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How did you fail to notice the Falling Skies: The Game in that list you said in 25:30 ? It's at least a kind of same like strategy game that this would be. Not to say that you are the only one to skip it entirely, but it's noticeable point in everyone article made about Little Orbit. It wasn't mechanically amazing game, but it had a lot of good things. Cheers.
Won't be the first time, or the last. Jim Sterling promoted and funded Yoklaylee as well. Even gave a fairly optimistic onion of the play demo he got as a backer. Yet when the game came out it was rather disappointing and he sort of tried to sweep it under the rug with just a written review.
I read once in a forum that Matsuno games tend to fall apart and the ones that make it are "a blessing from God". Most of his successful work is amazing, though.
The Kickstarter success story: - Create an idea and get people to fund you hundreds of thousands of dollars as backing. - Delay for months or years. - Sell the concept to a big publisher, keeping all the money for yourself - Blame backer toxicity for your decision
Only works once, though. And if it works more than once, odds are, you can count the amount of times it works before it stops working on one hand (even if you have to count in binary).
Truth be told, I watched this a long time ago, but am watching it again because of how entertaining you are - I love your delivery and the way you talk smack without breaking your calm demeanor is incredible
i never got around to really hear story behind this game, its really sad. Glad i only backed up one game so far, not sure ill do more in the future when shit like this happens, but thank god creator of Castlevannia is great guy and gives tons of updates and talks to community
Having 1 to 5 updates monthly and all the art and stuff is nice. Though they bent the knee to the small minority of very vocal sjw whiners a little last year. If they don't waste too much time on appeasement most of the fans never asked for, the game still looks promising. Most importantly let's hope they keep the sjw whiners out of the writing room.
This (among other games like MN9, though I didn't back that) is why I stopped trusting "spiritual successor" kickstarters. Bit of a shame how that trend turned out.
I've done the same thing, woke up one day to discover I backed a game called Battlechasers. So far backed 3 games in all; and they all seem to be progressing, but yeah I came within days of backing Unsung Story was just holding out for it to reach its Vita stretch goal. Thank goodness it never made it that far.
GrYm Locke I've backed games, but those are when they are in active development, not before they got off the ground like Kickstarter. That does mean I may miss out on higher risk investments, but I need results first. And if I do back that, I prefer having the developer builds so that I can playtest for bugs and exploits (At least the most glaring ones). I have caught a high-impact exploit or two in one game, something like an in-game unit duplication due to the game not cleaning out groups with null unit counts and instead uses the save file as load reference.
But Unsung Story already fits so well lol... It's a story that will probably never be sung. Kinda makes you wonder if Playdek planned that from the start, with a name like that.
Clever move on Little Orbit's part if you think about it. They're basically getting free marketing here, exactly what they needed to break into the indie scene. Not saying there's anything shady about it, obviously it's on their own dime and they have to actually make a real game if they wanna get paid. I'm just saying, vurry clever.
Limey Lassen This is a make or break it situation for little orbit though, they made a clear promise, they chose to enter the scene So now they need to be real with themselves, I really respect Mr Scott though, for that sure magnificent level of maturity
DayZ, may not be a Kickstarter but the early access title made millions and four years later still isn’t finished. Never buy into games before full release. Don’t pre order, don’t go early access. Just say no until final release.
People gave up on Dayz cause everybody started hacking the devs didn't do anything about it and the mods were starting to spawn more popular games than dayz
That methodology towards game's just isn't healthy for Indie Game's, There's been many good game's that have come from Kickstarter's and early access. Without these method's we would see way to many generic AAA game's. People just need to research who their investing in and take that leap if they have faith in them, not everything works out that's why it's a gamble.
There is no "kickstarter money" it was paid out to the developers working on it by the end of the first year. Nobody can get a refund - the money does not exist. Kickstarter... investing with all the risk - none of the rewards.
+mjc0961 It's helpful for people who love genres the game industry has largely forgotten about, and I'd argue the reward is having pre-ordered a game that otherwise likely wouldn't exist.
It's a wacky system. Even grossly overfunded things like the Dark Souls Board game, which came out as an incredible product, has and is still an incredibly turbulent ongoing story. Steamforged seems like they're having a lot of trouble keeping up with demand- from both backers who are STILL waiting for their copies, and people like me who bought it at retail and are eagerly anticipating the expansions. They've gone dark periodically just trying to ship the units, despite being an established company.
Before Rare made Donkey Kong Country they were making sesame street games and things like that. Never rule out a developer because he tackles this type of games, you never know when another rare will pop out from this.
@@Bloodylaser Yeah, Rare was getting trashed on for making just kids games so you know how they responded? Conkers: Bad Fur Day. One of the best games I ever played as a child.
Update: Little Orbit has been doing a decent job with this fiasco they have picked up. While it will never live up to the hype promised in the initial kickstarter, its miles beyond what Playdeck has ever shown. So here is hoping to a decent tactics game being released.
@@Wedge_Khan Wouldn't surprise me if it was delayed. As I write this, Little Orbit's latest update says their working with closed backer groups while preparing for a Chapter 1 Alpha.
What worries me is that Playdek basically ran away with the money and did nothing to compensate their backers. Given Little Orbit, who genuinely seem passionate, didn't take any of the kickstarter money, where the fuck did Playdek go with all it?
The furnace, to re-enact the 3rd day of Firestarter from PAYDAY 2.
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Rukia Shimazu money for games goes to living expenses for the people working on it. If the people aren't up to the task, you can dump millions and get nothing worth it. $600k sounds like a lot but it's not. That's $600k to split between probably 10-12 people, maybe more, for a year. That's like $50k salaries. So a decent wage, but nothing fancy. Although with their number of layoffs, it was probably like 18. Way too many people living off of that $600k.
Shenmue won't be a disgrace like this is. Yu Suzuki wouldn't let it happen. He looked really saddened when he announced the push back because he doesn't want to let us down. He put his own personal belongings up for grabs. We should have faith in him.
Not a videogame but I helped fund Robotech RPG Tactics on kickstarter... In December the backers rewards will officially be 4 years overdue. They wanted $70k, they got $1.4mil (20 times as much) and still have not been able to fulfill the rewards they laid out.
@@adgato75 Check their kickstarter page, not a lot of happy people, seems the updates have been very bare bones. Possibly yet another company that took the money and ran.
@@adgato75 No problem! I was curious as well and did a bit of searching, after I got screwed on Star Citizen and Phoenix Point (or at least, I felt screwed anyway), I've become rather weary of kickstarter projects.
This Mathew guy truly has balls of steel. You couldn't pay me to inherit a project like this... but I'm really rooting for him, and Little Orbit. Not even sure if I'd ever end up playing it either way, but if they do manage to salvage this mess, it'd make one _hell_ of a conclusion to this crazy story.
Little Orbit's Adventure Time games (especially the first one) were pretty great and showed a lot of love for old school rpgs, so I've got faith in them.
@@Sobergamer61 Well, they were starting from scratch. I'm not trying to protect them, as they could easily just turn their back and leave this abandoned.
Kickstarting video games is usually a bad idea because they are actually too expensive to fund. Especially when there is a full game studio involved with many employees. $600,000 is basically nothing when it comes to funding any kind of game other than small indie titles that will only be worked on by a handful of people.
YandereDev: 1. A single man, no active team. 2. Nearly self funded, doesn't have thousands from kickstarter to work with. 3. Working on a complex game concept with little previous game experience. 4. Still put out more than Playdek.
Thats why fundings and grants have MILESTONES. Without milestone payments, it's easy for developers in kickstarter to lose interest or motivation since they already got all the cash, and just trash it when things get rough.
These guys clearly weren't capable of making the game they promised, but anyone who thinks $660k is enough to make a triple A quality game is delusional.
They must be delusional, or more likely they had already secured funds from private investors and planned to make a publishing deal from the very start.
Sounds familiar... *Looks up name Oh yeah! He was the guy that bitched incessantly about the character designs in Dragon's Crown! Yup, swell guy he is, indeed.
Sometimes I come back to this video whenever I’m bored. Crazy to see how far Yong has come!!
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*Every time he said $660k is a lot of money/more than enough to make this game, I cringed.* Oml people have no idea what the development cycle is. They probably don't even realize the budget is the living costs of the employees. They assume you throw money at a screen when you're making a game and out comes content with the quality dependent on how much money you threw. That's not how it works at all. $660k is just a minimum-moderate wage when split between anything more than a dozen people. And it lasts only one year. And considering there was a big name working on it...who was probably used to a 6-figure salary...there could've been others used to that. So either they downgraded or they blew it all.
You assume that the 660k is all they had to work with. It's like you wanna buy a car for 50k but you only have 40k in your account. So you borrow 10k. That's often the case. What we were looking at is probably more in the reaches of 1.5-2m.
"Game developers have been working for peanuts since the 80's" Yeah and they were also making 8 bit games I'm pretty sure making a 3D model and putting it into a game engine today costs more than a full game back then...
