Peter Molyneux: Kickstarter destructive force that damaged Godus

[Bateluer]

http://www.techradar.com/news/gamin...-destructive-force-that-damaged-godus-1275205

"What I've learned is that doing Kickstarter and Steam Early Access, before you've got something which is defined and playable, is a hugely risky undertaking that can be very destructive to the final quality of the game," Molyneux told TechRadar.

"And if I had my time again, I wouldn't do Kickstarter at the start of development, I would do it at the end of development or towards the end of development. I'm not saying I would never do Kickstarter again, but if I was to do Kickstarter again, I would say 'look, we've done half the game, you can download this demo, you can play the game. You know what the game's going to be, now we're going to take it from this point to this point.'"

No . . no Peter. Godus being a god awful pay to win pile of crud damaged it.

But, in the second quoted paragraph, he's kinda right. One shouldn't do a Kickstarter at the beginning at the of development. You've got nothing to show but smoke and promises. You do your Kickstarter after you've got something to show off.

 

[MeldarthX]

Depends Bateluer; look at some very successful kickstarters. Wasteland 2; excellent game; there are some issues; but damn thing is fun.

Project Eternity; Tides of Neb; Shroud of the Avatar; Chris Robert's monster.

All were concepts; all are moving forward; or released well.

Peter's game was a pile of crap pay to win........that was the issue. If people knew it was going to be pay to win; most wouldn't of touched it......look at the rest. They are making awesome games.....

 

[MeldarthX]

also forgot Shadowrun 2 and its expansion *which is better than the original* Dragonfall......sooo soo good

 

[Bateluer]

Depends Bateluer; look at some very successful kickstarters. Wasteland 2; excellent game; there are some issues; but damn thing is fun.

Project Eternity; Tides of Neb; Shroud of the Avatar; Chris Robert's monster.

All were concepts; all are moving forward; or released well.

Peter's game was a pile of crap pay to win........that was the issue. If people knew it was going to be pay to win; most wouldn't of touched it......look at the rest. They are making awesome games.....

Eternity, Numenara, Shroud, Star Citizen and others had working products with established development teams when they started their kick starters. By 'working product', I mean they had code in place, they weren't showing off concept art only, like Braid McQuiad's failed Rise of the Fallen MMO.

 

[MeldarthX]

Not sure how Braid's Rise of the Fallen has failed as its still in production. I'm actually very interested in that; loved both EQ and VG. VG was sad for me because there was so much potential there wasted.

Braid also screwed up there; admitted as much as learned from it. and showing he can learn from it.

Peter.....bless him - nope doesn't learn it seems......he's got great ideas; just no idea to mesh them out......

 

[Red Storm]

Tried to play this game on Android. Wouldn't take me past the initial screen, kept telling me I wasn't authorized or some such. So I uninstalled it and moved on.

 

[Bateluer]

Not sure how Braid's Rise of the Fallen has failed as its still in production. I'm actually very interested in that; loved both EQ and VG. VG was sad for me because there was so much potential there wasted.

Braid also screwed up there; admitted as much as learned from it. and showing he can learn from it.

Peter.....bless him - nope doesn't learn it seems......he's got great ideas; just no idea to mesh them out......

His KS for it failed. Studio also had serious financial problems, most staff are laid off. Its being developed by 'a crack team of volunteers' right now, based on his last email update. Unless it picks up some outside money, its as good as dead.

 

[brandonb]

Brad's unsuccessful Kick-start was not because he has a bad idea or a bad product. In fact, Brad makes excellent games. However, his history is sketchy and nobody wants to invest in a time bomb. Personally, I'd rather kick start a project like his with a 100% amateur (and unknown) team than take a chance with Brad. He is the reason it failed.

Peter is almost in the same boat. While his character is better than Brad, he has a reputation of always over promising and under delivering. He is a hype machine. Take Fable 1 the RPG game. He promised it would knock the socks off of every RPG lover. I bought it, I played it. I beat it in a day or two. Outside of one battle with a Kraken which was kind of cool, it was really forgettable and an uninspired RPG. I wouldn't even rank it in my top 10 or even top 20 of RPGs. I loved Populous growing up and even enjoyed Populous 3. I didn't like Black and White. Peter should stick to a simple and fun mechanics like Populous, and stop trying to make the grandest game. I remember Black and White having a stats screen that would list how many lines of code the game has run so far in the game session. There was no need to track that, nobody cares. But Peter thinks that is somehow a measure for how awesome his game is. Bleh.

 

[SMOGZINN]

But, in the second quoted paragraph, he's kinda right. One shouldn't do a Kickstarter at the beginning at the of development. You've got nothing to show but smoke and promises. You do your Kickstarter after you've got something to show off.

I disagree, I think kickstarter is about getting funding for something that would not exist otherwise, not about getting free money for game designers.

 

[Red Storm]

I disagree, I think kickstarter is about getting funding for something that would not exist otherwise, not about getting free money for game designers.

This. KS is best used as a way to gauge market interest in your product before putting serious work into it.

 

[Subyman]

Peter Molyneux + Kickstarter userbase is about the most toxic brew I could think of. Peter always, always, always over promises and Kickstarter people are hugely vocal about any tiny inconsistency in the initial pitch and the game in development.

Really, this is a match made in hell and worked out exactly as it should have.

 

[TidusZ]

In this case they promised a PC game and then developed a standard mobile pay2win with hours of waiting before you can do anything unless you pay money. I always thought molyneux made mostly bad games but this was just dirty.

 

[darkewaffle]

This. KS is best used as a way to gauge market interest in your product before putting serious work into it.

