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"Fully Funded to Release" - Requesting FrostGiant Response


Original Post — Direct link

First I'd like to say that I love the direction Stormgate is going and I wouldn't want anything less than for it to succeed. I am only looking for the truth and don't intend to discredit the Frost Giant team in any way.

It recently became evident that Stormgate is only fully funded until early access begins and that they will need to secure funds to continue development. Up until this point, many of us have been under the impression that the game was "fully funded to release" as explicitly stated in their kickstarter-campaign.

If FGS needs more funds to develop the game, that is fine, but it should have been communicated from the start. When you market a game as "funded to release" people are naturally inclined to think that the game will reach a full, feature-complete release, regardless of community support. I can't help but think that many of us (especially the kickstart-backers) feel deceived when it turns out that "release" is only early access. In today's gaming industry the difference is quite massive, and I think gamers in general have lost faith that a game can release in a finished state. This situation doesn't show good faith, in my opinion.

Frost Giant Studios, I hope you can give an official comment on this, because its only fair that people know. If you are going to bring the community along I think they deserve to know what they are getting into.

Lastly, I have no understanding of finance and how to operate a business, so if I severely misunderstood the situation I apologise in advance for fanning the flames. Regardless, looking forward to hearing the truth on the matter.

Please keep comments civil - thank you.

External link →
9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Early Access is our initial release, but is not what we consider to be our 1.0 Launch. We will begin to monetize at Early Access, selling content that was previously available for pre-purchase to our Kickstarter backers (such as Heroes, campaign chapters for our ongoing storyline, and cosmetics such as army skins), but we still have years of development ahead of us and will continue to support the game with new content several times a year.

We are pouring nearly every cent of our approximately $35M ($37M after Kickstarter) into making the best possible RTS, but that doesn’t leave much to self-publish and market our initial release. This is why we’re offering up the opportunity to become part owners of Frost Giant in exchange for funds to help support our self-publishing efforts so that Stormgate can be released without the support (and strings) of a traditional publishing partner and still reach the largest possible audience.

You can find my original post announcing the start of our Kickstarter on this subreddit from 87 days ago where I confirmed “funded to our Early Access release” here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormgate/comments/180owu3/crowdfunding_crafting_the_future_of_rts_together/kamjcto/

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by AntiBox

Marketing can easily be 50% of most game's budget.

Fact of the matter is that you don't need to be told about stormgate because you're already here, but reaching Dave the trucker, dad of 2, who visits facebook once a week but kinda liked to play SC2 on a weekend 8 years ago is a lot harder.

The vast majority of game audiences are not like you here on reddit. They're like Dave.

DO IT FOR DAVE

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by AspiringProbe

I am hopeful some of the initial campaign will be free at least, so we can wade into the lore before determining if we like it enough to invest.

I mean who am I kidding, WC3/SC2 have some of the best campaigns out there, so I am likely all-in blind on these campaigns as well, but just a thought for the less ardent fan.

Yes, we will have a few free initial missions that players can enjoy solo or cooperatively, so you can try out the start of the campaign before you buy. We’ll then also have the first chapter of the Vanguard campaign with new chapters released every few months.

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by BooNn98

I’m Cody a trucker with 2 kids lol. Truckers make around 110000-120000k a year. Depends on where u live but I live like a kingg on that. I’m also an avid rts enjoyer. A lot a hardcore gamers out on the road these days

DO IT FOR CODY

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by Dynamical_Juicer

You can find my original post .... where I confirmed "funded to our Early Access release"

Gerald, I am seriously wishing you and all Frost Giant the best. I also am not a communications director and will always default to giving you the benefit of the doubt.

With that disclaimer, I do think you've missed an opportunity here. The kickstarter page says "Stormgate is fully funded to release". I would hope that you can see how this would be confusing and perhaps frustrating to the community. I'm glad that you are clarifying things now, but this seems to me to also be an opportunity to at least acknowledge our feelings and confusion. Perhaps even to apologize. I think simply pointing to your previous reddit post has the appearance of you saying, "Hey it's not us who messed up, it's you guys who should've read reddit more carefully!". I don't think that's truly what you believe, but the optics matter here.

GLHF Gerald. Still rooting for you all.

100%—your feelings and confusion are valid and we should have been more clear. Our declared intent to launch to Early Access was meant to convey that the initial release and the start of monetization would fund ongoing development (for Stormgate to be self-sustainable). We should have been more clear about the Early Access business model and why we were going this route. Our intent was not to mislead and I’m personally sorry about any confusion.

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by Empyrean_Sky

🧡

💙💙💙

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by wetstapler

Will the initial early access be "complete" in the sense that we have 3 factions with 3 tiers of units?

Appreciate all the honesty you guys have been showing, even after a miscommunication, thanks for keeping us in the know.

We are planning to release a road map with a rough timeline for when we plan to introduce new content. Please bear with us as we are a very small team.

(Three factions have been confirmed for Day 1 of Early Access. Will look into what the schedule looks like for Tier 3 for inclusion in the road map.)

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by Empyrean_Sky

A roadmap sounds really sweet! You've made my day today, Gerald. Twice :)

<3

9 months ago - /u/FGS_Gerald - Direct link

Originally posted by kylo_kills__han

Sorry if this is rude. But where does all that money go with a very small team?

Not rude at all—We have a stacked dev team with awesome artists, designers, engineers, producers, QA, and more—I was referring to our non-developers. There’s just a few of us and we all wear many hats.

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