Howdy! New to the forum, and curious about some rules.
We're an independent game developer studio, and we're curious if it's ok to share our kickstarter project in this forum?
Our project is inspired by Ender's Game, and we're wondering if sharing our project would be welcome here. Feedback appreciated.
[ April 07, 2012, 12:21 PM: Message edited by: Mercenary Games ]
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
solicitation of any type in against the TOS of this site, IIRC.
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
Thanks Kwea, I'll contact the moderators about it as well.
We do understand the TOS and forms of solicitation. We do however, still feel strongly about sharing our project with the Hatrack community.
We'll use the proper channels, thanks for answering the post Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mercenary Games: We do however, still feel strongly about sharing our project with the Hatrack community.
...or anyone with $5.
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
Not just "anyone". We're looking for gamers in this community. We're not here to pan handle, nor beg.
We want to demonstrate our concepts and prototypes if we are allowed the privilege.
[ April 07, 2012, 10:03 AM: Message edited by: Mercenary Games ]
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
You want the chance to advertise for free. We understand this- no need to be coy. Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
We understand
We are not being coy. We do take this seriously, since it is treading a grey area in the rules of your community. We asked for this in the "culture" section since projects on Kickstarter address a culture, and a community.
We do not intend to intrude, nor do we wanna come off as presumptuous indies. We are simply asking the court for an audience.
We're an independent crew, we don't have corporate interests. We're not here to "market", we're here to share, if given the privilege.
We've also asked for the privilege kindly, and we have contacted the moderators about it.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
It's a kick starter project right? So your asking for money. So saying you want a chance to "share" is being rather coy. Were you wanting to share a finished fan project of some kind, not for profit, then I think you wouldn't be met with this skepticism. But I think I know what the mod will say here. Nothing against your enthusiasm, I just think you're wasting your time. It was very considerate of you not to spam, so I don't think you've done wrong at all.
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
Thank you for the considerate rebuttal, allow me to retort in kind.
We're not here for the money neither. Our kickstarter project has no "profit motive", we're more about survival, and testing our ideas in front of an audience.
If allowed, we would love to see feedback on our concept. We want show some prototype videos, and not the kickstarter page itself. We understand how money issues screw up any honest discussion.
Thank you for answering honestly. But please understand, we're an independent crew, and we have to reach out to as many communities as we can.
The reaction from this community is important to us, since this has to be the die-hard Ender's Game forum What better place to test our concept!
I hope this isn't coming off as arrogant. We simply want to be heard.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
We understand.
We do not intend to intrude.
We will not be denied.
Am I the only one whose inner monologue is reading this in the voice of Legion?
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
@AchillesHeel
"We will not be denied".
We are awaiting your judgement.
Axe us, or allow us an audience at court.
We are just humble mercenaries.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Why is he reading progressively more like Thor?
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
>Why is he reading progressively more like Thor?
Really?
Pardon us if our tone is getting strange. We've been hitting forums all over the world. We're exhausted, and our project can't afford to blink.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
I suspect your problem here is going to be less anti-spam rules and more copyright/trademark related.
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Members have shared kickstarter projects in the past, and have in fact flat out solicited money (the more benign examples are Papa Moose's pre eclampsia walk). Don't see why this is any different.
It's not spam, since it's directed specifically towards us by a human being, and they're not being punkish about it, since they asked permission.
They've been a lot more polite than most of the responses, as far as I can see.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
I doubt there's going to be any trademark or cr issues, since it's just inspired by ender's game.
Mercenary: just give me a link to information about what it is you are proposing/advertising/whatever. People solicit here all the time.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: Members have shared kickstarter projects in the past, and have in fact flat out solicited money (the more benign examples are Papa Moose's pre eclampsia walk). Don't see why this is any different.
It's not spam, since it's directed specifically towards us by a human being, and they're not being punkish about it, since they asked permission.
They've been a lot more polite than most of the responses, as far as I can see.
Bingo.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
JT, this is money solicitation, not for charity. Papa Moose was raising money for a charity. This is of course a hip and friendly way of soliciting money from people, but nonetheless. I understand that this group is interested in "sharing" and raising fan awareness of their project... so that they can get money pledged and keep it going. Do we allow solicitation for money on this site if it is done politely?
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
@Samprimary : I sent you a PM/email of our youtube channel.
Since I do not have moderators permission to post directly to this thread, I'll work with your PM system.
Thank you for acknowledging our courtesy Other forums on the web have been outright brutal and unfair.
We wanna earn this communities trust first, and we won't intrude.
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
>JT : I understand that this group is interested in "sharing" and raising fan awareness of their project... so that they can get money pledged and keep it going. Do we allow solicitation for money on this site if it is done politely?
