Despite being two years behind schedule on their post-apocalypic RPG, After Reset, Black Cloud Studios isn’t shy about heading back to Kickstarter for seconds. They are currently seeking $55,492 for a new campaign, Daedalus. This has not gone over well with After Reset’s backers.
After their first attempt to fund After Reset failed, Black Cloud scaled the project back and created a graphic novel. With the help of 458 Kickstarter backers and $14,299 they brought After Reset: The Fall of Gyes to publication.
Emboldened by their success, Black Cloud relaunched the After Reset RPG project back in July of 2014. This time they managed to raise a staggering $94,892. Well over their $35,000 goal. In the time since they’ve managed to release what players say barely constitutes a demo over on Steam Early Access.
According to the most recent Steam reviews the $50 Early Access version has the player limping around an empty room. The most recent patch notes hint that gameplay has advanced beyond this initial impression, but the reviews indicate that this may not entirely true. Regardless, Black Cloud has decided to forge ahead and launch their next Kickstarter project.
Daedalus is a hard sci-fi thriller, also set in the After Reset universe. The game plays out as an interactive movie where the player’s dialogue choices and actions during quick-time events affects the overarching story. The 3D characters and environments are painted in a graphic novel style with emphasis placed on cinematic camera angles and lighting.
Honestly, Daedalus doesn’t look bad, but the there are other reasons to question Black Cloud’s intentions with this new campaign. Putting the After Reset drama aside, this project is no small undertaking. The scope and style they’ve set for themselves won’t be cheap to produce. Which makes the low-ball $55,492 funding goal seem suspicious. Particularly since the budget breakdown at the bottom of the Kickstarter page estimates the final costs of the project to be upwards of $168,879.
The developers go on to explain that while $55k will allow them to create the first episode of Daedalus, because the game is suddenly episodic, they would really super appreciate more money to implement all the amazing stuff they have planned, for this first chapter.
It’s good to note that After Reset is also planned as an episodic adventure. The current version would be the story’s prologue. This means Black Cloud Games would potentially be crafting two episodic story-driven games in the same universe, while still never having delivered a finished product. Daedalus is being advertised as it’s own self-contained story which would require all the development and testing that has already set After Reset’s development back so far.
Easy As Potato Salad
They claim the $55,492 funding goal was chosen because this is the same amount raised by the now infamous Potato Salad Kickstarter in 2014. Apparently the team sees this amount as a sort of litmus test for interest in their game. Considering the potato salad campaign was always a bit of a joke it’s an odd choice to want to associate themselves with.
Kickstarter backers are not taking this slight lightly. The comment sections of both campaigns are full of people calling the developers out. They view this new campaign as nothing except a dishonest cash grab. Several backers even pledged at the lowest tier just to be able to warn others off of the new project.
For their part, Black Cloud maintains that the After Reset: Prologue is nearing completion with an upcoming release. They claim that their intention was to utilize staff whom had already finished work on the prologue for development on Daedalus. Even if this is the case, the Daedalus campaign could have avoided community backlash if Black Cloud had just pushed it back until After Reset’s release. As it stands now, they will have a difficult time earning back the goodwill of the backer community.
