Crowdsourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter Becomes Takedown

[Andy Chalk]

Crowdsourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter Becomes Takedown

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The team behind the Crowdsourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter is pushing hard to make its Kickstarter target with a new video, more clearly-defined goals and a name that doesn't suck.

The Crowdsourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter Kickstarter is having a tough go [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116356-The-Kickstarter-Fun-Continues-With-Crowdsourced-Hardcore-Tactical-Shooter] of it. The idea is solid and the guys behind it knows their stuff, but with just five days left it's not quite halfway to its funding target of $200,000. What happened?

In an article on Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5896568/i-messed-up-my-video-game-kickstarter-now-im-fixing-it] entitled "I Messed Up My Videogame Kickstarter," Christian Allen explains that the project stumbled on three big points: Allen doesn't have the name recognition of Tim Schafer or Brian Fargo, the promotional video was dull and the breakdown of the project was too vague, didn't show off any assets and failed to differentiate itself from other shooters already on the market. "Oh, and the name SUCKED," he added.

But instead of throwing in the towel, Allen and team have put it to the floor with a new video, solid concept art, details about what the team is actually trying to accomplish and, of course, a new name: Takedown [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/355932838/crowdsourced-hardcore-tactical-shooter], which doesn't score any points for creativity but sure sucks a whole lot less than CHTS.

"Will we be successful? Time will tell," Allen wrote. "We'll write a postmortem for other game developers to learn from, so no matter what we hope to make the landscape better for others. But no one will be able to say we gave up."

The video still isn't as engaging as those for the Wasteland 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116274-Double-Fine-Kickstarter-Ends-Tomorrow], but at least it looks a little more professional than the previous "guy with a camera in his phone" effort. It's a long shot at this point but I hope it makes it, and even if it doesn't, it's a good lesson for future Kickstarters: some things, like not being Tim Schafer, can't be overcome, but for everything else, professionalism, good humor and an attention to detail are a must.


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[octafish]

I still play Raven Shield and Ghost Recon, so I hope they are successful, and if Kickstarter accept paypal now I may just throw into a low tier.

 

[Kapol]

That video was incredibly cheesy. Still, it seems like they're trying to do something pretty good for a fairly niche audience and at least they've come up with a better name then CHTS. Hope they manage to make it. Too bad I'm too poor and not into that type of game.

 

[Corven]

It could be a sign that gamers aren't as interested in variety in the shooter market as they claim, or alternatively this could be a sign that you shouldn't pack in several crowdsource projects with such high pricepoints as their end goal with little to no break before the next one starts.

Looking at the kickstarter page it seems to me that this article and others like it will get the project to its specified goal but I doubt it'll reach much further beyound that with so little time left on the clock which is kinda sad.

 

[isometry]

They say that the $200,000 is to build an alpha version of the game and convince private investors that the project is viable. I think the problem is that the project is just too uncertain, even if they do meet their funding goal. The game itself would probably cost $5-10 million to make, so the $200,000 they are asking for is just toy money compared to actually making the game.

Contrast this with the Wasteland 2 kickstarter, where the $500,000 they originally asked for is already enough to make an old school isometric RPG. They have a definite timeline (12 months to the beta, 18 months to release iirc). So even without the name recognition of the Wasteland team, it still feels like a better project to invest in because it feels more certain. With the Takedown kickstarter, not only is there uncertainty about the game itself, but also whether the game is even close to being made.

 

[80Maxwell08]

They say that the $200,000 is to build an alpha version of the game and convince private investors that the project is viable. I think the problem is that the project is just too uncertain, even if they do meet their funding goal. The game itself would probably cost $5-10 million to make, so the $200,000 they are asking for is just toy money compared to actually making the game.

Contrast this with the Wasteland 2 kickstarter, where the $500,000 they originally asked for is already enough to make an old school isometric RPG. They have a definite timeline (12 months to the beta, 18 months to release iirc). So even without the name recognition of the Wasteland team, it still feels like a better project to invest in because it feels more certain. With the Takedown kickstarter, not only is there uncertainty about the game itself, but also whether the game is even close to being made.

Ah just read that on the kickstarter page thanks for pointing that out. Also the Wasteland 2 kickstarter needed $900,000 not $500,000. Just pointing that out.

