A head photo-bombing out of the clouds? I guess it would be going the wrong way but... I can kinda see a face sticking out sideways in the top half of the clouds.
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Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road Kickstarter project [Ended, $435K funded]
- Thread starter =GabrielKnight=
- Start date
A head photo-bombing out of the clouds? I guess it would be going the wrong way but... I can kinda see a face sticking out sideways in the top half of the clouds.
CecilRousso
Member
Tim is awesome but he is kind of a media darling, every piece of media loves him and talked about his kickstart project. And he never left the spotlight after the fall of Lucas Arts adverture department unlike Jane that went missing after the collapse of Sierra.
On top of that, Gabriel Knight was a long time ago, i have a few friends that loved GK but nowadays are not active gamers and dont care about new games from JJ. I assume there are a lot of people like them.
=GabrielKnight=
Member
OP has been updated
Note that voting for the games has been bumped up to April 14-15!
Note that voting for the games has been bumped up to April 14-15!
CecilRousso
Member
The kickstarter aticles keep coming on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, but none about this so far. Someone should send her a message on the project site and suggest she gets in touch with them about an interview.
To be fair, it's doing a lot better than Working Designs' Class of Heroes II Kickstarter, and Vic Ireland probably has more current exposure than Jane Jensen does.
I still have hope this will get funded, but I think $600,000 is unlikely. The exposure keeps dribbling in around the web and the project has been well received in general.
Fingers crossed!
A little perspective: There are *forty* days to go. That's an awful lot of time to gradually trickle up to the target. I'm pretty sure the $300k goal's a lock, and I think $600k has a good chance.
How much is it getting per day at the moment?
Chiaroscuro
Member
Usually you get most of the donations on the first 24 hours, and later on the first 3 days, when the word spreads. There is very little long tail donations. If it does not reach 200K this week it will not reach 300K at the end of the period. Not unless a massive marketing is made on the last days.
charlequin
Banned
This is mostly true of projects that actually hit their goal right away. Especially for projects that are more or less sound but don't attract quite as much of a mass appeal of backers early on, the decline can be a lot less severe. I'm pretty confident that with this approaching $100k now that it'll make it to the goal before the end, especially if they keep updating to provide more information and otherwise work to get people off the fence.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
It's weird that Ken Williams blasted out news of the Al Lowe kickstarter but not the Jane Jensen one. At least, I didn't see one if it did come out. You'd hope all the old Sierra fans are out in force anyway.
Beautifully Shaped Monsters
Member
Dog Problems
Banned
I'm not able to watch the video right now but doe she actually say the games will be dumbed down on iOS?
No she says since she wants the games to be on iOS also, that the interfaces would be more like modern adventure games (limited action commands) and not the lengthy icon based GK1 style. I don't think its that big of deal.
General Question about Kickstarter: when you pledge, do you get charged the money immediately or only when the campaign becomes fully funded?
Thanks!
General Question about Kickstarter: when you pledge, do you get charged the money immediately or only when the campaign becomes fully funded?
Thanks!
Dog Problems
Banned
You'll usually get the largest *spike* in donations in the first 24 hours, but things will still tick along in the meantime. The long tail donations are small but not insignificant, and they will mount up over time. Certainly frequent updates would be a huge boon, though, as well as seeking out more coverage (Brian Fargo did a great job in that respect).
I'd also add that this had an unusually low-key start, and I don't think it's due to lack of interest as much as it's due to lack of knowledge. The message needs to get out there, and it needs to say "GABRIEL KNIGHT" in big letters to catch peoples' eyes.
As said before: I'd quite like to know how this has been doing on a day-to-day basis, because that'd be a better way of understanding whether I'm being batshit insane, here!
Versipellis
Member
I don't know how it works, but I think that graphs are accessible only to those who started the project on Kickstarter.
We can look at WL2 progress because somebody decided to create a self-made graph. Or so I think, I never looked into this matter.
As of now, JJ is making 20K a day (~100K in 5 days = 20K/day), with a really slow start (I think 30K in the first day). The flow is pretty steady so far, even if it's not that huge. It will slow down, of course, but the first goal is within reach. 600K is another story.
And there's a new tier, I think (even though it's just an upgrade for $5000+ ones).
I think if we past the 300$ the thing will start to get hot, a alot of people must be waiting to give more money, if there's a possibility of getting 2 games.
CecilRousso
Member
$100 000 passed.
