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[SkullHydra]

I just found out about this Kickstarter. Holy crap, this is how you do rewards. Physical games, physical soundtracks, art books, the whole works! It's like a standard big budget Collector's Edition!

Take my money.

 

[Card Boy]

I refuse to believe it costs $150000 to add cheat codes to this game.

 

[John Rabbit]

I refuse to believe it costs $150000 to add cheat codes to this game.

it doesn't. nowhere does it stipulate that it does either. what kind of logic is this really?

 

[Helloween]

Just upped from 60 to 100. That this got funded as made me so so happy

 

[Ban Puncher]

 

[AmethystEnd]

Words can't express how badly I want this, and how painful the wait is going to be.

 

[Galamauth]

Backed within the first couple of hours the kickstarter launched for $60. Hoping to add more down the line.

Honestly was sick at the lack of Igavania games and I'm putting my money where my mouth is. So, so glad this is a thing I could contribute to. Thank you Iga, Ben Judd, all who backed and anyone else involved in making this happen.

 

[BobbyRobby]

Damn, wish I had a xb1 or ps4.

Awesome this is getting made.

 

[Frozenprince]

God damn. When I checked this morning it wasn't even funded yet!

You work fast internet.

People are desperate for another Iga "castlevania" title and I can't say I'm not also.

$60 in, leggo.

 

[TheYanger]

Pretty much. These projects would never have been as successful through the traditional channels.

It's because Kickstarter is the F2P model of game development - you allow the whales that REALLY have passion for a specific game to fund more than their share while your average buyer simply does the lowest contribution that will get you the game. Traditional games might have a shitty collector's edition or something but a kickstarter like this might get 5,000 bucks or something from a rich guy that really wants the game and all they have to do is take him out to a dinner with the creator or whatever else. It's pretty smart, subsidize the costs by letting the rich pay more for special treatment.

 

[Theonik]

it doesn't. nowhere does it stipulate that it does either. what kind of logic is this really?

And even then 150k includes KS fees and an increase in reward costs.

 

[Instro]

This is fantastic! I found it buried in the KS comment section.

Neat. Sounds completely different in tone though, like it goes with an NES Megaman game.

 

[Malreyn]

Why does this sound better to me than the actual theme? Is it just nostalgia?

That remix is pretty good. Hearing the remix allowed me to hear the original in a different way.

 

[Frozenprince]

I am so god damn hype for new Igavania.

 

[direct_quote]

I need more concept art..

 

[Chrono Helix]

It's because Kickstarter is the F2P model of game development - you allow the whales that REALLY have passion for a specific game to fund more than their share while your average buyer simply does the lowest contribution that will get you the game. Traditional games might have a shitty collector's edition or something but a kickstarter like this might get 5,000 bucks or something from a rich guy that really wants the game and all they have to do is take him out to a dinner with the creator or whatever else. It's pretty smart, subsidize the costs by letting the rich pay more for special treatment.

This is a very interesting parallel I've never thought of before.

 

[SandMan2233]

It's because Kickstarter is the F2P model of game development - you allow the whales that REALLY have passion for a specific game to fund more than their share while your average buyer simply does the lowest contribution that will get you the game. Traditional games might have a shitty collector's edition or something but a kickstarter like this might get 5,000 bucks or something from a rich guy that really wants the game and all they have to do is take him out to a dinner with the creator or whatever else. It's pretty smart, subsidize the costs by letting the rich pay more for special treatment.

Agreed with Chrono Helix over here. That's actually an incredibly apt way to explain what goes on with a Kickstarter project like this. I hope everyone reads this and nods in realization.

 

[Teknoman]

I just hope they focus on making the best game they can on the targeted systems instead of holding back for the possibility of putting the same game on handhelds.

This please. Mighty No. 9 should've just focused on WiiU as the lowest spec. That being said, i'm still holding judgement until I see a direct feed 60fps video of it.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Them looking at Guilty Gear as n example of doing 2D art is a very good sign. GGXRD is some of the best cell shaded art out there

 

[BocoDragon]

Hahaha.

Goodnight sweet prince.

 

[Frozenprince]

Them looking at Guilty Gear as n example of doing 2D art is a very good sign. GGXRD is some of the best cell shaded art out there

Some of the best art design I'v seen in years. Just looks incredible with the engine they created.

