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[Zsinj]

Yeah the RPS article is absolutely huge for us and a massive boost, extremely happy with that

[TheImmortalRyukan]

Been reading up on your project and I really do wish you luck in this, will be excited to play it when it comes out. Wish the team good luck from The Immortal Ryukan 

[Zsinj]

Wished them luck, thank you

We've cancelled the current campaign to re-launch it fairly soon, mainly to reduce the goal to something more achievable and (as people have asked for here) to reduce the reward prices quite a bit. This is combined with offering a range of add-on pledges to give more control and choice to backers as the current tiers didn't work that well for people. Read about it at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rocketjumptechnology/king-under-the-mountain/posts/1856224 !

[Retropunch]

Wished them luck, thank you

We've cancelled the current campaign to re-launch it fairly soon, mainly to reduce the goal to something more achievable and (as people have asked for here) to reduce the reward prices quite a bit. This is combined with offering a range of add-on pledges to give more control and choice to backers as the current tiers didn't work that well for people. Read about it at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rocketjumptechnology/king-under-the-mountain/posts/1856224 !

Really sorry to hear you've had to cancel it - it's unfortunately the way some KS go even if they're as good as this is. One thing I'd really, really warn against though (and I mean this in absolutely the best way possible) is relaunching it without a serious, serious think and overhaul. 

So many kickstarters just relaunch a few weeks later with basically the same stuff with just half/whatever fraction of the original funding goal and it leads people to think that the devs were either just being greedy the first time or that the new KS product is going to be a watered down version of the original. Even if they make the funding goal, a lot of good will has gone because of it. I know you wouldn't let it be released without it being good quality and that the first goal was the realistic one for full time work and this would take longer, but it can come across badly - especially to those that haven't seen you on forums and stuff.

I think you need to state categorically what was going to be in the original which will now need to be cut. It's no good saying 'we'll release xyz after the full release' either because if the game tanks (ala Clockwork empires) then nothing will get added/fixed - what's cut needs to be possible to be cut full stop. Similarly, you'll need to be transparent about the new release date, and how the lack of funds is going to effect that directly. I'd also push the relaunch out a while so that you can get some new screenshots/stuff up. No one will have forgotten about it in a month or two, and people will see you're still making progress which is always good.

Again, I know this is stuff you've thought of, but just would really hate to see it stumble again. I'll certainly back next time regardless!

[Zsinj]

Yep very good points there, thanks Retropunch. I'll be focusing a lot more on the core game, making more of the fact it's 2 parts which by themselves might be a full game - the settlement management and turn-based combat (which hasn't been discussed much yet). Will probably drop the stretch goals completely too to just focus on the core experience.

Really the biggest change is the fact that unless it becomes a lot more successful (unlikely) instead of aiming at working on the game full time (at least myself) it'll be split between this and my day job - fortunately my current employers would be okay with me switching to 3 days a week, and as I work by contract it may mean 1 or 2 months on a job with a greater focus on gamedev inbetween contracts. Not ideal for sure, but it's either that or keep the full time day job and stick to the current updates at evenings/weekends which will push the first release out by a number of months, current estimates put it a year away with that model. I think I'm lucky that I'm in a position to keep the gamedev going regardless or how much of a commercial success or failure the game ends up being, so I'll always plan to get there in the end even if it takes longer, which isn't an option for everyone. I'm fully prepared (possibly expecting at this point) that it never recoups the development costs put into it, but it's as much a passion project as a business venture so I'm okay with that.

The changes people may not see is we'll be cutting down on the expensive extra variety in content (such as more tracks in the music soundtrack, probably a slimmer budget for sound effects too) and focusing instead on the cheaper to produce stuff which can still give a lot of variety - more crops which might be a recolour of other ones, or even just items which aren't normally visible (sand?) or more types using the same assets (different rock and ore types).

Really appreciate the input and your support! (Plus you lurkers reading this that don't post, I know you're out there)

[Mephansteras]

Sucks that you had to cut the campaign short, but I'm glad you have a solid plan in place. And I'll certainly be backing again once it comes back up.

[Persus13]

Same here, looking forward to the relaunch.

[Zsinj]

The following copied from http://kingunderthemounta.in/development-temporarily-on-hold/

When I cancelled the Kickstarter campaign, the plan was to re-launch it very soon with a much-reduced goal. This would help fund the freelance work being done on the game (mostly artwork, and some music) which is currently being paid out of my own savings. The original goal with the Kickstarter would allow me to focus 100% on the game, bringing it to release far quicker than development has been so far (as it is currently a "hobby project" in my spare time) as well as help fund this freelanced work.

Having spent a lot of time thinking about it - if I was to follow the plan of re-launching the Kickstarter with a reduced goal, I'd be continuing development in my spare time (which is fine by me!). However, this comes with somewhat poor timing as I'm moving house next week (which if you've gone through a home sale and purchase yourself, you'll know takes up a lot of free time to organise and move things in and out of storage) and my wife is expecting our first baby in August when we'll just about have become set up in the new home.

