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I liked it! Probably because yeah, it was already finished when I read it the first time. I'm slowly rereading it now, but I lose momentum massively when it's focusing on any of the Alpha kids except Roxy, who is cool and good. Edit: I'm also listening to the Hiveswap soundtrack at work and some of the tracks are excellent and some are merely okay, but overall I am glad that I bought it. cptn_dr fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Sep 25, 2017 |
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Sep 25, 2017 00:32
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I mean, freakfuta's not wrong. 'Fun' is a buzzword. Some people have fun hammering nails into their dicks, that doesn't make it mechanically sound or engaging gameplay. 'I had fun', though, is about the nicest thing I can say about Hiveswap. I did somewhat enjoy it, and I did think Cohen did better writing his own character rather than writing existing ones poorly. However, it's too short, got stale too quick. All throughout playing I kept thinking that this would actually be better formatted if it wasn't a game, and instead each gag was presented in a Homestuck comic-style gag, where pointless directions are input and then we go to the next panel. It was WAY too short for the time it's had to be put together. I think this will begin to take a bit of a downturn once the cast inevitably enters Sgrub/burb somehow, as there's no way that they are going to kill them all off with meteors, and Homestuck's mythos is all tangled up in that game. Especially as I doubt that Cohen can resist the siren call of including them interacting with the original cast in some way, which is one of the biggest dangers of making prequels. I wish Cherubs weren't going to play a key role, but it's completely unsurprising given Shelby's involvement and terrible taste. 6/10
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Sep 25, 2017 07:32
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What's the steamspy #s on hiveswap?
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Sep 25, 2017 09:55
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Tunicate posted:What's the steamspy #s on hiveswap? Pretty decent. About 50,000 owners, 44,000 players, 95% positive userscore, 92% positive reviews. It's not a runaway success or anything but it isn't a flop either. Average playtime is more than three hours, which means most of those people actually finished the game and didn't just dip in for a second before closing it. Also, more than two million views on Youtube videos with "Hiveswap" in the title since release. A couple of big deal Youtubers have done videos on it. All in all, pretty much as big a success as the team could reasonably have hoped for, I think. Android Blues fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Sep 26, 2017 |
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Sep 26, 2017 09:52
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So is it looking like it'll be financially viable enough to make the other game or at least the other chapters?
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Sep 26, 2017 15:10
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:So is it looking like it'll be financially viable enough to make the other game or at least the other chapters? In a bizarre twist of fate, What Pumpkin accidentally sends all their profits to The Odd Gentlemen, who proceed to make another King's Quest, which releases to critical acclaim
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Sep 26, 2017 15:18
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:So is it looking like it'll be financially viable enough to make the other game or at least the other chapters? Hard to say. There's no way it made back its costs, it's been years and multiple studio restructures, and a lot of those owners will be Kickstarter backers who already paid for the game. It might attract the attention of a publisher who could help to fund a sequel though?
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Sep 26, 2017 15:23
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:So is it looking like it'll be financially viable enough to make the other game or at least the other chapters? Rough, back of the envelope, assuming absolutely every KS backer opted for the drm free version so that every copy owned on steam was paid for full price, and assuming a standardish 30% cut from steam, the game would have taken in 280k. I dunno, it doesn't seem high enough to me. I imagine they have enough to do act 2 (hopefully it is already significantly started), but the post-TOG funds have apparently been spent and the game was already being funded out of pocket.
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Sep 26, 2017 15:54
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It really depends on what budget the sequels might require now that the studio and overall process is established. For all we know they might be able to go on with What Pumpkin's regular Homestuck-related income. They certainly won't need to make another two million.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:42
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Was the theft by The Odd Gentleman ever actually confirmed or was that basically anonymous post just taken for gospel?
