CHIEF CHAT BRIEF SUMMARY FROM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021
==== MAIN POINTS ====
► The "Bunny Rock" Reveal!
► Re-issue of the "N.03 Bunny Cosplay skin"!
► We're still running a promotion that started on September 20th... Subscribe NOW [Thursday, October 7, 2021] for ONE DOLLAR!
► We did it! We reached 1,553 subscribers! We're getting the Heavy Omniframe in the KS demo!
► Grummz: "I think a realistic goal would be 1,750 subscribers and we'll put the 'single-seater Python Bike skin' in the demo for M3 Backers."
► Grummz: "I would like to reach 3,000 subscribers before we hit Kickstarter."
==== GENERAL POINTS ====
► Grummz: We need to prepare the Kickstarter movie. We had no idea how to make a Kickstarter movie in Unreal Engine. So we started to do some experiments in order to prepare. And since we're doing a Bunny re-issue we thought, why don't we prepare by using the Unreal Movie Maker in Unreal Engine to render our real time graphics of the re-issued Bunny girl [Marilyn]. Why don't we use it to create a little movie sequence just to dip our toes in and get familiar with how to put this together.
► Grummz also went over the Skin Customization System & "Marilyn" Bunny Cosplay skin/"Bunny Rock" options.
==== COOL EM-8ER FACTS ====
► SKIN CUSTOMIZATION REVIEW. See a more complete explanation here:
https://forums.em8er.com/threads/july-1-2021-notes-skin-grading-system-revealed-milestone-3-progress-report-extra-credit.2058
► Rarities.
The skins are arranged in rarities in Em-8er and we're only talking about pilot skins here. What this means is, this dictates their availability as drops in the game, as well as, on average, when they appear in the store.
Two ways to get all skins; except for unique skins which are usually only included in things like Newcomer Backer packs and things like that. Two ways to get skins: One is - as drops in the game, where they drop as Core Grade skins. The other is - you can purchase them in the General Store (like you can today for the Bunny Girl) and that unlocks the Peerless Grade skin.
The number of times that they are available in the world to craft, or in the store to buy (but not necessarily at the same time)...
▪ Common: It's always available; you're always going to be able to grind for these skins.
▪ Uncommon: 6 times a year;
▪ Rare: 4 times a year;
▪ Epic: 2 times a year;
▪ Legendary: Once per year;
▪ Unique: Exclusive one time (such as skins in M3 or Newcomer Backer packs)
► Grades.
Core Grade skin is what drops in the game initially. You get a single color. But it is upgradeable at any time.
When you upgrade, the next step up is Artisan Grade skins. Artisan lets you change the color variation. Again, the way you do that is by crafting in the world. Or, by if you purchased it in the store.
You can upgrade to one more and that is Peerless Grade skins, which gives you different variations on accessories and materials. Anywhere from metallics to leather, latex, or that type of thing.
► Remember you can mute any skin you don't like in-game.
If you don't like silly stuff or you don't want waifus in your game, you can filter those out in your settings or filter it by character in-game.
And we are the ONLY game, so far, that has announced plans to do that.
► Our pricing is going to be at the high end of Indie.
You buy once and play.
If you want to buy cosmetics to support us, you can.
If you want to support additional feature development and DLC, we're going to have crowdfunding rounds for that.
If you want to sign up for the optional subscription to help us in other ways, you can do that.
But you don't have to do any of that.
New World has shown that this model tends to work very well.
==== "Marilyn" Bunny Cosplay (aka: "Bunny Rock") Options/Variants ====
► The "Bunny Rock" female skin pack available in the General Store (a Peerless variant) includes:
▪ The rockin' emote
▪ The guitar
It does NOT include:
▪ The stage
▪ The amps
In addition to that, we have some options.
► First, there are a few different Tail options.
There's a regular fluffy tail and two different varieties of mecha tails. One is a sort of French Renaissance Deco on the right and one that is much more Em-8ER tech-like on the left. Obviously these are one color right now but, with the Peerless grade, they would have glows and different color zones. We didn't have time to uv unwrap these. It's not our priority right now. Our priority is moving onto the mechs. So we thought this was good enough for now to get the idea across that you get the suit with 3 different variant of tails.
► In addition to that, you get the Side Tie.
This is an additional little accessory you can put on your suit. This is an option we wanted to include for you if you have the Peerless grade skin; which you do IF you had the subscription during the time the Bunny skin was originally offered, or if you purchased it in the General Store. You can turn them on and off.
► You also get a variety of Neck Ties.
Mechanical tie on the right. Standard school girl tie in the middle. Bow tie on the left.
► Then we have two variants of Ears.
Regular ears on the left and middle. Mechanical ears on the right.
► Two variants of Headbands.
Carrot-in-the-hair headband (middle); and yellow ribbons in her hair (left and right).
This image shows the options for Neck Ties, Ears, and Headbands:
► We have Color Variants too.
The following image shows multiple colors of bunny outfits.
► We also have Stockings options.
We didn't have time to render those but, if you look at your subscription plan, you have the tighter weave fishnet ones, these are the looser weave ones, and we'll also have some regular ones as well.
► We have a turn table view of the Bunny female skin [see below].
This is another emote I forgot to mention. This is a drink serving emote.
► You get the Guitar Emote AND the Drink Serving Emote.
Guitar Emote:
Drink Serving Emote:
► We’re working on a stand alone “Guitar Emote Pack” which will include additional guitar and singing emotes. It will be for male AND female avatars [characters] that will also be posted to the General Store a little bit later.
► This was really inspired by seeing The Songbirds performing in FFXIV.
==== CURRENT & FUTURE PLANS ====
What’s Next for Em-8ER.
► One thing we were doing is we upgraded the engine to Unreal 5. These are our in-game models.
► The guitar is nanite which is a new Unreal 5 technology. It seems to be holding up so far for individual props. We tried it with terrain but we had a problem with people’s system performance being low on terrain. That concerned me so, going forward, we’re not going to be doing nanite for terrain due to performance issues.
► We are now checking into seeing if nanite works for building components or things like props, such as the guitar because it would save us time to not have to create a low poly and bake it out.
► The next thing you’re going to see is, when we do these frame tests, we’re going to initially do the frames as nanite frames and were going to see how the performance is. We’re going to revert the terrain map back to the original height map stuff, just as a baseline comparison. So we can see what the impact of nanite is.
► The other thing we’re doing is that we are going to be making the light and heavy Omniframes playable in the Playable Mockup.
==== IN-PROGRESS ====
Quick Review Where We Are with Omniframes:
► The light omniframe has optional melee power fists that you can strap onto it. It is a melee capable frame. It is much more character-centric so, it reflects your character. You can wear most of the outfits with your light omniframe because the armor pieces are really only on the legs, arms, and the backpack. Everything else would be whatever skin you’re wearing.
For example, the Bunny Suit would work with this. So you could be wearing the Bunny Suit and you could also be wearing your light omniframe.
