Delaware St. John - Please show your support!

Hello Adventure Gamers!

I'm very excited to announce that the 4th Delaware St. John game, Asylum of The Lost now has a solid release date for June, 2013...if you want it.

We are working with Kickstarter.com to raise the money to do something we've never had the chance to do before: create a game with an actual budget!

Please visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1065983707/delaware-st-john-4-asylum-of-the-lost to find out how YOU can speak up and show your support for our ongoing series by pledging a donation. All donations over $15 get you a free copy of the game!

This is a dream project for me and my team and I can assure you, if we can raise the budget for this project, you're going to be amazed at just how great this series can be.

I am grateful we've been fortunate to make three games so far on very little but we're capable of so much more and we're asking for the opportunity to show you!

The fund-raising drive is only going on for 45 days so please donate today and please share this information with as many people as you can! We have a short time to raise a considerable budget!

To all the current fans, I thank you for your years of support and encouragement. To all non-current fans; consider a donation and let us make a game that will turn you into one!

Now, let's see where this goes!

-Bryan

Since making the fund raising drive announcement, I've been asked a few specific questions which made me realize I've not fully explained our goal.

So I'd like to take this opportunity to elaborate.

First, we're asked "if you made games before on little budgets, why not keep doing that?"

In the past we worked on all Delaware games as part-time projects in a tight timeframe, usually around 6 months. While I'm proud of the work we did with such limited time and resources, the reality is the quality suffered. We had to cut features, story elements and puzzles due to our limitations and time constraints. The plan for Delaware 4 is have 12 months of development time with a full-time staff dedicated only to this project. We feel the quality will be amazing and really help us take our series from "That's pretty good for an indie game" to "That's a really good game."

The boost in quality paired with a wider launch (available for PC, Mac and tablets) will increase our chances of reaching a wider market and help us profit enough to secure the future development of the rest of the games in the series.

There are no big salaries in this budget. The money has been earmarked to get us the best quality possible but no one is getting a "payday" from it. We're about making a great game, not making tons of money.

Another question I've gotten is "Why is there no physical version of the game?"

With the release of each previous Delaware game on CD, within days of sending out copies of the game, I found pirated copies being sold online for half the price we were asking. I went round and round with eBay and other marketplaces to get those copies removed. It's very time consuming. But each time I got some removed, new ones would pop up and it was clear people were purchasing these illegal copies. They'd also email me for tech support as well. I tried to make it clear to everyone if you do not buy the game from us directly, we don't see any profits and we're not benefitting to be able to fund new developments.

Needless to say the problem only worsened with people eventually selling "digital" copies of our games illegally for $5.

While piracy may be irritating to big-release games, it cripples independent games like ours. It wasn't my first choice to go with a digital-only distribution but in the end it's the only way we can securly sell our product without risking piracy.

In light of this decision, I have given additional thought to collectors. I'll pose this question to the forum and see what the reply is. What if we did manufacture a boxed "collector's edition" of the game as a free bonus to people who pledge? This would be a real, sealed box with a printed CD inside, however, the CD would be blank. This would only be for the sake of collectors who like a boxed game to have on their shelf. Would that be considered a fair trade-off?

Thank you for taking the time to read this. As I said before, it would mean a great deal to me if this project got funded. But I also realize asking people for money in advance for a project is tough, especially in this economy. That's why I'm especially grateful for each and every pledge we get. We know the value of money and we're committed to ensuring your money will create a fantastic adventure you won't forget!

If you have any specific questions or concerns keeping you from pledging, please bring them up for me to address. We don't have much time to raise the money so each donation and day counts! I would appreciate everyone helping to spread the word. This would be a dream opportunity for us and I know you will love the results of our efforts.

-Bryan

Bryan thanks for letting us know this fantastic news This is a great oppourtunity for all of us Delaware fans to help make Asylum of the Lost a big sucess. I am a collecter of boxes so the box for Asylum of the Lost sounds good to me.

For any of you who haven't played the Delaware St John series they are very good games. The stories are very good and draw you in. You won't be scared out of your seat by things jumping out at you. You will get that scared uneasy feeling from the atmoshere and building tension. In Delaware St John, Bryan has created a character who you really care about, who is like a friend and when the game ends you miss Delaware. I can hardly wait to go on another adventure with Delaware.

Bryan hoping all goes well with Asylum of the Lost so we can be adventuring with Delaware again in June 2013

hatshepsut

The topic of digital vs physical copy of the game has come up many times. While I've explained why we need to release the game digitally to avoid piracy, at the end of the day it's about making the customer happy.

In consideration of this, I've updated our rewards system to include a free digital copy of the game, a free digital copy of the soundtrack and a free limited collector's edition boxed copy of the game as well with a pledge of $50 or more.

As always, I appreciate you speaking up.

-Bryan

Hi Bryan

I know that there are grumbles about digital downloads. I also know the problems with piracy and that the independent developers are particurly vunurable to piracy. When it comes to a choice between digital download or a cd loaded up with security measures, I will be happy to take the digital download

I for one appreciate your efforts to make the customer happy. And for offering a box for our shevles You have no complaints from this happy customer . The only thing that could possibly make this customer any happier is when I have Asylum of the Lost downloaded and playing on my computer

hatshepsut

There would be surely more retail buyers than digital download buyers. I would go for a retail copy. Also a collector's box with a blank CD inside would be a terrible idea I think. The Digital Download versions are as much pirated as the retail versions of games. I think that the possibility of pirating a digital version which has a crazy DRM "protection" (or better to say limitation) is much higher than the possibility of pirating a retail copy protection free version of a game. I would never buy a digital version with DRM limitations. Only exception is the protection via serial number. That is OK in my opinion.