I completely understand where your coming from.
I wanted to be honest about the post, if we didn't show that we were a kickstarter project, we would have been seen as subversive. We don't want that.
However, we aren't concerned with getting backers directly from posting here. We'd like to show our prototypes on youtube first. Showing our prototypes, and seeing your reactions to the prototypes is my current mission, not primarily getting backed.
We were just open about being a kickstarter project, but pitching the project here goes against your rules.
So, we'd like to focus on the prototypes, and nothing else. I hope that's a fair assessment.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: JT, this is money solicitation, not for charity. Papa Moose was raising money for a charity.
That's still a solicitation, and the TOS makes no distinction between solicitation for charity and solicitation for personal projects. Yet it gets done anyway. As usual, the TOS saying something is not allowed means pretty much nothing.
Merc: I'm trying to analyze the videos in terms of a proof of concept for the gameplay. I assume the enemies aren't going to just stand there. What is it, like, waves you have to have the beam reflections calibrated on well enough to destroy them before they can launch an attack?
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
> Merc: I'm trying to analyze the videos in terms of a proof of concept for the gameplay. I assume the enemies aren't going to just stand there. What is it, like, waves you have to have the beam reflections calibrated on well enough to destroy them before they can launch an attack?
The concept trailer just shows the capabilities of our game engine at the moment. We are able to create unique combat maneuvers and battle formations. These maneuvers are created by the player through a "fleet editor", where they can design maneuvers and save them to a file.
In gameplay, the player can execute the maneuvers they created with one click.We're creating this fleet editor tool as part of our core gameplay mechanic.
Think in current RTS's, the way you select units requires you to select a "blob" of units, and sending them somewhere. This is utterly unorganized.
In our fleet control system, the player doesn't have a "blob", they have an organized set of units, with directions, angles, and positions calibrated by the player. Each maneuver is then executed by clicking it on. The ships adjust themselves to the next set of position data automatically, instead of having the player reposition everything by mouse spamming on single units.
We feel this mechanic matches the ideals described in the book.
Posted by Mercenary Games (Member # 12814) on :
A note about the "beam reflections". We made one of our ships have a particle accelerator, and another ship have shields that are able to reflect the beam.
We feel that RTS games don't do enough when it comes to weapon design. In the context of fleet maneuvers and positioning, being able to trace a beam from a specific formation gives the player precision when launching weapons. You won't have to think about aiming the beam over and over, since you already calibrated those positions inside a fleet editor tool.
The prototype only shows one of our weapons, we still have to create prototypes for the weapon systems on all the ships.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
If you're interested in the project but feel hesitant due to the somewhat volatile nature of this thread, my own curiosity has proven you can find it pretty easily by Googling Mercenary Games, Kickstarter, and Ender's Game.
DISCLAIMER:
I am in no way affiliated with Mercenary Games or any of its subsidies.
Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
Sure, Steve, that's what you say.
Wake up, sheeple!
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dan_Frank: Sure, Steve, that's what you say.
Wake up, sheeple!
What are you trying to do? end the world? Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
AH, you might want to check out the Vaccination thread. Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
Dagnabit.
I honestly hadn't looked into the vaccination debate because I have no experience or personal stock in any of it. I have no kids and work nights, I deal with kids as minimally as possible for someone who works in customer service in a city.
Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
Heh, that's fair. You get full credit for hitting on the same reference independently, then. Posted by JanitorBlade (Member # 12343) on :
I don't know how but somehow this thread escaped my notice, actually being contacted might have helped.
If you want to discuss your concepts with people here, fine. People can PM you if they want the particulars, or Google.
I'm generally more amenable to people linking to things like charitable donations or kickstarters if they are established members, and it's clearly not their primary purpose being here to push that angle.
Again, you're welcome to discuss your game, and I am comfortable with people PMing you for links/info. Don't link anything directly here for now.
Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
Well MG, at least you know now that none of us actually thought you were spamming enough to report it.
Posted by CT (Member # 8342) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mercenary Games: Thanks Kwea, I'll contact the moderators about it as well. ... We'll use the proper channels, thanks for answering the post
and
quote:Originally posted by Mercenary Games: We've also asked for the privilege kindly, and we have contacted the moderators about it.
If [these] hadn't been at the top of the thread, I would've flagged it for you, JB. I bet others would have as well. I just didn't want you flooded with flags.
---
Mercenary Games, welcome to Hatrack.
How did you try to contact the moderators through proper channels? Did you forget in the excitement of things, [or perhaps did you not think to mention you had also started a thread about it]? Something broke down in the system, and though it is minor, we should identify the problem. Thanks.
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