A Public Video

[Dorag]

Hello BareMettle,
I'm sure that we all know the true helpers to the cause and the ones who made it happen are the insiders, but, you mustn't forget there's a whole public community of people expecting the game, discussing it suggesting about it and keeping the general community alive.

Without spoiling the experience for the people who paid to gain access to exclusive videos, you should, every once in a few months, release a video of gameplay with implemented new content that you can of course choose what to show and what not to show to keep it fair for everyone.

That way, with a new video every few months, you're "Kickstarting" the general public community and giving them content to chew on, while I'm certain a picture is worth a thousand words and walls of text are helping, a short video once in a while would help greatly to keep your general public of members satisfied.

--Edit--
If you think this is a good idea please, voice your opinion and let them know we need this.

 

[the0thMonkey]

Yeah, that YouTube channel is looking awfully barren

 

[NinjaTigers]

I too would love an update, but you must realize they are busy and they might just be working on internal programming at the moment, so visually it would be a kinda boring video. Just believe in the Devs, they definitely have my vote of confidence! A+ Devs! And us general public just have to be patient!

 

[Parco]

When Alpha gets out i guess there will be some letsplay youtubers doing some videos, with the approval of the dev team i hope, dont know their thoughts on this.

 

[Meaghan Ballard]

Even if it were just a really short video, a little something would be nice. It's hard to maintain enthusiasm when there is so little from the devs.

 

[Tony]

Meaghan, they have released a video, screenshots and given additional information on the insider forum. It has been enough to keep my enthusiasm up for the game They've said they are working on a new video too. I am not sure if it will be for insiders only again. But rest assured progress is being made!

 

[Ickorus]

I think the best bet would be having showcase videos of finished features rather than the Insider videos of features in development and extended commentary on features, you wouldn't even need to have any voiceover, simply title a video something like "Hair physics" and then have a character do the L'Oreal hair flip or something.

Minimal effort (So they don't get distracted from the small task of making a game) with a fairly tangible reward of keeping people's interest.

When Alpha gets out i guess there will be some letsplay youtubers doing some videos, with the approval of the dev team i hope, dont know their thoughts on this.

I'm considering it.

 

[the0thMonkey]

Sounds good Ickorus.

They need to maintain public interest with videos of new features but not render access to the insider forums useless. One way, as Ickorus said, would be to just publish videos for finished features while keeping the development side of things exclusive.

On a different note, I'm wondering how Let's Plays will work for SG. It'll be interesting because they'll all be quite different, right?

 

[Rod_Lightning]

Sounds good Ickorus.

They need to maintain public interest with videos of new features but not render access to the insider forums useless. One way, as Ickorus said, would be to just publish videos for finished features while keeping the development side of things exclusive.

On a different note, I'm wondering how Let's Plays will work for SG. It'll be interesting because they'll all be quite different, right?

As far as let's plays go I think Sui Generis will do great. The best stuff I've seen from Let's players are usually sandbox type games (think, GTA and Saints Row for pure fun but also Mount and Blade). Sandbox type games are great for them because it allows some hefty role playing

"And thus begins the tale of Bolton the Great!" - Novawar

 

[the0thMonkey]

As far as let's plays go I think Sui Generis will do great. The best stuff I've seen from Let's players are usually sandbox type games (think, GTA and Saints Row for pure fun but also Mount and Blade). Sandbox type games are great for them because it allows some hefty role playing

"And thus begins the tale of Bolton the Great!" - Novawar

The thing I'm really looking forward to is how the flexibility SG provides will be taken advantage of. Think about how many Let's Plays there have been for Skyrim, then think about how many more there could be for Sui Generis. I'm pumped!

 

[bob smith]

where is development video #2??

 

[Ickorus]

where is development video #2??

It's only available to insiders, if you are one they'll send you an email.

 

[Rod_Lightning]

It's only available to insiders, if you are one they'll send you an email.

Not insiders, but people who have access to development videos. There's a difference

 

[antihero]

I agree with you OP. Paying ~35€ for an unreleased game without even getting beta access makes no sense. It isn't an unfair advantage. However, it is a costly one. The more information the developers put out to the public, I think, the more likely people will become interested in the game. Those prices will scare many of them away. Just for a quick comparison, Arma 3 Alpha is currently 25€ on Steam and you get the full game, alpha and beta access plus 3 alpha invites for that price.

 

[Madoc]

That reward tier was added specifically by popular demand for people who did not want alpha and beta access (people said this would spoil the game for them) but wanted to make a larger contribution.

Either way that's somewhat besides the point, the game will never be expensive and we give copies with a £10 contribution, this is crowd funding. Development videos are a way of rewarding people who help support the game. I think if you compare our reward tiers to those of many other Kickstarter or crowd funded games you won't find them to be at all inadequate.

 

[Komuflage]

I agree with you OP. Paying ~35€ for an unreleased game without even getting beta access makes no sense. It isn't an unfair advantage. However, it is a costly one. The more information the developers put out to the public, I think, the more likely people will become interested in the game. Those prices will scare many of them away. Just for a quick comparison, Arma 3 Alpha is currently 25€ on Steam and you get the full game, alpha and beta access plus 3 alpha invites for that price.

