Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs

[NightWolve]

Saber Riders ridin' off with yo money... ;) Riders gonna ride, after all... 

Nah, I wouldn't worry because a previous fundraiser failed. They got their act better together and just did a much better job this time at presentation (not to my satisfaction, but certainly better than what I see in that old link). I'd worry when you don't start seeing results down the road, for now, just be cautiously optimistic.

[NecroPhile]

But the other one didn't fail, it exceeded its goal by more than 50%.  Unless they gave refunds, it's disturbing that it's more than four years later and $20k+ and fuck all to show for it.

[Psycho Punch]

[NightWolve]

Oohhhhh, I saw the final amount and figured it had under-performed. I see... OK, ummm, you have a solid point there now, I'm glad I trusted my initial instincts cause there was too much anime to watch and only a few seconds that go by quick on actual gameplay ideas...

Riders gonna ride, like I said... ;)

[NecroPhile]

Riders gonna ride, like I said... ;)

Heh, that makes it all worth it. 

[elmer]

Oohhhhh, I saw the final amount and figured it had under-performed. I see... OK, ummm, you have a solid point there now, I'm glad I trusted my initial instincts cause there was too much anime to watch and only a few seconds that go by quick on actual gameplay ideas...

Ohhhh ... that's what I thought, too. Then after the recent comments I took a look in Google Translate.

That's definitely a bit of a warning sign.

I didn't take too hard a look after I saw that Simon Butler was involved. I've known him long enough that I assumed that he'd checked out the project and found it legit before he put his name on it.

It would be nice to hear a bit more of the project's history from "teamsaberrider".

[Arkhan Asylum]

I believe this is because the game was originally this:

and this version didn't pan out, in favor of what we now see.

I believe this project (the current one) has been in planning / works for more than a year, so I would not panic too much.   This sort of thing IS kind of common.  You just don't actually see it because this crowd funding thing is new.

and, the people who Kicked that one seem that they are already getting their pledges moved to the new project.  So, I don't think there's much to panic about.

[NightWolve]

Here's more game play footage of what they're going for:

Jump link: https://youtu.be/6IFC_z8Qyeo?t=51s

And from the video Arkhan linked, you see they were going for a more ambitious 3D game, but have now settled for something more traditional and of course easier to develop.

[HailingTheThings]

[NecroPhile]

I'm not panicked in the least (it's $70 for fucks sake), but I don't have much confidence in them fulfilling their end of the deal, especially since they kept the old campaign a secret.  If four years and $20k resulted in the next to nothing they currently have, what're the odds that they can put together four complete games in 18 months?

[NightWolve]

[Arkhan Asylum]

what're the odds that they can put together four complete games in 18 months?

Well, the SNES/DC/PCE ones are all farmed out to other people.

I don't know what the other groups are doing/capable of.   I know what we're capable of though!

[HailingTheThings]

what're the odds that they can put together four complete games in 18 months?

Well, the SNES/DC/PCE ones are all farmed out to other people.

I don't know what the other groups are doing/capable of.   I know what we're capable of though!

There's gonna be a SNES version? Thought they scrapped that idea. Hmm.

[Arkhan Asylum]

oh.  maybe they did.  I don't know.  lol

[technozombie]

I think the SNES version was on a higher tier that wasn't reached. Besides who would want a cartridge game anyways CDs are the future.

[NecroPhile]

I think the SNES version was on a higher tier that wasn't reached. Besides who would want a cartridge game anyways CDs are the future.

The base tier game was 3DS....

[technozombie]

Cartridges are too old school, UMD being the most practical and up to date format they should have made a PSP version.

[Gredler]

The base tier game was 3DS....

Are they using unity? I am curious about the whole project, and am surprised about how it's developing. I would like to know more.

[Mathius]

Well this kind of blindsided me. With my recent shoulder operation (number 2) and helping with another project for the community I haven't had much time to read up on this game. I see the Kickstarter has ended but as of yesterday they still haven't updated their site. Somebody catch me up please.

[blueraven]

I blinked and missed this.

Would have been pretty cool.

And Mathius, I hope you're doing better.