Don't forget: FTL, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun DragonFall, Shadowrun Hong Kong, Constortium, Xenonauts, Shovel Knight, Gods Will Be watching, Freedom Planet, Hand of Fate, 2064: Read Only Memories, Hyper Light Drifter, Darkest Dungeon, Undertale, The Original Sin games, etc., etc., etc., Some of the best games recently came from kickstarter, and some of those games wouldn't have existed without.
Justin Sumner The thing is, Hyper Light Drifter, Darkest Dungeon, Undertale, FTL, and 2064 at least, weren't branded as being spritual sucessors to popular games made by the people behind the success of those popular games. Hell, Freedom Planet and Shovel Knight *were*, to an extent, spiritual sucessors to popular games, but they weren't built on the promise of an old team who probably won't make good on their promise. The problem is not Kickstarter itself, it's the way these disasters have used (some would say capitalized on) the platform - drawing people in with only the promise of nostalgia, and not following it up with talent or clear communication. Undertale at least had a playable demo on the Kickstarter page that was a good representation of the final game, years before it actually came out. Likewise, you shouldn't have high expectations for a game because "it's a Kickstarter game", you should have high expectations if it's a good looking game.
But Pillar of Eternity, Wasteland 2, Divinity Original Sin and Shadowrun Returns were high profile returns to from old developers. I think there's a definite pattern is when the come to the kickstarter with a very clear and very attainable goal, and are making something that we know they can make, because we all knew Inexile and Obsidian could, beyond the shadow of a doubt, deliver. So maybe the lesson is to trust established developers.
Justin Sumner Yeah, I think the lesson is to trust a team, not an individual (who probably isn't even heading development!), and, as with anything and not just Kickstarter, don't get swept up in marketing and hype.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare was another Kickstarter campaign, but it was based on a Gmod mod by some guys made for shits and giggles. Suddenly, it became popular, and they decided to make an actual game from it.
I think the key to figure out if you're being tricked is if high profile Japanese dev names are attached to a project that is not being developed by a Japanese dev team. I don't think there have been ANY high profile successes, and a lot of high profile failures - Mighty No. 9, Unsung Story, Project Phoenix...... Bloodstained may be the first to break this pattern, but it does have a japanese dev studio attached so it's unclear if it qualifies for this pattern.
People need to understand a thing about kickstarter. It's crowdfunding, it's like investing. You should not back any project with money you are not willing to lose. It's really that simple. So many people seem to think that kickstarter is like a glorified preorder. And no you should not preorder games either. Personally ive been burned a few times on kickstarter, however it does not discourage me, because ive gotten a lot of wonderful and amazing games, that would not have been made otherwise.
I don't think that Little Orbit should refund any backers because the money is defenitely gone. The way they approached the backers so far is more than anyone could've hoped for.
Truth be told, if anyone was going to give a refund it would've had to have been Playdek (lol). Given that Little Orbit got none of the original funds, they shouldn't be held accountable for refunds at all - especially given that Kickstarter is based around the fact that you're taking a risk and that you may be just throwing good money away. The fact that Little Orbit is spending their own funds to see this game through to completion is, indeed, more than anyone could've hoped for.
If you wanna see true failures. Check out Retsupurae, they have a whole playlist of videos they call Kickstarter Nonstarters where they make fun of these ridiculous projects so if you think this and Mighty No. 9 are the worst it can get, you haven't seen anything yet
SpikeJet2736 Or Idubbbz who does the same thing or brendanielreads Honestly I'm happy that this is becoming a thing more exposure to how often these things are just money grabs
you guys have to understand, thats the norm, that happens all the time with developers, even nintendo had alot of big non releases, remember project giant robot? or project hammer? diference is, we dont pay for them, but thats the risk we assume when we "invest" in a Kickstarter project.
I misread your comment at first and thought you were calling Retsupurae failures. Then again, they did start incredibly strong, have 6 solid years of consistently above average content, then for the last two years the quality has dropped substantially to the point that they are now being criticized for becoming the very thing they've been berating.
Hey, how is the shenmue kickstarter doing? These trend of old game producer of a successful series making a comeback (and failed) is worrying.. i'm grateful that kojima didn't go down this route.
The difference is, Yu Suzuki was actually a game development manager in the past when he made the previous Shenmue games, he wasn't just a businessperson, producer, or lower-level developer. Shenmue was literally his baby, writer-director-produce-creative director, he fought like hell for Sega to fund it, he knocked on their door for 10 years to fund it and only did Kickstarter as a last resort. That doesn't mean it'll be good and it is fair to get worried about how good he is handling money, and other project aspects that Sega may have handled in the past. The other thing is the development is almost entirely Japanese, where it seems Playdek and MN9's staff tried to be western with a big-name Japanese figurehead to entice backers.
Ugh, the "Hi we're Sony, a giant corporation who owns the top selling platform of this console generation. Fund this game for us." Kickstarter. Fuck that shit.
So end result is we might get a game, and it might be good. But Playdeck got over half a million dollars plus what ever minor amount Little Orbit paid for the legal rights to the game and turned out basically nothing? I mean it's great another company picked the project up but wow all that time and money to turn out something so bad the new company doesn't even want to use their data? I have to say I'm surprised that aspect of the story didn't come up in this video more.
A thought popped into my mind when watching this, that maybe what Playdek has shown (all of it, up until now) was made within the first 6-12 months, and they just stretched it out over the few and far between updates, to seem like they were still working on it. Because I wouldn't put it past them, with how the whole situation has turned out.
Little Orbit is at least an actual legitimate games company. I especially love how their CEO thought Playdek's game was so shit he completely threw away everything Playdek had made, restarting the entire development.
Little Orbit probably didn't pay more than $100 for the legal rights to the game. "Token amount" generally means a very small amount of money just to establish the consideration necessary for a legal transfer of the property. For a contract to be valid both parties must gain something of value.
Besides, although the majority of Little Orbit's games range from bad to mediocre (of course there's a reason for that), if you take a hard look, you'll find decent games in their portfolio. I think they are capable of delivering a good game similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. Unlike Playdek, at least we know Little Orbit knows how to manage projects and make games. They can do local and internet multiplayer too, last I've checked. I hope they prove their worth and, in case it happens, become acclaimed developers afterwards.
For those wondering, the development is going well! There's a full OST, and a vertical slice that will be available at the Game Developers Conference in March. Unfortunately, in the same Kickstarter post (made on the 1st of this month), they also said that the game will not be coming out this year, thought they have 50% of the game storyboarded and set to actually be made into a game. So overall, very promising and they're soaring above the very low bar left by Playdek
Also I really hate these people for hollow updates of "We'll give you one next week/month" No, no you won't. Don't even pretend. Don't update to say you'll update. Update to update. Geez.
just report the haters, no need to talk with them. They are hateful people who get all the joy in their life in insulting others. They are rather sad beings
the sad part about MN9 is that right now just came out Mighty Gunvolt Burst, which is AMAZING and exactly what MN9 shoudl've been, but nobody in media (not even Yong here) even bothered to look at it or make videos about it just because it has Beck in it. such a great game will now be severly underrated and being buried as a Hidden Gem because of Inafune's shit.
and you're totally right. unfortunately, after what happened with MN9, people got such a sour taste in their mouths the taste its still there even a year after, so its kinda hard to take that off with another game.
i meant all of the mn9 kickstarter money went there apparently, thats why mn9 is so half assed and shit meanwhile gunvolt is such an awesome game, but thats just my shitty guess i guess
UPDATE: Little Orbit be knocking it out of the park! They've been tacking on update after update, showing footage and artwork of all kinds. From the sound of it, it's close to being released this year! Good on them!
I like that you've added a lot more cutaways and editing to your videos. Makes them more engaging and entertaining. And I'm a Unsung Story backer so RIP.
What's annoying here for me is that $660,000 is not that much money. If even just ten people are working on this game, each making $50k/year (which would be nothing for a big name like Matsuno, and also underpaying an experienced staff by an assload) then in just one year, the staff would be paid almost all of that money. An office space would easily cost tens of thousands per year. Likely, within less than six months, that initial funding was totally gone. No Kickstarter project works on principal alone, Kickstarter is a good way to show a publisher or an investor that there is actual interest in your property. Unless a Kickstarter project gets like $20,000,000 for a game, then it'll never be enough for a full development cycle.
Right, they wanna make a new game like Final Fantasy Tactics (which may have have cost anywhere from 500k to a few million back in 97) with only 660k. I'd feel bad for anyone who backed this project out of nostalgia alone.
The backers aren't giving money to pay for the employees. Lol... Those are donations to the company not backers of a game. The 660,000 should be dedicated to the game development.
It will be also one hell of a PR jump and a possibility to rise from small name to big name publisher of this sells well. This is probably what they are speculating on. Their big shot to take their company to the next level.
If Little Orbit can pull this off, and make what is at least a solid, substantial product, this will go down as one if the greatest underdog stories ever.
