So....
Anyone remember that you backed this?
Because I still get emails from these guys. I decided to look at one of them today. That caused me to start digging back through previous updates to find out just WTF happened with this game.
They say, in a really long post, that after 3 years of development, 50% of the coding and 80% (or 150% of their original art goals) are done and...the game is still not finished.
The kicker comes at the end of the update: another Kickstarter...for the same game. $100,000 goal.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transolargames/hero-u-adventure-role-playing-gameThe title is different (from Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, to Hero-u Action Adventure Role-playing game. The video still calls it Rogue to Redemption.) The Kickstarter makes little to no mention of the fact this is a second Kickstarter for the same game. Just "we've been working hard at this for 2.5 years and need your help to finish."
Here's a slice of the update where they drill into where the money went. You be the judge:
As you know, nearly all of my updates have been open to everyone. Yesterday's update was the first of a series of backer-only updates to keep you posted on why we are doing the new Kickstarter and other project details that we feel are of more interest to you than to the rest of the world. There won't be any secrets here, but there will be some very honest talk that some will take negatively.
One of the questions raised several times yesterday is, "What did you do with the first $400,000? Why do you need more?" It's a great question, and I'll answer it here.
But first let me put it in perspective - $400K after our costs of making and shipping rewards, Kickstarter fees, and so on, is actually less than $300K net towards the project. That was enough money to pay for one programmer and four artists for a year, even with no other expenses (music, Unity licenses, etc.) and paying Lori and me nothing.
We started with four artists, a musician, and a programmer. If nobody had left the team and we completed it in 8 months, we'd have broken even. That lasted one month before a key team member quit and we could not find a replacement.
Let’s look at all the money we've received from crowdfunding and our site:
Pledged on Kickstarter (Gross): $409,000 (but some did not pay)
PayPal and Humble Bundle (Gross): $26,000
Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Gross): $435,000
Deductions and Funding Costs: $60,000
Total Crowd-Funding to Date (Net): $375,000
Here’s where we spent the original Kickstarter funding:
Art and Animation $205,000 (includes work on virtual rewards)
Programming $85,000
Music $25,000
Taxes/Fees/Overhead $75,000 (includes cost of funding)
Software/Supplies $10,000 (Unity and other licenses)
Rewards and Shipping $35,000
TOTAL: $435,000
Of the $85,000 spent on programming, $45,000 went to work that proved unusable by team members who later left the project. We’ve deferred about $25,000 of additional programming expense until after the game is released.
$84,000 of the art expense went to Contract Art House for 3D character models and animation.
Note that there is no category for game design, writing, or management. Lori and Corey each took a $20/hour salary for the first year, resulting in $15,000 in taxes. Once we started running low on funds, we returned every dollar of our salaries to Transolar Games in the form of a personal loan.
We estimate the total project cost at $550,000 to get the game out the door. We are deferring an additional $75,000 in costs until after the game becomes profitable - Deferred contractor payments and cost of producing and shipping physical rewards such as game boxes.
Lori and I are personally covering all expenses beyond the crowd-funding amounts. In fact, we’re literally betting our house on the project - Since we have no income from the project, we are using a $150,000 home equity line of credit to cover Hero-U development and pay our living expenses. We are completely committed to finishing Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption and making it a game that players will love.
We will not make any money from Hero-U until everyone else is paid, backers have their games, and we manage to sell some copies.
If this campaign is successful, here is how we will spend the funds (based on exactly meeting the $100,000 goal):
$10,000 Kickstarter and bank fees
$20,000 Cost of project rewards
$40,000 Programming
$20,000 Art and Animation
$10,000 All other expenses
My take away from that is: probably half the money from the original Kickstarter ended up as garbage. Which is a reality of game design. I played the last demo thing they put out. It was....ghastly. Awkward animations. An unlit, basic looking interior room, where the 5 minute demo gimmick was an obvious throw back to the QFG1 Thief scenes. This was...probably over a year ago.
I don't want to hate on the project, but, it seems like a sad tale of poorly invested funds into flakey people, tons of communication with basically zero to show for it, and now a second Kickstarter hoping to get them the rest of the way. TBH their Kickstarter updates tended to be rambling which is why I stopped paying attention to them in the first place.
Is Hero-U a complete wash? I think it will probably limp to an EA release, would be my guess. They want to hit
beta by late 2015. Hero-U, considering the game it's based on, will either be the most epic throwback walkin and clickin RPG since ever....or it will be a complete flop. The competency of this team stands in marked contrast to something like Satellite Reign, which has put out a great looking and more complex game in a fraction of the time with almost the
exact same amount of money spent.
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Topic: Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, from the Quest for Glory creators (Read 12728 times)