[technozombie]

Just got an update email with an episode of the show and a poster via Dropbox.

[DeshDildo]

Just got an update email with an episode of the show and a poster via Dropbox.

What donation level did you do?  I haven't heard a thing.  The only email I received was from paypal when I sent the funds.

[technozombie]

I just did the basic tier for the pc engine version.

[HailingTheThings]

I also got that digital thing. You should be getting an email update thing soon if you haven't already, Mr. Desh. At least, I think?

[DeshDildo]

I also got that digital thing. You should be getting an email update thing soon if you haven't already, Mr. Desh. At least, I think?

I also only backed the basic PCE game.  I was worried about this.  I funded it directly through the German paypal links that "teamsaberrider" had attached.  I hope my order does not get lost in the shuffle.

[technozombie]

The episode released had a version in German.

[HailingTheThings]

I also got that digital thing. You should be getting an email update thing soon if you haven't already, Mr. Desh. At least, I think?

I also only backed the basic PCE game.  I was worried about this.  I funded it directly through the German paypal links that "teamsaberrider" had attached.  I hope my order does not get lost in the shuffle.

You should contact them to make sure everything's okay, you should have received an e-mail update by now with the dropbox link to the episode + poster. Have you been getting the kickstarter update e-mails thus far?

[DeshDildo]

I also got that digital thing. You should be getting an email update thing soon if you haven't already, Mr. Desh. At least, I think?

I also only backed the basic PCE game.  I was worried about this.  I funded it directly through the German paypal links that "teamsaberrider" had attached.  I hope my order does not get lost in the shuffle.

You should contact them to make sure everything's okay, you should have received an e-mail update by now with the dropbox link to the episode + poster. Have you been getting the kickstarter update e-mails thus far?

No, I haven't gotten anything.

EDIT: Sent them an email with my paypal receipt.  Lets see how quickly I get a response.

[technozombie]

I also got that digital thing. You should be getting an email update thing soon if you haven't already, Mr. Desh. At least, I think?

I also only backed the basic PCE game.  I was worried about this.  I funded it directly through the German paypal links that "teamsaberrider" had attached.  I hope my order does not get lost in the shuffle.

You should contact them to make sure everything's okay, you should have received an e-mail update by now with the dropbox link to the episode + poster. Have you been getting the kickstarter update e-mails thus far?

No, I haven't gotten anything.

EDIT: Sent them an email with my paypal receipt.  Lets see how quickly I get a response.

Just curious if you got a response? You're honestly not missing a whole lot  by not getting the episode, but I know I would be concerned as to why I didn't get it.

[Mathius]

Is there any way to put in a preorder for the PC Engine version at all?

[blueraven]

Is there any way to put in a preorder for the PC Engine version at all?

What he said

[DeshDildo]

I also got that digital thing. You should be getting an email update thing soon if you haven't already, Mr. Desh. At least, I think?

I also only backed the basic PCE game.  I was worried about this.  I funded it directly through the German paypal links that "teamsaberrider" had attached.  I hope my order does not get lost in the shuffle.

You should contact them to make sure everything's okay, you should have received an e-mail update by now with the dropbox link to the episode + poster. Have you been getting the kickstarter update e-mails thus far?

No, I haven't gotten anything.

EDIT: Sent them an email with my paypal receipt.  Lets see how quickly I get a response.

Just curious if you got a response? You're honestly not missing a whole lot  by not getting the episode, but I know I would be concerned as to why I didn't get it.

I actually did receive a very quick response.  It was still a bit confusing but they also sent me the link to the episodes etc.  The confusing part is he said all of the emails only went to the people who backed through kickstarter.  This must mean that they also got a bunch of funds via paypal through the back door beyond kickstarter?  I could honestly give a shit about the updates.  I just wanted to make sure I would be getting the game I paid for once it is released.

[HailingTheThings]

I also got that digital thing. You should be getting an email update thing soon if you haven't already, Mr. Desh. At least, I think?

I also only backed the basic PCE game.  I was worried about this.  I funded it directly through the German paypal links that "teamsaberrider" had attached.  I hope my order does not get lost in the shuffle.

