Windows Elite - Dangerous by David Braben

[Jedra]

A new version of Elite anyone?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...erous?ref=live

[Parge]

Originally Posted by Jedra

A new version of Elite anyone?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...erous?ref=live

I won’t be going near this one with a barge poll.

This is what I read

“oh look how well Chris Roberts is doing with Star Citizen. Hang on, he is making the game I want to make but have instead spent my time making Kinectimals, damn, maybe if I just stick the name Elite up, along with a load of text about how cool it would be people will back it, despite my massive goal”

Most people playing games now have never played elite (I’m 27 and it was before my time), so to ask for £1.25m on a nostalgia project without even a working demo is kinda wrong.

[bigc90210]

Originally Posted by Parge

I won’t be going near this one with a barge poll.

This is what I read

“oh look how well Chris Roberts is doing with Star Citizen. Hang on, he is making the game I want to make but have instead spent my time making Kinectimals, damn, maybe if I just stick the name Elite up, along with a load of text about how cool it would be people will back it, despite my massive goal”

Most people playing games now have never played elite (I’m 27 and it was before my time), so to ask for £1.25m on a nostalgia project without even a working demo is kinda wrong.

I do agree, its been that long since hes been involved in making games perhaps the fact he made the old elite isnt a good enough reason to persuade the masses in general to part with their monies. Again as parge said, not having a working demo (or anything except promises at this point) is a bit wishful thinking IMO.

Still, im only 28, and I remember both the original well as well as the stonkingly awesome Frontier Elite 2, damn i cant count how many hours i spent on that, forgetting the keyboard controls and accidently shooting my guns off when landed on a planet then getting fined for it/outlawed. It would make an amazing game to bring back to life, if they could do it.

[Jedra]

Originally Posted by Parge

Most people playing games now have never played elite (I’m 27 and it was before my time), so to ask for £1.25m on a nostalgia project without even a working demo is kinda wrong.

That's a fair statement, however he has talked in the past about making Elite for the current generation of PCs but always said that it would not get the funding he would need to make it properly. Also, I seem to remember that he has been working on the design of a sequel to Elite for years, but it has never got the funding needed to be built.

Now, I am of the generation that played Elite originally (I am 43 now) and in a lot of ways it is the game I have been waiting for even more than Chris Robert's game.

I would imagine that the success of other old school re-boots (like Wing Commander) has had an influence on him doing this, but only from the perspective that it stands a chance of funding this way. No publisher would go near it without turning it into some derivative shooter that is mainly for the console market trading on an old name.

Perhaps there are not enough of us 'older old school gamers' to fund this, but I would say that anyone of my age who is still into gaming would be jumping at the chance to play this. You won't understand the impact this game had originally if you weren't around at the time I guess - it was a genuine phenomenon. I have been waiting for this game for a long, long time!

[Parge]

Also, why are you doing a Kickstarter? You are a massive studio with over 200 employees and offices in the UK and Canada?

How long is it until EA are kickstarting Fifa 14?

God, I hate just about everything about this project.

[Jedra]

Originally Posted by Parge

Also, why are you doing a Kickstarter? You are a massive studio with over 200 employees and offices in the UK and Canada?

Because it eliminates a lot of risks involved with building a large project. Risks which mean that otherwise the project would not go ahead.

Originally Posted by Parge

How long is it until EA are kickstarting Fifa 14?

Not long I guess - maybe not with an established franchise though. Although you could say that pre-ordering is a way of kickstarting anyway - which the big publishers have taken hold of with relish.

Kickstarter is not just for the little guy - it's a way to get things published that would not normally get the funding, as I said, it almost completely side-steps the risk factor.

[Parge]

Originally Posted by Jedra

Because it eliminates a lot of risks involved with building a large project. Risks which mean that otherwise the project would not go ahead.



Not long I guess - maybe not with an established franchise though. Although you could say that pre-ordering is a way of kickstarting anyway - which the big publishers have taken hold of with relish.

Kickstarter is not just for the little guy - it's a way to get things published that would not normally get the funding, as I said, it almost completely side-steps the risk factor.

I guess what I mean is that, with not even a video to show the game working, I hope this does not eff up and destroy all the goodwill that all the other games and developers have built up by using Kickstarter successfully.

[Cei]

Interesting how it has a 60 day run for cash generation, used to be 30 days max.

I'm 27 and I remember playing Elite on my BBCb, waiting an hour for it to load from tape and hoping the table didn't get knocked in the process and forcing it to start again.

[Jedra]

Originally Posted by Parge

I guess what I mean is that, with not even a video to show the game working, I hope this does eff up and destroy all the goodwill that all the other games and developers have built up by using Kickstarter successfully.

I think he was reasonably honest in his pitch - he did say he was fishing for interest as well as funding.

To be fair, in all the interviews I have seen him in over the years, David Braben never struck me as someone who was out to fleece anyone. In fact he has been a big promoter of IT (especially in schools) and has on several occasions bemoaned the state of gaming as it is now.

I very much doubt that he would risk his good name (or that of Elite either) in an exercise that is simply about generating cash. I do think he wants to make a proper version of Elite.

