Torment: Tides of Numenera Catch-All

3 mil!

Robear wrote:
Vector wrote:

My concern with Wasteland 2, Project Infinity, and Torment: Tides of Numenera is that, to me, it seems a large part of the audience has already paid for the game by funding it. I hope their is more people that will buy these games after they've been released.

Based on what, though? How do you estimate the audience for these games? Torment may only have sold in the tens of thousands, but Baldur's Gate sold over two and a half million... I suspect that the market will sustain a lot more than just the early adopters. I hope so, anyway.

Just the shear amount of people that joined the kickstarter and that those games fell out of favor because of, what I assumed was, sales. Mostly based on worry and nothing else to compare it too.

I didn't even think of think that IF these games are made on budget then all sales go to profit.

I still feel bad for not buying Torment because the guy on the box was so hideous. I'm sure I'd have bought it, with better box art, but it was so repulsive that I lost interest in the game as soon as I saw it.

This was well before the Internet, of course; the only way that game devs had to communicate with me was the box art, and maybe a magazine review. It was faithful to the contents, but it unsold me, when I was looking for something new, with money in my pocket. I remember being in a Software Etc and consciously deciding against it, based purely on the blue guy.

Me too, Malor!!! I remember seeing it on the shelves, and thinking "bleh, how could that possibly be any good?" and just moved along. Of course, after much prodding from one of my dearest friends, he eventually convinced me to give it a try. I had to get the game by not-so-legal means, unfortunately, because by that time, getting your hands on the game was near impossible. Thank goodness there's GOG now!!

You know what, Malor... I think we were blue-ists...

Vector wrote:

Just the shear amount of people that joined the kickstarter and that those games fell out of favor because of, what I assumed was, sales. Mostly based on worry and nothing else to compare it too.

Ah. My belief is that they fell out of favor because the big companies winnowed down the genres to blockbusters - RTS, FPS, MMO. Adventure games, platformers, turn-based anything, a bunch of styles didn't make the cut, and RPGs were (for a while) one of them.

To me, the fact that Chris Avellone can put his games on Steam and have them sell healthily speaks volumes about how wrong that was. Heck, the fact that Spiderweb was a going concern before that is eloquent. There are enough gamers now that even niche styles - and RPG is not niche - can be financially successful. Not blockbusters, but unless you're EA and trying to corner markets, that doesn't matter.

Robear wrote:
Vector wrote:

Just the shear amount of people that joined the kickstarter and that those games fell out of favor because of, what I assumed was, sales. Mostly based on worry and nothing else to compare it too.

Ah. My belief is that they fell out of favor because the big companies winnowed down the genres to blockbusters - RTS, FPS, MMO. Adventure games, platformers, turn-based anything, a bunch of styles didn't make the cut, and RPGs were (for a while) one of them.

To me, the fact that Chris Avellone can put his games on Steam and have them sell healthily speaks volumes about how wrong that was. Heck, the fact that Spiderweb was a going concern before that is eloquent. There are enough gamers now that even niche styles - and RPG is not niche - can be financially successful. Not blockbusters, but unless you're EA and trying to corner markets, that doesn't matter.

I think with Steam, genres that had fallen to wayside are able to find a mass audience while before they were competing for ad and shelf space. Consoles also pushed aside PC titles. I'm not sure it was wrong, I don't like what happened and don't think it was smart, but until digital downloads became viable there just wasn't room.

Is it possible for a Kickstarter project to cap the amount of backers or money generated?

Vector wrote:

Is it possible for a Kickstarter project to cap the amount of backers or money generated?

Nope. Kickstarter has no such options. I guess it's not in their best interest to since they take a 5% fee off every dollar.

You know what, Malor... I think we were blue-ists...

I am so ashamed. I wonder if our penance should be buying a CD from the Blue Man Group?

Malor wrote:
You know what, Malor... I think we were blue-ists...

I am so ashamed. I wonder if our penance should be buying a CD from the Blue Man Group?

Chance of redemption!

So I haven't ever followed a Kickstarter before. Is there la final surge of money, is the current rate of funding likely to stay the same, or will it taper off even more in the final week?

NathanialG wrote:

So I haven't ever followed a Kickstarter before. Is there la final surge of money, is the current rate of funding likely to stay the same, or will it taper off even more in the final week?

Usually a big final push in the last one or two days. The size of the influx can also be affected by how close to stretch goals they are.

With most popular Kickstarters I've seen, there's a big burst of initial excitement, then a steady increase for awhile as word gets out, and then things slow to a steady trickle. Then, in the last few days, activity picks up some again, as people sneak in at the last minute.

There's a reasonable chance it'll make 3.5mil, but it's gonna be close, I think.

Malor wrote:

There's a reasonable chance it'll make 3.5mil, but it's gonna be close, I think.