You should contact them to make sure everything's okay, you should have received an e-mail update by now with the dropbox link to the episode + poster. Have you been getting the kickstarter update e-mails thus far?

No, I haven't gotten anything.

EDIT: Sent them an email with my paypal receipt.  Lets see how quickly I get a response.

Just curious if you got a response? You're honestly not missing a whole lot  by not getting the episode, but I know I would be concerned as to why I didn't get it.

I actually did receive a very quick response.  It was still a bit confusing but they also sent me the link to the episodes etc.  The confusing part is he said all of the emails only went to the people who backed through kickstarter.  This must mean that they also got a bunch of funds via paypal through the back door beyond kickstarter?  I could honestly give a shit about the updates.  I just wanted to make sure I would be getting the game I paid for once it is released.

That's dumb, should be like "Hey, man, lemme get them, k?"

[NecroPhile]

So, one year left to go. 

[elmer]

Well, at least it looks like they've got some pretty sprites now! 

It's a bit concerning to hear that they've changed to a different (and apparently unproven) game engine.

I've seen that as the start of problems more often than I've seen it save a project.

Sounds like the PCE version is at the bottom of their priority list.

Let's hope that there's still some money left in the kitty when they're finally ready to have Arkhan and the team get started on the project. 

[Arkhan Asylum]

Let's hope that there's still some money left in the kitty when they're finally ready to have Arkhan and the team get started on the project. 

Yeah. 

The PCE version seems to be the least backed/funded.

So... that kind of sucks.

The Watermelon cunts ponied up a large wad of cash to put the project into funding, I think.  So that's not really happy-inducing.

[sirhcman]

Isn't it a bit odd they don't have a ton of gameplay footage available for a game that is to be released in less than 13 months?

I still think this (above) should have been a red flag from the beginning. I can't believe this got funded despite apparently not having the license and very little development prior to asking for all the money

[elmer]

Isn't it a bit odd they don't have a ton of gameplay footage available for a game that is to be released in less than 13 months?

I still think this (above) should have been a red flag from the beginning. I can't believe this got funded despite apparently not having the license and very little development prior to asking for all the money

It certainly wasn't a great sign, but not as bad (IMHO) as the seeing the previous crowdfunding campaign with nothing to show for it.

The PCE version seems to be the least backed/funded.

So... that kind of sucks.

From their KickStart updates ...

  Amount of supporters per platform:

  1. Sega Dreamcast: 415
  2. PC/Steam: 297
  3. Nintendo 3DS: 196
  4. NEC PC Engine: 170

  The most money was spent for:

  1. Dreamcast
  2. Steam/PC Win/Mac/Linux
  3. PC Engine
  4. Nintendo 3DS


So the PCE actually pulled in more funding than their original target platform!

But "yes", it has the fewest actual buyers, although as they also note, there are still new people asking to buy the PCE version but they don't seem to have figured out how to add them into the KickStarter/Funding.


But this is what is concerning ...

Because the Dreamcast version was doing so well during our campaign, we made several changes on our original plan in order to support it from day one. The original plan was to first develop the 3DS and PC/Steam version and after that the DC and PC Engine version.
The engine we have started the project with was only meant for Nintendo 3DS and the PC version was supposed to be made with Unity. Sega Dreamcast would have required a third standalone version and this was just not effective!
In order to support the Sega Dreamcast from day one the engine and several parts of the Development Team were changed.

We are working now with a completely new engine called "Dreamer" which is developed by our partners 2Dream. Dreamer offers us many great possibilities, is very flexible, powerful and supports already a lot of different platforms. For now, we licensed support for Sega Dreamcast, PC Win, Mac, Linux and 3DS in order to fulfil our Kickstarter goals. This should be great news for the Sega Dreamcast community. There is no longer waiting time anymore for the DC version.

So now the development plan and the actual team itself has changed from what the KickStarter supporters signed up for.

And they're licensing (i.e. paying for) this new game engine, from a brand new company, that's never shipped any finished products with it.

http://retrosumus.com/2016/04/xenocider-team-members-kickstarter-dreamer-engine/

http://2dream.co/#tabs-2

[Psycho Punch]

I was here thinking to myself about how hilarious it would be to have a mismanaged PC/3DS version never seeing the light of day while Arkhan is sitting with a build of the PC Engine version, underfunded and finished 3 months before the deadline.

