Armikrog
 

Figured I should post this here since I did the same with the DoubleFine one.


After months of teasing us on his Facebook page with small glimpses of his upcoming project, Doug and his friends have finally unveiled their latest work; a throwback to the games that made their careers.

The Neverhood is one of my favorite games. In fact, it was one of two games that defined my childhood (the other being Oddworld, of course). I'm glad to see Doug go back to his roots after over a decade of churning out humdrum graphic novels. The Kickstarter got 10% of it's funding in twelve hours, so I'm not the only one.

I know we have some TenNapel fans on this forum. I don't remember who. If you're feeling generous, throw a little dosh their way.

Varrok told me to back it so I did.

No problem.

Yeah I only just noticed he posted in the Upcoming Games thread. Should have checked there first. Oh well. This deserves it's own thread anyway.

You're forgiven, just because the Neverhood is so awesome.

Meh. No.

But your personal deity Tim Schafer backed it!

Forget it, by this action OANST showed that he doesn't care about Tim Schafer and Double Fine at all. We must accept this.

This is the only gaming related thing worth giving a shit about.

The animation is gorgeously smooth compared to Neverhood, too. Neverhood looked perfect, but this looks perfect in HD.

Very nice. I'm happy to see this being made, I really liked The Neverhood, especially it's music. Terry S. Taylor making the music of this game is great news.

My very first impression was that the name Tommynaut is kind of lame, but then I realised that Klaymen isn't any more impressive either. I like the main characters already, some very nice voicework is being done here.

Actualy, I didn't really like the voicework; I was hoping it was just placeholders.

I haven't played The Neverhood, but I always wanted to.

I backed this, just because it looks cool.

They could do far worse than Mike Nelson for the voice of Tommynaut. I love MST3K. His voice has that deadpan every-man charm, which I suppose is what they're going for. Sound quality leaves a little to be desired, but I'm sure for 900k they'll be ironing out all the dings.

Out of nostalgia, I watched the battle of Robot Bil again, and it made me realise what a huge part foley work was of the game's charm. It practically made a world of clay come alive. I hope things won't just shift over to voice work at the expense of foley.

I was also happy to see that this will be a point and click, instead of a platformer or something. Hopefully, it will also do better on the market than The Neverhood.

This game looks cool but I can't donate for obvious reasons.

900k is an extraordinarily small amount of money to make a game for. I don't see how they could make that work.

And, again, OANST showed his ignorance of DoubleFine, as their DoubleFineAdventure/Broken Age would be made even if the backers pledged only 400k.

If Tim was here, he'd surely be ashamed of him right now.

400k for Double Fine Adventure would have given us little more than a web browser game. They are over budget, and they received well over 3 million.

Claymation is more time-consuming than money-consuming, considering that they have oh so much clay right now, and they haven't got a cent from pledges yet. They have cameras and stuff too, it's probably their personal tools. And $900k is a bit more than $400k. PnC games are easy to program comparing to other genres. The project is trending for more than $900k anyway

Time consuming = money consuming.

Don't underestimate what can be accomplished with a small budget.

WHERE'S THAT MOVIE I BACKED?!

I'm still waiting for one of the balloons they bought with my money.

This one was leaky and they threw it out.

I spent it on pizza and beer.

Sounds about right.

Did it at least give you the shits?

I want to rile somebody, so here's a fantastic article on TenNapel (And why you shouldn't back this game).

So I can't play Armikrog until Doug's been dead twenty years and downgraded to "controversial"?

I didn't want to have a conversation about this, but that is the exact reason that I immediately passed on backing the game. I just don't want to give him money.

It's a really dumb reason to not the back the game, because it's fucking unrelated. So he dislikes gay people... so fucking what? Is the game going to insult gay people? I don't really think so. Is the game going to be at least about them? No. Is his intention to earn money of disliking homosexual people? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think not.

Let's say that Metallica's frontman says that he thinks liberals are stupid, and I happen to like liberals and Metallica's music. Doesn't it sound plain retarded to say "I won't buy new Metallica's albums because the frontman hates liberals"? Yes. Yes it does. Buy the game if you like the game/the concept of the game. Geeez.

Also, what do you think he'll do with the money? Buy a gun to kill some homos? pfffffff

I can't disconnect the art from the artist. I don't listen to music made by gross people filled with hate, or watch movies written by them, or play games made by them. I don't support their bigotry, and I don't support them monetarily. I don't care if you do, but I find him, as a person, to be distasteful, and don't want anything to do with him. Seems pretty simple to me.

So, when the main hero is e.g. scratching his head, your initial, most basic thoughts come down to "TenNapel animated this move, and he dislikes a certain group of people... I don't want to see it anymore" or something? Or do you find things in the game that reminds you of his intolerance? Or are you saying that you dislike the whole of his being and so everything he creates reminds you of it? What is the connection you're talking about?

Tell me, what do you dislike about the trailer, could you? And imagine that someone else made the same trailer, would your opinion differ?

Yeah. And also, exactly what I already said. Not sure what you are missing here, or why it matters to you. I don't like him, so I don't buy shit he makes. I don't care if you do.

Every cent from kickstarter should be put into making the game. He can't grab the bag of money and run off. And by connection I meant something that's actually in the game that connects to the author's flaws.

Are you dense, or are you being obtuse?

You understand that the money spent making a game goes to the people who make the game, right? That it isn't made of magic that buys premade code? That money is spent on their salaries. By giving the game money, I am giving him money, which I am not inclined to do. Also, I don't care about the game. I don't care about it because, and let me try to get this across, I DON'T LIKE HIM. I DON'T LIKE HIM, AS A PERSON, AND THIS COLORS MY OPINION OF HIM AS AN ARTIST. As it should. Art is an extension of the artist. If it isn't, then it is merely 'product'.

Didn't OANST keep telling everyone to stop judging art by the artist when everyone was reluctant to buy Fez? I'm not saying Phil Phish is as backward as homophobes, but he is pretty unpleasant.

Yeah, yeah.

I bought and played Fez and I'll probably buy and play the next game he makes. I wouldn't donate to him though.

What about if you pledge the value of the finished product? Most people just throw in their 20 dollars as a pre-order. They're not being charitable in any meaningful sense.

Yeah.... that's not what I said at all. My point in that conversation was that you were all making way too big a deal out of what he said. I don't understand how the artist having a preference for what platform his game is released on is a problem. It comes down to this: Nerd rage (He said he doesn't like my choice of platform for my game wah wah first world problems, and he has opinions about the Japanese game market oh my beaten up vagina doesn't like that) versus Human Disgust (This person very vocally wants to limit the rights of people that don't have sex the same way that he does). I'm not telling you that you should buy his art if you don't like him. I'm just putting out there that maybe your reason for not liking him is stupid, and not worth caring about.