Definitely a needed video about the risks of backing a kickstarter. I’m thinking about backing Em8er, because they promised to give regular updates and testable builds and so far have been keeping that promise, only raising money in stages so that they’d be held accountable. Interesting idea, and so far seems to be working.
Seriously, I'm more impressed of the staff who have to write these excuses knowing the company is doing shit. It must be hell being in that position. Gosh, the main dev himself even ran away knowing they're doing shit, and he's not in the front-line dealing with shit like the staff who has to keep writing articles for apology and excuses.
It's definitely true that crowdfunding game ventures can be disastrous...but at the same time, it was crowdfunding that gave the world *UNDERTALE.* That alone means you can't COMPLETELY hate it, I think 😉
$600,000 isn't a whole lot of money. I can see it supporting an indie outfit to completion, but I don't know if Japan has an indie scene. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to maintain a AAA sized team during development. I hadn't kickstarted in a while, but I suspect that alot of companies lowballed development costs, reasoning that they can make extra money with outside investments and publisher partnerships later.
I bought into Unsung Story when the campaign first started. They had big claims and beautiful concept art, Yasumi Matsuno, the creator of Final Fantasy Tactics already on board, and were planning to hire Hitoshi Sakimoto, a composer who worked on several titles including FFT, FF12, and basically just too much to list. So I shelled out my $20, which was supposed to guarantee a digital copy of the game upon release, they promised frequent updates and hard work...we got neither. The dev team seemed really excited at first, but updates just suddenly stopped. Eventually when they released a demonstration of the game it looked like just another cheap asset flip you could find infesting steam. The new team seems to be doing better, but I'm also not optimistic. But I guess I don't have to worry about it, after so long has passed I've lost my Kickstarter password *and* the password to the email I linked to it, so I can't redeem my copy when it comes out anyway. Absolute joy ride 5/7.
Two years later and Little Orbit are still focused on releasing this game, still updating regularly and trying their hardest. Even when most people have given up and moved on they see something in this game. Even if it ends up being a dumpster fire of a game Little Orbit should get points for effort.
I say Little Orbit has their work cut out for them but since it’s been a couple years, I’d be surprised if they’ve made significant amount of new progress in Unsung Story’s development
The real question is, why do we even need a "spiritual successor" to FF Tactis? We still have games like Fire Emblem and Banner Saga today. And they are great. Aren't those the same types of games?
Fire Emblem isn't tactic though, it's more of a turn based decision strategy RPG where being perfect counts. Final Fantasy Tactics is more about how to turn the tides into the player's favor and take chances without worrying about risk.
They're different types of games. To put it simply, FE focuses more on the "character" aspect of story, with the actual plot not very important. FFT has a more realistic world with more effort put into a complex plot. The battles in FE are generally simpler than FFT's, as well.
RedVIII It made sense for Yooka Laylee to be a spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie, since Microsoft wouldn't let them use the Banjo IP. And even though the game polarized people, they at least didn't break any of their promises aside from the Wii U version being cancelled.
FFT has very little relation to FE besides both being tactical rpgs. FFT has a lot of customization and and roster of classes that have lengthy list of skill that allow you to play the way you want and experiment with new ideas, while for the most part FE has always been more simplistic with customization being the weapons you carry with the occasional arrow shield sort of item.
Ronald Cooper indies are generally created by one people on their basement for years and years, or with a 5 or 10 guy studio without good pay, some of them even sell all of their possessions like houses cars etc, just to complete the game. Playdek is a full kind of big developer, with another kind of people. In the game industry it's generally 10k per person per month, that's in a medium size team. Those 660k where probably gone by the year, o even less.
I just checked the kickstarter page, at this time of this comment, last update was July 1st 2019. People seems pleased with their work so far it goes well and smooth
If you really think about it.... the concept of video game kickstarter is basically the lowest and worst possible form of Gamestop Pre-Order system. *It's a flawed system because we can't play the game in advance and pay for it later*
I would disagree .. GS preorder is a scam and you know you get screwed. Instead kickstarter is more gambling ... and most kickstarter fails are not a scam but merely good intentions with flawed project management...
Ozz Lee exactly, and Kickstarter can also allow games that otherwise wouldn't have been funded to be created. For example pillars of eternity 1 wouldn't have been made without kickstarter, and it was a great game, and it's sequel wouldn't exist without its Kickstarter campaign. So while I get where your coming from, I think you couldn't be more wrong
@ Ozz Lee, I totally agree with you and that's why I said "*video game* kickstarter". Video game development is a form of *digital* art form, unless I see some prototype game play footage, the possibility of it being a scam is very high... Want me to fund your project with couple of 15 minutes sketches and another 15 minutes of game concept summery?? I don't think so. I'm not trying to be a selfish asshole, but there are kickstarted films that have at least a *complete* script before they are asking for money.
Daniel L fair enough, I've only backed pillars of eternity 2 because 1.) It's being made by obsidian and 2.) The first one was already good. In general I personally don't Kickstart or pledge but I still like the IDEA if kickstarter campaigns
Stepping forward with HONESTY is extremely important and I am very glad to see that Little Orbit did that. HONESTY. IS. KEY. When they have trouble, when they run into snags, THEY NEED TO TELL THEIR PEOPLE. Look at star citizen. They come right out and *demonstrate* what the problems are when they occur. They *show* us what's wrong and how they are trying to fix it. And I love that. I would have regretted my contributions to the Star Citizen project at this point _except_ for the fact that they've told us what's really up. I know no other company has the resources to make miniature documentries on a weekly basis about what they're doing, but ffs the phrase "talk is cheap" exists for a reason. Sit someone down for five freaking minutes and bang out whatever is most pressing on a daily basis. put it in a blog. Grab a smartphone and record a quick stream of consciousness vlog! ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN SILENCE. _Don't turn into Hello Games!!!_
I'm convinced crowdfunding doesn't work for games, or most things. A lot of games take turns in development, becoming very different than they started, and can still become great games. Overwatch, for instance, started as a game similar to WOW, had almost a decade of development, and then became a FPS. Last one will be the Castlevania SotN successor, and I'm not holding my breath.
Yacht Club Games actually ran out of money when making Shovel Knight but they eventually finished it and it was great in the great but that's more luck and giving a shit. Inafune and Matsuno didn't. At least Ninja Theory made Hellblade on their own and the guy behind Dust: An Elysian Tail has talent and determination.
I forgot about shovel knight because it was out before I knew about its kickstarter, that's a great game. And didn't know about Shantae being kickstarted at all! Thought it was the previous games Doug well enough. Both good games!
it's a gamble, not a guarentee either in succuss or failure, you're looking at around 30% odds the kickstarted game'll knock it outtha the park (shovel knight, pillars or eternity, shadowrun hong kong) usually if the people behind it have a history in game development, another 30% of the time you'll get something good/mediocre (yooka laylee and such, usually ones that get a console release) and then you get the 40% which is the shitshows, most never get finished and if they do you get mighty number 9 results
every single damn kickstarter befalls the same fate, **PROMISE SOMETHING** (GET MONEY FOR IT) **CHANGE PLANS FROM WHAT WAS PROMISED** (WASTE MONEY GOTTEN) **PROJECT DEATH** | How possibly hard can it be to just stick to 1 plan and not become ridiculously over-ambitious once you obtain funding?
People view Kickstarter as basically a pre-order. Now, I also hate pre-orders, but we'll ignore that for the moment and assume that pre-ordering is okay. Kickstarter is *not* even remotely similar to a pre-order. It's an investment. You can see a return on that investment (the project goes well, and /whatever/ launches and is great), or you can see jack shit. That's how investments work. If you buy stock in a company, and then something happens and suddenly that stock is worthless, you don't just get to say "But they promised! It's so unfair!" and get your money back. If you think that's a reasonable reaction to a successfully funded but ultimately unsuccessful Kickstarter, then you don't understand the service and shouldn't be using it. Kickstarter is a wonderful mix of mismanaged projects and ignorant backers.
Sagiri an investment has the ability to give you profit. giving money to Kickstarter is not an investment unless you have the chance to make a financial gain from it
I actually considered talking about that in my original comment. The financial gain comes from getting a copy of the /thing/, as well as any of other random crap you might get based on your tier. Is that worthwhile? Is that adequate compensation for the risk involved? Hell no.
Damn this internet. I'm literally shitting my pants when I get the notification that you've released another video. You release a video, and I release a turd in my shorts out of pure excitement. Damn this internet brings me the sensibility, the steadiness, and reason of yong, but only for a short 28:27 minutes. I just sit here savoring your sensibilities, and trying to recreate your accents in the mirror. I picture you much like Bruce Lee in the nunchuk pingpong video. Your intellectually hitting the ball around faster, harder and more ergonomically correct then any of the others.. A TRUE JOY TO WATCH!!!!!!! consider please, a video of you just walking around town. Not av log, but more intimate, no the camera must be inside you. I for one am so intrigued by your reason, and sensible ways that I could watch an internal camera of nothing but your digestive tract, and your every day comings and goings in the back ground. This thought has me wanting to lift weights and run extreme distances in anticipation!!!! Hehehehe, Ramos.....OUT!!!! HEHEHHE
Friendly reminder that a majority of WayForward's games were also licensed games based on Spongebob, iCarly and the like. And we all know how good their standard games are, especially since 1/2 Genie Hero is one of the few successful Kickstarters. I too shall hold hope here.
