Ok so, a lot of friends pointed me to this indie j-RPG game still in development called "Echoes of Eternia". The director of the game was raising money for it using Kickstarter which is a website used to raise money for various projects from arts to games.
I thought there was nothing wrong with it, I mean, donating a bit to show faith and interest in a game? Cool, it works. But then, I saw this "Echoes of Eternia" project and I realized that sometimes things are just WRONG in any way.
Here's for you the link to the game's Kickstarter
Echoes of Eternia
There you can see the "interview" with the so-called head developper Ryan Harmon. If that didn't gave you a feel of wrong, then, let's analize this game.
First of all, take a look at the in-game screenshots
This game is made with RPGMaker VX, a program that makes you create j-RPG style games...so...a guy is using a program, made by somebody else, using graphic and tilests already inside the program, no added coding, very little efforts...and he NEEDS 10.000$? For what?
I mean, wow, I didn't even know it was legal to sell your games made with RPGMaker, but, apperently it is if you actually bought the program licence (which is 60$) and you use the pre-installed RTP or custom graphic made by yourself...but take a look again at the pictures, the game is made TOTALLY with the pre-installed RTP library, what is the point in asking funds if you don't even try to add something different from all the others (and free to play) RPGMaker games?
Also, I think it'll be good to point out something else about the graphic.
Take a look here...
And now look here...
http://kiwinuptuo.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=48#/d2fbhd1
Notice anything? Little hint...IT'S TOTALLY THE SAME!!!!
I mean, did he just cropped the grass down the tree? Are we serious? This is art steal, plain and simple!
In his update journal this guy never mention this artist.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1465600975/echoes-of-eternia-a-modern-take-on-a-classic-desig/posts/212855
And on the other side, the artist never said that it's a sprite for the game...also, I mean...a sprite for a 2012 game, made in 2009??? No shit, you definitely failed here, Ryan...
Ok, enough with the graphic, let's talk about something else.
Stating the official description of the game, Echoes of Eternia has incredible features like...
Half of these aren't features but, whatever...
- 30+ Hours of gameplay. ( Not including all Side-Quests )
- Active Turn Based Battle System. Ex: Final Fantasy
- Highly tactical Battle System. Focuses on player enhancements and Elemental weakness/resistances.
- No random encounters! All enemies will be present on screen and it is up to you to decide whether you fight them or not.
- Complex puzzle solving.
- Emotional and Compelling story line. ( Details coming soon )
- Gorgeous hand drawn battle sprites for Players and Enemies.
- Completely original soundtrack.
- Fully voice acted. ( Only in cutscenes, not for general text. )
- High Quality 32bit Goodness!
- PC exclusive. ( see FAQ section for more details )
As a special thing this guy added for the donators who gives a lot of money, he give the possibility to add his own voice to the characters, to create a character on their own or even design a sub-quest or an event...what is the purpose of that??? Using inexperienced people to do some of the most important aspects of the game for free? No wait, after they paid you? That's not how GOOD games are made!
As a recap, what are we paying for?
Your Donation will be used to make Echoes of Eternia as best as possible. The money will be used to fund the Amazing art from Melissa Hui Wang who has done so much to help out this project and has made it so much better than it ever could have been without her. It will also fund an Original Soundtrack produced by Dream Orbit Music Corps, Animation by Josh Buchanan, and Legalities like Copyrights and Trademarks. Any extra funds generated will be used to produce higher quality content and ensure us that we have full creative freedom.Basically, our money will be used to grant him some commissions from other guys and AFTER THAT, he could use the money for the actual game...nice job pal.
No, seriously, if the artist is in your team, why do you have to pay her for every single art? In fact, is she in your team actually, or you just want to squeeze pictures out of her?
Guys, I REALLY could go on, saying about what is wrong with it, but, I guess it's pretty useless, you just need to analize it to understand that a game that doesn't show any sign of work, doesn't need to be supported with money.
Now, don't get me wrong, I highly support indie developpers, they're part of the gaming future, but the real ones really put efforts in their products, starting from scraps to create good pieces of games.
This is just a preposterous mass of shame. This guy should be ashamed of himself, asking money for something he didn't, promising stuff that (I'm fairly certain about it) will never became real.