If this can pull off that look in a platformer environment I'm sold.

 

[Callibretto]

I wonder how Konami feels seeing this kickstarter.

Shanoa Pachinko

 

[system11]

I just hope they focus on making the best game they can on the targeted systems instead of holding back for the possibility of putting the same game on handhelds.

Yup, I hate the 'platform/2d/retro game = handheld' mentality, so many games gimped on full systems or more commonly not available at all. Make this product, make it as good as you can, then release a port later by all means, but put no consideration into it at all until then.

 

[Link Man]

Damn, wish I had a xb1 or ps4.

Awesome this is getting made.

You've got 2 years to get one.

 

[kuroshiki]

Between this and Yooka-Laylee being fully funded, I can't help but wonder why publishers, who spend tens of millions on these AAA games, can't spare some of that on projects like these.

Thank goodness for Kickstarter.

Bloodstained already has publisher. Kickstarter is just additional funding source.

 

[Durante]

Keeping up better than I expected, my initial prediction might have been too conservative.

Yup, I hate the 'platform/2d/retro game = handheld' mentality, so many games gimped on full systems or more commonly not available at all. Make this product, make it as good as you can, then release a port later by all means, but put no consideration into it at all until then.

Yup.

 

[BocoDragon]

I just backed my $60 for the physical. Feels good This is the kind of game I want to see in this post-Konami, mobile and AAA obsessed world.

This is a real videogame, in the mould of what I understand a videogame to be... and I don't care if the funding goal was met. I want to add my vote, and get a nice physical product from the contribution.

 

[Cheerilee]

It's because Maria was shoehorned in when Konami decided to port the game to the Saturn a few months after the original was out on PS1 (as well as a few extra rooms).

Maria was never planned to be included in the original game, she was literally an afterthought to give extra value to a late Japan-only port.

That's the reason!

IIRC, the bonus features in the Saturn version were "cutting room floor" material. Like, in the PSX version of the game, you can glitch through a locked floor panel near the start of the game and find the entrance to a stage that doesn't exist. IGA's team didn't finish building that stage, so they deleted it and bricked over the entrance.

KCE Nagoya looked at IGA's unfinished work and said "You know, this could work if we cleaned it up a bit." IGA got mad and said "No, that sucks, I cut it for a reason, also stay off my floor."

Playable Maria was likely found (in incomplete form) on Toru Hagihara's floor, not IGA's, because Hagihara was the one responible for Playable Maria in Rondo, and IGA never really understood why Hagihara did that.

 

[Dr.Acula]

with unreal engine 4? impossible. they would have to program a seperate version, probably by a different studio (like mighty no. 9). but i sure as hell wouldnt complain about a 2d version that looks like the last ds game (for vita and 3ds).

UE4? I thought all KS games had to use Unity (j/k).

It's because Kickstarter is the F2P model of game development - you allow the whales that REALLY have passion for a specific game to fund more than their share while your average buyer simply does the lowest contribution that will get you the game. Traditional games might have a shitty collector's edition or something but a kickstarter like this might get 5,000 bucks or something from a rich guy that really wants the game and all they have to do is take him out to a dinner with the creator or whatever else. It's pretty smart, subsidize the costs by letting the rich pay more for special treatment.

Maybe it's just me, but these "get dinner with" stretch goals always seem super awkward. What if I give someone 10k and ge go for dinner and it's just a bad time? And what's the dynamic? Who's supposed to be impressed by whom? I think Iga is an exception though, I watched that KS video, and hanging out with that crazy motherfucker and an overwhelmed translator seems like a damn good time.

Didn't EviLore drop top-tier cash on Pillars? Was there a "meeting" part of that reward? I wonder how that went, if it did.

 

[SandMan2233]

I just backed my $60 for the physical. Feels good This is the kind of game I want to see in this post-Konami, mobile and AAA obsessed world.

This is a real videogame, in the mould of what I understand a videogame to be... and I don't care if the funding goal was met. I want to add my vote, and get a nice physical product from the contribution.

I backed $60 as well earlier this evening, and I know what you mean. And then to know that the $500,000 goal was doubled the same-day it was presented... I think you, and I, and many MANY people know exactly what you mean and want the same thing.