► You're going to see our website change too. As we get more omniframe and Kaiju stuff on there. You're going to see an equal emphasis amongst the 3. Right now the website is very waifu focused. But that will be changing over time. It's going to be an equal sort of distribution between the three.
Starting with this Light Omniframe.
► The Light Omniframe.
The light frame, like I said, you get to wear your skin and you get to wear the armor on top of it. We're going to attempt this as a nanite build. Not because we're trying to push zillions of polygons but because building with nanite means we don't have to build it twice. For most games, you have to build everything twice. You have to build the high poly, then you have to build the low poly, and then you have to do what's called a "bake" between them. So that's going to be the big experiment for this.
The light frame has optional melee arms that you can attach. Obviously it's got a backpack and, it has hard-light wings. These are not physical glider wings. They are sort of like panes of energy that look like wings that project out, that glide. This is a high mobility frame. Like photon wings, yeah. Whatever you want to call it. A lot of people call it hard-light or solid-light.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_light
► The Medium Omniframe.
This is the replacement for what is currently in the build. What is currently in the build is a Medium Omniframe but, it's a little bigger than we intended. We're making this a little bit tighter around the character. It has physical, glider wings. It has the sort of movement abilities that you see right now in the build.
The Medium frame is tighter around the character. We got rid of the head and moved it to a censor dish behind the head. This allows us to make just something more compact. I think the shows off the character better too because I really wanted to show off the character. There is going to be an optional hard driver mode for the medium frame. That means you can run the frame fully encased. There will be a front bit of armor, so if you don’t want to run with your character exposed, you can fully encase your character and not see your character while you’re running around.
This is all stuff we’re pivoting towards. All the work is going towards frames now. You know what? I get in trouble every time I say that because obviously we’re still going to do waifu. I told you we had the Bunny. But the bunny was the last sort of major sequencer production. We were having too much fun. We put a lot of effort into learning the sequencer tools, learning the things we needed to do to make the Kickstarter movie. And I’ll admit, we kinda went overboard on the Bunny. But hopefully you guys like it and enjoy it. And it’s good for you guys. Plus, it let us experiment with emotes.
► The Heavy Omniframe.
The heavy frame is much larger than the medium and light. It’s about Titanfall 2 sized. It has a variant where it comes with a shield. The idea is we’re going to try to get it to shield surf. Basically if you’ve seen Eureka 7, the idea is that instead of gliding, they hop on their shield and they shield surf around the skies.
► This is all becoming reality thanks to you guys. 1,553 subs. Hopefully we get that number up even higher. I think we’ll get the [Python] Bike skin in there for M3 Backers, if we get to 1,750 subs. We have modeled the high poly bike and we could keep it nanite and save ourselves a step, get some physics in there, and start playing around with bike stuff.
► We’re not going to do nanite on terrain. We’re now going to test it on frames. I just wanted to put that out there.
► POST LAUNCH:
The way it works is, it’s a game about building a colony. You’re going out you’re claiming territory, your mining for resources, and you’re using this to build and craft everything you see in the world. That’s one aspect of the game.
The other aspect of the game is the bases you have built along with everyone else are subject to invasion and attack by the invading Tsi-Hu forces. They come en mass to try and mess your stuff up. And you have to sort of all get together and fight against them. And when that happens, the zone goes into what’s called, Invasion Mode. When the zone is in Invasion Mode, different weapons get authorized for you to use, that aren’t normally available including things like aircraft.
► THE HOVER COPTER.
The Hover Copter is a post launch DLC feature that we’d like to crowdfund. This would not be the launch set. This would not be the initial set. The initial set is really about the 3 major frames, the thumping, the base building, and the invasion system 1.0, which is just max.
What’s coming later is we’d like to have additional rounds of feature based funding. Crowd based funding would enable different things.
For example, we’d ask hey, do you guys want to see a Hover Copter in-game as something that’s usable during invasions? And then we would go and have a crowdfunding milestone just for that. And it would have unique backer packs. It would probably come with a custom skin for your Hover Copter. Don’t get me wrong, this is not selling you a space ship. This is not only YOU get the Hover Copter. NO. This is a crowdfunding milestone to enable Hover Copters as a FEATURE for EVERYBODY. EVERYBODY gets a hover copter if they CRAFT one. The backers who crowdfund this though, they will get special perks like special skins, decals, and things like that. But NO power.
► The Tank.
The Tank is the other model some people haven’t seen yet. This would be another mini feature-based goal. We would say hey, we would like to get the Tank into the game for EVERYBODY so we’re going to have a crowdfunding session to get this into the game. Again this would be something else that is available during invasions that you can deploy. Remember our battles are eventually supposed to be quite like Planetside 2 in nature, for the invasion parts of the game. It has a siege mode, which goes into walker form and the guns split and deploy, and things like that.
► The focus on the waifus and the characters is done, we have them in the can. The husbando is rigged and ready to be put into the game. I’ve shown that on other, earlier streams. And now we’re focusing on the hard tech starting with the frames.
► THE "SPACE" TRUCK.
I mentioned 2 main phases planned for the initial launch of the game. One is where we have the crafting and exploration. Where you’re going out, thumping and collecting minerals.
The other one is the exploration and resource gathering aspect and crafting aspect. This is where you’re building omniframes, building weapons, and building bases.
And then there’s the invasion, the warfare fronts are happening throughout the world as territory is won and lost as the players unite to battle against the Tsi-Hu and their kaiju.
The thing that links those two things together is… you can ferry resources that you’re thumping in the non-invasion zones and get them over to the invasion zones. We’re thinking about making that sort of a playable task you do. You would have to convoy resources from non-invasion zones into enemy zones. And you’d have to use what I call The “Space” Truck.
Up to 3 people can be in the Truck cockpit. You can pilot it. You can man the turrets. You can use the debris gun in the front. You can convoy up to 2 trailers of resources with them. You’ll actually have to gather the mats and craft one of these trucks, not just spawn them in.
► The Game Play Loop. I’m very happy about the way it’s coming together.
I’m going to be revealing more details about how the omniframes will work. I have some interesting things planned for that.
I have some interesting things planned for thumping going forward. And we’re going to be talking about that in future streams.
► Next Several Chief Chat Streams.
Expect the next several streams to be fairly light because we’re kind of in head’s down mode, working on some new stuff, as we make this pivot to frames. So please bare with us.
I might even bring Chief Chats back to every other week… I’m not sure. The algorithm likes it when you stream regularly. Just expect the streams to be a little on the lighter side; more Chief Chat stuff and more raffle stuff as we go into head’s down mode here.
We are going to disappear for a little while and not show you what we’re working on yet because we’re doing a bunch of stuff we hope to show you in about 4 to 6 weeks.
RANDOM COOL EM-8ER TIDBITS.
► Draft rules of the tabletop rpg will probably be available sometime after Kickstarter.
