The Lost Pisces |KS| The Little Mermaid meets UE4-powered futuristic shooter

SigSig said:
Bruh...
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Okay yeah so the source material pre dates the film. I get that. But what they're doing is the equivalent of the Princess from Frozen showing up in The Matrix Reloaded. It makes a cool project that would light the fire of the hardcore PC audience they're going for write this off because it makes a potentially cool looking project seem profoundly uncool if that makes sense. Most people associate The Little Mermaid with the colourful, childlike Disney film. It just strikes me as a mistake that's going to cost them backers.
 
The Little Mermaid is the least of this Kickstarter's problems. They don't even have an "About the dev's" section on their KS page.
 
I'm all for trying to do new shit with Kinect, but that looked super rough. I know it's early, but a less is more approach probably would have been the better play with that gameplay footage. Either that, or focus more on how the actual game plays.
 
I can't imagine how the campaign would have gone if they stuck to the original concept of PC only before confirming Xbox One support....

This will sound like a dick thing to say, but the KS campaign doesn't delve into any of the interesting components of the game. They focused so hard on Kinect (which is the least appealing aspect to most people) instead of selling people on the awesome story and rich lore. Honestly, I wish they copy/pasted parts of the IGM cover story into the campaign instead of using some of the text they went with. There's so much potential story/character-wise, and none of that comes through in the campaign.
 
Ghost_Messiah said:
Okay yeah so the source material pre dates the film. I get that. But what they're doing is the equivalent of the Princess from Frozen showing up in The Matrix Reloaded. It makes a cool project that would light the fire of the hardcore PC audience they're going for write this off because it makes a potentially cool looking project seem profoundly uncool if that makes sense. Most people associate The Little Mermaid with the colourful, childlike Disney film. It just strikes me as a mistake that's going to cost them backers.
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Uh no, actually what they're doing is the equivalent of taking the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen (you know the story Frozen is based on) and smashing it into a sci-fi setting. I don't see how that's a mistake or how that would cost them backers.
 
The art designer(s) have created some incredible work. I wish them luck.

I thought this was going to be an action game where you play as the female. Would have been sick I had all kinds of crazy moves she could do going on in my head before i watched the video.
 
HeroesInAHalfShell said:
I can't imagine how the campaign would have gone if they stuck to the original concept of PC only before confirming Xbox One support....

This will sound like a dick thing to say, but the KS campaign doesn't delve into any of the interesting components of the game. They focused so hard on Kinect (which is the least appealing aspect to most people) instead of selling people on the awesome story and rich lore. Honestly, I wish they copy/pasted parts of the IGM cover story into the campaign instead of using some of the text they went with. There's so much potential story/character-wise, and none of that comes through in the campaign.
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Not a dick thing to say, it's true. Kind of like Little Devil Inside before the devs improved their page, the Pisces campaign is very light on the important info that potential backers are looking for. Who are these developers? What kind of experience do they have? What will the funds be used for?

What's the gameplay like?
The Lost Pisces is a new path to gameplay. At a top level the game will play like a third person adventure style game. We blur the line of strategy, open world exploration, and elements of a FPS.
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That tells us nothing. That's pretty much the extent that the devs talk about the mechanics and gameplay. A game like this, the average person isn't going to care as much about the Kinect AI stuff as much as the weaponry, bosses, shooting mechanics, etc. Compare that to Umbra's page.
 
HeroesInAHalfShell said:
If you guys compile a list of questions you have about the game, I'll forward them directly to the devs and ask them to refine the campaign.
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Basically, I think they should expand on what makes the gameplay unique.
- What kind of futuristic weaponry and equipments are at our disposal?
- Describe how we fight one of those towering bosses.
- What are the strategy elements?
- How does Pisces help the player; is she comparable to Ellie and Elizabeth (providing health, ammo, alerting you to danger, etc.)?
- There was third person climbing in the gameplay clip; perhaps the devs could discuss that a bit. Is the gameplay a mix of first person action and third person climbing and driving?
- Is the game linear? Open-ending? The devs said "open world exploration"; how expansive is the world?

- Provide a breakdown of the funds will be used for
- Talk more about the dev team and their experience
- What's the plan if the game isn't funded? Is that it, or will development continue at a lower pace, with less features?
 
Sorry for the double post, the devs got back to me with some critical info that would change the campaign if they got the information out there immediately. I'll post an excerpt of their response (bolded by me for emphasis):

"You're absolutely right that these should be addressed. The team chatted here and we think that Monday would be a good time to do a Twitch (still deciding if twitch is the way to go or not) broadcast in the evening and chat about how we see the project going, and addressing questions like those you mentioned. Biggest thing I think is: no.... you don't need a Kinect for the game. It allows for some really unique and cool scenarios, but you don't NEED one. Crazy how many times that gets asked.

But I did want to say that in no way does the project being funded or not, affect whether we keep working on the project. What I had hoped people would gain from the video of our team working on this, is that this is a passion project... something we love to work on. The money would help propel it along significantly, but it's not going to be the death of the project if it doesn't get funded. We have fun doing it... and who doesn't want to keep having fun?!

