Off Topic Productions

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/212 ... nquistador
Click to see our presentation video and our excellent game trailer!

This is what I've been doing for the past 4 months. It's not Off Topic Productions, but there's some overlap - Leo Badinella is making all the music and Jason "Phasmatis" Cooke is animating our characters. You'll notice that both of these aspects of the game are in excellent condition, as is the gameplay and the narrative, the creation of which I am in charge of.

I think most of you regulars have a pretty good idea of what sort of game this is, but hit me with any questions you want and I will answer everything. I would really really really appreciate any sort of money you can throw at this project, and if you can't afford to pledge yourself, a little bit of help with word-of-mouth PR would go a long way - if you frequent any other forums where people might be interested in this sort of thing (I'm looking at you, RPG Codexers), make a post and make me happy. We suck at PR, so we can use help, frankly.

Yeah this is what I'm reduced to: coming here with my hat in my hand to ask for your money and your help. Well hey, such is the price of going full niche this project is... not exactly mainstream.

I usually avoid this sort of thing because drawing comparisons between a WIP game and existing games involves a great risk of people taking away the wrong lessons, but here is a brief list of games that serve as inspirations and touch stones for Conquistador, in no particular order:

• Fallout 2
• Jagged Alliance 2
• The Oregon Trail
• Planescape: Torment
• King's Bounty: Armoured Princess
• King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame
• Etc.

And to give you a brief idea of what state the project is currently in: we've got the whole first campaign, complete with branching storyline and long-term choice and consequence on even the most insignificant choices you make (remember TNM? Bit like that - not quite at that level yet, but there's still time). We've got a dialogue system tied to our own in-house conversation editor / scripting tool. We've got a whole tactical combat system with flanking, cover, traps and barricades, special abilities, and a rudimentary AI. We've got a dynamic trading system. We've got a triage system (ie. treatment of injured and diseased followers). We've got six character classes out of 10 (soldier, hunter, doctor, warrior, trapper, shaman) and six weapons out of eight (sword & shield, maquahuitl, huitzauhqui, knife/dagger, arquebus (matchlock rifle), bow/aztec bow). We've got an intro cinematic, a title screen, various game menus, etc. etc. We're in good shape! But we're also out of money, and we've all been working for free for the last month. The only people getting paid in August are the two people in the office who aren't either student interns or owners of the company, meaning Daniel and Casper - the rest of us will continue to work for no money, because there is no money left.

So yeah, let me know if you have any questions, and please do throw in some funds if you have any to spare.

Cheers.

Don't mind if I do!

Hey, that's a nice trailer. Also what Trestkon said.

Next Friday it'll have to be. Have you approached RPS, since they're doing a weekly kickstarter column?

Pledged.

I don't have any money to spare (I'm just a poor kid). But I can help by posting it on another forum so more people see it.

So...2500 in the first 24 hours. That's not terrible, but there's a long way to go

In "Indie Game: The Movie" they estiamted that a project would need to sell 10k copies in the first 24 hours to be successful.
You uh...you probably need to partner with some podcasts. You probably need to get the attention of some of the regular game podcasts that draw a decent chunk of listeners.

I assume you put something up on some subreddits already?

I think you can make it, but you probably need to make it your business to reach out to new podcasters and bloggers every day for the entire duration of the kickstarter...

Jaedar wrote:Pledged.

Thank you Jaedar!

shadowblade34 wrote:I don't have any money to spare (I'm just a poor kid). But I can help by posting it on another forum so more people see it.

I appreciate it

AEmer wrote:In "Indie Game: The Movie" they estiamted that a project would need to sell 10k copies in the first 24 hours to be successful.

Yeah but that doesn't really apply to Kickstarter.

You uh...you probably need to partner with some podcasts. You probably need to get the attention of some of the regular game podcasts that draw a decent chunk of listeners.

That would probably be good, but other than... I dunno, TotalBiscuit? I don't really know of any podcasters. I don't listen to any, myself.

I assume you put something up on some subreddits already?

No, I probably will on Monday but I'm a little worried about how it'll come across, Reddit don't tend to appreciate self-promotion.

Jonas wrote:

You uh...you probably need to partner with some podcasts. You probably need to get the attention of some of the regular game podcasts that draw a decent chunk of listeners.

That would probably be good, but other than... I dunno, TotalBiscuit? I don't really know of any podcasters. I don't listen to any, myself.

Try and see if you can get onto the Atomic Facepalm podcast. It's the same as the old Game Central one that you did the Deus Ex anniversary discussion, just a different name and a few different people
Link's here http://www.atomicfacepalm.com/ Or you can just ask Chris Comiskey on Twitter. He'll most likely say yes. That'll bring a few backers.

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Jonas wrote: That would probably be good, but other than... I dunno, TotalBiscuit? I don't really know of any podcasters. I don't listen to any, myself.

If you could get on one of totalbuscuits videos you'd prob have the funding you need in a day.

Oh and you could probably do an interview with the codex if you wanted. It IS a prestigious magazine after all.

Totally fishing for an RPG Codex interview

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.ph ... rter.74830

It's going surprisingly well over there.

I'd give you money if I personally had money to give.

Jonas wrote:Totally fishing for an RPG Codex interview

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.ph ... rter.74830

It's going surprisingly well over there.

Awesome, there seem to be lovers of old style RPGs at RPS and PC Gamer. How would one *cough* bring up the topic without being being accused of spamming?

Well you're not affiliated with the company, so as long as you don't repeat the post over and over again they can hardly accuse you of spamming! You're just calling an interesting project to their attention, right?

RPS already covered the Kickstarter in their weekend Katchup post though. It did very little for our traffic because it was such a small mention, but we'll send them a playable build next week and hopefully that'll inspire them to give us a proper write-up