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Defender of the Crown for Intellivision Kickstarter


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Defender of the Crown, as you probably know, has been 'coming soon' for the Intellivision for years. It is fairly complete, and quite amazing what has been done so far. We REALLY want to release this game.

 

Unfortunately, Arnauld no longer has time or motivation to complete the game.

 

Other programmers are reluctant to pick up someone else's program and complete it. Especially when it is not a walk in the park to complete the game.

 

We offer royalties to programmers for our games, but an awful lot of games will have to be sold in order to be able to pay a programmer enough to finish the game. It will probably take a LOT of effort and time to complete it.

 

So, I have decided to start a kickstarter campaign to finish the game. We need a committe to put this kickstarter together.

 

We need to come up with a promotional video, show what has been done so far, and tell people what needs to be done to get this game finished and determine rewards for each donation level.

 

I am not prepared to invest the amount of money it will require to hire a programmer to finnish the game, print the materials, and HOPE that I get enough sales to make some money or even to break even.

 

If you are interested, please email gamesforyourintellivision@hotmail.com and we can try and get this project started.

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Wish you the best of luck also. Lord knows I've sunk some serious money into Kickstarter stuff recently. Also, the fact that you have the game 'half done' and just need some funding to finish it is encourging. If you can actually say in the Kickstarter that you have a programer lined up, that would REALLY help.

 

Ballpark figure of what you think you need -- $5, 10k?

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Wish you the best of luck also. Lord knows I've sunk some serious money into Kickstarter stuff recently. Also, the fact that you have the game 'half done' and just need some funding to finish it is encourging. If you can actually say in the Kickstarter that you have a programer lined up, that would REALLY help.

 

Ballpark figure of what you think you need -- $5, 10k?

 

Unfortunately, that would not even be enough for a programmer to complete the game. It wouldn't be enough for the material costs either. Something in the 20,000 to 30,000 range is far more realistic.

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First of all, the game is written by another programmer. It isn't easy to pick up someone else's code. It would probably take a month of study just to figure out what the other programmer has done. Realistically, this game is going to take 8 months of full time coding to complete by someone who isn't Arnauld. Arnauld is a very talented programmer, and knows what he has done and how he does it. It is too bad that he doesn't have the time necessary to complete it.

 

If one gets 5 or 10 dollars a copy royalty....10 or 20 percent for a 50 dollar selling price, that is only 1500 dollarrs or 3000 dollars based on the sale of 300 copies.

 

I don't know about you, but I don't think that I would want to be paid less than 2 grand a month to take on this project even if I could. So far, no programmers have been willing to take over. I think it is going to take closer to 20 grand to get someone who is capable of writing it to get it done in a reasonable amount of time.

 

If you are hacking out your own game as a hobby, and aren't really in it for the money, an extra couple of thousand dollars is a good bonus.........but this is a bit different. The quality of the balance of the game must match what has been done or be higher.

 

From what I understand of kickstarter, there are different levels of support. One basically charges their credit card for a support level, and there are various rewards for those levels. If the project gets enough backers, the card charges go through and you get your rewards.....if the project is not funded, no charges to your card go through, and the kickstarter fails.

 

It is a chance for the community to decide what gets done.

 

Here is an example of some hypothetical reward levels.

 

$5 - Your name on the supporter's page of Defender of the Crown

$10 - Your name on the supporter's page of Defender of the Crown, and an Elektronite keychain

$50 - All previous rewards and a Defender of the Crown for Intellivision Poster

$100 - All previous rewards and a LIMITED EDITION numbered Defender of the Crown Intellivision Game.

$500 - All previous rewards and your name in the manual

$1000 - All previous rewards and your name in the credits in the game

 

All of these reward levels, and promotional video will be determined by the committee.

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How much to compensate just the programmer.

 

Is the kickstarter thing to pay for the completion of the entire game release? Do people who pay into it get their money back or a copy of the game? I know nothing about kickstarter and how it works.

 

Kickstarter is a site to get "crowd sourcing" funding for projects. It's basically just a big donation site.

 

Some people see it as a way to invest, and most projects offer something in return to participants when it completes. However, there is absolutely no guarantee that any project will complete successfully, and the Kickstarter organization will not enforce or affirm any deals offered by the project teams.

 

Indeed, some projects have failed spectacularly, and others have basically "run out with the money," never to be heard of again. On the other hand, most projects have succeeded, and some even exceed expectations, making everybody happy.

 

So, it's a matter of assuming risk and trust. The good thing is that since it offers exposure to projects that otherwise wouldn't get it, the risk is spread across a potentially large number of people.

 

I'm currently participating in three high-profile ones, which have a very high degree of confidence they will succeed.

 

Overall, Kickstarter is a good way to get funding, and a great way to support your favorite projects. Just make sure to understand the risks, and that, as Kickstarter itself points out, your participation is not truly an investment, but a donation. That the team offers you something in return should be considered in the same way as a public radio station giving you a tote bag in return for your contribution.

 

-dZ.

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20 thousand, ouch. Well, I wish you the best of luck, but I'm just not sure that the INTV crowd is big enough to be able to raise that kind of money. Perhaps if the first tier made the game available for emulators it could increase the base of people willing to chip in (myself included). But, being a long time fan of the NES port, there'd have to be a lot to get me to chip in.

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Plus I just had another thought -- isn't Defender of the Crown made by Cinmeaware? The company recently 'came back' with some of the original people and they tried to do a Kickstarter for a remake of Wings, another one of their classic games. It seems like they may object to a Kickstarter for one of their games, I assume they still have the rights to it. Or maybe work out a deal with them to see if they may want to take over the project?

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We have permission to do Defender of the Crown from Cinemaware. It wouldn't have been started without it.

