TStael: But for the sake of interest, which where these campaigns you chose not to pledge into?
Mentalepsy: Let's see, of the campaigns I can think of that had direct Wizardry lineage:
1) Grimoire - Wizardry 7 redux. No demo was available at the time of the campaign, if I remember correctly, plus the game has been "in development" (whatever that means) for 17 years by an individual known for his bizarre and deliberately trollish internet persona. Not something I'm prepared to fund in advance. The original campaign promised that the game would be released, no matter what, in May 2013. I didn't believe it.
2) Arakion - seemed very "modernized" in all the wrong ways, and just seemed like a weird project overall. Didn't need my help anyway as it raised twice its funding goal.
3) Deathfire - from Guido Henkel of the renowned Realms of Arkania hardcore RPGs, but I just had a bad feeling about this. The guy hasn't done much that I know of in the RPG space for a long time, other than another Kickstarter, and didn't seem to have a clear vision for Deathfire.
4) Shaker - from a company and designers of uncertain suitability at best. Virtually no information released in the initial pitch, and the Wizardry influence only came into focus after several updates. People in the comments were name-dropping everything from Wizardry to Baldur's Gate to Chrono Trigger, so apparently no one else knew what to expect either.
5) Space Shock - might have been promising, but again, the devs didn't seem confident in what they were making. For example, combat was real-time first-person as in Dungeon Master, and changed to turn-based isometric during the campaign because of a few comments from backers.
6) Star Crawlers - procedurally generated, mission-based content. Meh. Made plenty of money anyway, so didn't need my pledge.
Yes I'm picky, but when they're asking for money in advance, I think I should be.
TStael: I did meanwhile went and peaked into Wizardry 6-7 sold here, and it came certainly highly recommended - though based on print-screens I would think it is not really a game with modern graphic interface. I think therefore it must either have a great gameplay or story to please. What say you?
Mentalepsy: Both. They are not for everyone, because they can be frustrating and hard to get into, and they are dated in some ways (especially 6). However, I love the detailed and open-ended character building, challenging turn-based combat, LONG campaigns (I still haven't finished 8), and occasional puzzle-solving.
And thank you for responding so thoroughly in the first place - this in itself would be to me the best recommendation to try out Wizardry series... but would this be "high fantasy" within the genre? (my preferred setting)
I can meanwhile see mostly what you mean regarding 1)-6) in your retained funding, except possibly if you had a good reason to know that some of the developers were of good repute. In case of Larian, I never doubted their intent, though they arguably would be but a small Belgian studio. Who could have made such games before, but with real passion?
In case of 5) I am just wondering if this was intended as a complete turn-around, as such? I do think that pause/ cum auto-pause option allows rather well to cater both real-time and turn-based, generally.
I should say I am also picky, but I also see Kickstarter (or any such platform) to also be an activist cum a dreamer platform - it is about giving less commercially dictated lease of life to games we feel passionate about.
