When it comes to putting up a game on Kickstarter, or one of the other many crowdfunding sites, one of the things that’s pretty much mandatory these days is in-game assets to show off or people will walk away from it. Even big names need a gameplay video or demo to push themselves over the edge more times than not. And this apparently is the case with the recently launched Romero/Carmack FPS collaboration Blackroom. As of today the campaign is canceled and the reasons why have been spelled out in a backer-only update.
While a good number of people jumped into the deep end just to see these two shooter heavyweights return triumphantly without any assurances that it will be worked on, a good number of others have most likely passed on backing Blackroom due to the lack of pretty much anything but a short concept and some art. While I fell squarely in the former category I will admit that I was wary myself due to almost nothing to show off.
With all that said, Night Work Games announced that they’ll be working on a demo to entice those on the fence to give them money. Which honestly can only help their chances when they relaunch the campaign in the future. Due to it going to take too long to develop, pushing quite some time past the end date of the campaign, Blackroom has been, in their words, “put on pause”. Here’s hoping that it’s worth playing when it’s ready as I’d still love to give my money to this duo when the time comes around. Still, it makes me wonder if they had anything really planned out beyond what we saw.
I read three different articles today where the writers expressed surprise that they cancelled the campaign, indicating that it was doing well. Confusing since while it didn’t exactly crash and burn, they were not on their way to succeeding. There’s no way they would have hit their goal by just releasing more concept art. Developers with better reputations may have been able to do it, but they’re damaged goods at this point.
The campaign started out great, but after a few days I knew that they wouldn’t succeed without more to show off. I’m glad they decided to put it on hold until they get a working prototype pushed out so that we can see what they have in store for us. I may have gone in with rose tinted glasses but even I could see the writing on the wall.
Trouble is they only have one chance to make a good first impressions i reckon most people think if they cannot get a kickstarter right first time how can they make a game first time
Certainly a valid point. I don’t doubt that there’ll be some people who’ll stay away for a second time but maybe having a demo will bring more people over. Who knows? I’ve seen some real strange things happen throughout the years, even with “double dipping” as I call it.
I want to say “i told you so” but..i’ll..well i did saw that one coming lol.
I actually thought that they’d do a little bit better than they did but after a couple days I started to see the writing on the wall myself. I’m glad that they’re putting it on hold to better prepare but this is something that they should have thought of before launching in the first place.