Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mephansteras]

Hehe, sure. And aesthetics are, of course, a personal choice. You should certainly move the art direction of the game in ways that make you happy.

Although, for a game like this it is actually a valid question. What are all those things? Tusks? Ribs? Horns? Where do you get them? How would you place them? In something like warcraft where materials are very broadly extrapolated out it didn't matter. But in a game where you make a decision between using granite blocks, marble blocks, oak logs, and so forth...suddenly the 'where did this come from' becomes more relevant to the player.

[Zsinj]

Good point! I guess they're the leftovers from the many, many giant monsters hunted for resources that are somewhere along the roadmap

[Malus]

I could see attaching the horns/tusks/bones of monsters you've slain to your hut to be a sort of status symbol among orcs, possibly. Rather than fancy architecture or paintings, why not display trophies of the enemies you've defeated to show everyone how much of a badass you are? Orcs seem like the kind of race to do something like that anyway.

[forsaken1111]

Hey I like the idea of a trophy system for slain monsters. Other races could instead engrave memorials of past battles and epic raids or beloved kings

[Zsinj]

Great ideas, thanks guys! I've a rough plan for a kind of "prestige" rating to influence nobles and other later game stuff, so that's a good way it can work for orcs (and others)!

[Zsinj]

The latest monthly dev log is now online at http://www.indiedb.com/games/king-under-the-mountain/news/king-under-the-mountain-march-update

[Zsinj]

Ahead of the Kickstarter launch in just over 90 minutes, we're live on Steam Greenlight!

You can support us at http://kingunderthemounta.in/greenlight/greenlight-home.php

[TD1]

Good luck in the Kickstarter.

[Intrinsic]

Was hoping it'd be a tad cheaper on KS, Rimworld was like £10 for me which woulda been insta buy. GL with it thought i'm sure you'll get your funding.

[Retropunch]

Looks good and (most importantly for a kickstarter) pretty sensible in goals and stuff.

However, i'd really recommend putting in a lower pledge amount. A £/$10 amount for just the game and DLC (you've definitely gotta have all future DLC as a backer reward for everyone - not doing just looks bad) would probably attract a number of people who just want to sort of fire and forget.

[TD1]

I was actually expecting a £10-15 pledge amount, myself.

[Mephansteras]

Backed!

But, yes, I think a more basic £/$10 figure would get you more backers. I often look for a tier at that level, which is usually Released game & DLC. Good for people who don't want to worry about alpha access or whatnot and are doing more of a 'This looks neat and I hope it happens, but not counting on anything because Kickstarter and I don't want to commit too much if it fails'.

[Zsinj]

Thanks guys! As you've already spotted we're live on Kickstarter(!) at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rocketjumptechnology/king-under-the-mountain?ref=3svtdi

Pricing is a very dividing issue when it comes to indie games. I've been bitten by Brexit and the falling pound (all the freelanced work is paid in USD or euros) so the backer levels have had a lot of agonising over. It really comes down to if I dropped the lowest backer amount from £17 to £10, I'd need 1.7x the number of backers at that pledge level to get to the same amount, never mind bringing in more funds, so realistically there'd have to be twice as many backers at the lowest pledge level, which will likely make up 80% to 90% of all pledges. So overall the campaign would need around twice as many backers if I'm to drop the cost of the £17 pledge. I agree that dropping the amount will bring in *more* backers, but I don't think it would be enough to have a positive effect, instead the opposite, I think it'd hurt the campaign's chances.

I could very easily be wrong about the success or failure of those figures - I'd love to be able to offer the game at very little if it meant I was still able to produce it. Overall though, I think it's technically a niche genre which attracts a lot of "I really like this kind of game, so I like the look of this game" players, which means fewer backers who are generally happier to pledge a bit more, than a large number of backers who are happy to pledge less. I believe that's why Rimworld is priced as it is currently for sale without seeing any discounts - it's a big success but it's still a relatively niche market, which you tend to see a lot in strategy, grand strategy and 4X titles.

So I hope you can understand the pledge levels are not based out of greed in any form (well, except the top tiers, they're really just there in case a rich philanthropist comes along!), but in trying to maximise the chances of making the Kickstarter a success and being able to develop the game fully.

[Retropunch]

That makes sense, and I certainly don't believe that there's a right or a wrong with this kinda thing. You'd also potentially get the £17 backers wanting to reduce down if you opened up a lower level so it's probably right to stick.

[Zsinj]

Yeah if I was to introduce a lower tier now, I think I'd have to modify the existing tier downwards. Somewhat related, I hate it when a Kickstarter campaign has cheaper "early bird" pledges that are all gone when you come to it, so none of those here either.