Starcraft Universe

Gbear

I just spotted this on PCGamer:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/13/fan-made-starcraft-mmo-gets-a-kickstarter/

StarCraft Universe, the fan-made MMO under development using the StarCraft II engine, is now on Kickstarter with Blizzard’s blessing. The team, Upheaval Arts, is asking for $80,000 to fund the free-to-play project, with stretch goals that can add playable zerg, new PvP content, and an extension of the original storyline being developed.

Anyone around here be interested in that sort of thing?

Kiith

Blizzard will cease and desist the **** out of this within a week i'd say.

Overheal

"with Blizzard's blessing"...

Kiith

Huh...well colour me surprised. Hadn't expected that. Will be interested to see how this turns out.

Kirby

To be honest, I'm rather annoyed at the whole thing because they are spoofing. The mod is basically done already. They could release it right now.

This Kickstarter is basically saying "Okay, we are done but we want to get paid before we release it" which flies in the face about what starcraft custom games are about. They are free mods released by the community, for the community.

There are thousands of these type of mods in the custom arcade right now...for free. None are pay to play. Granted, this one is much bigger in scope but they have a finished product already. It's basically an indie version of launch DLC that we see the big companies do.

I like Kickstarter and think it's great for the gaming/tv/movie industry as it gets projects made that otherwise wouldn't be......but this sort of thing is definitely the negative side to Kickstarter.

SeantheMan

I'm a huge Starcraft fan, but definitely not for me. There are 1 or 2 mods on the Arcade that I enjoy, but mostly the original game itself is my thing.

I'm with Kirby on the above

Gbear

It's not a particularly big kickstarter and they do have stretch goals.

I wouldn't begrudge them the few quid tbh.

pixelburp

I think the main question I have is why Blizzard aren't ponying up any doe; they're happy (or rather, their lawyers are) that this mod goes ahead, giving it their full blessing to run on battle.net, yet aren't willing to show any cash. 80k is peanuts really and given mods like CounterStrike have eventually folded into the main dev. house, it'd be galling were the same thing to happen here, having been 'funded' by Joe Public.

I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken to get this thing built - I wouldn't have thought the mod tools could be stretched that far! - but at the end of the day it is 'just' a mod, built off the back of a required commercial product, and goes somewhat against the whole ethos of Kickstarter. It shouldn't be a begging bowl for sideline projects already completed that require no real overhead from its creators. The slow speed of funding suggests I'm not the only one leery about this whole idea.

It does make me realise I haven't played SC in a very long time though. Never even picked up HoTS...

nesf

pixelburp wrote: »

I think the main question I have is why Blizzard aren't ponying up any doe; they're happy (or rather, their lawyers are) that this mod goes ahead, giving it their full blessing to run on battle.net, yet aren't willing to show any cash. 80k is peanuts really and given mods like CounterStrike have eventually folded into the main dev. house, it'd be galling were the same thing to happen here, having been 'funded' by Joe Public.

I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken to get this thing built - I wouldn't have thought the mod tools could be stretched that far! - but at the end of the day it is 'just' a mod, built off the back of a required commercial product, and goes somewhat against the whole ethos of Kickstarter. It shouldn't be a begging bowl for sideline projects already completed that require no real overhead from its creators. The slow speed of funding suggests I'm not the only one leery about this whole idea.

It does make me realise I haven't played SC in a very long time though. Never even picked up HoTS...

Kickstarter hasn't been just handling projects that fit within the ethos of Kickstarter for quite some time now. It been handling projects that really would get funding through more traditional routes for a good few months from the complaining I've been reading in the gaming press.

pixelburp

nesf wrote: »

Kickstarter hasn't been just handling projects that fit within the ethos of Kickstarter for quite some time now. It been handling projects that really would get funding through more traditional routes for a good few months from the complaining I've been reading in the gaming press.

Most KS projects are still legit & within the general ethos, it's just that with the success of KS a number of questionable projects have sprung up, ones that as you say could have easily gained traditional funding, and the gaming press have pounced on these (eg, David Jaffe's 'MotorGun')

However, many of these projects have been scrapped after failing to reach their goal (sometimes spectacularly, such as Jaffe's), and whether that has been lack of real interest or just the community being wise to the more cynical projects, they're not being rewarded.

nesf

pixelburp wrote: »

Most KS projects are still legit & within the general ethos, it's just that with the success of KS a number of questionable projects have sprung up, ones that as you say could have easily gained traditional funding, and the gaming press have pounced on these (eg, David Jaffe's 'MotorGun')

However, many of these projects have been scrapped after failing to reach their goal (sometimes spectacularly, such as Jaffe's), and whether that has been lack of real interest or just the community being wise to the more cynical projects, they're not being rewarded.

There's been some complaint as well about kickstarters being essentially just paid beta entries for a game that will be finished regardless of whether the kickstarter works or not in some cases. And a lot of division over this, as in, if a developer comes along and says "Well, look, we'll do our best to get this game out and can probably do it without this money but this money makes it more certain and secures a lot of people's salaries, would you mind pre-ordering essentially?" is this ok so long as they are upfront about it?

Gbear

pixelburp wrote: »

I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken to get this thing built - I wouldn't have thought the mod tools could be stretched that far! - but at the end of the day it is 'just' a mod, built off the back of a required commercial product, and goes somewhat against the whole ethos of Kickstarter. It shouldn't be a begging bowl for sideline projects already completed that require no real overhead from its creators. The slow speed of funding suggests I'm not the only one leery about this whole idea.

It does make me realise I haven't played SC in a very long time though. Never even picked up HoTS...

It's not required. You can use the free version.

pixelburp

Gbear wrote: »

It's not required. You can use the free version.

There's a free version of SC? Then I definitely haven't been playing this in some time, ha. It's still a prerequisite though, free or not, just like every other TC mod ever made and doesn't really change my point that much; I see it's still slowly ticking towards its goal on KS

RoyalMarine

It has promise. It will still need a lot of development, but I'd be willing to back it.

Grimebox

Any of the third-person custom games have been absolutely woeful imo. The engine doesn't lend well to it at all. The controls are usually clunky at best.

I cannot see why Blizzard would bother giving any money to this at all. Using Counter-Strike as an example of a mod that took off; CS was literally one in a million.

Gbear

pixelburp wrote: »

There's a free version of SC? Then I definitely haven't been playing this in some time, ha. It's still a prerequisite though, free or not, just like every other TC mod ever made and doesn't really change my point that much; I see it's still slowly ticking towards its goal on KS

Yeah, you can't do much. It's sortof like a trial version (except it doesn't run out). You can possibly play custom games only, so if you had a friend you could play a 1v1 with them but you can't ladder or play the games in the "arcade".

Grimebox wrote: »

Any of the third-person custom games have been absolutely woeful imo. The engine doesn't lend well to it at all. The controls are usually clunky at best.

I cannot see why Blizzard would bother giving any money to this at all. Using Counter-Strike as an example of a mod that took off; CS was literally one in a million.

They're not giving them any money.
I think they're using different character models. In SC the units don't need to be that detailed because you're up in the sky. The bigger units tend to be more detailed.
I think they're using custom controls in this. They should be no clunkier than WOW or Diablo.

They're just agreeing not to sue them for releasing something that infringes on their IP.

I've always wanted there to be a Starcraft RPG. Was disappointed when "Ghost" fell through.
Whether this'll be the one I was looking for is a different question.
If Blizzard made a 3rd or fps shooter type game where you're a Terran bounty hunter or a ghost or something I reckon it could be a hit.