► Everything in the Em-8ER Patron subscription program is Rare to Legendary.
► The Unique cosmetics only come in Founder packs.
► The Kickstarter starts our full-time company.
► After that there will be separate milestone funding for things like The “Space” Truck, Hover Copter, and Tank.
==== QUOTES ====
Grummz: ”Project Eve not Project Steve, yeah.”
==== QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ====
Grummz: "A question I get a lot is... If I get the skin, and it's an Epic skin that's only available twice a year... can I upgrade it at any time? And the answer is yes. As long as you already have the skin, you can upgrade it in-game by going out and crafting the materials and investing the materials in your outfit to upgrade it. Or, you can outright purchase an upgrade in the store."
► Question: Do I get the bunny [Marilyn] skin for free? / Is this "Bunny Rock" skin different than the other bunny [Marilyn] skin?
Grummz: "If you are already a subscriber, and you look in your inventory and you already have the bunny [Marilyn] skin... You're getting all this - the guitar, the guitar emote, and the mesh options I'm about to show you. You do NOT need to purchase it.
Because you're a subscriber, thank you for believing in us, you got this skin for $7.95 USD. We also make this skin available twice a year in the store at the full price for all the options and the emote; and that's $34.95 USD."
► Question: Would Grummz make a Palia reference/easter egg if Palia made an Em-8er one?
Ronyn: "Hard to answer something like that as a hypothetical but generally speaking we will do fun stuff in that style with other devs/games when it makes sense."
► Question: Other than skin suits will there be clothes/armor pieces over skin suit?
Ronyn: "Hmm not quite sure on that one. Maybe...maybe not. We will consider it."
► Question: Does VIP status give perks that could be considered P2W such as reduced cost of in-game systems or reduced time to do content versus regular players?
Ronyn: "What falls under the heading of "Pay To Win" is often different depending on who you ask, as different people view it in different ways. However, from the perspective of the Em-8er team...NO. There will be no pay to win options in any way."
► Question: Whatever happened to AMD's TrueAudio, will Em8er use it or there's something better?
Ronyn: "What Audio Em-8er will use is being examined. We will see if we can get an answer on what we are liking currently."
► Question: Will there be a succubus for Halloween?
Ronyn: "As for a succubus for Halloween...lets consider that a request. Whatever might get shown for Halloween will be a surprise."
► Question: Do you plan to have a big advertisement drive on launch, like New World did? Or do you plan to be more modest?
Grummz: "Look, I believe the way you need to market your game is not by buying zillions of ads everywhere. People have no idea how much that costs. That literally costs millions of dollars. The right way to do it, that I've said since Firefall. We started to do with Firefall. That we got a lot of flack from, even from our internal marketing team, was to market through streamers. Through Twitch personalities, YouTube personalities and things like this. And we did that for Firefall and it was very effective. But they still wanted to spend even more on things like banner ads of all things. And now of course everyone knows, banner ads, you just block them, you don't even see them any more.
For Em-8ER, we don't have that kind of marketing budget. So for the Kickstarter, we're going to rely on YOU guys, all streaming. And we want to do streaming events. Where we have a bunch of people hop on, so we can get a bunch of people watching and participating in streams. A bunch of of you guys showing the Playable Mockup, which people won't have access to until they become a backer.
We have a list of streamers. Maven has been putting together a list of streamers for us for a long time. About streaming stuff for Em-8ER. While we can't reach the biggest names because you actually have to pay them to do it, I think we can reach a lot of the smaller ones. So we're going for a lot of smaller streamers working together versus a couple of giant ones. And that may work out for the smaller streamer. Because the smaller streamer wants to give away things like cosmetic keys and boost viewership and things like this. They don't want to have to compete with the Asmongold's and everybody out there who are sucking up all the viewers, it gives them more air to breathe. So I think we have a good pitch. If you're a small streamer and you want to participate in an event, that would be good."
► Question: I’ve got a few small and medium streamers I mod for and know, who I've turned onto Em-8ER. They'd love to stream, so don't ignore the small guys.
Grummz: "[reads comment above] No, the plan IS to focus on the small guys. But, to do it all at once so that we can trend up on Twitch. To promote everybody and because we don't have big guys in there. So there's more people [watching] to go around to all the small and medium streamers."
► Question: Did you hear about the Twitch data breach?
Grummz: "Yes, I did. I have already changed my password, keys, and all that stuff. As you know we're not a monetized Twitch channel so we make absolutely zero on Twitch."
► Question: Seeing the Guitar emote. I assume ya'll would be introducing dance emotes as well. But will you possibly mimic Monster Hunter World dances that come in sets that are different phases of the dance?
Ronyn: "Hey that is an interesting idea. We will put that in the suggestion box."
► Question: We do need to push people into the forum more, do you have a plan to help us socialize there more?
Ronyn: "Where people go is a mostly organic thing. Folks seem to prefer discord these days...But we will continue to put things on the forums as they make sense. Including things like polls and such."
► Question: Can you talk about what you can about what we can expect to see for Kickstarter? Game movie? Music? New Backer Perks? How comprehensive will the slice of game be?
Grummz:
"What do we need for the Kickstarter? When we do the Kickstarter, it's going to be the Playable Mockup with the Light, Medium, and Heavy Omniframes and the THMPR Encounter. It's going to be a game play movie, which is really an in-engine movie that's going to show you aspects of the game that we can't show you yet. Things like Kaiju stomping on bases. Things like Tsi-Hu invading en mass. That's the sort of stuff you're going to see in the movie.
Then we're going to have a completely new round of Backer packs and the old ones will be retired. 30 days before the Kickstarter starts, we will announce that the Backer packs are going away; and they will go away forever.
As far as how comprehensive will the slice of the game will be? Remember that the original goal was just a single player medium frame in a THMPR Encounter. And we now have a 100 player multiplayer, in a bigger map, with light and heavy frames as well. I think that's where we're going to stop for the Playable Mockup.
The rest of it has got to be in the movie. So the movie is going to imply all the other game play that doesn't exist yet. And talks about the world conquest system. Talks about the one grand unified server system. Talks about the crafting focus and the sandbox focus of the game play."
► Question: Can we get a F.A.I.'s thanks decal in game later?
Ronyn: "Great idea!"
► Question: Can we get a MEGA frame where people connect like they do in Transformers and Power Rangers?
Grummz: "I have a condition on that. We can build a Voltron style frame but, each of you only get to control that body part. You all remember QWOP? Good luck trying to coordinate that, even on Discord voice."
► Question: Wait so you just made a low poly model then press a button to get the cinematic model?
Ronyn: "Not quite how it works. I'll try to get someone to break that down in an official capacity when time allows."
► Question: You’re telling me you can fly that thing [Hover Copter] in the game?
Grummz: "Yeah you can fly this thing in-game is the eventual plan. After the launch of the game, the initial set, we would like to do additional vehicles. This would be like a mini-milestone fundraiser we would do.
