Let me put it this way, if they first time people here about a Kickstarter project is that it's failing they wont be willing to support it.
Why is the Citizens of Earth Kickstarter failing?
- Thread starter Soundwave
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I am not really a big fan of jrpgs, but i honestly never heard someone moan about how there aren't any jrpgs out there. With Rpgmaker (Or however it's name is again) there a thousands of games out there that are at least jrpg style games and while they may not have the quality that this game may have, most of them are completely free of charge. Plus the american politics setting is not appealing at all. I know it's meant as a joke, but it's nothing were i think: Oh, boy, gotta back this!
I see that the creator is reading this thread. Ryan, please don't be offended. Just giving my honest impression of looking at the Kickstarter page and Youtube video.
For starters, the visual style kind of puts me off. Everything just looks too plain and clean. I don't really feel like I'm looking at an epic JRPG, but a flash game that simulates mundane day-to-day activities. The audio doesn't help either (At least what's on the video on the Kickstarter page.
With first impression out of the way, the gameplay doesn't look very engaging. You just play as regular nameless civilians distinguished by their class names, fighting other nameless civilians. The attacks are also not very interestingly named or animated.
I'm guessing that it only starts up this way and builds up to some twist that starts the second act, but based on what I can see in the Kickstarter page, there really isn't anything that makes me want to learn more about it, let alone backing it.
If this style is supposed to attract a certain target audience, then I guess I'm just not a part of it.
EDIT: Also, I haven't heard about it until I read this thread.
For starters, the visual style kind of puts me off. Everything just looks too plain and clean. I don't really feel like I'm looking at an epic JRPG, but a flash game that simulates mundane day-to-day activities. The audio doesn't help either (At least what's on the video on the Kickstarter page.
With first impression out of the way, the gameplay doesn't look very engaging. You just play as regular nameless civilians distinguished by their class names, fighting other nameless civilians. The attacks are also not very interestingly named or animated.
I'm guessing that it only starts up this way and builds up to some twist that starts the second act, but based on what I can see in the Kickstarter page, there really isn't anything that makes me want to learn more about it, let alone backing it.
If this style is supposed to attract a certain target audience, then I guess I'm just not a part of it.
EDIT: Also, I haven't heard about it until I read this thread.
I've never actually heard of it, so that's a thing. A quick flick through the page also doesn't have anything that really grabs me and on top of that, I already need to get around to backing 4 other things (which I won't mention the names of here, as that would be a bit of a dick move).
Plus this description of "cross between Earthbound, Pokemon and Suikoden," doesn't really do anything for me either since I have no attachment to any of those games. Same thing reading the team's credits and inspirations.
Good luck to the devs, though. While I'm not all that interested, I'd never wish failure on an honest Kickstarter campaign.
Plus this description of "cross between Earthbound, Pokemon and Suikoden," doesn't really do anything for me either since I have no attachment to any of those games. Same thing reading the team's credits and inspirations.
Good luck to the devs, though. While I'm not all that interested, I'd never wish failure on an honest Kickstarter campaign.
Well at first glances and videos:
It looks boring. You appear to run around the streets pointing and shouting, with occasional turn based combat.
It looks political. Nobody, especially Americans, want to deal with politics in this climate, even tongue in cheek fun.
It looks like a flash game I should be playing on my phone. Not even my 3ds. My PHONE.
Saying it's like a Jrpg. Jrpgs have been on the decline for quite awhile. Hard to drive up interest in a generation that has seen the genre bent over a barrel and money gouged for remakes and uninspired sequals.
Saying it's like Earthbound. Earthbound was never a big hit in America. Even with new remakes for the Wii it's still not huge, perhaps a cult following at best. The average players this generation don't know those games, or characters. I've had to explain to dozens of kids who Ness is because I got tired of them guessing in Super Smash Bros.
Saying it's like Pokemon. In Pokemon you collect fantastical creatures, with huge game mechanics. Moves, stats, breeding, evolutions, trading. In this you collect people, that look like... People. You certainly touch on Suikoden, tho I didn't see any base building or home improvement.
No explanation of the background story, or characters. Is there any customization? How many hours of gameplay are you shooting for? Longevity/replay?
It looks boring. You appear to run around the streets pointing and shouting, with occasional turn based combat.
It looks political. Nobody, especially Americans, want to deal with politics in this climate, even tongue in cheek fun.
It looks like a flash game I should be playing on my phone. Not even my 3ds. My PHONE.
Saying it's like a Jrpg. Jrpgs have been on the decline for quite awhile. Hard to drive up interest in a generation that has seen the genre bent over a barrel and money gouged for remakes and uninspired sequals.
Saying it's like Earthbound. Earthbound was never a big hit in America. Even with new remakes for the Wii it's still not huge, perhaps a cult following at best. The average players this generation don't know those games, or characters. I've had to explain to dozens of kids who Ness is because I got tired of them guessing in Super Smash Bros.
Saying it's like Pokemon. In Pokemon you collect fantastical creatures, with huge game mechanics. Moves, stats, breeding, evolutions, trading. In this you collect people, that look like... People. You certainly touch on Suikoden, tho I didn't see any base building or home improvement.
No explanation of the background story, or characters. Is there any customization? How many hours of gameplay are you shooting for? Longevity/replay?
I played the demo for a very short time, and found it to be tedious, from the go there is a lot of boring dialogue, I suppose it is supposed to be funny, but meh.
Once you start fighting there is very little you can do to influence the fight, and it takes way too long to navigate the menus and wait for the outcome.
It looks like a thousand other RPGs that follow the same formula of turn based team fighting, I see nothing that makes it stand out.
