19 - The terror of pregnancy

[matt]

EvilKingGumby - this is for you!

Being pregnant can be a scary experience since there are so many things that can go wrong and there are so many new sensations. I talk about how I feel and how I want to channel those emotions into the game.

[evilkinggumby]

this.. this right here is really a great video. You remained true to what you said before and didn't get into specifics about the pregnancy, but you opened up (and yes got a bit chocked up, but that is normal and GOOD in this case, if you were cold and didn't get emotional at a time like this you'd have to be some kind of sociopath lol).

I hope a lot of backers get a chance to see this and feel for you.

as a topic for a different video and looking at ties between aswang lore and real life issues with pregnancy, it may be worth looking to see what the infant mortality rate is in the phillipines(old data and more recent stuff), and how that may play a part. if you can find data on common ways children die during labor/birth or in vitro would be handy too as it give ssome real world details on WHY the aswang legends grew and spread to help deal with the issue (especially if the numbers are scary) and build up a bit of lore as to why having a healthy child and raising it can be so special. i think of the movie "children of men" and how that baby became the single most powerful and important commodity of the times. THAT movie, though flawed in spots, had some really striking moments.

[matt]

I too enjoyed Children of Men. The problem is that I believe the aswang legends predate the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in 1521, so I'm not sure there are any good records from that period. I'm not sure anyone can really explain the origin of a legend that long ago... I probably should look more into it though!

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Perhaps that would have been better in hindsight. I have trouble imagining any pitch being less effective than our current one... :-/

[evilkinggumby]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Perhaps that would have been better in hindsight. I have trouble imagining any pitch being less effective than our current one... :-/

Not sure I get your meaning. you had every confidence in your pitch back when I was being a pain in yer ass before the KS started. Don't tell me you are giving up hope so soon!

And yes I am sure there is plenty to research, and you may very well be correct, the legends may predate that by a long shot. I just figured it might be interesting if you COULD trace a line where infant mortality and illness paralleled the legends over time. But yeah.. could be impossible. oh well.

[matt]

I am just saying that for whatever reason, the kickstarter isn't going as well as I had expected, and I am more than willing to consider that the pitch video is part of the problem. I think the larger problem is just we aren't getting eyeballs ON the pitch video, but perhaps with a different pitch video, we could have gotten more press or viral marketing? Who knows...

[miumiaou]

The problem isn't the pitch video, it's the fact that a lot of people didn't like your previous game and are badmouthing about it. When people are note sure to back the game, I think they go see the comments on your previous game and a lot are bad comments. It's also the fact that we backers should spam youtubers with messages but only a few of us did so.

Did you already chose the name of your future child?

[evilkinggumby]

The problem isn't the pitch video, it's the fact that a lot of people didn't like your previous game and are badmouthing about it. When people are note sure to back the game, I think they go see the comments on your previous game and a lot are bad comments. It's also the fact that we backers should spam youtubers with messages but only a few of us did so.

Did you already chose the name of your future child?

Weird.. where are you seeing the loads of bad comments for NeN that people are likely seeing? I checked Steam and the rating is still "Mostly Positive" and the first few pages of reviews are just that, mostly positive with only a handful of negative ones. I checked NeN's original campaign on kickstarter in case thats where you think people are looking and the first 20 or so comments (looking newest to oldest) are all cheers and happy times. Metacritic has a less than ideal rating but most of the reviews it lists from critics are mixed to positive and the commonfolk reviews are a bit harsher, but not entirely scathing.

[miumiaou]

Yes I might have been exaggerating things but I still think the pitch was good

[RightClickSaveAs]

I've seen a few negative comments about this and the previous game when the Kickstarter is brought up, but nothing too overboard. More unfortunate, in my mind, is the point that was brought up in some comment I read online, about how people just aren't paying attention one way or another.

I posted about it elsewhere and it didn't get a ton of response, but that seems true for most Kickstarters currently. Other Kickstarters similar in scale to Devastated Dreams don't really get much attention, and the most discussion I tend to see is if it's a bad/controversial Kickstarter (like Red Ash with all it's issues) or something really big and nostalgic that people are really excited about.

There does seem to be a trend of people getting tired of pixel art/retro nostalgia in projects. I wish more of them would step up and start supporting the more inventive stuff if they want to see that trend change.

[matt]

We picked out a name - Paul. We are very excited to meet him!

I think in general, kickstarter is much harder now than previously. I discussed that with someone from Double Fine, but I foolishly assumed that we'd be able to carry the project basically with a large percentage of repeat backers. I expected to get about half the backers from the previous project to support this one, but that definitely didn't happen since we have far fewer than 1800 backers.

I suspect the main difference is that kickstarter is less exciting/interesting to backers as well as press. It is hard to admit, but it's also possible the game just doesn't grab people. I'm not sure why that would be. Some people think the art style is the same (and I disagree with that, but what I think doesn't matter), and maybe other people expect that it is more of the same as Neverending Nightmares. I'm not sure. We are in a tough spot because I assumed we had a good chance of success for this kickstarter, so I don't have much in the way of contingency plans...