Afternoon!

It's been a while since I've been on this site. Our team has been forced to take on some significant contract work just to keep the lights on. Still, we push forward.

Now, I've come back to ask for your help. We're about to begin our biggest project yet (to hopefully free us from the binds of contract work forever), and we desperately need your help to make it happen. The project will take approximately 6 to 8 months for beta.

We already have an investor who is interested, but needs us to bring our price down before he'll sign with us. To that end, we've turned to the community and Kickstarter.com.

Please, check out our project on the site, review it, post comments, "Like" it. And, if you like it, consider contributing. You'll get some very cool rewards!

http://kck.st/oqvDEH

I hope to see you in the game!

Regards,
Phil

How exactly do you expect people to seriously donate money when all you have to show for is a page of text and a promise?

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you haven't actually been to our website yet. You will see that we have a game on Facebook (you can even watch a fun little video on our site). You'll also see that Nova Tactics is just now going into production, so there's not much to show. We have, however, posted some of the concept art. You can also view a page from the upcoming graphic novel that will be released next month.

So if you're looking for screenshots of the game, you are correct, you will not find any yet. If, however, you'd like a list of our credentials, I'd be more than happy to provide them. We've developed software for use in all 21 international brands of the Marriot hotels, we've built a media player that has caught the interest of some VERY large companies (sorry, I can't name names on that one just yet), our programmers have developed software for the Department of Defense and Telco, and hold 2 patents on security encryption, and have done network programming for the US Marine Corps. We've developed games for Facebook, Webplayers, iPhone and iPad. And our presentations have earned companies more than 4 million dollars in investments at conferences all over the world.

SO! I apologize that I do not currently have more to show for Nova Tactics. As I said, its just beginning production.

An RTS-MMO?  Not interested, sorry.

Your investor has the right idea.  It sounds like this project did not have a sound business plan when it was started, and the plea for independent donations borders on desperation.  If you're a business, get a business loan.  If you're a hoard of individuals wanting to make a game, protect yourselves and form a business.

Ultimately, I think investing in Phaser, Inc might have been a better risk.

Where are people getting this idea of an RTS?

Seriously, is this what this community has degraded to while I was away? How disappointing.

Kickstarter was formed specifically for this purpose, and I don't think indie-developers looking for community support is desperation, its common practice.

Where did I get this idea?  From the Kickstarter page, paragraph 1.

Continuing the story of Starfall, Nova Tactics will put players in a massive galaxy together, where you will colonize and customize your planets. Train an elite squad of soldiers and send them out into space, in search of other resource-rich worlds.

That sounds like the description of activities in a 4X or a RTS game.  Since the first game is focused heavily on tactical combat, I guessed RTS.

So, if this isn't an RTS title, like the description on the Kickstart page seems to suggest, please educate us a bit more.  There's no information on your Pillar 4 website about this game.  So, how are you going to attract donation if you don't state what your game actually is?

The first paragraph says "Empire management meets turn-based, squad tactics".

Think 4X game meets X-Com.

Okay, so its a TBS set in an MMO environment using an X-COM like theme.  Tell me, what happens while I'm busy fighting a TB mission against an alien incursion and player B comes along and destroys my entire operation?  A fundamental assumption of every MMO is a constant internal 'clock' shared by all players.   Turn-based play just doesn't co-exist well with a clock.  And X-Com works because it is a single player and can suspend the 'world clock' at will.

So, I assumed an RTS because it would be far easier to integrate a RT combat mission mechanism into an MMO concept than any TB concept, no matter how good.  There's just too many issues with syncing the TB gameplay with the continual 'clock' gameplay.

Still, I wish you luck with this game.  It does touch on two of my favorite genres/games (4X games in general and X-Com in particular).

Well thank you for the kind wishes. And yes, there are some pretty steep challenges to having turn-based combat in a real-time MMO. But don't worry, I'm very good at what I do, and I think you'll be pleased with the results.

EDIT: I apologize. It does seem that I have a knack for being vague. I promise, its not intentional. There are several factors to consider in this style of game, and each scenario is often designed as a special case; "What happens if someone attacks a planet while I'm attacking it?", "What can I do on my planet if someone is in the process of attacking it?", etc.

While I won't go into the details of every situation, I can say that we've taken inspiration from Facebook games; specifically, how they handle non-synchronized game play in a multiplayer situation. While I'm certainly not looking to build a casual Farmville-esque game, the core fundamentals are useful.

I hope this answers a couple questions. I'll be able to show more as we continue. Thanks again.

Sounds like a great idea, but in all honesty, if your going the funding route, try and create a presentation or some kind of playtestable example. You eed to apeal to your audience. Sure, anyone can write an idea down, and yeah some massive corporate entities might take that.

But the public is a whole new playing field. You gotta speak to them on a different level. I recommend making a slide show, with working examples of what the player should expect. Or, download an app like gamemaker or use xna to create a similar mini app using similar gameplay.

Inspiration is key, and of all people, I know you know what I mean. Good luck!