Should be interesting to see where it is at the end of this week with less publicity. I think there will be a spike after the game decision since hopefully that will get additional coverage.
I think she's done a good job keeping the community informed, enhancing rewards, etc. She really deserves to be making games, her storylines/dialogue are above and beyond most other games. And I'm not just saying this cause she was kind enough to sign my GK2 and GK3 boxes for me
I think she's done a good job keeping the community informed, enhancing rewards, etc. She really deserves to be making games, her storylines/dialogue are above and beyond most other games. And I'm not just saying this cause she was kind enough to sign my GK2 and GK3 boxes for me
It's not just the story, the gameplay is above most adventure games in her titles. Sure she has some bad puzzles occasionally, like everyone else, but most of the puzzles are really good! And she doesn't get enough credit for the way she uses real world historical locations that are interesting to explore and learn about. The areas always feel so real and it makes the stories more enjoyable.
Plus her games are a good meaty length. Gray Matter was a nice 12ish hour full novel length adventure, which is nice coming from the more episodic and short story indie or telltale stuff these days.
Plus her games are a good meaty length. Gray Matter was a nice 12ish hour full novel length adventure, which is nice coming from the more episodic and short story indie or telltale stuff these days.
Beautifully Shaped Monsters
Member
new update:
CecilRousso
Member
I think she's done a good job keeping the community informed, enhancing rewards, etc. She really deserves to be making games, her storylines/dialogue are above and beyond most other games. And I'm not just saying this cause she was kind enough to sign my GK2 and GK3 boxes for me
Agree. Everyone with just the slightest bit of interest in the genre, and money to spend on something, should pledge $16 at least.
New update about design bibles, with a page from GK1s and GK2s, and a vague promise that GK2's will be in the rewards at some point:
I think that's a very smart move. It instantly creates an understanding of what the design bible tiers are offering in a real sense. I have to admit I'm now looking thoughtfully at the higher tiers.
I've seen some comments asking what a 'design bible' is, exactly. It's essentially the screenplay or script for the game, but because it is a game, there's a lot of logic and puzzle information built into it. If you're interested in seeing what the game vision was when it came out of my head, and before production began, the design bible is the place to see it.
For each game the bible is usually a little different. For example, the GK1 design bible didn't include a lot of actual dialogue lines -- that was written later in a message editor tool. It did include, however, all the logic and story of 'what happens when' and the puzzle structure.
The GK2 design bible was more like an actual screenplay because we filmed that one with FMV. It includes dialogue. And there was a secondary 'bible' with just puzzle logic.
I've included some jpgs of the GK1 and GK2 design bible pages below. Yes, there is also a GK2 bible... It will appear in the rewards before this is over, I'm sure! Also, $50 pledge tier and more will be getting the design bibles from our new games as pdfs.
Happy hunting,
Jane
I think that's a very smart move. It instantly creates an understanding of what the design bible tiers are offering in a real sense. I have to admit I'm now looking thoughtfully at the higher tiers.
Yeah, but didn't Gray Matter take years to come out? How do they expect to do it on $300k budget and within a year? Did they get that good in design->execution process all of a sudden? I'm thinking about contributing thirty bucks nonetheless Gabriel Knight is one of my three favorite P&C adventure games.
Gray Matter was in development hell forever, and even switched developer halfway through.
CecilRousso
Member
These adventure games are going to be a bit smaller in scope, at least in terms of locations. Gray Matter was quite a big adventure games (not that lesser scenes must mean a worse game, just look at Day of the Tentacle).
They´re also contributing money themselves, and they have outsourced development teams that will work mostly on provision from the sales.
They won't be using the same devs as they did for Gray Matter. According to Jane she wasn't able to give as much attention to it as she wanted, and the game was shuffled around anyway. I doubt they're going to have the same problems as Gray Matter did.
I have nothing against 3-4 hours long games, OTOH I don't think something like Gabriel Knight could make you as attached to the story and characters if it was any shorter.
Ha, I bought Gray Matter a couple of months ago, I need to get around to it.
Inspired by this Kickstarter, I played through it over Easter. It holds up really quite well, although there were a few bits which I felt were slightly shonkily designed, the majority was superb.
That said, as an actual resident of Oxford who went to university there, I found a lot of it unintentionally amusing; lots of tidbits of phrasing that could have made things more natural-sounding (It's not a 'student ID', it's a 'Bod Card'. It's not "St Edmund Hall", it's "Teddy Hall". It did get "OxStu" for the Oxford Student newspaper, though.)
