Project AWAKENED, why did it fail?

[major_chaos]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1312036782/project-awakened for those who don't know what I'm talking about. As the topic title says I'm wondering why this particular Kickstarter seems doomed to fail (4 days left with less than 50% funding) when it looks extremely promising. While it looks like it may have been too ambitious for its own good that didn't stop people from throwing massive amounts of money at Star Citizen. I understand that money is limited and not every KS is going to make its goals, but something like this that looks like it should be an easy sell falling so far short seems to reinforce my suspicion that the only surefire way to succeed on KS is name recognition. So what do you think Escapist, Why did Project AWAKENED fail? had you even heard of it before now? do you agree or disagree with my notions about name recognition? or do you think people are just running out of money to throw at these things?

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I suppose the biggest reason is that people (myself included) thought that it was promising far, far more than it could possibly deliver on. I mean, a bunch of completely unknown people came out and promised that the game would be everything anybody would hope for for half a million dollars, and you can bet your ass I'm going to be skeptical.

I hate to say it, but name recognition is crucial for larger Kickstarters. If a developer has consistently put out high quality games, then you can bet I'm more willing to risk money on it, especially for more ambitious projects. People don't want to put there money on a Kickstarter unless they're reasonably certain that it can deliver on what's promised, and name recognition helps this a ton.

Plus, just by skimming over the Kickstarter page, it isn't really clear exactly what the game is. I mean, they talk a lot about character customization and limitless multiplayer, but it's kind of hard to gauge exactly what the game is trying to be just by briefly looking at it (although, I admit, this may be my fault). The longer it takes to explain what your game is, the harder it is to capture people's attention.

 

[hazabaza1]

Niche game with little publicity and no past titles.
Though it might not have failed. Obsidian's Project Eternity got like, $4 million total, and about a quarter of that came along in the last day or so, if I remember rightly.

 

[fozzy360]

It's a lot of show but no real guarantee of anything.

For me, a lot of these Kickstarter projects succeed because they're made by someone with a name or are projects that seem possible or at least realistic in terms of its expectations. Awakened, while cool looking, doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. It almost seems too good to be true. Besides, we still haven't seen how other KS projects have turned out, so it's really difficult to back something as big and ambitious as this when we've hardly seen anything from other projects.

I do hope, though, that this is made at some point in the future. It's like an open world Psi-Ops.

 

[The Madman]

They're aiming for the sky which while admirable doesn't seem terribly realistic for a little indipendent devs first project, even if some of them are industry veterans. Maybe it's just my cynicism kicking in but even for a full blown and well funded developer I'd be skeptical when it comes to delivering the sort of game that kickstarter is talking about. It's just crazy ambitious, even moreso when you consider they're using the Unreal 4 engine with plans for 'next gen visuals'.

The reason I'll back something like the Dramfall or Project Eternity kickstarter is because it's a realistic goal being created by developers familiar with that sort of title, it's something I know they're capable of delivering because I know they have in the past.

Here... I just don't know. For the sort of thing they're promising I can't see 500,000 doing all that much even if they do get funded.

 

[Zhukov]

Because it didn't have a well known name or brand behind it.

Because it wasn't trying to imitate or reboot an old game or series.

Because I've never heard about it before now.

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[Exius Xavarus]

I think the pool of spare money to throw at games in the works is getting smaller and smaller. A lot of crap is going down in the higher levels of congress and money's going to be held onto even tighter with the way they're saying that the government might shut down. To me, that says we're facing a very real threat of large scale economic collapse. I'd say it's more a victim of circumstance than anything.

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[bananafishtoday]

Too many red flags. They made tons of grandiose promises... seriously some Peter Molyneux-level hyperbole (and Molyneux's own Kickstarter nearly failed, and even that was for the kind of game he actually has a track record of making successfully.)

And it's painfully obvious that $500,000 is a mere fraction of what they'd actually need to pull this off. They say in their video they have "other sources" of funding, but it sounds like bullshit. Really, my guess is they were hoping for a wildly successful Kickstarter to give them leverage in securing funding they don't already have. The simple fact that they talk so much about how important modding will be, then list "basic modding support" as an $800k stretch goal, shows how much they wanted/expected/depended on a huge Kickstarter take. I'd be skeptical that they could make this game on $5m. $500k is laughable.

