Comments on: Why Isn’t There A Gunpoint Kickstarter?

By: Los creadores de Gunpoint no quieren que aparezca en Kickstarter | testground | Videoshock

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 17:38:08 +0000

[…] independiente Tom Francis, uno de los autores del futuro Gunpoint, ha publicado un interesante artículo en la página del proyecto para explicar las razones de que no presenten su juego en […]

By: dave

dave — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:43:38 +0000

That’s a lot of words to justify a decision not to use Kickstarter. It’s not the first pile of words I’ve seen on the same subject. They are some mighty fine words, but they are still just words. Too many people have spent too much time trying to put their gut feeling into words. If kickstarter doesn’t feel right to you, then it just doesn’t. Don’t let anyone tell you that makes you a bad person, or a silly person. You made Gunpoint and it is awesome (just finished my first playthrough), so you are dfeinitely not a bad or silly person.

I regret this already

By: KevD

KevD — Sat, 11 May 2013 21:55:59 +0000

Just saw your game on Random Encounter. It looks brilliant. Can’t wait to play it. Keep up the great work!

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:00:39 +0000

Best of luck, Tom. Your morals and accomplishment is very inspirational. It seems to me that you’ve put a significant amount of work into Gunpoint – I think you deserve to reap the rewards of your efforts by putting a price on the finished product.

Cheers,

Jon

By: Ezzer

Ezzer — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:36:53 +0000

>It’d be nice to have some sort of scifi explanation as to how he can rewire a building too.

Magic, got it.

By: Skyler

Skyler — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 06:02:37 +0000

People are suggesting that you make a kickstarter video because you can get people aware of your project before it’s even finished but here’s what I think. Here I am. Just a regular guy on stumbpleupon.com and suddenly i find an indie game that attracts my attention called Gunpoint. Four months later, I think to myself “What was that game called again? I can’t find it anywhere,” So today I literally searched through a good portion of my stumbleupon history just to find this site once again and link it to my facebook because I’m genuinely interested.

You may be wondering if you’re crazy for not charging money, but here’s my thoughts. If you release it for free, people will download it right and left. More people will know your name. If you have it ported to phone app stores, you have an actual recording of how many people download your game. All of this is information that you can put on a resume. Consider this your portfolio piece. Seems like you’re just dipping your toe in the water and asking “Is it warm?” and people are saying yes, but I’m saying it’ll be a full blown hot tub if you let it be free.

Regardless of if a big company comes and hires you because of this work, or if you decide to make another game, your next game will be given a lot of attention. Take “Cut The Rope” and “Angry Birds,” for example. They have spin-off’s of their first games. They have micro-purchases and some of them you need to pay for. These are some of the top downloaded apps in the mobile market. I don’t know if you have a full blown story around Gunpoint, but it would be cool to see one. And I think it’d be interesting to see the gameplay evolve and see where a story would go with sequels. It’d be nice to have some sort of scifi explanation as to how he can rewire a building too.

By: Jason Love

Jason Love — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:46:43 +0000

I think using Kickstarter is useful for people who can’t afford to finish a project. I think it is great you are making the choice not to if you don’t need to use it.
There are, however, added benefits to Kickstarter.
1) Marketing. People finding your project before it is launched.
2) Schedule. With people having expectations for a project by a specific date, it forces people to finish their project on time.
3) Fans. Allowing people to support your project early gets them jumping into your band wagon and becoming a fan. People love to brag about how they helped a project get funded.

Sorry for the long post. I hope it helps others considering a Kickstarter campaign.
-Jason Love
http://www.jasonloveslife.com

By: oyog

oyog — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:23:49 +0000

Don't forget Maia! I desperately want a SciFi Dungeon Keeper. Oh how I want it. Huh. I just realized I never backed Sui Generis. Time to remedy that.

By: Jason L

Jason L — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:56:50 +0000

And as noted elsewhere for the hard-of-reading, that was one of the systems he ran it on so he could go out of his way to praise the improvement in performance. You butthurt douchebag.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:18:26 +0000

For the record, coming into someone’s personal blog to complain that in their work elsewhere they come off as a bit of a douchebag makes you come off as a bit of a douchebag. :P

By: Hey

Hey — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:32:04 +0000

Just saw your Hitman Absolution review… came off like a bit of a douchebag. Do you really review games with a Radeon 4800? What a joke…

By: Sir Carolus

Sir Carolus — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:30:04 +0000

Mr. n – I don’t think there’s any danger of that whatsoever. If you’ve been following Gunpoint’s development – heck, if you know Tom at all – it’s obvious he’s not in this for the cash. He wasn’t even going to sell Gunpoint until recently, when the cries of the masses practically forced him to attach a price tag.

I have the utmost faith that the game will be priced more than fairly, and that you’ll definitely get your money’s worth. If you’re unsure, read a few of Pentadact’s articles. He’s that kind of guy.

By: Mr. n

Mr. n — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 12:41:13 +0000

Dear Pentadact, please, please, please don't make the same mistake that big game developers make nowadays - i.e. charge 49.99€/$ for a new game. That is both completely ridiculous and... purely silly. Valve and and others have proven already that the more you charge for the game, the less you both sell and earn. On the behalf of all unemployed and poor postgraduates who want to play your game very badly - please, don't make the pricetag prohibitive. In central-eastern Europe you can eat (big) for two or more (cheap/small) days for 12$ - I can skip one dayful of meals easily, but...

By: Ben Hale

Ben Hale — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:51:35 +0000

While I completely agree with you and admire your need to elevate your self-worth to a point where you could accept funding guilt free, I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit. The thing you have over a lot of indie-developers on Kickstarter is a working prototype to show the public. Tim Schaffer can get away with saying “I have an idea. Please help me make it.” because he has a proven track record. The kickstarters I get excited about are the ones where you can already see the game working and the money is going towards finishing it or adding more to it. “Volgar the Viking” and “Mercenary Kings” are two that spring to mind.

So I think its worth a shot. I personally wouldn’t feel taken advantage of. Your game looks like a lot of fun and you seem to already have the core mechanic working. Either way, best of luck.