Home Gaming Neither Cadence nor Albert & Otto are going to be kickstarted

Neither Cadence nor Albert & Otto are going to be kickstarted

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Earlier this month I did a look back at how SA developers have fared on Kickstarter and at the time it wasn’t looking great with only 3 of the 6 being successful – with 2 currently active but not doing all that well.

And now I received an email from Albert and Otto admitting they won’t be successful but they are still hopeful. Take a look.

Dear Backer

I would like to thank you for backing and believing in Albert & Otto and for your messages of support. Alas it is apparent that it will not be reaching its goal, we just weren’t able to push enough traffic to the page in time, the project has received only 2,100 views. It is amazing that it has managed to raise this much with so little views and leads me to strongly believe that with a better strategy and more publicity the project will have no problem getting funded. Hence I have decided to enlist some help and after much deliberation, to RELAUNCH the Kickstarter campaign.

You can follow A&O on twitter.com/albertandotto to find out when the new campaign will be live, the date is not yet set however will be announcing it a few days beforehand, and if you would still like to be part of the project and receive your rewards we will have a special little something added for all returning backers 🙂 I am happy to say that a more refined demo with lots of new content is on its way as well and will be part of the relaunch.

Thanks again for backing Albert and Otto and look forward to seeing you back.

Nik

Albert & Otto was picked as a Kickstarter staff pick but it appears that made little difference with the game currently sitting on $2 010 funded out of $15 000.

The other big local game on Kickstarter, Cadence, isn’t doing any better unfortunately.

They have also been picked as a Staff Pick but have only raised £8 061 of their £25 000 goal with 48 hours to go. It really is a pity as I’d love to have both of these games on my iPad.

Weird Side Bar

Not entirely related but something that has been niggling at me for a few weeks now is the apparent lack of project management in local game development.

Local developers appear, from the outside, to lack proper leadership and project management. Great games like Broforce, Cadence and Desktop Dungeons seem to be in development limbo for eternity with constant scope creep coming in and slowly eroding the positive sentiment the games have created.

Broforce should have launched as a retail title last year after that massive E3 push. Holding back to constantly add more is noble from a developer point of view but destroys your momentum and good will that the less hardcore followers have.

Desktop Dungeons is a perfect example of this when they won that IGF award in 2011, however a year before that another developer, Lazy Peon, released a clone of the game on the iOS. This was thankfully removed but we are now in 2015 and QCF is yet to release their iOS version of the game.

As for Cadence, I played the demo recently and it’s a great little 5 minute game that could replace some of my ridiculous Candy Crush addiction if they released it as in on the iPad now with Facebook integration. But I’ve been told that the developers are looking to add new features and gameplay elements before releasing… this, I feel, is what sequels are for. Get the game out and then work on the blue sky ideas.

Last Updated: March 24, 2015

10 Comments

  1. Norm

    March 24, 2015 at 10:11

    That header reminds my of that game ‘World of Goo’, that game was enjoyable.

    Reply

    • Jonah Cash

      March 24, 2015 at 13:24

      I would buy a remake of that game in a heartbeat!!

      Reply

  2. Brady miaau

    March 24, 2015 at 10:15

    As an aside, lack of project management is a big problem in general, I feel.

    I have studied it very well, even though I am not a dedicated project manager. It is important knowledge to have, at any level in almost any position. I believe that all members of a team working toward a common goal MUST study some form of basic project management. Not just development or design, but any team member in any field will benefit from project management knowledge.

    I have also got the impression, just from reading some articles, that some of the dev teams seem to lack firm commercial leadership (which includes project management and clamps on things like scope creep)

    Reply

    • konfab

      March 24, 2015 at 15:19

      I hated the subject and software.
      MS project is about the most obfuscated piece of software in existence.

      Reply

      • Brady miaau

        March 24, 2015 at 16:17

        A) MS Project is sort of better at Work Breakdown management and resource scheduling than most other software I have used AND
        B) I think in small teams it is more about the techniques applied than software used to help manage it.

        Reply

  3. Blood Emperor Trevor

    March 24, 2015 at 10:19

    Sometimes good games don’t get made & bad ones do, that’s the way the cookie crumbles unfortunately. And speaking of management, it doesn’t really matter how good you are at something technically – when it comes to running a business, which indie devs are really, if you manage it poorly you’re far more likely to fail. That’s the first thing they tell you in every management course, if I remember right the stat was something silly like 75% failure rate on businesses.

    Reply

  4. Admiral Chief

    March 24, 2015 at 10:19

    I volunteer as PM

    Reply

  5. Kensei Seraph

    March 24, 2015 at 12:51

    I am very disappointed to hear this.

    Reply

  6. Megan

    March 24, 2015 at 14:54

    Ancient Terrible Things have passed their kickstarter goal with 9 days to go, just fyi https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pleasantcompanygames/ancient-terrible-things-the-lost-charter-2nd-editi

    Reply

  7. Evan Greenwood

    March 24, 2015 at 15:27

    “Holding back to constantly add more is noble from a developer point of view but destroys your momentum and good will that the less hardcore followers have.” I think we have some hard evidence on Broforce that that isn’t the case. Although there are plenty of other Early Access that build momentum throughout the duration of their Early Access campaign.

    Reply

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