By now we've come to understand that Nintendo's innovations have many developers excited by the possibilities, and many more simply scratching their heads. The Kickstarter project for acclaimed indie game Paradise Lost: First Contact by developer Ashtree Works has left its Wii U port till last, specifying a lofty stretch goal of $250,000. This is over three times the required funding of $70,000, and the understandably negative response to the decision has driven Ashtree to make a statement on the matter:
We are developing the game on Unity and this could make things easy to port it to another platforms, but we have to adapt the gameplay and do a lot of testing...and for now we don't have time or money to do that without this stretch goal. Wii U version can offer great possibilities to the gameplay but it's a challenge to make things work fine with Paradise Lost: First Contact.
For a small development team it is understandable that greater incentive is required to expand beyond their original vision, but it does seem as though Nintendo's unique console is more of a novelty for developers rather than a priority. Other Kickstarter campaigns have placed it last in their stretch goal list as well, such as A.N.N.E and River City Ransom: Underground.
What do you think about this state of affairs? Post a comment to tell us.
[source kickstarter.com]
Comments 27
I don't think it means anything and that this was a piss pot grab of an article. Plenty of other kickstarters have had the wiiu be a main platform or one of the earliest stretch goals. All that it means is that it costs money to develop and port games and this developer in general doesn't want to do a half butt job with a Wii I release.
The only other thing that I would like to know, is if all of these devs know about Nintendo's free Unity license program. This could help alleviate some dev costs and lower the goals, but not to be mean, I don't expect that kind of reporting here, in these types of articles.
If it is any good it will be the first Unity based game that I think is.
How can it be acclaimed before it has even been made ?
XNA/Monogame seems to actually up with something worth playing at the end. (Or custom stuff or anything other than Unity).
This says it. I feel like they threw Wii U on there just to get an extra push by those people who actually want it on Wii U but they don't expect it to actually get to that stretch goal.
Why are comments disappearing on many articles? Most that have disappeared were G rated material so I know they weren't removed by moderators.
It's only $50,000 more than the PS3/PS4/PSVita combined port.
The problem is, there's nothing scheduled for above $250,000, so there's little incentive for people - PS owners included - to continue pledging.
I think the gamepad just proves that it's giving developers a hard time to come up with something worth while to put on it.
I don't think putting it on the Wii U would be all that difficult considering it's supposed to be easy to work with.
ultimately we should all be skeptical of any kickstarter project. it's not like they have a good track record.
if a game is good and successful it will probably come to the eshop anyway
Oh so NLife is attacking indies now? That's it I'm going to play outside (slams door).
@tebunker What I want to know is if the only way you can get a free dev kit is to use HTML5 or Unity and that is a limited one. If you want the full thing you still have to spend loads. (Same way that xbone will allow retail units to act as a dev kit but you need the proper one (Which gets 12GB ram and a debug version of the OS) if you want to have full access.
The Kickstarters that should be supported are ones targetting Wii U exclusively. (With something like a minimum of 6 months before any other ports). That would likely work for the dev in the end (Look at Spelunky the Xbox exclusive just made people want it then it went on Steam and made loads).
@unrandomsam Maybe you should look at Teslagrad, or any of the other High profile Unity based games coming to the Wii U. Not trying to be snarky, just trying to get you to realize that this isn't the only Unity based game possibly coming to the Wii U.
@unrandomsam A Wii U dev kit only costs $5000. That's not much as far as a dev kit goes for a home console. The gamecube/Wii devkits were in the $20,000 price range, that's a difference of $15,000. I would say that Nintendo is trying to make it easier for these devs, or at least make it more affordable for them.
I find it annoying, but that's it; certainly nothing conspiratorial. I'm sure a lot of people are like me, unwilling to support a game you can't be guaranteed to play, so if Wii U is a stretch goal, and not part of the main funding target like Shantae, then high stretch goals serve as deterrents from getting Wii U support, not a way to generate it, so I really don't see developers setting the goals any higher than they have to.
I don't really get why the Wii U stretch goal is so high.
I would like to remind the elephant in the room that not all games have to reach a certain goal to release on certain platforms, but it helps.
I really have no interest in this project and this nonsense with the Wii U goal isn't helping. There are so, sooooo many Kickstarters like this: self-described Metroidvania games with really tall sci-fi pixel art and super lofty console stretch goals. No thanks.
@brandonbwii Looks like they are makes popcorn and grabs a soda
Time to laugh at NL now! E3 - NL addition.... oh wait a sec...
@tebunker "Plenty of other kickstarters have had the wiiu be a main platform or one of the earliest stretch goals"
Name them then. I'm not sure there as plentiful as you imagine but I'm open to being convinced otherwise.
Another case of small dev teams trying to get a little bit to much out of Kickstarter, it's called kickstarter not 'we will fund you for life starter'.
@Usagi-san I will see what I can remember, I don't check kickstarter that often...
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2011341880/knite-and-the-ghost-lights?ref=project_bar
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/189665092/the-fall-dark-story-driven-exploration-in-an-alien?ref=card
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/438269196/mysterious-cities-of-gold-the-video-game?ref=category
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/817647846/sword-n-board-your-adventure-is-his-imagination?ref=card
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/namitentou/ping-2-attack-of-the-spheres?ref=live
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1331957958/super-ubi-land?ref=live
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richtaur/crypt-run-death-is-just-the-beginning?ref=live
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncadedave/another-castle?ref=live
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lexisgames/taxi-journey-an-epic-odyssey?ref=live
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boogerman20th/boogerman-20th-anniversary-the-video-game?ref=project_bar
Anyway, I am tired and don't feel like searching any more, but there were several others with very low level Wii U goals, things like Shantae etc. It just takes a little effort to see it bear out. Not all of these titles got funded which is a shame because some of these people put Wii U out there as a platform they wanted to support first.
If the game is already developed with Unity, then why should it be so expensive? If Wii U gamepad support is the thing whats driving up production costs, then they can skip that for all I care. They need to side the Wii U version with the PS3 / PS4 / Vita stretch goal. $200,000 seems more reasonable.
My issue with this is that the stretch goal for 3 sony systems is only 20k but the stretch for wii u is 50k, something is surely not right there
Really awesome game, backed as soon as I heard about it and will be excited to play it at least on PC.
I've been wondering if all of this is mostly due to the fact that the Wii U has the gamepad and they have to make their games work for it, I mean people will complain if they get the game and there's no off TV play or if you're not able to use the gamepad in some form when playing the game.
REALLY want this to come to Wii U, but wish Wii U was a priority for devs. If it doesn't make it to Wii U, i won't be playing it. Too bad.
There's no reason why this is higher than the Sony trio. Also considering the costs of Unity Licenses for Sony consoles this doesn't make much sense since Nintendo gives Unity free with wiiu dev kits...are you telling me that 3 different kits are cheaper then one wiiu kit?
Right, I just noticed this over on NWR and was interested, then I looked into the stetch goals, $250,000 to reach Wii U goal? That is a hell of a lot from $70,000 and I dont think its going to be reached.
The Dev said in an interview to NWR that the reason it is so high is because they will have to outsorce new staff to port it to the wiiu and the gamepad, I'm sorry, but its not going to cost THAT much to port over and convert controls is it?
I want to donate a few quid but I dont want my money taken if the Wii U goal isnt met. Catch 22.
Still hasn't reached its first goal of $70,000 anyway.
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