Sunday, August 26, 2012

ADOM crowd funding: The mini quest quest

Hi everyone!

For the final five days of the ADOM crowd funding campaign I'm hereby announcing the

mini quest quest

Yes, the name is correct. The quest for mini quests. The quests already defined as stretch goals are complex quests (e.g. multi-level quests with interesting dependencies and secrets). To keep the momentum of the crowd funding campaign the mini quest quest is designed to allow for the addition of so-called (surprise!) mini quest.

A mini quest is defined as a quest that will add one new special map to the game, probably with new monsters, items or other special features to make for an interesting experience. Many of those will be added as side levels to existing dungeons, to further the chance of more variations in play. None of those mini quests will have non-local effects, e.g. they are just interesting and challenging extra locations to spice up the overall game.

How can mini quests be added to the free content of the game?

These are the rules:

  • There are daily pledge level brackets defined which are used to count the number of mini quests gained.
  • Pledge level brackets are $1,000 (for August, 26th), $2,000 (for August, 27th), $4,000 (for August, 28th), $8,000 (for August 29th) and $16,000 (for August, 30th - the final day of the campaign).
  • For every full multiple of pledges of a specific bracket, one mini quest will be added to the game (in addition to whatever stretch goals might be unlocked).
  • No more than 10 mini quests can be added for one single pledge level bracket. If enough donations are accumulated for a single bracket on a single day (example below), the next mini quests are figured out according to the next higher pledge level bracket (and so on).


Example: On August, 26th, a total of $3,248 are pledged. This would make for three free mini quests to be added (three multiples of the pledge level bracket defined for August, 26th, were donated). On August, 27th, someone pledges for the $50,000 demigod level. Additionally another $3,450 are pledged by other people for a total of $53,450 (yeah, dreaming here - that really would alter the future of ADOM ;-) ). First of all ten mini quests would be added as there is a maximum of ten multiples of $2,000 (the pledge level bracket for August, 27th). This leaves $33,450 in donations unaccounted for. They are handled according to the next higher pledge level bracket ($4,000 for August 28th) adding yet another eight new mini quests (eight additional multiples of the pledge level bracket of $4,000). A total of 18 (!) mini quests thus would be added to the game.

Yes, it's quite costly to get one free mini quest (but I guess, we'll see a couple nonetheless). That's because it's also quite a bit of dangerous work to add them to ADOM (it's complex and the code for that is pretty fiddly and ancient). And yes, it's worthwhile to pledge as much as possible early on :-) Later on less mini quests will be added.

Now go and get them!

3 comments:

  1. I have to say, I'm impressed with all the ways you've thought of to motivate people to pitch in.

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    Replies
    1. Same, although they're always wildly complex and require calculators and examples to figure out what the outcome of a pledge increase is. I (have previously) feared this might have put people off rather than be the incentive its clearly meant to be - of cause we've still fully funded and have broken stretch goals, so what do I know? =D

      I really hope we hit the 60k mark though, the main reason (beyond just showing my loyalty and coughing up for years of free entertainment I have enjoyed from ADOM) was to get the ratlings in the game - I'll be a little bummed if it fall short tbh. I'm also a little shocked that the mist elves are still tied in to the stretch goals and not just automatically added thanks to that promise he made (something I'd actually love to hear the story for, incidentally). But I understand that its a big effort to add new races and its a big attractor of new pledges so I wont grumble on about it =).

      Either way, this crowd funding is going awesomely and I'm really pleased the community is having an impact in not only ADOM, but ADOM II as well! (Plus, we have something new to play whilst we wait for ADOM II to get out of alpha and beta testing!)

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  2. Actually the calculation is simple for the single days:

    - one new mini quest per $1,000 pledged on August, 26th
    - one new mini quest per $2,000 pledged on August, 27th
    - one new mini quest per $4,000 pledged on August, 28th
    - one new mini quest per $8,000 pledged on August, 29th
    - one new mini quest per $16,000 pledged on August, 30th

    It only becomes complicated if suddenly an enormous amount of pledges come in (e.g. more than $10,000 on the first day). The complexity arises from a kind of self-protection. If suddenly someone takes the $50,000 pledge level (as the most extreme example - I don't expect this to happen ;-) ) I simply feel unable to think of 50 new mini quests as this almost would double the amount of special maps in ADOM... so that's when it becomes complicated. Sorry for being unable to express it more clearly.

    The simple summary is: Get as many people to pledge as much as possible as soon as possible - and as result there will be many new mini quests!

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