[Micky C]

Definitely another kickstarter aiming just a bit too high.

It's doing much better than Retroblazer and does seem like a better game based on the features and design.

[Mr. Tibbs]

Quote

So we’re confident in our promise to make STRAFE® as awesome as possible, finish it with all planned content and also never ever threaten Gabe Newell’s life. We love you, Gabe.

LOL!

I love their Geocities-esque site. http://www.strafe1996.com

The campaign reminds me of this classic Next-Generation cover:

[OpenMaw]

Unreal on N64? Holy shit, I can't imagine how terrible that would have been.

[Micky C]

Commando Nukem, on 20 January 2015 - 08:25 PM, said:

Unreal on N64? Holy shit, I can't imagine how terrible that would have been.

What do you think the dots were for? Turn to page 68 and the rest of that sentence would be:

Quote

...NOT

[Mr. Tibbs]

Pixel Titans uploaded 10 minutes of STRAFE Pre-Alpha Gameplay. The Campaign's definitely stalled at $60,000; they'll get a boost in the final days, but it's going to be a slog for them to reach the goal.

[Micky C]

So is it just one weapon the whole time? That's kind of boring actually.

Btw what's stopping Kickstarter people from taking out a loan and filling up to the goal to collect what they've accumulated so far?

[ReaperMan]

Micky C, on 30 January 2015 - 05:33 PM, said:

Btw what's stopping Kickstarter people from taking out a loan and filling up to the goal to collect what they've accumulated so far?

Because only people taking the risk are those giving them money though kickstarter, which is why i kinda hate kickstarter and the pay to play "beta" crap.

[TheZombieKiller]

Micky C, on 30 January 2015 - 05:33 PM, said:

So is it just one weapon the whole time? That's kind of boring actually.

No, that's merely the starting weapon. I remember them saying somewhere (probably in that video too) that you choose one of three weapons to start with, and will find other weapons around the levels

[HulkNukem]

Micky C, on 30 January 2015 - 05:33 PM, said:

So is it just one weapon the whole time? That's kind of boring actually.

Btw what's stopping Kickstarter people from taking out a loan and filling up to the goal to collect what they've accumulated so far?

There was one Kickstarter, I have absolutely no clue what it was for anymore, but they missed their target by something like 100 bucks. They were even asked why they didn't just put in the 100 themselves to tip it all the way.
I want to think they were being completely honest and didn't want to cheat the system or anything.

Also, Strafe.... yeah I'm getting less interested in this game the more I see it. I thought it was going to be a more classic style game, but instead its just a roguelike FPS with levels that look like they're from Minecraft, not a Quake era game. Which is a damn shame.

[Carl Winslow]

I'd been following their tumblr blog for awhile and everything I saw of it made it seem sluggish and really ugly. I'm baffled at the fact they're doing so well just because they chucked 1k at a dude to make a commercial that has almost nothing to do with the game.

[Mr. Tibbs]

The developers have opened a lower tier for the base game. $15 and you get the game.

http://strafedevblog...ter-adjustments

@ Carl Winslow: They didn't chuck a $1000 at some dude. The lead designer of the game directed the Kickstarter video. It's intended to grab attention, which it was 100% successful at since it was featured on every major gaming site the day they launched the campaign. Have you seen other Kickstarter pitches? The STRAFE developers showed a lot more up front than the rest of them. Of course they had to, since their not an established developer, but this isn't simply some cash grab. The reason it isn't funded is because of Kickstarter fatigue. There's been a number of high-profile failures recently (Uber's game, The Black Glove, etc) and much of the goodwill has disappeared following delayed projects and underwhelming releases (though Divinity, Dragonfall, Dead State & Wasteland 2 are amazing!). For 10 months work, they've done pretty well.

[HulkNukem]

Mr. Tibbs, on 31 January 2015 - 11:54 PM, said:

The developers have opened a lower tier for the base game. $15 and you get the game.

http://strafedevblog...ter-adjustments

@ Carl Winslow: They didn't chuck a $1000 at some dude. The lead designer of the game directed the Kickstarter video. It's intended to grab attention, which it was 100% successful at since it was featured on every major gaming site the day they launched the campaign. Have you seen other Kickstarter pitches? The STRAFE developers showed a lot more up front than the rest of them. Of course they had to, since their not an established developer, but this isn't simply some cash grab. The reason it isn't funded is because of Kickstarter fatigue. There's been a number of high-profile failures recently (Uber's game, The Black Glove, etc) and much of the goodwill has disappeared following delayed projects and underwhelming releases (though Divinity, Dragonfall, Dead State & Wasteland 2 are amazing!). For 10 months work, they've done pretty well.

