Dark Souls boardgame kickstarter

I haven't been following the Kickstarter, but I am well-versed in all things related to answering these excellent questions.

Michael Barnes wrote: - When did development on this game begin? Before or after a licensing deal with From?

This game has been through an extensive development process and we're working tirelessly to bring the ultimate Dark Souls experience to your tabletop.

Michael Barnes wrote: - How far along is the game in the development process? Is a playable prototype/beta available to playtesters? Are there playtesters?

Playtesting feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we're very excited about the end result!

Michael Barnes wrote: - Why are critical assets- principally a rulebook or summary of rules- not being made available this far into what is already a very successful campaign?

We're committed to bringing you the best product possible, and to do so requires extensive proofing and quality assurance. We guarantee that all the material required to bring the ultimate Dark Souls experience to you tabletop will be in the box.

Michael Barnes wrote: - What is not currently cleared with From's licensing office/IP stakeholders?

Pass. Thorough and diligent work is currently underway to clear any licensing hurdles, and that work is progressing nicely.

Michael Barnes wrote: - What is Bandai Namco's relationship with Steamforged Games and how will it impact this product?

Thanks for all the great questions and the monumental success of our Kickstarter has made us even more driven to bring you this great game!

I posted those to the AMA...lets see how close Wade is to the truth!

Michael Barnes wrote: I posted those to the AMA...lets see how close Wade is to the truth!

Link? I wanna follow along.

The didn't answer...looks like one of their fans kindly provided me with the information that Bandai Namco has to approve everything...

Which I am calling bullshit on. I work in a giant corporation and it takes me about an hour to get P&C statistics, product info and so forth approved for deals that are exponentially more valuable than a $2.5 million board game. What is happening here is that Bandai Namco DOESN'T HAVE anything to approve. The reason that there is no gameplay video is because the game is not far enough along in the design process to HAVE a video. There is no video awaiting approval. The reason that there is no rulebook is that there ISN'T one yet. I think what they have right now is a rough draft "alpha" of how the boss fights will work and a basic idea of the rest of the game that has not been developed yet.

I am actually kind of suspicious that the deal with Bandai Namco isn't even really set up completely. It's really strange that so much of what they have shown is from DSII- and not III. They say "we don't want to spoil it", but when you are on a presale approaching $3 million, you'd better be more forthcoming. When they were asked how they were selected to do a DS game, the response was something like "Mat has connections with the video game business and we had a good pitch!" Which does not explain at all how this came about on a business level. Why would Bandai Namco go with a new, untested company over someone in the Asmodee stable or another major player?

Flipping through the AMA, their batch response to everything might as well be "Hey, it's Dark Souls Y'all!" Tons of idiotic questions like what a 15 year old might ask, tons of idiotic suggestions, almost no pointed questions digging into how viable this is, what their business plan is, logistics...

I'm keeping my pledge almost as a bet against the possibility that it could turn out to be pretty good when it ships in late 2018/early 2019. But I think anyone going into this without really looking at how evasive and vague Steamforged Games and questioning them has been is kidding themselves.

I found the relatively untested company involved in this major (for a hardcore videogame) IP SUPER strange too, Barnes.

Yep. A company with one published game and ZERO experience handling very valuable IP. This is starting to look stranger and stranger to me.

I posted some questions to their comments, probably won't answer there either:

www.kickstarter.com/projects/steamforged...-board-game/comments


Michael Barnes just now

Hi, I tried to asks some things in the AMA but I did not get a response. Maybe here?

- At what point is this game in the development process? Was a completed (or partially completed) game presented to Bandai Namco/From as part of a pitch? Why did Bandai Namco license this game to you and not another, larger company with experience handling valuable IP?

- Was this game in development before or after approaching Bandai Namco?

- What assets/videos/materials are currently in hand with Bandai Namco's approval team? Do they have a play video and rulebook right now, awaiting approval before the close of this Kickstarter?

- What is the size of the team at Steamforged that is working on this game?

- Have all of the add-ons, expansions and additional content been playtested and developed concurrently with the material in the base game? If not, does the team of playtesters have access to this material now?

- Are there playtesters at all?

- How finalized is the licensing deal with Bandai Namco? Are there parameters or provisions that may present a challenge in actually producing these products?

- Have you already negotiated with your printers, manufacturers and shipping agents to accommodate for a larger than quoted volume? Do you already have quotes from these vendors scaled to the volume this Kickstarter will require?

Sorry for being direct, but the usual "we're tryin' real hard to do good!" and "hey y'all, it's Dark Souls!" responses aren't doing it for me as a backer of this project that initially was ready to go all-in on it. There are significant, business level questions that no one is asking or that are being glossed over.
-

To be fair, I don't think it's impossible that Namco Bandai don't see how valuable this IP is in the boardgame space.

They actually responded...

At what point is this game in the development process? Was a completed (or partially completed) game presented to Bandai Namco/From as part of a pitch? Why did Bandai Namco license this game to you and not another, larger company with experience handling valuable IP?

Bandai Namco were shown the core mechanics of both exploration and fighting. As for why Bandai Namco chose us, you'd have to ask them the specific details. I would imagine it's because they've worked with Mat before on several projects, and they trust him. Plus, they liked the pitch we put forward.
- Was this game in development before or after approaching Bandai Namco?

