Wednesday, July 18, 2012

P4U Tougeki lineup

超闘劇枠代表(Super Tougeki Representative) 雲外鏡 [ユメ](アイギス) Yume Aigis
(Yume got a special spot for winning Chou Tougeki)
A-1ブロック代表 K猫(美鶴) Kneko Mitsuru
A-2ブロック代表 電波(直斗) Denpa Naoto
A-3ブロック代表 カイト(クマ) Kaito Kuma
A-4ブロック代表 マオ(クマ) Mao Kuma
A-5ブロック代表 ほーちゃん(雪子) Stunedge Yukiko
A-6ブロック代表 マームールー(美鶴) Maamuuruu Mitsuru
B-1ブロック代表 よっしー(アイギス) Yosshi Aigis
B-2ブロック代表 いるす(美鶴) Irusu Mitsuru
B-3ブロック代表 P3U PLAYER(美鶴) P3U Player Mitsuru
B-4ブロック代表 キャロ(千枝) Kyaro Chie
B-5ブロック代表 シュウト(美鶴) Syuuto Mitsuru
B-6ブロック代表 タヒチ(アイギス) Tahichi Aigis
B-7ブロック代表 れお(真田) REO Akihiko
B-8ブロック代表 回転王(千枝) Spinking Chie
B-9ブロック代表 ゆーさま(番長) Yuusama Narukami
B-10ブロック代表 ぶっぱ(番長) Buppa Narukami
B-11ブロック代表 テオドーレ(千枝) Teodoore Chie
B-12ブロック代表 高槻やよい[はやし](陽介)  Takatsuki Yayoi (Hayashi) Yosuke
B-13ブロック代表 サキ(千枝) Saki Chie
B-14ブロック代表 DIEちゃん(美鶴) DIEchan Mitsuru
B-15ブロック代表 はま~(番長) Hama Narukami
B-16ブロック代表 コイチ(アイギス) Koichi Aigis
B-17ブロック代表 ソウジ(クマ) Souji Kuma
B-18ブロック代表 ヨシキ(千枝) Yoshiki Chie
B-19ブロック代表 ツッパリ(番長) Tsuppari Narukami
B-20ブロック代表 千葉の堕天聖塩澤(番長) Chiba's help this kanji compound is fucked Narukami
B-21ブロック代表 エド(クマ) Edo Kuma
B-22ブロック代表 サトチー(美鶴) Satochii Mitsuru
B-23ブロック代表 エイト(アイギス)  Eito Aigis
B-24ブロック代表 りぃんふぉーす[かすみLOVE](番長) Reinforce (Kasumi LOVE) Narukami
B-25ブロック代表 ぴよっ太(美鶴) Pyo inu Mitsuru
B-26ブロック代表 ウチヤマ(エリザベス) Uchiyama Elizabeth
B-27ブロック代表 カイヌマ(雪子) Kainuma Yukiko
C-1ブロック代表 山昆布(千枝)  Yamaconbu Chie
C-2ブロック代表 肉まん(千枝) Nikuman Chie
C-3ブロック代表 サトウユキ信者(アイギス) Satoyuuki Shinija Aigis
C-4ブロック代表 ひまじん(雪子) Himajin Yukiko
C-5ブロック代表 れりあ(シャドウラビリス) Reria Shadow Labrys
C-6ブロック代表 まさお(エリザベス) Masao Elizabeth
C-7ブロック代表 キングKAZ(真田) King KAZ Akihiko
C-8ブロック代表 えうれーる(完二) Eureeru Kanji
C-9ブロック代表 たろにゃん(千枝) Taronyan Chie
C-10ブロック代表 マジキン(クマ) Majikin Kuma
C-11ブロック代表 とも(シャドウラビリス) Tomo Shadow Labrys
D-1ブロック代表 飛翔兎(真田) Hishou Usagi Akihiko
D-2ブロック代表 蝿(千枝) Hoe Chie
D-3ブロック代表 伝説のN井(美鶴) Densetsu no Nsei Mitsuru
D-4ブロック代表 GO1(美鶴) GO1 Mitsuru
D-5ブロック代表 空シド(シャドウラビリス) Kuushido Shadow Labrys
D-6ブロック代表 まっど(クマ) Maddo Kuma
E-1ブロック代表 ぷれぷれ(ラビリス) Purepure Labrys
E-2ブロック代表 ギャクテンアメリカ(雪子) Gyakuten America Yukiko
E-3ブロック代表 勝子(美鶴) Katsuko Mitsuru
E-4ブロック代表 える(アイギス) Eru Aigis
E-5ブロック代表 ダウト(番長) Dauto Narukami
F-1ブロック代表 シンゴ(真田) Shingo Akihiko
F-2ブロック代表 会長@HK(番長) Kaichou@HK Narukami
F-3ブロック代表 たかりん(アイギス) Takarin Aigis
F-4ブロック代表 空手健児(アイギス) Karate Kenji Aigis
F-5ブロック代表 けーた(番長) Keita Narukami