Kickstarter fatigue and also people getting tired of the same old thing. How many randomly generated rogue-likes or 2D sidescrolling 8-bit games or early access survival games need to be flooded before everyone gets sick of them? There needs to be just a well developed polished game to come out to get everyone interested in a genre dominated by expensive AAA DLC ridden products. They also need more than just a trailer or screenshots or promises; a demo is most certainly needed.
Just look at the progress for Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Asked for 100,000, they are over 800,000 so far. They made a kickstarter, delivered, and started another one because they have everyone's faith in them.

[Mr. Tibbs]

HulkNukem, on 02 February 2015 - 07:06 PM, said:

Just look at the progress for Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Asked for 100,000, they are over 800,000 so far. They made a kickstarter, delivered, and started another one because they have everyone's faith in them.

That's no surprise really. Shadowrun is an established brand, has the series creator on board, and, as you pointed out, Harebrained have already delivered two great games using Kickstarter. Inxile's going back to Kickstarter for Bards Tale, another series with a huge fan base, and will have no trouble clearing their goal. Same for Obsidian if they decide to return to the platform post-Pillars. They are established developers who have large followings, industry connections and years of experience, something that Pixel Titans don't have.

[MYHOUSE.MAP]

HulkNukem, on 02 February 2015 - 07:06 PM, said:

Kickstarter fatigue and also people getting tired of the same old thing. How many randomly generated rogue-likes or 2D sidescrolling 8-bit games or early access survival games need to be flooded before everyone gets sick of them? There needs to be just a well developed polished game to come out to get everyone interested in a genre dominated by expensive AAA DLC ridden products. They also need more than just a trailer or screenshots or promises; a demo is most certainly needed.
Just look at the progress for Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Asked for 100,000, they are over 800,000 so far. They made a kickstarter, delivered, and started another one because they have everyone's faith in them.

My thing is that it's Yet Another Generic Roguelike FPS Game. There is nothing about it that makes it different from all of the other wannabe classic FPS Roguelikes that have failed before. The levels suck, the gameplay looks repetitive, the weapons are boring, and the enemies are lame. The devs claim it's "oldschool" but literally the only "oldschool" thing about it is that you run fast. They don't even have an unlimited arsenel FFS. All this is a boring game using nostalgia bait marketing to trick fauxstalgic "hardcore gamers" into funding a faceless roguelike FPS that'll die off after the month it's released.

[Jblade]

At least we've advanced from 'oldskool' FPS basically meaning Serious Sam (even though it's nothing actually like older FPS apart from 'you shoot things) to 'oldskool' FPS basically meaning wolfenstein-tier levels and combat - give it a few more years and we'll finally, hopefully, get 'oldskool' FPS that genuinely resemble Doom and Duke.

[Hendricks266]

Jblade, on 03 February 2015 - 12:19 PM, said:

give it a few more years and we'll finally, hopefully, get 'oldskool' FPS that genuinely resemble Doom and Duke.

What do you think Voidpoint's long-term plan is?

[Micky C]

A doom port too?

[Flying Techbot]

I noticed that the font for Strafe's title is based off of Strife's, so I would've expected some of Strife's elements in this game. Besides that, I like that its graphical presentation is a blend of all different retro 3D games, including Quake, Quake 2, System Shock 2, and Unreal. I notice the inclusion of influences from Minecraft and Metroid Prime. Hopefully it will turn out well, and it better be able to run on my computer.

Hearing the talk about roguelike fps games made me think of Rogue Shooter: The FPS Roguelike, which looks cool but has a whole lot of unfixed issues and has trouble running on some computers. I just hope Strafe doesn't have that same problem.

Anyway, considering the technology we have to day, it is rather gratifying that we can create the kind of retro 3D games that we always wanted to play then. I think that in order for retro 3D games to compete today, they need to have a whole lot of imagination to make them seem new and not just imitations. I've got a whole bunch of game ideas, and some of which I do want to make in the mold of the old games of id Software, Apogee/3D Realms, Origin/Looking Glass Studios, and Epic Games. Even though retro games are acceptable now, there are still people out there who are divided as to whether those games are worth paying for. I see that in this thread, members are debating whether this should be funded for. For me, I would be way too stressed by the prospect for using Kickstarter for any of my ideas, and would rather test them out first just to see if they'll work.

Have there been other retro first person games which have attempted something similar as Strafe?

[HulkNukem]

So if you guys saw an oldschool FPS game, lets say it used good looking 16-bit sprites, and the levels were premade with the type of level design of these old games, and had 4-player coop...

Would you guys hop into the kickstarter?

[MYHOUSE.MAP]

HulkNukem, on 03 February 2015 - 04:00 PM, said:

So if you guys saw an oldschool FPS game, lets say it used good looking 16-bit sprites, and the levels were premade with the type of level design of these old games, and had 4-player coop...

Would you guys hop into the kickstarter?

Shit yeah.

[Micky C]

Not myself, as it's not my sort of thing. But as others have said, it'd really help boost confidence if they included some kind of playable demo. Imagine if Duke 3D was on kickstarter and they put up the shareware version for people to try out?