For example, okay let’s have air combat. Let’s put these in the game. We would say this is an unlock for everybody. If we can get enough crowdfunding, this is a feature that EVERYBODY gets. And then you can go craft a Hover Copter in the game.
This is the way our milestone and feature-based funding is going to work, on a continuous basis even past the Kickstarter. I’m just explaining how it works. And we have been doing this model already, up to now."
► Question: Will we have emotes where we dance on our parked tank?
Ronyn: "Dancing mecha? OH you know...It's kind of a must for a mech game!"
► Question: Speaking of thumping what about thumping on top of defeated kaiju?
Ronyn: "Oh I love this idea."
► Question: If I'm not mistaken it will be playable in both first and third person, correct? but when going into omniframe/vehicles, will it contain an immersive transition like Titanfall 1/2 or something more practical like going into vehicles in most games?
Ronyn: "The current plan is to retain the first and third person view option in all mecha. However future testing may lead us down some different roads for specific vehicles."
► Question: Were industrial non-combat frames ever discussed?
Grummz: "Yes, we talked about non-combat roles and how I’d like to see more non-combat roles available in Em-8ER."
► Question: Are we going to have Storage/character rooms for our mechs?
Grummz: "Do you mean on the truck itself? Yeah there’s actually a concept art version with docking bays on one of the trailers, so you could cart frames around. Remember you have dropships too. And the dropships will eventually get interiors as well."
► Question: Will light omniframes have wall running? We can only glide, not fly… so getting up in some places will take some work.
Grummz: "Light frames are planned to have a form of wall running. I call it Kaiju running because I want you to be able to run along and on top of the Kaiju."
► Question: Em-8ER be playable in both first and third person, correct? But when going into omniframe/vehicles, will it contain an immersive transition like Titanfall 1/2 or something more practical like going into vehicles in most games?
Grummz: "It IS playable in first and third person. I want to do a transition. So if you get into an omniframe or mode where you’re entering a vehicle, I think it’s gotta transition to first person to make it workable. Third person would get janky with an interior."
► Question: Do you have a scale reference of how big a kaiju is compared to a frame?
Grummz: "I do not. And I would be lying because I’ve actually done it myself in-game. Not one I can share, how about that? We’re still working out the scale. They’re going to be pretty big though."
► Question: What about doing the interior like Warframe, they made the interior "outside" of the map and just teleport the player to and from the ship.
Grummz: "NO. No, I ain’t doing it. I ain’t doing Elite Dangerous, I ain’t doing Warframe. You are gonna get in this vehicle. I fully believe in that full immersion factor. You’re not going to teleport into the vehicle. Nope. Sorry. I say that like it’s a bad thing. It’s actually a very cool thing. You pull down the platform, you get into the platform, and go up into the space truck. Star Citizen sold me on that."
► Question: What’s been the most difficult thing you’ve encountered during development of Em-8ER so far?
Grummz: "I think the hardest thing has been with a part-time team, making as much progress as we want to, fast enough. It would be really good to get to the Kickstarter right away so we can fund a full-time team. And I think being a part-time team has been very challenging."
► Question: Do we have an exclusive skin/anything only early subscribers get?
Grummz: "There’s nothing unique on the Em-8ER Patron Sub program. There ARE unique items on the Newcomer Backer packs."
► Question: Psychtooth expresses concerns about mecha games in general, and also about trying to make an MMO with a small dev team.
Grummz:
Well, actually one thing I have found is with modern tools and modern art tools, we have been able to do MUCH more on Em-8ER than we had with Firefall. Firefall was all custom tools, custom engine, everything else and it would take a LONG time and a LOT of people to make something. We are now realizing that is not the case any more. And that we can do a lot more with a small team on Em-8ER.
The other thing is, this isn't the only crowdfunding for Em-8ER. Remember that Em-8er is milestone or, what we say "feature based funding". So there will be additional funding rounds all throughout development that fund different aspects of the game and help determine which launches first.
So the game is sort of like a game where YOU guys are the publishers. You guys are the publishers approving each milestone and we're going out and implementing those milestones. The other thing is, thanks to the SPECTACULAR launch of New World, the interest in non-theme-park sandbox MMOs is at an all time high. So you're going to see a lot of investment. Now while I don't want to take any investors at all. And that's completely up to you guys and the people who will be coming on board during Kickstarter. I think there is tremendous interest to crowdfund more sandbox style MMOs thanks to New World.
You know, people used to come in here and ask me, *"Why isn't your game more theme-park? Why don't you have a focus on raiding? Why don't you have a focus on questing? Why are you doing dynamic events? Why are you doing so much crafting?"* I said: "Trust me, it'll work. This is the kind of vision we have for the game. We need to break the meta!" Well, New World has shown that works.
So I'm very hopeful for the Kickstarter doing well because of that. I'm also very hopeful because our funding model does not stop with one Kickstarter. And, while we don't intend to take investors if we don't have to, we can license our game to different regions of the world. And those include up front funding, where they pay for the license up front and that is a possibility for Em-8ER as well. I have a lot of experience fundraising the old-fashioned way through publishers and venture capital. I've raised more money than most people in gaming. I don't want to do it that way again. Having been down the road and seeing what can happen with your investors wanting to make WoW because that's all they think will work as an MMO. And you wanting to make something completely different. That can quickly lead to a break in the honeymoon and problems down the road as we saw with Firefall.
So I really want to do this with crowdfunding which is why we've taking the milestone based approach. Being a sandbox game without having to create hundreds of hours of theme-park content, also greatly lowers the cost of development. By focusing on dynamic events, by focusing on systems rather than static content, we think we can achieve a lot with a more modest MMO budget.
It's still going to take a lot to make this game, I'm not saying it won't. But, I am saying that the days of it being these giant theme-park things where, unless you have half a billion dollars to play with, you can't make an MMO... that's not true anymore. I'm finding that that's not true anymore. If you go sandbox, if you make decisions like we're making, if you go procedural (which we're doing for a couple of things), things become much more doable. Also the rising interest in sandbox style MMOs, thanks to the UNPARALLELED success of New World.
I don't know if you guys realize how successful New World is. People are like, *"Oh yeah I guess it was a successful MMO launch."* NO. It was THE MOST successful MMO launch, EVER. More than WoW. More than Guild Wars. More than anything. More than single player games. You're talking 900,000 concurrent players. And this is not a free to play game. This is a, you pay $40 bucks(?) and you go play. That has made it the world's MOST successful MMO launch, *EVER*, for a sandbox MMO. NOT a theme-park MMO. There's no real questing. The dungeons are pretty meh. That is pretty amazing. And people are digging the game. Whether or not it's going to last long enough? That's another question. For me personally, the theme is not appealing but, the theme appeals to many people.
So, let me just point this out: This is *GOOD* for MMOs. And this is good for Em-8ER.
I think this was an important question to answer, so I thank you for asking that and presenting it that way.
