The Elysian Shadows Kickstarter has officially launched. Dubbed a “next-gen” 2D RPG, the game is slated to hit a number of platforms including our beloved SEGA Dreamcast. We spoke with the team back in June, and they definitely sound committed to the project – which will only happen if they hit their $150,000 goal. The Dreamcast release starts at the $49 level in the Standard Edition which comes in two flavors, signed and unsigned. The signed edition is limited to 100 copies. The $125 level features a Collector’s Edition of the game with several physical goodies that are only digital in the lower tiers. As far as stretch goals, should the project hit $400,000, the team plans to create a monster training VMU mini-game, while $500,000 will open to game up to the modding community (Dreamcast included).
Make sure to check out the project, and if it appeals to you, show your support!
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Considering how these people don’t seem to have released a full game yet, not sure if supporting this is recommendable…
Looks pretty legit to me though. Graphics look incredible. I’m gonna give it a shot for sure.
@TimmiT They may not have released a game, but they are some dedicated m*#)@(ers. Just go watch “Adventures in Game Development” on YouTube. These men mean serious business and have literally put their lives on hold to make this dream happen.
Yeah, I read that it’s taken them seven years so far. But it taking them so long is only more reason to be more concerned about it. More time spent doesn’t equal better quality, usually it just means that development is troubled. It’s even worse when it’s their first game.
It doesn’t help that they use tactics like “We’ll release it on the Dreamcast!” and “Pledge some money and get a Zelda “inspired” Master Sword!” or that they seem to focus more on the technical side of the graphics rather than actually knowing how to make a good looking game with sprites. Nothing about what they show looks new, it just looks like they messed around with lightning and particle effects a bunch and horribly squashed the sprites.
Considering we’ve been working on the game for years, and we’ve successfully developed our own multiplatform engine and toolkit development suite running on half a dozen platforms WHILE maintaining full-time jobs and attending graduate school, I don’t believe your skepticism is justified.
Not saying that you guys haven’t put effort into it, which I find admirable, but I’ll remain skeptical of the game’s quality as long as you guys can’t actually show that you can design games well. And I don’t really get that impression from your Kickstarter. All I get the impression of is a game that tries to be like old RPGs while adding effects without knowing how to use them well. Especially that 3D effect, which just plain looks terrible. If that’s not supposed to look like that, you probably shouldn’t be showing it off at this point because it’s appallingly bad.
Admittedly, I did misread how long it actually took you to make this game. You spent the last two years making the engine, which is still a long time. But I really don’t see anything impressive or promising in this. And being inexperienced in game development doesn’t just make me doubt on if you could make a good game, but also if you guys know how to handle the budget. Which is something you guys don’t even address on the Kickstarter page at all.
Dear Timmit,
The work Elysian Shadows team has been doing prior to only a month ago was while maintaining a full time job as well as attending grad school. Do you understand that?
So even if years were spent the actual time spent wasn’t that long. Falco and many others have already tendered their resignation and are now focusing full time.
Rest assured all your reservations will be addressed very soon :).
Dear cube_b3,
If you want to address all of my concerns, than actually make a reply that does that instead of answering questions I didn’t ask. I also acknowledged that two years is still a long time, so I don’t see why you’re trying to defend that as well.
Falco, you’re a beast. The amount of work and dedication you guys took to work on this is incredible and it truly shows, regardless of what people say. I understand that trying to do this while doing anything else must be extremely difficult and I appreciate that you guys are willing to do it! I can’t wait to play this game!
Completely disagree his skepticism is completely justified. Just because your team are technically sound it does not mean you have the ability to make a well rounded game with decent story-line, game play and graphics.
From the videos I’ve seen the only impression I get from your group is that you’re typical hobby game programmers, you all have loads of neat ideas week in week out and implement them in your engine, you persistently rewrite things, improve things but never actually complete a game!
Add to that the unprofessional-ism, the swearing and referring to your audience as “bitches”. Seriously? Big no no!
Anyhow I wish you all the best of luck and wait patiently to see if you can prove me wrong.
Well, I went ahead and pledged. I’m always up for helping get a new Dreamcast game made.
I will support this as soon as my salary will come.
I have followed falco and his team for a long time, and it is fantastic that you have come so long. It’s not that easy to make a game (especially from scratch). You need the knowledge, you need the time and you need money.
I try myself to make a game, but I’m on college, have a family and work, so the time I can spend on game development is very limited.
I ope the kickstarter will be successful, and I wish you good luck.
Been working on mine since 2005. Had equipment seized and end up downgrading. I will show something a little later on.
It is hard to this or anything like this when your in college. It is butter in hell. Being one kind of major can destroy or damage your ability to focus especially with the required core classes ( junk classes ). To make things worst you end up dealing with an college experience where you feel drained and unhappy.
Then of course is the classes that can make or brake your grades. Like (WI), language, and anything in those categories. When your expected to temporary memorize stuff; and make sense of it. Depending on your areas of interest it is like getting on bench press after have stopped working out for years. Your working with puddy instead of stone.
:: side-track begins ::
Going to a private school can have it’s advantages. If you have the funding. Just as long as they can ( AND WILL ) hook you up with work. That is why many people go away to college.
:: end of side-track ::
You just have to understand the effort of working on a project while trying to prove yourself useful to the outside world. It is not like they can win the lottery. Hire all the extra hands, arms, a-holes, etc, etc like big business can. They are limited in what ability knowledge and funding they have.
The creator of Ninja Giaden made his first game with his fathers computer. Which was a very powerful computer at the time.
A lesser famous programmer ( that made headlines ), did his first thing before he was even ten. Now he flys from place to place doing business.
Wolf-team started out when they were pre-teens. They
are rumored to have worked on the first Shin-Mega-Ten game. You think a pre-teen honestly could afford the equipment? Maybe inside school.
Jademan was less then age of consent when he was selling his first comics.
Their is one older guy who got funding and made his super big game. Not by his own hands. But his vision.
B-games ( Indie games ) are basically people using the little resources they have to accomplish a bigger goal.
From crappy sprites; laughable “3D” effects; generic storylines; cookie-cutter gameplay; to half-baked budgeting/stretch goals. This kick starter is shockingly bad and this “game” is all over the place. 7 years worth of work all for this? Smh…