 

[Benzychenz]

I want a physical copy, but that reward is super expensive. I could wait for launch and most definitely get it for cheaper, but then I miss out on the exclusive super boss and stuff.
Backer exclusive content is a real shitty practice :|

I'm gonna end up backing for the physical copy aren't I?

 

[TheYanger]

This is a very interesting parallel I've never thought of before.

Agreed with Chrono Helix over here. That's actually an incredibly apt way to explain what goes on with a Kickstarter project like this. I hope everyone reads this and nods in realization.

I think it's important that people realize that the traditional publishers saying "There's no market for this" are probably not entirely wrong - if they just made this game and shipped it to stores at 60 bucks, I would be shocked if it made as much money as they would need it to make. It's just an entirely different type of funding at play here.

Look at Pillars of Eternity, even if it sold decently we've still got someone like EvilLore getting the tier where his portrait is in the game. That was 3,000 bucks. A digital copy of the game was 25. Now, there's obviously a bit of overhead depending on the reward tier there, but in this case it's basically commission the piece of artwork to be based on a photo he provided rather than whatever else was coming. That's essentially free for them, an awesome reward for EvilLore, and they managed to sell the equivalent of a hundred and twenty copies of the game to a single person. With a full retail product that's never going to happen, if Iga just 'made' this game there wouldn't be some magic guy that went 'oh I love this genre, I'm gonna buy 120 copies of the game to show my support.'

Anyway, just wanted to elaborate a bit on why it's especially helpful for niche products like this. It's easy to look at these kickstarters and say "Hey the publishers are wrong THERE IS DEMAND!" but I'm pretty confident the publishers are smart groups of people that crunch a lot of numbers. Banjo Kazooie isn't going to sell any better now, it's a vocal minority funding what they want more heavily (or what they think they want, nostalgia is strong and some of these kickstarters make no shame in pulling those strings either). There's a sense of sticking it to the man and all of that, a real grassroots feeling that is infectious among backers. I absolutely do not think games like this would do well at retail, so it's a good thing this alternate method exists.

UE4? I thought all KS games had to use Unity (j/k).



Maybe it's just me, but these "get dinner with" stretch goals always seem super awkward. What if I give someone 10k and ge go for dinner and it's just a bad time? And what's the dynamic? Who's supposed to be impressed by whom? I think Iga is an exception though, I watched that KS video, and hanging out with that crazy motherfucker and an overwhelmed translator seems like a damn good time.

Didn't EviLore drop top-tier cash on Pillars? Was there a "meeting" part of that reward? I wonder how that went, if it did.

Was just an example, I imagine it's mostly BSing about old games they like if anything? shrug. I'm poor as dirt so I wouldn't know. Either way there's definitely overhead for some of those types of tiers but obviously it's mostly the kind of reward that is 'awesome' once in a lifetime style stuff for the recipient and costs vastly less than the gain for the kickstarter itself. Otherwise there would be no point.

 

[Frozenprince]

I think it's important that people realize that the traditional publishers saying "There's no market for this" are probably not entirely wrong - if they just made this game and shipped it to stores at 60 bucks, I would be shocked if it made as much money as they would need it to make. It's just an entirely different type of funding at play here.

Look at Pillars of Eternity, even if it sold decently we've still got someone like EvilLore getting the tier where his portrait is in the game. That was 3,000 bucks. A digital copy of the game was 25. Now, there's obviously a bit of overhead depending on the reward tier there, but in this case it's basically commission the piece of artwork to be based on a photo he provided rather than whatever else was coming. That's essentially free for them, an awesome reward for EvilLore, and they managed to sell the equivalent of a hundred and twenty copies of the game to a single person. With a full retail product that's never going to happen, if Iga just 'made' this game there wouldn't be some magic guy that went 'oh I love this genre, I'm gonna buy 120 copies of the game to show my support.'

Anyway, just wanted to elaborate a bit on why it's especially helpful for niche products like this.

Crowdfunding in general has basically allowed the niche market to become a viable industry of it's own where developers aren't living in a constant state of "OH GOD I MIGHT BE HOMELESS NEXT WEEK".

 

[GalacticAE]

3000+ posts for an igarashi metroidvania game in 1 day. The thirst is real. Im a fan of inti and everyone involved in this so im down. RIP konami. Inti see

 

[TheYanger]

3000+ posts for an igarashi metroidvania game in 1 day. The thirst is real. Im a fan of inti andd everyone involved in this so im down. RIP konami.