==== FUN STUFF! ====
► F.A.I.’s thanks raffle winner! ♦ Tomixx1199 ♦
==== MAIN POINTS ====
► The "Bunny Rock" Reveal!
► Re-issue of the "N.03 Bunny Cosplay skin"!
► We're still running a promotion that started on September 20th... Subscribe NOW [Thursday, October 7, 2021] for ONE DOLLAR!
► We did it! We reached 1,553 subscribers! We're getting the Heavy Omniframe in the KS demo!
► Grummz: "I think a realistic goal would be 1,750 subscribers and we'll put the 'single-seater Python Bike skin' in the demo for M3 Backers."
► Grummz: "I would like to reach 3,000 subscribers before we hit Kickstarter."
==== GENERAL POINTS ====
► Grummz: We need to prepare the Kickstarter movie. We had no idea how to make a Kickstarter movie in Unreal Engine. So we started to do some experiments in order to prepare. And since we're doing a Bunny re-issue we thought, why don't we prepare by using the Unreal Movie Maker in Unreal Engine to render our real time graphics of the re-issued Bunny girl [Marilyn]. Why don't we use it to create a little movie sequence just to dip our toes in and get familiar with how to put this together.
► Grummz also went over the Skin Customization System & "Marilyn" Bunny Cosplay skin/"Bunny Rock" options.
==== COOL EM-8ER FACTS ====
► SKIN CUSTOMIZATION REVIEW. See a more complete explanation here:
https://forums.em8er.com/threads/july-1-2021-notes-skin-grading-system-revealed-milestone-3-progress-report-extra-credit.2058
► Rarities.
The skins are arranged in rarities in Em-8er and we're only talking about pilot skins here. What this means is, this dictates their availability as drops in the game, as well as, on average, when they appear in the store.
Two ways to get all skins; except for unique skins which are usually only included in things like Newcomer Backer packs and things like that. Two ways to get skins: One is - as drops in the game, where they drop as Core Grade skins. The other is - you can purchase them in the General Store (like you can today for the Bunny Girl) and that unlocks the Peerless Grade skin.
The number of times that they are available in the world to craft, or in the store to buy (but not necessarily at the same time)...
▪ Common: It's always available; you're always going to be able to grind for these skins.
▪ Uncommon: 6 times a year;
▪ Rare: 4 times a year;
▪ Epic: 2 times a year;
▪ Legendary: Once per year;
▪ Unique: Exclusive one time (such as skins in M3 or Newcomer Backer packs)
► Grades.
Core Grade skin is what drops in the game initially. You get a single color. But it is upgradeable at any time.
When you upgrade, the next step up is Artisan Grade skins. Artisan lets you change the color variation. Again, the way you do that is by crafting in the world. Or, by if you purchased it in the store.
You can upgrade to one more and that is Peerless Grade skins, which gives you different variations on accessories and materials. Anywhere from metallics to leather, latex, or that type of thing.
► Remember you can mute any skin you don't like in-game.
If you don't like silly stuff or you don't want waifus in your game, you can filter those out in your settings or filter it by character in-game.
And we are the ONLY game, so far, that has announced plans to do that.
► Our pricing is going to be at the high end of Indie.
You buy once and play.
If you want to buy cosmetics to support us, you can.
If you want to support additional feature development and DLC, we're going to have crowdfunding rounds for that.
If you want to sign up for the optional subscription to help us in other ways, you can do that.
But you don't have to do any of that.
New World has shown that this model tends to work very well.
==== "Marilyn" Bunny Cosplay (aka: "Bunny Rock") Options/Variants ====
► The "Bunny Rock" female skin pack available in the General Store (a Peerless variant) includes:
▪ The rockin' emote
▪ The guitar
It does NOT include:
▪ The stage
▪ The amps
In addition to that, we have some options.
► First, there are a few different Tail options.
There's a regular fluffy tail and two different varieties of mecha tails. One is a sort of French Renaissance Deco on the right and one that is much more Em-8ER tech-like on the left. Obviously these are one color right now but, with the Peerless grade, they would have glows and different color zones. We didn't have time to uv unwrap these. It's not our priority right now. Our priority is moving onto the mechs. So we thought this was good enough for now to get the idea across that you get the suit with 3 different variant of tails.
► In addition to that, you get the Side Tie.
This is an additional little accessory you can put on your suit. This is an option we wanted to include for you if you have the Peerless grade skin; which you do IF you had the subscription during the time the Bunny skin was originally offered, or if you purchased it in the General Store. You can turn them on and off.
► You also get a variety of Neck Ties.
Mechanical tie on the right. Standard school girl tie in the middle. Bow tie on the left.
► Then we have two variants of Ears.
Regular ears on the left and middle. Mechanical ears on the right.
► Two variants of Headbands.
Carrot-in-the-hair headband (middle); and yellow ribbons in her hair (left and right).
This image shows the options for Neck Ties, Ears, and Headbands:
► We have Color Variants too.
The following image shows multiple colors of bunny outfits.
► We also have Stockings options.
We didn't have time to render those but, if you look at your subscription plan, you have the tighter weave fishnet ones, these are the looser weave ones, and we'll also have some regular ones as well.
► We have a turn table view of the Bunny female skin [see below].
This is another emote I forgot to mention. This is a drink serving emote.
► You get the Guitar Emote AND the Drink Serving Emote.
Guitar Emote:
Drink Serving Emote:
► We’re working on a stand alone “Guitar Emote Pack” which will include additional guitar and singing emotes. It will be for male AND female avatars [characters] that will also be posted to the General Store a little bit later.
► This was really inspired by seeing The Songbirds performing in FFXIV.
==== CURRENT & FUTURE PLANS ====
What’s Next for Em-8ER.
► One thing we were doing is we upgraded the engine to Unreal 5. These are our in-game models.
► The guitar is nanite which is a new Unreal 5 technology. It seems to be holding up so far for individual props. We tried it with terrain but we had a problem with people’s system performance being low on terrain. That concerned me so, going forward, we’re not going to be doing nanite for terrain due to performance issues.
► We are now checking into seeing if nanite works for building components or things like props, such as the guitar because it would save us time to not have to create a low poly and bake it out.
► The next thing you’re going to see is, when we do these frame tests, we’re going to initially do the frames as nanite frames and were going to see how the performance is. We’re going to revert the terrain map back to the original height map stuff, just as a baseline comparison. So we can see what the impact of nanite is.
► The other thing we’re doing is that we are going to be making the light and heavy Omniframes playable in the Playable Mockup.
==== IN-PROGRESS ====
Quick Review Where We Are with Omniframes:
► The light omniframe has optional melee power fists that you can strap onto it. It is a melee capable frame. It is much more character-centric so, it reflects your character. You can wear most of the outfits with your light omniframe because the armor pieces are really only on the legs, arms, and the backpack. Everything else would be whatever skin you’re wearing.
For example, the Bunny Suit would work with this. So you could be wearing the Bunny Suit and you could also be wearing your light omniframe.