Anyway, I agree with he other email you sent too... that Kinect is killing us! It's so surprising how people are just not that into it. We have always thought that the device is insanely cool... it's just that most games use it in the wrong way. Kinect has it's glitchy-ness and unresponsiveness (which we think is acceptable since the device is trying to do some amazing things at a crazy-low price point) so it's not great as a direct-control input device. But when it comes to grabbing useful additional data, in conjunction with a traditional controller, we think it's an amazing tool! It's just too bad that folks are so jaded by it."
 
Devs seem kind of biased if they don't understand why people would be less interested in some unusual Kinect AI element in their game rather than the unique atmosphere and gameplay potential. It's less that people are jaded by it and more than people don't really need to use it. It's just an extra peripheral.

A game like Fru, sure I'd totally be interested in the Kinect element. But that game is centered around Kinect interaction. This? It's just a small part among other more important aspects that the devs should highlight more like gameplay and lore and the environment
 
When I first saw the project, I interpreted it to be the next stage of what Project Milo was aiming to accomplish. So honestly I thought Kinect was the most important part. But then I learned about the story and characters and that's what really sold me.

Still, I'm almost disappointed that Kinect is secondary to the experience. The real draw of this, for me anyway, was the Emotional Intelligence of Pisces, which is directly tied to her perception of you via Kinect. I guess mapping "command" buttons to a controller works too in terms of feeding her information about your intentions (admittedly more accurately than any current Kinect sensor would), but I'm more intrigued by teaching AI to perceive and adapt to human emotion.

I guess I'm just the sucker who willingly creates SkyNet.
 
There's no real gameplay in their video at all... This is super scary. 200k, no mentioning of them gaining a publishers interest and looks that could be from a AAA game (which means that they probably have a monthly burnrate of at least 50-100k). But they're basically asking people to pledge 200k+ USD on visuals alone, which is a bit much to ask for.

There's nothing that shows people why this game would be interesting and new, why we need another First Person Shooter and what they're actually going for gameplay-wise. Just kinda feels to me like a bunch of artists that had an idea that they felt was great, but really, that's just the icing on the cake when it comes to games.

Again, I just don't think Kickstarters of games without a real gameplay demo should be a thing. It's way too difficult to make games, especially on this kinda scale and unless they have something playable that shows tremendous potential, I just think they don't know what they've signed up for.
 
orthodoxy1095 said:
Uh no, actually what they're doing is the equivalent of taking the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen (you know the story Frozen is based on) and smashing it into a sci-fi setting. I don't see how that's a mistake or how that would cost them backers.
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Okay so fair enough. It can probably be argued either way whether the reference to The Little Mermaid is having any effect on the campaign. The point I was trying to emphasise is that this KS is failing and failing hard. 200K at their current extremely slow pledge rate is going to be nigh on impossible. So what are the reasons for this KS' spectacular failure thus far? It always mystifies me when games, particularly those targeted at the PC crowd fail on KS when the game itself looks as impressive, cool and visually striking as Lost Pisces does. This KS should hypothetically be succeeding based on similar projects that have had campaigns targeted at the PC audience in the past. I'm just mystified as to why they're failing so stupendously when all logic points to them succeeding with ease with a project like this. This KS is just not going to make it. Not with a goal that high. Even if their goal was 50K I'd still have my doubts.

So why did this project fail to light the fire of the masses and gain traction?
 
Ghost_Messiah said:
Okay so fair enough. It can probably be argued either way whether the reference to The Little Mermaid is having any effect on the campaign. The point I was trying to emphasise is that this KS is failing and failing hard. 200K at their current extremely slow pledge rate is going to be nigh on impossible. So what are the reasons for this KS' spectacular failure thus far? It always mystifies me when games, particularly those targeted at the PC crowd fail on KS when the game itself looks as impressive, cool and visually striking as Lost Pisces does. This KS should hypothetically be succeeding based on similar projects that have had campaigns targeted at the PC audience in the past. I'm just mystified as to why they're failing so stupendously when all logic points to them succeeding with ease with a project like this. This KS is just not going to make it. Not with a goal that high. Even if their goal was 50K I'd still have my doubts.

So why did this project fail to light the fire of the masses and gain traction?
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Have you seen their Kickstarter page? It barely gives any info about the game, focusing almost entirely on their Kinect emotions system and the story, in a rambling fashion, rather than focusing on the gameplay, lore, environment, and other core mechanics. The little gameplay they do show is at a horrible framerate and not presented as you would expect for the first major showcase of gameplay would be. There's no info on the devs or what the funds will be used for. Combine all that with the high goal, and you got a visually wonderful project with an interest concept that anyone who has experience with Kickstarter would be wary to back.

The campaign has much more critical issues than The Little Mermaid
 
Yeah the whole campaign is a mess, almost all the key words they use to try to hype the game up give off red flag rather than well hype. The lack of budget breakdown for a goal this big is by far the biggest issue they need to address. Nothing makes people more uneasy then not knowing where their money is going.
 
