Goblinworks posted a link to download an example of the Unity environment they built using the resources they used for the tech demo.

You can find a link to it on the kickstarter page.

Originally posted by asmkm22
I'd feel more comfortable if they actually specified the reasoning for such a high number.  Break down where the money is going.  Right now, it just seems arbitrarily high.

From Ryan on the forums:

"We considered three options - $1 (seriously, I even asked Kickstarter if they'd allow it but they didn't respond), something in the six-digit range, and the million dollars.

The thing is we can't do much in terms of acceleration with less than a million. We wanted to have a legit reason to ask for the money. We get some benefit of course for less than a million, bit it would be hard to quantify and we couldn't put a concrete benefit in the Kickstarter.

The million is something we can put a defined benefit on. It shaves a meaningful amount of time off the baseline schedule. It doesn't help just hiring a few extra people. We need groups of people in several disciplines all working together in order to really speed up the process, and those salaries and overhead add up pretty quickly.

In the end we decided we'd rather be clear about the benefit of the money, not be wispy-washy."

And another one:

"Without the Kickstarter, our plan is to begin Early Enrollment in early 2015, and Release in early 2017.

With the Kickstarter at $1 million, we plan to begin Early Enrollment in the summer of 2014, and Release in early 2016."

Originally posted by Dakcenturi

Originally posted by asmkm22
I'd feel more comfortable if they actually specified the reasoning for such a high number.  Break down where the money is going.  Right now, it just seems arbitrarily high.

 

From Ryan on the forums:

 

"We considered three options - $1 (seriously, I even asked Kickstarter if they'd allow it but they didn't respond), something in the six-digit range, and the million dollars.

The thing is we can't do much in terms of acceleration with less than a million. We wanted to have a legit reason to ask for the money. We get some benefit of course for less than a million, bit it would be hard to quantify and we couldn't put a concrete benefit in the Kickstarter.

The million is something we can put a defined benefit on. It shaves a meaningful amount of time off the baseline schedule. It doesn't help just hiring a few extra people. We need groups of people in several disciplines all working together in order to really speed up the process, and those salaries and overhead add up pretty quickly.

In the end we decided we'd rather be clear about the benefit of the money, not be wispy-washy."

And another one:

 

"Without the Kickstarter, our plan is to begin Early Enrollment in early 2015, and Release in early 2017.

With the Kickstarter at $1 million, we plan to begin Early Enrollment in the summer of 2014, and Release in early 2016."

Uh, it still doesn't say anything about where the money is going.  All he's saying is it lets them develop faster, kind of.

They're basically saying "give us a million dollars and we'll go find large teams of people to make this happen."  I'm sorry if that's not what I'd consider a very good business plan.  It's pretty obvious why they've probably been rejected for traditional venture capital.

Originally posted by asmkm22

Originally posted by Dakcenturi

Originally posted by asmkm22
I'd feel more comfortable if they actually specified the reasoning for such a high number.  Break down where the money is going.  Right now, it just seems arbitrarily high.

 

From Ryan on the forums:

 

"We considered three options - $1 (seriously, I even asked Kickstarter if they'd allow it but they didn't respond), something in the six-digit range, and the million dollars.

The thing is we can't do much in terms of acceleration with less than a million. We wanted to have a legit reason to ask for the money. We get some benefit of course for less than a million, bit it would be hard to quantify and we couldn't put a concrete benefit in the Kickstarter.

The million is something we can put a defined benefit on. It shaves a meaningful amount of time off the baseline schedule. It doesn't help just hiring a few extra people. We need groups of people in several disciplines all working together in order to really speed up the process, and those salaries and overhead add up pretty quickly.

In the end we decided we'd rather be clear about the benefit of the money, not be wispy-washy."

And another one:

 

"Without the Kickstarter, our plan is to begin Early Enrollment in early 2015, and Release in early 2017.

With the Kickstarter at $1 million, we plan to begin Early Enrollment in the summer of 2014, and Release in early 2016."

Uh, it still doesn't say anything about where the money is going.  All he's saying is it lets them develop faster, kind of.

They're basically saying "give us a million dollars and we'll go find large teams of people to make this happen."  I'm sorry if that's not what I'd consider a very good business plan.  It's pretty obvious why they've probably been rejected for traditional venture capital.

The fact is they have done well to get investors in the current climate. KS obviously paid off for Star Citizen, so it's worth an mmorpg with some good backgrounds to give it a go also? And gauge how much early buy-in is possible, also good to "measure". The thing is I wonder if KS affects the equity distribution... so it's very good direction maybe?

Originally posted by MumboJumbo

Originally posted by asmkm22

Originally posted by Dakcenturi

 

Uh, it still doesn't say anything about where the money is going.  All he's saying is it lets them develop faster, kind of.

They're basically saying "give us a million dollars and we'll go find large teams of people to make this happen."  I'm sorry if that's not what I'd consider a very good business plan.  It's pretty obvious why they've probably been rejected for traditional venture capital.

The fact is they have done well to get investors in the current climate. KS obviously paid off for Star Citizen, so it's worth an mmorpg with some good backgrounds to give it a go also? And gauge how much early buy-in is possible, also good to "measure". The thing is I wonder if KS affects the equity distribution... so it's very good direction maybe?

And that's fine.  I wish them the best of luck on it.  I just will not personally be donating money to them because they are being quite vague as to where that money is going, on top of having some highly unrealistic design goals, in my opinion.

Besides, I already gave a few hundred to Black Isle, so I'm tapped out for the week.

Originally posted by asmkm22

Originally posted by MumboJumbo

Originally posted by asmkm22

Originally posted by Dakcenturi

 

Uh, it still doesn't say anything about where the money is going.  All he's saying is it lets them develop faster, kind of.

They're basically saying "give us a million dollars and we'll go find large teams of people to make this happen."  I'm sorry if that's not what I'd consider a very good business plan.  It's pretty obvious why they've probably been rejected for traditional venture capital.

The fact is they have done well to get investors in the current climate. KS obviously paid off for Star Citizen, so it's worth an mmorpg with some good backgrounds to give it a go also? And gauge how much early buy-in is possible, also good to "measure". The thing is I wonder if KS affects the equity distribution... so it's very good direction maybe?

And that's fine.  I wish them the best of luck on it.  I just will not personally be donating money to them because they are being quite vague as to where that money is going, on top of having some highly unrealistic design goals, in my opinion.

Besides, I already gave a few hundred to Black Isle, so I'm tapped out for the week.

They were transparent with the Tech Demo KS: Update #37: A Busy Week for Goblinworks

They say current 11 hc, can get up to 20 with KS, suggests I'd say 1m KS about 6-12 range of staff hiring it seems variable on salaries over 2 years.

But yes, going by history most mmorpgs crash and burn in some form: I like the fact they have some direct links to the origins of RPG's, the people are good value it seems, so makes me happier to risk my cash in this case (good will credit). 

Originally posted by MumboJumbo

 

They were transparent with the Tech Demo KS: Update #37: A Busy Week for Goblinworks

They say current 11 hc, can get up to 20 with KS, suggests I'd say 1m KS about 6-12 range of staff hiring it seems variable on salaries over 2 years.

But yes, going by history most mmorpgs crash and burn in some form: I like the fact they have some direct links to the origins of RPG's, the people are good value it seems, so makes me happier to risk my cash in this case (good will credit). 

 I think thats what it comes down to.  These are guys with lng and deep roots in the RPG industry.  This is not your fly by night startup with 3 kids in a garage supported by their Dad.

BTW I was surprised by the environment demo.  Considering it was completed in a month.. it was really a positive surprise that the quality was so good.