Kentucky Route Zero

Balthezor wrote:

If I purchase from the developer, do I get a key for Steam as well?

Yes, or at least I got one. It was available on my "Humble Store" download page for the game.

gore wrote:
Balthezor wrote:

If I purchase from the developer, do I get a key for Steam as well?

Yes, or at least I got one. It was available on my "Humble Store" download page for the game.

Thank you. I like to keep track of my time played but want to give the developers the most money they can get.

After playing The Entertainment I really need some discussion on what you guys think it means, so here's my brief take:

Spoiler:

Kind of a do what's best for you, don't get stuck in bad situations before it's too late type of message. The glowing guy at the end is a Hard Times boy come to judge everyone for their debt. Debt literally means monetary debt but also represents the other problems that characters were bogged down in. Pearl was the only good character that was allowed to escape.

I got KR0 directly from Cardboard Computer before it got to Steam so I'm on their mailing list. They just sent this out about Act 3

Cardboard Computer wrote:

We get a fair number of emails asking about the status of Act III, which is totally understandable. We know it's a bit unusual for a game company not to announce release dates in advance, or generally to keep such a low profile between releases, and of course since many of y'all have paid in advance for all five acts of the game it's not surprising that you'd want more clarity from us or reassurance that the game is still under development. We have pretty clear reasons for working the way that we do, but it seems like a good time to start being a bit more publicly transparent.

So here's an update about what's going on with Kentucky Route Zero development right now:

We get asked sometimes if the project is abandoned. No! Acts III, IV and V are still coming out. We've never stopped working on Kentucky Route Zero, and there's no risk of us abandoning it. Making this game is what we do.

We publicly announced release dates for Act I and II, and in both cases those dates slipped, which is not at all unusual in videogames or other creative projects. But, all the same, it was pretty demoralizing to miss deadlines, and the barrage of negative attention that followed made it only more difficult to focus on work. More importantly, we've learned that our process is quite exploratory, experimental, and unpredictable anyway.

It's crucial for our work that we reserve the right to throw things away, rework things as necessary, and allow the project to grow organically. Regularly, scenes that we imagined would be very simple and small-scale bloom into something much more complex as we work on them. In short, it's difficult (or impossible) to really know what you're working on until you're really working on it, and it's important to us that we err on the side of respecting the game rather than the timeline.

One piece that grew larger in scale than we expected it to is the interlude between acts II and III, "The Entertainment." But even though it demanded a lot more of our time and attention that we anticipated, we're very happy with how it came out. "The Entertainment" is at least as important a component of the Kentucky Route Zero project as any other, which should become more clear when Act III comes out ...

Without getting into any spoilery detail, Act III is *significantly* more involved than the first two acts. We knew this coming into it, based on our narrative outline of the game. There are also components of it that grew in scale beyond our expectation, but we feel they're worth the time and effort.

It may be unusual, but this is how we work; this is how a game like Kentucky Route Zero gets made. We're proud of the game and excited to share the rest of it with you, and we hope it's worthy of your patience and support.

So yeah. We may still be waiting on Act 3 for a while.

They did also leak this "teaser" image.

IMAGE(http://cardboardcomputer.com/media/KrzAct3_Promo_Half.png)

I have yet to buy this game, but their explanation kind of angers me. I'm not sure why. Something to do with people having already paid them. Yes, it was always an episodic work in progress, but something doesn't feel right to me here.

Edit: Now that I've re-read it, this paragraph irks me the most.

It's crucial for our work that we reserve the right to throw things away, rework things as necessary, and allow the project to grow organically. Regularly, scenes that we imagined would be very simple and small-scale bloom into something much more complex as we work on them. In short, it's difficult (or impossible) to really know what you're working on until you're really working on it, and it's important to us that we err on the side of respecting the game rather than the timeline.

I'm reminded of Neil Gaiman saying that "GRRM isn't your Female Doggo" when it comes to getting out Ice & Fire books, but in that case people hadn't paid for the next book already.

