If nothing else, kickstarter is giving people a crash course in game economics. Not everyone wants to learn though. 3 million will get you a gorgeous 2D game, sure, especially if it's 16-bit or something. But the "cutscenes" will just be a series of still images in a slideshow, or the sprites walking back and forth in their 2D world a little. If you take that money and put it toward a 3D game, then you're not going to get the top of the line 3D CGI of the AAA titles such as Splatoon, but you'll be able to pull off much more in your cutscenes. So it's a balancing act. Since IGA's going 2D with Bloodstained it'll probably have top-of-the-line 2D sprites, but you can probably forget about animated cutscenes. At most they'll pan around or zoom in on some still pictures and hope we buy the illusion of movement. Ah, there'll be better toys when the 'toon comes out anyway. And the only other "exclusive" the signature edition offers is a mass-produced copy of Inafune's signature. You want one of those, just find it on google image search and print out your own. The Nintendo version will still play the best, mark my words.
Most of this sounds right, but I would have preferred a 2D looking game anyways. The new Rayman games and Shovel Knight look extremely polished and I don't think MN9 really needs extensive cutscenes anyhow. The graphics just look subpar as it is and I don't know if the payoff was worth it. Glad Bloodstained is going with sprites.
The game looks great to me. What is it with people only being happy with triple A visuals? The best game I've played this year was Axiom Verge and that was hardly better looking than a SNES game. Anywho, the game looks just like they said it would and don't judge the level designs until, you know, you can play the levels. Yeah, 3 million is not a lot of money for a studio of any size to release a multi-platform game. People don't like to try to understand, but you have a team of people working on something for years and guess what? They need to make a living. What I am happy about with Bloodstained is that their goal was only to help finance the game- if they hit their goal they would get funding from a publisher. Of course they hit their goal and then some.
Mighty could have avoided comments about its graphics by choosing to work with sprites instead of 3D models and there are tons of indie games like Axiom Verge that make it work. That's all I'm saying. I think they should have gone sprites instead of 3D. Easier to make look pretty and polished.
Personally I'm fine with what we got, but "they should've gone 2D" is a fair stance to take. "How could this have cost that much money?" is just ignorance though. 3D graphics, animated cutscenes, all those rewards... it adds up. Royalties to all those platform holders alone probably took something like 10% of the budget. The more platforms you put your game on the more money you might make, but the more money it costs you in the initial stages.
Last I heard Bloodstained isn't going the sprites route. Hopefully the gothic artstyle will create a need for better faux-sprite models ala GG Xrd.
In related Mega Man news https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTrTBqQwk-8 Mega Man Legacy Collection announced (MM1-6, PS4/XB1/PC/3DS, Digital Eclipse)
Huh, so it looks like people who emailed Deep Silver about the Wii-U availability of the "collector's edition" are being told that there isn't one for the Wii-U because each platform has their own policy on collector/special editions, and Deep Silver's MN9 "collector's edition" didn't match the guidelines in Nintendo's policies. So being a predictable Nintendo fan I am of course changing my stance from "this was a blunder on Deep Silver's part" to "well I'm sure Nintendo knows what's best for us".
My best guess is that Nintendo's policy is that extras have to be useful with the game. Like controllers or Amiibos.
Or "please forget that Mighty No 9 is coming out collection." Seriously though, I'd buy it if I already didn't purchase Megaman 1-7 on the E-shop.
I'd get Mega Man Legacy collection if they didn't already release a collection on the PS2 and Gamecube that was more complete with 8 games.
Majora's Mask SE Kirby's Dream Collection has the History Hall, 3 episodes of Right Back at Ya, a CD and a booklet on Kirby games throughout the years. Sooo nope. Not everything has to be useful to the game.
Alternatively Nintendo just looked at the face the Beck toy was making and threw Deep Silver out of the building.
