Why Ealdorlight's Kickstarter might have failed

It’s now been over three months since the end of the Ealdorlight Kickstarter campaign. I’ve deliberately been taking some time to think and learn from the fact that it didn’t reach the target, and to work out what to do next. Frankly, I was pretty upset that the campaign didn’t make it, and it’s taken a while to get over it.

It’s also taken a while to think through the campaign properly. Some things are obvious in hindsight, and others less so. A lot of post-Kickstarter analysis feels like a stab in the dark. Nevertheless I’ve given it a lot of thought, and these are my best guesses for why I think Ealdorlight’s Kickstarter failed:

I rushed the design

Sol Trader was barely six months out before I powered into a new title. I didn’t give the design enough thought before going public with it. If I’m honest, there were some big design holes in the pitch. I still believe that I can close those holes, but I was asking people to trust me to create a great RPG without much proof I can do that yet. The days of blind trust on Kickstarter are long behind us, and I should have closed those holes ahead of time and provided more evidence.

I overreached on scope

Ealdorlight promised an expansive procedural role playing experience in UE4. Doing this well requires a fair sized team with different talents: although I managed to pull together some great people, I didn’t have the cash to polish the prototype as much as I wanted. The screenshots and demo I rushed together just wasn’t ready for the gamers to see yet. I was asking for cash to make it prettier, but my demo wasn’t good enough for an 3D RPG to stand out on Kickstarter in the first place.

I misunderstood gamer expectations (again)

There are a very established set of expectations for a modern 3D RPG. If youre doing something different, then you need to clearly demonstrate how your game transcends established norms. This is hard enough with a clear design and a demo showing key principles. I found it impossible to do this at the stage of project I was at.

So what’s next?

In his seminal article Ryan Clark talks about making the game that’s at the intersection of at least three things: The game you want to make, the game you can make, and the game people want to buy.

I wanted to make Ealdorlight, I think people would have bought it, but I fell down on the “game you can make” category: I just don’t have the in-house team or the cash get enough of a prototype together for Kickstarter to get the idea, and I can’t self fund a game of this size.

Ealdorlight is on hold

I’ve talked to a few publishers, and whilst there’s some interest, I’m putting Ealdorlight on indefinite hold. As I’ve thought more about the design, there are some big inherent risks, combined with the very established set of gamer preconceptions about the genre (especially in a 3D title) mean that it’s too risky as a second title after Sol Trader.

Ealdorlight was an expensive prototype for me to make, and practically I don’t have the cash to embark on another full time project. My next game project will need to be of a more manageable scope, which means my next game cannot be Ealdorlight. I’m currently working hard to pay off debt accrued during the previous games endeavours, which is taking up most of the capacity I have for work right now.

Sol Trader is getting updates soon

Besides working hard to In the meantime I’ve been working more on Sol Trader here and there. Since revisiting it again after working on Ealdorlight, I was struck again at how good the core of the game is, and how a little extra work can make it even better. I’ve been improving some of the UI around notifications, and adding in a new ship type to play with. More information will be shared very soon.

Bigger ideas

I’ve also been thinking hard about what I actually want to do in the games industry. What types of games do I really want to make? How do I want to go about making them? These ideas are much more significant that simply the next game title, and I’ve become more and more excited about them as they’ve taken shape.

I’ve reached the stage where I’m starting to reach out for feedback from trusted friends and other developers in the industry. More when I’m ready to go public.

Thanks for all the support, messages and pledges I received around Ealdorlight - I’m very grateful! I’ll share more details about what’s next soon.

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New build: 1.3.3

Hi all,

The builds are coming thick and fast! As more people have been playing the game recently due to the new builds, more bugs are being reported and fixed.

Your saved games from the previous version should work fine with this release. Here's a list of changes:

• Unblock AI when 2 agents get stuck. This was a nasty bug and should cause characters to behave normally in longer running games - they should now be more reactive in general (follow you onto your ship, turn up for meetings, or run the transit mission you paid them for, etc).
  
