Wednesday, August 22, 2012

ADOM: Now let's build the future!

Once more:



ADOM: The Resurrection has been successfully funded on August 22nd, 2:03 am, GMT +1.

Awesome beyond words. Total coolness. Thank you so much!

And we still have almost nine days ahead of us!





While the campaign so far has been about bringing ADOM to a fulfilling and deserved future now it is realistic to talk about a possible vivid future for ADOM. But let me first summarize the "small rules" that now have changed:

  1. The Indiegogo crowd funding campaign has been successful funded. This there is no longer any chance of failure, the money is guaranteed and thus I can safely vouch for fulfilling all announced changes and additions.
  2. Everyone who from know on continues to pledge money can do so with the total assurance that all pledge goals now donated for definitely will be fulfilled. If you pay $40 you definitely will get your copy of the ADOM Lite RPG. If you pledge $400 you are bound to definitely receive the limited edition box set. If you pledge $75 you'll get a personalized postcard from me. And so on. Before this was unsure as the success of failure of the campaign was in doubt. The doubt is gone. Things definitely are moving forward now.
Now we are talking about building a foundation for the future of ADOM. In my humble opinion two of the outstanding stretch goals are the most interesting and vital ones in winning a new generation of gamers and making ADOM accessible to a lot more people.



The first new decisive line will be the $55,000 stretch goal which will allow us not only to build the tile integration with NotEye (which already becomes available at $50,000 - a mere $999 to go as the time of this writing and then ADOM is bound to receive tile support!) but also will allow me to pay our artistic wizard Krys - winner of the ADOM II design competition - to work full time for many months on a truly beautiful tile set. Of which you see a demo above.

A beautiful and unified tile set IMHO is the one critical factor in picking up more new players. While I agree that it already will be a wonderful chance to see comunity-built tile sets if we manage to reach the $50,000 level I'm totally convinced that the level of eye candy awesomeness that Krys is capable of will level the playing field and redefine the rules for tile based roguelike gaming. And while I was totally against tile support in the beginning I'm now a huge supporter and would love to see Krys be able to work full time on this quest. So please help us to reach it in the nine remaining days!

The second decisive new line will be the $65,000 stretch goal. It will allow us to build ADOM Deluxe, major game features here being a more controlled character generation, restorable save games and challenge games. The major - and more important technical feature is that we will try to bring ADOM to Steam, Gamersgate and Desura. I can't promise how well this might work out as I know that e.g. Steam only accepts certain games and there probably also will be rules about providing games on more than platform. Steam so far has been my primary target but we'll try our best here (all input and experiences welcome!).

Doing this will make ADOM available to the broader public and the hope here is that it will provide cash income to finance many more future versions of ADOM. Thus we are talking about a sustainable future and a perspective for continuing development that could be realized. As ADOM Deluxe obviously would be a commercial version of ADOM there is an add-on for all donors of the $40 or above pledge level of the crowd funding campaign: You will receive a free license for ADOM Deluxe as a means of saying "thank you!" for your continued support!

Spaced inbetween are other exciting stretch goals and currently the line-up goes up to $100,000 - so keep the resurrection moving. Better music done by Lucas. Probably many more tiny enhancements that we'll be doing "on the way". Installer support. Many stable platforms. Exciting times ahead!

9 comments:

  1. Now as reaching 55k is fully possible, we can think how to use this in our favour.

    Developed tiles by Krys can be used 1:1 in Adom II. Therefore we are achieving two goals at once.
    I think you have to promote that by reaching 55k goal, we'll have also Adom II in beautiful tiles. This will attract many more people for both games.
    Having both in colors will guarantee more successful selling via Steam.

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  2. I'm a bit sad iOS/Android ports have silently been dropped from the stretch goals at some point. An Android port would easily be a system seller for me. Maybe you could still incorporate those into the additional quest goals? Like, a new quest and the iOS port at 75,000$ and a new quest and the Android port at 80,000$.

    And under no circumstances you should stop donations or their running total after the 30th! Spice must flow!

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    1. I agree with this very strongly; as happy as I am that ADOM development will continue, it's still a little unsettling to me that the entire future for it is being determined RIGHT NOW.

      Now that you are going to receive the donation money, I'd love to see a separate donation become active on the ADOM website labeled for ADOM 1 development, and just keep track of the donations through that line and put them towards ADOM development. You'd be keeping the same stretch goals that you do now, just not using Indiegogo

      The possibility of seeing ADOM on Steam is probably the most exciting part of this for me, and it would just crush my heart to see the idea get dropped entirely because donations couldn't be raised fast enough. If the last 2 days are any indication, the interest is is definitely there. People probably just need more time.

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    2. It would make more sense the other way around - Android at $75K and iOS at $80K, since Android got almost double the votes as iOS. To tell the truth I'm not interested in any mobile port at all, but the community is clearly more interested in an Android port that iOS.

      I agree with you about the spice though. It would be a pity to lose things like Steam integration forever when surely more people will be willing to jump onto the donation boat when they see the shiny new tiled multimedia ADOM.

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  3. Aaand, we are now over 50,000. So that§s one stretch goal done.

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  4. Damn, I thought I commented... My friend, Joseph, from Sacramento, California donated $40 yesterday. $20 from each of us. See Thomas? I told you I'd donate. I know I'm just one guy but I kept my promise to a guy I respect for making a game I've loved for over a decade!

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  5. Just so I'm clear, the $40 Seeker goal is completely distinct from the $50 Adventurer level? That is to say, donating $50 dollars will NOT get you the RPG?

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    1. That's what I've been assuming too - not that I'm unhappy with donating twice and giving a little extra, but it did confuse me a bit.

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    2. That's right, yes. For example, I donated $50+$40 in two separate pledges, the latter is going to get me the RPG.

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