I wouldn't agree with that at all. I think KS should be used to take an idea in the early stages of development and [try to] obtain the resources needed to progress it, not as a marketing tool to see if the money is there for an idea or not. The latter sounds like a recipe for a failed project due to a lack of commitment and investment on the dev side and is ironically similar the "money over everything" mentality that people complain about major studios subscribing to so heavily lol.

 

[Rakehellion]

Of course he's not making any effort to actually fix the game now that he sees the problem.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Not sure how Braid's Rise of the Fallen has failed as its still in production. I'm actually very interested in that; loved both EQ and VG. VG was sad for me because there was so much potential there wasted.

Braid also screwed up there; admitted as much as learned from it. and showing he can learn from it.

Peter.....bless him - nope doesn't learn it seems......he's got great ideas; just no idea to mesh them out......

Rise of the fallen on kick starter was essentially some art work and a bunch of lofty goals that many have tried and failed at. This is what turned me off to rise of the fallen.

 

[JumBie]

http://www.techradar.com/news/gamin...-destructive-force-that-damaged-godus-1275205



No . . no Peter. Godus being a god awful pay to win pile of crud damaged it.

But, in the second quoted paragraph, he's kinda right. One shouldn't do a Kickstarter at the beginning at the of development. You've got nothing to show but smoke and promises. You do your Kickstarter after you've got something to show off.

Peter Molyneux is washed up, people need to stop tossing his name around like hes relevant anymore. Most of his recent work is complete trash and he hasn't made a decent game in years. Not to mention that fact that hes a pathological liar.

 

[mizzou]

I loooved black & white. I loved it more as a physics sandbox then a RTS though.

 

[Bateluer]

I wouldn't agree with that at all. I think KS should be used to take an idea in the early stages of development and [try to] obtain the resources needed to progress it, not as a marketing tool to see if the money is there for an idea or not. The latter sounds like a recipe for a failed project due to a lack of commitment and investment on the dev side and is ironically similar the "money over everything" mentality that people complain about major studios subscribing to so heavily lol.

That can work as well. Warhorse did this with Deliverance because their private investor didn't believe the game had a market and no publisher wanted to pick it up because it lacked magic and dragons. Their highly successful KS proved there is a market for the game.

 

[TidusZ]

I loooved black & white. I loved it more as a physics sandbox then a RTS though.

I got sucked into the hype on that game and after beating it despite getting 10 fps I wanted to trade it in and was offered $5 by electronics boutique even though it was only out a few days. My friend hyped it day in day out and the final product was just not a very good game. You would think he created the world's first AI from the hype but it was really just a pretty simple strategy game with a lot of waiting.

The last molyneux game that I think was good was dungeon keeper 17 years ago

 

[exar333]

I got sucked into the hype on that game and after beating it despite getting 10 fps I wanted to trade it in and was offered $5 by electronics boutique even though it was only out a few days. My friend hyped it day in day out and the final product was just not a very good game. You would think he created the world's first AI from the hype but it was really just a pretty simple strategy game with a lot of waiting.

The last molyneux game that I think was good was dungeon keeper 17 years ago

This.

My roommate and I bought into the hype for B&W and bought it on release day. We struggled through it for a week or two, really trying hard to like it and 'give it a chance'. It was a pile.

Not surprised this turned-out the way it did. Even worse to blame KS, honestly. Molyneux had some good (even great) games in the 90s but just hasn't been able to move into the modern age and even make a 'good' game IMHO.

Edit: I fell for the hype again with Fable and HATED it beyond belief. The only game I ever traded-in to GameStop, and I literally did the next day. Threw-out the game guide and just cut my losses. Just a pile of crap.

 

[Midwayman]

This. KS is best used as a way to gauge market interest in your product before putting serious work into it.

Right, but you'd do it after vertical slice. Same place that you'd get greenlit by the execs at a traditional gaming company. Put together enough to show proof on concept with a small team and then the real work starts.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

People seem to forget that kickstarter is a donation based system and that the rewards aren't guranteed. Yes, there's risk involved that's implicit with the service, the problem is people treating kickstarter like they deserve something in return.

As for Peter, I don't really know what's talking about, if you can't correctly budget for an entire game on kickstarter then how do you intend to budget for 1/2 a game on kickstarter? You can either budget or you can't...he obviously couldn't

 

[DaveSimmons]

He and Derek Smart should get together to work on something.

Most of the games I've helped fund were not half-finished. They had a design document, concept art, and maybe a scene they put into the Unity engine. But they also had a solid plan and the self-discipline to carry it out.

It's his fault that he apparently had no real design before he started the KS. So I guess I can agree with this snippet "before you've got something which is defined", but other developers did not need the "and playable" part.

Without KS, I wouldn't be able to play Wasteland 2, Divinity, Shadowrun. KS 3: Peter 0.

 

[Craig234]

This.

My roommate and I bought into the hype for B&W and bought it on release day. We struggled through it for a week or two, really trying hard to like it and 'give it a chance'. It was a pile.

Not surprised this turned-out the way it did. Even worse to blame KS, honestly. Molyneux had some good (even great) games in the 90s but just hasn't been able to move into the modern age and even make a 'good' game IMHO.

Edit: I fell for the hype again with Fable and HATED it beyond belief. The only game I ever traded-in to GameStop, and I literally did the next day. Threw-out the game guide and just cut my losses. Just a pile of crap.

You're in luck, you can buy a Fable remake now, better graphics.

 

[Craig234]

I actually backed this game by Peter in KS, but haven't ever followed up like getting a key. It did look pretty disappointing when I saw more, but not a big surprise.