Dat Character Breakdown

11 Mitsuru
9 Aigis
9 Chie
9 Narukami
6 Kuma
4 Akihiko
4 Yukiko
3 Shadow Labrys
2 Elizabeth
1 Kanji
1 Labrys
1 Naoto
1 Yousuke

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Regarding the Divekick Kickstarter

I'm going to start with an analogy on this one.
If you were told someone wanted to rebuild their house from the ground up because they wanted the bricks orange instead of red, you'd think "that's odd," but it's really their prerogative.
If you were told instead that someone wanted to rebuild their house because they discovered the bricks had been made by slave laborers in China, that would be a completely different narrative.

This is more or less the gist of the initial post by the Divekick lead dev.
They have since changed it after the blowup, but it's not like programmers forget this sort of thing, nor the internet in general.
Instead of giving a specific technical or even stylistic reason for rewriting the entire game in Unity, the statement used a rather weaselly worded appeal to emotion that "XNA is devoted to destroying Indie Gaming" as their main explanation for the platform change and required code rewrite.

This was misguided at best and dishonest at worst, and the surprise the Divekick team is feeling over the backlash is sort of naive.
There are three types of people in regards to this kickstarter, people who would donate no questions asked, people who would never donate, and people on the fence.
For those fenced people, including myself, a lot of the fence-sitting is questioning the cost breakdown that was given to us by the Divekick devs.
People would like Divekick on PC yes, but would they like it knowing it cost 30K? 60K?
To get something like the above statement as part of the list of justifications for the cost breakdown is not very convincing nor persuasive, if not downright bizarre.
As was stated by one of the commenters, Bastion and Terraria, both indie game powerhouses in their own right, both used XNA.

So a rumble started, as it always does, on Twitter, where it quickly descended into soundbites.
More or less the new statement did little to explain the costs: 15K for QA, 30K for the game, 60K for netplay.
 Keep in mind these were all already important questions for the fence-sitters, just that now there was background noise.

Here is the big thing.
Very few people view that initial statement with XNA as a deliberate lie to deceive.
As was explained by Kayin of IWBTG fame multiple times, everyone likes Keits.
No one thinks he's trying to rob people for Divekick.
What it DOES do however, at least to me, is throw into question the dev team's technical prowess and/or programming skills in relation to the cost breakdown.
Why are you rewriting the game in another engine if it's not because of some sweeping moralistic reason?
What makes Unity better than XNA in regards to running what looks admittedly as a very simple game?
In a lot of fence-sitter's minds, the game is already finished, your licensing costs don't add up and your platform switch explanation doesn't hold water.
Let's not even get into the argument of what a single very motivated dev working for free can do versus what a team working on an iPhone app can do.
This is more or less where we are at.
Kayin has suggested a range that Divekick can hit, maybe 15K to 30K, but there has been no change in the initial Kickstarter as the devs and Keits buckle down on the defensive and call out the trolls and saboteurs.
Honestly at this point, it looks like they will change nothing about the Kickstarter and expect it to fail the goal of 30K.
I was asked by a friend why I wished to sabotage the Divekick project and see it fail.
I think the response, "I want to see Divekick succeed, but not like this," best answers that question.
Maybe because of the networks I'm on or the people I know, but I have a fairly good idea of the costs of Indie game projects as a function of their scope, and I remain highly skeptical of Divekick's cost breakdown.
What I don't really know is if the Divekick team considers themselves "Indie" or not and is thus, on the same wavelength.