Why doesn't TLG have a kickstarter to do a spiritual thief successor..

FatSpy on 29/1/2014 at 10:50

Quote Posted by ZylonBane

You two fellers sure have a mighty strange way of referring to Looking Glass Studios.

I just called them by the same thing he did and assumed he meant "The looking glass studio" or something.

Briareos H on 29/1/2014 at 14:38

Quote Posted by Brethren

I think a true spiritual successor to Thief would draw more attention and more $$$ for Kickstarter.

Yeah there is some potential to make a nice KS campaign, especially if people aren't satisfied by the new Thief game when it comes out. Something that might work well, I think, would be a project by a team made of people from the Dark Mod and going as follows:

"Okay, The Dark Mod is great but the current Doom 3 engine is technically limited: we can't do great outdoor spaces or rooftop areas with a lot of visibility without a performance hit, levels are generally limited in size and at this point we lack a cohesive, interesting campaign that makes TDM feel like a game (which it isn't). Money would go towards: 1. funding good coders to work on the engine and remove all of its limitations while adding features that can be seen in other engines OR licensing an existing, more modern engine and porting the Dark Mod assets and editor 2. funding the development of an entire, consistently professional quality campaign on par with the original Thief games."

The sum of money asked would have to be rather high to successfully see both 1. and 2. through the end. The money for the campaign could be used to hire a few professional level designers (Robert Briscoe, anyone?). The engine part would be more complicated, needing to know whether idTech4 can be successfully improved by specialists or how much work and money are needed to license a commercial engine while allowing an editor to be distributed. Maybe some of it could be reworked to include parts as stretch goals. The nice thing is that there wouldn't be much risk involved, as people working on TDM are going to carry on nonetheless.

Renault on 29/1/2014 at 16:08

There are plenty of mods out there that have a free version and also a pay version. I could see a Kickstarter campaign starting up using the Dark Mod as the base, but delivering a full 15 mission or so campaign, with new assets, new models, cutscenes where needed, new menus, basically everything just transformed into a complete game. I don't think a new engine would be necessary - there are a lot of people still playing Thief and a lot of modern projects out there today that have retro graphics. I think TDM's graphics could be a happy medium between high tech T4 and the original games. I think people want some of the feel of the old games, and TDM has that.

This project could operate completely separate from TDM as a mod with fan missions, with both projects co-existing. I'd prefer if the existing TDM guys would do it, but I'd be curious to know if an outside group wanted to take a stab at it, if that kind of thing would be allowed. I think this is something people would absolutely pay money for, especially as Briareos mentioend, if the new Thief is a huge disappointment.

The only other issue would be EM - would they allow it to happen? I think they let TDM slide because they're not making any money off it, but with a KS campaign they might not be as willing to turn a blind eye.

Edit: Hell, you could even hire Stephen Russell to play the main character, you wouldn't even have to call him Garrett or anything. Tell me people wouldn't be all over that.

voodoo47 on 29/1/2014 at 16:37

so, are we talking about kickstarter funded "T4 done right" Dark Mod campaign if the official game fails or what? and yeah, I don't think there would be problem with hiring SR, as long as "Garrett" is not mentioned (not an issue, there is no real need for the main character to say his own name).

New Horizon on 29/1/2014 at 16:52

TDM assets are shared via the Creative Commons license. If I remember correctly, this prevents them from being sold. All assets for such a venture would need to be created from scratch. Someone else from the team might correct me on that, but I think that's how it works.

Queue on 29/1/2014 at 17:52

Quote Posted by FatSpy

I just called them by the same thing he did and assumed he meant "The looking glass studio" or something.

TBOSK

ZylonBane on 29/1/2014 at 18:15

Quote Posted by Queue

TBOSK

NAOHGAASB

Infiltrator84 on 29/1/2014 at 19:18

Yea sorry about the nomenclature, I didn't include "the". Anyway, yea, T4 looks like shit and I'm sure I'd vomit if I bothered to buy it. In contrast, thief 2 is the best game ever made by my standards. And a lot of people agree with me on this.

Nobody wants an emo/goth ninja mix in an interactive action movie. I want pure stealth. I want a smart AI, a meaningful story, a true anti-hero, someone who looks like a regular thug on first glance but is in fact a lot more behind that simple hood. I don't want the game to hold my hands from start to end.. basically I want a spiritual successor to thief, a lot could be learned and improved on that formula, but only if the basic premise was the same, not twisted and perverted to the commercial shit they are trying to sell as thief 4.

Queue on 29/1/2014 at 19:36

Quote Posted by Infiltrator84

Nobody wants an emo/goth ninja mix in an interactive action movie.

I do.

GGL4

ZylonBane on 29/1/2014 at 19:53

Quote Posted by Infiltrator84

Yea sorry about the nomenclature, I didn't include "the".

You also didn't include "Looking", "Glass", or "Studios".

Once again:
TTLG = where you're posting right now
LGS = the company that made the games