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[Ravidrath]

Just wondering will the physical edition be exclusive to us backers or at least this version will be exclusive?

The plan is for there to be a retail physical release, but the backer physical version will be better / different in some way and include any backer-exclusive content we fund.

You've really raised the bar.

We try.

And we really mean it when we say that we like working with the community to make our games. It was a pretty fantastic experience all around on Skullgirls, and I think it was pretty educational for all the backers about game development, too.

And I think this will be even better with a single player RPG.

Ravi, did you have a sketch or an idea about the giclee print? You mentioned it in the beginning of the campaign, but I'm not sure if I saw the information

No, this never happened - just too busy making art for campaign updates, videos, crossovers, etc. to sit down and do this.

I'd like to try and get those done sooner than later to help drive the post-campaign Slacker Backer period, though.

Also, Ravi, I have a question in regards to the narrative: How dark/serious will this be? Valkyrie Profile was pretty 'dark' in how it handled all the tragedies of its characters, but this game might be more silly and cute? Or what? I'm just wondering about the narrative and what you guys are going for

I don't think it'll be silly and cute, but it won't be quite as grim as Valkyrie Profile, either.

We want there to be moments of levity, jokes in the dialog, etc. But I think the overall story and scenario will be pretty serious.

 

[Shenmue]

The plan is for there to be a retail physical release, but the backer physical version will be better / different in some way and include any backer-exclusive content we fund.

Awesome! Thanks Ravi!

 

[Karsticles]

When this gets funded, I hope the title gets changed to "Skullgirls Curse gets KO'd".

 

[Edzi]

Really glad that this is gaining some steam again, so I decided to raise my contribution to $60. Fingers crossed that it makes it!

 

[zulux21]

I wonder if 505 is looking at this and go wondering "crowdfunding sure is stressful"

I don't imagine 505 has a ton of stress with this.

either it gets funded and they put up the agreed upon money, something they would do only if they had faith in the game/developers anyways.

or it doesn't and they move that money to something else.

I am sure there are some fans of the game getting stressed out on behalf of lab zero, but the company as a whole likely isn't super stressed. it's not like this project is make or break for them.

 

[Lime]

No, this never happened - just too busy making art for campaign updates, videos, crossovers, etc. to sit down and do this.

I'd like to try and get those done sooner than later to help drive the post-campaign Slacker Backer period, though.

No rush at all, I was just curious. You just focus on the final strech

I don't think it'll be silly and cute, but it won't be quite as grim as Valkyrie Profile, either.

We want there to be moments of levity, jokes in the dialog, etc. But I think the overall story and scenario will be pretty serious.

Sounds perfect, I can't wait!

 

[Dio]

I am sure there are some fans of the game getting stressed out on behalf of lab zero, but the company as a whole likely isn't super stressed. it's not like this project is make or break for them.

The way I understood it, Lab Zero is in danger of completely dissolving if this doesn't get funded. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[zulux21]

The way I understood it, Lab Zero is in danger of completely dissolving if this doesn't get funded. Correct me if I'm wrong.

lab zero is. 505 isn't. I'm talking about 505 in that statement and how it isn't make or break for them like it is lab zero.

 

[Dio]

lab zero is. 505 isn't.

Oh, misread that. I thought you phrased that different.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

I don't imagine 505 has a ton of stress with this.

either it gets funded and they put up the agreed upon money, something they would do only if they had faith in the game/developers anyways.

or it doesn't and they move that money to something else.

I am sure there are some fans of the game getting stressed out on behalf of lab zero, but the company as a whole likely isn't super stressed. it's not like this project is make or break for them.

I more meant that Lab Zero got this partnership in the first place because 505 Games was wondering how crowdfunding went about and this is basically their first impression with dealing with it. It's not in the sense of their stake in this project, more of a general impression.

 

[HellBlazer]

So today is now the second best day of the entire campaign (going by 9 am EST start time). And it's not done; if we get more than like $26K in the next 6 hours, we may even beat the very first day. Seems very possible at this rate.

Get those stretch goals ready, Ravi.

 

[Ravidrath]

I more meant that Lab Zero got this partnership in the first place because 505 Games was wondering how crowdfunding went about and this is basically their first impression with dealing with it. It's not in the sense of their stake in this project, more of a general impression.

Not sure if I've gone into it in this thread, but while this is 505's first time doing something with crowdfunding, I'm not sure they have any particular interest in it.

505 Games falls somewhere between a traditional publisher and a distributor - to reduce risk and make better games, they prefer the developer have some skin in the game.

For most devs, they have sales money to fall back on, or investors, etc. Since we didn't have that, crowdfunding was our way of providing our portion of the budget.