► You're going to see our website change too. As we get more omniframe and Kaiju stuff on there. You're going to see an equal emphasis amongst the 3. Right now the website is very waifu focused. But that will be changing over time. It's going to be an equal sort of distribution between the three.
Starting with this Light Omniframe.
► The Light Omniframe.
The light frame, like I said, you get to wear your skin and you get to wear the armor on top of it. We're going to attempt this as a nanite build. Not because we're trying to push zillions of polygons but because building with nanite means we don't have to build it twice. For most games, you have to build everything twice. You have to build the high poly, then you have to build the low poly, and then you have to do what's called a "bake" between them. So that's going to be the big experiment for this.
The light frame has optional melee arms that you can attach. Obviously it's got a backpack and, it has hard-light wings. These are not physical glider wings. They are sort of like panes of energy that look like wings that project out, that glide. This is a high mobility frame. Like photon wings, yeah. Whatever you want to call it. A lot of people call it hard-light or solid-light.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_light
► The Medium Omniframe.
This is the replacement for what is currently in the build. What is currently in the build is a Medium Omniframe but, it's a little bigger than we intended. We're making this a little bit tighter around the character. It has physical, glider wings. It has the sort of movement abilities that you see right now in the build.
The Medium frame is tighter around the character. We got rid of the head and moved it to a censor dish behind the head. This allows us to make just something more compact. I think the shows off the character better too because I really wanted to show off the character. There is going to be an optional hard driver mode for the medium frame. That means you can run the frame fully encased. There will be a front bit of armor, so if you don’t want to run with your character exposed, you can fully encase your character and not see your character while you’re running around.
This is all stuff we’re pivoting towards. All the work is going towards frames now. You know what? I get in trouble every time I say that because obviously we’re still going to do waifu. I told you we had the Bunny. But the bunny was the last sort of major sequencer production. We were having too much fun. We put a lot of effort into learning the sequencer tools, learning the things we needed to do to make the Kickstarter movie. And I’ll admit, we kinda went overboard on the Bunny. But hopefully you guys like it and enjoy it. And it’s good for you guys. Plus, it let us experiment with emotes.
► The Heavy Omniframe.
The heavy frame is much larger than the medium and light. It’s about Titanfall 2 sized. It has a variant where it comes with a shield. The idea is we’re going to try to get it to shield surf. Basically if you’ve seen Eureka 7, the idea is that instead of gliding, they hop on their shield and they shield surf around the skies.
► This is all becoming reality thanks to you guys. 1,553 subs. Hopefully we get that number up even higher. I think we’ll get the [Python] Bike skin in there for M3 Backers, if we get to 1,750 subs. We have modeled the high poly bike and we could keep it nanite and save ourselves a step, get some physics in there, and start playing around with bike stuff.
► We’re not going to do nanite on terrain. We’re now going to test it on frames. I just wanted to put that out there.
► POST LAUNCH:
The way it works is, it’s a game about building a colony. You’re going out you’re claiming territory, your mining for resources, and you’re using this to build and craft everything you see in the world. That’s one aspect of the game.
The other aspect of the game is the bases you have built along with everyone else are subject to invasion and attack by the invading Tsi-Hu forces. They come en mass to try and mess your stuff up. And you have to sort of all get together and fight against them. And when that happens, the zone goes into what’s called, Invasion Mode. When the zone is in Invasion Mode, different weapons get authorized for you to use, that aren’t normally available including things like aircraft.
► THE HOVER COPTER.
The Hover Copter is a post launch DLC feature that we’d like to crowdfund. This would not be the launch set. This would not be the initial set. The initial set is really about the 3 major frames, the thumping, the base building, and the invasion system 1.0, which is just max.
What’s coming later is we’d like to have additional rounds of feature based funding. Crowd based funding would enable different things.
For example, we’d ask hey, do you guys want to see a Hover Copter in-game as something that’s usable during invasions? And then we would go and have a crowdfunding milestone just for that. And it would have unique backer packs. It would probably come with a custom skin for your Hover Copter. Don’t get me wrong, this is not selling you a space ship. This is not only YOU get the Hover Copter. NO. This is a crowdfunding milestone to enable Hover Copters as a FEATURE for EVERYBODY. EVERYBODY gets a hover copter if they CRAFT one. The backers who crowdfund this though, they will get special perks like special skins, decals, and things like that. But NO power.
► The Tank.
The Tank is the other model some people haven’t seen yet. This would be another mini feature-based goal. We would say hey, we would like to get the Tank into the game for EVERYBODY so we’re going to have a crowdfunding session to get this into the game. Again this would be something else that is available during invasions that you can deploy. Remember our battles are eventually supposed to be quite like Planetside 2 in nature, for the invasion parts of the game. It has a siege mode, which goes into walker form and the guns split and deploy, and things like that.
► The focus on the waifus and the characters is done, we have them in the can. The husbando is rigged and ready to be put into the game. I’ve shown that on other, earlier streams. And now we’re focusing on the hard tech starting with the frames.
► THE "SPACE" TRUCK.
I mentioned 2 main phases planned for the initial launch of the game. One is where we have the crafting and exploration. Where you’re going out, thumping and collecting minerals.
The other one is the exploration and resource gathering aspect and crafting aspect. This is where you’re building omniframes, building weapons, and building bases.
And then there’s the invasion, the warfare fronts are happening throughout the world as territory is won and lost as the players unite to battle against the Tsi-Hu and their kaiju.
The thing that links those two things together is… you can ferry resources that you’re thumping in the non-invasion zones and get them over to the invasion zones. We’re thinking about making that sort of a playable task you do. You would have to convoy resources from non-invasion zones into enemy zones. And you’d have to use what I call The “Space” Truck.
Up to 3 people can be in the Truck cockpit. You can pilot it. You can man the turrets. You can use the debris gun in the front. You can convoy up to 2 trailers of resources with them. You’ll actually have to gather the mats and craft one of these trucks, not just spawn them in.
► The Game Play Loop. I’m very happy about the way it’s coming together.
I’m going to be revealing more details about how the omniframes will work. I have some interesting things planned for that.
I have some interesting things planned for thumping going forward. And we’re going to be talking about that in future streams.
► Next Several Chief Chat Streams.
Expect the next several streams to be fairly light because we’re kind of in head’s down mode, working on some new stuff, as we make this pivot to frames. So please bare with us.
I might even bring Chief Chats back to every other week… I’m not sure. The algorithm likes it when you stream regularly. Just expect the streams to be a little on the lighter side; more Chief Chat stuff and more raffle stuff as we go into head’s down mode here.
We are going to disappear for a little while and not show you what we’re working on yet because we’re doing a bunch of stuff we hope to show you in about 4 to 6 weeks.
RANDOM COOL EM-8ER TIDBITS.
► Draft rules of the tabletop rpg will probably be available sometime after Kickstarter.
