Fearless Night, New Indie Fighting Game

[Oiboi]

Having previously worked with Zinac, gotta show my excitement for this. Good luck and hope it comes out great! You should think about early access/beta/greenlight stuff on steam to help define more of the engine.

[Zinac]

I got a lot of useful feedback at BADC. Most of the bugs we found are fixed already. Learned some things to make tournaments go smoother too. I'll be bringing the game up to the big Vampire tournament they're running in two weeks. Probably won't get to stream it though! Maybe after hours!

[Coren]

http://www.twitch.tv/shobugames

Zinac is streaming some tests right now!

[Zinac]

Gonna quote myself from twitter here =P

I'm trying to get opinions on various funding models for our game. How do you think people would respond to a pay-to-access alpha model? Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns always seems like a huge money grab rush. I would rather people get straight to the game.

We of course can't control people obtaining copies of the game without paying, but we could put up a testers only forum/match making server. Of course it would be very cheap and I'm thinking of ways to reward players who buy in early. Feel free to tell me it's a terrible idea.

[Eien]

Gonna quote myself from twitter here =P

I'm trying to get opinions on various funding models for our game. How do you think people would respond to a pay-to-access alpha model? Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns always seems like a huge money grab rush. I would rather people get straight to the game.

We of course can't control people obtaining copies of the game without paying, but we could put up a testers only forum/match making server. Of course it would be very cheap and I'm thinking of ways to reward players who buy in early. Feel free to tell me it's a terrible idea.

[SolxBaiken]

Gonna quote myself from twitter here =P

I'm trying to get opinions on various funding models for our game. How do you think people would respond to a pay-to-access alpha model? Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns always seems like a huge money grab rush. I would rather people get straight to the game.

We of course can't control people obtaining copies of the game without paying, but we could put up a testers only forum/match making server. Of course it would be very cheap and I'm thinking of ways to reward players who buy in early. Feel free to tell me it's a terrible idea.

If handled correctly this could be a very innovative step in community involvement.

You'll probably need some NDAs, especially if you grant official testers access to new builds and info, before making them public. Having tester's forum/servers would help concentrate feedback from builds.

And of course the ultimate reward is a Tournament of Champions where the winner gets to join the team as a "Special Battle Advisor" and gets to oversee and allowed input on the development of a character = w=

[SolxBaiken]

Fearless/Stay Night da best

Worst part of development, the waiting = A=

[Elochai]

Those character designs are very attractive.

[Tari]

Gonna quote myself from twitter here =P

I'm trying to get opinions on various funding models for our game. How do you think people would respond to a pay-to-access alpha model? Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns always seems like a huge money grab rush. I would rather people get straight to the game.

We of course can't control people obtaining copies of the game without paying, but we could put up a testers only forum/match making server. Of course it would be very cheap and I'm thinking of ways to reward players who buy in early. Feel free to tell me it's a terrible idea.

From a potential buyer's perspective, that sounds very attractive. If it's cheap enough, I think quite a lot of people will probably jump on. It sounds less attractive from a developer perspective, but I guess you've already got that end figured out?

Those character designs are very attractive.

I agree. :P

[Starlight777]

I hope to see more character designs like that guy with the elemental arms(What's his name?). I like Poco and Uri's designs too but they sort of gave me the wrong kind of roster impressions being the first two and all lol.

[SolxBaiken]

I hope to see more character designs like that guy with the elemental arms(What's his name?)

Unless something has changed since the last major stream, he is quite literally the Man With No Name! ( ~' 3')~

I'm also interested in seeing what other cast members will look and play like, the next character [they had silhouetted in the prior demo] has a crazy shape and sounds pretty insane.

[Agni]

Gonna quote myself from twitter here =P

I'm trying to get opinions on various funding models for our game. How do you think people would respond to a pay-to-access alpha model? Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaigns always seems like a huge money grab rush. I would rather people get straight to the game.

We of course can't control people obtaining copies of the game without paying, but we could put up a testers only forum/match making server. Of course it would be very cheap and I'm thinking of ways to reward players who buy in early. Feel free to tell me it's a terrible idea.

I really, really think this is interesting (sorry for the late reply, just noticed this). There's a racing simulator called Project C.A.R.S that's doing a similar thing--pledge money and you get access to builds (the more money, the more often you get the builds) and to a special pledger's forum where you can discuss the game with the devs and suggest things. Given how community driven FGs are, it seems like a perfect idea.

[Dusk Thanatos]

I think it's an interesting way of getting funding. I'd personally consider buying in just for the novelty.