Yeah, the Little Mermaid bit is far from why this game might not reach its goal. It's very ambitious looking, which might be part of the problem as people have no real clue who the dev team is and if they can complete this project. It's becoming increasingly harder to trust KS devs with no solid background, so it's no surprise people aren't as willing to throw down on a KS like this.
 
More_Badass said:
Have you seen their Kickstarter page? It barely gives any info about the game, focusing almost entirely on their Kinect emotions system and the story, in a rambling fashion, rather than focusing on the gameplay, lore, environment, and other core mechanics. The little gameplay they do show is at a horrible framerate and not presented as you would expect for the first major showcase of gameplay would be. There's no info on the devs or what the funds will be used for. Combine all that with the high goal, and you got a visually wonderful project with an interest concept that anyone who has experience with Kickstarter would be wary to back.

The campaign has much more critical issues than The Little Mermaid
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Yeah, I'm kind of baffled how anyone can look at this KS and thinks "this should be succeeding." It emphasizes a poorly regarded and expensive accessory that the target audience for most Kickstarters does not own in great amounts. It tells us very little about the devs (who are generally unknown anyway). It offers little in specifics. It is more ambitious than a lot of AAA type games on paper. This thing is throwing out more red flags than a soccer ref.

The KS has one thing going for it, and that's the art style of the game, which if you look back at this thread, you'll see nearly everyone is responding to the art and the general gameplay ideas.
 
I see the campaign got updated a bit. They'll be getting into specifics in video diaries during the campaign, but at least folks can see Kinect is not required and get a better sense of of the game's direction.
 
Game has a very interesting concept behind it and the art design is certainly top-notch, however, I'm beginning to understand why they didn't throw out that gameplay video right away... it's a jank-fest in all aspects.

I'll keep my eye on the campaign over the coming days, but I really don't see them salvaging this.
 
HeroesInAHalfShell said:
I see the campaign got updated a bit. They'll be getting into specifics in video diaries during the campaign, but at least folks can see Kinect is not required and get a better sense of of the game's direction.
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Yeah Kinect seems to have been stripped from the pitch entirely. Glad they're observing where this is failing and taking the necessary steps to iterate and improve their campaign. To echo others though I think this might be beyond repair at this point. 5K and the speed to which they reached it in conjunction with their ambitious overall funding target seems beyond reach. They needed to make a much stronger initial impression. A strong, compelling and convincing gameplay demo and killer trailer would have spoke volumes and worked wonders.

They definitely should have waited until they had hard gameplay to show. It's a shame but I think they may have lost everyone with their first impression here.
 
Love the music, love the art but hate the fact, that you play another semi-bald guy with a gun that takes a quarter of the screen. I will follow this project nevertheless.
 
Campaign updated again with a little more info and a crap ton more images. It's now described as "a hybrid between a third-person adventure game, and first-person intimate experiences between you, the gamer, and an AI NPC called Pisces. It's an experiment really... not your usual game!" (See: FAQ section)

The comic book arc "Identity Crisis" comes to mind.
 
HeroesInAHalfShell said:
Campaign updated again with a little more info and a crap ton more images. It's now described as "a hybrid between a third-person adventure game, and first-person intimate experiences between you, the gamer, and an AI NPC called Pisces. It's an experiment really... not your usual game!" (See: FAQ section)

The comic book arc "Identity Crisis" comes to mind.
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A couple of people said it best: The Lost Pisces has so far delivered the perfect checklist of what NOT to do in a crowdfunding campaign.
 
It was pitched as a sci-fi post-apocalyptic game with a shadow of the colossus atmosphere and Lovecraftian nightmarish monsters stomping around.

I was really, really interested. Then it turns out you play as a space marine in fps style. That really put me off the game.
 
rip :(
18798215724_b6176af08f_c.jpg
 
It was a demonstrably bad impression for a game that screams potential. Developers should take note not to over-emphasize "what if" scenarios such in the case of Kinecy and instead highlight the aspects of why the game DIFFERENCIATES itself from other IPs.
 
Honestly it doesnt appeal to me at all.

The art direction is all over the fucking place. The mech mermaid thing looks like a pastiche of matrix/oblivion/recent sci fi blockbuster design with some bland bald space marine guy. They just cited shadow of the colossus to get you guys on board, completely missing the point of what made the art direction in that game stronger.


Look at Horizon on how you can do interesting character designs and then mix it with a foreign environment. Talking purely about art direction so Im not even judging the graphics at a technical level.
 
Thought they cancelled it after not getting kickstarted. Seems they didn't give up? Which would be good as I still find the concept really interesting.
 
More_Badass said:
New screenshots

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CXrMYwzUAAAcl3P.jpg
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Those are looking great. I saw them post on Twitter and I was very happy to see they didn't give up on the game. It looks like they injected more color into the game which looks lovely.

Flandy said:
Would it be too much to hope for that they changed it to a 3rd person game where you play as the mermaid? :x
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I can see it being fun playing as the mermaid but I really liked their original concept where a large focus of the game was your relationship with Pisces.
 
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