The new Kickstarted campaign has been launched a couple of days ago. This one has to be a success, so let's support it. Prizes are VERY good, including retail version of the game in a VERY good price! There is also a new Delaware St. John Website ! I think that the whole thing deserves our support. I will offer mine for sure.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1065983707/delaware-st-john-asylum-of-the-lost-adventure-game?ref=live

http://www.delawarestjohn.com/

I hope Delaware makes it this time. This Kickstarter is expecting a lot less money than the first one, so has a better chance of meeting the goal. For a $15 pledge you get a DRM-free copy of the game, and you aren't charged anything if the goal is not met.

I hope the kickstarter is sucessfull this time too.

hatshepsut

Cancelled some time today. I wonder why?

Good question Mullane, I would have backed a retail DVD version of the game for sure.

Me too, there were very good prices, I can't understand why this interesting project didn't receive the support that it would deserve...

I don't understand it either. Bryan makes very good games. I love the Delaware games and hope that Bryan will still make the game.

hatshepsut

Although I think that he should have waited a little bit more before he cancelled his campaign. There are many people who surely would pledeg. like me and Mullane, and many more. Maybe it is a bad timing for Kickstarting, many projects have failed during the last couple of months, even the Coles with Hero-U will be waiting till the last moment.... Maybe they expected more from Cognition and that made them hesitate, who knows, maybe it's because of Christmas time coming near.....

Yes I think it was a matter of bad time. Perhaps after the first of the year people will feel better about investing in projects.

hatshepsut

tsampikos wrote:

Although I think that he should have waited a little bit more before he cancelled his campaign. There are many people who surely would pledeg. like me and Mullane, and many more. Maybe it is a bad timing for Kickstarting, many projects have failed during the last couple of months, even the Coles with Hero-U will be waiting till the last moment.... Maybe they expected more from Cognition and that made them hesitate, who knows, maybe it's because of Christmas time coming near.....

You may be right about the Xmas time of year or quite possibly its that the Kickstarter frenzy has died down and most people want to wait for the results of these games to be released before risking even more money. What good would it be if a year from now everyone is disappointed with the game results or many didn't even get released.

As far as Delaware is concerned Bryans own words says it all...

Quote :

However, we've made the tough decision to cancel the campaign. We've tried to reach our target audience but since we've stalled pretty much at the same goal as our previous attempt earlier this year, it's clear we either lack the ability to do so or our target audience just doesn't want this project.

Rather than drag it out for the next 6 weeks, we think it's best to just terminate it. We will not run the campaign again.

How disappointed he must be. I imagine at some point, with all the incentives that have to be given to attract new donors, that too much of the final pie has to be subtracted from the game money and its not worth the effort. Its too bad as I personally enjoyed playing the Delaware games and seeing how, with each release, the developer improved on his talents. But I believe I am in the minority of being a gamer that prefers first person, solo exploration games.

Over the years I've bought and played all the DSJ games. Should there be more games in the future I would personally pledge my support and purchase the games. Unfortunately IMO this whole KS thing has gone out of control. The reality is that it is not possible for me to support every campaign that comes along and then have to wait months or years for fruition and not to mention there is no guarentee of satisfaction, just blind faith. When you think of all the games that have been released in the past two decades you would think that some significant proportion must have at least broke even in sales, otherwise why continue? Times are changing, we all know that. Sadly, without commercial success it doesn't really matter who or what anymore.

I may be a majority of one, but I don't believe in Kickstarter. Why not? Because deep down I don't believe that money equals creative thinking. Talent is something money can't buy! Throwing money at a talented person doesn't guarantee that the ideas will come, more apt to stop them, would be my guess.
I can see a game developer longing for the money to make fancier graphics, adding technical touches to a game to enhance it, and all that jazz, but in the end it is the idea that counts. It is that special something that grabs people and turns a game into a hit, not the technical gimmicks. At least, that is how I react to a game.

The other 3 games were made without kickstarter, I wonder why that was possible then but not know?
I backed the campaign because it would get me 4 games for $15 and I backed Tex Murphy because it's my favorite series and I had been waiting 12 years for that game. But paying up a year in advance should be a special thing and I'm certainly not willing to do that for every game I buy.

In my view developers really should find a way to make games without expecting us to pay for every game before production has even started. That worked in a few special cases but I don't want to support this to become the norm.

I can say with a fair amount of certainty that the target audience does want the project. It does seem however, that it isn't big enough for this kind of project. The games never had the same notoriety as Broken Sword or LSL and this project may not have been shared or talked about enough for it to reach everyone that it would interest. It's also possible that a number of adventure fans are still waiting on returns from a very large number of adventure kickstarter projects and this is just one too many?

Much like HandsFree, of the few kickstarter projects I've backed, two of them are Delaware St. John and Tex Murphy. The only other one I can remember backing from day 1 is Asylum from Senscape.

Did anybody else download the first 3 Delaware St. John games now that they are finally available to those who backed $15? I downloaded today but have not tried to install one yet. I wonder nicely they will play with Win7?

Hi lakerz, according to Draclvers thread of what games will play on win7 all 3 Delaware games will play. The only problem was with the second game. The computer had to be rebooted with each game play. Enjoy   

hatshepsut

Thanks for the input. So you mean each time I'm done playing the 2nd game, I cannot exit back into windows but must reboot the PC? That's unfortunate.