Well not really a fair comparison, Arma3 has one of the best "pre-purchase" bonuses I've ever seen. However, if u compare SG to normal games, then the price is really low. For instance, BF/Cod etc, pre-purchase cost is like 60$ and you often only get the game + some random useless skin (BF4 also grant beta access if you pay Another 10$)

For instance, I pledged 80$ + 5$ for shipping. I get:
Alpha, Beta + full game. (2 copies of the full game)
Insider Forum.
Development videos.
Physical box.
Soundtrack + manual.


BF4: 100$
1 copy of the game (Digital)
Beta access. (And bfs Betas ain't Betas, they're demos)
Some "Bonus ingame content" (Skins, early unlock)
First expansion "for free"

 

[antihero]

^ Well, that's what I did. I compared it to a "normal" game. BF4 despite its obvious shortcomings is a much larger, much more anticipated release and more importantly part of an established franchise. Naturally people are more willing to pre-order big titles rather than indie titles. Anyway, big publishers are always going to rip their customers off with stuff like pre-order editions or DLCs. Bohemia Interactive (Arma 3) on the other hand is one of the companies who does it right. However, my point is that paying ~23€ (with the game being ~12€) for some videos is madness because you do not get beta or alpha access and no insider status along with it. There are people who want to support the developers as much as possible (myself included btw), mainly because they want to play the game really bad, but those who are only interested in alpha and beta access shouldn't have to pay for more than they're asking for. For instance, I personally would like to play both the alpha and beta versions of the game. Alpha starts at ~47€ - why? I don't want a second copy of the game.

 

[Madoc]

Again, we're not selling anything here, we're crowd funding, we're promising rewards to people who support the game, who fund it by making contributions. You should make whatever contribution you are comfortable with and do it willingly, because you want to see the game made and because it won't unless you help. You can't buy anything from us, you can make a pledge and we will reward you as best we can.

That's the only point I want to make but I'm going to take the opportunity to remind you of what we're doing and why.

We didn't use Kickstarter as a platform for promotion, we actually need the funding. As it is we barely raised enough to for us to live off. I don't even pay myself a salary and I put everything I can get hold of into the game, my family has helped too. I'm not saying this to justify our reward tiers, they are just rewards that we hope people will be happy to receive when they've made a contribution of a certain size.

Nothing we do makes any sense from a business point of view, we have no business model, we're just trying to make a game we're very passionate about making and exactly the way we think it should be made. This is the only way it's going to happen because from an investor's point of view it is complete insanity. When we launched our Kickstarter we didn't do anything to market it, not because of laziness or incompetence but because we found it distasteful. We soon realised how true it is that marketing is far more important than the product itself. We have real skills and we have attracted publishers but the conversation about "minimising risks" and "increasing profit" is one we're simply not willing to participate in.

No one wants to see this game made more than us, but that's really all we're trying to accomplish. I taught myself programming as a teenager because I was taken by an ambition to make an RPG and that's all I've ever wanted to do since. It's extremely unlikely this game will ever have mass appeal, we don't have the means to market it and it will never carry a high price tag, DRM, microtransactions, DLCs or whatever else we should be doing to make a profit.

 

[Komuflage]

No one wants to see this game made more than us, but that's really all we're trying to accomplish. I taught myself programming as a teenager because I was taken by an ambition to make an RPG and that's all I've ever wanted to do since. It's extremely unlikely this game will ever have mass appeal, we don't have the means to market it and it will never carry a high price tag, DRM, microtransactions, DLCs or whatever else we should be doing to make a profit.

This^ is why games like these are awesome. I hate games (well most) that are made for the mass. Where the main goal of the game is to sell as many copies as possible and get as much money as possible.
Not many developers will or can make a game exactly how they want it, they have to listen to the publishers, and the publishers are often businesses men, and not gamers, this is for instance why so many of the recent games are so crappy.

As a "recent" example, we have BF3, Dice had to listen to EA, and the game was made to please the big casual crowd, and sure, it's the best selling BF game to date, but it's nothing like the old BFs, it's just a simple arcade shooter with loads of unlocks to keep people interested: Best selling in the franchise, worst game in the franchise (imo)

Then we have a little old company called Cave dog, back in 97 they released their first game, (Or well it was GT interactive that published it ) it wasn't well marketed, and not that many people know of the game, but still it's one of the best rts to date

 

[antihero]

@ Madoc: I totally get you, your motives were what made me want to support this project in the first place. But why not just set an individual contribution minimum for each reward? That way everyone would be happy. Whenever the alpha is out, there'll be many more people here on the forums wanting to get first impressions of the game. Not everyone can afford to donate almost 50€ to an indie game developer. Anyway, the purpose of this thread was to tell you that the public community would very much appreciate an update from time to time. Thanks for your response regarding the reward system, I know you must be busy as hell.