That's pretty pessimistic. We're at about 3.1 million with 10 days left. For comparison's sake, here's a list of what comparably sized Kickstarters did in their final five days:

Project Eternity: 1,275,036

Star Citizen: 892,218

Double Fine: 854,788

Planetary: 714,557

Wasteland 2: 544,714

Shadowrun: 384,313

Dreamfall: 364,527

It looks like there was a $20 tier that got you a digital copy of the game and manual. That's been capped out at ~15K backers and been replaced with a $25 tier that gets you the exact same reward. Is the ~15K cap an imposition of Kickstarter, or did they just up the price by $5 when it was doing well?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

It looks like there was a $20 tier that got you a digital copy of the game and manual. That's been capped out at ~15K backers and been replaced with a $25 tier that gets you the exact same reward. Is the ~15K cap an imposition of Kickstarter, or did they just up the price by $5 when it was doing well?

That was an early bird tier, to encourage early adoptions. A lot of Kickstarters have been doing that to jump-start the donation process.

Tanglebones wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

It looks like there was a $20 tier that got you a digital copy of the game and manual. That's been capped out at ~15K backers and been replaced with a $25 tier that gets you the exact same reward. Is the ~15K cap an imposition of Kickstarter, or did they just up the price by $5 when it was doing well?

That was an early bird tier, to encourage early adoptions. A lot of Kickstarters have been doing that to jump-start the donation process.

I imagine you'll see several open up (and quickly get filled again) as people alter their pledge levels.

Yeah, I got the $20 tier myself. I'm contemplating whether to jump to one of the physical tiers now, but I'm not really sure I need more stuff around the house...

I was in the $20, but I switched to the $80 since my son expressed a desire for a copy. And all the cool goodies, too. And beta access.

Brother None wrote:
Vector wrote:

Is it possible for a Kickstarter project to cap the amount of backers or money generated?

Nope. Kickstarter has no such options. I guess it's not in their best interest to since they take a 5% fee off every dollar.

Couldn't you do it by limiting the number of backers at each tier? Congrats on the success so far!

Brother None wrote:
Vector wrote:

Is it possible for a Kickstarter project to cap the amount of backers or money generated?

Nope. Kickstarter has no such options. I guess it's not in their best interest to since they take a 5% fee off every dollar.

Interesting, although MrShoop's idea might work. I haven't dabbled in Kickstarter so I have no idea.

I wonder if a Kickstarter project has been worried about the amount they received. The more money, the greater the expectations and responsibility to use it wisely.

MrShoop wrote:
Brother None wrote:
Vector wrote:

Is it possible for a Kickstarter project to cap the amount of backers or money generated?

Nope. Kickstarter has no such options. I guess it's not in their best interest to since they take a 5% fee off every dollar.

Couldn't you do it by limiting the number of backers at each tier? Congrats on the success so far!

You can elect not to choose a reward. Your idea would probably do a fair bit to discourage pledging, though.

MrShoop wrote:
Brother None wrote:
Vector wrote:

Is it possible for a Kickstarter project to cap the amount of backers or money generated?

Nope. Kickstarter has no such options. I guess it's not in their best interest to since they take a 5% fee off every dollar.

Couldn't you do it by limiting the number of backers at each tier? Congrats on the success so far!

Thanks.

You could do that though Hyetal is right in that it wouldn't hardcap donations. I also am not sure Kickstarter even allows every tier to be limited, but I haven't really researched that.

I guess they're some projects that might want to, though I'll note it doesn't really make sense for video games. Believe me, we're in no danger of running out of things to spend money on

Well, we're behind you Brother N. Really excited to see this sort of RPG coming back, and in the Planescape world to boot... That's just wonderful. Best of luck.

Robear wrote:

Well, we're behind you Brother N. Really excited to see this sort of RPG coming back, and in the Planescape world to boot... That's just wonderful. Best of luck.

It's not set in the Planescape world, it's set in Monte Cook's Numenera. While Monte Cook did do many supplements for Planescape, they're not the same setting.

Think another stretch goal might be added?

It's a good thing (for me) that the Kickstarter is winding down, as every week I've been increasing my donation. I think I finally hit my cap, though. Name on Tombstone, here I come!

I missed out on the Wasteland 2 campaign so I was happy to raise my pledge for Torment up to $45 which gets me a copy of both games.

NathanialG wrote:

They they will add one more stretch goal? Looks like they will hit all the ones they have now.

Yip. The second city will be part of an upcoming stretch goal but we're still hashing out exactly what kind of cost estimate we're looking at and where it makes sense. We have some further ideas too.

Think they will add one more stretch goal? Looks like they will hit all the ones they have now.

Sorry, yes, Numenara, I've been replaying Planescape lately...