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Unbended - New project by former Ascaron employees!


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...gave you back your money, that's kind of a buzz kill.

Tell me about it.

At least its not as bad as it sounds. But with the forum reset they finally went and answered some of my questions on buying NPCs:

http://www.unbended.de/forums/topic/questions-on-the-npc-99-euro-package-2/

 

And the english version of the site is coming along.

http://www.unbended.de/please-translate-in-en_us-das-projekt/

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I'm extremely excited about this new project. It sounds like these ex-Ascaron devs are actually trying to give Sacred fans what they want. The part about the open-world design in particular is a huge plus for me. But at the moment, I'm a little hesitant to donate.

 

Here's why...

 

1.) The original website for this project was shut-down pretty quickly, and now they're popping back up at a completely different URL. This was apparently for legal/copyright reasons, and was accompanied by a full refund of all donations. Something like this makes the whole project seem kind of shaky and not very well thought out.

 

2.) All the relevant info is in German, with English translations slowly appearing on the website. The English translations currently in place are rife with spelling and grammar errors. This doesn't seem very professional, and once again, makes the project seem kind of shaky.

 

3.) They're asking for direct donations via Paypal. For a project like this, wouldn't it be more appropriate to start a Kickstarter page? I'm a lot more comfortable making donations via Kickstarter, as I'm sure many other people are as well. Once again, doing this through Paypal makes the project seem kind of shaky and not very well thought out.

 

 

I hate to be a downer. I love Sacred I and Sacred II, and would LOVE to see a true successor built on an open-world design. So I really want to be on board with this project. But I think they're going to have trouble getting the money they need until they address these glaring issues.

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Ulfgeir I agree with your decision and for all the same reasons. It's hard to imagine a worse way to go about trying to fund a new game. They will really need to get their act together to have a successful start to the game's development.

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Well, looks like the first character description is posted at the new site. Unless someone beats me to it, I'll post a full translation of the page tomorrow.

 

By the first looks of it, the character is a magician, called "The player", as in "cheating card player".

 

Thorin :)

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I like his design as well. I'm always happy to see a touch of steampunk in fantasy. But I'm not so sure he's that unique. My first thoughts were Gambit from X-Men, and that he would fit right into Grim Dawn. :)

 

8Mt7HoTl.jpg

 

 

Althought I think Gambit only wore a top hat like that in the movies.

Edited by Flix
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Well, no wonder their funds were slow to restore – they forgot to include the “donate 5 euro” button.

 

Anyway, time for some relevant project news, regurgitated through Google translator, from http://www.unbended.de/forums/topic/infos-von-den-devs/

 

 

Zacharias Zinker on project status:

Since then, we have set the lights to green internally and from an idea into a real project, we are going to organize ourselves and structure. This process is currently running. There are specific tasks distributed, new people are added and must be briefed and involved. Sometimes overlap while still matters and responsibilities are sometimes blurred. My job is actually not necessarily think to look at me any WordPress protocols, I would instead prefer to continue with the development of the world. Goes just currently not always go as you want it, as any of us would like. That goes for you as a supporter as well as for us as a team.

 

We work and we work very seriously about it. I think the next update will show that the "fun project" is to include driving, even if it could be a little surprise here and there.

 

 

Zacharias Zinker on donations:

Communication is irreplaceable and we are well aware of. Also we are working on at the moment.

 

Nevertheless, it would be nice if you do not too much engaged here the donation account in the foreground. The donations will help us at certain points of the project, currently we do not have to attack and which is provisionally expected to also remain so. In the event that we need to fund external services via the donation account, you gain as fans and supporters about accountability. At the moment, we cover all labor charges from on a voluntary basis, with the number of volunteers is still growing. We will run a little more detail shortly on an update of the area THE TEAM. Things are in agitation, we will find a way to explain you how to accurately and improve the flow of information. This is not an empty promise - we are well aware of us.

 

My personal opinion: As you already said it, "fun projects" can mutate very quickly and UNBENDED has the facilities to take this mutation stage. Would we try to realize the whole thing with motivated amateurs, I would probably own major concerns. But this is not the case. The core of our team knows how to produce a game and does not go blue-eyed in this project. The story is good, the world will be unique (very subjectively seen through my eyeglasses narrator), the technique is easy to grip and feasible, and obviously we have out there, some fans and friends who want to end up playing like that. In this sense, the conditions could be worse. At rest, we work ... a little time please admits us.

 

 

Zacharias Zinker on more PC characters:

I say in Sachen S…..m by careful "possible". At present, three characters are already so well designed that we would refer to them as "fixed". After we were able to show with the first information on the PLAYER (GAMBLER) at least quite possible that we have a heart for "shady" characters, probably the next in league of our heroes, especially the hearts of fans of wide blades and short battle distances can beat. This will take a little longer, but it is worth seeing.

 

But it will not be a Seraphim, that's for ever. Reason for this is a license issue that could be problematic. That there will be a winged Char, he has not ruled out.

 

 

Ralph Roder on reading the forum:

First of all thanks to all for the input. To equal to destroy a myth: we read the forum. Intensive. Any. Without exception. :)

 

You will understand that I (we) can not take on the whole decidedly points at this time. That would be gross negligence at this stage. Currently the project is still a rough boulder, from which we carve out little by little the game. The details will be handled later. This does not mean, that you present your ideas and wishes should not describe. If we did not want, then we would not even set up this forum.

