Planetary Annihilation

[Causeless]

Planetary Annihilation!



Website: http://planetaryannihilation.com/

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/659 ... ration-rts

Planetary Annihilation is a new game that was recently announced on Kickstarter, created by many of the same developers of famous RTS games such as Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, and newer games such as Super Monday Night Combat.

What is so special about this game, you may ask? Well, it's going to revolutionise RTS gameplay. Instead of a traditional rectangular map, the developers are aiming to achieve a full solar system with round planets, which as many as 40 or more
players fighting in one game, on seperate planets and asteroids. It is set in a science-ficiton future where technology has become the best of it's kind, after humans have been wiped out and an interplanetary war started by humans is still being
carried out by replicating robots that fight endlessly.

Game Information
The official Planetary Annihilation forum

PC Gamer Interview
Forum Thread of official announced features

About it:
"We're not shooting for realism; we're shooting for awesome"

This game isn't meant to be a super realistic game. At quoted above, they are focusing a lot more on the gameplay than the realism side of things. Despite this, many parts of the game are still physics based; you can alter planetary orbits, you can
fire using large artillery cannons from celestial object to celestial object! When travelling around, you don't use warp drives; you use good old rocket engines.

The game world isn't a bunch of preset planets. When relocating to a new planet all the gameplay still happens around you. Time doesn't freeze with multiple different static play areas; instead, the game world is fully simulated and you have full control
over gameplay, everywhere. Each planet can interact with another, to the extent of CRASHING ASTEROIDS INTO PLANETS. Yes, you hear me correctly.

Official Trailer:


Modding is an extremely high priority for the game developers. They plan to allow you to install mods directly when joining a server instead of needing to hunt them down, and a full scripting system is planned. Each game planet is fully procedural and this
means that every time you play, you can either have a randomly generated map, a built in preset map, or even load in planets you made with an in-game editor and map your own solar system. The editor isn't in any way limited; you'd be able to make unlimited
sized planets as far as the game could handle without crashing, and even then if you are feeling cocky you will be able to override it with a simple console command.

The developers aren't skimping on multiplayer, either. They are making sure to support Windows, Mac and Linux, and LAN multiplayer will be fully supported. They are trying to make the possibilities endless; in the finished game, you'll even be able to "share" a faction with another player to allow
both big set up multiplayer tounraments where several players on the same faction could all individually micro-manage a few planets while sharing the same resource pools and units, or you could have dozens of seperate factions, all playing in the same world,
at the same time, fully interacting with each other. It's completely versatile: one minute you could be playing a small game with only one planet and a very small amount of players, traditional RTS style, and the next you could be trekking across an entire
solar systems, fighting off thousands of units from dozens of factions on hundreds of planets and moons.

With such great multiplayer possibilities, you'll want to remember these epic battles. That's why a full gameplay recorder is being implemented, which will record every step of the game, and you will be able to play it back later. None of this static recordings
either! You'll be able to change camera position and angles, change what faction's line of site you are viewing and view their resources at any time, and watch a fully dynamic recording afterwards which means that casual players can enjopy rewatching their best]
battles while bith groups could view it to carefully refine what they had done wrong, and hone up their skills.

TotalHalibut's Developer Interview:


Remember to try and pledge high! With a $40 pledge you get the game in Beta stage, the soundtrack, and an exclusive commander. WIth a $100 pledge, you get a digital copy of the game, access to the alpha, a physical box of the game, a set of miniature models, and another special Alpha commmander. You also get
the rewards from all previous pledges!

Stretch Goals!

[TyrOvC]

I'm so pumped for this. Hope the Metal Planet stretch goal at least is reached.

[Assaultman67]

You don't need a million fucking dollars to make this game.

Let alone 1.5

[TyrOvC]

Assuming somewhere around a 2 year development time, averaging about 170 work hours per month per person, and that the dev team consists of only the 11 people in this image https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000 ... 1344555554 that'd be a comfortable $33/hour salary. (all these numbers guesstimated, no idea what they'll be in actuality)

$1,500,000/11 people/24 months/170 hours/=$33.42

Not including costs like renting office space, equipment, marketing, etc. I'd say it's a rather fair start. I'd much rather send some money in the direction of this that's actually asked for enough money to succeed off the bat, than something that's not going to have the resources to deliver.

[Assaultman67]

That's more than what programmers at a large game company would make.

... Not including costs like renting office space, equipment, marketing, etc. I'd say it's a rather fair start. I'd much rather send some money in the direction of this that's actually asked for enough money to succeed off the bat, than something that's not going to have the resources to deliver.

As of now I wouldn't pledge anything ...

A lot of "indie" game developers basically start off as a hobby and gain their fund while developing (Wolfire, Notch, Garry's Mod, etc.)

Concept art and marketing does not count as progress. Their assets so far is a trailer made in 3dsmax. 1.5 million dollars from a trailer ... that's some scary shit.

I'll just preorder the game after i see some progress and or some sort of return to their consumers demonstrating their still working towards something (such as alphas)

Tl;Dr: Preordering a game before any actual development is a pretty unwise decision for the consumer.

[Endoperez]

1)That's more than what programmers at a large game company would make.

2)A lot of "indie" game developers basically start off as a hobby and gain their fund while developing (Wolfire, Notch, Garry's Mod, etc.)

3)Concept art and marketing does not count as progress. Their assets so far is a trailer made in 3dsmax. 1.5 million dollars from a trailer ... that's some scary shit.

