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Space Odyssey - The Video Game

Boildown

By Boildown
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Boildown

Boildown

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I somehow stumbled upon this Kickstarter today, and backed it:

 

I don't actually have huge hopes for playing this, but I'm interested in seeing just how good or bad a scientifically accurate science-future game plays.  I mainly backed because there's been endless debates on how Star Citizen's development "should" balance fun with realism, so I want to see how this realistic take works out.  NdGT has the hookups to get some interesting science in the mix and explain away the spaceflight magic as possible.

According to the FAQ its going to be rated E for Everyone, so don't get this to shoot ET.  And I'm not so sure that their funding goal is realistic for all they set out to do either, so this might not ever get made.  Its also intended to be single player (but with limited multiplayer, somehow), not an MMO.  Even so I thought that this was money better spent than buying yet another virtual Star Citizen space bike.

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Donut

Donut

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There's a lot of controversy right now that this may be an actual scam. They have also stolen footage from Star Citizen in their kickstarter video. I would sit this one out and watch from a distance to see how this unfolds.

Also this:

http://www.businessinsider.com/sondors-agency-20-lawsuit-filing-reveals-costs-of-a-crowdfunding-campaign-2015-5

Some quotes from Reddit:

The KS, all the famous people they name, none of them have actually said anything public on record about the game, neither in the KS videos, twitter, facebook, etc. It's also extremely low quality KS campaign, without a prototype.

It would seem that, if NDT is supporting this indeed, he doesn't understand things like PR and communications, and quality of production... except that he does know these things, hence why I think it's a scam.

The promoter of the KS has also been deleting comments on the Facebook announcement of the project

 

For nearly a year they had prize tiers for the top 13 influencers.

1st -3rd you would be rewarded autographed memorabilia from Neil, a personalized in-game star, and a beta license. 4th - 9th was an in-game star and beta license. 9th - 13th was a beta license.

Without notice, Coming Soon-Tech disabled the contest and then shortly after changed the reward levels to "be entered into a drawing for a beta license," and reactivated the contest.

The videos don't mention the company, don't mention the kickstarter, don't mention anything about this project at all. They just mention a game that might exist in the future. 

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J. Coren

J. Coren

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2 hours ago, Donut said:

*snipperclips*

I'd run across this before coming here and came to much the same conclusion. The video was just a jumble of clips from a variety of sources with no consistency and the occasional clip of some guy talking about grand things with only concept art to back it up.

How is this all going to be finished by December 2018 with only a handful of people and a measly budget of less than half a million?

 

Edit: Thinking about it now, I'm wondering which came first if at all?

Did Neil go looking for people who could make the game he had a vision for because he wants people to get into science, and he just doesn't understand video game development?

Or did someone approach him and say they could make this possible and use his name to make some money before running off into the night?

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Donut

Donut

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39 minutes ago, J. Coren said:

How is this all going to be finished by December 2018 with only a handful of people and a measly budget of less than half a million?

The company behind this has been in other scams before. It looks to be a Chinese company like a lot of others, which take failed products, ideas, or something very popular, slap another name on it and then say it's the next best thing. They did exactly this on an electric bicycle, which, has yet to even release and they're still taking pre orders on their website. 

I've scanned through a lot of public blogs and social media of Neil Tyson, and have not found a single sponsorship of the game or kickstarter from him. It looks like he either has no idea about it, or heard about it and was like, "Yeah that sounds cool I like space games too I would totally play that", and they took off and ran with it. Probably offering him some percentage of any profits they make. 

With such a low budget I don't see this being made at all unless it's literally an 8-bit slideshow flash game that you can find for free online. 

  • Neil deGrasse Tyson | Astrophysicist - Dr. Tyson is a leading visionary on the development of the game, advising on all things science. The expertise of Dr. Tyson and his team of astronomers, astrophysicist, biologist and cosmologists will coalesce and manifest into the gaming world.
  • Len Wein | Head of Story - At Space Odyssey, Len will be responsible for creating the story-line behind the game. Len is the legendary comic book writer best known for DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine. 
  • Cecil Kim, Justin Yun & Section Studios | Conceptual Design - At Space Odyssey, Cecil & Justin’s team will be collaborating on everything from concept art, visual development, 3D modeling, UI Design and 3D Animation. Previously Cecil has been the Visual Development Lead on games such as God of War 3 and was a concept artist for Final Fantasy IX, Twisted Metal Black and more. 

 

None of these people have any experience actually making a game. NGT probably doesn't even know what's going on. Len Wein has been in the hospital since March 6th for spinal surgery, and to top it off, Cecil Kim and Justin Yun are concept artists. No actual experience in making games.

 

I looked up Sonders which is (actually in a court battle against Agency 2.0) No recent news has emerged of this. Essentially Agency 2.0 is a company paid for by mass advertising and waved court fees. Here's an example: the PR company that Sondors hired, Agency 2.0, sued Sondors for unpaid fees. Agency 2.0 believes its former client owes it $524,000.  

They make money off of kickstarter companies that fail to pay fees earned during kickstarter to promote their campaign. When you google Agency 2.0, literally the first thing that comes up connected is SCAM. It goes back several years and they have a history of doing this same business to others, making money off of people. 

After doing research on them I decided to look up the actual company contracted to make the game. The website looks decent enough, but they have almost zero experience in making actual games, and a history of complete abandonment of said games after release. No support, no patches, nothing. They release them and then, that's it, collecting revenue. 

