By Jim Rossignol on November 21st, 2012 at 6:25 pm.
Molyneux’s new company, 22Cans, has launched a £450,000 Kickstarter called Project GODUS. Behold: “It’s an innovative reinvention of Populous, the original god game and delivers exciting global co-operation, competition, creation and destruction to a whole new generation.”
Video below. Watch.
Honestly, I am not quite sure what to think. On the one hand I thought the Curiosity “experiments” might have been leading up to something genuinely weird and new, and on the other, if he goes all in on making the ultimate god game… Not that Curiosity was a particularly promising first step, either.
But then, if we’re going to get a load of space games like it’s the mid-90s again, why not god games, too? I just don’t know if this is the right way to do it.
Yeah, it’s an interesting one. I can’t wait to see what happens here. And September next year suddenly looks a lot more intriguing.
21/11/2012 at 18:29 Sp4rkR4t says:
ALL OF MY MONEYS! HAVE THEM.
21/11/2012 at 18:33 Bodminzer says:
See, this attitude is part of the problem. Developers arrogantly banking on old reputations. If you love Molyneux games, buy them when they’re out, and finished, and of a quality that your devotion corresponds to. [Relatively] blind endorsement helps nobody other than the accountants of games companies.
21/11/2012 at 18:39 HisMastersVoice says:
Blind (or nearly blind) endorsement is the only thing that will get most Kickstarter projects on the market. You can’t buy something that doesn’t exist because you didn’t back it two years ago.
21/11/2012 at 18:41 Lanfranc says:
You could say Kickstarter projects are almost by definition based on blind (or at least sight impaired) endorsements.
21/11/2012 at 18:42 Fiatil says:
On the flip side, none of us could endorse it, the game doesn’t get made, and then no one gets to wait and buy it later. Hooray!
21/11/2012 at 19:20 dontnormally says:
If I don’t save my allowance I can’t afford candy.
If FAMOUS GAME DEVELOPER doesn’t save a few million from SUCCESSFUL GAME PROJECT he can’t make another one.
Unless he just asks for money.
What the arse am I doing wrong…
21/11/2012 at 21:09 ukpanik says:
You are probably doing many things wrong, but the main ones are.
1: you have no talent.
2: you have no vision.
3: you don’t have a history of selling millions of games people loved.
21/11/2012 at 21:57 Apolloin says:
You should probably start off by:
1. Developing Powermonger
2. Developing Populous
3. Developing the ‘Theme’ series
4. Developing Syndicate
21/11/2012 at 21:58 Mrice says:
If a FAMOUS GAME DEV leaves his FAMOUS GAMES COMPANY after producing said SUCCESSFUL GAME PROJECT(s) Then he doesent have the few million to throw about. He just has his reputation as a FAMOUS GAME DEV to get him some cashey monies.
21/11/2012 at 22:23 Shuck says:
Not sure why you think $FAMOUS GAME DEVELOPER ever personally had a “few million” to spend on game development in the first place.
22/11/2012 at 06:56 Hanban says:
The guys above me have totally missed your point.
The solution to your problem is obviously to do the same thing Mr. Molyneux is doing.
Ask strangers for candy! And spend your allowance slingshots and waterballoons!
22/11/2012 at 08:17 Carbonated Dan says:
@Shuck – Remember Richard Garriot
21/11/2012 at 21:30 S Jay says:
This one is a bit more blind than the usual.
“I don’t want to promise anything…”
Well, isn’t that the point of Kickstarter? Or is this “Populous with modern graphics”?
22/11/2012 at 04:17 Beemann says:
Given that it’s Molyneux, not promising anything is probably a more reassuring pitch
22/11/2012 at 05:34 MadTinkerer says:
That’s what I was going to say.
And also that I hope they take some lessons from Populous: The Beginning, which was the best Populous game, even though everyone seems to forget about it.
22/11/2012 at 10:07 Foxfoxfox says:
I thought that bit was a joke..