All these proposed spiritual successor kickstarters suck. Mighty No. 9 failed to deliver. Yooka-Laylee failed to deliver. Then you have Unsung Story. The only good spiritual successor to a popular franchise I can think of was Pillars of Eternity.
Half genie hero defiently delivered, it was beautiful :33 and that's why Way Forward has so much trust from their fans. I met some of the devs this last E3, really good people work there who really care about their games.
Is that a Kickstarter game too? It's been on my to-play list forever but I haven't played it yet. I'll definitely give it a shot. As for Gunvolt Burst, I actually bought it recently on my 3DS but then I got distracted playing the Ace Attorney trilogy. I'll get to it soon.
Morphic c It looks okay so far, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also hope it succeeds, metroidvania is one of my favorite types of games and we need more of them.
@YongYea maybe it would be interesting to do an update video on this story? It's almost 3 years later now, and Little Orbit has given regular updates on the game's progress and is supposedly going to launch it this year. I backed the project way back in 2014, and I'm not expecting to get a game that will fully live up to what was originally promised in the Kickstarter, but I'm curious as to what I'll eventually get :) It's been a roller-coaster ride for all those involved, so maybe doing a new video once the game releases would be a nice way to wrap things up :)
With blunders involving EA, Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, Valve, Stadia, and other major game companies and consoles dominating the news, it would be nice of Yong to follow up on this game.
If you liked this video and enjoy my content, consider supporting me on patreon.com/yongyea to help our community remain independent from third party sponsorship and corporate interference. Cheers!
YongYea I'm kind of interested in how this story pans out.
You maybe should look into Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord. Its been a little bit of a PR nightmare from the start for them.
How did you fail to notice the Falling Skies: The Game in that list you said in 25:30 ? It's at least a kind of same like strategy game that this would be.
Not to say that you are the only one to skip it entirely, but it's noticeable point in everyone article made about Little Orbit. It wasn't mechanically amazing game, but it had a lot of good things.
Cheers.
Won't be the first time, or the last. Jim Sterling promoted and funded Yoklaylee as well. Even gave a fairly optimistic onion of the play demo he got as a backer. Yet when the game came out it was rather disappointing and he sort of tried to sweep it under the rug with just a written review.
"Mejor que nada"
"God knows where those $660 thousand went."
Hookers and blow?
Phil Bolton ALWAYS hookers and blow.
What the *fuck* is a Sonic?!
@warystatue33 ...are you referencing fortnite in that comment?
@@TheFrugalVideoGamer A fast-food restaurant styled after those old-school drive-thru places.
Nah, referencing a Jontron vid - czcams.com/video/UyNnSbmn8OI/video.html
A failure to surpass Mighty No. 9
Silent Hills?
that game was nerver even finshed
We're all sons of the conmen now
It's okay, I got your reference
A DUD?!
I like how the main guy who started the whole thing just peaced out midway through.
He sounded like a common scammer throughout the promises.
I read once in a forum that Matsuno games tend to fall apart and the ones that make it are "a blessing from God". Most of his successful work is amazing, though.
You don't think he was smart for leaving a failing project?
@@juniorgalacto17 It just makes him a bigger douche.
@@feltpuppets9429 I thought that It was Akitoshi Kawazu's games that tend to fall apart and that the ones that make it are "gifts from God".
The Kickstarter success story:
- Create an idea and get people to fund you hundreds of thousands of dollars as backing.
- Delay for months or years.
- Sell the concept to a big publisher, keeping all the money for yourself
- Blame backer toxicity for your decision
GENIUS
Stonks?
Playdek logic! Not that they'd be the only one to pull that bullshit.
Only works once, though.
And if it works more than once, odds are, you can count the amount of times it works before it stops working on one hand (even if you have to count in binary).
Now we know why this story went unsung.
Britanny Helms savage
😂😂
I was gonna make that joke but you got to it first lal
May as well be the unknown hell
YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHH!
I love how Yong says: "... you haven't seen SHIEET." It just sounds so satisfying.
With that light Asian accent, gives it the perfect touches.
Truth be told, I watched this a long time ago, but am watching it again because of how entertaining you are - I love your delivery and the way you talk smack without breaking your calm demeanor is incredible
The only time he's lost his calm demeanor is when he said the star citizen micro transaction cost 27k I lost my shit laughing at that part
I'm here for the same reason!
i never got around to really hear story behind this game, its really sad. Glad i only backed up one game so far, not sure ill do more in the future when shit like this happens, but thank god creator of Castlevannia is great guy and gives tons of updates and talks to community
Alex Mercer gief link to that part plx
Browntable is a masterpiece
Holy shit. Just checked, and Little Orbit is updating and it seems to be going really well. I hope it works well for them
bless Little Orbit for stepping up like heroes, might just get the game whenever it comes out.
I took a look over their website, and tbh, THIS game looks promising, but OTHER titles they have are.... welll, just kinda bad.
Having 1 to 5 updates monthly and all the art and stuff is nice. Though they bent the knee to the small minority of very vocal sjw whiners a little last year. If they don't waste too much time on appeasement most of the fans never asked for, the game still looks promising. Most importantly let's hope they keep the sjw whiners out of the writing room.
When he mentioned Little Orbit, it caught my eye, as I always thought Fallen Earth was a great game for it's time.
Is this thing coming to pc? If SJWs don't destroy it I would be willing to back these guys
I backed this game. It taught me to never again drink and browse kickstarter.
Your liver has to practically be destroyed to be trashed enough to back Unsung Story.
This (among other games like MN9, though I didn't back that) is why I stopped trusting "spiritual successor" kickstarters. Bit of a shame how that trend turned out.
I've done the same thing, woke up one day to discover I backed a game called Battlechasers. So far backed 3 games in all; and they all seem to be progressing, but yeah I came within days of backing Unsung Story was just holding out for it to reach its Vita stretch goal. Thank goodness it never made it that far.
lassus I backed Divinity Original sin 2. Proud of it!
GrYm Locke I've backed games, but those are when they are in active development, not before they got off the ground like Kickstarter. That does mean I may miss out on higher risk investments, but I need results first.
And if I do back that, I prefer having the developer builds so that I can playtest for bugs and exploits (At least the most glaring ones). I have caught a high-impact exploit or two in one game, something like an in-game unit duplication due to the game not cleaning out groups with null unit counts and instead uses the save file as load reference.
8 minutes into the video and the project is already a horrific disaster
*checks timeline and sees 20 minutes left in the video*
....my god
Mastace “...Oh
Your profile pic says it all
YongYea should do an update on this project! It seems that Little Orbit has done a lot of great work with reviving this project!
Credit where it's due, they seem to have faith in this game.
I've seen some of Matt Scott's video showcasing the game. It looks good so far.
As of this comment, Little orbit have so far kept people very much updated and seem to be doing what they have promised, so good on them :)
I was wondering, cheers for the update.
This pleases me
Huuuge props to them for salvaging this disaster.
They're still doing those updates now.
Copium smell gud.
"An Ongoing Disaster" would actually be a really great name for a game.
etherraichu You should trademark that.
Cold blooded
But Unsung Story already fits so well lol... It's a story that will probably never be sung.
Kinda makes you wonder if Playdek planned that from the start, with a name like that.
I think they wasted more time coming up with these excuses than creating the game.
defenem73 lol
Clever move on Little Orbit's part if you think about it. They're basically getting free marketing here, exactly what they needed to break into the indie scene.
Not saying there's anything shady about it, obviously it's on their own dime and they have to actually make a real game if they wanna get paid. I'm just saying, vurry clever.
Limey Lassen
This is a make or break it situation for little orbit though, they made a clear promise, they chose to enter the scene
So now they need to be real with themselves, I really respect Mr Scott though, for that sure magnificent level of maturity
Not only that they got the IP rights and licensing too right? Hope Little Orbit can deliver and wish them luck.
Just imagine the reputation they'd get for turning this train wreck around.
Even if it's not that great or what people wished for if they can make at least half of the backers to like it then it's already a victory for them.
DayZ, may not be a Kickstarter but the early access title made millions and four years later still isn’t finished. Never buy into games before full release. Don’t pre order, don’t go early access. Just say no until final release.
tbf dayz is pretty finished at this point
People gave up on Dayz cause everybody started hacking the devs didn't do anything about it and the mods were starting to spawn more popular games than dayz
@@justawarlord Ahahahaha! Get out of here!