Some examples here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/352460/Dead_Realm/

 

 
Spoiler

 

PRE-RELEASE REVIEW

 

POSTED: JUNE 12
I can't believe I bought this game. I also wonder why I didn't refund it, now I'm stuck with a piece of trash game that nobody plays. If you're thinking of buying this game in hopes of playing multiplayer with strangers, good luck! Unless you buy this game with a couple of friends too, you are never gonna be able to play with anyone because, 1. There are just no servers to play on because nobody plays this game, or the servers that do exist are privated so that the people on it can play privately. Is strongly reccomend not getting this game unless you are for sure going to play it with your friends.
 
POSTED: JUNE 19
Product received for free
Nobody plays the game, and when you find a server they either dont start or kick you
 
POSTED: JULY 4
100% don't buy if u don't have friends cuz no one is playing this game
 
PRE-RELEASE REVIEW
 
POSTED: JULY 1
Big Waste of money it was left by the developers a lonnng time ago......

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zombie-killer-squad/id716114943?mt=8

Spoiler
Only One Issue 
     

by Rating 3 stars

I love the game! Only one issue... I bought a lot of stuff on this game, including the Syndicate and Seananners characters, and then I had to delete it for a couple of months for space. Now I have re downloaded it and it won't let me get the things I already paid for without paying for them again! There's no 'Restore Purchases' button that I can find.

 

Don't buy anything! 
     

by CrazyTeen11

I tried to buy a character for $0.99, and I went and put in my password, then confirmed the purchase. When I went on to the app all it said was "Sorry! We could not complete your purchase!". I checked my account and they had taken away $0.99. Please don't repeat my mistake and buy a character.

 

Alright 
     

by Themunch1008

I loved playing this game but got a new phone. Downloaded the game and lost all progress and all purchases. New game keeps freezing and crashing. Deleted and redownloaded but hasn't helped at all

 

 
Spoiler

First of all when you start the game you will be thrown into a world of confusion. There is no in-game manual, no forums or creator's website to check on, you will have no idea what each of the 8 stats do and how they affect the game. You will choose among the places opened to you to visit per chapter, and subsequent chapters open up more locations and these locations hold events that shape your adventure, and each time you visit a location you will get a random event from a pool created by the developers

 

 

icon_thumbsDown_v6.png
POSTED: JULY 21, 2014
This "Novel" can probably be described in one sentence; Boring, confusing, bland, short, and not worth the 10$. When I first bought the thing, it didn't even work until a patch was released so we can play it. It takes about 20 minutes to beat the whole story, and the story-line structure/mechanics in the game are organized poorly
 
POSTED: NOVEMBER 3, 2014
This game is, unfortuantely, a mess. The drawings are beautiful, but there are tons of random words just missing from the narration, which can make it hard to follow. Otherwise the writing is good, but the missing words are consistent and pervasive. The chunks of story aren't written modularly enough to support having so many choices all at once; often you'll visit a place and people will reference information and events that haven't happened because you visited in the wrong order, even though there's no indication of an order. Because of that, you don't get a coherent narrative out of it unless you're lucky. All in all, this sounded like a great idea, but it doesn't work at the moment.

 

It seems to me that the most you can expect is a mobile game that may or may not even work properly. 
 
Consensus: STAY AWAY FROM THIS KICKSTARTER
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Fizzlefuse

Fizzlefuse

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seriously, all it took was to look at that video to see there's nothing there.

no demo, no actual designs, just a few concept drawings which are all over the place as if someone just searched for "cool sci fi artwork" on deviant art or something. even if they did make those concept scetches themselves they look totally different in style and vison. Some are very cartoony and fantasy like, others look to be way more serious and reallistic. then it's little bits of semi-fancy graphical effects that mean nothing and could very well be ripped out of generic Sci Fi/Space documentaries (do a search of that on youtube, there's hundreds of em), mixed in with some people saying stuff about how excited they are or how they love science and Neil Degrasse Tyson.

This just seems like some people want to take advantage of the current hype for space games and Dr Tyson's popularity to make a quick buck. I would like to know if Dr Tyson is actually involved because that seems more unlikely every time i watch that stupid video. If he is.. he might want to get some people involved who actually know what they're doing in terms of making games
 

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Donut

Donut

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32 minutes ago, Boildown said:

Well that's a bummer.  I'm gunna cancel my pledge immediately.

 

Edit: Cancelled.  Now I gotta question some of NdGT's involvement.  How bad is he selling out?

I tried looking up any kind of information that he's ever said about the game and there is none. He has neither ever mentioned the game or posted anything about it on social media. It looks like all he did was attach his name to it and that was it.

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Boildown

Boildown

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21 hours ago, Donut said:

I tried looking up any kind of information that he's ever said about the game and there is none. He has neither ever mentioned the game or posted anything about it on social media. It looks like all he did was attach his name to it and that was it.

I saw a Facebook post yesterday actually, shortly before I came here and saw your replies.  But I cancelled anyways, I was dubious but figured it was worth a few bucks.  But if the other people associated are past quasi-scammers, I don't want them to have my money.

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Donut

Donut

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Just an update, they reached their funding goal and on the pledges says estimated July 2018 for completion. I hope all those people who backed aren't expecting anything amazing. Will be watching from afar, have a feeling it will be just like the electric bicycles the company behind the game tried before. (people have yet to receive any bikes btw from them for their original kickstarter)

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  • 3 years later...

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