We’ll be going over all of our kickstarter updates.
May 2014 Kickstarter Update #2. This is when it was just Tyrell, me, Ricky and Mark.
We also brought on a tile artist, Hannah, and someone to do sound effects, Zach.
Chris is still a student so we don’t know how things will pan out. We hope to keep him on board!
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Hello everyone!
My name is Tyrell White on the Internet I go by the name Trexrell. We would just like to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts that we truly are thankful for every last one of you who has backed us so far. We have seen a lot of interest in our project and we intend on getting our game funded this time around.
We want our backers to have the utmost confidence in what we are doing so we want you to really get a strong understanding of what the funding is going into.
Art and Animation
30% for art and animation
When we mention art and animation, we are talking about the character art and motion comic cut scenes that we showcased at the end of the trailer. We feel if we want to be respected in any gaming community we have to bring every aspect to and above standards. So as far as presentation and overall execution we believe it is a necessity to have these assets. We owe our artist Ricky Gunawan for his dedication and just magnificent skill to not only challenge our pixel work but bring our ideas to life like we always imagined at the beginning. He has done everything from the beautiful battle backgrounds to our extremely well done logo.
We also have Christopher Lewin who has just recently joined our team. He is our animator and effects person. Right off the bat he has really impressed us with his work on the motion comic. The effects and animation he has put into it is really professional and he works very well with little supervision.
If you missed the motion comic here it goes right here.
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In this project the animation and art are very heavy. We have a lot of assets that need to be made like the battle backgrounds and battle animations just to name a few.
Music
10% for music
In jrpgs music is very important. A lot of time dialogue is just not enough. In most of the memorable titles we have played you always remember the music. Final Fantasy VII entire soundtrack is a master piece as well as Suikoden 2 with its Necklord theme and the emotional “Reminiscence” it is hard to forget the events and character because the music connected them to you so well. That is why we have acquired Mark McKeich not only has he remixed our older tracks to match his style. He has created new ones to really capture your attention and get you to remember the people, places, and events where the music played.
This is one of my personal favorites. This is one of the original tracks when we first started Demon’s Revenge. Mark remixed this one very well and it is the song my wife Yin introduced me to that really had me excited to work on it.
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Tiles
10% for tiles
For those who are unfamiliar with the term tiles. It is used to express the pixel work of square tile that make up the map or over world. This can include grass, sand, water, and trees to name a few. Although my wife and I are pixel artist we cannot do it alone. So we enlisted the help of Hannah Wahlquist. She has joined our team and has done some phenomenal work. All of the tiles will not be delegated to Hannah we have set a budget of what we will be getting from her. She is enthusiastic about working with us and we are really glad to have her supplement our work.
Living Expenses
18% Living Expenses
We included this in our goal because we wanted to be honest. Although I would love to work on this project full time I still plan on working part time. I am a hard worker and whatever I do I set my standards high. My wife will be doing the full time work on the game. We are the developers and the other guys are paid in commission. Together we do everything from mapping, coding, pixel art, story, concept, to game theory and development. We have already discussed the rates to which we will be doing business and we have confidence on how we plan to use our time. The living expenses will be used so that we can build all the assets uninterrupted in 6 months.
Example of in-game cut scenes that my wife and I collaborate on.
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Time Management
We do not want to set false expectations on a release date as we have been around long enough to see that a years’ time is not enough for a JRPG. When things like bug fixes, testing, and overall quality control could take a few months. Our Artist Ricky works extremely fast and I will not be surprised if the bulk of his work gets done before 6 months. We set our completion time to the 4th Quarter of 2015, so we expect to be done with the assets of the game art, music, animation, and pixel work in 6 months after funding. The funding allows for us to work uninterrupted through that time and to get the bulk of the work done.
As we get the assets through those first 6 months, Yin will also be developing the game. Most of the coding is complete. Any other small coding jobs and bug fixes that Yin cannot figure out on her own will be delegated to a freelance coder. We have spoken to several but with the game in its current state there is no need as of yet. Yin has enough experience to handle it and if we need it that will be handled with my income. Once we reach that point and have all the assets to work with the game should be 50% done. In another 6 to 8 months the game should be complete. The remaining time that we will have will be used to do any testing and fixing that we will need to handle within that time. We also will be marketing our game at that time and we will find a suitable release date within those final months of 2015.
Backer Rewards
18% Backer Rewards
There are a lot of other Physical things we would love to offer but we planed everything accordingly. We do not want to over extend our funding. It would be cool to offer collectible figurines, hats, t-shirts and other things that we researched, but we really want to keep that stuff to a minimum. We want to have plenty to pay for it without cutting into the actual funding for the project. We do want to offer things that you can get as soon as possible, posters will be available and if we get further funding we may start to offer other things like T-shirts if you all are interested.
Kickstarter & Amazon fees
10% Kickstarter & Amazon fees
This can go without being said. The Kickstarter and Amazon fees have already been deduced in our funding goal as far as we have planned. We have researched it and we are confident that we know how much we are going to end up with. Aside from those fees we have also witness backers dropping and cards declining so we already know what to expect.
Final Word
I would love to work full time on this project. It is my dream to be a full time game developer and nothing will make me happier to do so. We are working our behinds off right now trying to make this happen. As a kid I always wanted to make comics and video games. Doing it now on such a high level just blow me away. Thanks to everyone who pledge so far we cannot do it without your help.
Spread the word let people know of our great project. I am so excited for this and I want everyone to know that we are trying to do something great! Please continue to show your support and love by tweeting, sharing and posting our Kickstarter!
Other Kickstarters we think are great
“Help Pip evolve from a single pixel with only a hop to a full-fledged sword wielding hero as he defends Pixel Kingdom from evil!” This game is full of innovation. The sprites are really well done. Seeing the single sprite become a fully animated hero is a really new and impressive idea. Not to mention giant boss battles. This game is full of adventure.Adventures of Pip is set to be released on PC, Mac, Wii U, and Xbox One.
Ever knew kids knew more about Pokemon than actual animals? Neither did I. That is where Sjors Jansen and his game animal album comes in. This game drops the fighting and focuses on learning about real animals and their place in the world. Throw in some charming pixel art and you have a fantastic idea.