“I don’t want to promise anything but I’m just going to revolutionise the god game genre completely’
22/11/2012 at 16:45 Fearzone says:
Actually this one does look rather good by Kickstarter standards. If they took Amazon payments I’d have signed up. Otherwise I wish them the best, it looks like they will make their basic goals easily without me, and I look forward to playing it when it is done.
07/12/2012 at 16:05 Lucki says:
^^ This! I’ve gone to back it 3 times now, why you no Amazon payments?
07/12/2012 at 16:10 Llewyn says:
Because Amazon Payments is a US-only service.
21/11/2012 at 19:04 El_MUERkO says:
Not a problem for me because Molyneux sucks diseased rat balls. His games have been all hype and no substance since he left Bullfrog. What was he at Bullfrog anyway? The tea boy? Either that or someone replaced the ‘making games’ part of his brain with a the ‘make shit up’ section of a P.R. spewing toss pot.
21/11/2012 at 19:29 frightlever says:
You may be over-stating your point, a little.
Fable 2 was brilliant. No irony. Love that game so much.
21/11/2012 at 19:41 Korbie says:
You have no idea how refreshing it is to see that someone else thinks Fable II was a great game.
21/11/2012 at 19:53 Moraven says:
They were good and solid games, but the problem was Molyneux hyping the features and his vision for the game. Once it came out, lots were disappointed. Have not touched much of 2 yet, but 1 was a disappointed for the expectations he gave us. It still had neat features and I wish it was a open world vs map square and outdoor corridors.
21/11/2012 at 21:47 Randomer says:
Ughh. The game was buggy as hell. I… know an inside source who tested it. The testers found all the bugs, and Lionhead chose not to fix them. Then, when the game launched and was universally panned as a buggy POS, Molyneux threw the testers under the bus. Blame the QA team, he said! Screw him.
22/11/2012 at 00:22 wu wei says:
The testers found all the bugs
Oh, well, if they said they found them all, then surely that must be true :|
22/11/2012 at 08:11 LionsPhil says:
Enh, the plural of anectode is not data, but project management descoping bugs as not being worth fixing [now] is a thing which happens. It’s all a big prioritization juggling effort.
The problem there is the chewing out.
21/11/2012 at 21:24 Syra says:
I have problems with his big ideas which utterly fail to materialize personality also. Regardless of if you thought something was a playable game, did he deliver any promises? All talk.
22/11/2012 at 02:52 noodlecake says:
Yeah! He delivered on loads of them! Just not all of them. There are some pretty fun and unique games that have come out since bullfrog. Choosing to have a selective memory to reinforce your pessimism seems an odd choice… Each to their own though. :)
22/11/2012 at 05:48 MadTinkerer says:
His problem is that he talks about his ideas publicly. As a counter-example, Valve keep their mouths shut about every game until it’s close to release because most of their ideas don’t pan out either.
The fact is: when you make videogames you brainstorm. A very small number of those ideas will even be attempted, and over half of them will probably need to be cut or put off for expansions/DLC. Peter is the same as every other game developer except he discusses features publicly before they get cut. And you can’t know what will be cut a year in advance.
Which is why Valve have been so quiet about Half Life 3. If they let everyone know exactly what was going on with the current version, we’d all go berserk because things we want to not get cut, get cut. It’s been confirmed with everything other than Portal, the L4Ds, and the HL2 episodes that they threw everything out and started over at least once with every project*. At least twice in the case of TF2, HL2, and Portal 2.
So Peter is no liar, and he doesn’t skimp on his promises any more than any other developer. He just often forgets to keep his brainstorms to himself.
*EDIT: Not counting the projects that are straight ports of mods which had already been through the refining process, such as CS and DOTA 2.
21/11/2012 at 19:19 Arglebargle says:
I keep coming back to Auteur Theory. Guys who headed big projects somehow get this reputation like they drew every piece of art, and programmed every line of code. At least with Molyneux, you have a pretty huge database of projects and polemical ravings to base your decision on.
Hope it turns out well for the fans of the genre.
