Now on Kickstarter: Ultimate Quest, A Tile-Based, Ultima-Inspired Old-School RPG
Seriously…this game looks quite like an old-school Ultima:
So, what is it?
Ultimate Quest pays homage to the tile-and-turn-based role-playing games of the 1980s. UQ offers game play inspired by classics from the 1980s such as Ultima, Final Fantasy, and King’s Quest (in fact, the title for the project—which may vary from the final title of the game—was chosen to honor these three name). Its aesthetics that pay homage to the 8-bit era as well as modern inspirations. And game play mechanics have been updated to take advantage of ubiquitous touch and short bursts of ad hoc play that are typical on mobile platforms. And this project offers a unique reward: backers can get more than a playable copy of the game, or even early access—I am even offering the final shipping source code of the game as a reward!
I don’t merely want to replay these classic games in emulated or updated versions. I want something new—something that nods to the modern technology and advances in game play, but stays true to the feel of the classics (rather than staying true to modern standards but merely nodding to what made the classics great).
My current goal is to complete the game and release it for Windows Phone, iOS, Android, and Windows within one year of funding (Windows Phone fans take note: the game will be released no later than the same day it launches on iOS!).
There are only three reward tiers in the Ultimate Quest Kickstarter campaign: $5 gets you a copy of the game on your platform of choice, $25 gets you alpha and beta test access as well, and $49 or more is the threshold for receiving the game’s source code as well. It should be noted that the code will be subject to NDA, however; Mr. Leibman is quite up front about the fact that it is not his intent to open-source his creation.
At present, with 22 days to go, the project is still well short of its $60,000 goal. Still, it might be something to check out.
And hey, what the heck…why wouldn’t I give this a project entry?
I saw this a couple days ago and it made me sad. When I saw the funding amount being requested and browsed the reward tiers I immediately knew it would fail. Since my own failure there I’ve been up on all the major and minor projects and have read a lot of tips/tricks and campaign analyses on Gamasutra. The funding amount is too high and the pledge rewards weren’t properly thought out. It’s a shame, as I like projects like these.
First, the most popular reward tier is a copy of the game. As such the pledge level for this tier should be near the value of the end product. $5 is too low. The “copy of the game” tier pledge amount is a coefficient to the maximum number of pledgers for any tier, generally, and thus the most important.
The second tier is actually okay, though it could have been a touch higher (perhaps $45?).
The third tier needs a physical, rare or unique reward and a slightly higher price point. Most people don’t care about the source code, and only slightly more for the game assets. The NDA requirement further sours what could have been more interesting as a stretch goal, such as, “If XXX dollars are met we will open source the game and assets one year after final release.”
One other thing that sounded the alarm bell was 1) repeated statements about most of the art assets being complete, 2) the quality of the art assets in the screenshots (even by NES or early CRPG standards), and 3) asking for 60 grand.
Anyway, I wish them well, but they should nuke the campaign and start over, or modify the reward tiers (with care; it’s an easy way to piss previous backers off).
Wow, that $60k goal is going to be hard to reach.
@Sanctimonia – I agree. I think this project is doomed to failure as currently structured, though I certainly want to see more old school Ultima-likes.
I sent this message to the creator:
I think you should cancel and relaunch this campaign.
I supported this campaign because I love Ultima games, I love open source software and I want to support truly indie developers. That being said, I can see why many people would pass it over initially.
1. A pitch video is crucial.
2. Related to 1, we need to know more about the project. Ask yourself if you saw someone asking for money and they presented very little info, would you hand it over?
3. Any project that is a week in and doesn’t have $1,000 is unlikely to meet a goal of $60,000. People like to jump on the bandwagon of projects that will be successful. This is a bit of a catch 22, but a project with no pledges on day 1 is different from a project on day 7.
4. Have some tiers that will allow others to contribute to the game in some way. Part of the KS appeal is feeling like you’re a part of something.
At this point, get a few people excited and have buzz ready before you relaunch. Get a writer for RPG Codex excited before you launch. Get Ultima Codex guys excited. Get the community over at Shroud of the Avatar excited. Then launch when you’re ready to have early success that will snowball.