• Fixed academic manuscript mission to be completable[forums.revelationgames.co]
  
• Proper version number on main menu now
  
• Fixed missing string on certain locations[forums.revelationgames.co]

Enjoy! Any problems post on the forums either here or at http://forums.revelationgames.co. Please do post screenshots of any error messages, and attach zip files of a save games if relevant.

Thanks!
Chris

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New build: 1.3.2

Hi all,

A quick point release for you all, to fix a couple of crashes discovered in the 1.3.1 release.

NOTE: This build will reset your game options - you'll need to set resolution and sound levels etc again. Sorry about that.

• Fix crash when filtering conversations by planet or ship
  
• Added enable VSync option to help faster computers manage frame rate better.
  
• Fix bug on windows with conversation icons going super large when vanishing!
  
• Stop game attempting to autopilot to own ship
  
• Changed keyboard input for flight slightly in an attempt to fix a weird stuck keyboard bug that happens only on a very few computers.

Enjoy! Any problems post on the forums either here or at http://forums.revelationgames.co.

Thanks!
Chris

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New build: 1.3.1 released

Dear all,

I've just released version 1.3.1 of Sol Trader, which fixes a number of niggling issues in 1.3 and improves gameplay balance.

NOTE: this version will invalidate save games. If you want to continue with an older save, then do the following to stay on an older version of the game:

• Right click on the game in your Steam Library and choose 'Properties'. Click the 'Betas' tab.
  
• Enter the beta access code ’soltraderversion13’ and click 'Check code'
  
• Choose the ‘version1.3’ option from the drop-down list
  
• Wait for your game to update and play!

Here's a list of changes:

• New feature: Organisation charts are now available on a tooltip over the organisation name, and also by clicking on the small organisation button in the middle panel heading.
  
• New feature: Communes are now Parks: hippies still hang out there, but so can everyone else. It's another place you can find people socialising during the day, who perhaps don't like visiting bars.
  
• New feature: History generation now prioritises jobs in low-population cities. This has the effect of rebalancing things so that Frontier Space and the Outer Alliance have more people than before, so it's easier to progress.
  
• Made the AI more likely to choose to go to work, even for non-essential jobs.
  
• Increased speed of history generation by 5% and dropped save file footprint by 40%.
  
• Stopped traders getting stuck when selling goods.
  
• Stop the player from asking for an introduction to someone who is dead.
  
• Fix crash when landing in a place with a destroyed ship.
  
• Fixed Missing Strings in profession choices.
  
• Fixed bug where having map open whilst landing would cause weird effects.
  
• Characters now tell you the missions they have available on the tooltip before you start speaking to them.
  
• Triple-click on a navigation label or arrow will now start autopilot.
  
• Made Tiger I slightly lighter and therefore faster.
  
• Sleep/work/launch are now icons at the top of the screen, so that they don't conflict which each other.

Enjoy! Let me know if you have any issues.

Chris

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Sol Trader follow-on Ealdorlight goes on Kickstarter at 4pm today

Dear all,

I've deliberately avoided going on about this on here, but I thought you'd like to know that my next game is going live on Kickstarter at 4pm UK time today!

Visit Ealdorlight’s Kickstarter Campaign

(This post is deliberately a little earlier than 4pm to give you a sneak preview and so you can watch the campaign go live if you want. Earlier backers get lower edition numberings on some of the rewards, so you might want to be there from the start!)

The sixth of June is a significant day for me personally. In 2004, I spent the entire of the day in hospital. I remember the 60th anniversary commemorations of D-day on the TV in the background, as I sat beside my wife, in labour with our first child. I became a father an hour after midnight on the 7th June; my son becomes a teenager tomorrow.