21/11/2012 at 19:32 TillEulenspiegel says:
With a game, you need to have one or two people making the major design decisions, or it’d be a complete mess. Technical decisions and art direction and such are separate, of course, but if you liked the game part of the game, then a lot of credit has to go to the lead designer. That individual didn’t come up with every single idea, but they did drive the team in a specific direction.
Which isn’t to say that Molyneux has made good decisions on recent games. People aren’t perfect, and people change.
22/11/2012 at 05:29 Arglebargle says:
I have seen strong producer vision, and producers who might as well have flipped coins. Not to mention ditherers. Not referencing Molyneux specifically, don’t know much detail there.
With Kickstarters being pushed by a certain amount of name recognition, it is an issue of interest.
21/11/2012 at 20:04 Feferuco says:
Well, I get excited over upcoming records from bands I like, new movies from directors I like. I can’t really see it as that unreasonable, expecting something good from someone who has consistently done something you enjoyed in the past.
22/11/2012 at 05:32 Arglebargle says:
How many Shamalians does it take before that excitement fades?
21/11/2012 at 19:33 Captchist says:
Considering how many of Molyneuxs “properly” funded games have been disappointing, or not even released (I was at a lecture where he told us he was going to sell 100 million copies of Project Milo for the kinect, which got canned), I’d be rather concerned about funding any idea he pitches.
He’s notorious for overselling and underdelivering on projects. Given that Kickstarter comes with it’s own concerns on this point already Molyneux and Kickstarter seem like a bad match to me.
21/11/2012 at 22:42 RobinOttens says:
Those other 22cans experiments they were making after Curiosity was done, they’ve been canned? (pun somewhat intended).
As exciting as it is to maybe get a good god game and a good Molyneux game. He’s not getting my kickstarter money for exactly this reason. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt every time, but that’s as far as I’ll go at this point.
21/11/2012 at 23:56 malkav11 says:
Pretty much. I’m not sure Populous is really my ideal god game to begin with, and then when you add that it’s not Bullfrog (who, if they still existed, I would back in a heartbeat), but rather Molyneux, who’s talked the world and delivered thimbles ever since….no, no thank you. (Also, call me prejudiced, but I’m reluctant to back UK Kickstarters because the exchange rate with the American dollar is not at all in my favor. I did it for Failbetter, I did it for Maia, but it’s another hurdle to clear.)
And to be clear, I like Fable. I like Fable II even better. I’m even willing to give Fable III the time of day. But they’re nothing like what was promised by Molyneux beforehand, and a lot of his other projects are either baffling (Curiosity, Fable: The Journey) or simply disappointing (Black & White, Black & White II).
22/11/2012 at 06:44 Dahoon says:
I agree so much that I’ll just copy and paste your comment..
Pretty much. I’m not sure Populous is really my ideal god game to begin with, and then when you add that it’s not Bullfrog (who, if they still existed, I would back in a heartbeat), but rather Molyneux, who’s talked the world and delivered thimbles ever since….no, no thank you. (Also, call me prejudiced, but I’m reluctant to back UK Kickstarters because the exchange rate with the American dollar is not at all in my favor. I did it for Failbetter, I did it for Maia, but it’s another hurdle to clear.)
And to be clear, I like Fable. I like Fable II even better. I’m even willing to give Fable III the time of day. But they’re nothing like what was promised by Molyneux beforehand, and a lot of his other projects are either baffling (Curiosity, Fable: The Journey) or simply disappointing (Black & White, Black & White II).
Well, wasn’t that an easy comment to post. Uh, wait. I’m not in America. Oh well.
21/11/2012 at 20:03 AngoraFish says:
I am going to continue throwing money at the prospect of a new god game, at least until a decent new one finally emerges. Molyneux is no better or worse than recent uni graduates like the Castle Story people, so has as good a chance of pulling this off as any. I’ll just not be reading too much into the status updates until the game is actually released.
On another note, they seem to have neglected a tier between their 5000-limited get a copy of the game £15 pledge level, and their get two copies of the game at £30 level. I presume that they’ll need a £20 level for people who only want one copy of the game after the limited tier sells out.