But, at the end of the day after 60 days we will find out what the people think!

[Steelez]

I remember spending so much time on Frontier : Elite II. I think they have been working on a new Elite game for about 10 years but never been able to get the funding/backing from a publisher to get it made properly.

I am way more interested in this than Star Citizen, but maybe that's the old rose tinted specs.

[Jedra]

Here is something that may be of interest....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20187897

[rma]

I made Elite status on the original BBC version when it was released but I think he has missed the boat.

EVE does everything Elite used to in a MMO universe and is very well established - from his kickstarter page, he doesn't seem to be bringing anything new to the table except the ability to control who you play with (friends only universe, for example).

That said, I'm still tempted to go in at the £40 level

[Jedra]

Originally Posted by rma

I made Elite status on the original BBC version when it was released but I think he has missed the boat.

EVE does everything Elite used to in a MMO universe and is very well established - from his kickstarter page, he doesn't seem to be bringing anything new to the table except the ability to control who you play with (friends only universe, for example).

That said, I'm still tempted to go in at the £40 level

The thing is with Eve is that it seems to be all about big corporations and little about flying around yourself and making a living. Also, the subscriptions put me off. My main concern is that it is going to cross over with Star Citizen rather than EVE. I have thrown my money at it anyway. I think there is room in the market anyway.

[ShinyAli]

Originally Posted by Jedra

Because it eliminates a lot of risks involved with building a large project. Risks which mean that otherwise the project would not go ahead.



Not long I guess - maybe not with an established franchise though. Although you could say that pre-ordering is a way of kickstarting anyway - which the big publishers have taken hold of with relish.

Kickstarter is not just for the little guy - it's a way to get things published that would not normally get the funding, as I said, it almost completely side-steps the risk factor.

Considering some of the big name, big money games that are released today and the justifiable bad reviews they often get what quality of games would we get if all/most of the game funding came from the likes of Kickstarter

When game companies invest their own money (pre-ordering probably doesn't account for that much on a big money game) yet are still prepared to produce and release games that they know have problems and will get poor reviews but hope to at least recoup their investment if not make a profit what quality of games will they produce when they have had the money up front and only need a relatively small amount of sales to make a profit, there will be more clone sequels and pre-sequels than you can shake an AK-47 at

[Parge]

Anyone seen this interview with Ian Bell (original Co-Creator of Elite).

Every argument has two sides, but worth a read all the same

[Flibblebot]

Originally Posted by ShinyAli

what quality of games will they produce when they have had the money up front and only need a relatively small amount of sales to make a profit, there will be more clone sequels and pre-sequels than you can shake an AK-47 at

The major flaw in your argument is that if even the large companies started using crowd-sourced funding, then nobody (or at least very few people) would stump up money for yet another clone or sequel. The advantage with crowdsourcing is that, theoretically at least, the games that get made are the games that people want.

As far as Elite 2014 goes, I'm not sure that it'll work. He's asking for a lot of money for starters, and I don't think that 80s gameplay is going to work in the 21st century.

[dolphie]

This is GREAT news to me! I am even more excited about this than Chris Robert's games.

I missed the original Elite, but I played Frontier Elite 2 and it was amazing. They are totally different to the Wing Commander games because they made a true sandbox world, even way back then. You can play as a pirate, trader, do missions, explorer etc. The universe was actually infinite because they used procedurally generated content even back in the 80's, probably one of the first to ever do that, if not THE first. They also could fit the entire game on a small floppy because it was just so cleverly made.

As for the company, they have made other stuff since then, but they have obviously had budget problems. They always intended to make a new Elite game, but they were working on another game first called The Outsider and they planned to use technology from that as the basis for Elite 4. Not sure what happened but I think they might have cancelled The Outsider or ran out of money or something. I suspect they just can't get funding because in this day and age, the funders are just not interested in original or niche games. That's where kickstarter comes in, and in fact, as soon as I heard of Kickstarter, the first thing I thought of... was Elite.

To me his pedigree is good enough that I don't even care what the kickstarter page says or doesn't say. If he can end up with a couple of million to develop a game, I am confident he will nail it, and it will be better than the X series and anything else we have. I think it will be better than Squadron 42 as well. Whether it will be as epic as Star Citizen though, is the big question to me. But it's nice to at least have the choice of those two games now, before kickstarter there was nothing.

[Digi]

BBC News article on this as well with video supplement; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20165344

[dire_wolf]

Never played the original until recently via an emulator but did play Frontier: Elite 2 to death on our first family 486 and to this day it is still what I would call my favorite game of all time, sorry but I've waited nearly 20 years for this - have some monies!



Still send tingles down my spine

[Nexxo]

Don't get me wrong: I love ELITE. I remember when it came out. I bought it, read the enclosed novella and played the game until it was burnt into my screen. I was an ELITE addict. It was part of my formative years, my youth, my geek life.

But I can't help but thinking that David Braben is having a touch of Lucas-ism, trying to reboot and string out a concept that was game-changing in its day but now should be relegated to the hallowed halls of nostalgia. Classics should not be rehashed or "improved" lest they cease to be what made them classics. Things have moved on. We don't need an ELITE reboot; we have EVE.