Need to think on this.

garion333 wrote:

I have yet to buy this game, but their explanation kind of angers me. I'm not sure why. Something to do with people having already paid them. Yes, it was always an episodic work in progress, but something doesn't feel right to me here.

That's because it reminds you a lot of the Miner Wars 2081 fiasco.

I think for kickstarted games, it's reasonable to expect substantial schedule slippage. The teams often aren't terribly experienced and so aren't as good at projecting completion times. For KR0, I like the game enough that I'm willing to just wait for them to finish. At the same time, I don't want to play an episode and then wait 6 months for the next one, so I have this game shelved until all episodes are released. For another project by this team, I'd probably just wait to buy it until it's complete.

complexmath wrote:

I think for kickstarted games, it's reasonable to expect substantial schedule slippage. The teams often aren't terribly experienced and so aren't as good at projecting completion times. For KR0, I like the game enough that I'm willing to just wait for them to finish. At the same time, I don't want to play an episode and then wait 6 months for the next one, so I have this game shelved until all episodes are released. For another project by this team, I'd probably just wait to buy it until it's complete.

I don't even think that I consider this a Kickstarter game. Their KS campaign was significantly smaller than sales have been for the game since then, or so I assume from the fact the KS campaign net them all of $8,500 from 200 people. I'm sure that's been surpassed.

Game was funded in Feb. 2011, then it became episodic sometime in 2012, first episode was released in Jan. 2013, and the second act in May 2013. Original release date: Fall 2011.

Something bothers me here that normally doesn't bother me.

maverickz wrote:

That's because it reminds you a lot of the Miner Wars 2081 fiasco.

Oh god, no. It's not as if they put out a crap game, like MW was.

I don't think they've ever put out a timeline for when any of the future releases were planned to be released, beyond sometimes announcing a release date for whatever they're currently about to finish. That wasn't working, so they decided to stop doing even that. Even experienced teams are terrible at figuring out deadlines, so that's no surprise.

I have no issue with them taking their time if they can afford to do so; there are artistic risks in that direction too, but that's not really what anyone is worried about.

I'm fine with the wording. As a consumer, I knew the risk involved when purchasing it up front. I didn't want to wait for the final product!

This is why I won't really pick up episodic games until they're all released. Same reason I don't pre-order: if I have to hand you my money now, I want something in exchange, and I'd rather wait and find out if that thing is worth the money I'm giving you.

Now, I'm anxiously waiting for KR0 to be done, because it sounds like I'll really like it. I just don't want to give them my money until then. The nice side effect is that delays in new episodes don't really bug me, because it's not like I'm out anything for waiting.

I totally respect their rights as creators to take as much time as they need to create. They need to keep in mind that people have already paid for something though, and keeping them waiting indefinitely is bad form. On the flip side, the people who paid in advance have to kind of expect these kinds of delays to happen, and that it's a risk you take in pre-ordering something.

Well, they're riding on the Zero now...

I saw this today, and I immediately thought of KR0.

gore wrote:

I saw this today, and I immediately thought of KR0.

Stranger than fiction. All they need is a room full of bears.

Whoa. That's a surprise.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Act III is here!

http://kentuckyroutezero.com/

Crap, now I have to remember what I did in Acts I and II. Been waiting for so long, I might have to replay it from the start.

maverickz wrote:
TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Act III is here!

http://kentuckyroutezero.com/

Crap, now I have to remember what I did in Acts I and II. Been waiting for so long, I might have to replay it from the start.

I may do that anyway.

maverickz wrote:
TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Act III is here!

http://kentuckyroutezero.com/

Crap, now I have to remember what I did in Acts I and II. Been waiting for so long, I might have to replay it from the start.

A very pleasant surprise that Act III is here! I remember Act I pretty well, but not Act II, so I'm replaying that part. It's still (of course) really, really good. I'm noticing plenty of little details about the art and design of the spaces and just little allusions in the dialogue that I think I missed the first time.

bombsfall wrote:

I think it was longer than the first two episodes combined. I can definitely see where that time went, especially in a few standout sections.

