Latest NEWS And INFORMATION On Silverball Studios' Pro Pinball: Revived & Remastered

[Worf]

I do hope someone posts the KS link here. I don't check FB at all. (I was one of the big backers of the original).

As for funding - the whole point is that in traditional game development, you either find a publisher who advances you a big sum of money (advance for future royalties) and do the development and basically have the publisher own your soul, or you try to raise money independently. For wealthy studios like Valve and Blizzard, this is easy, but less wealthy ones (you need to be able to sponsor the developers to eat for a year, remember), it means selling your soul to the publisher or it just never gets done.

It's also a good gauge to bring to investors as well - if you can prove that you have 10K people interested that they committed $100K of money to your project, then those investors may kick in more money now that they know there's actually people interested enough to put some skin on the line.

And yes, like all investments, it has a chance of failing. Such is life, and investors generally have seen it happen to them. KS projects are no different, except the amount of money is smaller - instead of investing $10K or $100K, most people kick in under $100.

And yes, I'll be backing this one as well. I hope their perks are scaled to 1/4 of the values. I kicked in $500 last time. I can't imagine doing so 4 separate times now.

 

[Nik Barbour]

If they support Android and/or xbox at Kickstarter time - I'll back again.
But not if ios pc only.

 

[canuck]

Indeed. If they had a viable product, they could secure funding from more traditional sources. $400,000 is a big begging bowl.

 

[karl]

This is not just releasing an old table with some new lightning. They explained the cost involved very good in the last kickstarter so I will direct you to the comments: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1790321238/pro-pinball-revived-and-remastered/comments
(page 5 on the comments)
The point is that the first table they do(old or new) will be the most expensive because they do everything from the ground up. This is not a game that is finished. They also used what little money they had to buy back the license for the old tables. And let's face it; it is not an easy task getting money for a virtual pinball game from a publisher. All this talk about what falls under the kick starter Principe and what deserves our money is just silly to me. It is all about getting a product that you would not get otherwise (for whatever reason) If you feel the project is not worthy of your money then fine, But "this should not be a kick starter is absurd to me. Would I rather they do a new Pat Lawler game first? Yes, yes oh yes, but I see the point in getting something people already know about(and love) out there to see if it will sell before hiring a famous designer to spend a lot of months on a financial turkey. A kick starter is never meant to fully finance a project anyway. Of course they will have to spend some of their own money(+ tears, sweat and coursing) as well.

OK! I'm stepping down from my high horse now I will support this. I am very exited and a little nervous of how much money they will get for only one table. There will be a lot of people that will say things like: Hey you asked for 400 000 for 5 tables and now you ask for 200 000 (a guess)just for one

 

[Worf]

Yes, I will support this as well.

And asking for 400,000 was ambitious, but not unheard of. After all, Elite Dangerous pulled in 22k+ contributors and 1.6M UKP.. Or something like $2.8M US dollars or so. Star Citizen raised a TON more money - $6M? If you want to get on your high horse, get on those, because not only did they do a kickstarter, but they also have traditional investors. I think Star Citizen had another $20M in capital from traditional investors.

Basically Kickstarter is a community - it's a way to show that there's interest in something. Take Elite Dangerous - they can go to the traditional investor market or publishers and show them that 22K people were interested in their game idea and that they contributed UKP1.6M. What better way to show there's a market?

All silverball did was confirm that few want a new pinball game. Or few believe in it to actually put skin on the line, even if it was just $1. Which means no investor will invest in any pinball related game because there's little interest and his money is better spent on other things.

And $400K isn't that much. For 5 games (4 Pro Pinball, 1 Pat Lawlor), $400K entirely self-funded will only keep about 4 or 5 people fully employed plus a small office to do the design and development for a year. And it's a lot of work - artists, 3D modellers are required to generate new assets for the high-res screens of today and tomorrow, programmers to put it on the moneymaking platforms (iOS, Amazon - sorry Google Play, but devs make more money from Amazon by a LONG shot - twice or three times).

But hey, the best part of kickstarter is it's completely voluntary. If you feel it silly to do this, then don't! You're not forced ever into sponsoring.

 

[karl]

Agree with everything you said there Worf

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

PiN WiZ, are you going to continue this thread, since the 2nd Kickstarter will begin again? Sorry if I had to dig to get to this thread.

 

[PiN WiZ]

PiN WiZ, are you going to continue this thread, since the 2nd Kickstarter will begin again? Sorry if I had to dig to get to this thread.

When Silverball gets their project up and running, I will revamp and maintain this thread.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Here's the thread, PiN WiZ. Edit away

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

Yes, it's finally up but runs 45 days.
They want to be sure this time.

 

[PiN WiZ]

Unfortunately, I don't currently have the time to maintain this thread. I barely have the extra time to maintain my duties here on the forum. If any of the other mods would like to take over, then by all means, have at it. My apologies.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Should I take over? Or will that be too much for me?

 

[PiN WiZ]

Should I take over? Or will that be too much for me?

You can PM Gord if you're interested as I have no problem with you updating this thread. As far as taking up this thread being too much for you, well that all depends on how much extra time you have to maintain it.