But hey, his goal was 10.000$ and looks like he already have almost 35.000$, so well, we'll soon be able to enjoy a really expensive RPGMaker VX game...or...not very soon, since the game is scheduled for release during Q1 of 2013...wow...
Meanwhile, I think I'll probably to play some Tales of Eternia...
Wait a sec...Tales of Eternia...Echoes of Eternia...Eternia...Eternia...
Nah, it's DEFINITELY a coincidence...
Cioè fammi capire.. usa un programma modificando di poco i contenuti all'interno del programma e chiede 10000 dollari ?
ReplyDeleteNon solo li chiede, ma ne ha raccattati più del 300%, mostrando soltanto
Delete-Un disegno commissionato
-Due screen fatti con RPGMaker e i tileset di base
-Pixel art rubata
-Tante parole
Ho lollato quando ho letto che chi donava molti dindi aveva la possibilità di mettere la sua voce nel gioco.
DeleteCioè non solo spendi in più dai gratis la tua vocina ?
Ma questo furbo cosa deve fare di suo, solo raccolta fondi ?
In sintesi, kickstarter è un sito che permette di pubblicare dettagli e info su un proprio programma, che sia un gioco indie da sviluppare o qualsiasi altra cosa e raccogliere fondi da donazioni pubbliche.
DeleteQuindi si, lui in pratica ha scritto le sue idee per un rpg, un artwork commissionato ad una tipa su DA e bona
A lot of your points are valid, but that tree graphic is different. It's clearly the same style, but was redrawn. The roots, the leaf arrangements, the leaf shading, and even the overall shape of the tree are all different.
ReplyDeleteI admit it, maybe I rushed to conclusions about that, but I still think it's pretty strange...
DeleteYo, Zephir. I'm working on the EoE Development Team, and, no offense, but you're mistaken on a few points. I'd love to address a few of your concerns, not in a finger pointing flame war, but a calm conversation.
ReplyDeleteYou're the story writer right? Then please ezplain, 'cause, well, it's important to know everything from every point of view
DeleteWell, back when we were using RMVX, we weren't using the stock tilesets. We hated those with a burning passion. We were constantly looking around for different tilesets made by other people that were free to use, and contacting people that had done other games, and seeing where they got theirs, and if we could use them. Nothing in the screen shots was stock at all.
DeleteWe actually had to use a lot of coding, I was working on it at first, then Ryan took over, and then we hired someone else to do it, because the battle engine that you get stock from RMVX is terrible. After a while, we were writing our own scripts for certain things, like menus and such, and consulting the forums for the more difficult tasks.
There's actually a lot of work going into this game. If writing the story wasn't enough to hit some sort of quota (there are actually two other people writing this story with me), we have an artist doing all of the drawn art, two pixel artists, one for sprites, and the other for tilesets, three composers, two animators for battle animations and major cutscenes, and a someone handling the production of our merchandise. (Answering the whole tree problem, the tileset guy we hired showed us where he got his inspiration from for the trees, an entirely different DA accnt, and showed us how he adapted his own style to it. He didn't rip anyone off. It was legitimately his own work.)
And now we're using a custom made engine by the people making Hero Fodder, so that we have the ability to do things we wanted to do in RMVX, but were too limited to do, such as change weapons in battle animations, and so that we don't have people dogging on us for using RMVX, which is kinda weird, seeing that Eternal Eden, which was made on RMVX, is getting a 3DS release, and judging from how much of it I played, that game sucks...
But yeah, we're not ripping anyone off, or stealing from people. We're legitimately all of the money to pay for things, and people for their time. We have permission to use everything that we're using, and everyone who's stuff we use will be credited. Hope I've cleared some thing up for you. But if you do find anything, please let us know, and we'll check it out, because we have no want to be sued. ^^
I still have my personal doubts and opinions, but at least it's good to hear some clarifications on some points.
DeleteRegardless of what I think, I wish you and your team good luck on the project, I'll probably do a proper review when the game will be out in the future.
On a side-note, may I ask how did you find my blog? I doubt it's famous enough to be listed on google XD
Dude, I am SO sorry. I forgot to check for a reply again... Yeah, I found you by googling Echoes of Eternia.
DeleteNo prob, cool
Deletehttp://www.rpgmakervx.net/lofiversion/index.php/t37645.html <- Press "Spoiler" in the first post.
ReplyDelete