The day has finally come. The three minute animated Kickstarter pitch video that Autumn Moon has been working on since April 2012 is finally finished, and A Vampyre Story: Year One is now live on Kickstarter!
The game, which is a prequel set in the first year that Mona is captive in Castle Warg, begins when she first meets Froderick the bat. It is an episodic adventure for Windows (on Facebook, Bill Tiller mentioned that the first episode will tentatively be called Spring, with the other three being the remaining seasons of Year One), using 2D backgrounds and 3D characters with a Curse of Monkey Island style verb coin interface, just like the original game. The first episode should be about one third the size of A Vampyre Story, and have about five total hours of game play.
The Kickstarter goal is $200,000 for episode one, and (according to the afforementioned Facebook page) the other episodes could be funded through this kickstarter as well, depending on how much money is pledged.
The minimum tier with the download of the first episode (for Windows, but Bill Tiller has stated that Linux, Mac, and iOS versions are a possibility if the Kickstarter does well enough) is available for only $8 (with beta access included!). If you pledge higher, you'll get a digital download of Pedro Macedo Camacho's soundtrack for the game at $25, a digital artbook at $50, a special collector's "big box" version (made with the dimensions of the Curse of Monkey Island box) at $100, a hardcover art book at $500, and even more goodies at the higher premium tiers. So, choose your tier and pledge your support for this classic style adventure game.
For those of you wondering about A Vampyre Story 2: A Bat's Tale, the reason that one's not being Kickstarted is because the rights lie with the publisher, Crimson Cow. But, Bill Tiller did mention on Facebook that if this Kickstarter does well, the chances of A Vampyre Story 2 coming out soon ("fall 2014 or sooner") go way up.
valkian
open-source friendly
I prefer the term "free software". Or "libre software", if I want to make clear it's about free as in freedom. Or "FLOSS", to be inclusive.
valkian
ANY well known and good game that's a linux exclusive
Why should there be? And if there was, I'd condem it. Portability is important.
valkian
Do you play games?
Now and then. Sometimes, I even use wine, reluctantly. If the game doesn't even work with wine, I don't play it.
valkian
How did you play say LucasArts games in the first place?
That was back in the early 90s, on Novell DOS. Before I knew GNU/Linux even existed.
I did use Windows 95 and Windows 98SE, but I switched to GNU/Linux in 2000.
Later, I replayed the LucasArts adventures thanks to a great piece of FLOSS, ScummVM.
My want to have adventure games work in a portable manner is one of the reasons I joined ScummVM in 2006, taking over the gob engine (for Coktel Vision games).
DrMcCoy
Am I being a bit of a dick about it? Sure, and I can live with that.
No, you are just not the crowd in crowd-funding, that's all. There have been countless games I've been unable to play yet because I don't have this or that console or because a version for my OS/console wasn't available at the time and yet the sole idea of me ever hoping for their failure would be quite laughable.
I know I'm going to regret starting a conversation such as this, but what the hell this is the internets and the trolls must be fed. I'm an occasional linux user, (and I'm as open-source friendly as the next guy and all that) and I'd be curious in knowing if there actually are ANY well known and good game that's a linux exclusive. Even now, with more Linux ports and versions available than ever, titles are scarce. Do you play games? How did you play say LucasArts games in the first place? If you love Linux, more power to you, I hope it keeps growing as a gaming platform but... I lost my train of thought. ;)
SAVE JASON!
In fact, you might even say, I actively hope for all projects without an announced Linux port to fail. Hell, even though I abhor Apple as much as I abhor Microsoft, I'd also hope for projects with an announced Linux, but no Mac OS X port to fail. Portability is very important to me.
Am I being a bit of a dick about it? Sure, and I can live with that.
That all is moot anyway, because, as I already said, have a credit card for Amazon Payment. I'd need to wait for a PayPal option, and that's most probably not coming before the kickstarter is fully funded, since there's no easy refunding with PayPal. If it comes at all: there's been some projects I would have liked to have backed but couldn't because there was no PayPal option.
DrMcCoy
No, that's not how it works. I'm not going to back something I might potentially not be able to play.
If the project doesn't reach the funding goal, it won't get made at all and there won't be any game to port to anything. That's how it works.
And Linux is not only the pinnacle of gaming, but the pinnacle of computing in general.
DrMcCoy
That's no argument for backing a game I wouldn't be able to play.
It's an argument against people using shitty nonportable engines. :)
"We’d also like to do a Linux version but again we have to wait till our new engine is upgraded first before we know how much that will cost." - Bill.
First, you should face the fact that Linux is far from the pinnacle of gaming (as far as demand and offer goes) and secondly you should back it if you'd like to see a linux version. :)
valkian
That depends entirely on which engine they are making the game in. Some make it far easier to make a Linux version/port than others.
That's no argument for backing a game I wouldn't be able to play.
It's an argument against people using shitty nonportable engines. :)
koosjebig
I hope he'll make it, it's pretty slow from the beginning....
I think we've been spoiled by Double Fine into believing that making 1 million/100k in a day is normal. It isn't, not at all. 10k in a day is pretty great (Kickstarter-wise). It might take them 15-20 days to reach the goal.
DrMcCoy
And both Massive Chalice and Armikrog have a Linux version announced up front.
That depends entirely on which engine they are making the game in. Some make it far easier to make a Linux version/port than others.
No Linux version, no money from me.
(Well, also, no PayPal option, no money from me, since I don't have a credit card for Amazon Payment)
DrMcCoy
No Linux version? Boooo.
Linux versions are always on the bottom. priority wise. But they'll surely make it if they raise enough money.
It's a great time for Kickstarter campaigns! Armikrog, Massive Chalice and now AVS! Hopefully they won't step on each other's toes.
It might not have been the brightest of ideas to launch the campaign on a Friday night, I think it has far better chances of getting more attention on a Monday (or a Sunday at midnight, if midnight was the logical desired time of launch).
Anyway, I hope AVS gets funded!