Twelve years later, in 2016, I spent the entire of 6th June glued to Steam watching and waiting whilst Sol Trader was released to the world. This was a career dream come true: since I started programming at six years old I’d always wanted to create and ship my own games. Sol Trader’s release was ultimately a painfully formative experience for me, which I wrote about at the time and was interviewed about recently in this article for GamesIndustry biz[www.gamesindustry.biz].

Over the last year, I’ve been keeping busy doing two things. One is to support Sol Trader as much as I can with countless updates and patches. I’ve also been working on a new game, Ealdorlight, a medieval RPG-style take on Sol Trader’s mechanics, with turn-based combat, realistic damage and great graphics. I announced Ealdorlight in March and demonstrated it at Rezzed, strengthening my hope that the idea was a good one.

I decided fairly early on that I wanted to take Ealdorlight to Kickstarter. Sol Trader’s successful Kickstarter was a brilliant experience. The Kickstarter community is one of the kindest, most positive on the Internet. I also needed funding for this game: Sol Trader was self-funded through many long evenings and contracting work, and for Ealdorlight I need a bigger team to realise the vision. It’s built in Unreal Engine 4, which simultaneously saves me loads of development time and means I need a bigger team to pull off the realistic art style I’ve gone for.

As time came near to launch, the first anniversary of Sol Trader’s released seemed an appropriate day to launch the campaign. So today, 6th June 2017, I will spend the entire day glued to Kickstarter as my campaign goes live at 4pm today.

Visit Ealdorlight’s Kickstarter Campaign



There’s plenty more about Ealdorlight on the campaign - head over there and read all about it! A huge amount of work has gone into it, and I’m very grateful for all the support and help I’ve received from the team I’ve put together, and for friends and family who have given me endless encouragements and feedback.

One immediate question you might have is "What about Sol Trader?" Whilst the bulk of my time and attention needs to be spent on Ealdorlight to make the awesome game it could be, I'm still committed to fixing bugs and issues in Sol Trader as they arise.

Thanks for being part of my video game creation adventure so far, and I hope you'll stick with me for the next game!

Until next time,
Chris

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Ealdorlight's Kickstarter is live at 4pm today

The sixth of June is a significant day for me personally. In 2004, I spent the entire of the day in hospital. I remember the 60th anniversary commemorations of D-day on the TV in the background, as I sat beside my wife, in labour with our first child. I became a father an hour after midnight on the 7th June; my son becomes a teenager tomorrow.

Twelve years later, in 2016, I spent the entire of 6th June glued to Steam watching and waiting whilst my first game Sol Trader was released to the world. This was a career dream come true: since I started programming at six years old I’d always wanted to create and ship my own games. Sol Trader’s release was ultimately a painfully formative experience for me, which I wrote about at the time and was interviewed about recently in GamesIndustry.biz.

Over the last year, I’ve been keeping busy doing two things. One is to support Sol Trader as much as I can with countless updates and patches. I’ve also been very busy working on a new game, Ealdorlight, a medieval RPG-style take on Sol Trader’s mechanics, with turn-based combat, realistic damage and great graphics. I announced Ealdorlight in March and demonstrated it at Rezzed, strengthening my hope that the idea was a good one.

I decided fairly early on that I wanted to take Ealdorlight to Kickstarter. Sol Trader’s successful Kickstarter was a brilliant experience. The Kickstarter community is one of the kindest, most positive on the Internet. I also needed funding for this game: Sol Trader was self-funded through many long evenings and contracting work, and for Ealdorlight I need a bigger team to realise the vision. It’s built in Unreal Engine 4, which simultaneously saves me loads of development time and means I need a bigger team to pull off the realistic art style I’ve gone for.

As time came near to launch, the first anniversary of Sol Trader’s released seemed an appropriate day to launch the campaign. So today, 6th June 2017, I will spend the entire day glued to Kickstarter as my campaign goes live at 4pm today.