However, using the playerbase for feedback (which you don't need to do, I feel) could be a double-edged sword. You'd definitely have players seeing things you wouldn't yourself, which is valuable. However, you need -good- players that also understand balance to get feedback from, or the feedback won't be worth anything; additionally, you need to be getting feedback on what's working and what's broken in a fleshed-out meta, which takes time, and is doubly hard to achieve with a small playerbase. Finally, the alpha would need to be relatively complete to get useful feedback that isn't an aesthetic judgment.

On the other hand, I think if you use the playerbase as a way to let people test stuff, and then watch that yourself and decide what the game does and doesn't need based on a vision you already have of how the game is supposed to play and balance out, that's a little different. For example, if you had every replay from your matchmaking recorded onto a central server that you could access, plus access to match statistics from those matches, that'd be really amazing information for you as a dev. You could probably keep it in alpha, issuing constant patches to the people who bought in, and then release it in full when you feel like the product is where you want it. You'd have to play some politics to keep the alpha players happy (constant patching tends to breed constant complaints), and make them feel valuable, regardless of how often their voices get heard, but it could be both a unique system to get the game on its feet, and a good way to avoid releasing a product that isn't competitively interesting.

There is one caveat unrelated to player feedback and its use, though. With such an open alpha, there'd be a temptation to -keep- the game in alpha or beta, where you can constantly make fixes and avoid releasing a "bad product." You'd need to balance the freedom you get against the need to create and have a final, but inevitably imperfect, product.

Just my two cents on the whole deal. Like I said, though, I think it's pretty neat, and I'd consider buying into something like that just for the experience.

[Zinac]

Thanks for everyone's responses. It's definitely giving me food for thought. I can say that I've been working on something so that our team can work on this game full time. Dunno if it'll happen sooner or later, but I'll keep you guys up to date with any major changes in this project.

[Zinac]

Spike is streaming some sprite work right now http://www.twitch.tv/shobugames/

[SolxBaiken]

Oh yeah, guys! Remember to yell at Zinac so that we can get Kappa stage, but more importantly Kappa character!!! #fearlesskappa

To learn more watch their latest stream archive at around 2:49:00

[SolxBaiken]

guys, Guys, GUYS!

Zinac is going to be streaming some gameplay in like...5 minutes [give or take]!

[Zinac]

We just announced that whenever Shobu Game's Tumblr, Twitter, or Twitch account reaches 100 followers we will be hosting a 24 hour stream. During this stream we will reveal new characters, stages, and other things.

http://www.twitch.tv/shobugames/

http://www.twitter.com/shobugames/

http://www.shobugames.com/

[SolxBaiken]

In about 1hr from now they'll be streaming, showing of Jackie Jet Bruce Li-Miyagi

But everyone already knew that cause we're all following all their outlets, right? :3c #fearlesskappa

[Zinac]

In about 1hr from now they'll be streaming, showing of Jackie Jet Bruce Li-Miyagi

But everyone already knew that cause we're all following all their outlets, right? :3c #fearlesskappa

Thought of naming him Doren, because Doren2k wanted a hot Asian mixup character. So I obliged!

[SolxBaiken]

Thought of naming him Doren, because Doren2k wanted a hot Asian mixup character. So I obliged!

Wait, then where's my bushido master!? D:

#fearlessbetrayal ; w;

[Zinac]

Here's an update on Fearless Night funding planning.

As I mentioned before we were considering early access. I'd like to suggest various ways to fund this project and continue to gather feedback from you guys.

The current plan I've been working on is to run either a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign in September or October. I want to see what would be the most acceptable minimum goal, feature wise, that would make the project acceptable by the community. Right now the minimum goal could include completing animations for 4 characters, voice overs, music, and some stages. My plan is to allow for stretch goals such as more characters, console releases, and possibly new stages. We would strive to complete these goals even if they are not crowd funded. It just means that those goals would take longer and be payed for through an alternative source of funding, such as payed early access or out of our pockets!

I want to make it clear that we understand 4 characters isn't enough to make a complete fighting game, but funding the costs for their development would let us significantly speed up the release of the game. We have been paying close attention to the Yatagarasu indiegogo campaign and have been readjusting our expectations based on it.

Also please don't worry about net code! We already have roll back based net code. So that would be included in the base funding goal.

[Dusk Thanatos]

Also please don't worry about net code! We already have roll back based net code. So that would be included in the base funding goal.

We already have roll back based net code.

roll back

You have my attention.

[Starlight777]

Is roll back like GGPO?

[Zinac]

Is roll back like GGPO?

Yes.