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It may seem like it, but it's actually a really reasonable budget. And we have a biggish publisher that agrees with us.
And the only reason it's that low is because we'll be phasing development and hiring as we go along. But in the end, we need to be around 16-18 people. And the total development time is about two years.
Yeah, that's a pretty modest budget. It only seems big if you've only seen kickstarter/indiegogo budgets. Most of the time they'll lowball what they need.
It may seem like it, but it's actually a really reasonable budget
I don't think anyone here thinks that it isn't, it's just sounds like a large amount in terms of donations. Then again, 40 days is a decent time and the prototype will probably be a giant help in convincing people.
Just to be clear: we're not supposed to share early access prototype before campaign launch, are we?
To the game itself then!
One thing I would like you to consider is separate button config for field and battle. Since battle config is pretty much MUST be set in the way that correspond charcters' positions, there is no way to put jump and attack where you want them to be, because they tied to characters. I still would like to thank based Mike Z and based Brady for actually adding key config to the proto - playing such convoluted scheme with random layout would be a complete nightmare.
Also I really like power-up you get from the boss. It's pretty cool.
Edit: oh, and guys, did you recognize VAs? I'm pretty sure Ajna is Christina Vee, but who are other three?
Took me 40 minutes, a lot of it on that last bit. "That" part scared the shit out of me even though I was completely expecting it. Once you get a handle on the defensive systems it feels really good. Kind of ended up button mashing the combos and I'm not totally understanding how super management works but I'm sure the full game will build you up to it. Kept trying to press down when I wanted to switch enemies so that's going to take some getting used to. Can you switch targets mid combo? Art designs godlike and I think I like the music even better than SGs.
Well, considering the fact that their budget for crowdfunding demo was bigger than _entire_ budget of many projects out there it's not that surprising =ъ
-The part with the White ghost before you see Roti the second time, I was trying to get around the ghost and the fight ended up happening with half of the screen, along with the enemy and Ajna, being blocked by the wall. Couldn't see shit.
-If you countinue past the point the game thinks you'll have Razmi without having Razmi, the tutorial will still suggest using Razmi.
-You can get to the boss having just got Razmi through the previous fight if you skip enough other fights. I'm pretty sure I fudged up, and you can probably skip an extra fight to show up to the boss without her. He's most likely impossible to beat like this. He's balls hard with her only having one action and everyone else having two, as it is.
-The part where the two green guys are, I managed to get one of them to headbutt me and be not-present in the fight. He was all whited out. This made the fight much easier, playing trying to avoid every fight possible.
-Against the bosses unreactable attack, you can just hold defend the whole time until the attack starts up. You can then let it go on reaction, then hold it again for his fire attack. This lets you sorta option select the guard at almost no cost, because holding guard without an attack happening costs you nothing.
Finished it in under 30 minutes, was a lot of fun.
I haven't really got a grips on the combo system, I mostly just mashed buttons, but I really got used to the blocking towards the end, particularly the last bit!
Died once when a whole lot of monsters targeted Ahjna and I wasn't yet used to which button did what (I played on Keyboard, I would recommend making sure you remember what your keys are doing early on!) so I accidentally blocked with the wrong character.
The battle system seems like it could become very deep once/if there are lots of different utility abilities!, although I pretty much found myself mashing for most fights unless it one that required some healing and even then I pretty much just mashed and avoided 1 key.
Axe climbing is very satisfying, can't wait to see what traversal will feel like when you need to use multiple movement abilities. I was kinda hoping there would be a section that would require me to use both wall jumps and axe climbing well, I had fun jumping around doing just that in that room with lots of wall segments, I assume that was the purpose of that room because I wasted a few minutes in there just flying around haha.
Can't wait to see what's next, I'm much more excited for this than I was before the prototype.
-The last breakaway floor before the one you have to break to get to the boss, if you don't break it, prevents you from backtracking and grinding more abilities. I was stuck trying to beat the boss with a 1-move Razmi, so I tried to go back but couldn't.
Man, I didn't plan on it, but I found myself playing through this thing about 4 times, two NG+ and two Freshies. I really enjoyed it, so much infact, that I didn't even bother writing down my play times before pushing start! lol....I'll have to try it some more later.
Visually, Z-Engine puts up a great show for the platforming, and I think you guys handled the camera really well with the tilting transitions for fights. Fights are pretty fun, and I love how there's a big focus on blocking, and waiting for the right moments to build that meter faster. I could tell that the balancing of all the moves wasn't airtight yet, with some moves being a little more useful than others, but I could still find moments to take advantage of everyone's particular skills. I really liked that some of the enemies had unique ways of dealing with your premature attack too, and I can already see how Ajna's equipment will have a big influence over the flow of the fights.
It's really hard to critique this thing, since we all know it's in a super early state, and so much is going to change from this point forward. Still, I'll just bullet point some various thoughts I had while playing:
~ Oh man, that boss theme had "Kikuta" tattooed all over it. Those sweet Mana-vibes!