That methodology towards game's just isn't healthy for Indie Game's, There's been many good game's that have come from Kickstarter's and early access.
Without these method's we would see way to many generic AAA game's.
People just need to research who their investing in and take that leap if they have faith in them, not everything works out that's why it's a gamble.
*gravely voice*
"To surpass Mighty No. 9?!"
Mighty No. 9 is small potatoes compared to this.
ChiefMedicPururu Acknowledge the meme :(
TheBlackCloakedMan this game looked like crap from the beginning. playdek isn't even well renowned and they had bad ideas from the beginning
THEY PLAYED US LIKE A DAMN FIDDLE!!
Well now we know what Keiji meant by "it's better than nothing"
There is no "kickstarter money" it was paid out to the developers working on it by the end of the first year.
Nobody can get a refund - the money does not exist.
Kickstarter... investing with all the risk - none of the rewards.
True, projects like this are a shame to Kickstarter and to the gaming community
Yep. On Kickstarter you invest and take all the risk, and if you're lucky, you get the reward of having preordered a video game. I'll pass.
+mjc0961
It's helpful for people who love genres the game industry has largely forgotten about, and I'd argue the reward is having pre-ordered a game that otherwise likely wouldn't exist.
It's a wacky system. Even grossly overfunded things like the Dark Souls Board game, which came out as an incredible product, has and is still an incredibly turbulent ongoing story. Steamforged seems like they're having a lot of trouble keeping up with demand- from both backers who are STILL waiting for their copies, and people like me who bought it at retail and are eagerly anticipating the expansions. They've gone dark periodically just trying to ship the units, despite being an established company.
Everytime I wonder why do people ask "where did the money went" like they underestimate how much is spent paying people that work on the game.
Before Rare made Donkey Kong Country they were making sesame street games and things like that.
Never rule out a developer because he tackles this type of games, you never know when another rare will pop out from this.
I didn’t know that interesting.
@@Bloodylaser Yeah, Rare was getting trashed on for making just kids games so you know how they responded? Conkers: Bad Fur Day. One of the best games I ever played as a child.
Update:
Little Orbit has been doing a decent job with this fiasco they have picked up. While it will never live up to the hype promised in the initial kickstarter, its miles beyond what Playdeck has ever shown. So here is hoping to a decent tactics game being released.
Got another update?
@@redjoker9114 it is reported that it will be releasing this year in December but, because of the virus it might be delayed till next year.
@@Wedge_Khan Wouldn't surprise me if it was delayed. As I write this, Little Orbit's latest update says their working with closed backer groups while preparing for a Chapter 1 Alpha.
What worries me is that Playdek basically ran away with the money and did nothing to compensate their backers. Given Little Orbit, who genuinely seem passionate, didn't take any of the kickstarter money, where the fuck did Playdek go with all it?
Rukia Shimazu
Drugs and hooker's, duh.
In truth they probably spent most of it on payroll so for six months the staff lived like Kings.
WE'LL MAKE OUR OWN TACTICS, WITH BLACKJACK AND HOOKERS... Except without the blackjack... or game.
Rukia Shimazu obviously, it was paid to the people working on it for a year.
The furnace, to re-enact the 3rd day of Firestarter from PAYDAY 2.
Rukia Shimazu money for games goes to living expenses for the people working on it. If the people aren't up to the task, you can dump millions and get nothing worth it.
$600k sounds like a lot but it's not. That's $600k to split between probably 10-12 people, maybe more, for a year. That's like $50k salaries. So a decent wage, but nothing fancy.
Although with their number of layoffs, it was probably like 18. Way too many people living off of that $600k.
I don't like how Shenmue's gone all quiet as of late.
Larry Bundy Jr You truly are everywhere bro!
I love your work (fingers crossed on Shenmue)!
Shenmue won't be a disgrace like this is. Yu Suzuki wouldn't let it happen. He looked really saddened when he announced the push back because he doesn't want to let us down. He put his own personal belongings up for grabs. We should have faith in him.
Larry Bundy Jr
I don't like how bloodstain has gone quiet
Hello you!
Little Orbit have made like 15 updates in 2 months!!
Cosmo_Plays I’m actually amazed that the Kickstarter is still getting updates even in February 2019.
And an update a month through 2018 until this February. Very dedicated for a dev that has been sacrificing a lot to develop a disastrous project.
Not a videogame but I helped fund Robotech RPG Tactics on kickstarter... In December the backers rewards will officially be 4 years overdue. They wanted $70k, they got $1.4mil (20 times as much) and still have not been able to fulfill the rewards they laid out.
Has anything happened since you made this comment?
@@pkernoob786 I am curious also.
@@adgato75 Check their kickstarter page, not a lot of happy people, seems the updates have been very bare bones.
Possibly yet another company that took the money and ran.
@@Suisfonia Thanks
@@adgato75 No problem! I was curious as well and did a bit of searching, after I got screwed on Star Citizen and Phoenix Point (or at least, I felt screwed anyway), I've become rather weary of kickstarter projects.
Little Orbit and especially Matthew Scott seem like really good people
Let's hope Little Orbit can un fuck what's already been fucked. Fingers crossed.
Belody Epic Little Orbit published a lot of mediocre to okay licensed games based on Adventure Time and Monster High.
Well they're starting from scratch, that's the closest to unfucking something you can get.
Double Helix also made licensed shovelware, but when they got to make the new Killer Instinct game they did, from what I hear, an excellent job.
This Mathew guy truly has balls of steel. You couldn't pay me to inherit a project like this... but I'm really rooting for him, and Little Orbit. Not even sure if I'd ever end up playing it either way, but if they do manage to salvage this mess, it'd make one _hell_ of a conclusion to this crazy story.
Little Orbit's Adventure Time games (especially the first one) were pretty great and showed a lot of love for old school rpgs, so I've got faith in them.
Is that the Adventure Time MOBA? that game was good except it needed a little balancing.
Those games were PUBLISHED by Little Orbit. Still, the Shaq Fu remake was released eventually, baffingly enough.
Lol this comment was one year ago 😂
@@Sobergamer61 Well, they were starting from scratch. I'm not trying to protect them, as they could easily just turn their back and leave this abandoned.
Oh damm it's Ashe
Kickstarting video games is usually a bad idea because they are actually too expensive to fund. Especially when there is a full game studio involved with many employees. $600,000 is basically nothing when it comes to funding any kind of game other than small indie titles that will only be worked on by a handful of people.
I think even YandereDev has made more progress at this point.
That's saying something.
*osana isn’t ready yet*
*EvaXephon
YandereDev:
1. A single man, no active team.
2. Nearly self funded, doesn't have thousands from kickstarter to work with.
3. Working on a complex game concept with little previous game experience.
4. Still put out more than Playdek.
And then Love Letter comes along..
I don't understand how another company would give a refund especially when they didn't get any of the original money and it's probably all spent.
Thats why fundings and grants have MILESTONES. Without milestone payments, it's easy for developers in kickstarter to lose interest or motivation since they already got all the cash, and just trash it when things get rough.
These guys clearly weren't capable of making the game they promised, but anyone who thinks $660k is enough to make a triple A quality game is delusional.
Why'd they ask for $600K then?
They must be delusional, or more likely they had already secured funds from private investors and planned to make a publishing deal from the very start.
god i hope scorn doesnt end up like this
Cinnabutt Nah looks way to promising
Any news from Little Orbit so far?
ablationer the last update was roughly 20 days ago
I'm sure their walking simulator will actually come out. I doubt it will be a good game, but it will be nice as hell to look at.
lol i have high hopes for it, at least its gorgeous yeah
Mighty Number 9 took us to hell, we're going even deeper.
Beck got out of it with MGB, tho.
You feel it too don't you?
Well there are 7 circles. Mn9 must be around the 3rd or 4th.
"WE NEED TO GO DEEPER"
We're going into Azathoth's brain, ladies and gentlemen.
Jason Schreier seems like a good guy honestly, he seems to be the one guy at Kotaku that actually gives a fuck.
He's written some great article over the years, arguably Kotaku's best editor.
Seems like he's just covering his own ass at this point tbh
Weiss Schnee His track record is pretty questionable.
deepfreeze.it/journo.php?j=jason_schreier
Sounds familiar...
*Looks up name
Oh yeah! He was the guy that bitched incessantly about the character designs in Dragon's Crown! Yup, swell guy he is, indeed.
Ugh. Forgot about that...
Sometimes I come back to this video whenever I’m bored. Crazy to see how far Yong has come!!
*Every time he said $660k is a lot of money/more than enough to make this game, I cringed.* Oml people have no idea what the development cycle is.
They probably don't even realize the budget is the living costs of the employees. They assume you throw money at a screen when you're making a game and out comes content with the quality dependent on how much money you threw. That's not how it works at all. $660k is just a minimum-moderate wage when split between anything more than a dozen people. And it lasts only one year.
And considering there was a big name working on it...who was probably used to a 6-figure salary...there could've been others used to that. So either they downgraded or they blew it all.