So after a great deal of thought, I've decided I wouldn't be comfortable taking people's money via Kickstarter now when I couldn't commit to having enough time to devote to development or give a realistic estimate of an initial release window. The £45,000 goal with the original Kickstarter would allow me to switch my day job over to developing the game, with evenings and weekends free to sort out the move and family life. As I'll now have to keep the day job (probably a wiser move in the gamedev world!) unfortunately it's game development which is going to have to be put on hold for a while as I prepare for and then get settled in a new home with a new baby.

This does not mean King under the Mountain has been canned or cancelled though! Instead plans have just had to be set back with a delay of a few months before I can get back into the swing of development towards the end of the year. My apologies for not putting out this update sooner - it was a tough decision and I've also been hoping to hear from some indie-friendly publishers as a Plan B to bring in development funding rather than the Kickstarter campaign but it's not looking likely right now. So as it is things may go quiet for the next few months but then I'll be bouncing back and pressing on to releasing Alpha 1 as described in the Roadmap. I don't know yet if the re-launched Kickstarter will happen (still the most likely option) or if instead I'll just work towards a releasable Alpha 1 version and start a soft early-access style launch from there.

Finally I just want to say thank you for the really surprising amount of extremely positive coverage King under the Mountain has received during and around the Kickstarter campaign and I'm sure it'll kick off again in the future! It was a fantastic experience being able to exhibit the pre-alpha version at EGX Rezzed and The PC Gamer Weekender, showing lots of genuine enthusiasm for the game which was awesome to see and a real motivator to keep pushing forward with it. Thank you for all your support so far and I plan to make this game into what people are hoping for from it!

[TD1]

Best of luck in the next few months - and congratulations on the future father-status!

[Mephansteras]

Probably a wise move. That is some time consuming stuff you have coming up for sure. Good luck with all of that and looking forward to when you have time to get it going again!

[ragnar119]

good luck, and keep us informed when things start to move again with the development

[Intrinsic]

Sounds like a good plan, new baby and a house move at the same time wow that's a lot to contend with on it's own, best of luck with them both!

[Retropunch]

Zsinj's good plan.

That's a good plan. The only thing I'd suggest is try to dedicate like 2-3 hours a week (or a lot less, but make it a set amount of time each week) to developing and posting a few bits. Even if it's literally 'made another type of berry tree' or something, it'll keep the gears moving, keep people engaged, and stop people fearing it's died as the worst thing is having to try to build up all the momentum again with it both from a personal perspective and from a hype/community engagement perspective.

What I've seen dozens of times is developers taking a break, which turns into a hiatus, which turns into nothing for 2 years, which turns into a grand return with a 'we have been working on engine optimisation in the background! There's nothing to show but for two years we've been hard at working optimising it! promise!' post, finally followed by a 'urgh, sorry guys...'.

I know that is 100% not what you what you (or any one else) plans to do, but it happens.  So please keep up a weekly/fortnightly engagement, even if it's just 'hey, still alive, been thinking about x and how that's going to fit into y' and maybe a couple of random screenshots. It really, really helps.

[Zsinj]

That's a good plan. The only thing I'd suggest is try to dedicate like 2-3 hours a week (or a lot less, but make it a set amount of time each week) to developing and posting a few bits. Even if it's literally 'made another type of berry tree' or something, it'll keep the gears moving, keep people engaged, and stop people fearing it's died as the worst thing is having to try to build up all the momentum again with it both from a personal perspective and from a hype/community engagement perspective.

What I've seen dozens of times is developers taking a break, which turns into a hiatus, which turns into nothing for 2 years, which turns into a grand return with a 'we have been working on engine optimisation in the background! There's nothing to show but for two years we've been hard at working optimising it! promise!' post, finally followed by a 'urgh, sorry guys...'.

I know that is 100% not what you what you (or any one else) plans to do, but it happens.  So please keep up a weekly/fortnightly engagement, even if it's just 'hey, still alive, been thinking about x and how that's going to fit into y' and maybe a couple of random screenshots. It really, really helps.

I know exactly what you mean! I've been planning out exactly what work's needed to bring the game to alpha 1, and fairly soon, even if I can't commit a lot of time to development myself, I'll be back in a position to commission artists to produce the assets required so things can keep ticking along. That can take a surprising amount of time (and management), albeit in lots of small bursts, so there'll be some small and steady progress (including some coding) until I'm back in the thick of things I'm already getting upset at the fact I'm not working on the game as much!

[Zsinj]

We're not dead! While I'm slowly getting back into the hang of things, here's a behind-the-scenes article on how wall sprites work in the game

http://kingunderthemounta.in/walls-how-do-they-work/