“Limited “early-bird” tiers suck, by the way. Everyone backing the kickstarter is an early-bird by some significant margin.
21/11/2012 at 18:31 pakoito says:
Another social experiment to see how much they can stretch the Kickstarter process the same way P2W can be stretched?
21/11/2012 at 20:22 Salt says:
I do seriously think that this Kickstarter campaign exists primarily for a reason other than raising funds. £450,000 for a one-year project works out to a fairly small wage (plus piles of other costs) for their 20 staff. And as several other comments have pointed out there are some pretty wealthy people already involved in the game’s creation. Certainly getting some extra cash at the start of a project can only be helpful, but I’d be very surprised if they absolutely require those Kickstarter funds in order to get the game made.
I’d bet that they’re doing the Kickstarter more as a way of generating interest and a fanbase for the project. Allow someone to financially invest in a project and they’ll often do plenty of free advertising for you. What’s really great is that there’s very little chance of them realising that your project is not the greatest thing on Earth until after the release. And as all good AAA producers know, what happens to a game after release doesn’t matter if you shifted half a billion dollars worth of product on day one.
21/11/2012 at 18:31 kevmscotland says:
Pretty key selling point in a kickstarter campaign is believing that the person(s) your giving your hard earned money too, can deliver on their promise.
This man spouts so much nonsense, I’d be better throwing my money in a fire for winter heat.
hes had full publisher backing to make the kind of games we wanted him to make and still managed to screw them up. So no thanks Peter.
21/11/2012 at 18:37 LionsPhil says:
This, hard.
It’d be optimistic to expect as much as the original Populus out of this.
21/11/2012 at 19:02 Elmar Bijlsma says:
The interesting question: Would this pitch be more tempting without Peter Molyneux?
That man has a serious credibility gap.
Mind you, Populous never grabbed me much at the time.
For all the hype the game itself was okay at best, I feel. More interesting for the freedom it gave players then the fun that could be had playing it.
21/11/2012 at 19:34 Captchist says:
I’d empty my pockets for a Magic Carpet remake so long as Molyneux wasn’t the guy doing it.
21/11/2012 at 21:49 Randomer says:
Is there a way to Kickstop a project? I’d give money to prohibit Molyneux from every making a game again.
21/11/2012 at 18:32 bluebomberman says:
Does Peter Molyneux have any street cred anymore?
21/11/2012 at 18:38 President Weasel says:
Indeed, as far as I am concerned Peter Molyneux can go and “This is going to be the BEST PISS EVER WEED BY A HUMAN BEING!” up a “THIS ULTIMATE ROPE WILL REACH TO THE VERY STARS THEMSELVES!”.
Gah. He irks me so.
21/11/2012 at 18:40 Tom Walker says:
Never mind how much credibility he’s got, surely he’s got a pile of cash the size of an aircraft carrier.
Kickstarter is a good thing for enabling indie devs to make a game without much startup capital, but the idea of established pros using it just to reduce financial risk makes me uneasy.
21/11/2012 at 18:54 bluebomberman says:
Not sure I agree with you on this… “God games” aren’t being made and few studios with access to big budgets are bothering with strategy games.
I’m fine with big names going to Kickstarter. No one’s forcing anybody to donate/invest. What I’m concerned about is his increasingly poor track record. Not even a decent prototype demo would assuage my fears.
21/11/2012 at 19:22 dontnormally says:
He has to be one of the wealthiest men in the entire industry.
He should put his own money where is own mouth is.
21/11/2012 at 19:36 Captchist says:
Perhaps he spent it all on constantly funding a new studio.
21/11/2012 at 19:55 Taidan says:
Even if he couldn’t afford to back a whole project like this out of his own pocket, surely he could afford the time needed to make a basic prototype to show off on his Kickstarter page before asking for investments?
I’m getting the impression that all of these veteran developers are currently in too much of a rush to play on our nostalgia for their share of the dwindling Kickstarter money.
21/11/2012 at 21:15 AngoraFish says:
KS money is not dwindling, it’s increasing. The evidence is very clear that bigger profile titles and names attract more people to kickstarter, who then go onto back other projects. Money pledged to video game projects on kickstarter has literally quadrupled since DF.