Also, there's no name a backer can depend on or hold accountable. Doublefine Adventure, Wasteland 2, and Star Citizen succeeded because big names put their personal reps on the line, and backers can to an extent trust them to deliver. Project Eternity and Dreamfall Chapters have no singular figure, but they do have entire studios who know exactly how to make the sort of game they're proposing.

But Awakened? Why should I, as the "average" gamer, give a shit? As far as I know, "ex-Midway" means they made a couple good fighting games back in the 90s, and maybe I'm aware of the couple mediocre games they've made since then. They just don't have a bankable reputation.

It's still possible that this could hit its goal, since contribs to Kickstarters tend to accelerate in the final days, but I honestly hope it doesn't. It's vaporware waiting to happen: the devs are either hopelessly naive and ambitious, or they're actively duplicitous.

 

[DoPo]

I think we're getting the idea here - as many have shown, potential backers just don't read the info and assume that it's 500k for the whole game that's needed, which is a tad unrealistic.

 

[rob_simple]

I hope this project doesn't die if the Kickstarter fails --it looks like a bigger and better inFamous-- but as it stands, there is no way in hell they could pull off what they're suggesting.

 

[Smooth Operator]

It probably failed because not everyone gets enough attention.

Personally I just couldn't see it being something worth my time, yes it's all super dreamy pie in the sky infinite possibility stuff, but that budget can't really make it happen to the extent that is required.
Also such huge feature mixes end up in a tasteless soup of aimless non-importance, you can do all sorts of crazy shit but nothing stands out and there is no actual reason for doing anything.

 

[DoPo]

i think thats the former game named heroes.

oh shit! it is!

It sure is - they even said it somewhere in the video or info or somewhere. It wasn't a big secret, I recall them basically saying "We worked on Heroes but that game got scrapped, still we really liked it, so we kept it around on our own time."

as it stands, there is no way in hell they could pull off what they're suggesting.

Read above - they have the game. They've explained that multiple times - the 500K is just to assign some people to work on it full time so it can come out sooner. They aren't doing it from scratch.

 

[rob_simple]

as it stands, there is no way in hell they could pull off what they're suggesting.

Read above - they have the game. They've explained that multiple times - the 500K is just to assign some people to work on it full time so it can come out sooner. They aren't doing it from scratch.

That's nice, but I still doubt they will deliver on everything they promise in the video, no matter how many people they throw at it.

 

[Auron225]

I think because it sounds way too ambitious. Even if they somehow deliver on everything they've said, something else will suffer that no-one has thought of. For example, with so much freedom in who your character is and what they can do; how do you build a plot around them? Everything your character is doing will have to be possible by anyone you can create and they could hardly have much relation with any in-game character.

 

[Legion]

Looking at the video, I'd say a lot of it is too much flash, for no substance.

The game shows of all these things you can do, but it looks more like a tech demo for cool ideas, than a game.

What exactly am I buying? They aren't really selling it to us as a game, rather than as an idea.

Plus, just by skimming over the Kickstarter page, it isn't really clear exactly what the game is. I mean, they talk a lot about character customization and limitless multiplayer, but it's kind of hard to gauge exactly what the game is trying to be just by briefly looking at it (although, I admit, this may be my fault). The longer it takes to explain what your game is, the harder it is to capture people's attention.

That's pretty much what I mean.

If they were advertising a complete game in the shops, I might go and have a look and see for myself. But they are trying to get us to put money down towards it's development, so they should really try and make it clearer what it is exactly we are getting and helping create.

 

[Jegsimmons]

Probably because they promised some cool revolutionary shit, even though i and others had no fucking clue what they're selling.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Couldn't say why. I did my part and backed it, but who really knows? The one I'm most surprised by its failure to get sufficient backing was Nexus II. The Jupiter Incident has been begging for a sequel, it was such a bloody awesome game and failed to meet its target. I guess because its niche perhaps.

 

[Korten12]

Because like Zhukov said, it's not rebooting, nor is it a remake of an older title of sorts. Because it's new and no nostalga there is less of an incentive to back it.

 

[ksn0va]

It sounds to good to be true.

 

[Gitty101]

Because all the money was being thrown into Obsidian's Project Eternity. Plus, as many others have mentioned, I doubt anybody was really sure if Project Awakening could deliver on its promises.