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Sep 26, 2017 21:54
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Malpais Legate posted:Was the theft by The Odd Gentleman ever actually confirmed or was that basically anonymous post just taken for gospel? The Odd Gentlemen gave an interview talking about King's Quest that said they were "working on another project" when they got offered that one and jumped at the chance. It's not too hard to put the pieces together with everything else.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:58
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Also they've pulled this poo poo before with Neil Gaiman. Literally the same exact thing.
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Sep 26, 2017 22:00
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Also the person who posted the account in the first place is an actual friend of Hussie's, and so is likely a good source.
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Sep 26, 2017 22:06
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Tenebrais posted:It really depends on what budget the sequels might require now that the studio and overall process is established. For all we know they might be able to go on with What Pumpkin's regular Homestuck-related income. They certainly won't need to make another two million. That's true, but even just keeping staff on board for game dev is costly. I guess it helps that this is at least to a degree a passion project for a lot of the people working on it. Maybe they can run on a really small team now that they have the engine down.
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Sep 26, 2017 22:07
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Burkion posted:Also they've pulled this poo poo before with Neil Gaiman. Also this happens in the gaming industry alot, the guys who made Borderlands did a similar thing and got off scot-free.
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Sep 26, 2017 22:20
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I think I even said somewhere "Oh, they pulled a Randy Pitchford, but with an indie comic kickstarter and a massive game publisher" when this was fresh
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Sep 27, 2017 04:18
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Wait, what exactly happened? They took the money and then quit to work on another game? Isn't it possible to prevent that sort of thing contractually?
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Sep 28, 2017 01:37
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We don't know how it played out. There was some kind of settlement involved so presumably they could have been sued but Andrew probably wouldn't have had the money or time to go through a protracted legal battle. The truth is we'll never know all the details.
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Sep 28, 2017 03:03
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Regy Rusty posted:We don't know how it played out. There was some kind of settlement involved so presumably they could have been sued but Andrew probably wouldn't have had the money or time to go through a protracted legal battle. The truth is we'll never know all the details. With so many fingers in the pie I'm frankly surprised everyone is as tight-lipped as they are. I know that one person who got canned posted some 3D assets of the sloth lusus but to think that's all you can see after so long.
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Sep 29, 2017 02:34
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Dean of Swing posted:With so many fingers in the pie I'm frankly surprised everyone is as tight-lipped as they are. I know that one person who got canned posted some 3D assets of the sloth lusus but to think that's all you can see after so long. The 3d assets we've seen are probably all that was done, honestly and legal repercussions have a way of keeping people tight-lipped
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Oct 5, 2017 21:14
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Yeah, the account given of what went down is pretty plausible on its own, especially based on the outcome (settlement to staunch the bleeding but can't talk about it). I'm real skeptical with the numbers they've put up they'll be able to finish their pretty ambitious episode plans, those seem to exist more to keep an optimistic face on the project than anything else. Not to mention at least the remaining episode of "Hiveswap" are meant to be free to people who bought that game, I think? So even if they finish episode 2, they're not getting much fresh revenue for episodes 3 and 4. I know we don't have much in the way of data on this but my guess is the only way the whole 8-game series gets made is if they manage to crank out a second episode in some plausible timespan to prove they're not completely moribund as a team then attract someone willing to fund episodes 3 and 4 on the assumption that if they can keep their modest playerbase they'll mostly re-up to buy the "second half" of the series.
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Oct 6, 2017 18:06
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Dolash posted:Not to mention at least the remaining episode of "Hiveswap" are meant to be free to people who bought that game, I think?
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Oct 6, 2017 19:14
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Right, that was it. Which still means a pretty big chunk of their audience for the next three episodes have already paid - I assumed that ~50k number floated earlier already includes those players, there were 24k backers and the majority of those are probably Steam owners now. Probably not everyone who bought the first episode will carry on to buy the second if it comes out, although a little renewed hype over a second episode release might also bring in a few new customers too. Overall not a lot of revenue growth potential to fund ongoing development on their own. Successful episodic development looks pretty tough for indie developers in the best of times. If your game doesn't take off with that first episode to fund the rest of the season then you're sort of writing checks you don't know you'll be able to cash and with what little reputation you've got so far on the line. Telltale's been successful enough (last I heard) to bank enough to get them through any one season's development regardless of if it's a commercial hit or not but that's not a business model that barely-solvent beginners can copy.
