OT - Kickstarter opportunity to create new college football video game
I know there are many video game players on the board. We also know the many complaints of our fair leader about the current NCAA Football game (damn anti-Chris Graham super linebackers with their great hands and leaping ability). Here's your chance for change. This company has a kickstarter to create a new college football video game to launch prior to the 2014 season. Check out the link and watch the video to see how this one will be different. For those that don't know, Austin is a center for video game production. I have questions about the ability to get the NCAA licensing, but I do know this is a legit program.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1318442419/college-football-championship-game
It's a Longshot, at best.
Eh, modeling the offensive 7-on-7 movement (with QB's and WR's espcially) has never really been challenging. Things like OL to DL interaction, OL blocking schemes, defensive back coverage, and simulating the difficulty of playing QB in real life (obviously, from the blimp view playing QB is easy, as it would be in real life as well. They need to simulate rush somehow. Instead of doing this, developers make over the top pass defenders to take away passing lanes instead (EA Sports), or make the actual act of throwing and catching way more challenging than it should be (2K Sports).). I honestly think that the QB cone was the best way to address this, and if they could pair that with good trench game play I think that's about as good as we can get.
But, I can live with $20 for the vision they've shown thus far.
That's another great option, and it's been tried a couple of times before. Madden had a camera view like that in '05 or sometime around then, and Back Breaker has that view point I'm pretty sure. I personally think that would be too hard to sell as the main camera view because it asks too much of the player to read/anticipate/know where to look, but I've always found it as a fun way to play the game as a change of pace like you said. From what I can tell, it hasn't been wildly popular (Madden dropped it. Although, they also dropped the passing cone, so my dream looks unlikely of panning out), and I would guess because people don't understand the timing.
I was going to say the same thing about BackBreaker and the Madden games. I think the problem with the first-person views is that people are used to being largely omniscient when playing a 1st-person game, but in football part of the reason it is so difficult is that you have limited sightlines and can't necessarily prepare for rush defenders, LBs dropping into coverage, etc. I liked the passing cone as well because it at least simulated this limited vision somewhat, but even then you could see the whole field and make plays regardless.
Personally, I'd rather they focus on improving the running game versus the QB tweaks. I haven't played the most recent versions of these games, but I remember playing NCAA 2012 with Denard and Fitz and barely being able to get a running game going against the likes of NW and Minny. Drove me crazy. Get to the point that linemen actually block a play for more than a second and I'll come back to these franchises.
One last thing I'll add in about the passing cone, and I don't know if they addressed this on the initial release or not, but one of the variables (on top of cone size) for QB ratings should be speed at which you can switch receivers. While you'll still have that omnicient view, you're still slightly hindered by this.
EA Sports has been trash with the running game in the NCAA series, and Madden has been only slightly better. From what I can tell option blocking is just non-existent with EA game. I've opted to play APF 2K8 when I want to play video games again purely because of how well they did the run game. Of course, I have to trade off the ability to run the option game.
This sort of thing takes a ton of money to get off the ground, so while I do hate EA I am very skeptical. I would love to see 2k studios take another shot at it
hope they are dumping more than 1 million into it.. otherwise good luck
we have college football, How about a college Basketball game
I could be that these guys are using the KS campaign to demonstrate a viable market for their product, so as to be able to secure investment funding down the line. Everyone can knock em' for having a dream, but you have to respect their enthusiasm at least.
I have hated the EA games for so long... 20$ seems like a good deal. And I don't even own a PS or XBox.
But only if Denard was on the cover
Just pledged $20! If you are reluctant because of the steep hill, remember that you aren't charged unless it reaches the goal.
Similar to what Brian said earlier but I'd really be interested in a text-based cfb simulation (aka the early Football Manager games for the pc). Take out the actual in-game graphic budget and gameplay concerns and you have a significantly easier to produce game with a much lower overhead. Of course, it would only appeal to the niche audience of people who really get into the roster management, recruitment, play creation, play style and all the other minutae of running an 85 scholarship football team. Having leagues online would be relatively cheap to support as well because the bandwith demands would be so slight.
I would do anything for a game like this.
Edit: FWIW I pledged $60 for this game because it could possibly be better than the EA crap anyway.
get me a college basketball game and I'll donate
This came up before, but if someone made Football Manager 13 for college football, that game would likely be the best game of all time. And I'd throw down 30 bucks every year for updated versions.
There are so many things wrong with this. I appreciate you for posting it on this site - it really shows to me how dumb some people are.
Why is this dumb, you say? Well, let's see if I can mention most of the reasons:
1) $1MM is probably not enough for an xbox arcade game - at least one for a college football game trying to eat away EA Sports' sales (the average budget for these arcade games was $750K in 2009 - per a Google search I just did).