Also, 22cans has been working on their new god game for a month and will be dumping more details over the next week or two to maintain publicity momentum.
21/11/2012 at 21:51 Taidan says:
Okay, KS money has increased for a couple of very high-profile games, (both of which I am happy to have backed) but the bubble will burst at some point. I’d wager that there’s only so much money that most people are willing to have invested at any one time in projects that will take more than 18 months to come to fruition, and there’s always the chance of that one big failure which could seriously hurt everybody’s chances…
Just saying that it feels that many high-profile developers are involved in a gold rush at the moment, and are jumping to grab a slice of the pie waaay before they should be. For example, see Tom/Brenda Hall riding on Obsidian’s coat-tails with very little to show, and failing, and David Braben’s relatively premature showing of the new Elite. (Which I’ve also backed, but has sadly seemingly stalled at less than half of it’s minimum.)
22/11/2012 at 07:57 Mctittles says:
I’m getting pretty tired of these multi-millionaires begging for money. Yes, you too Tim Shaffer. You seem like a nice guy but that doesn’t mean you should go begging for money when you don’t have to. I like the idea of kickstarter helping small indie devs get a start, but any kickstarter that gets main articles about them is usually someone who doesn’t need it.
They are taking away exposure from the people who really need it and it’s just rude. If there was a free food line, these multi-millionaire devs would be cutting in line in front of the homeless.
I see well deserving kickstarters struggling all the time. Look at all the work ALREADY put into this one:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1473965863/sui-generis?ref=category
Do they get talked about? No, the guy with a couple concept drawings and millions in his pocket already gets the news story.
22/11/2012 at 10:13 Gnarf says:
I’m getting tired of everyone and their rules about when to do a Kickstarter and when to give money to which people.
22/11/2012 at 16:51 Mctittles says:
@Gnarf
I never said there were any rules. It’s just if I saw Peter Molyneux cutting in line in front of homeless people in the soup kitchen I would think it’s a bit rude.
22/11/2012 at 21:19 Gnarf says:
And you’re saying that Molyneux doing a Kickstarter is analogous to that. You have to think of Kickstarter in a very particular way for that to be the case. (Like, having some things that are kind of like rules about which things are the things that Kickstarter is for.)
Kickstarter is not to game development what a soup kitchen is to anything. People complaining about Kickstarter being used for what Kickstarter is for is kind of tiresome.
21/11/2012 at 18:32 jumblesale says:
I always found Populous to be the least interesting of Bullfrog’s management games. If this were Dungeon Keeper or Theme Something I would be really excited. I guess Populous is the only thing EA doesn’t have the rights for?
21/11/2012 at 18:42 rustybroomhandle says:
They don’t need the rights. This is not Populous, just a Populous-like game.
21/11/2012 at 19:32 PostieDoc says:
Powermonger was a much better game than Populous.
Not that Populous was bad, just not as much fun.
21/11/2012 at 20:06 Voronwer says:
Then check out Maia if you haven’t yet.
21/11/2012 at 20:19 cowthief skank says:
I second Maia. Minor tragedy that this game is not funded yet; check out the latest video, it’s like an ALiens-themed Dungeon Keeper with what is intended to be a fully functioning ecosystem. Only just around 50% funded with six days to go…
21/11/2012 at 18:34 rustybroomhandle says:
Um… this is… erm… I have… I must…. but like… ACK… lolwut?
21/11/2012 at 18:36 Belsameth says:
Much the same problem as Elite. Nice idea’s but not much to actually show. Keeping my eye on it as I am curious (See what I did there? :P ) but not getting out my wallet just yet.
21/11/2012 at 18:50 Tinus says:
+1
Some shots of a working prototype, or at least some actually tangible details of what the game will be like would be nice.
I have no doubt about their ability to deliver, but if they’re just doing Populus with 20-way multiplayer I’d rather just play some Reprisal.
