The decision that I’m talking about, and you can read more about it in the update, is yet another change to the art style of Jason the Greek. Instead of the first two iterations, which were cartoonishly cute, the latest version unveiled to backers is in the more traditional pixelated art style of yesteryear. I’m most certainly not against having a retro style game, but it is a huge departure from what was originally promised during the Kickstarter. But, as developer Kristian Fosh pointed out there was good reason for going this route.
The biggest problem is that Jason the Greek has run out of money for development, and the publisher that he had lined up had to pull out due to the continuous delays. As such, he had to make an executive decision. The first thing was that he put the game on a more “spare time” moment as he supplemented his income with another job to help pay the bills. The other was to go with a more simplified art direction. The game’s logic and script were for the most part done, but there was still a good deal of work to do on the graphical and audio side. Which meant having to try to change course midstream.
Now, this news isn’t all doom and gloom as some people might think. There is a silver lining here in that Kris still plans on eventually finishing off the original “HD” version, hoping that sales of the pixelated “retro” version will help fund the remaining development. The upshot here is that all backers owed a copy of the game will get both versions should he be able to finish the assets already started. Which, after reading through all the comments, most of those who voiced their opinions and concerns are okay with the change. Yours truly among them. The biggest issue is that we weren’t informed until now that this was decided upon. Especially with a three month silence between this update and the last.
Here’s the thing. I know that delays happen. I know that circumstances beyond anyone’s control can happen. I know that developers are afraid to mention anything negative about their project. But, there does come a time when they need to be more transparent and let backers in on these events when they happen and not go silent for months on end. That said, I’ve gotten to know Kris Fosh, as I have several adventure game developers, both during the campaign and long after development starts and I have faith that he’ll deliver on his promises one way or another. I’d just like more frequent updates.
I kinda agree with you Serena, in this case it would have made more sense to let the backers in on this issue, maybe even offer to put this issue up to a Vote (which is what I would have done).
Hi Serena – you are right and thank you for taking the time to write such an amazing and well written article. I wish I had made more time to keep the backers as up to date as they should have been – as as they certainly will be from here on.
The speed at which the game is coming together now means there’s plenty to share!
More soon and thank you again,
Kris
aka Jason The Greek
I’m just glad to know that work is still being done, even if what we’re getting isn’t quite what we were expecting. And I look forward to hearing more from you on the development of the game.
BTW, I love the way I look pixelated.
This is a tough situation for sure. My initial reaction is to get pissed, especially for anyone that backed because they liked the art style. As you said though, at least things are continuing on, which is definitely better than nothing. Kris has also done a solid job of posting regular updates, so him not going to backers first could be forgiven, especially if the alternative to not going with the new style meant no game at all.
As a developer who will eventually rely on Kickstarter to keep the lights on, at least with my current project, I think this is a real downside to Kickstarter. Quality games cost a lot of money to make. Kickstarter is a great kick start. But expecting the full funding I think is unrealistic. This is made worse by two groups. The first is “developers” who have no real professional experience and set the funding goal for the full game too low with no plan for additional funding. The other is the AAA guys who already have millions in funding that set relatively low goals for that extra little step. Both of these lead to the illusion that games are cheaper to make than they are.
For my Kickstarter, I plan on asking enough to finished the core gameplay and a few levels to get on Steam Early Access. For various reasons I don’t like Early Access. I’d rather have the full amount and release the game for sale when it is ready. That can be covered by stretch goals. Kickstarter is a kick start. When you kick start a motorcycle, it gets the motor running, but doesn’t get you where you want to go.
I don’t know the circumstances of the developers in question. I’m not going to speculate on their budgets, expectations, or anything else. So please don’t take my comment as a critique on them. But for me personally, I plan on asking for what I need to create a minimal viable product that fulfills my vision. Getting the amount for the full product would be great, I just don’t think it realistic through Kickstarter alone.
Some great thoughts on the matter. That really calls out the two camps of developers on Kickstarter. Those that use it for complete funding, and those that use it for that extra bit. It can be tough to tell who is funding how, which leads to those “Well so and so is making a way better game for $10,000!” comments. They’re just not apples to apples unfortunately.
I’m old. I’ve been coding since before 3d graphics cards were a thing. We had to do the math ourselves and place every pixel on the screen. We had to convert floating point numbers to decimals and use precomputed lookup tables for sine and cosine operations because computers just could not handle it back then.
Now things appear to be much easier. But they aren’t. My game relies very heavily on real time dynamic lighting. Most games don’t do that. They use lightmaps instead. So my game, at it’s initial incarnation, got a low of around 37fps on my 970m. Totally unacceptable. I’ve gotten it up over 60, but there is still work to be done to improve that; A 970m is too powerful to be a minimal requirement, even at 1080p on ultra settings.
Gettings tens of thousands of dollars would save me a ton of time modelling, but I can’t expect the artists to work within the confines of the specializations I’ve created to improve framerate. A ton of that is still on me because it involves hooking up the models to a programming interface that is very specific to the game. As is making sure that the texture art matches the overall theme of the game.
So to me, my Kickstarter launch has to say, “Hey, look what I did by myself. Imagine what I could do with help or if I could work on it full time” But so many Kickstarters don’t show anything at all, much less what skills they bring as an individual.
Creating games is a ton of hard work and sleepless nights, but if I were in it for the money I’d be flipping burgers somewhere.
[…] I covered the change in art design from cartoon to pixel, and now Kris has once again decided that Jason the Greek should once again […]