Just over a week ago we told you about the Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians Kickstarter campaign, which has Yasumi Matsuno on board. If you're unaware, Matsuno-san has worked on and been responsible for a diverse range of games, such as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on GBA, Tactics Ogre on Super NES, MadWorld on Wii and the relatively recent Crimson Shroud on the 3DS eShop.
This tactical RPG does have pedigree, then, promising features such as a grid-based 3D landscape and plenty of depth for gamers to explore. As we highlighted, however, its initial target of $600,000 was somewhat offset by the only Nintendo stretch-goal being exceptionally high at $2,800,000. In good news for those following the project, however, publisher Playdek has lowered the asking rate for the handheld to $1,500,000; the PS4 has also been added at a lower rate but, as yet, no sign of Wii U. It's a major cut, and the positive is that, at present, the campaign is trending not far off that eventual total; trends are far from definitive, of course, but give some hope.
If the 3DS goal is reached the project will have also passed its targets for Hitoshi Sakamoto, Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder to add their expertise for the project.
The pitch video is below and there are plenty of details on the project page. Are you hopeful that this will come to 3DS?
Thanks to BF_Medic for the tip.
Comments 22
Nice that you followed up the recent change in the project.
Now that they lowered the stretch-goal for 3DS I had to back this up.
Hopefully they will blast trough the 1.5m mark and maybe include Wii U support later on.
I'm still not sure why a couple of JP->EN translators is a stretch goal. Is the game being developed in Japanese? And will it remain in Japanese if the stretch goal is not met?
And if it is being developed in Japanese, is this really a Playdek project? Or is it a Matsuno project using Playdek as coders?
Keeping track of this. Finally a good use of a Kickstarter.
@CaviarMeths In the FAQ this is stated:
-What languages will the game be available in?
"The game will be developed with English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish translations."
My guess is that the 2.15m stretch goal is including additional voice-overs on all of the conversation during in-game.
And the 750k goal is just so they can hire two experienced translator that have worked with Matsuno earlier. So this is just to assure that the translations will be high quality.
They should have made this clearer on the project-page.
I've donated in anticipation of the 3DS goal... although I'm kinda worried it might not actually make it. Get donating people!
Cool. I'd like copy for my Vita.
Uhh, that's nice and all, but where's some actual gameplay? Gameplay plannings and famous developers don't really impress me...
Sweet, the Vita stretch goal has been brought down to 1 million.
I am not sure what makes me more wary — the fact that the low-selling Vita has the initial stretch goal or that two of the handful of commenters on a Nintendo-themed site expressed glee at that prospect.
Related to this, given that the sales potential is much higher for the 3DS, why do these developers always move the goal posts for it so much higher than
systems with much lower install bases?
@mike_intv
Because even Kickstarter knows that people love Nintendo products and either of two different mentalities come about:
1. Higher Nintendo $ means that more people donate for the purpose of getting it on their system.
2. Supporting the "underdog" allows for those people to jump on the project because that system has so little going for it. Sort of how a game designed for Wii U would get a lot of support because there are so many with nothing to do on theirs...
Either way, it is Nintendo getting the shaft. Has there even been a fully completed Kickstarter for video games yet?
So does that prove a point to all those who said the 3ds stretch goal was fair and that those of us complaining didnt know anything about game development? Clearly it wasnt fair as they have been able to knock $1.3m off the asking price for 3ds.
@Morph They have not lowered the asking price. They were not saying they needed 3 million for it before and they're not saying they need 1.5 million now. For 1.5 million they do everything that comes before it too. They haven't said a 3DS port will cost them any less, they've just made it so porting to other platforms is now a bigger priority than bulking out the game content,
Before the 3DS version required $250,000 more than the previous stretch goal, and it still costs $250,000 more than the previous stretch goal.
People were whining that 3DS ports do not cost 3 million, so I think it's quite fair the get labelled as not knowing how kickstarter works.
I might jump in on this now. The previous stretch was beyond ridiculous. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it has some legs.
If they actually had a donation where if it reached the stretch goal you would get the 3ds DL code as well as the pc version. Then you might get more backers for it. Only problem with kickstarter of the things I have backed only recieved 2 out of 10 as the rest are delayed & delayed. If you have a section for the 3ds then maybee you would get backers.
(I understand if it dosent reach gol then you only get the pc version but at least it gives an indication of the demand for the title on the 3ds).
@LordGeovanni
True. But it may also make some people less likely to contribute since they know if it hits the main goal but does not hit the high stretch goal, what they end up getting is not what they want — and they have no recourse but to accept that fact.
@Peach64 I'm pretty sure most people know how kickstarter works and you can dress it up whichever way you like, the simple fact of the matter is they positioned 3DS all the way at the $3m mark so that they could screw as much money from loyal Nintendo fans as they possibly could. I forget the exact original figures figures now but how could they possibly position the 3DS version something like $1.5m after the vita version and not expect some sort of backlash. If the game was good enough at that stage of development to warrant a vita release then the 3DS should have been right after that (or before it but that's nit picking). It seems fairly clear to me that they wanted to use nintendo fans to attain as many of those additional goals as they could and those same fans might never have seen a release on their console of choice, even after helping the project hit it's minimum target.
The fact they've altered those goals now, suggests they have realised the project was never going to hit that top 3ds goal, and looking at the trend graph it most likely wasn't. And they are now depending on those same fans to help pull it towards the initial goal just to get the project going in the first place, it might be good business, but it's cynical and takes advantage of fans.
Well, that's much more interesting now. PS4 release is also something to watch.
I'll be sad if this only comes to PC. They might not even make the first goal, though, since the pledge has barely budged since the first couple days.
Here's hoping for the 3DS version
@LordGeovanni actually there's been many "completed" game projects from Kickstarter. Guns Of Icarus Online launched in 2012, and is coming to PS4 this year (with the developer expressing interest in Wii U as well).
@Mattiator
Cool. I haven't really heard of any games getting far through these types of "group-fundings" aside Shovel Knight, and as that one is still not out, it doesn't count. Good to hear that there have been a few already!
@Morph actually I have no clue how Kickstarter works. It seems to me people take donations for development of their projects and then in most cases the project dies. Do they still get to keep all those donations? I can totally understand indie devs going this route. Because I don't understand how funds are dispersed or where money goes after donation, I don't donate. How can we be sure its not a scam and what does kickstarter do about these things?
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