Be Excellent To Each Other

Kickstarter - fun while it lasted.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... me-instead

Colour me surprised.

Not the first and it won't be the last kickstarter failure.

This one of a board game failed because the creator started hearing voices from the sun saying that she shouldn't make the game:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/18 ... sts/239764

Heh. Loon.

Another high-profile failure: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/02 ... -going-on/

Amazingly, Molyneux said (about Kickstarter):

The fact that Molyneux thinks that Kickstarter is for the likes of him is one of the major problems with it.

Absolutely no self-awareness, the complete tool.

If he had any self-awareness he would have stopped making bullshit promises 15 years ago.

Utter fucking shambles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0P9yYG0G5I

I'm retroactively amazed that Microsoft got three whole Fable games out of him. Poor as they were.

Conrad looks outwardly hostile to his own boss. Did he really work unpaid for a year on Godus? And now he's running it? What company is Moly running?

Yeah, but doesn't "The Trial" sound great? I might loan him a couple of quid for it.

It's got to the stage with Molyneux where you wonder if his previous good stuff succeeded in spite of him rather than because of him, a bit like George Lucas with Star Wars (I mean, look what happened with the prequels when he got 100% of his own way).

Either way I now just read news stories about Molyneux and watch the 22Cans videos in an amusing car-crash spectacle sort of way, I honestly can't work out if he still believes his own bullshit or he's coming out with all this hornswaggle with a knowing wink, sort of like 'Yeah I don't believe it either chaps, lol'.

This Eurogamer article is pretty fantastic
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015- ... eux-forgot


Although it omits the details that Molyneux is a multimillionaire, and only invested ~£6,000 of his own money into Godus/22cans.

Even considering all that, the RPS interview was mean and sensationalist.

I'm not impartial, having worked for John in the past, but yes I agree. The fact that many people's response was sympathy for Molyneux highlights how flawed the interview was. It was a hatchet job.

Obviously ask tough questions, but going in with such a blatant agenda coloured the interview. You want to let the interviewees answers tell the story, not just to make accusations.

His interview style is remarkably reminiscent of his management style.

Maybe John Walker had genuinely good intentions, in terms of quality journalism and professionalism, but by starting the interview with that question it immediately set the tone and put Peter on an ultra-defensive/victim mode, which isn't the smartest thing to do if you want the interviewed to give insightful answers.

Also there's an embarrassing part of the interview where John Walker questioned Peter about his staying in some expensive hotel.

The RPS piece was just a collection of quotes around the narrative. I didn't think it harsh at all.

See even asking about the hotel would have been fine if it had been in the context of discussing company finances and how that relates to Godus development budget and the Kickstarter money.

He didn't ask Molyneux about how much money he has personally invested into 22cans. He did not ask Molyneux whether he is drawing a salary. He didn't ask about the possibility of offering Kickstarter backers refunds.

The hotel question I thought was more to 'prove' a lie.

Molyneux said he has no social life , does nothing but work on the game - has never been or done anything else for months and the question was 'but you just tweeted a picture of a big fancy hotel you were staying at'

It was an attempt to say 'your telling a lie and here is proof' , however Molyneux then said it was a friend and he didnt pay and it didnt count etc etc etc.

Exploding Kittens then.

200,000 backers
$10,000 target
Backed to the tune of EIGHT AND A HALF MILLION DOLLARS.

Didn't he?

As mean as the interview was, I feel that given how good Molyneux has proven to be at bullshitting his way through most interviews, starting him off with a question like that - which immediately puts him on the back foot rather than being able to spout off his "prepared" narrative - was probably the way to go.

Most backers in KS history, innit?

I was tempted, but seeing as I was the last person in the world who hadn't backed it, I figured someone else will have it whenever I want to play.

I don't think this is possible

http://digg.com/video/this-beehive-clai ... ney-on-tap

Nah, Star Citizen got nearly 750,000.

I think it's the most money raised, but spread across less backers than Star Citizen.

No, apparently Star Citizen only got 34,000 on Kickstarter. Must be including people from other places.

Two raises at the same time? That sounds cheeky if undisclosed.

I will bring mine to the cottage. It has the NSFW deck. Should be shipped in July.

Everyone can play except Craster, who will be playing something a lot more exciting.

I am doing the Patreon thing I guess
https://www.patreon.com/SavyGamer

$60 per article? Given there's like 20 a day on savygamer, I imagine you'll be LOADED!



Oh.

Yeah I don't just mean deal posts, I mean like a proper article.

It's basically so I can (hopefully) get roughly was I might get for doing an article for someone else on a freelance basis, but instead do it for myself and for my audience.

I don't have to deal with the headache of pitching it around elsewhere to get paid.

I expect to write about one article a month, but I didn't want to be beholden to it. You can set Patreon to be a monthly subscription, but I don't really want to force myself to write something if there's not much interesting for me to write about. This way I can decide whether or not to take money off people, but people can still budget for what the maximum they want to pay is.

I backed the Amiga book a while ago and it's brilliant. This morning, this turned up.... Finally, Putty Squad gets a release. It's lovely.

After a series of daily updates featuring interviews and a "budget statement" of sorts, the Shenmue 3 kickstarter is starting to look like a real, proper thing. SHENMUE 3! If I said I wasn't excited by this, I would be a dirty, dirty liar.

I'm baffled by the status of that game. Was there that many people with Dreamcasts?

Its more around the fact that it was :

'Revolutionary' for the time
Created by someone who after it 'failed' was basically shunned afterwards (*)
Ended on a cliffhanger

Its one of those 'will never happen' type request , that would get thrown in to any wishlist

I dont think that there are *that* many Shenmue fans but they were *very* *very* vocal.

I also dont believe this was posted at the time - Gamestrailers 'live' coverage of the playstation conference





A Shenmue fan , who realised what they were talking about from the first 2 bars of music and loses his mind

(*) - Yu Suzuki's wikipedia page for games he worked on : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Suzuki

Not a full list but the designer / Producer of Hang on / Space Harrier / Out Run / After Burner / Power Drift / Virtua Racing / Daytona / Virtua Cop / Virtua Fighter

After Shenmue 'failed' he's worked on very little for the last 12 years or so

The girl on the left looks scared.

That GIF is brilliant. It warms my heart.

I wish I could get excited about stuff like that.

A couple of Kickstarters to which I pledged:

Commodore: The Amiga Years, Brian Bagnall's long awaited follow up to his fantastic book Commodore: A Company on the Edge

Wasteland Playing Cards, playing cards illustrated with characters from Wasteland 2.

Change the cell colours on your spreadsheet. If you can handle it

By now I'm most excited for bards tale 4 and the Ultima underworld spiritual successor.

Pillars of Eternity was a big letdown

Con Man trailer from SDCC

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/09/co ... selves-con

One of my favourite games, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, has a prequel on kickstarter right now. It can be played as a stand alone game or combined with the other games in the One Night series. If you don't have it, I recommend it. I've introduced it to a really wide range of people and they've all loved it and it's one of those games where every time you finish someone asks if you can play again. Each game takes less than ten minutes and it's like normal werewolf/mafia except there is only one night phase and lots of night actions. Brilliant fun!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/te ... ory_newest

There's an RPG on Kickstarter of one of my favourite books of all time, "Vurt".

I need to balance my desire for throwing all my money at it with the issue that I never really play role playing games. As in ones around a table, not on a computer.

An awesome new Kickstarter has launched, for Meepillows! Obviously I've backed it

Do yourself a favour and watch the video. It's filmed in the style of a cheesy infomercial and it's great.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fa ... nav_search

This is...well, you just have to read it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/21 ... -strange-2

Not going to succeed?