News Wildman Kickstarter cancelled

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2013/02/12/wildman-kickstarter-cancelled/1

 

Looked pretty average, hence I didn't back it.

Kickstarter works well for games that take a underserved/languishing genre, and bring them bang up to date - see obsidians RPG, Star Citizen or Planetary Annihilation for examples.

It doesn't work well for DOTA/Diablo clones, or, I'd imagine COD/BF3 clones.

its a shame to see GPG go down the pan, but CT steadfast refusal to give the fans what they want (SupCom3 (or new RTS IP)/Kings and Castles) means that he now finds himself in the situation he does.

 

Exactly as Parge states, it looked average. If GPG really wanted to bring in money, just redo supcom on a modern engine with a unit limit of 5-10k per playrr, rts fans like me who prefer long games to the COD-rts style of Starcraft 2 would buy it in droves! This is why PA was so duccessfil, as it promised just this!

 

People who keep saying why dont they redo TA really dont know the way games are developed

TA licence are with cavedog who went bankrupt. Not even sure who owns Cavedogs licences these days. But i know its not GPG.

They also maybe able to save the company by doing this so its not all bad news.

PA will also massively struggle to get 5-10k units moving on a computer. The demos ive seen of the game running have 200-300 units total on the screen and the movement seems to be already struggling.

Getting that Engine to scale to 5-10k seems to be a bit dream land. Considering its due for release summer 2013. if we get 1-2k unit cap on release ill be pleasently suprised with maybe the mod community dealing with the cap for higher.

Supcom forged alliance with 1k units per player struggles on most pcs passed 2-3 players. If you Add 3-4 AI the game bearly runs at a playable fps on any system. ( using mods to break the hardcoded 500 unit limit)

Come to think about most games struggle when you put loads of units on the screen the games run outta physical memory to be able to cope passed a certain limit due to the 32bit code that most games are based around.

Sins of a solar empire rebellion with Battlestar mod is a fine example. 4 cylon AI is around 5000 units on the screen and the game just crawls due to the amount of fighters and bombers flying around the screen.

To get that mod working you have to use a mod tool to make the exe 64bit and allow it access to more of your system memory.

 

Despite everyone wanting Chris Taylor to make new versions of his old games, he doesn't own the IPs to any of them. If you had listened to any of his commentary from the Kickstarter or interviews he did in the last month, he mentioned constantly that despite people knowing him for multiple IPs that him and his team developed, they don't own any of them. They're all owned by various publishers.

Add in the fact he doesn't have the capital to build the next SupCom-with-a-new-name without a publisher and you have your answer why he was doing a smaller, derivative title. Was I thinking Wildman was going to be an unexpected GOTY contender? No. However, I'd have fun playing it for a few hours, mess around with the mod tools a bit and get my money's worth. In turn, GPG would actually own an IP and be making any money they sold the game for instead of the pittance they generally get from publishers.

 

TA is owned by Atari and Supreme Commander is owned by Squre Enix, CT has said he would jump at the chance to make SC3 if Square Enix came to him.

Hopefully Gas Powered Games can continue, though they should have tired to have done a new Transport Tycoon as a kick starter, as alot of people would like to see a new game.
Though with PA coming prehaps Square Enix will look at Supreme Commander 3, if PA sells well.