The homebrew console version is looking more legitimate than the "main" version.

[CrackTiger]

One of the problems is that at the point of the campaign when it could have the most benefit or harm, they announced that they'd partnered with Warermelon. Lots of people pulled their pledges and they, along with a bunch of people who hadn't yet pledged anything, were very vocal across forums with threads promoting this campaign that they would never support anything that Watermelon is associated with after their most recent (at the time) fundraising fiascos. It was so bad that Team Saber Rider (or whatever) had to do damage control, assuring everone that Watermelon was only involved in the manufacturing. This was a year before everyone's worst fears about Watermelon were finally confirmed.

[NecroPhile]

If all else fails, Arky can reskin Atlantean again.  Sherifflanteans!   

[elmer]

One of the problems is that at the point of the campaign when it could have the most benefit or harm, they announced that they'd partnered with Warermelon. Lots of people pulled their pledges and they, along with a bunch of people who hadn't yet pledged anything, were very vocal across forums with threads promoting this campaign that they would never support anything that Watermelon is associated with after their most recent (at the time) fundraising fiascos.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

I can see that this new "engine" is from a brand new company founded by one of Watermelon's founders, and I know that it takes a crapload of man-hours to make a decent multi-platform engine that will pass standards-compliance on consoles, but Dreamcast/PC/Linux/etc don't care what old crap you manufacture.

I'm guessing that's one of the reasons why the 3DS (with actual quality standards) is now at the bottom of the support list.

[EmperorIng]

It strikes me as a huge red flag and warning sign when a team (seemingly undermanned and under-financed) makes a wild promise to, of all things, develop and port a game across wildly different hardware standards, programming quirks, resolutions, etc etc. I mean, did they really think it would just be simple to totally downgrade a game intended for the 3DS into several decades old hardware, each with their own limitations and specifications?

That should have been the first sign that the project is way, way, way too ambitious for its own good. Sucking money out of the retro crowd is only worth it if you can target one platform consistently. It makes no sense to waste all this time to promise all these extra downgrades unless they were looking on making cheap cash off of retro-crazed buyers. I mean, as a modern example: Inafune's Mighty No. 9 being absolutely crippled by its promise to be ported to everything, from PS4 to 3DS to Nvidia Shield.

[Dicer]

It strikes me as a huge red flag and warning sign when a team (seemingly undermanned and under-financed) makes a wild promise to, of all things, develop and port a game across wildly different hardware standards, programming quirks, resolutions, etc etc. I mean, did they really think it would just be simple to totally downgrade a game intended for the 3DS into several decades old hardware, each with their own limitations and specifications?

That should have been the first sign that the project is way, way, way too ambitious for its own good. Sucking money out of the retro crowd is only worth it if you can target one platform consistently. It makes no sense to waste all this time to promise all these extra downgrades unless they were looking on making cheap cash off of retro-crazed buyers. I mean, as a modern example: Inafune's Mighty No. 9 being absolutely crippled by its promise to be ported to everything, from PS4 to 3DS to Nvidia Shield[/i].

Poor example, this has been a shit show from the beginning and it's a game that should easily run everything it's on so far. It's an un-optimized clusterfuck of a project...the 3DS version is nowhere to be seen and frankly probably never started real development. There is no excuse for MN9 to run poorly on any platform it's been released on.

Porting to the PCE/TG16 is a different case here, they are going to provide assets and an outside developer familiar with the hardware is going to do the grunt work...hopefully.


 

[EmperorIng]

That to me seems just as fantastical and amateurish as promising to do it themselves. Maybe slightly less. It's still essentially not accounting for the fact that you, uh, can't make a game on the Dreamcast in the same way you can make a game on the PC Engine. All the assets would likely have to be reworked. The coding re-done from the ground up. It just seems so unrealistic that I wonder why people weren't (or aren't) more suspicious of such soaring claims.

Hell, why not throw a Famicom version in there. A famicom disk version too.

