i read the wiki entry for Kickstarter - under the Guideline section http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickstarter#Guidelines

it says



i guess it explains why there is no game play footage shown

No, numerous projects have in game footage but what that rule mention is that you cannot use any form of CGI to advertise your project. In game engine isnt exactly CGI.

I think Project Phoenix is a pipedream guarantee for failure
there's no exciting defining mechanic other than squad-based rts which have been done to death and better (CoH, DoW, Commandos)
There are no actual good writers on the team (She sucks by the way). Also to make a robust rpg, you need to have at least two talented writers supported by freelancers so they can cross check each other work. At least, they gotten an editor.
The only actual big stars on the team are the artists, which is good if the motive is to kickstart an art museum, not a game.
No level designer which is also a bad sign that they have no idea what they actually trying to do. For a real time action/strategy game, a level designer is critical.
So pass.

They have a summary of the story on KS page.

This is just part of the people working on the game as stated in Kickstarter.

Also, they are trying to bring back the traditional JRPG, not revolutionize the genre.

I think i would be far more confident with this than Tim Schaefer on Double Fine Broken Age. They got funded more than the project requires and then later announcing the scope of the project gone too big and cause them to have no more money and NEEDS more money.

I'll call that a scam to be honest.

Its just poor project management on Double Fine's part and this sort of incidents are fairly common in IT sector if its not managed very well. At least Double Fine is being honest and transparent with the money issue while did not demand anymore money from people.

On the other hand, Project Phoenix worries me more than Double Fine Adventures:

- The goal of the project is absolutely too little despite they said that they wont take salary at all to develop the game. Seriously, what is this? A charity? On top of that, stretch goals are revealed immediately on day 1. It gives a very bad impression that they just want to get the game funded easily with low goal despite it does not represent the final amount that needs to be given to finish the game. Double Fine had an initial goal that is 4 times higher while they still manage to blow their budget with 3 million dollars given, despite Double Fine isnt an All Stars team like Project Phoenix that will probably demand more money to develop this game. I do not believe that they only need 100k for all the art assets. Even a one man team for Void Destroyer needs 20k just to make some space ships.

- The campaign is being run in a very poor way as it doesnt even build up hype at all, instead, it made me wanting to pull out from it. The 2 updates so far are very poor as they feel like they dont want to reveal anything either because it isnt even planned yet or they want to keep it for later. Again, it just enforce that this campaign is not well thought out alt all before putting it up. Many successful kickstarter either have one of these: a tech demo that could be a visualisation or actual gameplay footage, which they didnt even have it till now. The whole campaign felt like it is run half assed where you can see that people literally stop throwing money at it after the third day. You dont just put your names there and some CGI then expect people will fund your game. Publisher wanted something more concrete and people also demands the same.

- The developers have their own jobs so how are they gonna work on this game and also the games that they are hired to do so by other company? While the game industry is notorious of having terribly long work hours. Even kickstarters made by people who dedicate all their time to develop a game are having issues in delivering the final product on the original date that was set in campaign. How long will Project Phoenix take? 5 years? 10 years? Considering the fact that indie teams takes at least 2 years to make their games but their games arent a 50 hours RPG epic that is much difficult to develop than a platformer or TBS.

Project Phoenix feels far more like a scam than anything else if not unprepared. If not, it will be the first major high profile kickstarter failure.

This post has been edited by Cheesenium: Aug 16 2013, 04:59 PM

In case you did not notice, half the people involved in the project are millionaire. Money is most definitely a none issue if they are as dedicated as they claimed.

ALso, plenty of the Kickstarter project that has everything you mentioned failed horribly, Project Awakened? Shadow of Eternals? Kickstarter most of the time is more like a popularity contest, the game that got the most interest will be successful while game with smaller player base will fail. In this case Project Phoenix with its all star team obviously got a lot of interest behind it. As of now, the project already got moer than 500K, so I am sure they will get a lot more.

my views on this project...
* they are not doing charity. most of the team members are taking this up as a personal side project. plus, they will receive $ in terms of royalty, etc...
* this KS is to allow them to get the funds for the 3D modelling.
* they have just started and have mentioned many times, they will not have any game footage to show for now.
* next-gen console -- its been mentioned that they are negotiating this and may not be in time to make the announcement during the KS funding period
* stretch goals on Day 1 could also mean that they have planned everything nicely and already know what they need, etc...

yes, its a massive project and one should have a healthy skepticism about such BIG projects. i guess only time will tell if this is successful. we'll just need to wait for 2015. if all goes well, it will also be on STEAM, etc...

and if you look up CIA, they are actually the 'admin' for the Eminence Orchestra. so, not wrong to say that this project is partly an 'art/ music' project.

Yeah, they are millionaires with a full time job. How are they going to develop this with on their full time job? You cant get the battle system coded in a weekend. Everything in the project is what they claim to be with no evidence of much development has been made.

Sure, they do get the attention of the people for now because its a team of professionals, it can be seen that people are skeptical with this since the pledges has slowed down a lot. 10k+ a day for a project this scale is pretty terrible. It should be at least 1 million plus by now.

And this is my first project that i withdraw my pledges because the campaign has been utterly unconvincing and no confidence with the developers.

just thought i'd share... latest update: PS4 and PSVita is a go! yup, this game will be available on these two platforms.

looks great! got abit of ragnarok online feel..

i funding! $25 maybe

$20 or $25? Argh. Tough decision.

$20 for closed beta wor... add $5 can get early bird access...

eh~ u wanna share adventure for two? $70

Paid $25 already... And the privilege level higher than $20.... It's also out of backers limit. Go go go!

Forget about that. Now I backers for Mighty No 9 & Project Phoenix. Proud!

actually, if you guys can work it out, never too late to upgrade pledge... coz your CC is not charged yet. CC gets charged only on the day the project ends.

personally, i'd go with fiery steed since if you plan to replay, might as well make it your ride. its usd5 more per person.

i just managed to find a slot that i've been eyeing... ouch... painful that its opened up earlier this morning and i have gotten it. but i'm happy...

This post has been edited by mydragoon: Sep 9 2013, 10:53 AM

Anyone know if i pledge now, will i still get the PS Vita version @u@?

$25 is a better choice.

Pledged over $45 so far in two game projects.

This post has been edited by sniperz: Sep 10 2013, 09:55 AM

Hangout session on going. no more slots... but you can watch the live stream on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjojdtwgcYE

you can either post your Q to Hiro via comments... or on IRC channel here: http://projectphoenix.info/irc/

earlier today, Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m57...nd_director_of/

This post has been edited by mydragoon: Sep 11 2013, 01:09 PM

PS4 and Vita will not be sold via KS. SONY requires games to be sold via the PS store. however, the PayPal store will open till mid 2014 and there's a good chance that purchase of PS4/ Vita can be done there sometime in the future. they are working on this...

and for those keeping track... Kraken stretch goal achieved.