Well that's good, at least. It appears my prediction is extremely likely at this point, though:

Kentucky Route Zero will not see its 5th episode release in 2014. Possibly not even its 4th. Minarchist will be very saddened by this development.

Holee sheeet. I was actually somewhat lukewarm on the first two episodes. I thought the overall concept and art was interesting, but nothing really grabbed me. I just played the first bit of episode 3 and:

Spoiler:

The motorcycle scene and the bar/concert scene were absolutely incredible. The motorcycle thing was just cool. The lighting and artwork were rad. The way the conversation worked was rad. So, of course, I immediately go to the bar hoping for a concert of some sort. I eventually get to that bit. The roof disappearing to reveal the starlit sky was just interesting from the perspective of having been to lots of concerts. It's a concert that transcends the reality of the moment. I think I sat listening to the beat for five minutes before realizing I was supposed to choose the lyrics to the song. There is SO much to each of the choices you can make. It made me grin. The whole thing was a deconstruction of a love song (which are generally pretty stupid). You get to pick what type of dumb love song you want to hear. Amazing. Damn, that vocalist can sing, too.

I'll be replaying that bit.

Also, this game looks so damn good in 1440p.

Finished. Yeah, that was good stuff. My favorite moment was definitely the bit I posted earlier. So good. Glad the soundtrack is included for every act.

bombsfall: I think you are experiencing this game on a much higher level than I am, and it makes me happy/a-little-jealous.

I'm anxiously waiting to play this. However, I have a terrible memory, so I don't play episodic games as they release. I usually wind up forgetting too much between episodes, and wind up having to replay the whole thing, which leads to me putting it off kind of indefinitely. For reference, I still haven't managed to finish playing Walking Dead. I got through part 3, then forgot what was going on, so I'll have to replay everything.

Long story short, I'm really glad the third episode is out, and is good. One step closer to me being able to play it!

Chaz wrote:

I'm anxiously waiting to play this. However, I have a terrible memory, so I don't play episodic games as they release. I usually wind up forgetting too much between episodes, and wind up having to replay the whole thing, which leads to me putting it off kind of indefinitely. For reference, I still haven't managed to finish playing Walking Dead. I got through part 3, then forgot what was going on, so I'll have to replay everything.

Long story short, I'm really glad the third episode is out, and is good. One step closer to me being able to play it!

I probably should go back and play all the episodes again. I'm definitely missing pieces. I'll probably replay all the current 3 when Act 4 comes out.

Chaz wrote:

Long story short, I'm really glad the third episode is out, and is good. One step closer to me being able to play it!

I'm the same way. As with TWD, I just waited until all episodes were done, then bought the whole package and played through it all once. If I ever get KRZ, I'll do the same.

I'm really looking forward to this one. KR0 is a game that I really like in a lot of ways, but it just failed to completely gel for me in the first two episodes. I'm excited to see what they came up with this time.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Finished. Yeah, that was good stuff. My favorite moment was definitely the bit I posted earlier. So good. Glad the soundtrack is included for every act.

bombsfall: I think you are experiencing this game on a much higher level than I am, and it makes me happy/a-little-jealous.

I had no idea about the soundtrack. I just went digging through my steam folders to find it. Thanks.

Chaz wrote:

I'm anxiously waiting to play this. However, I have a terrible memory, so I don't play episodic games as they release. I usually wind up forgetting too much between episodes, and wind up having to replay the whole thing, which leads to me putting it off kind of indefinitely. For reference, I still haven't managed to finish playing Walking Dead. I got through part 3, then forgot what was going on, so I'll have to replay everything.

Long story short, I'm really glad the third episode is out, and is good. One step closer to me being able to play it!

My wife and I petered out on The Walking Dead, too. Someday I'll start over and knock it all out.

For KRZ, I'm actually looking forward to replaying from Act I. I want to catch the two free interludes that I missed anyway.

I started it.

Good.

With the way they are putting this out, I'll wait until all five acts are out until I play it since I'll forget what I did quickly.