Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

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Anonymous Game Creator 2
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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#26 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:13 am

Yup, we're still aiming for February! We've received a bit of advice on whether to hype it in advance, or just announce it when it's ready to launch. We've been mentioning that we'll be doing a Kickstarter here and there, just to make fans aware of the fact. But in order to get the bulk of people visiting and pledging, we've been advised that it's better to wait until the time of launch to notify the masses, so that the hype doesn't jump the shark prematurely, so to speak.

We did consider offering Al Emmo as a reward and went back and forth on it a bit. In the end, we decided not to include it in the Mage's Initiation campaign because the enhanced Al Emmo version (with improved voices and cutscenes) isn't ready yet. And giving away the current version would probably subject it to the same complaints as before, and could negatively impact the new game we're trying to promote. I think we have more than enough good rewards to make up for it though!

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#27 Post by pbpb33 » Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:03 pm

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:It's in our best interests to try and release the game on as many platforms as possible, so we're going to try and make it available on Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS when it's possible to do so. There are AGS ports in the works for all of these platforms, but they're not completely stable yet.

Since we can't guarantee a time and date for the ported versions (engine porting schedule is out of our hands), we probably won't make ports a part of the Kickstarter campaign. We'd just release them regardless, whenever the AGS ports become available and are stable enough.
Thanks for answering these questions.

I was interested in an iOS version of Mage's Initiation. I know you can't speak for Infamous Quests/Adventures, but I was wondering if you (or anyone else reading) knew how they were able to promise mobile platform development if they reach $70K (they are about $6700 away from that now) in funding.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/199 ... famous-que

Isn't their game also made with AGS? Is it more that you guys are just being extra careful/conservative about what you promise?

Regardless of whether there is iOS support for your game (and I hope there is someday), I'll definitely be backing!

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#28 Post by Blackthorne519 » Sun Feb 03, 2013 4:36 pm

The developments in the AGS port of iOS have been making leaps and bounds as of late - as has the Android Platform.

I was (and am still) confident that the ports would reach a competent status by the time the game was finished - promising mobile platform develop was just that - the development. Perhaps the mobile platforms wouldn't have been ready for day and date release, but they would be shortly.

I can say that we've had some people working on it - and they've gotten our demo to run on Android. iOS is a little more tricky, but I'm confident in the future it could become a reality.

Promoting or not promoting the feature of mobile platforming is definitely up to the people running a Kickstarter.

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#29 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:23 pm

I can't speak for others, but our issue with iOS is this: not only do Apple require you to have a Developer Account (and they need to approve your game), but you also cannot distribute your game outside the App Store unless the target devices are jailbroken. If Apple were to discover that a Kickstarter project was distributing an iOS game that actively forces large numbers of backers to jailbreak their devices, they wouldn't be very happy and it could possibly result in legal action being taken!

The promo codes that Apple gives you when your iOS game is approved are not nearly enough to cover all the pledgers for a Kickstarter campaign which has over 50 backers. There are a few other methods of distribution outside the App Store, but all of them carry a certain amount of legal risk, too.

Unlike Google/Android, which is a relatively open platform and easy to release games on, Apple keeps developers on a very short leash, and the only way you can legally release an iOS game is via the App Store which, of course, hinges on being approved first. So that makes it a bit like promising Steam keys to Kickstarter backers without having gone through the Greenlight process first.

The Android and iOS ports of AGS are coming along pretty smoothly, but I think there are still too many kinks to iron out before I'd personally feel comfy making it part of our Kickstarter campaign. That's why I want to say that we intend to port to all these platforms, but can't really promise it as a Kickstarter reward when so much relies on 3rd parties.

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#30 Post by rugged » Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:42 pm

I don't think any ks should offer IOS versions of the game as a reward, but you can still have IOs as a stretch goal. For instance I have backed qfi and will get a free pc download However their is a good chance I will buy the game for my iPad if it is reasonably priced. Though personally I think the best way to sell a full length adventure game for IOS is to break it into a few parts, that way you can keep each part at a $4.99 which is a good price for that platform.

