFR because its graphics are pretty weak. It's a noted and presently accepted weakness that narrows its appeal.
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>As you know, there have been enough Kickstarter failures to make people very wary of donating money with little to no guarantee of a project's completion. People want more assurances, or even insurance so that they know their money is being spent in a way they expected it to, and they want to know that competent people with good reputations are the ones doing the spending.
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And that's the general vibe I've gotten on TFR. Even among people who find the game appealing, most fall into the, "I'll wait and see if he pulls this off" category, rather than wanting to back the project now. As an outsider who doesn't know me, I might fall into that category, too.
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>The best thing to do there is to get your butt to conventions and tradeshows and get plenty of face-time in front of cameras and giving interviews. And if you're already doing that, STEP IT UP!
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The biggest issue here is that booths at cons are expensive propositions. I suppose not recognizing the importance of this can be chalked up as a mistake on my part. As a player of games, I've never gone to a con, and I've never really paid much attention to cons. As a developer of a game, I thought my funds would be better spent building mechanics than advertising them. It appears, however, that both are essential. Or, at least the advertising part is.
As far as getting in front of cameras and giving interviews, I'd love to. Stepping it up is my aim, but getting someone to want to interview you is a real challenge. As you can probably tell, my career has been spent doing math and writing code, and, being completely honest, I don't know the first thing about marketing or PR. I'll see what can be done on this front, but my attempts thusfar have been incompetent, amateur flailing.
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>And as far as Kickstarters go I'm already setting aside some cash for another game in development that is being produced by a virtual studio with an all volunteer development staff. Said staff also have stated that they won't begin their Kickstarter until the game is at least 80% complete as this shows their level of commitment to the game and the players they are building the game for.
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Is this project public? If you'd want to share a link to their stuff, I'd be interested in seeing it. If I could give them a recommendation, based on my experience, it would be not to wait too long to get the project in the public's eye. Waiting to crowd fund the project is ethical and a smart approach, but I'd advise that they start building a community and getting attention as soon as possible.
As a gamer, I always go nuts waiting for games that are in development. When studios announce games 3 years before release and then provide scant information, I find myself crawling the walls. My rationale with TFR was like this: "I'm going to do things differently. I'll hold off on publicizing the project until there's lots of content to show and discuss. If I wait until I'm within a year of feature completeness, then people won't have to wait forever for the game. That will be nice!"
I'm finding that this was a pretty bone-headed choice, because by coming out of left field, it looks scammy. Had I stood up forums and the website a year ago instead of a month ago and really dedicated myself to publicizing TFR all the while, I might have some base of interested people to work from. Since I don't, things are more difficult.
Anyway, I appreciate your responses, and this thread has been very helpful. We can chalk up most of my mistakes to miscalculations and business ignorance. But perhaps it can be a cautionary tale to other indie developers.
I wouldn't say waiting this long was totally bad, but starting things a couple of months sooner would have helped. It's good to have something to show when you go to Kickstarter as people can see what you're doing and judge for themselves where you're likely to go.
I can see lots of potential in TFR and based on the details, if I were a gambling man, I'd bet money that worlds that live on their own, even without player interaction, will be where the future of virtual gaming is going. I'm sure you're familiar with 'The Sims' franchise of games. It started forteen years ago and is still going. I could be wrong but I'd say that simulation games of its type are here to stay and will continue to advance in complexity and detail.
As for the game I intend to donate to, it is currently titled 'Heroes and Villains'. It is a "spiritual successor" to 'City of Heroes' (2004-2012). The project has been public from the start and the developers, Plan Z Studios, have emphasized that generating profit is secondary to providing a new virtual home to all the players that were shut out of CoH when the owners, NCsoft, closed the game on November 30th 2012. There is no projected release date and the only investors are those that help build the game in whatever way they can, either by actively working on the game or submitting content and proposing ideas.
The other reason Plan Z won't begin their Kickstarter until 80% completion is that money currently won't help make the game any faster. What is needed now are more people to work at actually building the game. A quote from volunteer Lead HaV programmer/scripter Thazager reads:
"Many have signed up to help program, but with the high learning curve of the hero engine script and very little time to learn it (working and family), most have not joined in the programming, as its a non paid position until the game goes live."
That post was from April 22 and at that time Thazager was the only programmer at Plan Z. I'm guessing they still are.
Here's the site address if you're interested.
http://www.heroes-and-villains.com/phpb/home.php
Some of the things you're including in The Far Reaches are things I'd actually like to see in HaV.
Variable NPC dynamics.
NPCs that craft items, spread rumors, have personalities, and maintain relationships with players.
Crafters that produce virtually every usable item in the game through an intricate crafting system that requires skill and smarts to master.
All that is a big step up from what 'City of Heroes' had and I believe it could work in HaV. The development team might not want to take things quite that far, but with hero and villain story arcs stretching across dimensions and into outter space it's certainly a possibility. You'd really have to sign up to the forums and ask them about it yourself.
Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.
This project's very cool - I like their concept art, and it's got a great look and feel. I'll keep an eye on it for sure, and judging by the level of detail on their site, it has a lot of potential. Like SWG, there are a ton of people out there who really loved CoH, and pushing that sort of MMO to the next level would be a great thing for the genre.
As far as money not making the project go faster, I understand what their lead is saying, but I'll say that (in my experience) it depends on the circumstances of the specific project.
Integrating programmers into a development team for any kind of complex system takes a lot of time. I once changed jobs and went to an outfit whose core code base was half a million lines of arcane, domain-specific stuff. Now, any good engineer is going to start making contributions on some level within a month or two. But to really, and I mean really understand a complex codebase, it can take a year or more. So he's right, throwing money at the programming of an MMORPG isn't going to have immediate results, even if you can secure the services of elite developers.
As an aside, this is actually a bit of an advantage of the one man approach. I know how the entire codebase works in my head, and I don't have to spend my time coordinating with other people, making sure our parts of the system interface correctly, or anything like that.
In my experience, though, some things can be plugged into a game fairly readily. Static 3d assets, for example, can be outright bought from contractors. If they've already got a team of volunteer modelers and don't want to hire anyone from the outside, then money wouldn't do them any good. In TFR's case, however, this is where the money would help speed things up.
Regardless, to Jackalope's point, $60k is borderline chump change with respect to a typical MMO budget. So if the KS falls short, TFR can be funded the old fashioned way.
Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.
Sorry to see that your kickstarter failed. If you try again in a way where your investors were able to share in any potential profits I'd be very interested in funding TFR's production.
For now I wish you luck.
I've got a feevah, and the only prescription... is more cowbell.
"Look there is this free engine and it has a MMO plugin, lets make a MMO!"
Ok, he is going to develop a MMORPG with Unity. Have i not heard that a million times before. Sorry but he might have all the right intentions but it is not going to happen, not with Unity. This guy is a good salesman and he did his homework checking the Unity store for nice AddOns that promise MMO functionality.
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I have been programming C/C++/C# for more than 20 years mostly in professional client server applications and some in game engines such as Torque3D and Unreal which are highly optimized C++ engines.
The COM layer of C# is just way too much overhead for the small and preferably real-time calculations needed in a MMO client and server. The speed of the event driven engine and the latency compensation needed alone can not be done in C#.
In addition you will not be able to write a highly hardware optimized custom server software to run that MMO with Unity or C#, you have to code that in C++ on Unix.
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I wish him all the best but i sincerely doubt any good will come of this.