Visit Ealdorlight’s Kickstarter Campaign

There’s plenty more about Ealdorlight on the campaign - head over there and read all about it! A huge amount of work has gone into it, and I’m very grateful for all the support and help I’ve received from the team I’ve put together, and for friends and family who have given me endless encouragements and feedback.

This post is a little earlier than 4pm so that you can watch it go live if you want. Earlier backers get lower edition numberings on some of the rewards, so you might want to be there from the start!

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How Ealdorlight's story stands out

As we head towards the Kickstarter campaign launch on June 6th, I want to talk a little about the story behind Ealdorlight works.

The basic story stays the same for each game: you are discovered wandering through a remote village at a young age, and realise your destiny is to overthrow the King. However, like in Sol Trader, every person you meet is randomly generated. This means that your real identity will be different every time, and you’ll have to discover it all over again every time you generate a new game.

Handcrafted story in a random world

The trick is layering a great story on top of a generated world with random characters. Building empathy with the main character and his family when all characters are generated is hard, and hinges around being able to hook the story in at the right moments.

My plan is to write plenty of tightly connected story arcs that are triggered on events that happen during history generation. These will in turn trigger future quests the player can undertake. Not all story-arcs will appear in every game: it will depend on how the history generation goes. I will constrain things such that there is always a route through the game, and that players always have a way to overthrow the King, even if that might be easier or harder depending on the starting setup. These story-arcs then should interact with each other, hopefully producing a unique path through the game.

Identity

Ealdorlight is set within a low fantasy world, and there’s no traditional magic. The player gets more powerful through discovering key pieces of knowledge about their past. These insights into of your real past feed directly into your character’s stats, skills and abilities.

I’ve long been fascinated with identity: knowledge of who we truly are affects many areas of our lives for the better. In Ealdorlight I wanted to tell a story which takes this to an almost supernatural level. By removing the player from their birth family, they start as an entirely normal person within the world. It’s only after their early game encounter with the Ealdorlight and the discovery of their past that things begin to change.

Much more on this to come, but in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of our story’s beginning.

Ealdorlight: backstory teaser (updated)

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Sol Trader 1.3 released!

Now that I’m back after some time away with family and training away from home, I’m able to support a new release of Sol Trader: 1.3 is now finally released after a length beta period.

Here are the highlights:

• You can now chat to characters directly on the right if they’re in the same location as you
  
• Pirate Chief and criminals are now more likely to try to destroy you
  
• Fix a bug where you’re not paid enough for a mission
  
• Dignitaries now fly around a little less than before to make it easier to pin them down
  
• Inter-faction missions now pay slightly less
  
• Business trips now pay slightly less
  
• Taxi missions now pay slightly more
  
• Talking to your criminal parents will no longer cause them to forget who you are
  
• Fix crash where a character develops an opinion of the player mid-conversation
  
• Fix crash when showing GUI for a ship the AI is driving
  
• Fix crash where a character would attempt to sell a good on a ship they’ve lent to the player
  
• Can now initiate conversations when paused - will restart the game but at realtime speed
  
• Fixed the Tiger II achievement

Thanks - let me know what you think!
Chris

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Ealdorlight Kickstarter on 6th June, Sol Trader 1.3 released

I am now back from some extended time away after Rezzed, both on holiday with the family and training some clients away from home. I’ve released Sol Trader 1.3 today, and set the Kickstarter for Ealdorlight to 6th June.

Rezzed was fantastic: it was great to see lots and lots of people wearing our Ealdorlight crowns. We ran out of crowns on both days, with some creative head displays on offer:

View post on imgur.com

Ealdorlight Kickstarter launch date: 6th June

Yes, I know I said May :) I’ve decided to go for a 31-day campaign, starting on the 6th June, for a few reasons:

• It doesn’t clash with any major US holidays, like Memorial Day. The 48-hour reminder email should go out on the day after 4th July.
• I want to give myself the best chance of success by polishing the combat demo hard. It was great to get such good feedback at Rezzed and I think it’ll be a great hook. I need more time to do that well.
• 6th June is the first anniversary of Sol Trader’s launch, so it ties in nicely with the ongoing Revelation Games story.