Game developers have been working for peanuts since the 80's. Not that's a good thing but, a good game can surely be developed with 660k.
You assume that the 660k is all they had to work with. It's like you wanna buy a car for 50k but you only have 40k in your account. So you borrow 10k. That's often the case. What we were looking at is probably more in the reaches of 1.5-2m.
Then limit your budget to 660k. Simple. Good games have been developed for way less money before.
"Game developers have been working for peanuts since the 80's"
Yeah and they were also making 8 bit games
I'm pretty sure making a 3D model and putting it into a game engine today costs more than a full game back then...
You can buy a 3D model of almost anything for ~$1.50. Also programming a game back then was much more harder than nowadays.
Don't forget: FTL, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun DragonFall, Shadowrun Hong Kong, Constortium, Xenonauts, Shovel Knight, Gods Will Be watching, Freedom Planet, Hand of Fate, 2064: Read Only Memories, Hyper Light Drifter, Darkest Dungeon, Undertale, The Original Sin games, etc., etc., etc., Some of the best games recently came from kickstarter, and some of those games wouldn't have existed without.
Justin Sumner The thing is, Hyper Light Drifter, Darkest Dungeon, Undertale, FTL, and 2064 at least, weren't branded as being spritual sucessors to popular games made by the people behind the success of those popular games. Hell, Freedom Planet and Shovel Knight *were*, to an extent, spiritual sucessors to popular games, but they weren't built on the promise of an old team who probably won't make good on their promise.
The problem is not Kickstarter itself, it's the way these disasters have used (some would say capitalized on) the platform - drawing people in with only the promise of nostalgia, and not following it up with talent or clear communication. Undertale at least had a playable demo on the Kickstarter page that was a good representation of the final game, years before it actually came out. Likewise, you shouldn't have high expectations for a game because "it's a Kickstarter game", you should have high expectations if it's a good looking game.
But Pillar of Eternity, Wasteland 2, Divinity Original Sin and Shadowrun Returns were high profile returns to from old developers. I think there's a definite pattern is when the come to the kickstarter with a very clear and very attainable goal, and are making something that we know they can make, because we all knew Inexile and Obsidian could, beyond the shadow of a doubt, deliver. So maybe the lesson is to trust established developers.
Justin Sumner Yeah, I think the lesson is to trust a team, not an individual (who probably isn't even heading development!), and, as with anything and not just Kickstarter, don't get swept up in marketing and hype.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare was another Kickstarter campaign, but it was based on a Gmod mod by some guys made for shits and giggles. Suddenly, it became popular, and they decided to make an actual game from it.
I think the key to figure out if you're being tricked is if high profile Japanese dev names are attached to a project that is not being developed by a Japanese dev team. I don't think there have been ANY high profile successes, and a lot of high profile failures - Mighty No. 9, Unsung Story, Project Phoenix......
Bloodstained may be the first to break this pattern, but it does have a japanese dev studio attached so it's unclear if it qualifies for this pattern.
I really hope for the best for Little Orbit. What they are trying to do is really admirable and I hope they can deliver with the final product.
i hope they actually do good cause all they did was just make cartoon based videogames and theyre really restricted on what they can put in the game
+billyhatcher643 Most of those, they just published.
People need to understand a thing about kickstarter. It's crowdfunding, it's like investing. You should not back any project with money you are not willing to lose. It's really that simple. So many people seem to think that kickstarter is like a glorified preorder. And no you should not preorder games either.
Personally ive been burned a few times on kickstarter, however it does not discourage me, because ive gotten a lot of wonderful and amazing games, that would not have been made otherwise.
I don't think that Little Orbit should refund any backers because the money is defenitely gone. The way they approached the backers so far is more than anyone could've hoped for.
Truth be told, if anyone was going to give a refund it would've had to have been Playdek (lol). Given that Little Orbit got none of the original funds, they shouldn't be held accountable for refunds at all - especially given that Kickstarter is based around the fact that you're taking a risk and that you may be just throwing good money away.
The fact that Little Orbit is spending their own funds to see this game through to completion is, indeed, more than anyone could've hoped for.
Get outta here Bunta.
If you wanna see true failures. Check out Retsupurae, they have a whole playlist of videos they call Kickstarter Nonstarters where they make fun of these ridiculous projects so if you think this and Mighty No. 9 are the worst it can get, you haven't seen anything yet
SpikeJet2736 cool, i enjoy these types of videos
SpikeJet2736
Or Idubbbz who does the same thing
or brendanielreads
Honestly I'm happy that this is becoming a thing
more exposure to how often these things are just money grabs
you guys have to understand, thats the norm, that happens all the time with developers, even nintendo had alot of big non releases, remember project giant robot? or project hammer? diference is, we dont pay for them, but thats the risk we assume when we "invest" in a Kickstarter project.
I misread your comment at first and thought you were calling Retsupurae failures. Then again, they did start incredibly strong, have 6 solid years of consistently above average content, then for the last two years the quality has dropped substantially to the point that they are now being criticized for becoming the very thing they've been berating.
12ealDeal Turns out being a father is hard.
Hey, how is the shenmue kickstarter doing?
These trend of old game producer of a successful series making a comeback (and failed) is worrying.. i'm grateful that kojima didn't go down this route.
Archontasius last I heard, they are preparing for a gamescom presentation so I guess we will find out.
The difference is, Yu Suzuki was actually a game development manager in the past when he made the previous Shenmue games, he wasn't just a businessperson, producer, or lower-level developer. Shenmue was literally his baby, writer-director-produce-creative director, he fought like hell for Sega to fund it, he knocked on their door for 10 years to fund it and only did Kickstarter as a last resort. That doesn't mean it'll be good and it is fair to get worried about how good he is handling money, and other project aspects that Sega may have handled in the past. The other thing is the development is almost entirely Japanese, where it seems Playdek and MN9's staff tried to be western with a big-name Japanese figurehead to entice backers.
Yeah Im grateful that Kojima just fucking tricked us with MGS4 and V. Kojima is other kind of Conman but still one of them.
Ugh, the "Hi we're Sony, a giant corporation who owns the top selling platform of this console generation. Fund this game for us." Kickstarter. Fuck that shit.
Libe Jenkins What's wrong with MGS4?
And A Hat In Time is Kickstarter done right.
And Half-Genie hero. And Freedom Planet. And Shovel Knight.
@Onanii-chan and wasteland 2
And Undertale
Every so often I click on this video just to hear that intro monologue.
"You haven't seen SHIT."
Love it.
So end result is we might get a game, and it might be good. But Playdeck got over half a million dollars plus what ever minor amount Little Orbit paid for the legal rights to the game and turned out basically nothing? I mean it's great another company picked the project up but wow all that time and money to turn out something so bad the new company doesn't even want to use their data? I have to say I'm surprised that aspect of the story didn't come up in this video more.
I don't blame them, judging by the gameplay preview shown by Playdek, the work they had done was atrocious looking and simple.
A thought popped into my mind when watching this, that maybe what Playdek has shown (all of it, up until now) was made within the first 6-12 months, and they just stretched it out over the few and far between updates, to seem like they were still working on it. Because I wouldn't put it past them, with how the whole situation has turned out.
Little Orbit is at least an actual legitimate games company. I especially love how their CEO thought Playdek's game was so shit he completely threw away everything Playdek had made, restarting the entire development.
Little Orbit probably didn't pay more than $100 for the legal rights to the game. "Token amount" generally means a very small amount of money just to establish the consideration necessary for a legal transfer of the property. For a contract to be valid both parties must gain something of value.
Besides, although the majority of Little Orbit's games range from bad to mediocre (of course there's a reason for that), if you take a hard look, you'll find decent games in their portfolio. I think they are capable of delivering a good game similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. Unlike Playdek, at least we know Little Orbit knows how to manage projects and make games. They can do local and internet multiplayer too, last I've checked.
I hope they prove their worth and, in case it happens, become acclaimed developers afterwards.
What could be worse than mighty number 9???
*Immediately shows unsung story*
SUCH A LUST FOR FAILURE!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
GODDAMMIT
Some Guy Paragon They played us like a damn FIDDLE!
stride99 DAMMIT MILLER YOU STOLE MY LINE! NANOMACHINES!
This story deserves a documentary film. Interviews with the original team and, the new team. A class action suit would make a great ending.
For those wondering, the development is going well! There's a full OST, and a vertical slice that will be available at the Game Developers Conference in March. Unfortunately, in the same Kickstarter post (made on the 1st of this month), they also said that the game will not be coming out this year, thought they have 50% of the game storyboarded and set to actually be made into a game. So overall, very promising and they're soaring above the very low bar left by Playdek
Un Sung is my Korean friend.
What is his story?
Vox3l-Gl1tch 😂😂
Also I really hate these people for hollow updates of "We'll give you one next week/month"
No, no you won't. Don't even pretend. Don't update to say you'll update. Update to update. Geez.
