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Swery's The Good Life, [UP] FIG campaign fails, will be back on Kickstarter

P

Parsnip

Member
tuxfool said:
I suspect it is a question of mindshare. Though there is also the counter argument that the KS cut is larger. For example one could claim that Indivisible being on Indiegogo created visibility issues, but in the end they made it, plus they got a greater percentage of the funds raised than what they may have gotten with KS.
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Yeah, I guess mindshare could be a factor.

CannonFodder52 said:
Tim pissed off a bunch of GG people a few years back. I'm pretty sure in response a lot of those folks really pushed the failure of Broken Age and then the same folks were trying to make Fig out to be some form of huge scam.
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Oh, weird. I guess I missed that part of that whole GG thing.
 
C

CannonFodder52

Member
Swery's tweets are pretty golden.

VomaBjV.png
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Also one of the greatest things I've learned, you have an alcohol tolerance that you can build up throughout the game. That's amazing.
 
T

theheels

Neo Member
Aizo said:
I like that it has his twitter thing in the trailer: DrinKING!
I'm a bit worried that couldn't even get a decent drawing of the main character for the trailer. That art is awful. I love Swery, and I wish him all the best. I really hope they can make a better looking game. If not, I'll probably still play it for the story.

If you see Swery at Pax, don't spoil Twin Peaks season 3 for him. He can't watch it yet. Considering what he loves about Twin Peaks, I'm worried he won't like the newest season.
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Just to clarify - Swery mentioned that the trailer is a prototype of the gameplay and not necessarily representative of the final product.
 
Aizo

Aizo

Banned
theheels said:
Just to clarify - Swery mentioned that the trailer is a prototype of the gameplay and not necessarily representative of the final product.
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I hope it looks completely different, but I was very bothered by the 2D drawn art... so I'm still worried.
 
C

CannonFodder52

Member
Deadly Premonition And Panzer Dragoon Creators Talk The Good Life

Fans of Deadly Premonition and D4 should feel right at home with The Good Life despite its kind of cutesy aesthetic.
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Q: Development for the Switch was announced as a stretch goal for your Fig campaign. What does this new potential platform impact your development plans?

Futatsugi: In the event that the game gets funded to the point where the Nintendo Switch SKU gets unlocked, our approach is going to be to target the Switch as the main platform when it comes to performance and the graphical style, then on the PC and PS4 versions to maybe add some additional post-effects and some more bells and whistles. The target would be on the Switch. This game in particular, our goal is to make it so that it is played by as many people as possible as opposed to pushing the hardware to see how far it can go.
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Q: What interesting mechanics do the cats add to the gameplay?

Swery: We're having a lot of fun thinking about the different elements that will come out of the cat side of the game. The core fundamental approach from a gameplay perspective when it comes to the cats is to give them game actions that are not available to the player when they're in human form. Specifically jumping on top of the roofs of buildings or hiding in crevices or going into these close-quarters areas where only cats can gain access and picking up items that are in those hard-to-reach spots. We're having a lot of fun thinking about the different game mechanics that we can unlock because of this interesting twist.
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Q What kinds of activities should players expect to encounter in The Good Life?

Swery: There are four different ways we're thinking about the player's activities. The main game mechanic is as a photojournalist, Naomi must take different photos of the village and collect comments from different villagers about the case she's investigating, and those elements go into her report, which she submits to her New York newspaper at night, which is how she earns her normal stipend. Beyond that, there's also the main story that the player will start unraveling, specifically related to the murder of Elizabeth in that world. Beyond that, there's sidequests that the NPC characters grant the player, which will help flesh out the story, but also give them more activities and other ways to earn money. Finally, there's a bunch of part-time jobs that they can also do.
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Q: What do you want your fans to know most about The Good Life?

Swery: The town of Rainy Woods that we're creating is the happiest town in the world and we're doing everything we possibly can to make this an interesting space for players to exist. We really want players to come and join us in the world that we're creating. There may be some areas that are inconvenient or maybe some areas where that happy town that are going to upset people, but that's all going to be a part of that interesting cocktail of game design we're thinking of for this game. We're working our hardest to make this a really special type of game, and for all those that are supporting us through our crowdfunding campaign on Fig, I want to say that if you ever see me, you can just show me your screen that proves you backed our campaign, I will give you super hug!
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B

border

Member
Should have launched this campaign with English trailer and voice acting, and at least some look at what the game plays like (if not a brief PC demo). Kind of hard to generate excitement when you're not even sure what genre that game is.
 
H

Hesh

Member
I know they have over 30 days left, but I don't think this is going to make the $1.25 million needed. I remember reading some study in years past about Kickstarter funding trends and I don't think any project has ever managed to beat that initial groundswell of funding at the start, not even on the final day. Hopefully Swery can find some investors since this crowdfunding experiment failed because I would really love to play this. This will probably go down as a cautionary tale for other developers in the future trying to crowdfund a completely wacky game idea, unfortunately.
 