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#31 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:26 pm

That's a good point, rugged. Making it a stretch goal would be doable, so long as there's the understanding that meeting that stretch goal wouldn't entitle backers to a free copy on iOS as part of the campaign (due to the difficulties mentioned above).

Also, AGS isn't really built for episodic stuff. Most of the art assets would need to double-up each episode which would mean humungous filesizes that would chew up people's storage space quickly. That, and I think the episodic model hurts the narrative/monomyth structure of an adventure somewhat... but that's neither here nor there. ;)

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#32 Post by Blackthorne519 » Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:52 am

Yeah, to note, our iOS port was a stretch goal - not a reward. Making it a reward would be risky.


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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#33 Post by rugged » Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:43 am

Any update on when Kickstarter can be expected?

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#34 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:41 am

We're aiming for next week. We've had to delay it a few times for various reasons, but we're now putting the finishing touches on it. Stay tuned! :)

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#35 Post by gamecreator » Fri Feb 15, 2013 5:41 pm

Pretty exciting! Very curious what you guys come up with!

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#36 Post by Blackthorne519 » Sun Feb 17, 2013 4:05 am

Yeaaaah! Let's Kickstart this baby!


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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#37 Post by paradoxdeux » Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:19 pm


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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#38 Post by gamecreator » Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:37 pm

Holy heck. Incredible start and a very modest funding request. I've just backed it at the initiate level (and voted to get it Greenlit).

And two quick questions: what is the native resolution of the game? And any way to get a wallpaper or two of the background art only (no characters or UI)?

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#39 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Sat Feb 23, 2013 1:44 am

40k is nothing to sneeze at and thanks much to everyone who has splashed some cash at the project! It's REALLY great to see this on track to being funded in such a short time! :)

Regarding the modest budget, yeah, the higher you set your goal, the lower your chances are of success. We based our goal of $65k on 2 factors:

1) How much we'd need to finish the game at an absolute minimum level.

2) The amount of funding similar projects achieved in the post-DoubleFine Kickstarter boom. The two most similar projects we could find were Quest for Infamy and Jack Houston. Both of those both fell within the $60k - $70k range (not taking into account the latter's $10k pledge that fell through).

My fingers are crossed that we can breach the $100k mark, as then we'll start knocking the really cool stretch goals off the list! That, and the more we receive, the easier it's going to make the game with a minimal amount of stress! But either way, any funding amount is going to help out a hell of a lot and will put us in a much better position than we were in before the Kickstarter.

To answer your two questions, gamecreator:

1) The native resolution without any filters is 640x480. I will be investigating a wide-screen resolution version for smartphones and tablets (and, more than likely, PCs) if we hit the $120k stretch goal.

2) We have a very nice update coming soon that should fulfill your wallpaper request. Keep an eye out for it! ;)

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#40 Post by gamecreator » Sat Feb 23, 2013 3:42 am

Thanks! Looking forward to the wallpaper. And I'd love for your next game to be at a full 1920x1080 resolution, especially if this one is funded well though it doesn't look like AGS supports that yet.

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#41 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:22 am

Yeah, AGS kind of chugs at even lower resolutions sometimes. It really needs to be ported to Allegro 5 which would open up a whole new world of possibilities.

I hear that's already on the cards, but it's anybody's guess as to when it might be completed. Hopefully it happens this year.

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#42 Post by DrJones » Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:46 am

We got funded, yo-hooooo! :D

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#43 Post by Anonymous Game Creator 2 » Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:44 pm

Playable Mage's initiation demo is out now!

Download it from here

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#44 Post by ulmont » Sat Mar 16, 2013 12:01 am

Anonymous Game Creator 2 wrote:Playable Mage's initiation demo is out now!
Is there any way to set the resolution for the demo to anything other than 1280x960? My widescreen laptop can't do anything taller than 768...

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Re: Mage's Initiation Kickstarter?

#45 Post by Sharpshooter » Sat Mar 16, 2013 10:17 am

Run winsetup.exe in the game's folder (in Windows 7, I just used the Start Menu, and went to All Programs -> Himalaya Studios -> Mage's Initiation Demo -> Settings Menu. Doing this launches winsetup.exe). Change the graphics filter to "none". This should set the resolution to 640x480.

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