And why is the main character a politician if the game or the humour doesn't revolve around politics? None of the characters seem to have any distinct political views, if any political views at all.
You could have made the vice president a diehard neoliberal who is as grounded as the international space station, his brother a communist who blames the free market for any and all things that go against him and have weapon proficiencies for hammer and sickle, make them team up with a hippie who sit-down-strike the enemies into bewilderment and smoke some weed to regain health, etc. You would have taken flak for it, but it could have made the story interesting and funny, and marketing wise you are still way better off getting raged at than being ignored.
Once you start fighting there is very little you can do to influence the fight, and it takes way too long to navigate the menus and wait for the outcome.
It looks like a thousand other RPGs that follow the same formula of turn based team fighting, I see nothing that makes it stand out.
And why is the main character a politician if the game or the humour doesn't revolve around politics? None of the characters seem to have any distinct political views, if any political views at all.
You could have made the vice president a diehard neoliberal who is as grounded as the international space station, his brother a communist who blames the free market for any and all things that go against him and have weapon proficiencies for hammer and sickle, make them team up with a hippie who sit-down-strike the enemies into bewilderment and smoke some weed to regain health, etc. You would have taken flak for it, but it could have made the story interesting and funny, and marketing wise you are still way better off getting raged at than being ignored.
My personal opinion is the specific art style this game have.
Some of them will love it, some others we don't.
Personally I don't really care, but at the same time doesn't make me exciting.
Here is another example of what I mean:
Do you like the art style of this specific game?
For me........nope.....
That why also I didn't enjoy it....
Some of them will love it, some others we don't.
Personally I don't really care, but at the same time doesn't make me exciting.
Here is another example of what I mean:
Do you like the art style of this specific game?
For me........nope.....
That why also I didn't enjoy it....
Probably for the same reason the other kickstarters that people thought should get funding have failed; people are sick and tired of kickstarter and paying for empty air and promises generally. I'm not everyone but I'm sick and tired of buying games in alpha too. I think people would just rather exchange money for product. These schemes were always likely to be a bubble anyway, well it looks like it's burst.
Well, in short... That's the problem.not_you said:
Being brutally honest here, the game just doesn't seem interesting. Do not get me wrong, the graphics are beautiful, the drawing style is very interesting, the game really seems to have high quality in each aspect. I can see how much care and attention was placed on the various parts of the game. But the premise is simply not intriguing or motivating. I don't feel like playing the game, I don't care about the story, and the characters aren't really striking.
When compared, for example, with Earthbound, the difference becomes clear in the "charisma" of the game. For example, the fact that the protagonist in Earthbound was silent somehow ended up helping you in identifying yourself as him: you chose your name, the name of your friends, and even dog's name and your favorite food. It may seem silly, but it helped in building immersion. The story just seemed more fun with those crazy things like aliens and all the rest.
This game... I cannot explain really well. It just seems boring. I cannot seem to get interested in the protagonist, or the story. It may even have an interesting mood and it may even be that after a few hours of playtime I could get thrilled with everything - but what I can say is that this is not the first impression I got from it. And I suppose this could also be happening to other people .
I'm on the outside of this, I'm not really that into RPGs anymore. But just from a gamer in general, there have been so many Kickstarters recently that it's starting to become overwhelming. I like Kickstarter, I truly do. But from funding 10 different projects starting with Double Fine's Adventure and the last one being Mighty No 9, I've only received one game and one beta thus far while many of them seemed to be stuck in some kind of limbo.
Of course you know what you're getting into with a Kickstarter. It may never pay off, and you roll the dice when you drop down your money on the table. But the elation of helping a small team starts to wear off once you've put down for several only to have so few bear fruit.
Like I said, this isn't the kind of project that would interest me anyway. But if you're looking for answers regarding Kickstarter, that might be one thing to consider. Burn out is a problem in gaming more than most, and eventually funding loses it's charm. For me, I'm not Kickstarting anything else for a while. If Planetary Annihilation turns out alright, if Dead State ever goes live, if I ever see one of the two Double Fine games, then maybe I'll consider jumping back in. But timing is everything and a lot of people are saving up for new consoles or trying to weather the storm of the economy issues so prevalent in the US right now. Basically it's tough all over.
I wish the team luck though. I hope you guys meet your goal.
Of course you know what you're getting into with a Kickstarter. It may never pay off, and you roll the dice when you drop down your money on the table. But the elation of helping a small team starts to wear off once you've put down for several only to have so few bear fruit.
Like I said, this isn't the kind of project that would interest me anyway. But if you're looking for answers regarding Kickstarter, that might be one thing to consider. Burn out is a problem in gaming more than most, and eventually funding loses it's charm. For me, I'm not Kickstarting anything else for a while. If Planetary Annihilation turns out alright, if Dead State ever goes live, if I ever see one of the two Double Fine games, then maybe I'll consider jumping back in. But timing is everything and a lot of people are saving up for new consoles or trying to weather the storm of the economy issues so prevalent in the US right now. Basically it's tough all over.
I wish the team luck though. I hope you guys meet your goal.
Truth be told, original IPs do struggle quite badly in Kickstarter-space, there are people who won't give things like Hyper Light Drifter the time of day.
Also, I don't think it has been covered by major gaming sites much, simply put, it might just lack exposure.
Whatever they've got going with the mechanics of this, I think a lot of people, myself included, is extremely put off by the art style. It looks incredibly silly.
I don't think that's the kind of visuals or setting that would attract fans of the genres they claim to be emulating and combining.
I don't think that's the kind of visuals or setting that would attract fans of the genres they claim to be emulating and combining.