Kickstarter

Kickstarter Proposal

These are my rough thoughts on what a kickstarter to rewrite the game engine could look like. Feedback/modification is appreciated

Need for a Kickstarter

Currently, the game engine is heavily outdated (being in continually development by Teppy since inception of the game) and there are many key elements missing from the game's source files (damaged/lost models being one key example). Funding is needed to bring ATITD into the modern era of graphics, improving performance, and making the overall platform stable and maintainable (which it currently is not). Exact funding is to be determined by Pluribus, as he has insight into the financials of Pluribus Games.

Feedback on Goals

I honestly think the community can't really contribute here unless the goal amount is done, even a back of the envelope. Like, are we talking about adding another full-time dev for a year, plus a part-time artist for a year? -- Eimear

With the information I've gathered, from a single email response and what's in the Fireside chats and ENN, the rewrite would be pretty extensive and require significant developer time. It sounds like either a conversion from the existing Egenesis rendering engine to either a new rendering engine, or to use an existing 3rd party (which would probably be faster but carries its own issues). We'd need Pluribus's input on what is needed there, as he has the code. It's certain that artists of some sort (not my specialty, but modelers for certain) are needed to replace the lost files. I imagine at a minimum he'd need 1-2 developers for a few months to a year to do the upgrade, as well as a handful of artsy people of various sorts for graphic related things (not sure on time commitments there). Its definitely not "cheap" by any means, but it is needed, or T7/T8 might be it for this game (which none of us want). --Dresdor

Pluribus's Stated Opinion on the difficulty of a Kickstarter

In a Fireside chat (2016-03-14 00:13:52), Pluribus stated:

Pluribus: A: A successful kickstarter requires more than just desire and clicking the "Start a Kickstarter" button. It requires a significant time and resource investment to develop the plan, make videos to attract donors, constant attention to providing feedback and changes as the campaign progresses. It ALSO requires a base of donors who are willing donate considerably above and beyond the average person who would play the game in order to properly fund it. Without EITHER the time and money investments to run the campaign or the donor base, then the campaign is a waste of time/resources. When I consider that fully 1/3 of the players who have quit and answered the exit poll have stated financial reasons for quiting, I am not convinced that there is good chance of funding an engine redevelopment.

This page is in part to help alleviate the planning portion of the kickstarter, and show that there is a base of backers who would fund this idea.

Community as a Resource

One of the consistent benefits that ATITD has going for it is the large community. This is a group of people who come together to help one another out and create each new telling. For players of this game, many names are household (going to shout out Ariella for helping me get started in T4) for players of the game. Who hasn't had a strain of Tedra flax or vines? Or an Ariella/Pascalito Lilly? There are dozens of players who have skills useful for this game and who are more than willing to contribute their skills if it means Egypt continuing into the future. Not to mention that we get passionate about this game, and that passion will drive others towards it.

Need for New Players

This game is in need of new players and drawing back in existing or former players who are no longer subscribed. Pluribus has said clearly that the financials for the game are not in a good condition (particularly if he and his family enjoy eating and living in a house). This game should be more than capable of supporting itself if its playerbase is built up with enough left over for Pluribus & Family to live comfortably.

Existing Client and Game as a Deterrent

I've read a number of reviews over the years (one published as recently as January) that bring to light some of the issues of new players. The ones I've seen recently are:

• Game Client looks like it is from the early 2000's (because it is).
• Performance is terrible (caused by the old render engine running in a fixed pipeline vs fully programmable pipeline)
• New players are largely left to fend for themselves with no real direction. The tests are guidelines, but honestly, very few players will attempt every test. There's so much going on that new players are left lost, unless they are picked up by a guild.
• Solo-player aspects of the game are minimized (getting stone, sheep, etc is difficult as a solo player). This is a community game, but it needs to still be fun if none of your friends are online (for example, I can certainly go have fun in WoW or SWTOR if none of my friends are online, even if I'd prefer playing with them).
• The game is a large collection of highly meta mini-games. Its taken 7 tellings of experience to fully figure some things out (and some are still guesses). This is off-putting for new players who don't want to have to check the wiki for every little thing.

Kickstarter As Advertising Tool

At a minimum, running a kickstarter, successful or not, is a very cheap advertising tool. There's a story for a lot of video game blogs, news sites, etc, that an old MMO is seeking crowdfunding. Add in the fact that the existing game is available, and you'll see a surge of people logging in to see what the game is about.

The Proposal

Kickstarter Goal

Fund the rewriting of the Game Engine, recreation of lost models, recreation of lost art assets, and general game improvements to bring ATITD to a wider audience. The overall goal being to bring ATITD into the modern era of MMORPGs, improve performance, and improve the overall stability, maintainability, and ease of improvement. (note sure what of this should be stretch goals and what is the base. Probably the rewrite of the game engine and render engine should be the base as it is really needed, but the rest seem to be in support of that goal).

