Launching a Kickstarter is always a nerve-wracking experience. (Believe us, we know about it.) But then there are times when you see evidence that perhaps your Kickstarter is not going to fund and you pull it early. That’s exactly what happened to The Flower of Knighthood, which started its $600,000 Kickstarter back in May and cancelled it today before its scheduled conclusion after raising… about $3,000.
Yeah, that’s got to hurt.
There’s no update from the developers about what the next plan is or where development will go from here, if anywhere. If you’d forgotten about the title, it promised to offer a completely accurate simulation of medieval combat and was reportedly not actually sure if female characters would be featured in the game. This may be a sign it needs to be brought back to the drawing board; our condolences to the developers.
Honestly the game’s title was possibly the worst I’ve ever seen.
I’m a fan of Historical accuracy as much as the next person.. but when a game developer says we aren’t sure if we are going to include females, they HAVE to realise they just alienated 50% of their audience or their upstairs wiring is faulty (if you take my meaning).
Sometimes it is okay to elaborate a little on historical accuracy for the purposes of broadening your appeal, as you are still trying to SELL a product at the end of the day.
To accurately translate the line ““We’ve decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign because game investors think about maximization of their profit first.”… that means “We know there is no way in hell we could raise money from an investor/publisher”. When you have to break out lines like that in your Kickstarter campaign, and you don’t list your actual team and their experience showing why you think you can actually deliver… no wonder it failed spectacularly.
“Completely realistic medieval combat”
“Only dudes.”
Ya lost me.
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Joan of Arc wants a word.
The title also didn’t help it, I suspect. It’s an archaic phrasing which is likely to mean nothing to modern/younger gamers.
The purists may sneer at the fact that you (and many others, myself included) find the idea of a “realistic medieval” game without female characters less appealing to play — but these haughty devotees had their chance to pony up $600,000 for their historical niche game, and they didn’t manage it.
Despite any historical pedigree, a game must appeal to modern gamers (both male and female) in the current market, and niche appeal tends to mean that fewer backers must give more money to see a product funded.
The developers bet on their niche appeal, and (this time, at least) they lost.
Cheers,
Those kinds of things are why I rarely see “completely realistic/historically accurate” as a selling point. I’m sure such things can and have been done well, but it seems to me that when those things are explicitly advertised, it rarely translates into “fun gameplay.”
I like how the boot has a door on it.
Typical for articulated plate armor sabatons. The hinges, locking hook on the other side etc. :)
Considering the Kickstarter was set to end tomorrow, I wouldn’t say they pulled it early but way, way, way too late. Going out there with such unrealistic expectations to begin with and not reacting quickly when their campaign was clearly DOA weeks ago doesn’t make the devs look very in-touch or reliable.