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[Snoopicus]

Hey guys!

I have not posted for a while, but you may know me as the original poster of Snoopicus and The Ham Sandwich of Life of Death.

In real life, I'm actually a video game producer with my own company called Gorilla Tactics. I've worked on Rise of Legends for Big Huge Games, and designed the Broken Star scenario for CIV IV: Beyond the Sword. Currently I am striking out to find riches and get away from The Man (Read: King) as all true Dwarfs should!

As my title implies, I'm making a video game. It's called Kung Fu Kingdom. It's a Real Time Strategy Sandbox game, set in a satirical world based off of martial arts movies, comics, and video games. Like Dwarf Fortress, I focus on indirect control of the players units, and a randomly generated gameworld. We do our own thing though - this is no clone (There is only room in this world for one Dwarf Fortress!)

We recently started taking risk free Pre-Orders at Kickstarter (Unless we reach our funding goal, everyones' pledges are returned, so no risk of funding a game that won't make it) and we are giving out some fantastic prizes for donating.

1) Pre-order of the game (Early access, free updates, the whole nine-yards).

2) A super-awesome, limited edition, custom Gorilla Tactics Pioneer patch (Think boy scouts patch) that will look something like our logo:


3) A caricature of you drawn in the Kung Fu Kingdom artstyle, so something like this:


4) We will make a character that looks like you, and put them in the game to do badass deeds in your name!

So, I'm pretty excited to get this thing off the ground and show you guys. I definitely need support (both in donations, and general word-of-mouth-spreading-type-stuff and in a few weeks, playtesting), so please drop over to our kickstarter site and check out the snazzy video I put together!

For more general information, check out our webpage, or our blog.

You made it to the end of the post! REWARDS!



That's it for me now, I have a Sandwich to catch.

-Snoopicus (A.K.A. Jesse Crafts-Finch)

[Knight of Fools]

I couldn't listen to all the commentary in the video, but it looks pretty sweet.  I'd donate if I could, since there are too few promising games out on the market right now.  We need more people branching into little or unexplored parts of the gaming world.  The game looks pretty cute, and reminds me of my untouched interest of anime.

Keep up the good work!

[Snoopicus]

Thanks!

Yeah, for the art we wanted "Cute enough to appeal to most people, but not so cute that when they die horrible Kung Fu inflicted deaths it would be too shocking."

[Snoopicus]

Hey, if all you guys who are reading this thread could also post feedback after you take a look around the site and the kickstarter site, I would greatly appreciate it! Even if you don't like what you see, let me know why. If you like what you see, tell me specifically what you like!

Thanks guys,

-Jesse

[Enzo]

It's a solid sounding concept for a game. And I really, really like the painted-looking trees. But I'd be much more tempted to reap the early-backer bonuses if I saw some combat or more strategic elements in the trailer, which I assume weren't included because they're not implemented yet (otherwise, why on earth not show them)? I feel like I can mostly extrapolate what these would be like from the catchy but ultimately not incredible descriptive 'about' page. From what I gather it seems a little simple to possess serious replay value, most of the things listed are pretty common strategy/RTS fare - command troops, procedurally genned maps, build stuff. That's just conjecture though, as I said, I don't really know enough about this game to make any definitive calls. The only point that confuses me is previous playthroughs impacting later ones - if they all have a different random map, what's the connection?

That said, I wouldn't even bother with this if it didn't look at least potentially quite fun, so hopefully you can shoot down and explain away my grievances, and hopefully I didn't come off as too much an arse.

[Aqizzar]

So, posting feedback here is cool then?  Alright.

I'm definitely sold on the interface on display in the video, barebones though it is.  The intelligent boundaries, actions, and locations is a great boon to RTS gameway, since most RTS games that I've even seen today still rely on the same basic "stand here and shoot at anything that comes close" unit AI of Dune 2.  High altitude parodies of classic martial-arts movies and chicanery is an under-explored genre with a lot of potential, which meshes well with the art style, so kudos on that too.

I wish I could see more than just the interface at work, but I guess that's the point of development.  You certainly lured me to the site with the "character that looks like you" pledge, because I am a vain and preening person who would love nothing more than be immortalized in someone else's hard work, and I think I speak for quite a few gamers in that regard.  But even recognizing your very practical goal of raising development cash, I honestly think $500 is a little steep for a boardwalk caricature + a game somewhere in the possible future.  With a lower price point, you'd probably attract boatloads of cash, not to mention tons of "free" advertising from people ranting and raving on other boards about how awesome it'll be to have their little dood in a game.

Unfortunately, you're also asking for donations right as anyone with disposable income and a Paypal account is budgeting for Christmas, like me.  So I can't donate anything immediately, but I'll certainly keep it in mind.  I'm honestly mostly attracted for the karma, because I have pipe-dreams of developing a game myself someday in much the same fashion, although mostly by paying other people to make the game for me.

[Snoopicus]

which I assume weren't included because they're not implemented yet

Absolutely correct. Basic combat will not be implemented for another week or so, but soon.

Unfortunately, you're also asking for donations right as anyone with disposable income and a Paypal account is budgeting for Christmas, like me.

I  know It's a bad time of year for Kickstarting, but that's how the cookie crumbles this time.

The only point that confuses me is previous playthroughs impacting later ones - if they all have a different random map, what's the connection?

So to make a Dwarf Fortress analogy, every time you start a new game, you start a new Fortress (we call a site a Territory). But in Kung Fu Kingdom, your old fortress isn't strictly abandoned when you start a new game, it continues to exist and grow or shrink (after a fashion). You might bring a few of your favorite Dwarfs with you when you start a new game, or some of the awesome armor you made. If your old fort traded lots of food, you might even see Merchant carts show up from them with lots of food.

Assuming you didn't bring all your legendary heroes with you - you might even see one or two of them adventuring through your new fortress.

it seems a little simple to possess serious replay value

The replay value for KFK is two fold:
1) Leveraging the world generated for you in order to build up a respectable temple. Depending on the resources available to you, and how difficult it is to get them, you may do this in quite a few different ways.
2) Dealing with the different unit challenges presented to you - and by that I mean, learning how to deal with enemy units (be they the Empire's Guards, Angry Peasants, or Demons), in their different forms and configurations, under different context (fighting in a swamp, or with less units, or while a hostile third party is around).
3) Using the relationships that you build between the different factions, and the previous and future Temples you create on different Territories, and the different goals that your unique Hero units will have, to create your own player narrative.