 

[Therumancer]

I'm probably going to be right on the edge for getting my Wasteland 2 donation in sadly, but I should beat the timer. Thanks for the reminder even if it wasn't the point here.

That said, I think I'm less impressed by the name "takedown" I would have thought actually seeing a product released with a name involving "Crowdsourced" and "hardcore" together would have been differant enough to be awesome.

We could then await for the next CoD clone called "Casual EZ mode first person shooter... featuring noobtubes".

 

[80Maxwell08]

I'm probably going to be right on the edge for getting my Wasteland 2 donation in sadly, but I should beat the timer. Thanks for the reminder even if it wasn't the point here.

That said, I think I'm less impressed by the name "takedown" I would have thought actually seeing a product released with a name involving "Crowdsourced" and "hardcore" together would have been differant enough to be awesome.

We could then await for the next CoD clone called "Casual EZ mode first person shooter... featuring noobtubes".

Well the name is a work in progress. They needed a name since originally the whole kickstarter just looked bad. No name for the project, nothing showing any effort being done, a horrible video for it. At least now they have clarified what they want to do and their goals.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Good god, don't give this man your money. He hasn't shown anything about the game because he has nothing, he isn't even looking to *make* the game or promising that he'll do but wants it to be able to present it to investors/publishers. Heck he even wanted to give people a customized weapon for the 10k tier and literally wants a quarter million without actually promising anything in return.

He's worked on GRAW and Halo: Reach and literally says nothing about his team or the project and his "concept arts" are slightly cell-shaded copy and pastes of actual photos...

They didn't even ask for permission and they're copyrighted works... don't be stupid.
There's projects you should back and then there's THIS...

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photojournalism-sports-gallery/241495-swat-team-action.html
http://www.serellan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/167-concept-art/page__view__findpost__p__3328

Serellan, my name is Dan Evans and I am the photographer who took the photo that your third concept art is using. The photograph is copyrighted by the Lodi News-Setinel with limited usage rights to me, chief photographer of the LNS. You have used the image without permission.

I am requesting that you please remove the image so further action does not need to be taken. Thank you.

Personally, I wouldn't care if we had been asked permmision first. I'm generally pretty flexible with things like this.

The guy is even asking people to fake-up the pledge to "gain momentum": http://www.serellan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/189-when-we-hit-100000-i-will-double-my-pledge/page__st__40__p__3184#entry3184

Gonna try and hit that tommorrow. Remember, you can increase now, and decrease later, if I add a $125, you can adjust...we need momentum now more than anything...you can always adjust to the level that hits your sweet spot. The team is tired right now, we've been rocking for the past week, so things might take a bit to go up...

Oh yeah, apparently the guy also shot a dog a few days ago: http://kotaku.com/5895855/a-bad-day-for-me-dog-attack-and-shots-fired

Fine about the concept art they did take it down now though. Also he wants to have this succeed since he has had no luck with publishers. Remember the one that said "console games are too dumb to play this". Also did you read your last link? His animals were being attacked by wild dogs so he killed them. The dogs killed one of his animals and injured another. He used his gun because he thought it would have been dangerous to approach them.

 

[WanderingFool]

Somehow, I feel this is a scam. In fact, I said somewhere here that it would be easier for developers who have some rep to get support from Kickstarter than no name indie devs. Especially for such a large sum of money.

 

[Dastardly]

Crowdsourced Hardcore Tactical Shooter Becomes Takedown

I still can't wrap my head around why so many developers are leaping at this... I mean, yeah, it makes sense on the surface: Pitch the idea directly to the customer, cut out the middlemen.

But do they really want the customer to become the investor? Have they not followed the forums for in-development MMOs and the like, and seen how potential players flail back and forth at each announcement?

There really is a little something to be said for only showing customers the finished product. Too many cooks, something something broth...

 

[OniaPL]

I saw this whole thing weeks ago... with this update, I am ready to donate.

The whole "Hardcore tactical shooter" was too vague. While the new description is still vague, it was enough to get me interested.
Threw in 25 bucks, hope it gets made.

 

[Threeseventyfive]

I donated $15.

We're at $166,000 now with 9 hours left

We can do this!

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Finally, it was close but they made it. Congrats to Christian Allen!