I’m excited and nervous about this Kickstarter campaign: my third one to date. After succeeding last time I’m really trying to take my time and get it right.

Sol Trader 1.3 released!

Now that I’m back, I’m able to support a new release of Sol Trader: 1.3 is now finally released after a length beta period.

Here are the highlights:

• You can now chat to characters directly on the right if they’re in the same location as you
• Pirate Chief and criminals are now more likely to try to destroy you
• Fix a bug where you’re not paid enough for a mission
• Dignitaries now fly around a little less than before to make it easier to pin them down
• Inter-faction missions now pay slightly less
• Business trips now pay slightly less
• Taxi missions now pay slightly more
• Talking to your criminal parents will no longer cause them to forget who you are
• Fix crash where a character develops an opinion of the player mid-conversation
• Fix crash when showing GUI for a ship the AI is driving
• Fix crash where a character would attempt to sell a good on a ship they’ve lent to the player
• Can now initiate conversations when paused - will restart the game but at realtime speed
• Fixed the Tiger II achievement

Your steam copy should automatically update. I’ll be releasing an updated downloadable version to SendOwl in the next few days.

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Sol Trader 1.3 out soon: get a sneak peak

Hi all,

Sol Trader has update 1.3 on the way! Get an early look at the latest UI and gameplay improvements by helping to beta test it!

There are a wealth of things for you to try out:

• You can now chat to characters directly on the right if they’re in the same location as you
  
• Pirate Chief and criminals are now more likely to try to destroy you
  
• Fix a bug where you’re not paid enough for a mission
  
• Dignitaries now fly around a little less than before to make it easier to pin them down
  
• Inter-faction missions now pay slightly less
  
• Business trips now pay slightly less
  
• Taxi missions now pay slightly more
  
• Talking to your criminal parents will no longer cause them to forget who you are
  
• Fix crash where a character develops an opinion of the player mid-conversation
  
• Fix crash when showing GUI for a ship the AI is driving
  
• Fix crash where a character would attempt to sell a good on a ship they’ve lent to the player
  
• Can now initiate conversations when paused - will restart the game but at realtime speed
  
• Fixed the Tiger II achievement

Here’s how you test:

1. Right click on the game in your Steam Library and choose 'Properties'
   
2. Click the 'Betas' tab
   
3. Enter the beta access code ’soltraderbeta’ and click 'Check code'
   
4. Choose the ‘beta13’ option from the drop-down list
   
5. Wait for your game to update and play!

If you hit any bugs, please do report them on the Technical Support forum here on Steam so that I can fix them before releasing 1.3 at the end of the month.

Until next time,
Chris

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What's next for Sol Trader and me

I’ve been rather too silent in the last couple of months about what I’ve been working on. Here’s the low-down:

Sol Trader 1.3: enhanced gameplay, balance & UI improvements

I’ve been thinking about how to further improve Sol Trader, my first indie game released last year. The game hasn’t sold that well - you can check the numbers on Steam Spy for yourself. I’ve written about this before: in summary I’ve put the lack of sales down to a crowded space-sim genre and a lack of focused playtesting which gave rise to gameplay and UI that was hard to learn.

Encouragingly, people who do get past the UI tend to love the gameplay, and I’d love to continue to support players by releasing free updates. In particular there are some balance and UI improvements coming, I’m going to bump the number of characters to ensure jobs are filled, and I’d love to sneak in a surprise new gameplay feature…

I’m showing Sol Trader again at Rezzed at the end of March, so if you want to see a preview of the improvements, stop by and come and play the game! The new major update should be ready in April. You can also buy Sol Trader on Steam right now.

