Upcoming tactical shooter from Blackfoot Studios: Ground Branch

[SiC-Disaster]

Could you please stop acting so condescending, it makes it hard to maintain a friendly conversation. 'We' are not zealots.
As a matter of fact even I had a period of time where I stopped frequenting the GB forums because of the lack of news, and only recently came back. Before the recent events I only checked in there once every half a year or so. As far as I know the people that did stick around were those who donated some money at the start of GB and became donators. They had access to a special donators forum which showed them some stuff every now and then, things not available to the general public. I didnt have any money or a means to donate back then and so I never got access to it because BFS stopped taking donations after a while. But for them there was an actual incentive to stick around, and not a blind fanboy cult that clung to empty promises.
As to myself, the recent footage impressed the hell out of me even in it's alpha stages, because I can literally feel the design is in the same spirit as it was for the original Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. It feels like the natural evolution I always wanted out of a sequel. It's like an unofficial Rogue Spear-like sequel: the design is unaltered, and the mechanics move forward. Watching the ingame footage I can envision what the game will ultimately play like, and that vision more than warrants the small price tag of 15$.
I pledged 140 so that might make me seem like some kind of nerd fanboy again but I honestly don't give a shit.

Whereas money is concerned, for projects like these I happily follow my heart. Money in the end is meaningless and I don't care for it much. For you that might be different, by the sound of it you'd make a better Dutchman than me.
Kickstarter is all about heart, it's always a chance no matter the project. Either you get behind that mindset or you don't, in which case you may resign from the KS project in it's entirety.

[zoog]

Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I just think it's sad that a developer like BFS, with such a passion for the genre and community, is just kicked down by so many people (seeing that the backer numbers are still around 1300). The last years they gave everything for this genre, poured their heart, soul, free time and personal money into this, only to be slapped in the face by the general tac shooter community. The logic of this is beyond me. Like we have so many developers to pick from

Unfortunately, our financial realities won out over sheer will and heart to move the game along. This has been a very tough road to go down and ultimately led us to the conclusion that it was a vicious cycle of stop/start development that we simply could no longer sustain but no matter what we would not let the project die.

Using our own savings and income we've managed to build a solid pre-alpha build as a proof of concept with the foundation for most of the systems that make the game unique in place. Now is the time that we need proper financial resources to complete this project.

One philosophy of BlackFoot Studios is that when looking for people to give you funding support, you yourself must have obligated a significant investment as well. John has put in his personal savings and, with others, countless hours of hard work. We are dedicated to completing this project on greatly reduced salaries; any financial rewards will come from the sales of the game.

On a side note, while Ground Branch was becoming as some people claim "vaporware", they simply worked on different projects as contracters on games like Red Orchestra 2 and US Government projects to generate some income. Maybe BFS should have been open at the times when there was no work done at all. Sometimes as long as a year passed by while they couldn't work on Ground Branch at all (IIRC from the previous longer version of the KS project page). That's just putting your project on the shelf because of financial realities. That has IMO nothing to do with incompetence or being a "vaporware" developer.

So there has been this long time with almost no money (slow or no development) and now when there is the moment to actually get proper financial backing (fast serious development) people hold their history of not having enough money against them, expecting that when they actually have money to properly do something they will still be slow as before. While the reason that they were slow was lack of money in the first place!

[BOTA:16]

If you're referring to my 'nitpicking' (and I'm pretty sure you are); ideas are all well and good but where money's concerned you absolutely must have faith that it's going to be used wisely because Kickstarter offers no guarantees, that's where it falls down for me - I don't see that these guys are necessarily deserving of the best part of a half million dollars capital to chance without any accountability or personal risk (given they'll be paying themselves a wage all the while). If they did realise their entire feature list I'd certainly buy the game even though I dislike the Unreal engine (another reason I'm not keen on the project and now slightly dark on Takedown). However I see no grounds at all for your blind faith that they will (in fact I think the small but obviously zealous following around this project are a trifle soft in the head), after five years and 'countless thousands of dollars from their life savings' there's hardly anything to show, certainly compared to what volunteer mod teams are routinely able to achieve for free in their spare time. Again, sorry if you don't like my take on things or see me as having a 'superiority complex' (wut?), but you're going to encounter divergent viewpoints on an Internet discussion forum, some of them might actually be based on sound reasoning.

Directed at you? Not necessarily. But after reading your others posts on this topic, I guess I can see how it would look like that. And it would be a waste of time to try and change your mind with any kind of logic and just makes me ask why would you even post in this thread to begin with?

there's hardly anything to show, certainly compared to what volunteer mod teams are routinely able to achieve for free in their spare time.

That comment there just shows your ignorance or you are just trolling.

[batto]

That comment there just shows your ignorance or you are just trolling.

Defunkt is right. There are already some good and not so trivial games (not just ArmA mods) done by volunteers in spare time for no money.

Don't get me wrong. I'd really like to see this game finished. I wonder why don't they take loan...

[BOTA:16]

Defunkt is right. There are already some good and not so trivial games (not just ArmA mods) done by volunteers in spare time for no money.

Don't get me wrong. I'd really like to see this game finished. I wonder why don't they take loan...

Could you please point me to them?

[Mr. Charles]

Could you please point me to them?

Try http://store.steampowered.com/app/17700/

[BOTA:16]

Try http://store.steampowered.com/app/17700/

Yes, played it quite abit. Beppo, the lead programmer for Infiltration has helped with Ground Branch.

Infiltration was first released in 1999 (13 years ago). The last update was released in 2003.

[Mr. Charles]

Not modern warfare, but quite realistic and authentic:



Don't forget PR.

[SiC-Disaster]

AMA! http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment..._by_blackfoot/

I tried Resistance and Liberation, as well as Insurgency, but neither of them managed to grip me. They both feel really clunky, and especially Insurgency had maps that were complete crap. Ins feels a bit better in terms of gameplay than R&L, because R&L was nearly unplayable to me. I guess it comes down to the Source engine which is an action game engine and imo completely unsuitable to tactical gaming. I have yet to see one work on that engine.
Project Reality is good though, that can't be denied, and it's quite the achievement. Especially considering it's free. But what do you guys want to prove with this? That from now on any tactical shooter should come for free, with no cost to you at all? That's a bit unfair don't you think?

[batto]

@BOTA:16:

Here you go:

http://www.xonotic.org/
http://springrts.com/
http://red.planetarena.org/
http://www.openttd.org/

Note that they work on everything. They don't use UT engine.

These are games I played or play. There can be more.