[Carl Winslow]

the mythical thing you guys are talking about already exists, it's Adventures of Square. you don't even have to pay for it!

[Lunick]

You can't just say it and not link to it:

http://adventuresofsquare.com/

[Mr. Tibbs]

If anyone wants to check out STRAFE, there's now demo available. They are less than 40K away from reaching their goal.

Quote

PLAY STRAFE®'S SPEED RUN ZONE NOW!

But it’s broken. Seriously. READ THIS FIRST.

YOU ASKED NICELY TO PLAY STRAFE®.

WE SAID HAHA NOT A CHANCE IN HELL.

YOU DEMANDED TO PLAY STRAFE®, OR ELSE.

WE SAID REALLY, IT’S NOT READY.

YOU KIDNAPPED OUR LEAD PROGRAMMER AND HELD HIM AT GUNPOINT UNTIL HE RELEASED A BROKEN STRAFE® BUILD.

WE PULLED OUT A RAILGUN AND EXPLODED YOUR SKULL IN SELF DEFENSE.

AND THEN RELEASED A BROKEN STRAFE® BUILD AFTER JUST TO SPITE YOU.

So here it is, world. A small sign of things to come for STRAFE®. The SPEED RUN with high score tracking!

That means it’s pre-Alpha, BROKEN and not representative of the final game. It was custom built in days to get into the hands of streamers. The overwhelming positive response encouraged us to release it to the public. BUT this is A TINY FRACTION and modified version of STRAFE® that lacks most final features likes:

Custom options (inverted mouse, FOV/visor/gun sliders, etc)
Procedural level generation
Finished enemy AI and pathfinding
Secrets
A ton of things, you get the idea
We love what we’ve seen. But unfortunately it might not run on your particular computer right now. It might have major bugs, like enemies literally dancing for death. It might begin WWIII after your computer is mistaken on radar for a nuclear warhead. And if you don’t remember Doom’s elevator lifts, you might get stuck and not know how to move forward. Press E toward the ground, damn it.

If it works, great, see if you can beat the streamers’ speed run times! Just don’t be an asshole and cheat.

Enjoy. Get excited, but please realize we initially didn’t want people to play it until it was perfect. Remember this is just the beginning. We’re excited to build on this and complete STRAFE® in the most amazing way.

https://www.kickstar...e/posts/1136891

[Daedolon]

Looks like I'll be a bit more poor by the end of the month.

[Mr. Tibbs]

Quote

"We're 30% done. We have 3 other settings you'll go. Like right now you're playing on Icarus, which is the ship. Next area is a desert, but we're trying to bring more to it than your standard desert level. Then we go to 2 other crazy places. The next area will be a lot more open, this is a little of a corridor shooter. We're just trying to change the gameplay."

Quote

"I didn't explain the procedural generation. We're not going the Minecraft route, this isn't voxels. This isn't where the rooms will change on such a micro level. It's very much a macro procedural generation. For instance, this whole second floor you're on, if the door behind you doesn't spawn, that ladder's gone, and there's a ceiling that's a lot lower. Doorways will just close, parts of walls will disappear if a door connects them. A day of playing and you'd understand how the levels connect. It's just about the ability to replay it again and again and not knowing what you're getting into.
...
Someone asked if I'd compare it to Left 4 Dead procedural generation. I think ours has a little more variety. L4D is a little more straightforward. As far as the director putting enemies in different places, all of that stuff the way it spawns within the level is procedural. So, we have orbs of influence that will raycast out that say we're going to spawn these things in these different places. We've programmed roles into each item. So like a food dispensary can only fit in an area that's so big. It always spawns this high from the ground. It's randomised if it's filled with food or just has one in there. Every element is balanced and it will feel natural in the space but there's some rules to it.

http://www.twitch.tv...795146?t=55m17s

[Daedolon]

STRAFE just hit their Kickstarter goal.

Also thinking about having to lower my pledge.

[Lunick]

Daedolon, on 17 February 2015 - 10:38 PM, said:

STRAFE just hit their Kickstarter goal.

Also thinking about having to lower my pledge.

R.I.P. Retroblazer

[Balls of Steel Forever]

Lunick, on 17 February 2015 - 10:46 PM, said:

R.I.P. Retroblazer

If only they did it the old way (getting a publisher to back them)
Because now a publisher isn't going to support them due to their horribly unsuccessful kickstarter.
They could've even asked square enix (or some other publisher)
to back them with their whole square enix collective deal,(or something similar)
then went on kickstarter w/ a lower goal set in place...
(as the $110,000 dollar ask seems a bit exuberant for that kind of game)
...Sigh

[Jblade]

Well I was completely wrong about this not hitting it's target - too bad for Retroblazer though, but shit happens I guess. Maybe the psuedo-furry art style really did push people away, or they may not of just marketed it enough.