Hey guys,

Haven't posted on the Interguild in a while. Coming to you with a project I've been working on for several months now--a video game that we intend to have customizable levels, so it would be a good fit for this place if it succeeds. We just got back from a trip to Japan, where we took video and photo references for the sake of our artists, and now we got a Kickstarter up and running. We haven't started doing much plugging yet, but I'll start advertising it more in about a day or so. (Taking the day to calm myself down. Launching this thing has actually made me nervous as all balls.) Anyway, here is the link to the page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1726674644/project-tanuki. You can find out everything about the game there. (Be sure to check out the sample music tracks... They're awesome. I got Waterflame to compose for us, the guy who did the music on Age of War and a multitude of other Flash games.)

Here's some quick artwork, I suppose:







As far as demos go: we have a prototype, but I don't mean an alpha build when saying that. We have test builds set up and playable for our purposes, but they use free resources and by no means represent the game we're striving for, so it won't be shared. But every aspect of the game--art, music, logic--is fully previewed on the page, so let me know what your thoughts are.

Sort of made this post in a rush. Sorry about that. I'll be back later to add more to it maybe. For now I'm gonna go out for a walk. Shoutout to Livio and the rest of you guys, cause I see that Aeon is making solid progress! Awesome to see. Later fellas!

Your artwork is really neat. I like that.

Also is this your cave?

http://www.interguild.org/hatpc/cavelist.php?user=egruntz

Nope

Wow, "Sound"... Haven't even thought about that in a long time. Old cave. Think it's mine. Was young when I made that one.
Or maybe not? Have no idea to be honest lol. Why is this a thing?

This is really cool. Might pledge sometime soon.

This is great to see and I'm happy that it's someone from our community that's doing this. As someone who has a passing interest in games development, could you explain to me where the $25,000 figure comes from? What components does that break down into exactly? Is it simply to pay the personnel or does most of it go into publishing/marketing the game? Educate me because I'm genuinely interested.

EDIT: Just saw the breakdown pie chart. Still surprising to me that it costs that much; would still be cool to get some insight behind how those figures were worked out. For example, what exactly does "production and services" entail? Development tools? Art/sound assets?  

Oh, sure. Speaking just on terms of software, it will cost in the range of $5K - $7K to purchase commercial licenses for Unity3D (the engine we're using to create the game), Photoshop, Maya, Zbrush, and 3DSMax (artistic programs for 2D/3D rendering). It would be a legal liability to not purchase these licenses before putting the game on the market if we used those programs to create it. Hardware then comes into play when we need to purchase devices to test it on other operating systems. (I don't have a mac, for instance, so I'll have to buy one later down the road to make sure the game performance doesn't struggle on that OS.) 50% going to production and services basically means paying the team. These guys aren't just buddies I've tagged along for the ride--they're professionals in their trade, and their services don't come cheap.

What's funny is that $25K is actually considered dirt cheap for game funding. (That is outside of Flash games that a guy can make in a week in his basement. But that's not the kind of production we're striving for.) On other forums (NeoGAF, etc.) I'm being asked how I could possibly think that 25K would be enough to cover the expenses. Gonna get skeptics on either side, but that's just the way it is. Tends to be that those who are more aware of the gaming industry consider the funds too low and those who are more on the casual side consider it too high. We feel it's the honest amount needed to produce the skeleton of the game, and from there, we can work on it on our own time and money to add finishing touches and whatnot.

What platforms will the game be on? How much will it be sold for? How much do you expect to make back or in profit?

Default platforms are for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. If we reach abundance in funds, we'll port to Wii U, PS4, and Xbone. Each game copy will be sold for $20 upon commercial release. ($15 while still on Kickstarter to try and drive support.) Expectations in profit really can't be made. We hope to at least break even, but that's much later down the line. None of the profit is made in the Kickstarter.

Do you think you will break even? How will advertising work?

I expect to at least break even, yeah. We'll largely be relying on platforms like Steam and such to get our title out in the open. If it's not greenlit, we'll simply have to advertise by our own means, but we'll be able to use 5% of the Kickstarter funds on promotion in general.

This looks pretty awesome. you guys sure know how to sell your ideas

I'll publish this

Thanks shos. Do you have your own site/blog? Would love to check the rest of it out... Wasn't aware...

He posted it on facebook.

So what happens if you don't reach the goal.

Then we don't make the game. Pretty simple.

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