Ground Branch - No Kickstarter, going straight to Early Access

Ground Branch will no longer be featuring a second Kickstarter, but will instead go straight to Early Access in a few weeks or months:

http://www.blackfootstudios.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6998&st=0

I think this is better overall. Less money lost to Kickstarter fees and less time spent on the KS campaign and more time spent on the game.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Alpha build looks like.

It can't be any worse than Takedown.

Can it?

Great news!

I think there are two big differences between the two:

1) Takedown had about 15 months of development. From start to release. Ground Branch, while developed slowly, has had much more time and effort put into it.

2) Ground Branch has much more clear goals and information. Takedown was largely talk. Good intentioned, but clearly the game was not done and did not come out right. With Ground Branch we already have some basic videos showing features that push the genre ahead of anything we have seen in the past:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uir8B51h...ure=c4-overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRUnrWoB...ure=c4-overview

You would think such loadout functionality with a GUI would have made it into ArmA 3. Ground Branch goes deeper and makes it so much easier. This is a good step forward for the genre, IMO.

It is also confirmed that the SP will have rather detailed, R6/SWAT like AI commands. This kind of information was not stated by the Takedown devs until it neared release.

Takedown's initially stated goals differed greatly from what finally came out because I think of money. They only KS'd for $100k IIRC, and there was no way for that to be enough. It was supposed to demonstrate to investors the market existed and those investors were supposed to pump money in. It appears they put in FAR less than they promised, or Serellan thought, or they had fewer investors come through, or something like that.

So instead of them having X million to work with, they had X/4 or less and the final product shows that. Smaller team and less time = lesser product.

I'm convinced Takedown's failure was a business leadership issue as opposed to a coding talent issue.



The Jedi Master

Good news, glad to hear it.
I hope it's a highly playable alpha like Rust and not a mess like some other alphas out there.
Once money is accepted and a game provided "it's just an alpha" only goes so far. People do expect their entertainment.
Be ready!

The difference is in how it's presented. If you tell people "you're preordering the game, and as a bonus you'll get to mess around with a prerelease version of the game" it's not the same as "play the game before release!"



The Jedi Master

No, if you take money and let them play the game it needs to have a decent level of gameplay, even if it isn't fully fleshed out.
For instance, Rust is an early alpha access game, but it's already pretty amazing and people have 100's of hours in it. And there's a long way to go on features to add. If the game is a shooter and just has a basic SP terrorist hunt on a map or two, that's not ready to offer anyone.
I doubt we're at risk of that since GB has been in the works around 6-7 years, but yes, if you're taking money and people receive a game for that money it IS expected to not just be a POS you can't do anything with for the near future.
This isn't an investment, it's a purchase.


All that opinion aside, I see this as a positive thing and a better way to go than Kickstarter. With people playing an alpha that means there's actually something there. People can check with players and youtube for the current status of the game and jump in when it reaches the level they find ok. Today I checked out Kenshi. It was out months ago with early alpha access that was IMO far from ready for even that. So I didn't get it. It didn't even have sound. LOL Now, it looks pretty far along compared to that so it was worth it and I picked it up.
No mystery like with Kickstarter, so I see this as a positive development for GB.
And I wish them the best of luck, I look forward to seeing the game.

A preorder is not an investment, it's a purchase. Most of the time the price is lower than release price as an incentive to buy it earlier.

To maintain that if you allow them to play the game before it's ready for release as a bonus for preordering it pretty much has to already be ready for release is nonsensical. Then it's not a preorder, it's not access to an alpha, it's access to a finished game.

The internet has been filled with requests by people to play alphas and betas of games they didn't want to wait till release to touch for years. You can't suddenly apply release standards to those just because you're letting preorder people touch it.

In a "standard" preorder, you pay your money in return for a receipt or ticket or code to some game you can't do anything with for the near future until it is released. If instead of waiting 3-6 months for that, with nothing but screenshots and vid clips and reports to go on, you're allowed to mess with the same stuff it's NOT a totally different scenario.

Being given a bonus does not suddenly increase the demands on the provider of the bonus or allow the purchaser to make larger demands.

"Hey, I got this for free but I don't like how it is, so FIX IT!"


I don't understand why a formalized mechanism to allow people to play alphas or betas should mean the developers need to continually have bug-free, playable, entertaining content in them! THAT'S CALLED A FINISHED GAME!




The Jedi Master

You're free to call it whatever you want, but I didn't call it a pre-order.

Regardless of what you want to call it the game will not be a polished, near complete game in the first Early Access build. So I doubt we will be playing much. But we will be able to comment on some of the mechanics and whatnot. I believe it will be getting constant updates until release though.

I don't care if you're not calling it a preorder, that's what it is.

The ONLY difference between a standard preorder and "early access" is getting to play with the alpha and/or beta. That's it.


The Jedi Master

New post on the site, with some actual in-game video.



About time, eh?

I know it's a early development "work in progress" build... but haven't we moved past stiff animations yet? Video seems just to stiff in the movements and handling, but I do like what I see...a lot... in general.

Looks great

This video sold me. I'm all over it.

With the Occulus Rift:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMpp4R5HGys

Imho the movement speed seems is way to high, even for sprinting. Why would a dev strive for realism and then sets the movement speed higher than that of a pilot in Titanfall!

Meh, that can be tweaked any moment.
Not a big problem.

Savagely awaiting for an early access...

Xbox footage! NOoooooooooooooo!!!!!!


I didn't know GB was going the U4 route, figured it would still be running U3. Good for them.




The Jedi Master

The Achievement unlocked thing is just something we do to be silly. It's all PC.

As for the speed.... yes its to fast, we know. It's all a work in progress and is being tweaked. The strange thing about it is it doesn't feel that fast when doing it in game. The video makes it feel a bit faster for some reason.

How fast are you turning your hand as you crank the handle whilst filming?

It's supposed to be 3Hz, 3 revolutions/second!




The Jedi Master

They lost out on a lot of money though.

Surely only deferred their money.

While they haven't had income *yet* from Kickstarter, et al, they also haven't had to hand over a fairly substantial chunk of that money to Kickstarter ~ I recall reading it was a *big* chunk - I forget the exact amount suggested, but the figure of 40% is hovering in the back of my mind like Dent-Arthur-Dent's yellow bulldozers.

They can complete development to their satisfaction and release... and chances are without what is essentially a factoring agreement with a financier and additional incentives and bonus features to supporters stand to actually receive *more* in the long run.