Reward Ideas

• Special Thanks/Special Mention (Low tier reward, probably $1-5)
• T-Shirts, Ballcaps, some other physical merchandise
• See if any active players can make things ATITD related and partner with them (good publicity for them as well as ATITD).
• Subscriptions? Perhaps at a higher cost than what's in the store to support ATITD? I don't like this idea very much but its an obvious one. Maybe giftable subscription tokens that are good for the rest of the telling? I'd avoid T8 subscription pre-sales as T8 is not guaranteed at this point nor do you want to spend subscription money on the rewrite.
• Loot Crate-esque subscription, either in game or IRL. Monthly you receive a cache of goodies that are ATITD related (could tie in to donations from players who make real things). Alternatively, you receive an in-game crate that has a random reward in it from a small list (including rarer items like new plant genomes). Maybe something like an IndieBox?

Feedback on Reward Ideas:

Having organised a couple of Kickstarters, I cannot emphasize enough how much you want to avoid shipping physical goods. The overhead for *any* physical good is high, and the shipping is labour-intensive as well as spendy. It is also a nightmare to organize t-shirt sizes and genders. Baseball caps have their own issues. A monthly physical goods subscription box just takes this form of hell and multiplies it times 12. I would genuinely recommend doing one physical item, tied to the ATITD theme, and using it as a high reward level.

In-game items also have an overhead but can be variations on existing tech that do not require manual intervention from the developers in-game. They would have to be tied to the registration system, but it could be done. Some ideas:

• $10: A clothing pattern or outfit only for backers
• $25: A +1 stats boost on something (let's say speed)
• $50: An exclusive beetle colour/pattern
• $100: A game asset re-named for you, like an herb or a building or something
• $250: You get to name the horses at any CS (I would seriously pay for this...!)
• $500: See below. Make the physical reward available at this level.
• $1,000: I have not really thought through what you'd offer at these levels but you definitely want to offer them. Sure, a lot of people quit doe to the cost but you only need one player who isn't constrained by finances to make this reward happen.

-- Eimear

I agree that physical rewards are a PITA, and I'd prefer to keep things in-game (which is why most of my ideas are in that area). The difficulty is that some people need/want a physical reward. We could take this into an electronic area, and make it something that doesn't need to be physically shipped (issue being, why wouldn't someone just propagate it so only one ever needs to be given away)? In-game only rewards are also a problem for anyone who wants to support the game, but doesn't want to play/doesn't have time to play.

Also I really appreciate your feedback and expertise, Eimear, as I do not have experience running a kickstarter and would not have considered the logistics of physical rewards :)

--Dresdor

In game rewards

It should be possible to select these rewards for T7 or T8 (or potentially T9 if the rewrite will take a long time).

• Sheep
• Camels
• In game cosmetic items/clothes that are not generally available
• In game pets (cats, dogs, ponies)
• In game resources (e.g. crate of 10,000 flax or some other item. Maybe rarer gems (Huge gems) or already cut gems of hard to make patterns Make this purchasable multiple times as part of the campaign, as I think this would be a high demand item. I'm not a fan of this or any in-game functional items being available in the store permanently)
• Custom Emotes or Titles
• Extra cornerstones (you can't even have enough)
• Special Buildings only available for the event (e.g. a digger that doesn't take petroleum that runs automatically, a crematorium that perfectly burns ash/lime without tending, a firepit that stokes itself, a greenhouse that generates flax at a specific rate instead of just grass). Reuse of in-game art assets should be prioritized to reduce costs.
• In T8 have a region named after you/name a region (within limits).
• Camp Decoration (can be purchased multiple times, functionally equivalent to what's in the store, but maybe this one can add a few wood worth of trees or something).
• Pharaoh's Wine: a bottle of wine that can fulfill a requirement on a wine notebook (user's choice). Unlike normal wine, this cannot be tasted, only used as a menu item. This should have a cool in-game art asset and be placeable in a compound if not used.
• Pharaoh's Cuisine: A one-serving meal that gives a Gastonomy point. This should have a cool in-game art asset and be placeable in a compound if not used.
• Pharaoh's Hashish: A one-dose herb that gives a fumeology point. This should have a cool in-game art asset and be placeable in a compound if not used.
• Pharaoh's Ancient Map: A map of ore locations in a small area. This should have a cool in-game art asset and be placeable in a compound if not used. Since mines don't break anymore, this might not be as useful in T7, but could be very useful in the beginning of T8.
• Pharaoh's Secret Oasis: This should be a very rare and expensive reward. You are given the ability to work with a GM to drastically change the ecology of an area out in the desert. You can add whatever resources you want there, even special ones (e.g. add water/dirt/clay/limestone/white sand, red sand, etc). Downside is that it has to be far away from chariot stops, and has to conform to some decency standards (no spelling out bad words in limestone or anything)
• Pharaoh's Special Chariot: Reduces your TT consumption significantly (halved, quartered) when using various warps.
• Pharaoh's Student: halves costs of learning skills
• Pharaoh's Garden: Limited Edition/Special flowers that can be crossbred as normal (perhaps colors that are hard to do. A little superfluous with mutagenics being unlocked, but I'm sure there's people out there that want new flowers).
• Raeli Paintshop: Special building that allows you to combine paint colors and white raeli tiles to create colored tiles of that type.