Geography was a bit off; my housemate - who went to Brasenose - was very amused by Brasenose's location in the game. All that said, though, the rendition of the University Museum was damn near perfect compared to what I recall - and this is all petty nonsense, really, because it has little to no bearing on the actual quality of the game; it's still an excellent adventure.
CecilRousso
Member
Do it. Now! It´s a great game, a must play title for all the fans of the genre.
I don't think it's going to be as small as you guys think. She said it would be around the size of GK1, 60 screens. And it was definitely longer than 3-4 hours. Now I imagine it won't have the dialogue length of GK1 so it would likely be shorter.
I'm hoping it's just mostly 2D with awesome hires art. Seems that would be easier to complete and the "requirements to be 3d" these days are nil.
I'm hoping it's just mostly 2D with awesome hires art. Seems that would be easier to complete and the "requirements to be 3d" these days are nil.
CecilRousso
Member
Moebius will be 2D. Gray Matter 2 will be 2.5D just as Gray Matter 1 is.
MiniBossman
Member
I guess this is the best place to post this, Amazon is having Gray Matter on sale for DD for $4.99 right now if people want to check it out very reasonably.
Dog Problems
Banned
Wow, that's a great deal.
bernardobri
Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
Does the game use GFWL?
Dog Problems
Banned
Nope.
CecilRousso
Member
Great deal, yes. Shame I bought the game for rather a lot more last week, oh well!
Looks like this is going to hit halfway after ten days; I'm confident it'll reach its goal - albeit painfully slowly.
I think actual day-to-day figures have been pretty steady; it didn't have the huge peak at the outset, so there's a continual slow burn of donations. I think there's still a shot at the $600k goal if - close to $300k - they reinforce that additional target to avoid people becoming lax once it's achieved the official goal.
I'm wondering if it might be helped by still going when the other current major gaming kickstarters have finished. Wasteland's done on Sunday, Shadowrun in a little over a fortnight, LSL a little after that and Tex Murphy isn't due to start until May. Unless something else crops up, she's going to be the biggest fish in the pond for a few weeks. A big push at that point might be a very smart move... although a little risky in case someone else comes along.
Edit: D'oh, missed the Ryan Payton project, that's a bit of a spanner in the works - although aimed at a different piece of hardware, so some distinction.
Looks like this is going to hit halfway after ten days; I'm confident it'll reach its goal - albeit painfully slowly.
I think actual day-to-day figures have been pretty steady; it didn't have the huge peak at the outset, so there's a continual slow burn of donations. I think there's still a shot at the $600k goal if - close to $300k - they reinforce that additional target to avoid people becoming lax once it's achieved the official goal.
I'm wondering if it might be helped by still going when the other current major gaming kickstarters have finished. Wasteland's done on Sunday, Shadowrun in a little over a fortnight, LSL a little after that and Tex Murphy isn't due to start until May. Unless something else crops up, she's going to be the biggest fish in the pond for a few weeks. A big push at that point might be a very smart move... although a little risky in case someone else comes along.
Edit: D'oh, missed the Ryan Payton project, that's a bit of a spanner in the works - although aimed at a different piece of hardware, so some distinction.
AndyMoogle
Member
What kind of DRM does Gray Matter use?
Can't say I noticed any when I bought it from Gamersgate. That said, it might just be very silent DRM.
CecilRousso
Member
I bought my copy from Gamersgate, and they said in an email answer to me before my purchase that it would be without DRM. Didn´t notice anything during installation either.
AndyMoogle
Member
Thanks. I've been trying to google for some info about it, and I did find something about the US disc version not having any DRM, so I'm guessing it's the same for the digital version.
Amazon said:
Well, I guess that's that. Thanks a lot Amazon. :/
Dog Problems
Banned
I've got the digital download version from Amazon and never got any pop ups or anything about activation and don't recall seeing anything about DRM.
He already did.
Yeah. After that I went to Amazon UK and they don't even have a digital download of it.
But it's only 36£ for the one new copy from a non-amazon seller (or like 6 pounds less for the 2 other copies they have, used)! That's only like 12 times as much!
AndyMoogle
Member
I think it's around £22 on Gamersgate, but I feel that's still a bit much at the moment. I have a bunch of other games to play anyway.