2) He's looking for $1MM, but the top bucket of giving is only $10,000? And no mention of equity given to investors? Come on.
3) Speaking of no equity given to investors... this is really an investment best suited for a few rich individuals who believe. Not thousands of idiots on the internet looking for a "discounted" game (since when did Arcade games cost $30? I always thought a majority were around $20...).
4) Given his budget, this timeline of his (before the start of 2014 season) is probably way too aggressive.
5) Who wants to play a college football game where absolutely nothing is licensed by the NCAA? Anyone?
6) Who wants to get into the college sports video game business when the O'Bannon lawsuit is going on? Anyone but this guy?
Look, it's easy to hate on this guy. He's clearly a tech dude with no real business acumen. I don't mean to put down anyone's dreams - because anyone should be able to pursue their dreams. The tough thing about pursuing your dream, though... is it takes a good idea, a metric FUCKTON of determination and drive, and connections. I am not sure this guy has any.
Kickstarters can't provide equity, by the way. That's not what they're for.
That said, this Kickstarter proudly proclaims that they have no business executives, and that fact is painfully obvious from every other part of the presentation and business strategy.
Finally, I would play a good college football game that's not licensed by the NCAA.
You provide cash in exchange for certain things. Not sure why one of them can't be equity. At least not sure why it can't be for things within legal boundaries (e.g., not for sexual favors).
Kickstarter is good for certain things (e.g., HTTV). This ain't one of them (which is your 2nd point, clearly).
Not the 'Bama one, the Obama one. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) regulations currently say you can't offer equity on crowd-funding sites. This is one of the many things holding back the crowd-funding movement, which could be vastly more effective if donors (or investors) could acquire an equity stake in the project.
That said, I essentially agree: these guys need serious money from venture capital, angel investor(s), or private equity. KS is not the right solution, and really shows how little these guys understand the business.
Thanks for clarification, Ron Utah. The SEC is really a useless bunch of imps.
It says there will be licensed teams and logos, but then also says for your $10k donation you can get featured advertising on one of the 6 billboards that are present in every stadium. So The Big House is in the game and they are putting giant billboards in it with advertising that will be visible during every game for those sponsors? So licensed teams, but fake stadiums? Or real stadiums that they alter to make sure sponsors can get ads visible?
So yeah, you are funding some dude (or more accurately, some dudes) to become wealthy. I think a lot of kickstarters have started going that way. Look at some of the kickstarter-backed Hollywood movies that are getting funded. If those make millions, who is going to rake it in? It isn't going to be the people that put in the money on kickstarter.
This thread just makes me miss NFL2K that much more. The last version of the NFL2K series was close to NFL football perfection. To their credit though, EA has always had the best college game.
DICE develops Battlefield for EA and yes it is a great game. But very little of that could be leveraged for a college football game.
You have to remember that for some games EA is more of a publisher than they are a developer. EA's college football has been developed by a company in Florida named Tiburon for years and years. I'm sure they get tech help and resources from EA, but they have nothing to do with DICE, Battlefield or any other EA games (except they probably share some resources with the Madden team).
Yes, a generic engine can be used for anything. Yes, a graphics engine can DISPLAY just about anything. But a completed, specialized engine can't just be repurposed for an enitrely different game. You are understating the amount of specialization that a football engine has in it. It has NOTHING in common with a first person shooter, other than both model humans moving around in them. You are modelling two entirely different things. It would be a gigantic waste of time to try and convert any part of, say, the Battlefield engine to Madden football. Unless you are trying to recreate the scene in Dark Knight 3 where they destroy the football stadium.
I'm not even sure what the point would be. The main benefits of an engine like Battlefield (large, open, destructable environments) would be 100% wasted on a football game. What needs to be fixed in EA's football games in mostly in the AI, not in the graphical presentation anyway.
My friend works for EA in the Madden division, and he says the only reason why NCAA is profitable for them is because they can use the Madden code base.
I don't think this guy can make a full fledged video game for $1M. Too much programming to do in too little time.
The owner of the Kickstarter used to work for EA Sports, so I think he knows what he's doing. The Kickstarter says that the engine itself is almost done, and all thats left to do is graphics/presentation, additional game modes, and licensing. Also, Kickstarters are all or nothing, and you're allowed to go over the minimum amount of money you put, so its better to lowball the figure.
I really like their concept of the engine (which is described in their video) as well as the 4 year recruiting of a player (starting from his freshman year of high school). Hope this ends up becoming reality.
all seriousness, I would love a college basketball video game before I saw another college football game.