River City Ransom: Underground Kickstarter

[treismac]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...om-underground

Well, it looks like River City Ransom "2" is finally going to become a reality, providing the funding happens, of course.

[Greg2600]

Canada dollars, I cannot compute! Man, is this the month of nostalgia sequel Kickstarters or what?

[JSoup]

That goony developer guy made me want to close the video without watching.

Am I the only one who just didn't find Rivercity Ransom to be that great?

[Bojay1997]

That goony developer guy made me want to close the video without watching.

Am I the only one who just didn't find Rivercity Ransom to be that great?

I liked the original game, but there have been many similar games and even many other games in this series released over the years. It's odd that people keep acting like they have resurrected some long dead series. While I will give them credit for getting the license, the bios of the various team members doesn't exactly inspire confidence. I think only one of them has any experience at all in actual game development and it sounds like it was as a minor member of much larger teams. The other guys are musicians and guys generally interested in games which I suppose is good for enthusiasm, but not something I'm looking to risk my money on.

[BricatSegaFan]

This leaves a bad taste. The game was good, we don't need some douchey hipsters ruining the series just because someone gave them handouts to make it.

[goob47]

Yeah, a lot of these Kickstarter sequels just remind me of how Hollywood is just mooching off previous franchises for more money. It's just wrong. If this douche has an idea of an original game that actually sounds good, I would consider it. But as of now, we don't need any more resurrected gems.

[TheRedEye]

That "girls don't play video games!" joke really rubbed me the wrong way. Don't like this guy and don't see much of a game here that I actually want to play, not supporting.

It's trending toward getting funded though so if the game ends up good, hey, I can buy it later.

[treismac]

Without any members of the original Technos team that made the first RCR working on this project there is reason to be a little cautious with getting too optimistic. I'd like to see a demo before throwing any money their way to ensure I'm sponsoring something worthwhile.

Am I the only one who just didn't find Rivercity Ransom to be that great?

Yes. Yes you are. Please turn in your retro gaming cred card and walk slowly away. Thank you.

The need to grind and grind and grind can get a little tedious, truth be told, which is already one of the major detractor with beat 'em ups, and the flickering with two players makes my NES sad. Flaws aside, the game has mucho personality and is quite fun.

[treismac]

This leaves a bad taste. The game was good, we don't need some douchey hipsters ruining the series just because someone gave them handouts to make it.

Didn't the Kunio-kun Ikebana game already do that?

[Niku-Sama]

i'm done with video game kickstarters.

every one and their dog is doing it because "woe is me I don't have any money" do it in your spare time and make it awesome then charge for it and you can proudly say you didn't need a damn handout

[Greg2600]

i'm done with video game kickstarters.

every one and their dog is doing it because "woe is me I don't have any money" do it in your spare time and make it awesome then charge for it and you can proudly say you didn't need a damn handout

Have you seen 95% of the "did it in my spare time" homebrew games? They're horrible on anything NES and newer. Only the diehardest of the diehards would ever consider buying it. Not to mention that they take years and years, and often don't get finished. It's not a handout, you're getting something for the donation. Read the description, they say they had to spend their own money up front to license the game from Technos. It's one thing to be disinterested in the game, but you're going to have to get used to these kinds of titles being crowd-funded, because they will not be made otherwise.

[Niku-Sama]

Have you seen 95% of the "did it in my spare time" homebrew games? They're horrible on anything NES and newer. Only the diehardest of the diehards would ever consider buying it. Not to mention that they take years and years, and often don't get finished. It's not a handout, you're getting something for the donation. Read the description, they say they had to spend their own money up front to license the game from Technos. It's one thing to be disinterested in the game, but you're going to have to get used to these kinds of titles being crowd-funded, because they will not be made otherwise.

i'm thinking people like the dude that did minecraft, it started out just him making something, and starting out it was good and hasn't detracted from there.

it was a dude working his ass off on his own thing and took off from there

[Bojay1997]

i'm thinking people like the dude that did minecraft, it started out just him making something, and starting out it was good and hasn't detracted from there.

it was a dude working his ass off on his own thing and took off from there

I agree. Some people assume that Kickstarter is now the only way to do a small indie game, but there are many other ways to accomplish the same thing. Heck, people create games without Kickstarter financing all the time and Minecraft is just one of many, many recent examples. Frankly, with the heavy Kickstarter fatigue that has set in recently, I think Kickstarter is really not a very viable way to get games financed unless you have a near ready to release project or an IP or team that is already super well known.