After.

- What assets/videos/materials are currently in hand with Bandai Namco's approval team? Do they have a play video and rulebook right now, awaiting approval before the close of this Kickstarter?

The gameplay video and at least a few renders. They don't have a full, finished rulebook because one doesn't exist yet.

- What is the size of the team at Steamforged that is working on this game?

The core design team consists of four people, plus numerous playtesters, editors, additional designers etc.

- Have all of the add-ons, expansions and additional content been playtested and developed concurrently with the material in the base game? If not, does the team of playtesters have access to this material now?

Most of the playtesting of the game has still to happen. We have several months scheduled for it, but we have to wait till the end of the Kickstarter to see what we need to playtest as part of the first run.

- Are there playtesters at all?

Naw, we just write rules that look about right and then print them. Yes, of course we have playtesters. We will use the same playtesters as for Guild Ball, as well as additional board game specific playtesters.

- How finalized is the licensing deal with Bandai Namco? Are there parameters or provisions that may present a challenge in actually producing these products?

The licensing deal is final with regards to permission to actually make the game and any characters wherein. I can't speak to the specifics of the licensing deal, however.

- Have you already negotiated with your printers, manufacturers and shipping agents to accommodate for a larger than quoted volume? Do you already have quotes from these vendors scaled to the volume this Kickstarter will require?

I couldn't tell you. What I will say is we left ourselves until an April 2017 release date in order to make sure we have plenty of time to fulfill every order we get. We didn't know exactly how big this campaign would get, but we knew it would be big, so we planned accordingly.

Hope that helps!


The joke about the playtesters...heh, how many Kickstarter games have I seen were EXACTLY that.

Those are actually good honest responses. Very nice.

Yeah, I appreciate that he took them all head on and gave fairly straight responses.

I am still leery about some of the business aspects of this...it may very well be that this dude just knew the right people at Bandai Namco and put it through to them. And I do think that they should have waited to have something more concrete to sell but hey, it sure as shit doesn't seem to matter if they have a video or not at this stage.

I'll give them a chance...worst case scenario, I wind up with a shitty game shipping a year late that I paid $130 or whatever for. Best case scenario, the game rules and I got a good deal on it.

Today's SG is Sif/Artorias in a larger Darkroot Basin expansion. How can you pass that up. I think it may be the only add on I buy with it until retail.

Also Mark- you were wrong. The Invaders expansion includes all of them and it's actually part of the KS core package.

Michael Barnes wrote: Today's SG is Sif/Artorias in a larger Darkroot Basin expansion. How can you pass that up. I think it may be the only add on I buy with it until retail.

Also Mark- you were wrong. The Invaders expansion includes all of them and it's actually part of the KS core package.

Darkroot looks cool, but if there are new tiles it would be nice if they would clarify that. Having not played much of the series, why are people so nuts for these particular bosses?

They have the coolest lore. And Sif is a giant fucking dog with a sword.

The game play video has finally been released. It shows NOTHING they didn't already cover in FAQs. They've also "rewarded" everyone again with another additional purchase opportunity for having 21,000 backers. Very cheeky.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/steamforged...d-game/posts/1570500

Speaking as a member of the "shark tank" community of investors that has agreed to bankroll this commercial business endeavor, I think that's pretty outrageous to give away Iron Keep and then you've got to buy the tile pack separately...and it comes with Darkroot Basin tiles, so if you don't get that expansion you have useless tiles. Or maybe not, because they are saying the tiles are mostly cosmetic.

I have increased my pledge by $15 to get them, but I am POUTING about it.

At this point, if it weren't "fun bux" I had in this, I would probably drop it...but I do want to ride it out, still. If it is just a disaster, then I will be able to say "Kickstarter, I told y'all so". But if it is really good- and it could be- I'll have all of those extras that I would have wound up buying in one fell swoop anyway.

Here's the thing about the gameplay video. I think what is going to disappoint people about this game is evident already. It is not an incredibly deep, complex, Descent-class dungeoncrawler. It's going to be something much lighter. The video really kind of lays out it. You go onto a tile, you draw an encounter card and it spawns stuff on it. You fight that stuff and they maybe let you draw a treasure or there's an event that can happen. You then either push on to the next tile or go back to the bonfire, with the risk being that stuff respawns and you have to fight again. So what will happen is that working toward the miniboss/boss/megaboss, you will eventually have to fight through everything on the tiles leading up to until you beat it, and you get a "checkpoint" bonfire afterward. I think that sounds really neat, provided the encounters are not overly complicated and have a little unpredictability built in (like when a lame Hollow suddenly has like 4x attack speed and just hammers on you out of nowhere). There is a little push your luck built into that which could be cool too.

But it is already quite evident that what people are looking for in this game isn't going to be there. I'm thinking this will be about on par with D&DAS, which is...exactly what I want it to be. I think the bulk of any depth is actually going to be in the more miniature-y elements- positioning on the nodes, spacing, and so forth.

So I think the gameplay video, even though it doesn't show anything new, actually pretty much says it all...people asking how indivudal weapons upgrade, items wear out and so forth are likely going to be furious. It's not going to be ASL with Dark Souls livery on it. It's going to be a simple, mass-market friendly dungeon crawler with a popular IP attached to it.