Sometimes a project comes along where you just have to do a double-take and try to figure out where the developers are coming from. Unfortunately, it looks like Mooncrest might be one of these. It is an RPG with both “Souls”-style gameplay and challenging puzzles to overcome a la adventure games. Normally, this may sound like an overly ambitious and convoluted approach to game making and it could very well be. The main problem with the pitch is that there’s very little there. And what is there had me scratching my head in confusion.
Mooncrest is a fantasy game where the two playable characters are women. One is a paladin that sets out to do good and the other is, for lack of a better term, a street urchin. Both girls end up setting out to uncover a conspiracy that spans the entire city. I love a good story featuring paladins. I’ve always felt closest to this fantasy trope than anything else in the genre, so I found my judgment a bit clouded when reading that part. And it’s got a great premise. The problem is that the rest of the pitch falls flat.
The video is almost always the first thing that potential backers look at, which means that it needs to capture their interest in the first 30 seconds or so. And most of the successful campaigns do this. Mooncrest‘s video spends the majority of its 3 minutes and change focusing on two attractive women pining over the “good old days” of gaming.
The written pitch pretty much says “We used to work at Bioware. We have an idea for a game but only concept art to show for it. Please give us money.” This approach might have worked in 2012 when Kickstarter was still relatively fresh in our eyes but in 2015 most backers are more discerning with their money. I do wish the best for these former Bioware developers but between their poor pitch, lack of assets to show off, and the lofty goal of $400K I doubt they’ll get even remotely close to funding.
lol, that is ex
hah, that is pretty funny. It’s unfortunate too, because what they’re selling sounds cool, but there’s nothing to look at.
I’m also concerned about the lack of info on who will be doing the coding, but maybe that’s been addressed in the comments now?, The fact that there’s very little concept art is also concerning, including the fact that the two character art examples are of a much lower quality than the other pieces. Finally there’s their experience. They call out the fact that combined they have 20 years of AAA game dev experience. That doesn’t seem worth calling out in their opening line when it’s across 4 people, none of which appear to have serious coding experience based on their bios.
That is true. Actually when i heard the combined 20 years of AAA game dev experience sentence. My first reaction was “eh? That’s all?!”. I’d even say it is not something to brag about..
I think the coder is Rick Burton. But there is no information at the moment in the comment section or the pitch. There is also little concept art that is true, i mean they even took a photo of a book lol.
It really gives off the feeling of a 2012 campaign when we had ideas only good on paper with no concept, artwork, or game footage. When everyone was eager to pledge which led to a lot of..mistrust and disappointing games or games still in developpement..or MIA..
That KS is triggering like for Serena most of my warning sensors.
That’s why i pledged with a non-committed mind.
My guts are often right..but i want to see how bad it will be (i have a rotten mind :p) which is why i pledge. Otherwise i will forget it..
It reminds me of that campaign in 2012..with the author..it was a guy and a girl..well they didn’t get funded..but i had a good laugh since it was so bad..it sounded..so much like a fool’s trap..
I like fool’s trap that are actually convincing some people..I am a bad person. I know..i just want to see how far it will go ^^
I do get fooled myself sometimes, but i usually just laugh at myself..even if it doesn’t happen that much..or when it does i was always at the lowest of lowest tier so i am not that hurt.
Heh. You’re both right. I generally skip over the “About the Team” sections as I’m more interested in the game itself, not who’s doing it. Usually. But, I had to check them out and the whole “we’ve got 20 years experience between the four of us” did make me think that’s not an awful lot. That’s 5 years on average. Not particularly impressive. Sure, they’ve got the Bioware pedigree but it’s still nothing to brag about. Most of it sounded like it was in the modding community, too.
Yeah, actually if you checked the team section..one has 8 years in the industry the other 10, the third 2 obviously and so the last has never work on a game. That is seriously a concerning matter.
The experienced people have enough experience for me to at least handle part of a game like creating 2 or 3 dungeon each or maps/ But to actually land a game with 2 other people..that doesn’t actually sound like an addition..? Sounds difficult.
From the team section i am guessing the third guy is the art concept direction guy and the last the writer..the third guy seems to be able to handle the design of at least one level design..
I don’t know if you both remember but not too long ago we had a project on KS called Umbra done by a french team composed of 3 guys “https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1062682568/umbra/description”
When i compare their work and the degree of involvement they had with the one the guys of mooncrest have when they came asking for money. i kind of feel ashamed for them.
I heard of Umbra but I didn’t follow it. It didn’t sound like my type of game.
Yeah. That’s exactly it. I love the idea of a paladin-centric game. I said so in the article. However, they don’t have anything to show for themselves. If it were 2012 I could see it being at least mildly successful, but most certainly not in today’s environment.
What they should have done was do their research ahead of time, figure out where they want to go with it, and be better prepared upon launch. I’m not asking for a demo (although it’s always a good idea to have one ready or near ready) or even full in-engine assets. Just give us something tangible to look at and give us an idea of what the game is.
The pitch was all over the place, particularly in the text. They’re trying to make a game utilizing so many different ideas but don’t mention at all how they’re gonna work together. The video shows even less. Two women (who may or may not even play games at all) are just talking. And the beginning had me expecting a fight between them.
Even if they do start showing tangible assets and start talking about the game they’ve already missed the boat. The first three days are the most crucial to gaining momentum and they’ve already squandered most of it by having nothing to show for themselves.
I mean, I do hope the best for them but I’m passing on this one despite my love for the source material. It’s raising way too many red flags for me.
That’s exactly what I thought when I clicked on the video earlier today, lol. Oh man; ESPECIALLY after Red Ash blew up in Keiji’s Inafune’s face! Shenmue and Looka-Laylee brought playable prototypes and test environments to their pitches (dressed up to look like more substantial content too, for people who are unaware of the beginnings of game development)… you really can’t do this anymore…
Oh I feel bad for them.
Gonna be an interesting campaign they run. I want to see if they, like Comcept, scramble to throw together a playable prototype during the campaign. Or if they just disappear for awhile and come back later with more to show?
Yeah. I’m really curious where they’ll be taking Mooncrest. I do like the premise but it’s not 2012 any more. At most I’d put in a token dollar to see how it fares.
Looks like things with the campaign aren’t going well. As of now they just over $40k of a $400k goal. Their update from yesterday is a FAQ addressing a lot of concerns people have, including the video, the lack of gameplay, and more. They even went so far as to remove the video!
Yeah like TSI they thought throwing off Bioware name was enough to get funded.
[…] Mooncrest : The problems with this campaign go deeper than a troublesome funding video, check out Serena’s take on it. […]