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[jocan2003]

Nice little game, color me interested, lets just hope they delivers, kinda burned of all these kickstarter.

[Rez]

If you think of "Kickstarting a Game" as investing in a project, not buying a game, you'll understand kickstarter a little better with respect to why some people give money to the things they do. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's broadly what kickstarter is more about: providing someone the means to do a 'project'.  It's not really supposed to be another way to buy videogames, which some people seem to think.  People are often confusing kickstarting with buying a finished project when you have really made an investment looking for a return (just not money cuz it's illegal to compete with established financial systems).

Kickstarted projects are almost by definition activities that publishers or investors wouldn't invest in, for any number of reasons and, as VG's on kickstarter continue, we're seeing that a portion of these games aren't turning out real well or on time (time is only really important if the staff is large; salaries add up quick).  Basically, we're seeing projects that publishers wouldn't invest in for the reasons we're seeing; niche markets, unknown teams, and poor reputations.  Sometimes those factors are problems and sometimes they aren't, but they're always a risk you're assuming by becoming an investor and not a customer.

[Frumple]

... am I the only one that finds the screenshots in the OP to be kinda' ugly? They remind me of the Nth hundredth ipad game. Bit of a turn off.

[Sergarr]

Everything is done procedurally - no two worlds will ever be alike.

There's no way this can be true. Not with "simple algorithms" at least. You'd have to use some dark mathematical chaos magic to make that true.

[gavanw]

Hi everyone (creator here) - let me know if you have any specific questions.

As usual - I love all input - positive/negative/critical/whatever.   I've thrown all kinds of stuff (good/bad/ugly) at other games in the past, so I can appreciate any viewpoint.

A few disclaimers:

Project is rather vague, I know.  My game design is honestly not 100 percent pinned down yet, and I am taking suggestions.  My primary goal is to get a more generic engine out, but without the support of gamers I don't think I could get enough interest (i.e. I cannot pitch solely to developers).  The game serves the function of generating non-developer interest, and also dog-fooding my product so that I add relevant features necessary to making a game.

As for the Facebook thing - Facebook did not try to make any huge deal with me.  They just offered me a job.  When I asked "what" they wanted me to do (I thought it was weird that they were trying to hire me on the basis of my work with VQ), they basically said "whatever I wanted."  I did get some other offers for actual investment though, outside of FB.

"What exactly has been accomplished since then? More than half a year has gone by and all we see are some interesting voxel implementations but little else in the way of gameplay. The dev even answers a comment, "From here out I am focusing on gameplay primarily. "

As for progress since March, it has been tough with so much going on.  My twin brother got married, I got married, I had my first child, I got seriously ill, I had to put together a KS campaign myself, I worked for a month negotiating an investment deal that seemed too good to be true, and ultimately was too good to be true (i.e. I had to turn it down). I actually have been working towards gameplay, which included reworking the entire world generation to make it more ideal for AI/pathfinding (see my blog post on voxelquest.com).  Also, building a UI, optimizing the game for slower computers, and a ton more.  There is a lot going on behind the scenes, trust me -- and, like I said I am only one man.

Let's take a look back in history at Minecraft, an example I always use.

When it was first released, it was just a block-placer.  Now, most people would argue it was a worthwhile effort.  Games are not finished when they come to Kickstarter, this is why they come to KS.  If I had a finished game with adequate gameplay to show, I would have already launched on Steam (I'm already Greenlit, BTW).  My ideas are not set in stone, and likely half of them will not be achieved.  But I just want you to judge me on what has been done so far, and if you think there is a small chance that I can do more.

[Talvieno]

Everything is done procedurally - no two worlds will ever be alike.

There's no way this can be true. Not with "simple algorithms" at least. You'd have to use some dark mathematical chaos magic to make that true.

Lol, okay, true enough. I'll call it "virtually infinite", how about that? Enough that there's no way you'll see the same two worlds within your lifetime.

edit: ninja'd by the creator himself.

[gavanw]

Everything is done procedurally - no two worlds will ever be alike.

There's no way this can be true. Not with "simple algorithms" at least. You'd have to use some dark mathematical chaos magic to make that true.

There are roughly 200 quintillion unique voxels generated with the current settings.  A world seed is only 64 bits though, meaning there are 2^64, or some big 19 digit number, possible combinations.  There are enough that no two players will likely see the same map in all their plays of the game.  Additionally, user input can change the way the world plays out, adding additional variations.

[gavanw]

... am I the only one that finds the screenshots in the OP to be kinda' ugly? They remind me of the Nth hundredth ipad game. Bit of a turn off.

They might be ugly, but it is functional and will hopefully improve over time.  Also, in comparison to iPad game XYZ, this is all generated on the fly procedurally and consists of solid volumes.  It is all generated with math, so its hard to make math equations result in pretty stuff, but I'm trying.   Some people find them to be pretty I guess, based on some comments I've gotten so far.