So while it's functionally similar to campaigns that "gauged interest," the intent is pretty different. And that's why we had to raise so much more than other projects like that.

 

[NEO0MJ]

No, this never happened - just too busy making art for campaign updates, videos, crossovers, etc. to sit down and do this.

I'd like to try and get those done sooner than later to help drive the post-campaign Slacker Backer period, though.

Will it be feasible to have us vote for one piece of art from among a few for this or would that cause problems?

 

[Ravidrath]

Will it be feasible to have us vote for one piece of art from among a few for this or would that cause problems?

We talked about this, and decided it would likely just cause problems.

 

[WolvenOne]

10K left until we hit 90%

 

[Labadal]

This may already have been discussed, but what could we have expected from possible stretch goals? More polish in general or added content?

 

[NEO0MJ]

We talked about this, and decided it would likely just cause problems.

I thought that was just for incarnations (oh man, can you imagine how awful it would be with people's color and ethnicity on the line?) oh well. Just don't make it something too cute

 

[Moonlight]

I thought that was just for incarnations (oh man, can you imagine how awful it would be with people's color and ethnicity on the line?) oh well. Just don't make it something too cute

Make it the cutest thing ever.

 

[PKrockin]

I finally decided to take a look at this game and downloaded the prototype. The movement is great, walljumping and climbing with the axe is satisfying. The dash doesn't feel much different from running and I would prefer a button or trigger rather than double tapping, but overall I think you nailed it.

The battle system is harder for me to get a handle on of course. I imagine demos for RPGs are tricky because you can't really get the experience of what the battle system is going to be like to play 20 hours in. The mechanics and nuances have to be carefully doled out to the player over a long period so as not to overwhelm them. Very few people are going to get to the end of the demo's 15 battles or so and not end up waiting for the action gauges to fill up and then button mashing until they empty. I'd played some games with similar battles so I got it quickly, but I'm not a fan of the UI. I was staring at the HP and action gauges nearly the entire time and only glancing over at the characters and enemies, rather than the other way around. Maybe this won't be a problem with practice and proper pacing in the full game, I dunno, but I want to watch these nice animations!

The idea of that nice fluid movement system in a metroidvania sort of world almost sells me on the game, it's just that I'm not a fan of this kind of half-realtime battle system. I'll take a second look at the game when it's nearer release and maybe buy it then. In the meantime good job so far and good luck with the campaign.

 

[Ravidrath]

This may already have been discussed, but what could we have expected from possible stretch goals? More polish in general or added content?

I get into this in the campaign text a bit, but they fall into two categories:

- General improvements to the core game that don't impact the team too much / won't delay the game significantly

- Post-release gameplay additions


So, for example, the first might include more music, an animate opening, new outfits for Ajna - things that we can mostly outsource and require less effort from the core team so we don't blow the schedule out.

The post-release gameplay stuff would be akin to a free Dark Souls-esque expansion, or the Plague of Shadows expansion for Shovel Knight. So multiple endings, super hardcore dungeon, co-op dungeons, etc.


The costs for the gameplay items tend to be much more, though, so we're going to alternate between the "fluffier" goals with more padding and the more intensive ones to balance the costs out. Because otherwise there would be wildly different costs between the stretch goals.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

So I wake up, and there's only 160k left to go.

Nice.

 

[AmethystEnd]

I just played the demo on my PS4 for the first time.

This game is godlike. Backing for a physical copy for sure.

[snip]

You may have already answered this, but will there be any way to change what tier I've backed at after the campaign is over?

 

[Numb]

I was referring to the madness of the other confessors in that thread.

Indivisible Douche was... like... the least worst one out of the all the bad ones.

I have seen some of the confessions in that thread believe me. That dude with the Mario Kart comparison with his sister most recent i checked out. Things are way too wild in there for normal humans lol

I'm more than happy to talk dev talk with people. My motto is to turn a frown upside down.

But there are just some gamers out there that explode when met with reality. Some back down, still holding their misguided views, but others just.... explode.

Type of explosion that only happens when people are watching tbh.It needs people as fuel.
Best to ignore them since they are a lost cause.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Make it the cutest thing ever.

Then it's going straight to the trash :/

 

[Lime]

I'm so happy with the new thread title. Much better than before.

 

[Metalic Sand]

Going to back this when i get paid on Thursday. I played a little bit of the demo on PS4 and thought it was pretty cool. I'd hate to see this game not make it.

 

[AmethystEnd]

Mike Z's cat is giving me Black Rabite flashbacks.

 

[Lime]

More fanart (click pictures for artists)

 

[erpg]

Really love Red's design. Well done, Lab Zero.

 

[kewlmyc]

Ok, it's totally going to make it at this point. Awesome.

