The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

[Loma]

I hope we are already allowed to start posting our questions even though the hour of damnation has not yet come.

I have a question about this licence thing:
As Lovecraft has been dead for more than 70 years now his works are public domain. So why do you need an extra licence for making this game?

Cheers!

[neon]

I hope we are already allowed to start posting our questions even though the hour of damnation has not yet come.

Sure.

[Rockford]

Well I have a questions, too.

This new kickstarter of yours starts before the game of your last one (Asylum) is released. Don't you fear this fact will scare potential backers away? They may be think: There are kickstarters but nothing will ever be ready. ( Estimated delivery: Dec 2013 ).

I know economical it makes sense to plan the next project before the current one is finished. (No wasted time with no project to work on)

[Agustin]

Hello there! I bring damnation!

This has been a very controversial issue. It took me several months to research the issue, discuss it with experts, and arrive to a conclusion. In short: it's my understanding that the Lovecraft Estate in Providence, Rhode Island holds the rights to The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and other H. P. Lovecraft's stories. This Estate has been around since the 50's compiling and keeping many of his original manuscripts in the John Hay Library, in addition to letters and photographs. A distant relative of the Lovecraft family represents this Estate.

Now, I don't want to be the first one to test whether these claims are true or not in a court of law, even less risk my company Senscape, so I acted accordingly and secured a license from this Lovecraft Estate (its commercial arm called Lovecraft Holdings LLC). You see, Lovecraft's stories may be in the public domain in Europe, but the situation in the US is very different.

This has its benefits, though. In addition to using the H. P. Lovecraft name and title of the novel without changes, thanks to this license we have access to those historical documents in John Hay and support from renowned scholars who have been working with the Estate such as S. T. Joshi.

[Agustin]

This new kickstarter of yours starts before the game of your last one (Asylum) is released. Don't you fear this fact will scare potential backers away? They may be think: There are kickstarters but nothing will ever be ready. ( Estimated delivery: Dec 2013 ).

This is true, and I'm sure it may have given potential backers a second thought, but I feel that the problem with Kickstarter is more generalized. We're not the only ones having a rough time right now!

In our case we have maintained a strong and constant communication with our backers, showing solid progress in Asylum, and they have been very supportive of our new Kickstarter. As you say, it makes plenty of financial sense to have two projects overlapping, and since crowdfunding worked very well for us, I decided to give it another try

[k0SH]

Hello there! I bring damnation!

Hi Agustin!

Questions:

1.
$250k is a lot. It´s 2,5 times the goal of your last kickstarter, Asylum!
Is the H. P. Lovecraft license that expensive or what is the reason for the huge budget?
E.g. is the game two times as big as ASYLUM?

2.
Is the documentary paid by the kickstarter money too?
Because in that case it would have expected that you start with a lower budget and add this as a stretch goal.
You talked about it´s 2 hours long or so. I would love to see the documentary but money-wise it has to be first things first: the game!

3.
You mentioned one of your earlier games "Federal Cases: Risk Profile".
Never heard of that one before. Is it available for free?
Sure it´s only in Argentine language but I would love to take a look.

4.
If the kickstarte is a success, H.P.L´sTCoCDW will be released in which languages?


5.
I´m a huge fan and collector of big boxed games.
Boxed copy (Infocom-like) means it´s bigger than nowadays DVD-size but not as big as the good old BIG BOXES, right? Are we talking about the grey Infocom boxes?
It HAS to look great in the shelf next to Prisoner of Ice and Shadow of the Comet


PS. I really hope you put your sock back on? Seriously, I really hope you did! Did you?

[Loma]

Now, I don't want to be the first one to test whether these claims are true or not in a court of law, ...

Yes, I completely understand that this is not the kind of horror you would like to experience.

Many thanks for this information!


I can only think of one more rather rhetorical question:
Do you know that I really love your plans and intentions of making such wonderful games?

You will be the first one for whom I will give up my attitude of not supporting game productions via Kickstarter and I'm reading in the Necronomicon every day to invoke some spirits and force them to do the same.

(Hope your wife is fine. Best wishes to her as well!)

[Rockford]

At the moment you are having a quiz for your backers. Did you get your inspiration for this here? http://www.adventure-treff.de/forum/vie ... tart=23190

As you already mentioned not only you have a tough time on kickstarter. For example projects with lower goals like Kaptain Brawe 2 failed. Another Lovecraft inspired game ('The Eldritch Cases: Dagon') failed, too. Do you can reach more people to be sucessfull or you have a very solid fanbase that may be enough?

[Agustin]

1.
$250k is a lot. It´s 2,5 times the goal of your last kickstarter, Asylum!
Is the H. P. Lovecraft license that expensive or what is the reason for the huge budget?
E.g. is the game two times as big as ASYLUM?

Yes, the license is part of the reason why we need more money, but keep in mind that Asylum was well under production and partially self-funded when we launched its Kickstarter. Charles Dexter Ward is a brand new game. To compare, today Asylum would demand a budget of 400k.

While not as long as Asylum, I estimate that Charles Dexter Ward would last around 8-10 hours of gameplay.

2.
Is the documentary paid by the kickstarter money too?
Because in that case it would have expected that you start with a lower budget and add this as a stretch goal.
You talked about it´s 2 hours long or so. I would love to see the documentary but money-wise it has to be first things first: the game!

Yes, it's part of the budget, and you're right that it could have been a stretch goal. However, I'm so devoted to bringing Lovecraft's Providence back to life that I had to include a trip to this city for research purposes in the budget (i.e.: scouting of locations, taking pictures, studying the documents in John Hay). The documentary itself wouldn't be that more expensive.