Flipside, lots of these posts are just sticking it to Konami decrying what mistakes they've made. Reality is those same people weren't buying these Igavanias when Konami was publishing them just a few years ago. If they were, Konami would still be making them.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I wonder how Konami feels seeing this kickstarter.

"Excuse me, did you hear about this Kickstarter for a new Castlevania?"
"Huh? What are you talking about? Can't you see I'm busy counting all this money?"

 

[Teknoman]

So who was the mastermind behind the latest Contra titles? Because I kinda need a Contra successor.

 

[Durante]

I think it's important that people realize that the traditional publishers saying "There's no market for this" are probably not entirely wrong - if they just made this game and shipped it to stores at 60 bucks, I would be shocked if it made as much money as they would need it to make. It's just an entirely different type of funding at play here.

That's not true in practice though. Most successful KS projects have made more money from post-release sales than they ever did on KS.

Take Pillars, since you brought it up. It's sitting at 355k copies on Steam. Removing the backers and the Steam cut that's still ~7.8 million -- and that's before the first major sale. Conversely, after fees (but before taking into account physical rewards) the game made 3.5 million on KS.

 

[Game Guru]

It's because Kickstarter is the F2P model of game development - you allow the whales that REALLY have passion for a specific game to fund more than their share while your average buyer simply does the lowest contribution that will get you the game. Traditional games might have a shitty collector's edition or something but a kickstarter like this might get 5,000 bucks or something from a rich guy that really wants the game and all they have to do is take him out to a dinner with the creator or whatever else. It's pretty smart, subsidize the costs by letting the rich pay more for special treatment.

Interesting parallel, but if this particular model gets me the game I want instead of a miserable pile of microtransactions, then I'll happily root for the Captain Ahabs of this particular model of video game development. Go hunt those whales!

 

[thekonamicode]

So who was the mastermind behind the latest Contra titles? Because I kinda need a Contra successor.

WayForward did Contra 4. Just name it Opposition Force or something something.

 

[Frozenprince]

"Excuse me, did you hear about this Kickstarter for a new Castlevania?"
"Huh? What are you talking about? Can't you see I'm busy counting all this money?"

Pachislots for days.

 

[TheYanger]

That's not true in practice though. Most successful KS projects have made more money from post-release sales than they ever did on KS.

Take Pillars, since you brought it up. It's sitting at 355k copies on Steam. Removing the backers and the Steam cut that's still ~7.8 million -- and that's before the first major sale. Conversely, after fees (but before taking into account physical rewards) the game made 3.5 million on KS.

Just like above though, how much of that is due to the hype generated BY the kickstarter itself? Pillars is a fantastic game, but it's the type of game that wasn't selling before, that's why it had to be a kickstarter in the first place. How many of the people that bought Pillars because of this hype have never bothered to play stuff like Arcanum or the original Fallout games? (I realize they're old, but even back then). There's a reason we get shit like Fallout 3 instead of following the traditional format, and it's because people stopped buying these types of games. For a LONG time. You can say the same of Wasteland, Yooka-Laylee, Igavania, etc. They stopped making these kinds of games because they weren't selling.

Interesting parallel, but if this particular model gets me the game I want instead of a miserable pile of microtransactions, then I'll happily root for the Captain Ahabs of this particular model of video game development. Go hunt those whales!

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it! I think it's great.

 

[Shengar]

Interesting parallel, but if this particular model gets me the game I want instead of a miserable pile of microtransactions, then I'll happily root for the Captain Ahabs of this particular model of video game development. Go hunt those whales!

Yeah, interesting parallel indeed but it's unfair for kickstarter. I always thought kickstarter as modern day platform for patronage. People drop so many cash because they respect the creator and such. Meanwhile most F2P model is psychologicaly manipulated, the player hardly know who the creator of the game is.

 

[Durante]

Just like above though, how much of that is due to the hype generated BY the kickstarter itself? Pillars is a fantastic game, but it's the type of game that wasn't selling before, that's why it had to be a kickstarter in the first place. How many of the people that bought Pillars because of this hype have never bothered to play stuff like Arcanum or the original Fallout games? (I realize they're old, but even back then). There's a reason we get shit like Fallout 3 instead of following the traditional format, and it's because people stopped buying these types of games. For a LONG time.

