You think the game was supposed to be out this time last year? Wah?

It's not as unrealistic as you think. Reportedly, Grim Fandango's budget was 3 million. Even when you adjust to the inflation and the fact that LucasArts was providing the infrastructure, these are comparable figures.

The original kickstarter suggested the game would be finished in October 2012. That's what was advertised when my wife bought into it.

Not exactly a year, but nearly.

edit: Maybe not even nearly. 9 months. A physicist would say a year.

Do you really think it's fair to hold them to that date? Especially when they promised that they would use all the extra money on the game?

Exactly.

Deponia and Grey Matter would be the high side of my expectations. Honestly I don't even think 2 million goes that far in San Francisco, so the Blackwell games was my more realistic estimation.

The fact he is trying to top all of those is crazy talk, and why his budget and timeframe are way out of whack.

Which, again, you can take the perspective of "well I get an awesome Tim Schafer game in the end" if you want to. I more see it as irresponsible and not what the backers expected or perhaps wanted. Depends on your personality and how much faith you have in him, I guess.

Hmm, you might be right. Small studios seem to not be prepared to manage huge budgets and giving them much more money than they were expecting may unintentionally harm them.

:P

Wow, I'd actually forgotten that they'd set such a short date. I guess that makes sense though, $400,000 doesn't pay people for very long. I imagine it was going to be a very small game then...

By the point where it was clear they were going to get way more money than they asked for I'm pretty sure they said they were going to increase the scope of the game. This naturally means a longer development time.

Personally, I'm not fussed at all. I was trying to inform without any implications.

I don't disagree. You make fair sense to me.

After finally getting around to watching the latest documentary episode, I'm convinced they're doing the right thing to deliver on their vision. They're also doing something that I think is brave on the verge of terrifying.

My impression is that the backer money will actually just about cover the development of the first part of the game - which is actually closer to two thirds of the game content wise (taken from a Lee Petty quote in said episode). So angry backers, you are actually getting a game, slightly reduced in size, for the money that was amassed during the Kickstarter. It's just going to take until January 2014 to get there instead of summer / fall 2013. Personally I'm quite okay with that, once I've gotten to silence my inner "But I want icecream NOOOOW!" voice.

Honestly, this is a really elegant solution. The somewhat terrifying thing is that it seems they are depending on sales of the game as released in January to further fund the last few months of development (projected to be released in April, I'd say likely to slide towards summer 2014). I'm not convinced of the game getting good sales when released on early access rather than released as a full game with the promise of more game to come. The vast, vast majority of consumers are not really aware of early access and are likely to shy away from it, seeing it as paying for an unfinished product. At least that's what seems logical, although the marketplace might prove me wrong.

I think they should ditch the early access part. Use that to give backers early beta access as promised in the Kickstarter. Instead, release part one as a full game on Steam proper - and through other distribution channels like GoG - in January. Then release part two when it's done. People who buy part one before part two comes out gets both parts for the price of one. People who buy the game post part two release will have to buy at an increased price - basically using a common pre-order incentive, with the exception that you get some game now and the pre-ordered part comes later. I think this would create a very strong incentive to buy part one when it is released.

It's a neat idea, again. Backers who are craving them to cut down on the scope and just release the game that's been made with the money funded - that's EXACTLY what you're getting with part one. But wait, you're getting part two as well. That part is made with money from other sources. And isn't that the point of Kickstarter, to help literally kickstart a project that generates revenue for other projects that may have had a hard time getting funding through the more traditional sources?

My faith in The Tim remains unmolested. Keep up the excellent work.

This is bullocks. If we look at Inexile and Obsidian both were able to nail down a concept, carry themselves in such a way, in the kickstarter unlike DF. Just compare between the different kickstarters to know what I'm talking about.

Anyone with any basic intuition would've seen DF red flags screaming (in both videos) so loud (even more with Massive Chalice). You can have a vision and concept down before getting a budget.

Of course it was bollocks. I don't understand to this day why people bought into the DF Kickstarter.

Do kindly read I wrote carefully. I actually clearly said that it is impossible to set a budget for a game before you have a concept down. inXile and Obsidian both had detailed concepts for their games before the KS even started. You cannot set a budget without a concept.

I thought DF had made games before. Like, this tells me otherwise almost. It sounds like a lot of mismanagement and taking KS backing for granted.

Like:
"Hey! We don't have a publish to answer to, so lets just ask for money, and THEN make a game."

Does that just sounds absurd to anyone else? I myself have backed Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, and of course Project Eternity (Really excited about that last one.) because they already had an idea. Well, I'd say they had the entire thing down on paper first and then just had a structure, and what to do with any extra money. Oh, and by the way, does Planescape Torment 2 Tides of Numenara (spelling?) got anyone else both excited an terrified all at once?

Well sorry maybe I read your post wrong.

However Inexile and Obsidian did have a rough estimate of 900,000 minimum even with the concept not totally nailed down it its entirety.

Not being pretentious, but I'm interested on your reasoning for this. Why did you think they were more on the money, etc?

Figure of speech man, but thank you for the explanation, because although I didn't think there where actually 50 notebooks full of doodles, I figured at least a diner napkin with the name of their project scrawled on it. ;)