3.
You mentioned one of your earlier games "Federal Cases: Risk Profile".
Never heard of that one before. Is it available for free?
Sure it´s only in Argentine language but I would love to take a look.

It's free, yes, however I don't have a download for it. It's no longer being distributed by the organization that paid for it. I'll try to see if we're able to host the download ourselves

4.
If the kickstarte is a success, H.P.L´sTCoCDW will be released in which languages?

I would say Spanish, German and French for sure. It's too early to confirm full dubbing for these languages, though.

5.
I´m a huge fan and collector of big boxed games.
Boxed copy (Infocom-like) means it´s bigger than nowadays DVD-size but not as big as the good old BIG BOXES, right? Are we talking about the grey Infocom boxes?
It HAS to look great in the shelf next to Prisoner of Ice and Shadow of the Comet

Yes, just about the same size as those famed grey Infocom boxes! Alas, I don't have Shadow of the Comet or Prisoner of Ice originals myself

PS. I really hope you put your sock back on? Seriously, I really hope you did! Did you?

Nope, I'm not even wearing a shoe, and I'm still waiting for the 100k milestone to take off my shirt.

[Agustin]

I can only think of one more rather rhetorical question:
Do you know that I really love your plans and intentions of making such wonderful games?

You will be the first one for whom I will give up my attitude of not supporting game productions via Kickstarter and I'm reading in the Necronomicon every day to invoke some spirits and force them to do the same.

Thank you! You can't imagine how much I appreciate this, and let me say again that it was never my intention to ask Asylum backers for more money. I'm hoping to attract new backers with Charles Dexter Ward, which has been extremely well received everywhere. Of course that we're still working in Asylum and believe me, it will be one hell of a ride!

Wife doing fine with a huge oversized belly! I'll send her your regards!

[k0SH]

include a trip to this city for research purposes in the budget (i.e.: scouting of locations, taking pictures, studying the documents in John Hay). The documentary itself wouldn't be that more expensive.

I see. Thanks. And now I want to see the documentary even more

It's free, yes, however I don't have a download for it. It's no longer being distributed by the organization that paid for it. I'll try to see if we're able to host the download ourselves

That would be awesome. Thanks for trying!

I would say Spanish, German and French for sure. It's too early to confirm full dubbing for these languages, though.

Guess English too, right?

Yes, just about the same size as those famed grey Infocom boxes! Alas, I don't have Shadow of the Comet or Prisoner of Ice originals myself

Nice! I´ll send you a pic of the lot when I put Dexter Ward next to it

Nope, I'm not even wearing a shoe, and I'm still waiting for the 100k milestone to take off my shirt.

Yikes! Sometimes I hope we reach it soon, sometimes I don´t. I´m sorry

[Agustin]

At the moment you are having a quiz for your backers. Did you get your inspiration for this here? http://www.adventure-treff.de/forum/vie ... tart=23190

Actually, my own quiz is based on the tournaments that were held in Just Adventure+ ages ago

As you already mentioned not only you have a tough time on kickstarter. For example projects with lower goals like Kaptain Brawe 2 failed. Another Lovecraft inspired game ('The Eldritch Cases: Dagon') failed, too. Do you can reach more people to be sucessfull or you have a very solid fanbase that may be enough?

That's the thing: we have reached LOTS of people. The announcement of Charles Dexter Ward went viral. We have a huge community in social networks of close to 8.000 players, that in addition to fans of Scratches, Serena, and our own Asylum backers. Problem is, no one is putting money on Kickstarter. I think this has to do with part of the initial excitement dying down, and yes, several projects being cancelled or not fulfilling its promise. There's too much apathy towards Kickstarter right now.

[Agustin]

I would say Spanish, German and French for sure. It's too early to confirm full dubbing for these languages, though.

Guess English too, right?

Err, yes

Yes, just about the same size as those famed grey Infocom boxes! Alas, I don't have Shadow of the Comet or Prisoner of Ice originals myself

Nice! I´ll send you a pic of the lot when I put Dexter Ward next to it

Awesome! I'm looking forward to see that happening

[Rockford]

Actually, my own quiz is based on the tournaments that were held in Just Adventure+ ages ago

Oh, you fell for my trap I am just to bad in guessing the screenshot snippest you posted. More hints are great

Well, I backed 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'. I did not back Asylum back when it was on kickstarter. This leads to another question: Your games before seem to be all "first person view". Dexter Ward is not "first person view". Why ? (Well I prefer 2D or 2,5 D for me it's fine).

Before I forget this: Thank you for all the answers. Hope Dexter Ward will make it !

[k0SH]

Many have lost their enthusiasm about kickstarter due to several reasons.
And I guess you can see that negative development in people’s behavior in the progress of the Dexter Ward kickstarter so far.
I don´t want to be a worrywart but I have mixed feelings about this:
It´s $55k right now with ~1,300 backers. 18 days to go for the missing $195k. This means ~$11k per day.
Kicktraq trends ~$130k right now, only a bit more than 50%.
Your goal of $250k would mean 10th place of the Top 10 of most successful crowdfunded adventure games ever!
Among the Sleep placed 10th in May 2013 (over a year ago!) with 8110 backer and $248k of $200k goal.
Since then a lot pure adventure game projects with lower goals failed. Those who got funded haven´t asked for that much money.
I´m the last person on earth who don´t want this to become a success but it doesn´t look that good right now..

- What are your feelings so far?
- Do you have some aces up in your sleeve to give this kickstarter a huge push?
- Will you be totally naked (maybe than just dressed with a sock? ) when this will be funded?
- Is this a one-shot try or have you discussed a plan B with your team? Is a re-launch a possibility?