Topic: Unsung Story Tale of the Guardians (TRPG by Yasumi Matsuno)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/482445197/unsung-story-ta...

Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians is the spiritual successor in a storied line of epic tactical RPGs designed by Yasumi Matsuno. Playdek is excited to be partnering with one of the most legendary game designers, as well as you the fans, to bring out a refreshing, immersive new take on the tactics genre.

In the hands of the veteran tactical RPG master himself, Unsung Story will re-imagine a classic game genre, as Yasumi Matsuno weaves together one of the complex and rich game worlds that he is known for, with inspiring class based tactics game play.

Pretty sure this is going to be a first in a series of games all taking place in the world of Unsung Story. I remember hearing murmrs of that on 8-4 play.

For those unfamiler with Matsuno his games as followed are

Conquest of the Crystal Palace- Planner
Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen- Director/Planner
Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together- Game designer, director, scenario writer
Final Fantasy Tactics- Director/Writer
Vagrant Story- Producer, director, battle design, writer
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance- Producer
Final Fantasy XII- Scenario plot, original concept, original director, supervision
MadWorld- Story Writer
Crimson Shroud- Game design, scenario

Dude is one of the greats of RPG design up there with Hironobu Sakaguchi and Chris Avellone. Plus he made the last great mainline Final Fantasy game despite SE interfering with it.

Upon achieving our initial funding goal, in addition to iOS and Android, Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians will come to the PC and Mac platforms as well as Windows Tablets. Additional money raised will go towards adding world class talent to the team, bringing the game to other platforms, and expanding the scope and content of the game.

600k goal for the Kickstarter

Just looked it up. Might be awesome but I wish there was actual gameplay shown, no matter how early. Talk is cheap. Also, getting this on 3DS, even Vita, seems like a near impossible endeavor.

EDIT: Also noticed the involvement of Alexander O. Smith. He worked on the first Phoenix Wright game. You know, before all the typos and bouts of broken English.

I would so love this to be successful.
But:

• Kickstarter, really hate the abuse of this site, really. Its everywhere and almost inescapable. In a couple of years, were telling storys to our grandchildren not how nintendo saved the homeconsole market, but how kickstarter became the only way to make games.
  Hate tantrum aside, i really dont like that site...
• First Vita, and then, a million dollars later the 3DS ? A wise choice to reel in more backers, sure, but if they wont get enough, theyre ending up with a handheld system release that wnt reach that many customers. And just releasing on "smart devices" would mean that they have to give away the game for dirt cheap. People are beginning to whine about a 10$ price tag already... WIth a maximum production cost of over 3mil, i dont think that it will be possible without the use of micro transactions...
• Hiding away fundamental game modes or even backgroundmusic behind stretch goals is "not a nice way" to be honest
• Isnt Hiding additional dev team members and classes behind stretch goals a pain in the behind to plan a game beforehand ? Planning with basic classes and adding a handful later, wouldnt it make them a tad unballanced / tacked on ? Or planning with them and having to leave them out because of "stretch goal not met" ?

Like i said, i wish them all the best and hope that this project might see the light of day in all of its potential glory, but that stretch goal list seems to consist of pretty arbitrary things that sounds like it could leave the whole project in a pretty halve arsed state if not met all the way through.

You know, it is abused by some, because they are greedy and do not want to invest their own money. And streach goals are like you said, just downright stupid. Like in Might no 9 with documentary - it's worth a thousands of facepalms, not dollars

@Einherjar

Vita is for because among indie games it has a high attach rate despite having a small market share. Plus it's likely cheaper to bring the game to Vita than it will be to 3DS.

Most kick starters do this and in the case if the two guys its to get the money to hire their services. Same with thenmuaic and this isn't the first kick starter to try this. Going on smart devices doesn't mean you have to sell xheap , they could easily put the game up for $10.

Not at all since the game won't be started worked on fully until the kick starter is through. Both shante and MN9 did similar things.

A lot of the plot and overall world building and logic is probably already in r mostly done. The partnership was first announced at last years TGS.

I think the game will do well enough to hit the Vita goal myself.

@Dave24 "Give a man a hand and he will take the whole arm" Kickstarter per se is a phenomenal thing, especially in a time where AAA devs and titles are so dominant and stealing the limelight. Its an excellent concept for smaller "no names" to get in touch with the community, get their names known and their dreams realized. But with people that have a portfolio like this, i highly doubt that using kckstarter is neccessary at all.
Not to mention all the multi billionaires funding their "revolutionary movie projects" and scams like that.
The sometimes false reputation of indie devs is getting to everyones head. Most of them think that "being indie" is a win by default. And so we see everyone bringing the most mundane things to kickstarter.
Sometimes i wonder how indie games existed before kickstarter was a thing. The scene worked back then, why doesnt it work now ? Instead were flooded with countless scams and "games" that could have been made for free in peoples free time.

@shingi_70 Being cheaper to make for Vita isnt a real argument though: It might be cheaper, but it reaches very few people. The other way around, it might be more pricey on 3DS but it reaches a far far bigger audience. Look at all the games passing the WiiU. Its way cheaper to make games for it then for the next gen systems, but devs are complaining about the install base and here, its the preffered option ? Either they are making a bad decision or devs (in regards to the WiiU) are talking bouffalant dung.

Regarding the music: What are they planning with ? Midi soundtracks ? Soundtracks composed by the guy from stretch goal #5 ? What pieces is he composing ? Midi pieces or is he composing tracks that can be orchestrated ? Having such mundane things hidden away by stretch goals (so, its basicly a luck game on their end) ultimately leads to chaotic planning phases or in the worst case, these game components feel tacked on at the last minute.
In my opinion, the staff should be calculated within the initial funding goal. That way, you can ensure that you can plan with every available asset right from the getgo.

Regarding the price: With people so picky and whiney about price tags in the 10$ range, especially on a "game" marketplace full of games costing roughly 1$, i cant see it performing that well even with "just" 10$ for a price. Taking porting costs into account, you probably have a far higher price on actual handheld systems (be it vita, 3DS or both). That could lead to problems too, in that people are either getting the cheaper phone version, dismissing the more costly handheld version (sales loss on the dev side) or wont be getting either because they complain about potential "shady schemes" (much like the angry birds situation. Dirt cheap on phones, full price on consoles)

Hey, if Matsuno wants to make exactly the game he wants to make without being meddled in by his publishers, then all power to him. I don't know if allowing fan input will make it any better than publisher meddling though.