 

Currently we are working on several fronts. There are some updates that want to be prepared.

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Sounds like things are moving along, which is good. I just wish the whole thing felt a bit more cohesive and transparent. Right now, it's still a bit of a mysterious project. We don't know how much money they actually need to see this project to fruition, the size of the team they hope to assemble, or how long they project the development process to take. I'd really love to see them nail things down to a more solid and clearly laid out plan, and preferably in the format of a Kickstarter campaign.

 

On the one hand, I really want this project to succeed. But on the other hand, I just don't feel comfortable sending money off to a mysterious Paypal account, with promises that a game "kind of like Sacred" will be produced from this money "sometime in the future." They need to understand that in a situation like this, we're not just the fan community anymore... we're potential investors. And just like any other investors, we need to be presented with a clear, concise proposal that spells out exactly what they need from us, and what we can expect to gain in return for our involvement.

 

Right now, all we have are vague teasers and hints. Which is fine when you're dealing with fans. But they need to start thinking of us in terms of potential investors instead. They need to pull back the curtain and show us the hard numbers.

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But on the other hand, I just don't feel comfortable sending money off to a mysterious Paypal account, with promises that a game "kind of like Sacred" will be produced from this money "sometime in the future."

What about just donating 5 euro (7 bucks)?

 

Sadly, all new project development news come in german first. But we have many members who speak german, and could help out with the news translation (I'm looking at you people). :help:

 

The developers also probably don’t want to buildup too much hype over the project, else they’ll have a harder time to deliver on their promises.

 

The project’s first milestone was set at 25,000 euro. So far they recollected 3,483 euro after the project rename (previously they managed to collect over 4,680 euro)

 

As for the Kickstarter issue, I'll just quote this news article (which is in English, so you can go read it in full):

Niche Gamer: I’ve heard on forums a lot of people say that you guys should take the game to Kickstarter, but if I remember correctly, Kickstarter doesn’t yet allow European developers use the service…is that correct? Have you explored any other avenue to raise funds for Unbended’s development?

 

Franz Stradal: You’re right; kickstarter is not an option for German developer teams. However, fans can support us directly via fund raiser on our website.

All financial support goes 100% into the project! As soon as the preproduction is done, we will take a look and find alternative ways to raise funds for the full development.

Later this year we will try to go on international crowd funding platforms as well; but we need a legal person and company in the states first.

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What about just donating 5 euro (7 bucks)?

I haven't seen any options for making small or custom donations to this project. Maybe I'm missing it somewhere, but all I've seen are the three "Early Supporter" packages in the amounts of 29, 99 and 299 Euros.

 

If they had a smaller, less risky 5 Euro option, I might consider that.

 

And as for Kickstarter, I had no idea that it was unavailable to European developers. Thanks for sharing that info. It might be helpful to their cause if the developers included that information on a FAQ page at their website. People might be more understanding if they knew that Kickstarter is not an option.

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>"You’re right; kickstarter is not an option for German developer teams. However, fans can support us directly via fund raiser on our website."

 

I wonder why, when Belgian developers Larian Studios funded Divinity: Original Sin over Kickstarter.

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Probably at least an incorporated face in Nevada or Del.

 

I think they said they would need to set up a company in the US to use Kickstarter. Maybe that is what Larian did.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Last month we got a lot of information on the good old team of Ascaron planning to make their next big RPG through crowdfunding. We got some concept art, a very open to interpretation world setup, a final product name change to Unbended, and a massive crowd refund. It was a good long month. Overall the plan was to set up a good crowdfunding campaign in the upcoming months.

 

Event though they have gone quiet for a while, this month the preparations continue, as they redesign their website for a more modern audience. And as always it’s a classical Ascaron soon to be fixed first draft disaster. :)

 

http://www.unbended.de/

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I'm glad to see that progress is still being made. I really do wish them all the best. From what I gather, their current fund raising efforts are primarily aimed at doing the pre-production work necessary in order to have assets they can show on a proper, full-scale crowd funding website. So in essence, they're crowd-funding right now in order to finance a larger, more professional crowd-funding effort, which will then actually finance the game proper. Which is kind of weird, when you think about it.

 

Have they set any kind of goal (specific or general) for how much money they need in order to launch their proper international crowd-funding campaign?

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So in essence, they're crowd-funding right now in order to finance a larger, more professional crowd-funding effort, which will then actually finance the game proper. Which is kind of weird, when you think about it.

Yeah, everybody thinks this is weird to the point of an oxymoron.

We'll just have to wait an see how this develops.

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I hate to bring this up, because it would probably be an enormous pain in the butt to make a change at this point, but am I the only one who thinks the name "Unbended" is kind of insane? Maybe "Unbended" sounds awesome in German, I have no idea. I'm not even sure what the translation would be. But in English, it sounds horrible. At the very least, it's terrible grammar. At worst, it could conceivably hurt the marketability of the game.

 

I understand they had to come up with something new and unique, but did they even consult someone who speaks English before they made their final decision? They've already got the website URL locked down and everything. It's a shame the name is so poorly thought out.

 

Why not hold a big community contest, in which several optional names are proposed and voted on? The winner being adopted as the new name of the project.

 

Heck, I'll propose a couple of similar (and grammatically correct) options right now.

 

UNBROKEN

UNBREAKABLE

HALLOWED, SANCTIFIED, NUMINOUS (all synonyms of SACRED)

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