[gavanw]

If you think of "Kickstarting a Game" as investing in a project, not buying a game, you'll understand kickstarter a little better with respect to why some people give money to the things they do. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's broadly what kickstarter is more about: providing someone the means to do a 'project'.  It's not really supposed to be another way to buy videogames, which some people seem to think.  People are often confusing kickstarting with buying a finished project when you have really made an investment looking for a return (just not money cuz it's illegal to compete with established financial systems).

Kickstarted projects are almost by definition activities that publishers or investors wouldn't invest in, for any number of reasons and, as VG's on kickstarter continue, we're seeing that a portion of these games aren't turning out real well or on time (time is only really important if the staff is large; salaries add up quick).  Basically, we're seeing projects that publishers wouldn't invest in for the reasons we're seeing; niche markets, unknown teams, and poor reputations.  Sometimes those factors are problems and sometimes they aren't, but they're always a risk you're assuming by becoming an investor and not a customer.

I'll repost what I've said elsewhere: 90+ percent of startups fail.  I've backed 90+ projects, and I don't do so with the expectation that they will succeed, I do so because I think it is interesting work and that the creator is giving it an honest shot.  Games are particularly hard to complete, but I think I've given a more realistic timeline than most games I see on KS (4 years, whereas the average game I see says it will be out within a year).  Also, unlike many KS campaigns, I did not come in with a bunch of concept art - I've built a real, functional program and put a year of doubletime into making it.  I did not want to mislead people with concepts, I wanted to show what I have NOW. If you go into KS with the attitude of "what am I going to get for my money" all the time, you will usually be disappointed.  That said, I'm not planning on throwing people's money in a pit; I've outlined my plan, it is up to backers whether or not they think it is sensible.

[burningpet]

... am I the only one that finds the screenshots in the OP to be kinda' ugly? They remind me of the Nth hundredth ipad game. Bit of a turn off.

I think it looks far better in motion.

[gavanw]

Looks interesting.  It also looks like something that would be prone to overhype.

I have ambitious plans, but so far hype is pretty mild by others (rightfully so).  I've tried to make a lot of points (sprinkled throughout the page, videos, my comments, updates, etc) that I'm trying to stay within the confines of what is realistic.  I've had my fair share of failures, and been properly humbled by them.  I am going to take this one step at a time, and take it as far as I can.  I think that already, the results are interesting, and they will only get moreso with time.

[a1s]

I'll repost what I've said elsewhere: 90+ percent of startups fail.  I've backed 90+ projects, and I don't do so with the expectation that they will succeed

I don't like those odds. Tell you what, you have a great engine and no one is sure if you'll make a game out of it- I will promise you right now to pledge $25* if you add a (reasonable- not 1 billion dollars) stretch goal that lets your engine be used by non-commercial projects for free (maybe after a 1 year period? in 2018). That way even of all else fails (you have a bus factor of 1, which means there's already a ~4% the project will not get done for natural reasons) something worthwhile will live on.

P.S. did you know that the ruby badge ($250) and the sapphire badge ($500) are the same? Including the material of the badge in spoils.

___________________________
(*) yes, that's gold badge+ a free fiver to go against that stretch goal.

[Talvieno]

a1s - he's releasing the source code along with the game. I don't think that'll be a problem. This game will hold a major appeal to developers.

As to the gameplay stuff: GavanW is pretty passionate about what he's doing, and also that he's very open to suggestions - he wants to make a game that people can truly enjoy. He has the talent, and he's offering people (backers or not) the chance to affect his game's direction, to make sure as many people can enjoy it as possible. It's not because of the money, but because he genuinely wants people to have fun with it, and that's something no AAA producer ever does. That's also a huge part of why I'm so strongly behind what he's doing.

[gavanw]

I'll repost what I've said elsewhere: 90+ percent of startups fail.  I've backed 90+ projects, and I don't do so with the expectation that they will succeed

I don't like those odds. Tell you what, you have a great engine and no one is sure if you'll make a game out of it- I will promise you right now to pledge $25* if you add a (reasonable- not 1 billion dollars) stretch goal that lets your engine be used by non-commercial projects for free (maybe after a 1 year period? in 2018). That way even of all else fails (you have a bus factor of 1, which means there's already a ~4% the project will not get done for natural reasons) something worthwhile will live on.

P.S. did you know that the ruby badge ($250) and the sapphire badge ($500) are the same? Including the material of the badge in spoils.

I'll look into that reward.

Current plan for licensing: if/when I make enough money to keep the company afloat for 5+ years, I am going to release under a permissive ZLib or MIT license, and I will find some other way to monetize it.  (Service? Support? Hats? Donationware? Who knows).  There are not, and will never be stretch goals, they are severely against my ethics.  Also as mentioned, full source is going out under a Valvish license with the alpha release (Alpha is expected within several months - I can't be too definitive because like all software devs I can miss deadlines).

That's a lot of money, but only a tiny fraction of what some games have earned.  Keep in mind, after KS, when the game picks up and starts selling, I will hopefully have significantly more money coming in.  As usual, I'd love to just open source the damn thing right  away, but that is a risky move and I can't necessarily survive like that.

[Rose]

How extendible is the engine? IE if I had the source, would I be able to replace the world generator on a macro scale, but keep the micro-scale one?