Need A Boost in Confidence

[azro2000]

Admittedly, I know very little of Wonderstruck, and commonly confuse its name with Wonderlust. I have no devotion to any one developer. Im not even a big fan of most the titles they have previously worked on….. BUT

What I see here has potential, and I AM a fan of Minecraft. I am also a fan of Kickstarting projects and if confident in a project, would drop hundred(s) to play a game and gain early access.

With that said, here is my hesitation…

I like what I read… and I like what I see in the engine. And if you would have left it at that, I would have probably dropped the 95 to see it now. But what you did, is chose to go the Star Citizen approach. And that scares me a bit.

Star Citizen worked for this reason…. it was already 100’s of thousands in when it started the ‘we’ll develop this if…’ method. It was already rolling. Then, each new thing gave people excitement.

What you are doing, on the other hand, is showing what people will get IF it gets funded to a certain point. And that has this downside… What if it doesnt fund to that point? Do I then (for 95) get a cool prototype with no real game functionality? do I get ranged combat, but nothing to use it on because we couldnt raise enough?

See, the downside to exposing your hand so much is that some of us then have a reluctantcy to put our money into a half finished product. If you hadnt told us all those features you were going to add, we’d have been excited when they were announced as a bonus.

So my question to you is this….

What if funding doesnt go as you hope? will you continue development? Will you go and look for alternate means of getting funding? I dont mind buying in. I dont know that I care to rely on the world also buying in for me to get something tangible out of it. 🙂

So…. I sit and watch the dollar count. I would have already dropped the money if the above hesitation wasnt there. I refresh and enjoy seeing it go up. And hopefully, someday soon, you’ll get my money also.

Please dont take this as a rant against you. I merely want to give you a perspective from a person like me, and hope you can find a way to put our concerns to bed, so we can get on to giving you our money 🙂

[Zouls]

Well. i for one believe in them, and to answer your question from my point of view atleast, they have 23,5k founded already out of 40k they were aiming for in just a little under a week, and as far as i can see they planned to get that in ½ a year.
I have seen alot of youtubers buy the game and show it off, which is why its starting to get so much attention. so i honestly think they are going to get way more than they expected to get funded, and they really seem to listen to people and what they want. im going to buy the 95 dollar pack when i get money tommorw, and if you compare it to like buying starbucks or candy or whatever then in the end it isnt that much money.

[Zouls]

the last 30 min they have gotten 500 dollars, thats enough of a boost? XD

[azro2000]

Im excited for them. truely am. And excited for its potential. AAANNNDDDD… will most likely drop the 95 in the next day or so as Im completely bored.

But 500 dollars is small change in the grand scheme of 15 features, wanting 50k (an assumption) each. thats 750k to get all the features. And yes, if this catches fire, 750k is chump-change. But the keyword there is IF. I hope that it not only raises the 750k, but we see many other features because it went far beyond the goal.

But another question, while were on the topic of features…

Whats the plan and rough timeline with releasing these features?

SOE is doing something very right when it comes to Landmark. They are very open to the release/development plan and timeline. So much so, that its the first time in a long time that gamers feel fully in the know. Exciting. I hope many more dev companies adopt the thinking and take it further. But what it does, is it begins to spoil a process that then doesnt live up to the same standard.

So, Im hoping to see from Wonderstruck, an in-depth plan and timeline for near term features. This then builds confidence in how quickly a company can produce and how that company thinks. It also keeps the community excited for near-term goals.

Just more thoughts.

[Grimoire]

I’m really excited for them too. I plan on getting the $250 bundle myself. 🙂

[Rob]

Hi Azro2000! Thanks for the interest in the game and the question. Pricing models are difficult to get right and we’re continually looking at our system to try and make it the best out there.

You’re correct about Star Citizen (and many other crowdfunded projects). They start by aiming for a large-ish goal of funding and then add other features on as stretch goals when they get funded.

We’re trying something a bit different. We thought we would try to be as upfront and honest about the entire process. We’ve already invested a significant amount of our own time and money into the project and will continue to do so. As you already know, games are expensive to make and a lot of crowdfunding projects out there don’t look like they are terribly realistic about the costs and time it will take to finish a product. We’re offering a system where we give you a version of the game as it is and then respond to you the customer and what you would like us to be developing next.

With a crowdfunded game you are always taking a certain amount of risk in backing the product. Will it come out? How long will it take? Will it be what I hope for? Well we already have a version out and ready to play. It’s not the fully featured version we want it to be, but it’s there for you to enjoy today. We’re going to be upfront about development time and schedules so that you know what’s planned and when it’s due to be released, and to make sure it’s the game you hoped for we’re constantly taking on your feedback and asking you what you want to see next.

Don’t worry about ranting! We absolutely want and need your feedback on the in-game stuff, the website, the pricing model and anything else. Without it, we can’t make as good decisions on what to change and adapt.

I hope this has answered some of your questions and you stay interested in the game. Everyone has different requirements that they want to be fulfilled before backing a crowdfunded game. If your’s aren’t fulfilled yet, well I hope we can fulfill them tomorrow or the next day and get your support!

Thanks

Rob – Wonderstruck Designer

[azro2000]

Great response Rob. As an older, fellow professional, its good to see a developer response have the level of professionalism yours did. And it was enough to bring me on board. 🙂

Now get to coding! I need me some features! 🙂

[Grimoire]

Sassy 🙂

[Tibor]

Makes me wonder tho…..why didn’t you go for the kickstarter campaign AND the model that you have going on now?! It’s what Star Citizen did. They raised 2 mil on kickstarter but they still continued the instant/alpha/beta model that you have now. It seems that you could have done the same. Take Planets 3 for example. They raised 300 000$ on kickstarter with a lot less to show than you did in your opening movie. It seems you could have been a lot more secure and/or better funded if you raised 300k on kick, and than continued the funding process the way it is now even with the feature voting. The kickstarter thing would have simply been massive marketing.

The way it is now….I’m monitoring the funding on an hourly basis and biting my nails!! And I don’t even care about my 50$; i just want this game to be made….badly! 😀

[Johannes]

I am very confident here as the dev reputation already enables me to put a huge level of “trust” into the game development. It actually is the only reason I backed the game as a Wayfarer without even looking at a single video 😀

However, what I am really interested in right now is: what procedure do you have in mind regarding the backers’ influence on the roadmap? I really do hope you’re not going to ride with the forums as these have proven to be a terrible thing when it comes to suggestions, bugreports and rants about release cycles on several other early access games I backed.

Are you planning to streamline the process via surveys and segmentation of the backer database? And the actual “voting” you mention in your pitch is what I am really curios about. How do you separate the “kiddie-dreams” from constructive critics?

[Author]

Posts