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[nenjin]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22cans/project-godus

Pledge Goal: £450,000 (Yes, they have it in pounds)
Current Pledged Amount: £526,636
Days Remaining: OVER



We knew it had to happen sometime. Populous is one of those games people have been pleading with some developer, any developer, to remake, as God Games have generally fallen by the wayside in recent years. And nothing has ever quite hit all the right notes like Populous did.

Well, it turns out Peter Molyneux has been listening and thinks he can make this happen.

He, along with some veterans from Bullfrog, want your monies so you can be god and light people's houses on fire and such. There's not much to go on in the video, obviously they're still in pre-production. About the only concretes things we know right now beyond the art style...is the fact it will have MP, up to (8? EIGHT!) 8 people.

Feature list:

• It’s a living world, unique and detailed. And it’s a world you influence, whether you’re good or evil.
• GODUS is instantly accessible, easy to learn but immensely deep.
• As you flourish and build your own cult, you’ll engage in pitched battles with other gods and their cults. It’s a multiplayer power-struggle the way it should be.
• GODUS draws on the cunning battle-psychology of Dungeon Keeper, the living, changing world of Black & White and the instinctive, satisfying gameplay of Populous.
• Plus you get to be a god. In fact, play well and you get to be the ultimate god!
• GODUS will be developed for the PC and Mobile devices, we hope to be able to add more platforms as our Kickstarter campaign progresses.

I'm not automatically in love with this project, even though I've been pining for a Populous remake forever. Firstly, the art style isn't my cup of tea. I liked the detail and believability of the older games. The abstract, painting-look of this new style doesn't hit me the same way that stony, medieval design of the old did. It has the look of a mobile game already to me.

Secondly, Moylneux. He's been responsible for a lot of games I've enjoyed. But he also oversaw a lot of poorly executed concepts like B&W, and drove several series into herpa derp with things like Fable. Lately I've begun to think he's drinking a little too much of his own Koolaid, as his ideas and vision for his games get farther and farther out there.

Normally I'd say that if anyone understands what made a classic title good, it's the original developer. Molyneux might be my one exception to that, because he often seems more interested in new ideas than refining good ones.

Still, there's no doubt he can put out a fun, successful game. At a half million price tag, I imagine he can get it but it also makes my "devs who are capable of doing this on their own" alarm bells begin to sound. So while I'm excited that a new god game is in the works that will be directly inspired by, IMO, the best god game ever made......there's plenty of things I see that leave me feeling a little cold.

[Cthulhu]

Peter Molyneux is probably the biggest red flag for me on this one.  I don't think anybody can deny he's made some awesome games, but at some point around the original Fable he completely lost his mind.  I liked Black and White a lot, but B&W2 took basically everything good about B&W and threw it in the trash, I hated it.  Fable 2...  I don't even really remember what Fable 2 was about.  Was that the one with guns? 

Then there's all the Best Games Ever that just never made it at all.  BC looked pretty cool.  That Project Natal game he was pushing with the kid, did anybody ever think that was for real at any point?  I don't think even he believed himself on that one.  Then there was one game I remember him briefly mentioning, which was about as doable as Your World MMO.

[nenjin]

Yeah, I generally agree. That was first on my mind...then I saw the art style. If he'd led with "I want to make a BADASS mobile game" I'd probably already have written it off.

Still, he and Populous both have the name recognition to fund this with ease. That's partly why I don't find myself uncontrollably reaching for my wallet.

[scrdest]

Peter Molyneux wants to make DA BEST GAME EVER. Again. How surprising. I'd say no matter how good it will be, we will be expecting something better, because he will hype it over and over. I'll keep my monies, thank you.

[Aptus]

Peter Molyneux... kickstarter? Bwahahahhahahahaahaha. No.
There is no way in the universe that man has engendered the trust required for a preorder or day one purchase, much less a crowdfunding pledge.

[Metalax]

Indeed, Spore convinced me to never preorder/kickstart anything that has Molyneux name attached to it again. Not that they are neccessarily bad games, but they never live up to the hype and are certainly not worth the initial price they are sold at.

[dennislp3]

PTW

[Korbac]

Peter Molyneux is probably the biggest red flag for me on this one.  I don't think anybody can deny he's made some awesome games, but at some point around the original Fable he completely lost his mind.  I liked Black and White a lot, but B&W2 took basically everything good about B&W and threw it in the trash, I hated it.  Fable 2...  I don't even really remember what Fable 2 was about.  Was that the one with guns?

I like to think that at some point his technical abilities capped out while his imagination and ambitions didn't, resulting in progressively "missing the point" games.

[Eagleon]

Indeed, Spore convinced me to never preorder/kickstart anything that has Molyneux name attached to it again. Not that they are neccessarily bad games, but they never live up to the hype and are certainly not worth the initial price they are sold at.

Spore wasn't Molyneux, it was Will Wright.

Why does he need kickstarter for this? is my first question. He was the figurehead for Fable, which is marketed and sold very successfully, every-damn-where. You'd think he'd be able to get a small business loan or the like for an eight-month project.

[GlyphGryph]

He's publicly states he's sick of dealing with publishers and time constraints and politics instead of making games. That he's tired of dialing things back and not actually having control over what ultimately happens with the project, and that he misses the days when he could and his team could just go and make games without having to please the publisher at every turn.

So I imagine it has something to do with that.

[Anvilfolk]

Well, if it has Bullfrog people I won't entirely discount it. But we'll see what the updates on this look like.

[PrimusRibbus]

Sounds great, but so did Fable.

[lordcooper]

Indeed, Spore convinced me to never preorder/kickstart anything that has Molyneux name attached to it again. Not that they are neccessarily bad games, but they never live up to the hype and are certainly not worth the initial price they are sold at.

Spore wasn't Molyneux, it was Will Wright.

Why does he need kickstarter for this? is my first question. He was the figurehead for Fable, which is marketed and sold very successfully, every-damn-where. You'd think he'd be able to get a small business loan or the like for an eight-month project.

Why do so many people seem to think that Molyneux worked on Spore?

[nenjin]

Perhaps their psyches are trying to protect them from the knowledge that Will Wright worked on a game that wasn't just bad, it was devoured by its publisher mind, body and soul.

[Cthulhu]

Indeed, Spore convinced me to never preorder/kickstart anything that has Molyneux name attached to it again. Not that they are neccessarily bad games, but they never live up to the hype and are certainly not worth the initial price they are sold at.

Spore wasn't Molyneux, it was Will Wright.

Why does he need kickstarter for this? is my first question. He was the figurehead for Fable, which is marketed and sold very successfully, every-damn-where. You'd think he'd be able to get a small business loan or the like for an eight-month project.

Why do so many people seem to think that Molyneux worked on Spore?

Because it's totally something Molyneux would do. 

I don't blame Will Wright for Spore though.  Like Nenjin said, they got fucked over by the publisher.  Combine that with an exorbitant amount of hype and unrealistic expectations, and you've got a disaster on your hands.