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Less than 48 Hours left to save the Tactical Shooter Genre!
13 years ago
General
Welcome to the Journal of OtakuMan24 Game Player. Hope you're ready for rants and ravings on video games and other miscellaneous topics. 
PeterandCompany is doing a KickStarter to have their webcomic made into an animated series! Click here to learn more and show your support!
PeterandCompanyOkay folks, I don't know if you know this, but I have been following the KickStarter Spring lately, and now a campaign I have been following closely is in need of some serious help!
Meet Christian Allen:
This is a guy who has worked on a NUMBER of high-end Tactical First Person Shooter games! He's an ex-Marine who was a lead developer or creative developer for multiple companies like Red Storm Entertainment, and games like Rainbow Six (the original), Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, and the SWAT games!
From his perspective, the "Tactical Shooter" has been dumbed down to the point where it's practically unrecognizable anymore. To him, the modern day Rainbow Six games are more like "24" with Jack Bauer being all gung-ho; too much run-and-gun and not enough planning, strategy, and thinking hard about your decisions that could affect your whole team. He wants to bring that back, and made a KickStarter campaign to revitalize the genre.
Kickstarter.com/Crowdsourced-Hardcore-Tactical-Shooter
But something went wrong. It's not less than 48 hours before his campaign's over, and he has yet to meet the necessary goal required to fund development of a new game! There were misconceptions about what he was trying to do, and ignorance and confusion swept the populace. Examining what happened, Christian revitalized his campaign, and released a new video here, giving more details than the previous one above:
Furthermore, recently he was interviewed and answered some more questions about what he's trying to do here:
http://www.vgrevolution.com/2012/03.....ristian-allen/
And now the icing on the cake. It was confirmed today that Sony Computer Entertainment has shut down Zipper Interactive, makers of the long-running SOCOM series of games for the PS2, PSP, and PS3, as well as another game, Unit 13, that will be coming out on the PSVita.
That's about 80 employees who are now out of a job because Sony wasn't trying to push tactical shooters!
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/.....teractive.aspx
But I still believe that there are fans out there. I still believe that there are people that want a GOOD Tactical-Shooter that requires intelligence and teamwork just as much as it does being able to pull the trigger! The problem is they just haven't been made aware that this campaign exists, and that's why I feel obligated to help spread the word.
Ever since the KickStarter Spring began on February 9th, 2012 with the start of Tim Schafer's Double Fine Adventure campaign, I have been following this rise in new campaigns. These campaigns aren't from random kids in college who want to make a new indie game. These campaigns are from game developers who have been in the industry since the 90's, 80's, or even longer! They are seeing opportunities to make games that have been turned down by publishers whenever they went to them to pitch their ideas. These are people that have proven their skills, that have brought teams together to make outstanding games!
And I want them to succeed!
So I ask folks to help push this campaign to victory! If you have even one dollar to pledge, please pledge it so that games we might not see otherwise can have a chance! And I've heard word that Christian Allen is also talking with the Zipper Interactive guys, so who knows?! We may see some of the best minds in the tactical shooting genre of video games join forces to create something spectacular!
Time is running out, so show your support today! And don't forget the campaign for the animated pilot for Peter & Company too! Details above!
To be quite honest, I really never appreciated tactical shooters much...I remember how simulator-like the original rainbow 6 was, and how lost I was in all of it. However, I'd rather the genre didn't just disappear completely, since I've felt for a long time that it was just waiting for someone to strike the right balance between tactics and accessibility.
We really are experiencing a Kickstarter Spring, though. Are you aware the same thing has been happening in music? Jeremy Hunsicker, the guy who nearly got hired by Journey, put out his first solo album recently through it, and now John Elefante, formerly of Kansas, is doing a solo CD through it as well.
What other projects besides this and DoubleFine's have you been aware of?
First, I definitely understand and I also support Wasteland 2. Even though they've already met their goal and post-goal benchmark, their latest goal to involve team members from Obsidian, more than a few being folks that also worked on Wasteland and the original Fallout back in the day, is something I REALLY want to see happen. ESPECIALLY after seeing the crap that was pulled on them with the MetaCritic score bonuses.
So if you want to pledge the majority towards that, I am totally down with that!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects.....-2?ref=history
And here's an interview that I believe is also relevant to your interests.
http://www.ripten.com/2012/03/27/br.....ing-fun-again/
Second, I myself have not been a major tactical shooter player either. I haven't played the SWAT or early Rainbow Six games, since my brothers were more into them than I was. But still, I support his efforts and want to see others, especially those that DO enjoy tactical shooters, to support him as well. I know he's been in talks with some of the folks that were let go from the closing of Zipper Interactive, so if things work out, he could pull together a team combining the best of Rainbow Six and SWAT together with the best of SOCOM and MAG! That balance you're seeking could very well happen if this all works out.
So even if you want to pledge mostly to Wasteland 2, that's perfectly fine! But even if you can pledge $1, or maybe more, to the Tactical Shooter campaign, that would still be better than nothing, because every little bit counts right now.
Third, I must admit that I have not been following the KickStarter Spring for music since video games are my more immediate passion. But even so, I have heard lots of good things about numerous bands, as well as a lot of "Getting The Band Back Together" stories. I think that's totally awesome, and wish them the best too! I think trying to push music and video game campaigns by myself would be stretching me too far, but I definitely encourage anyone else that IS following the music-based KickStarters to spread the word, support campaigns, and let people know what's going on. All this cool stuff can be going on without anyone knowing!
Fourth, here's a list of all the major KickStarters I'm following that are still going:
"Faster Than Light (FTL)" [GOAL MET!!! / Indie Game / 14 Hours To Go as of Comment]
"TakeDown" [70% Funded / Veteran Game / 33 Hours to Go as of Comment] (Project is being worked on by Lead Developer and Creative Director for Rainbow Six, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, the SWAT series of games, as well as the original Ghost Recon)
"High Score: An Illustrated History of Video Games - 3rd Edition" [GOAL MET!!! / Veteran Author / 3 Days to Go as of Comment] (This book is a successor to the previous two editions to be written by the original author of both books. Author has been writing about games and technology since 1981, and is eager to interview developers and gather materials for a brand new edition)
"The Banner Saga" [GOAL MET!!! / Veteran Game / 20 Days To Go as of Comment] (Being developed by 3 former BioWare developers who left to try and start their own game project that uses traditional hand drawn animation and is steeped in Viking lore.)
"Class of Heroes 2" [Almost 10% Funded / Veteran Game Localization / 26 Days To Go as of Comment] (A project spear headed by Victor Ireland, former head of the game publisher "Working Designs" that specialized in bringing unique Japanese games, primarily RPGs, to the USA including Albert Odyssey, Silhouette Mirage, Popful Mail, and especially the LUNAR games! Wants to help bring more Japanese games stateside, and the developers of Class of Heroes 2 are willing to take a risk working with them. If this pans out, more Japanese companies will be willing to work with them too!)
"Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective" [A little over 17% Funded / Veteran Game / 28 Days To Go as of Comment] (A project to port a series of mystery games for the PC to tablets and phones like iOS and Android devices. Led by Dave Marsh, the man who was the lead designer and director of the original games, and who also developed landmark titles "Shadowgate" and "Deja Vu". Looking to remaster the series and bring it to a new audience.]
"Tempus Chronicles [Over 25% Funded / Indie Game / 30 Days To Go as of Comment]
And of course, there's also the KickStarter campaign for Jon