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Oct 7, 2017 01:35
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This all assumes that Hiveswap is What Pumpkin's sole revenue stream. If the WLF merch is still turning a decent profit (and there's no reason to assume that it isn't, given how consistently new items are added) and if the Viz deal works out, that could be enough to bankroll future episodes.
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Oct 7, 2017 04:56
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i bought the cat plush, i'm part of the problem
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Oct 7, 2017 05:47
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I'm rewatching Lost and it reminds me a lot of HS, which I read a long time ago on Hussie's blog as something that he referenced as a comparison to the style of storytelling he was doing: several concurrent mysteries and the story acting as a puzzle with things for you to figure out over its span
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Oct 7, 2017 06:06
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Intercepting the Lost ended lovely joke now
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Oct 7, 2017 06:06
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"You" turning out to be the writers in both cases
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Oct 7, 2017 11:15
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Nikki and Paulo, we hardly knew you
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Oct 7, 2017 13:37
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quote:Created by Andrew Hussie, HOMESTUCK BOOK 1: ACT 1 & ACT 2 is rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens and will be published in April 2018. Future books in the series will be released by VIZ Media on a quarterly basis. Each volume will be a deluxe hardcover, full-color edition of roughly 400 pages in length and will feature new cover art and other exclusive content. Animated content in the web comic will be rendered as frames on the print page, and every page will feature commentary from Andrew Hussie. Digital editions of each volume will also be available through partner storefronts. http://www.comicsbeat.com/viz-to-publish-webcomics-phenomena-homestuck-in-annotated-editions/
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Oct 7, 2017 16:38
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the original print edition had 'author commentary on every page' and 'animated content rendered as frames on the print page' anyway, this is interesting: quote:Digital editions of each volume will also be available through partner storefronts. i wonder if it'll be a digital conversion of the print conversion of the webcomic or if they'll try do something more with porting over the animation and sound as flash breathes it's last it'd be nice to see something done to future-proof things
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Oct 7, 2017 17:14
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Homestuck Inc. Huh. Hussie's going all in on this being His Life Now.
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Oct 7, 2017 18:58
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So I guess we know where some of the funding for future Hiveswap releases is coming from.
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Oct 7, 2017 19:02
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hussie deserves this tbh in the sense that this will forever be his life and despite the fact he has clearly lost interest he cannot unshackle himself its like poetry
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Oct 7, 2017 21:47
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Clawtopsy posted:hussie deserves this tbh Out of curiosity, whose idea do you think it was to incorporate the Homestuck brand name?
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Oct 7, 2017 21:50
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Clawtopsy posted:hussie deserves this tbh Why does he deserve this, in your opinion?
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Oct 7, 2017 21:52
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Plom Bar posted:Out of curiosity, whose idea do you think it was to incorporate the Homestuck brand name?
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Oct 7, 2017 22:31
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Scarodactyl posted:I think it was probably their legal counsel suggesting that it would be difficult to trademark MSPaint Adventures for some reason. Pretty sure that reason is because "MSpaint" is already a trademark of Microsoft.
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Oct 7, 2017 23:31
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Plom Bar posted:Out of curiosity, whose idea do you think it was to incorporate the Homestuck brand name? Probably someone pointing out you can't trademark MSPaint and Homestuck already has a lot of brand recognition
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Oct 7, 2017 23:41
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All y'all are missing the point, and that point is that I'm reasonably certain the decision wasn't made under duress.Space Cadet Omoly posted:Pretty sure that reason is because "MSpaint" is already a trademark of Microsoft. Gosh, you think so?
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Oct 8, 2017 00:14
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