C

CannonFodder52

Member
BumblebeeCody said:
Yeah :/

I'm backing. Love Swery!
Edit: Wow. Some of these backer rewards are pretty pants. Everything is digital until you donate £200/$269
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Yea, I feel they could have benefited from having an $80~ physical collectors edition or something, but I'm no expert.

Also yes, I love Swery and would back practically anything he sets out to do.
 
H

Hesh

Member
Kingpin Rogers said:
What are the chances this still gets made if it doesn't reach its funding goal? This sounds like a dream game for me.
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It's kind of nebulous. If Swery wants to he can still pitch pretty much the same game to publishers to try and get funding the traditional way, but on the other hand this campaign's failure may deter publishers from taking a chance on the idea if they think the market isn't strong enough to support the game upon release.
 
E

epeternally

Member
Hesh said:
It's kind of nebulous. If Swery wants to he can still pitch pretty much the same game to publishers to try and get funding the traditional way, but on the other hand this campaign's failure may deter publishers from taking a chance on the idea if they think the market isn't strong enough to support the game upon release.
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The commercial failure of D4 also doesn't bode well for publisher interest. From a purely business perspective it reeks of bad investment. I'm not sure I agree with the narrative that this would have done substantially better if it wasn't on Fig. Consortium The Tower had a successful Fig campaign after their failed Kickstarter. Not being on Kickstarter may have cost them some amount of visibility but it is hardly a dealbreaker when a project has good word of mouth.

Unfortunately I don't think that this benefits much from the biggest selling point of Fig because it doesn't look investable, and the lack of crowdfunder interest further reinforces that assessment. Coming back on Kickstarter with a lower goal might work but even 500k may not be achievable if current momentum is any indication and there's only so low that the budget can realistically go. I don't see this getting the no budget starving artist treatment, you don't ask 1.5 million for a passion project that is going to get made anyway.
 
Humdinger

Humdinger

Gold Member
Chances of it getting funded look very slim.

DP is too niche, and this was too weird of a pitch (cats, odd art style, "debt repayment life simulation RPG" what?) for it to get enough people together to generate 1.5 million dollars.

Unfortunate, but I'm not too surprised. I'm a DP fan, but I looked at the pitch for this and just shook my head in befuddlement.
 
H

Hektor

Member
Yea this is unfortunately not going to get funded. It made like 2% progress since its launch Even though a big chunk always appears at the end of a campaign, there won't be an 80% Jump.

Very unfortunate, the idea behind the game is incredibly unique and intruiging.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Hektor said:
Yea this is unfortunately not going to get funded. It made like 2% progress since its launch Even though a big chunk always appears at the end of a campaign, there won't be an 80% Jump.

Very unfortunate, the idea behind the game is incredibly unique and intruiging.
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Agreed, and after how brilliant D4 is, I genuinely want more of Swery's wit... but the pieces don't seem right.
 
B

BBboy20

Member
I want to say that if you ever see me, you can just show me your screen that proves you backed our campaign, I will give you super hug!
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But you don't follow me on Twitter anymore, Swery. :(
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
TrueDefault said:
At this rate, I hope some big publisher picks it up. They should have gone with smaller pitch, like 200-300k.
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I think the art style is what's really killing it. It just looks... bleh. Even D4, with its negative Access Games budget, had style.

C26lb4e.jpg


In fact, I'd rather AG were developing this.
 
B

border

Member
It seems to me that they have ridiculously overcalculated the number of diehard Swery fans. After numerous sub-$10 sales, Deadly Premonition only did like 220K on Steam....D4 is at 85K.

Asking for $1 million+ was insanity for someone with such a niche following.
 
T

trejo

Member
All I know is that if I never get to play this game in some form then a great injustice will have been committed.
 
A

atomsk

Party Pooper
at least we've got a PS4 only tier now, won't save this though =(

I JUST NEED MORE SWERY GAMES IN MY LIFE
 
J

jett

D-Member
border said:
It seems to me that they have ridiculously overcalculated the number of diehard Swery fans. After numerous sub-$10 sales, Deadly Premonition only did like 220K on Steam....D4 is at 85K.

Asking for $1 million+ was insanity for someone with such a niche following.
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This is what this looks like to me. Swery has always seemed like the nichiest of niche developers.
 
Acquiescence

Acquiescence

Member
Dead in the water. Shame really, because I like the central premise, but I guess the internet just isn't as crazy about cats as I had thought.
 
T

thumb

Banned
I love the game concept, love the art style, and I've backed the game. I feel like the pledge rewards are pretty stingey, however, though I'm not sure that better ones could turn this around.

I hope Swery can find some investors.
 
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