 

I believe that Arnauld has a good job and that Intellivision programming is a hobby. He has never done Intellivision programming for the money, although, I would indeed pay him for any game of his we sell.

 

I am not sure that we could convince him to invest the time and effort for the money. He probably would do it if he wasn't super busy.

 

It isn't surprising that it is that much money, if you just think about the amount of hours and hours of programming it takes.

 

I don't think that people realize how much it costs to make one of these games. My DIE to print the boxes was over 1000 dollars alone....that was before printing a single box.

 

The idea of the kickstarter is, as DZ says, to minimize the risk over everyone. People here know that we are serious. It isn't pie in the sky. We have the box design, the game mostly done, You can be sure that we won't bugger off with people's money.

 

We are hoping to get Defender of the Crown fans to support us. Not necessarily JUST Intellivision fans.

 

I have no problem making the Rom available to supporters. They would certainly not be willing to distribute for free something they paid for. As I said, we need to come up with reward levels that encourage people to kick money in. Exclusive collector's editions certainly are a way. Let's see people put their money where their mouth is.

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Just for the coolness factor....the WOW, look what the Intellivision can do! Jaw drop factor.....hopefully it will be the same reason you would buy D2K over Donkey Kong on the NES....because it is simply a better game.

 

Supporters will have access to exclusive stuff that people just buying the game won't.

 

I just can't drop the kind of money needed to complete the game, and hope that people pick up a copy.

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We have permission to do Defender of the Crown from Cinemaware. It wouldn't have been started without it.

 

I believe that Arnauld has a good job and that Intellivision programming is a hobby. He has never done Intellivision programming for the money, although, I would indeed pay him for any game of his we sell.

 

I am not sure that we could convince him to invest the time and effort for the money. He probably would do it if he wasn't super busy.

 

It isn't surprising that it is that much money, if you just think about the amount of hours and hours of programming it takes.

 

I don't think that people realize how much it costs to make one of these games. My DIE to print the boxes was over 1000 dollars alone....that was before printing a single box.

 

The idea of the kickstarter is, as DZ says, to minimize the risk over everyone. People here know that we are serious. It isn't pie in the sky. We have the box design, the game mostly done, You can be sure that we won't bugger off with people's money.

 

We are hoping to get Defender of the Crown fans to support us. Not necessarily JUST Intellivision fans.

 

I have no problem making the Rom available to supporters. They would certainly not be willing to distribute for free something they paid for. As I said, we need to come up with reward levels that encourage people to kick money in. Exclusive collector's editions certainly are a way. Let's see people put their money where their mouth is.

 

I don't think the amount of work and effort is in question. However, I do agree with SoulBlazer in that raising 20K for an Intellivision game is a rather big deal. So far, all home-brew programming for the platform has been down out of passion, not as a career, for it is a very small platform with a very narrow market.

 

I understand that you are treating this as a real business and not as a "home-brew," but let's face it, all games for Intellivision done so far--outside the classic ones from the olden days--are just that.

 

Usually, Kickstarter campaigns spread the effort among many volunteers, most of which usually contribute in the low ranges. That's a lot of volunteers needed to raise $20K at $10 or $20 a piece--unless you are counting on big pledges, in which case the individual risk increases, limiting participation even more.

 

Also like SoulBlazer, I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your Kickstarter campaign, and I really wish the game gets done (it indeed looks great so far, even though it's not my cup-o'-tea), but it may be a tough sell to raise $20K to fund a game for the Intellivision, and one that is already about 60% completed to boot.

 

-dZ.

Edited by DZ-Jay
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Yes, I agree DZ that the Intellivision community isn't as big as others, but I guess we will see if we can raise enough interest.

 

I see lots of people posting on Intellivision Productions' facebook page about how they still use their Intellivision. Those are the type of people we want to reach.

 

We can only try. If there isn't the interest then the kickstarter fails and we don't publish it. However, I think with some exclusive rewards, some good promotion, and people essentially 'pre-buying' the game, we just might be able to pull it off.

 

If there are only 300 sales to be had on any Intellivision game, I'll stick to part time hobbyist publishing.

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btw. Does anyone know how Arnaulds Rick Dangerous is going?

 

I know Arnaud since 2005. I met him (we lived in the same city, in Paris (now I moved in the South, in Provence)) and I did an interview of him for my former website. Anyway, yesterday, he told me Rick Dangerous is almost finish... he has still some stuffs to do but minor. But he didn't tell me when he will finish it...

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I know Arnaud since 2005. I met him (we lived in the same city, in Paris (now I moved in the South, in Provence)) and I did an interview of him for my former website. Anyway, yesterday, he told me Rick Dangerous is almost finish... he has still some stuffs to do but minor. But he didn't tell me when he will finish it...

 

Sounds promising. The videos of this game are already amazing!

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I know of two successful kickstarters for back in the day consoles (there might be more but I've not looked).

 

Atari 2600: Star Castle :-

 

NES: Cheetahmen II:The lost levels :-

 

What they both have in common is that they involve programmers that worked on projects back in the day so people have a much stronger connection/affinity to them. Most of the backers in both cases opted for a physical cart reward option. In my mind that just makes them a paid upfront pre-order.

 

Having said that David Crane's recent kickstarter didn't even come close to to being funded :-

 

So having a name in the industry is no guarantee that you'll get the funding.

 

Programming for retro consoles isn't really a commercially viable option. It would be brilliant if it was, but you have to face reality. We've discussed it before here :-

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/169489-making-a-living-from-programming-homebrew/

 

Anyway good luck if you go down the kickstarter route. You'll need pretty of good publicity, a compelling video and probably a good 3 months to get the funding.

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