On the New Release Date: March 24th (EDIT: Now in April, FYI)

[Tridus]

30k on Kickstarter is not a huge amount of money for an established developer, if you can get the game covered in some places.

[Professor Paul1290]

Perhaps spouting a but much from the negative camp, I think Kickstarter is very much in the part of gaming culture (the majority unfortunately) where having a "poorly received game" is worse than having "no games at all".

As awful as it might be to say, I think the fact that Valley 1+2 and Shattered Haven are out there in the wild and have the reception they have might make Kickstarter success unlikely, regardless of how much I personally enjoyed both.

[Castruccio]

30k on Kickstarter is not a huge amount of money for an established developer, if you can get the game covered in some places.

I think the best strategy is to go for a modest amount and really try to blow everyone away if you exceed it.  See this very succesful example:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/64409699/ftl-faster-than-light

[x4000]

Just to be clear, we've taken kickstarter considerations off the table. 

[junker154]

Just to be clear, we've taken kickstarter considerations off the table. 

Early access could be a decent idea, it usually boosts the media coverage by a long shot. There are tons of popular youtube channels and various gaming journalism sites that usually cover the game that's currently being released in early access. This could be vital for marketing and getting the name out. Although early access is usually considered somewhat bad by a large majority of people in the gaming community, due to all the various games that end up there half finished. I also like that you guys actually never put something in early access, that deserves some respect.

As for the kickstarter campaign, I think that was a better move to just drop it. Fully justifying a kickstarter campaign due to the release of the diablo expansion, the "free" expansion and all the other various reasons is kind of hard to pull off. People will perhaps consider this is a cash grab of some sorts.

[Histidine]

I'd suggest taking a loan, but I have horrible visions of TLF not making as much money as it should and Arcen Games getting repossessed as a result.

[x4000]

With internal money stuff of that sort, don't sweat it. I'm very conservative when it comes to core finances. I would never take a loan I could not cover. The worst that would happen would be the collapse of more staff -- very bad indeed, but still.

[Cyborg]

I would never take a loan I could not cover.

Also known as pulling a Curt Schilling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_Studios

[x4000]

Yeah, whew, that was a real mess.  Say what you will about me, but I actually do have more sense than that.

[Wingflier]

It's a tough call.

I don't think the D3 expansion is going to have the same effect as the base game did, but there's no doubt that it'll have an impact on the other games out there.

Then again, is waiting until April really going to increase the sales significantly enough, even a month later, to merit the time and money lost by waiting?

Honestly this game would have been perfect to release in early February. I know things didn't turn out that way, but you guys just have bad luck with releasing your indie games around Blizzard titles

[x4000]

Well, we won't just sit on our hands when it comes to the extra month.  I'll be working on polish and whatnot with TLF during that period, but most likely the rest of the staff will be focused on either an AI War or a Bionic Dues expansion, very quietly, for release in May.  Gives us a chance to get ahead on things.  Also will give me a chance to get ahead on the design for our next full title, too.  So there are some benefits there.

We also would wind up with more advance press and more launch reviews, which typically is a good thing if the game is good.  And April has been very good to us in past years, actually.  April and May both have been very prime times for us to release titles that sold extremely well.  October has been historically as well, but that obviously did not work out last year with Bionic, so either that was something specific to that game, or just bad luck in general.

I'm pretty certain we are pushing the date back at this point.  It lessens the risk considerably in terms of getting stomped by AAA titles, and it won't increase the cost of the TLF project correspondingly since the vast bulk of our resources will be focused on further projects that will generate money starting in May, anyhow.

[MooN]

Kickstarter wouldnt have been a good idea good call on that, but how about pre-orders on the website, maybe to get access to the current versions or different. Of course this does mostly attract people who would have bought the game anyway and are aware of it. But this might help to get some initial sales (obviously those people will lower the launch day sales but well) maybe some of us will do a little (p)review on the game (after getting the hang of it) to attract some awareness for the game. Since the major issue to me is not diablo 3 or whatever... people will buy these games if they want to anyway and the people who are willing to buy d3 for example and the last federation will do so regardless. The important thing in that matter is the money, if u can only afford one well then u will decide on one no matter what launch day they have (meaning same day or one after another) and buy just that, if u can afford more well it really is a no brainer you just buy what u want i guess ^^. Since this is a niche genre for the most part awareness is key not the date. People need to be aware that this game is gonna come and why they should look forward to it, or even that they can jump in right now to see what its like... maybe through some commented gameplay vids or lets plays (seems to be everyones favourite) In my opinion some initial (p)reviews and stuff are the key to hook people interest and maybe early access is the way to go in that regard. I just wanted to throw this out and maybe fuel this conversation again (dont hesitate to bash^^) since Iam really looking forward to the game and want it do well so we all can enjoy more awesome games from you guys Oh and i forgot to mention if u decide to push the release to a later date this might help you through these days


have a nice weekend everyone

[x4000]

We will definitely be doing early orders with beta access through our site starting in March, too.  Mid-march, most likely.  There again, it lets us build awareness by having many batches of press about the game, rather than just one or two.  Hopefully that winds up working well in the end.

[MooN]

I wish u guys best of luck and look forward to my early order

[x4000]

Thank you very much!