1) With average salary of $95.300, getting the hourly salary down to $33 requires working 8 hours a day 365 days a year. One year, no weekends, no breaks. Of course, more experienced programmers except more like $125.000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_programmer#Salary


2)These guys are pros. This isn't a hobby for them. They want funding while developing, of course. Kickstarters are always risky, I agree, but with them less so than with relative amateurs. For example, preordering Overgrowth 2009 would have been way more risky than kickstarting these guys.

3)They have an engine.
http://forums.uberent.com/forums/viewto ... 75#p502575

[Count Roland]

I wouldn't say preordering overgrowth in 2009 was risky, I mean david had already churned out a few games and lugaru was a good proof of concept.

[Assaultman67]

Ok.

Let's put it this way.

What advantage would it be for me, the consumer, to preorder it now or when it comes out?

If they want to make the game bad enough, it's going to get made.

[Endoperez]

I wouldn't say preordering overgrowth in 2009 was risky, I mean david had already churned out a few games and lugaru was a good proof of concept.

-> .

These guys have published proper commercial games. If Overgrowth was not risky, this is even less so.

[Endoperez]

Ok.

Let's put it this way.

What advantage would it be for me, the consumer, to preorder it now or when it comes out?

If they want to make the game bad enough, it's going to get made.

No advantage for you, anymore, unless you want to bump it into one of the kickstarter special goals.

The game is NOT going to get made, unless they have the money. Now that the kickstarter has done its thing, they have the money, and can make it. There is no benefit, anymore.

However, for the customers who did pay through kickstarter, there is an obvious benefit - they get the product!

[Assaultman67]

I can buy the game when it comes out.

The thing is, you get nothing in terms of interest or guarantees for that matter.

Wolfire and Mojang at least has alphas for their preorders. (which by themselves are worth the money to me.)

These guys offered nothing but a non-existent game based off of a trailer.

Even if you didn't donate you could simply buy the game after release thus completely skipping all risks of investment.

I'm not a banker, but I think that is an extremely sketchy investment.

But what irritates me most, is these guys raised approximately two million dollars, without any game assets shown to the public, with a freaking trailer. Actually, this makes me absolutely livid. I personally helped work on a mod, for 4 years, 20 some maps, a dozen characters, a dozen weapons, vehicles, the works, then we released the mod to the public for free and I have never seen a full server. These guys make a trailer to ask for money and people froth at the mouths while fully complying

No indie developers on the face of the earth would be able to do that. (nor should any game developer for that matter.)

[Assaultman67]

At first I was like ':DDDDD', but then I noticed that it was an RTS. I've never liked those. :c

What were you expecting it to be? O_o

[Endoperez]

No indie developers on the face of the earth would be able to do that. (nor should any game developer for that matter.)

You are claiming that no indie developer has, and none will, get hugely successful in Kickstarter by simply presenting an interesting video? I call bollocks. As long as the video, whatever it is, gets hype... BAM! there.

The fact that your mod didn't get attention is a problem. You're not alone on that - many released games face the same problem. That's why marketing is an important role even in mods. Wolfire did great with tiny budget and investment.

Here's my own story: I made a game. A small mobile game, school project. My group decided to release it for free. A group of my friends were, at the same time, making a small mobile game. A school project, too. They decided that they'll continue working on it, and eventually release a commercial version. They made Facebook page, blog, bought t-shirts, contacted Nokia, got free phones so they can demonstrate the game more easily to people, etc etc.

The difference between our group? They were much more serious about making it commercially viable. Not just making a game, but selling it.

The fact that your mod isn't known isn't your fault, but it does mean your modding group didn't properly advertise it. Incidentally, could you post some more details about it?

[Glabbit]

At first I was like ':DDDDD', but then I noticed that it was an RTS. I've never liked those. :c

That feel.

I know it.

[Assaultman67]

No indie developers on the face of the earth would be able to do that. (nor should any game developer for that matter.)

You are claiming that no indie developer has, and none will, get hugely successful in Kickstarter by simply presenting an interesting video? I call bollocks. As long as the video, whatever it is, gets hype... BAM! there.

No. I'm claiming no one should. No one should be able to generate that kind of revenue with just marketing. Besides, if marketing is all you see it demonstrates an extreme imbalance in priorities.

The fact that your mod didn't get attention is a problem. You're not alone on that - many released games face the same problem. That's why marketing is an important role even in mods. Wolfire did great with tiny budget and investment.

Oh I know its important. I found out the hard way.

Wolfire did do great, but they never begged for money before starting their game. They started and sold preorders. They organized game bundles.

Here's my own story: I made a game. A small mobile game, school project. My group decided to release it for free. A group of my friends were, at the same time, making a small mobile game. A school project, too. They decided that they'll continue working on it, and eventually release a commercial version. They made Facebook page, blog, bought t-shirts, contacted Nokia, got free phones so they can demonstrate the game more easily to people, etc etc.

The difference between our group? They were much more serious about making it commercially viable. Not just making a game, but selling it.

The fact that your mod isn't known isn't your fault, but it does mean your modding group didn't properly advertise it. Incidentally, could you post some more details about it?

I wasn't looking for money so I am not disappointed that I didn't make any money.

Honestly, I'm not even that disappointed with how well it did.

I am simply a bit pissed that people would buy so much into hype. This video they released is hype. It has absolutely no progress in it what so ever.

I guess I just lost a little faith in the intelligence of humanity.