► Everything in the Em-8ER Patron subscription program is Rare to Legendary.
► The Unique cosmetics only come in Founder packs.
► The Kickstarter starts our full-time company.
► After that there will be separate milestone funding for things like The “Space” Truck, Hover Copter, and Tank.
==== QUOTES ====
Grummz: ”Project Eve not Project Steve, yeah.”
==== QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ====
Grummz: "A question I get a lot is... If I get the skin, and it's an Epic skin that's only available twice a year... can I upgrade it at any time? And the answer is yes. As long as you already have the skin, you can upgrade it in-game by going out and crafting the materials and investing the materials in your outfit to upgrade it. Or, you can outright purchase an upgrade in the store."
► Question: Do I get the bunny [Marilyn] skin for free? / Is this "Bunny Rock" skin different than the other bunny [Marilyn] skin?
Grummz: "If you are already a subscriber, and you look in your inventory and you already have the bunny [Marilyn] skin... You're getting all this - the guitar, the guitar emote, and the mesh options I'm about to show you. You do NOT need to purchase it.
Because you're a subscriber, thank you for believing in us, you got this skin for $7.95 USD. We also make this skin available twice a year in the store at the full price for all the options and the emote; and that's $34.95 USD."
► Question: Would Grummz make a Palia reference/easter egg if Palia made an Em-8er one?
Ronyn: "Hard to answer something like that as a hypothetical but generally speaking we will do fun stuff in that style with other devs/games when it makes sense."
► Question: Other than skin suits will there be clothes/armor pieces over skin suit?
Ronyn: "Hmm not quite sure on that one. Maybe...maybe not. We will consider it."
► Question: Does VIP status give perks that could be considered P2W such as reduced cost of in-game systems or reduced time to do content versus regular players?
Ronyn: "What falls under the heading of "Pay To Win" is often different depending on who you ask, as different people view it in different ways. However, from the perspective of the Em-8er team...NO. There will be no pay to win options in any way."
► Question: Whatever happened to AMD's TrueAudio, will Em8er use it or there's something better?
Ronyn: "What Audio Em-8er will use is being examined. We will see if we can get an answer on what we are liking currently."
► Question: Will there be a succubus for Halloween?
Ronyn: "As for a succubus for Halloween...lets consider that a request. Whatever might get shown for Halloween will be a surprise."
► Question: Do you plan to have a big advertisement drive on launch, like New World did? Or do you plan to be more modest?
Grummz: "Look, I believe the way you need to market your game is not by buying zillions of ads everywhere. People have no idea how much that costs. That literally costs millions of dollars. The right way to do it, that I've said since Firefall. We started to do with Firefall. That we got a lot of flack from, even from our internal marketing team, was to market through streamers. Through Twitch personalities, YouTube personalities and things like this. And we did that for Firefall and it was very effective. But they still wanted to spend even more on things like banner ads of all things. And now of course everyone knows, banner ads, you just block them, you don't even see them any more.
For Em-8ER, we don't have that kind of marketing budget. So for the Kickstarter, we're going to rely on YOU guys, all streaming. And we want to do streaming events. Where we have a bunch of people hop on, so we can get a bunch of people watching and participating in streams. A bunch of of you guys showing the Playable Mockup, which people won't have access to until they become a backer.
We have a list of streamers. Maven has been putting together a list of streamers for us for a long time. About streaming stuff for Em-8ER. While we can't reach the biggest names because you actually have to pay them to do it, I think we can reach a lot of the smaller ones. So we're going for a lot of smaller streamers working together versus a couple of giant ones. And that may work out for the smaller streamer. Because the smaller streamer wants to give away things like cosmetic keys and boost viewership and things like this. They don't want to have to compete with the Asmongold's and everybody out there who are sucking up all the viewers, it gives them more air to breathe. So I think we have a good pitch. If you're a small streamer and you want to participate in an event, that would be good."
► Question: I’ve got a few small and medium streamers I mod for and know, who I've turned onto Em-8ER. They'd love to stream, so don't ignore the small guys.
Grummz: "[reads comment above] No, the plan IS to focus on the small guys. But, to do it all at once so that we can trend up on Twitch. To promote everybody and because we don't have big guys in there. So there's more people [watching] to go around to all the small and medium streamers."
► Question: Did you hear about the Twitch data breach?
Grummz: "Yes, I did. I have already changed my password, keys, and all that stuff. As you know we're not a monetized Twitch channel so we make absolutely zero on Twitch."
► Question: Seeing the Guitar emote. I assume ya'll would be introducing dance emotes as well. But will you possibly mimic Monster Hunter World dances that come in sets that are different phases of the dance?
Ronyn: "Hey that is an interesting idea. We will put that in the suggestion box."
► Question: We do need to push people into the forum more, do you have a plan to help us socialize there more?
Ronyn: "Where people go is a mostly organic thing. Folks seem to prefer discord these days...But we will continue to put things on the forums as they make sense. Including things like polls and such."
► Question: Can you talk about what you can about what we can expect to see for Kickstarter? Game movie? Music? New Backer Perks? How comprehensive will the slice of game be?
Grummz:
"What do we need for the Kickstarter? When we do the Kickstarter, it's going to be the Playable Mockup with the Light, Medium, and Heavy Omniframes and the THMPR Encounter. It's going to be a game play movie, which is really an in-engine movie that's going to show you aspects of the game that we can't show you yet. Things like Kaiju stomping on bases. Things like Tsi-Hu invading en mass. That's the sort of stuff you're going to see in the movie.
Then we're going to have a completely new round of Backer packs and the old ones will be retired. 30 days before the Kickstarter starts, we will announce that the Backer packs are going away; and they will go away forever.
As far as how comprehensive will the slice of the game will be? Remember that the original goal was just a single player medium frame in a THMPR Encounter. And we now have a 100 player multiplayer, in a bigger map, with light and heavy frames as well. I think that's where we're going to stop for the Playable Mockup.
The rest of it has got to be in the movie. So the movie is going to imply all the other game play that doesn't exist yet. And talks about the world conquest system. Talks about the one grand unified server system. Talks about the crafting focus and the sandbox focus of the game play."
► Question: Can we get a F.A.I.'s thanks decal in game later?
Ronyn: "Great idea!"
► Question: Can we get a MEGA frame where people connect like they do in Transformers and Power Rangers?
Grummz: "I have a condition on that. We can build a Voltron style frame but, each of you only get to control that body part. You all remember QWOP? Good luck trying to coordinate that, even on Discord voice."
► Question: Wait so you just made a low poly model then press a button to get the cinematic model?
Ronyn: "Not quite how it works. I'll try to get someone to break that down in an official capacity when time allows."
► Question: You’re telling me you can fly that thing [Hover Copter] in the game?
Grummz: "Yeah you can fly this thing in-game is the eventual plan. After the launch of the game, the initial set, we would like to do additional vehicles. This would be like a mini-milestone fundraiser we would do.