K. Charrette Lol, yeah no shit.
K. Charrette these people are spending more time making excuses than making the actual damn games.
Lmao
They had more excuses and lack of communication than an addict who owes their dealer a lot of money👌
Wouldn't go that far lol
Note that the handheld versions and the tv show of Mighty No. 9 have still not seen the light of day
as a backer of the game: thanks for covering it. Haven't heard from you before, but I will sub if I enjoy your other stuff as well
I hope you get a satisfactory Unsung Story for your money.
Vunter dont know if youre a troll or you havent ever had human communication of any form in your life
Ya! Fuck Nelson!
just report the haters, no need to talk with them. They are hateful people who get all the joy in their life in insulting others. They are rather sad beings
Norman omg do you watch hwymg
the sad part about MN9 is that right now just came out Mighty Gunvolt Burst, which is AMAZING and exactly what MN9 shoudl've been, but nobody in media (not even Yong here) even bothered to look at it or make videos about it just because it has Beck in it.
such a great game will now be severly underrated and being buried as a Hidden Gem because of Inafune's shit.
Honestly I got Mighty Gunvolt playable on my 3DS way before I knew of this Mighty No. 9 thing. To me Beck originate on Gunvolt and not Mighty No. 9.
and you're totally right. unfortunately, after what happened with MN9, people got such a sour taste in their mouths the taste its still there even a year after, so its kinda hard to take that off with another game.
all the kickstarter money went there apparently
The fuck? MGB wasn't made with any Kickstarter money.
i meant all of the mn9 kickstarter money went there apparently, thats why mn9 is so half assed and shit meanwhile gunvolt is such an awesome game, but thats just my shitty guess i guess
UPDATE: Little Orbit be knocking it out of the park! They've been tacking on update after update, showing footage and artwork of all kinds. From the sound of it, it's close to being released this year! Good on them!
I like that you've added a lot more cutaways and editing to your videos. Makes them more engaging and entertaining. And I'm a Unsung Story backer so RIP.
What's annoying here for me is that $660,000 is not that much money.
If even just ten people are working on this game, each making $50k/year (which would be nothing for a big name like Matsuno, and also underpaying an experienced staff by an assload) then in just one year, the staff would be paid almost all of that money. An office space would easily cost tens of thousands per year. Likely, within less than six months, that initial funding was totally gone. No Kickstarter project works on principal alone, Kickstarter is a good way to show a publisher or an investor that there is actual interest in your property. Unless a Kickstarter project gets like $20,000,000 for a game, then it'll never be enough for a full development cycle.
Zacmanman there are plenty bigshots from kickstarter that have that budget and maybe even less and did it 5000000 times better
Rouhsif Benschop 2D games. All of them.
Right, they wanna make a new game like Final Fantasy Tactics (which may have have cost anywhere from 500k to a few million back in 97) with only 660k. I'd feel bad for anyone who backed this project out of nostalgia alone.
The backers aren't giving money to pay for the employees. Lol... Those are donations to the company not backers of a game. The 660,000 should be dedicated to the game development.
How do you think games are developed? The employees program full time and they gotta eat and pay the bills.
These are pretty fucked up things to do, but I love these type of stories.
Bruce Wayne If this game does get finished and Little Orbit actually makes it good, it will be the greatest Development Hell story ever.
It will be also one hell of a PR jump and a possibility to rise from small name to big name publisher of this sells well. This is probably what they are speculating on. Their big shot to take their company to the next level.
I come back to appreciate Young Yong, and how far shit has come
Sounds like the standard story of an incompetent developer with bad money management skills, bad public correspondence, and bad time management.
They bit off more than they could chew. Thank god they've gone back to making shitty card games for iPhones.
This is why i just play skyrim and name my player rockman
kiomon amen hehehe
kiomon
hello fellow gamer!
are you playing Skyrim (tm) Special Edition Game of the Year Remastered
it's only $99.99!
-Not Todd Howard
kiomon fuck skyrim.
The Lord of Dankness nice opinion there
The Lord of Dankness seem like someone didnt visit cloud district very oftem
If Little Orbit can pull this off, and make what is at least a solid, substantial product, this will go down as one if the greatest underdog stories ever.
Definitely a needed video about the risks of backing a kickstarter. I’m thinking about backing Em8er, because they promised to give regular updates and testable builds and so far have been keeping that promise, only raising money in stages so that they’d be held accountable. Interesting idea, and so far seems to be working.
Say what you will about Might Number 9, but at least it was released.
it's better than nothing.
Sometimes no game is better than a shitty game
And it'll make the bad guys cry, well, you know the rest.
Nobody gonna mention the irony of the game being called 'Unsung Story'?
FlippedSided I seen one. This thread should have been blown the fuck out with it though.
The name 'Unsung Story' just begs for jokes.
Seriously, I'm more impressed of the staff who have to write these excuses knowing the company is doing shit.
It must be hell being in that position.
Gosh, the main dev himself even ran away knowing they're doing shit, and he's not in the front-line dealing with shit like the staff who has to keep writing articles for apology and excuses.
It's definitely true that crowdfunding game ventures can be disastrous...but at the same time, it was crowdfunding that gave the world *UNDERTALE.* That alone means you can't COMPLETELY hate it, I think 😉
$600,000 isn't a whole lot of money. I can see it supporting an indie outfit to completion, but I don't know if Japan has an indie scene. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to maintain a AAA sized team during development.
I hadn't kickstarted in a while, but I suspect that alot of companies lowballed development costs, reasoning that they can make extra money with outside investments and publisher partnerships later.
were they developing this for the ps2?
Cyprys For GBA haha
Although it's a funny and very original joke, most games on PS2 looked much better than this mess.
It looks like a game for mobile with microtransactions everywhere
I would buy it on ps2 it would be cool
Dreamcast
I bought into Unsung Story when the campaign first started. They had big claims and beautiful concept art, Yasumi Matsuno, the creator of Final Fantasy Tactics already on board, and were planning to hire Hitoshi Sakimoto, a composer who worked on several titles including FFT, FF12, and basically just too much to list.
So I shelled out my $20, which was supposed to guarantee a digital copy of the game upon release, they promised frequent updates and hard work...we got neither. The dev team seemed really excited at first, but updates just suddenly stopped. Eventually when they released a demonstration of the game it looked like just another cheap asset flip you could find infesting steam.
The new team seems to be doing better, but I'm also not optimistic. But I guess I don't have to worry about it, after so long has passed I've lost my Kickstarter password *and* the password to the email I linked to it, so I can't redeem my copy when it comes out anyway. Absolute joy ride 5/7.
Two years later and Little Orbit are still focused on releasing this game, still updating regularly and trying their hardest. Even when most people have given up and moved on they see something in this game. Even if it ends up being a dumpster fire of a game Little Orbit should get points for effort.
I'm sure it won't be as bad a Comcept's Mighty No. 9 must have been. Should I be lucky not to have played THAT game?
My wife watched one of your vids and gave birth nine months later to a silky voiced, luxuriously haired Asian baby. Thank you yong
I hope Playdek's CEO rots in prison, literal theft
I say Little Orbit has their work cut out for them but since it’s been a couple years, I’d be surprised if they’ve made significant amount of new progress in Unsung Story’s development
The real question is, why do we even need a "spiritual successor" to FF Tactis? We still have games like Fire Emblem and Banner Saga today. And they are great. Aren't those the same types of games?
Fire Emblem isn't tactic though, it's more of a turn based decision strategy RPG where being perfect counts. Final Fantasy Tactics is more about how to turn the tides into the player's favor and take chances without worrying about risk.
They're different types of games. To put it simply, FE focuses more on the "character" aspect of story, with the actual plot not very important. FFT has a more realistic world with more effort put into a complex plot. The battles in FE are generally simpler than FFT's, as well.
RedVIII It made sense for Yooka Laylee to be a spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie, since Microsoft wouldn't let them use the Banjo IP. And even though the game polarized people, they at least didn't break any of their promises aside from the Wii U version being cancelled.
FFT has very little relation to FE besides both being tactical rpgs. FFT has a lot of customization and and roster of classes that have lengthy list of skill that allow you to play the way you want and experiment with new ideas, while for the most part FE has always been more simplistic with customization being the weapons you carry with the occasional arrow shield sort of item.
Disgea is KINDA like FFT or maybe Ogre Battles/tactics. Vandal Hearts is like it. But those are way old too and FE isn't really like tactics at all.
Regardless of their success, little orbit should be commended for taking over such a haunted project.
here is the unsung story of unsung story
"
."
thanks for reading :)
I feel super sad for the guy who made that article, all he wanted was a new tactics game
On the bright side, he learned a valuable lesson about kickstarters and it only cost him £20. People have been stung for way more.
Mighty No. 9: "There is no way someone fuck up a Kickstarter game worse than we did."
Unsung Story: "Hold my beer."
660k is literally an absolutely tiny amount of money to create a game.