The next game :)

Eventually, I’m best served by moving on to a new project, so I’ve also been prototyping an exciting new game idea this year. It’s based on some of the best ideas in Sol Trader, combining a lot of the innovations with a streamlined gameplay experience that will be easier to get into. I’ve already got together a name, backstory and setting (it’s not a space game) and test gameplay. I’m not quite ready to talk about it publicly yet - I will be soon!

I’m in the process of figuring out funding for the new game, and I’m thinking of running another Kickstarter in March as part of this journey. I loved being on Kickstarter last year - the people I met through that community are amazingly supportive and it would be great to ensure that I’m making the game that people want to play.

I’d love to hear from you if you have thoughts about funding. I’ll also be at GDC next week if you want to chat there.

Introducing: Revelation Games

I’ve finally pulled my games development work into my own label: Revelation Games. You can follow on Twitter to get the latest updates, or sign up to the mailing list.

In summary: I’m excited about what’s next and what the next couple of years will bring! What’s new with you?

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New build: 1.2.2

Hi all,

Another new point release of Sol Trader for you to enjoy! Here's the list of fixes:

• Show the working hours on the GUI so you can see when you are supposed to work.
  
• Made ship components the same cost across all ships
  
• Closed exploit: Can only now eject people from your own ship
  
• Can no longer eject whilst paused
  
• Fixed smuggling GUI crashes
  
• Disallow introductions to existing family members
  
• Luring people for an eject is now only possible if you are a at the 'blue' level or higher with them
  
• Prevent repeatable delivery of special gifts from powerful people
  
• Fix crash where ship blows up whilst in mid-jump transition
  
• Fix typo in missions file
  
• Fix crash where ship blows up the same frame it overlaps a jump gate
  
• Fix incorrect relationship labels on GUI

Until next time,
Chris

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New build: 1.2.1 with rare crash fixes

Hi all,

There were a few rare crashes and some bugs in 1.2 which I've now fixed and released in version 1.2.1:

• Prevent players hiring a ship twice
  
• Prevent players buying a ship they've already hired without returning it first
  
• Guard against weird situation when character is alive without an AI
  
• Prevent crash when clicking on conversation options very quickly
  
• Prevent crash when hiring a room after other character has left chat
  
• Prevent saving after death
  
• Prevent close chat crash when GUI hasn't caught up
  
• Prevent corrupt opinions crashing game
  
• Fixed data for opinions and added better validation
  
• Stopped an endless positive loop exploit when ordering drinks or asking about another's story
  
• Prevent ejection of character whilst still in base
  
• Show how to quit a mission on the "Launch Ship" tooltip to aid the player with too many passengers

Enjoy!

Until next time,
Chris

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1.2 now released!

I'm really pleased to announce that Sol Trader 1.2 has been released!

Version 1.2 is the most feature packed and streamlined Sol Trader experience yet, with a myriad of UI and gameplay improvements. Here's a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTGFze-oh4

The update is packed with job salaries, new missions, upgraded conversations, transit options, full modding support and Steam Achievements.



The gameplay has had a number of improvements made to it, both to the core systems and to the user experience. The addition of salaries for jobs, and the possibility of being fired, provides early direction to the game. You also now have a reason to stay close to home and build relationships with co-workers.



The hundreds of UI improvements and extra tooltips have streamlined gameplay. New missions provide a more interesting and rounded set of things to do for characters. New conversation questions and a 'meet me' option makes finding people that much easier. The ability to ask characters for transit between cities and planets helps with mid-late game ship management.



The addition of Steam Achievements provides an extra opportunity for players to notch up rewards and compare their progress. Finally, full modding support is added in 1.2, which gives modders the ability to change almost everything about the game, including all the graphics.

Thanks for all your support beta testing: if you have any further issues please do post them to the forums.

Until next time,

Chris

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Sol Trader 1.2 trailer

Thanks for all the help testing the beta of 1.2. The trailer for the new version is now available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTGFze-oh4

I've released 1.2 to the press today, and I've set a launch date for general release for November 23rd - just seven days away!

Until next time,

Chris

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