?--> Kinda surprised that Ajna didn't preserve more of her momentum when jumping out of a dash. It didn't throw me off much, but there were a couple spots where I wished I could do "Mario style" run and jumps to navigate multiple platforms. Maybe that's an upgrade idea on the table?
~ Wall jumping felt awesome btw.
X--> Some extra little SFX during battle would probably have been helpful. In particular, a "blip" sound would help when moving the Aiming cursor, and maybe a little sound to cue the start of an Enemy Attack sequence. Right now a lot of cues seem only visual, so sometimes it was easy for me to lose track of the action when I was more focused on watching my meters. I do like that the game encourages you keep your eyes on everything that's happening though, so it forces you to build a little "muscle memory" for how you want to command your team in the heat of the moment.
X--> I felt Aiming was probably one of the rougher spots of the fights overall. The cursor position would usually reset after a cycle, so sometimes I'd forget where I was aiming and just resort to Splash Damage attacks instead. In addition to a "blip" sound when moving the arrow cursor, I think an extra marker below the monster with its name (or maybe "???" like in BOF), could help make it easier to keep track of.
X--> Ran into a similar issue as others, where I'd sometimes forget to monitor the team's health, and almost get wrecked. Certainly not a fault of the UI though, there's just a lot to watch for on screen. I think once you guys work on the real game, and implement "weary" animations and "groany" SFX and stuff, this won't be as much of a problem.
?--> I agree with others that a "Total Damage" marker during a combo might be handy. Maybe that's a Character Skill idea?
?--> On that note, fight stats at the end of a match would be fun to have in the final game, keeping track of Avg. Fight Times, Air Combo length times, and stuff. I'm sure you guys are way ahead of me there.
Also, I gotta say I really loved the addition of the voices. I couldn't help but smile at the little one-liners, especially the character introductions. Hope everyone can stay on board for the finished game. I wasn't familiar with Gina's work before today, but I definitely think she's a keeper!
...That boss kicked my ass a few times. YES MIKE! FRAME RATES DO MATTER lol XD I was having trouble getting the blocking for that 1 second flinch it had, and running at about 5~10 frames isn't easy to block that 750 party hit XD
I gotta tell ya, that last boss was really something else. He beat the pulp out of me until I learned.
Now I know the value of restraint. Having a pocket heal from Razmi, who by the way is officially my waifu, instead of going for that "just one more attack" is REALLY helpful in case I fuck up a defensive play.
This game... kind of needs to happen. I liked what I saw. Don't know about the whole, "if you don't have meter, you can't block" thing. I just don't like the idea where, for the boss fight, I have to take a full-force attack on the chin and how much it hurts is RNG. Maybe give the player just enough meter at the start of a fight to allow for one blocked attack?
...That boss kicked my ass a few times. YES MIKE! FRAME RATES DO MATTER lol XD I was having trouble getting the blocking for that 1 second flinch it had, and running at about 5~10 frames isn't easy to block that 750 party hit XD
Else, FUN! EXCITED!
Honestly, for that attack, I just took it on the chin. I'd rather take 750 damage than risk wasting all that meter flinching against the wrong thing and screwing up my defense against the AOE flame attack...
I honestly enjoyed myself, even though the game ran like crap with Bandi recording. So I'm gonna set with it again without recording and then give a better review. =3
@Kai made a very informative video about the combat mechanics:
I wish I knew more about how different attacks affected quickly how my action points and enemy action points refilled! I was basically getting pelted in the final boss fight while waiting for Razmi to drag her freakin' feet (does she even HAVE feet?!) getting her AP back... and wondering why.
"Indivisible will not happen if we don’t hit our goal."
Damn, That's some heavy stuff. Was this really the best discussion for you guys? As appose to what you called a "traditional" publishing deal.
"Indivisible will not happen if we don’t hit our goal."
Damn, That's some heavy stuff. Was this really the best discussion for you guys? As appose to what you called a "traditional" publishing deal.
Like I said in the thing, it's a risk. But the deal is quite good if we're funded and there's a significantly better back-end for us than any traditional publishing deal.
Also, we really want to do the community feedback thing again, and it's hard to do that under a traditional publishing deal. That's a huge part of what made Skullgirls so special, and we wanted to expand on that with a single player game.
Like I said in the thing, it's a risk. But the deal is quite good if we're funded and there's a significantly better back-end for us than any traditional publishing deal.
Also, we really want to do the community feedback thing again, and it's hard to do that under a traditional publishing deal. That's a huge part of what made Skullgirls so special, and we wanted to expand on that with a single player game.
Yeah I can totally respect that, in the long run it does seem like the right path to making an all around better game. I'll make sure to support it in doing so.
Thanks for the insight.