[StoneAgeGamer]

I agree. Some people assume that Kickstarter is now the only way to do a small indie game, but there are many other ways to accomplish the same thing. Heck, people create games without Kickstarter financing all the time and Minecraft is just one of many, many recent examples. Frankly, with the heavy Kickstarter fatigue that has set in recently, I think Kickstarter is really not a very viable way to get games financed unless you have a near ready to release project or an IP or team that is already super well known.

I agree, the idea that giving some guys $180K+ (interest free) with no obligation to ever deliver on their promise makes for better games I think that is faulty thinking. Free money doesn't spark innovation, it sparks rehashes like this project. It may be a good game (if it ever gets made), but so what? There are plenty of good indie beat'em ups. I am not completely against crowd-funding, but I have grown tired of it. Especially for indie games such as this. Its not even an original game, its a sequel/rehash of a pretty good NES game. I would rather see something original.

[BricatSegaFan]

Was anyone else bothered by the way he calls the NES "The Nintendo"? I also hate the way he has shit pop culture like mustaches and what not onto it just to be hip and cool.

[Kitsune Sniper]

These guys spent a lot of their own money to get the license to make this game. The people who own the franchise liked their pitch enough to OK this. I'm sure that if Million had the money to fund this game they would have done so, but they're not that big of a company. So what other option do these devs have to get their game made?

You're -not- giving these people "interest free" money. They still have to pay taxes, salaries, software and technology licensing fees - for starters.

And the fact that a bunch of you are dismissing this project just because you don't like the people and the jokes in the pitch video is pretty disappointing. You guys sound like kupomogli.

[Tupin]

Hmm, interesting. I like River City Ransom, but I'd be more confident if the original team were on board.

I also echo some feelings here that Kickstarter is being used wrong. Why not make an entirely new game?

[Bojay1997]

These guys spent a lot of their own money to get the license to make this game. The people who own the franchise liked their pitch enough to OK this. I'm sure that if Million had the money to fund this game they would have done so, but they're not that big of a company. So what other option do these devs have to get their game made?

You're -not- giving these people "interest free" money. They still have to pay taxes, salaries, software and technology licensing fees - for starters.

And the fact that a bunch of you are dismissing this project just because you don't like the people and the jokes in the pitch video is pretty disappointing. You guys sound like kupomogli.

I'm sorry, but the team in a crowdfunding venture is as critical if not more critical than the product they are claiming they need the funding to create. Crowdfunding is a weird hybrid of charity and investment and when perfect strangers ask for the help of the general public, they have to be prepared for significant scrutiny, especially when they have no track record at all. As such, acting like hipster douchebags on a video intended to solicit support is probably not the best move.

For the record, it's not clear how much they actually paid for the license. It's entirely possible that they have an option agreement (wherein they only made a small downpayment on the total licensing fee) and/or some kind of revenue sharing arrangement with Million. Frankly, Million is just a rights holding company so I doubt they cared too much about who licensed the rights as long as they were provided with a revenue stream and some reasonable assurance of payment. In fact, the Kickstarter page makes it clear that some portion of the money raised in the campaign is being used to pay for the rights, so I suspect it's highly likely they haven't paid anyone anything just yet, or a very minimal amount.

As for the rest, the taxes are deducted out of whatever financing they may receive through Kickstarter, but not out of any money they put in themselves. If they have no profit after release, taxes aren't going to be a concern. Similarly, in start-up ventures, the founding partners rarely take a salary for the first year or two. The fact that they want to pay themselves to work on this game is certainly not unheard of, but realistically, these guys couldn't get hired by an existing developer or publisher given their lack of track record, so I'm not sure how much their time is really worth in this context.

I personally think this is not a sound risk given what I have seen of this project and their lack of a track record. Everyone just seems excited about the fact that they licensed the rights to use the name and IP of this series, but there have been lots of similar licensing deals over the years from small publishers and even homebrewers and that was long before crowdfunding was even a thing.

[kupomogli]

Am I the only one who just didn't find Rivercity Ransom to be that great?

I think it's good, just overrated. I think people like the idea of its open world and RPG like system over the actual gameplay those two things actually bring to the game. Because when talking about its flaws, grinding and the amount of backtracking is always mentioned, so if that's the case, what's the point in praising those two systems when they're two of the games main flaws?

[treismac]

I think it's good, just overrated. I think people like the idea of its open world and RPG like system over the actual gameplay those two things actually bring to the game. Because when talking about its flaws, grinding and the amount of backtracking is always mentioned, so if that's the case, what's the point in praising those two systems when they're two of the games main flaws?

Those two flaws don't override the other benefits that the open world and RPG system bring to the table. For the record, I really enjoy the gameplay in River City Ransom, too.