For example, okay let’s have air combat. Let’s put these in the game. We would say this is an unlock for everybody. If we can get enough crowdfunding, this is a feature that EVERYBODY gets. And then you can go craft a Hover Copter in the game.
This is the way our milestone and feature-based funding is going to work, on a continuous basis even past the Kickstarter. I’m just explaining how it works. And we have been doing this model already, up to now."
► Question: Will we have emotes where we dance on our parked tank?
Ronyn: "Dancing mecha? OH you know...It's kind of a must for a mech game!"
► Question: Speaking of thumping what about thumping on top of defeated kaiju?
Ronyn: "Oh I love this idea."
► Question: If I'm not mistaken it will be playable in both first and third person, correct? but when going into omniframe/vehicles, will it contain an immersive transition like Titanfall 1/2 or something more practical like going into vehicles in most games?
Ronyn: "The current plan is to retain the first and third person view option in all mecha. However future testing may lead us down some different roads for specific vehicles."
► Question: Were industrial non-combat frames ever discussed?
Grummz: "Yes, we talked about non-combat roles and how I’d like to see more non-combat roles available in Em-8ER."
► Question: Are we going to have Storage/character rooms for our mechs?
Grummz: "Do you mean on the truck itself? Yeah there’s actually a concept art version with docking bays on one of the trailers, so you could cart frames around. Remember you have dropships too. And the dropships will eventually get interiors as well."
► Question: Will light omniframes have wall running? We can only glide, not fly… so getting up in some places will take some work.
Grummz: "Light frames are planned to have a form of wall running. I call it Kaiju running because I want you to be able to run along and on top of the Kaiju."
► Question: Em-8ER be playable in both first and third person, correct? But when going into omniframe/vehicles, will it contain an immersive transition like Titanfall 1/2 or something more practical like going into vehicles in most games?
Grummz: "It IS playable in first and third person. I want to do a transition. So if you get into an omniframe or mode where you’re entering a vehicle, I think it’s gotta transition to first person to make it workable. Third person would get janky with an interior."
► Question: Do you have a scale reference of how big a kaiju is compared to a frame?
Grummz: "I do not. And I would be lying because I’ve actually done it myself in-game. Not one I can share, how about that? We’re still working out the scale. They’re going to be pretty big though."
► Question: What about doing the interior like Warframe, they made the interior "outside" of the map and just teleport the player to and from the ship.
Grummz: "NO. No, I ain’t doing it. I ain’t doing Elite Dangerous, I ain’t doing Warframe. You are gonna get in this vehicle. I fully believe in that full immersion factor. You’re not going to teleport into the vehicle. Nope. Sorry. I say that like it’s a bad thing. It’s actually a very cool thing. You pull down the platform, you get into the platform, and go up into the space truck. Star Citizen sold me on that."
► Question: What’s been the most difficult thing you’ve encountered during development of Em-8ER so far?
Grummz: "I think the hardest thing has been with a part-time team, making as much progress as we want to, fast enough. It would be really good to get to the Kickstarter right away so we can fund a full-time team. And I think being a part-time team has been very challenging."
► Question: Do we have an exclusive skin/anything only early subscribers get?
Grummz: "There’s nothing unique on the Em-8ER Patron Sub program. There ARE unique items on the Newcomer Backer packs."
► Question: Psychtooth expresses concerns about mecha games in general, and also about trying to make an MMO with a small dev team.
Grummz:
Well, actually one thing I have found is with modern tools and modern art tools, we have been able to do MUCH more on Em-8ER than we had with Firefall. Firefall was all custom tools, custom engine, everything else and it would take a LONG time and a LOT of people to make something. We are now realizing that is not the case any more. And that we can do a lot more with a small team on Em-8ER.
The other thing is, this isn't the only crowdfunding for Em-8ER. Remember that Em-8er is milestone or, what we say "feature based funding". So there will be additional funding rounds all throughout development that fund different aspects of the game and help determine which launches first.
So the game is sort of like a game where YOU guys are the publishers. You guys are the publishers approving each milestone and we're going out and implementing those milestones. The other thing is, thanks to the SPECTACULAR launch of New World, the interest in non-theme-park sandbox MMOs is at an all time high. So you're going to see a lot of investment. Now while I don't want to take any investors at all. And that's completely up to you guys and the people who will be coming on board during Kickstarter. I think there is tremendous interest to crowdfund more sandbox style MMOs thanks to New World.
You know, people used to come in here and ask me, *"Why isn't your game more theme-park? Why don't you have a focus on raiding? Why don't you have a focus on questing? Why are you doing dynamic events? Why are you doing so much crafting?"* I said: "Trust me, it'll work. This is the kind of vision we have for the game. We need to break the meta!" Well, New World has shown that works.
So I'm very hopeful for the Kickstarter doing well because of that. I'm also very hopeful because our funding model does not stop with one Kickstarter. And, while we don't intend to take investors if we don't have to, we can license our game to different regions of the world. And those include up front funding, where they pay for the license up front and that is a possibility for Em-8ER as well. I have a lot of experience fundraising the old-fashioned way through publishers and venture capital. I've raised more money than most people in gaming. I don't want to do it that way again. Having been down the road and seeing what can happen with your investors wanting to make WoW because that's all they think will work as an MMO. And you wanting to make something completely different. That can quickly lead to a break in the honeymoon and problems down the road as we saw with Firefall.
So I really want to do this with crowdfunding which is why we've taking the milestone based approach. Being a sandbox game without having to create hundreds of hours of theme-park content, also greatly lowers the cost of development. By focusing on dynamic events, by focusing on systems rather than static content, we think we can achieve a lot with a more modest MMO budget.
It's still going to take a lot to make this game, I'm not saying it won't. But, I am saying that the days of it being these giant theme-park things where, unless you have half a billion dollars to play with, you can't make an MMO... that's not true anymore. I'm finding that that's not true anymore. If you go sandbox, if you make decisions like we're making, if you go procedural (which we're doing for a couple of things), things become much more doable. Also the rising interest in sandbox style MMOs, thanks to the UNPARALLELED success of New World.
I don't know if you guys realize how successful New World is. People are like, *"Oh yeah I guess it was a successful MMO launch."* NO. It was THE MOST successful MMO launch, EVER. More than WoW. More than Guild Wars. More than anything. More than single player games. You're talking 900,000 concurrent players. And this is not a free to play game. This is a, you pay $40 bucks(?) and you go play. That has made it the world's MOST successful MMO launch, *EVER*, for a sandbox MMO. NOT a theme-park MMO. There's no real questing. The dungeons are pretty meh. That is pretty amazing. And people are digging the game. Whether or not it's going to last long enough? That's another question. For me personally, the theme is not appealing but, the theme appeals to many people.
So, let me just point this out: This is *GOOD* for MMOs. And this is good for Em-8ER.
I think this was an important question to answer, so I thank you for asking that and presenting it that way.
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