As someone unfamiliar with IGG, if I donate what I am able to but for whatever reason later find I am able to give more can I move up in terms of tiers or do the amounts not stack?
Yo, I remember it being mentioned previously that we can still donate and receive the rewards even after the original end date, but how long is the additional time exactly? Is it indefinitely or a few months?
I'm asking because I'm broke until at least March :/
Kai's video helped me understand some things I missed and makes me more excited for where the combat could go.
I didn't realise the big difference move choice made on the action gauge refilling, mostly due to the fights in the prototype not really requiring that sort of management yet.
I hope the funding is successful, I don't play may RPGs these days but Indivisible is looking worth it so far.
Yo, I remember it being mentioned previously that we can still donate and receive the rewards even after the original end date, but how long is the additional time exactly? Is it indefinitely or a few months?
I'm asking because I'm broke until at least March :/
It'll be open for digital stuff until launch, or close to it.
Was thinking that physical goods would be cut off in early 2016, though.
As someone unfamiliar with IGG, if I donate what I am able to but for whatever reason later find I am able to give more can I move up in terms of tiers or do the amounts not stack?
This reminds me that I need to clarify how this stuff works this time around - they have a new system for tier upgrades now, whereas it was pretty manual before.
But I think you should be able to make a second contribution and combine it with your previous one. Although it might require you to send a message to a CS rep.
Loving the prototype. Played through it a few times now. Here are my thoughts:
-Platforming felt good. Jumping, wall jumping, and axe climbing were all responsive. I look forward to the speed booster. I hope there will be shinesparking.
-Combat felt good as well. Attacks felt strong, and the animations are great. I found using only up attacks most effective. I assume each of the three attacks should be the best choice in certain situations, so it might be a little unbalanced as is. As development progresses, I think it would be good to showcase what situations each of a character's attacks are best in.
-During fights, I had some difficulty in the beginning because I was focusing on the attack bars too much. I realized I needed to be multitasking looking at attack and super bars, enemy telegraphs, and characters to know who to defend with. It took a little getting used to, but I think I have a good handle on it now.
-I started off using attacks as soon as possible. This slowed the pace down, and I found combat flowed better when I waited to use all attacks at once.
-On my first playthrough, health felt high on stronger enemies. Health bars seemed like they were hardly moving, so my attacks felt ineffective. Once I got better at the combat, this became less of an issue. If encounters last longer as the game progresses, I could see this being a problem. Larger or multiple health bars may be helpful.
-I did grab a vine with the axe once. I would have expected to break it, but I could see this behavior being useful for times when you want to climb past a vine. There weren't any situations like that though.
-3 bar supers seem less useful than I would expect them to be. The only time I found it worth using one was early or mid combo. Finishing a combo with one actually seems bad because you lose all your meter. If it doesn't kill, you can't defend. If it does kill, you don't get the post-fight healing. 1 and 2 bar supers usually leave some meter behind, so they're fine. I think further increasing the power on 3 bar supers would make sense since the complete loss of meter makes them riskier and more reward would counterbalance that.
-It might look cool for damage text to be a different color for each character. Might make it easier to tell whose damage is whose when everyone is attacking as well.
Also ran into a few bugs/glitches:
-The game froze at some point after going to the website, but I can't replicate it.
-Razmi's resurrection adds an extra health, meaning that characters are revived with 3001 health.
-I somehow glitched the encounter with the two big green dudes to only fight one of them at a time. The one I wasn't fighting was black and white. In another run through at the same encounter, only one of them spawned. I haven't been able to replicate either of these scenarios.
That's all I've got. Thanks for all of your hard work. You guys did a fantastic job.
uhg feel bad but I can't upload the video I had recorded.. it was just too messy from the lack of frames. It wouldn't of done the game justice to share it in video's poor state. I've shared the news (and file XD) out via my Kit facebook page though.. Hopefully someone'll like it and come knocking on the IGG door =3
This reminds me that I need to clarify how this stuff works this time around - they have a new system for tier upgrades now, whereas it was pretty manual before.
Yeah, I noticed "upgrade your pledge" option when backed Them's Fighting Herds. It sure will come in handy! =O (Recalls SG campaign and shivers)
Also, we really want to do the community feedback thing again, and it's hard to do that under a traditional publishing deal. That's a huge part of what made Skullgirls so special, and we wanted to expand on that with a single player game.
Is it just me or I can hear sound of Mike grinding his teeth?
Edit: Oh, and I guess if I can share prototype with whoever I want, then I want to share it with people in this thread who didn't try it yet =ъ
Edit: Oh, and I guess if I can share prototype with whoever I want, then I want to share it with people in this thread who didn't try it yet =ъ
I don't think you're supposed to share the it because the point was to give the SG backers early access, then everyone else can try it Monday when it gets released with the IGG campaign.
Game footage like video/streams I think they want you to go nuts on, though, regardless.
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