Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is one of the most successful videogame crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter – anywhere, really. Despite the myriad of updates over the last few months, we at Cliqist haven’t talked about it since June 2015. Deciding to remedy that, I chose it as this week’s CAT video. Actually I just wanted to cover a high profile campaign for views and to talk about David Hayter, but let’s pretend between you and me that it was a more noble reason, okay?
Koji Igarashi and Inti Creates have done a superb job of releasing updates since the game was fully backed. They’ve published at least one update a month, usually more, and have done a lot to get backers involved. With each update they’ve shown fan art of the game, the bare minimum of involvement and a great marketing tool, but it’s nice to see them showing off other people’s work.
More importantly, they’ve asked backers for input on key design decisions. In December, the team showed off two sets of shaders. Shaders are basically how an engine deals with light and shadow and can have a bigger effect on a game’s visual style than you might suspect. After asking for backer feedback, Igarashi and team found that no one really liked what they were offering. Over the next few months, there was a lengthy back and forth with backers until a new, almost cell-shaded style was chosen, something Igarashi hadn’t originally thought of.
Bloodstained’s new look, brought about through backer feedback.
They’re showing backers some behind-the-scenes looks at development as well. In their latest update, they showcased a testing area they use to test the animation sets for characters, level layout, and enemy placement.
All of this, as well as the backstory to Bloodstain’s Kickstarter and the funding period itself are discussed in this episode of Crowdfunding Analysis Time. I also take a look at the voice acting for both Bloodstained and past Igarashi games. It’s amazing how many Kickstarters David Hayter has found himself in since recording his final Metal Gear in 2010. Yeah, I’m surprised it’s been that long too.
(I told you this was an excuse to talk about David Hayter.)
I am probably one of the few people on earth that hate the whole castlevania franchise (i suck at platform and shoot’em up and castlevania is a bit of a mix of both genre it became the apex of my hatred lol).
I didn’t back it obviously, don’t regret it one cent. But i ought to say..i am concerned lately by everything that came from japan and took its wings into KS. I don’t think a lot of those project are doing well. either they went on the slippery slope either they’re disappointing greatly those who backed them.
I think japanese are still locked in the whole era where their videogames were..the thing. I don’t think they’ve evolved technically and didn’t understood the evolution of video games itself and players.
You can be nostalgic but that doesn’t mean you want something inferior and outdated from the games yu played in your childhood.