 

[Justice_Bolt]

Wow! The game is getting funded for sure at this rate. Can't wait play this game i loved the demo.

 

[MrChom]

This final push is really making me curious about the stretch goals.



Yeah, I'm just amazed by "I don't like all these non-White characters in this game, I wish it failed"

I saw the main character and thought "Sorta reminds me of Korra...let's take a look"...then I saw it was based around a lot of Indian/Buddhist culture which was really interesting and not something you really see all too often.

Having watched some of the Dev videos I'm really happy I dropped £50 on this now. It looks like there's a lot of love put into this, and frankly it's not a third person action/adventure/shooter about a hero with a damaged past. It's fun, it's colourful, it's pleasingly chunky, it has awesome music, it's got a battle system that takes a while to get good at, and it's got some good Metroid style platforming.

I saw Skullgirls and loved the art originally, but I'm not a 2d fighter fan so I could never really justify buying it...this, however, fills me with hope that we can get something good in the genre again.

 

[TatteredHat]

I finally got around to trying out the prototype on steam, the character designs are nice but the overall gameplay and combat system just didn't grab me. Especially near the end where I ended up in some sort of long drawn-out slog against a sphinx looking monster which I can only assume was the boss, it just wasn't fun.

So I won't be pledging, but luckily for the people who did enjoy the prototype it seems like the game is on course to being funded anyway.

 

[Ultimadrago]

Then it's going straight to the trash :/

Not mine! They may go full kawaii desu ne uguu.

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

I went to bed shortly after we hit $1.3 million.

I see that we've gotten nearly 50k in those ten hours.

I have a good feeling about this.

 

[Intel_89]

About 150K to go, this might see the light of day after all which is a good thing seeing how fun the prototype was.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Is that almost $50,000 in 12 hours? Wow

 

[Busaiku]

Less than 10%!
I think it could happen today, but it's definitely happening tomorrow for sure.

 

[More_Badass]

Too bad Crowdcharts is down. Any other ways to see a chart of this campaign's daily progress?

 

[darkblade77]

Took my pledge up to 250 this morning.

Let's see this thing funded!

 

[SolarPowered]

Less than 10%!
I think it could happen today, but it's definitely happening tomorrow for sure.

Day 55 -8AM-$1,203,681 9AM-$1,204,271 #18,997 Saturday
Day 56 -8AM-$1,245,837 9AM-$1,247,137 #19,835 Sunday
Day 57 -8AM-$1,349,426 9AM-$1,351,391 #21,762 Monday

We need about 2k contributors at this point. Yeah, Wednesday could be the big day.

 

[kulapik]

I digged in and pledged $30. Go, Lab Zero!

 

[HellBlazer]

Too bad Crowdcharts is down. Any other ways to see a chart of this campaign's daily progress?

By making your own.

We got within $15K of beating the first day, yesterday. Maybe we'll do that today?

 

[Skrams]

Doing other things/sleeping and then 12 hours later another 50k is raised. I expected a last minute push like always, but not 50k during one night 4 days beforehand. This is pretty fucking cool.

 

[More_Badass]

By making your own.



We got within $15K of beating the first day, yesterday. Maybe we'll do that today?

Damn....

Yesterday was crazy

 

[Lime]

The bigger bump in the end is most assuredly the nature of Indiegogo. We would have seen the potential pledges with a Kickstarter immediately rather than having to wait for the end.

 

[ChanMan]

The demo was fun, I just hope the story will at least be good.

 

[WolvenOne]

The bigger bump in the end is most assuredly the nature of Indiegogo. We would have seen the potential pledges with a Kickstarter immediately rather than having to wait for the end.

That, and there's a bit less risk for Kickstarter users, since they're not charged immediately.

Still, this is probably a pretty good thing for other campaigns using Indiegogo. Now there are roughly 20k additional people with accounts on the service, that might be willing to donate in the future. This might make things a bit less scary for those campaigns.

Or not, I've been wrong before after all.

 

[Unfriendly TimeTraveler]

Question cause I am abit confused on the details on how the slacker backer system works. say we put in 30 now and then when it hits its funding and then put another 30 for the physical copy, can we still get the physical copy with the exclusive backer content or do reward tiers go away after the initial campaign?

Sorry if it seems like a dumb question just new to this kinda thing?

 

[Lime]

Question cause I am abit confused on the details on how the slacker backer system works. say we put in 30 now and then when it hits its funding and then put another 30 for the physical copy, can we still get the physical copy with the exclusive backer content or do reward tiers go away after the initial campaign?

Sorry if it seems like a dumb question just new to this kinda thing?

Backerkit will allow you to pledge and get reward tiers later.