And yet, there are amateur doujin circles that create games for hobby and later sell them.
thousandyoung Simple, 2D games. Majority of the work of which is either art or writing.
lewis clark
True
Ronald Cooper indies are generally created by one people on their basement for years and years, or with a 5 or 10 guy studio without good pay, some of them even sell all of their possessions like houses cars etc, just to complete the game. Playdek is a full kind of big developer, with another kind of people. In the game industry it's generally 10k per person per month, that's in a medium size team. Those 660k where probably gone by the year, o even less.
So good games made on a shoestring budget don't exist...?
This is why I like YongYea, you get some really professional reporting followed up with "Unfucking a truly fucked situation" 😂
I just checked the kickstarter page, at this time of this comment, last update was July 1st 2019. People seems pleased with their work so far it goes well and smooth
If you really think about it.... the concept of video game kickstarter is basically the lowest and worst possible form of Gamestop Pre-Order system. *It's a flawed system because we can't play the game in advance and pay for it later*
I would disagree .. GS preorder is a scam and you know you get screwed. Instead kickstarter is more gambling ... and most kickstarter fails are not a scam but merely good intentions with flawed project management...
Ozz Lee exactly, and Kickstarter can also allow games that otherwise wouldn't have been funded to be created. For example pillars of eternity 1 wouldn't have been made without kickstarter, and it was a great game, and it's sequel wouldn't exist without its Kickstarter campaign. So while I get where your coming from, I think you couldn't be more wrong
Ozz Lee oops, I forgot who I was responding to at the end, the last part was supposes to be to the OP
@ Ozz Lee, I totally agree with you and that's why I said "*video game* kickstarter". Video game development is a form of *digital* art form, unless I see some prototype game play footage, the possibility of it being a scam is very high... Want me to fund your project with couple of 15 minutes sketches and another 15 minutes of game concept summery?? I don't think so. I'm not trying to be a selfish asshole, but there are kickstarted films that have at least a *complete* script before they are asking for money.
Daniel L fair enough, I've only backed pillars of eternity 2 because 1.) It's being made by obsidian and 2.) The first one was already good. In general I personally don't Kickstart or pledge but I still like the IDEA if kickstarter campaigns
what has been f*ck*d can't be unf*ck*d.
AsciiGDL "The regular woman Mary story"
You can still do an abortion and give the woman some counseling and therapy.
Naoki Yoshida: hold my beer
Stepping forward with HONESTY is extremely important and I am very glad to see that Little Orbit did that. HONESTY. IS. KEY. When they have trouble, when they run into snags, THEY NEED TO TELL THEIR PEOPLE. Look at star citizen. They come right out and *demonstrate* what the problems are when they occur. They *show* us what's wrong and how they are trying to fix it. And I love that. I would have regretted my contributions to the Star Citizen project at this point _except_ for the fact that they've told us what's really up. I know no other company has the resources to make miniature documentries on a weekly basis about what they're doing, but ffs the phrase "talk is cheap" exists for a reason. Sit someone down for five freaking minutes and bang out whatever is most pressing on a daily basis. put it in a blog. Grab a smartphone and record a quick stream of consciousness vlog! ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN SILENCE. _Don't turn into Hello Games!!!_
The thing with kickstarter. Is you don't get all of the money you're donated.
They take 5 per cent of it. When you make a plan you take that into account.
I'm convinced crowdfunding doesn't work for games, or most things. A lot of games take turns in development, becoming very different than they started, and can still become great games. Overwatch, for instance, started as a game similar to WOW, had almost a decade of development, and then became a FPS. Last one will be the Castlevania SotN successor, and I'm not holding my breath.
Yacht Club Games actually ran out of money when making Shovel Knight but they eventually finished it and it was great in the great but that's more luck and giving a shit. Inafune and Matsuno didn't.
At least Ninja Theory made Hellblade on their own and the guy behind Dust: An Elysian Tail has talent and determination.
Kenny McKinnon I understand where you're coming from but they're are good kickstarter games like shovel knight and shantae: half genie hero
therock238360 also FTL,which is equal to or surpassed shovel knight when it comes to kickstarter sucess
I forgot about shovel knight because it was out before I knew about its kickstarter, that's a great game. And didn't know about Shantae being kickstarted at all! Thought it was the previous games Doug well enough. Both good games!
it's a gamble, not a guarentee either in succuss or failure, you're looking at around 30% odds the kickstarted game'll knock it outtha the park (shovel knight, pillars or eternity, shadowrun hong kong) usually if the people behind it have a history in game development, another 30% of the time you'll get something good/mediocre (yooka laylee and such, usually ones that get a console release) and then you get the 40% which is the shitshows, most never get finished and if they do you get mighty number 9 results
here's hoping Little Orbit can pull through. i'm rooting for them
You haven't seen SHIT has been my ringtone for sometime now.
every single damn kickstarter befalls the same fate, **PROMISE SOMETHING** (GET MONEY FOR IT) **CHANGE PLANS FROM WHAT WAS PROMISED** (WASTE MONEY GOTTEN) **PROJECT DEATH** | How possibly hard can it be to just stick to 1 plan and not become ridiculously over-ambitious once you obtain funding?
People view Kickstarter as basically a pre-order. Now, I also hate pre-orders, but we'll ignore that for the moment and assume that pre-ordering is okay. Kickstarter is *not* even remotely similar to a pre-order. It's an investment. You can see a return on that investment (the project goes well, and /whatever/ launches and is great), or you can see jack shit. That's how investments work.
If you buy stock in a company, and then something happens and suddenly that stock is worthless, you don't just get to say "But they promised! It's so unfair!" and get your money back. If you think that's a reasonable reaction to a successfully funded but ultimately unsuccessful Kickstarter, then you don't understand the service and shouldn't be using it.
Kickstarter is a wonderful mix of mismanaged projects and ignorant backers.
Sagiri an investment has the ability to give you profit. giving money to Kickstarter is not an investment unless you have the chance to make a financial gain from it
I actually considered talking about that in my original comment.
The financial gain comes from getting a copy of the /thing/, as well as any of other random crap you might get based on your tier.
Is that worthwhile? Is that adequate compensation for the risk involved? Hell no.
It''s more like a donation... A donation in which you might get something in return.
does anybody else see the original title? "Hey Mighty No 9, hold my beer...."
Damn this internet. I'm literally shitting my pants when I get the notification that you've released another video. You release a video, and I release a turd in my shorts out of pure excitement. Damn this internet brings me the sensibility, the steadiness, and reason of yong, but only for a short 28:27 minutes. I just sit here savoring your sensibilities, and trying to recreate your accents in the mirror. I picture you much like Bruce Lee in the nunchuk pingpong video. Your intellectually hitting the ball around faster, harder and more ergonomically correct then any of the others.. A TRUE JOY TO WATCH!!!!!!! consider please, a video of you just walking around town. Not av log, but more intimate, no the camera must be inside you. I for one am so intrigued by your reason, and sensible ways that I could watch an internal camera of nothing but your digestive tract, and your every day comings and goings in the back ground. This thought has me wanting to lift weights and run extreme distances in anticipation!!!! Hehehehe, Ramos.....OUT!!!! HEHEHHE
Little Orbit is actually just the Mega Man guy working together with the people behind Unsung Story to earn even more money.
Friendly reminder that a majority of WayForward's games were also licensed games based on Spongebob, iCarly and the like. And we all know how good their standard games are, especially since 1/2 Genie Hero is one of the few successful Kickstarters.
I too shall hold hope here.
All these proposed spiritual successor kickstarters suck. Mighty No. 9 failed to deliver. Yooka-Laylee failed to deliver. Then you have Unsung Story. The only good spiritual successor to a popular franchise I can think of was Pillars of Eternity.
Play Mighty Gunvolt Burst. This is Mn9 done right.
Half genie hero defiently delivered, it was beautiful :33 and that's why Way Forward has so much trust from their fans. I met some of the devs this last E3, really good people work there who really care about their games.
Is that a Kickstarter game too? It's been on my to-play list forever but I haven't played it yet. I'll definitely give it a shot.
As for Gunvolt Burst, I actually bought it recently on my 3DS but then I got distracted playing the Ace Attorney trilogy. I'll get to it soon.
And PoE has awesome devs, who are actually people.
Morphic c It looks okay so far, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also hope it succeeds, metroidvania is one of my favorite types of games and we need more of them.
@YongYea maybe it would be interesting to do an update video on this story? It's almost 3 years later now, and Little Orbit has given regular updates on the game's progress and is supposedly going to launch it this year. I backed the project way back in 2014, and I'm not expecting to get a game that will fully live up to what was originally promised in the Kickstarter, but I'm curious as to what I'll eventually get :) It's been a roller-coaster ride for all those involved, so maybe doing a new video once the game releases would be a nice way to wrap things up :)
With blunders involving EA, Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, Valve, Stadia, and other major game companies and consoles dominating the news, it would be nice of Yong to follow up on this game.
I just randomly found this video but I need a part 2 now plz.