No arguments about MN9 being a clusterfuck though.

[Psycho Punch]

Well if Bob Pape managed to do R-Type on the ZX with his inexperience and several limitations, ArkhoSoft can, too.

I was saying that I'm expecting the peripheral ports to be done before the "main" game because at least the retro devs have a track record of actually releasing games and not overpromising or making kickstarter campaigns. Well, at least Arkhan does.

[Trenton_net]

One of the problems is that at the point of the campaign when it could have the most benefit or harm, they announced that they'd partnered with Warermelon. Lots of people pulled their pledges and they, along with a bunch of people who hadn't yet pledged anything, were very vocal across forums with threads promoting this campaign that they would never support anything that Watermelon is associated with after their most recent (at the time) fundraising fiascos.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

I also don't know what happened. How did Watermelon make a mess of things to get everyone to hate them so much? I suspect it has to do with how they released Pier Solar, in that some people got screwed over (ie. defective versions, canceling orders, not shipping, etc)?

[esteban]

One of the problems is that at the point of the campaign when it could have the most benefit or harm, they announced that they'd partnered with Warermelon. Lots of people pulled their pledges and they, along with a bunch of people who hadn't yet pledged anything, were very vocal across forums with threads promoting this campaign that they would never support anything that Watermelon is associated with after their most recent (at the time) fundraising fiascos.

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

I also don't know what happened. How did Watermelon make a mess of things to get everyone to hate them so much? I suspect it has to do with how they released Pier Solar, in that some people got screwed over (ie. defective versions, canceling orders, not shipping, etc)?

There are old threads here about it...I'm not too well-versed in it, myself.

Black_Tiger wrote about it.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

Ah, where do we begin.　　　

First, they took forever to finish Pier Solar.  I remember when it was some goobery little novelty idea.  Fair enough.  I wish it stayed that way. 

They took tons of pre-order money.  Tons.  They "sold out" of the game before it even launched.  So, the only people able to get the first print of the game were people who ponied up cash early, on good faith that the game would get done.   Anyone who was skeptical got fucked.

That sucks. 

Then, they announced a "Reprint" edition, and this is where I officially decided I hate Watermelon for all they're worth.

The reprint edition came in a new package, with a tacky REPRINT EDITION slapped on it.   It was lesser production quality, had no enhanced CD.

AND IT COST MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL, BETTER LOOKING VERSION.

They came up with tons of excuses.   They insulted their paying supporters, and future potential buyers.   It was a giant asshole-fest.  They said people didn't deserve the CD because they didn't support them early.   Then they said the CD doesn't fit in the clamshell (it does. I checked.).

Turns out, there was no CD this time because the CD didn't work right.  People had to rip the CD, dump it to PC, and reburn it for the SegaCD to read it.   Watermelon told people to do that, and then said wait nevermind don't do that.       The ISO got spread around.   Good.

the price went up because they mis-calculated costs of things, and basically should've charged more for the initial version.   The second-wavers all got hosed and had to pay more, for less, all because they suck at math.

I think they did a 3rd, and maybe 4th print of Pier Solar.  All with tacky LOLREPRINT editions.

then, they began whoring the game out to anywhere they could with those HD re-releases, etc.


The game itself is a trite Lunar clone.   It looks and sounds nice.  The combat is unbalanced.  The story is whatever.

It's not worth the hype-train.   People who praise it are very shallow, and duped by the visuals.


So, it really pisses me off that they are the reason this shit got funded, as they'll likely do something stupid over the course of the project.


Watermelon is a large part of why I am skeptical and apprehensive of basically anyone showing up to do anything anymore.   



They said the ROM wasn't dumpable, and the audio wasn't decodable.

IIRC, the ROM was dumped. 

and, Rover + Gravis decoded their audio tracks.

So, Fuck Watermelon.

they're about as bad as Super Fighter Team.

[Trenton_net]

I generally don't follow this sort of stuff. I know that Watermelon became famous for Pier Solar, but what went wrong?

So, Fuck Watermelon.

they're about as bad as Super Fighter Team.

I guess Super Fighter Team was responsible for similar Shenanigans? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)