That's simply not true though. Publishers stopped making games like Pillars of Eternity, without them ever stopping to sell.

Because publishers don't want a profitable game. They want a megahit.

 

[Shengar]

Just like above though, how much of that is due to the hype generated BY the kickstarter itself? Pillars is a fantastic game, but it's the type of game that wasn't selling before, that's why it had to be a kickstarter in the first place. How many of the people that bought Pillars because of this hype have never bothered to play stuff like Arcanum or the original Fallout games? (I realize they're old, but even back then). There's a reason we get shit like Fallout 3 instead of following the traditional format, and it's because people stopped buying these types of games. For a LONG time.

The reason behind this kickstarter that is the game still kickstarted even after have an investor cemented my thought that this is marketing. Not that bad thing you know since it's good to make involvement with your audience as early as possible.

 

[Teknoman]

WayForward did Contra 4. Just name it Opposition Force or something something.

This needs to happen. Or at least Arc System Works, but they're probably too busy with Guilty Gear stuff at this point.

Wayforward or Yacht Club, get to it!

 

[MilkyOctave]

Is kickstater only available in the U.S?
or can castlevania Japanese gamers also fund the project?

I wondered how much Japanese players contribute to kick starer projects like these.

I have a feeling this kickstarter is currently aimed at western part of the world. Some Japanese have written about this project. By reading some of the comments, it seems some expect Japanese version to be released and encourage funding it, while others are cautious and tell people to wait until anything about Japanese version is mentioned. It doesn't make the situation any easier as only an English voice actor (David Hayter) has been confirmed and the whole kickstarter page is written in English, unlike Mighty No. 9 kickstarter which had a mirror to the Japanese site.

Would be interesting to know how much Mighty No. 9 received from Japanese gamers, so it could have something to do with that and the fact that Metroidvanias don't seem to be that popular in Japan when compared to west. :/

 

[BocoDragon]

Flipside, lots of these posts are just sticking it to Konami decrying what mistakes they've made. Reality is those same people weren't buying these Igavanias when Konami was publishing them just a few years ago. If they were, Konami would still be making them.

There's an element of that.... But don't act like people are stupid for backing this now when they didn't back Igavanias back then.

1. They were tired and routine in the GBA/DS eras, and I don't blame people for losing interest. Not one of those games was "a big new push" for Castlevania. There was no big "jumping on point" with a fresh new vision. They were the cookie cutter rehashes of old 80s/90s patterns. They did it wrong.. they were just making rehashes of the same old product. I'm not saying the games were bad, but there's a reason why people didn't rally behind them, and they are rallying behind this. You can't compare the tail end of an old pattern to its fresh new revival.

2. The realization has now set in that these genres are at risk of extinction altogether. The situation is different than even the late 2000s when Igavanias were still coming out. Mobile has taken over. AAA has taken over. What was once routine is now endangered. A certain audience is fighting back with their dollars.

I don't think people are sticking it to Konami.... Most backers don't care about this "revenge" element. People are sticking it to current industry trends (Konami is in line with those trends). And a certain audience who remember videogames wants it back (as in, what video games used to mean in the era of Famicom, Sega, PS1+2, etc).

 

[Teknoman]

The realization has now set in that these genres are at risk of extinction altogether. The situation is different than even the late 2000s when Igavanias were still coming out. Mobile has taken over. AAA has taken over. What was once routine is now endangered. A certain audience is fighting back with their dollars.

I don't think people are sticking it to Konami.... Most backers don't care about this "revenge" element. People are sticking it to current industry trends (Konami is in line with those trends). And a certain audience who remember videogames wants it back (as in, what video games used to mean in the era of Famicom, Sega, PS1+2, etc).

Perfect explanation.

 

[Game Guru]

Yeah, interesting parallel indeed but it's unfair for kickstarter. I always thought kickstarter as modern day platform for patronage. People drop so many cash because they respect the creator and such. Meanwhile most F2P model is psychologicaly manipulated, the player hardly know who the creator of the game is.

Yeah, that seems like a better comparison... Kickstarter and Patreon are pretty much like the modern-day equivalent of people funding the creation of new works of art and art commentary.