That said, I hope they come up with something good. :)
21/11/2012 at 19:02 The First Door says:
Yeah, couldn’t agree with you more on this. After how hard Kickstarter clamped down on Hardware and Product Design projects, it seems a bit odd that you can get away with no prototype when you are talking about games. At least Double Fine gave you an idea of how the documentaries would look with their pitch video!
21/11/2012 at 18:37 Dark Nexus says:
Hmm… on one hand, almost everything he did at Bullfrog.
On the other hand, almost everything he did at Lionhead…
21/11/2012 at 18:42 Lanfranc says:
The Movies and the original Black & White and Fable were all rather decent.
21/11/2012 at 19:17 LionsPhil says:
Black & White was a great demo and a terrible game.
21/11/2012 at 19:34 PostieDoc says:
Agreed, was looking forward to messing around with my creature but instead spent most of my time micro-managing the whiny populous.
21/11/2012 at 19:37 Captchist says:
Oh god the unskippable tutorials… I’ve played this before. I don’t want to practice zooming in and out. SHUT UP SHUT UP you dumb angle!
21/11/2012 at 20:08 Mollusc Infestation says:
I loved Black & White, right up until the level where they take your creature away. All that was left at that point was the tedious micro management. And rock throwing. Got very good at throwing rocks.
21/11/2012 at 20:30 Salt says:
As I read your comment I actually heard Peter’s voice:
“Now we know that by now they really love this creature, they’ve put so much into it, they rely so much on it. So what we’re going to do, what we’re going to try is, what if we just take it away and they have to rescue it? That’s real, powerful emotion there, and that’s why I love making games.”
(It’s a great idea, but in practice it became a tiresome hours long slog through the level that only highlighted the weakest aspects of the game.)
22/11/2012 at 00:11 Captchist says:
Needs to use more phrases like “cool man” to really fit Peter.
21/11/2012 at 20:29 Hoaxfish says:
to answer your dilemma, What would Moly do?
21/11/2012 at 18:37 SirKicksalot says:
Please make The Movies 2.
21/11/2012 at 19:02 Tuco says:
Fuck The Movies and fuck Black & White.
21/11/2012 at 18:38 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
My feelings are confused about this.
I HATE CONFUSED FEELINGS. NOW I’M ANGRY AND I FEEL BETTER!
21/11/2012 at 18:38 moocow says:
Finally Peter Molyneux has the freedom to promise all the mad mad things without a publisher telling him to be sensible.
Imagine the dreams we will see! The promises not quite met! Not met at all! Never mentioned again!
If the webcam records the full cycle of delight and dashed expectation on Peter’s impish face, it will be worth every penny.
21/11/2012 at 19:32 Kaffka says:
You know what? Just for that
(A Double Fine like video series portraying Mr. Molyneus every growing fantasies and seeing the most likely mediocre outcome)
would be totally worth the effort…
21/11/2012 at 20:59 Yglorba says:
It sounds like a game worthy of Molydeux — you play Peter Molyneux. Slowly grow your fantasies and hype them to hungry world, then try to prevent them from being crushed (or crush them yourself, one by one!) Every game ends with a mediocre randomly-generated game at the end showing the final result.
21/11/2012 at 19:34 konrad_ha says:
I could watch Peter all day dreaming of the greatest games never made. He is so adorable! Maybe I’ll just back it for the documentary, it should easily be worth it.
Also my famous quotes:
“we’ll be employing careful management to keep the project on track” – Pure comedy gold!
“I don’t wanna promise anything, I just want to deliver!” – Peter Molyneux (at 4:35). I LOLed so hard!
21/11/2012 at 18:41 rb2610 says:
Black & White 3 would be lovely…
21/11/2012 at 18:41 ran93r says:
Let’s blow the wheels off this bandwagon!
Populous was ok though..
21/11/2012 at 18:41 Koozer says:
One of your team members had the brilliant idea to have the little people build bigger settlements the longer it’s around for? With that amount of dizzying creative genius how can I not throw all my money at their feet.
21/11/2012 at 18:42 thekev506 says:
Kickstarter: move out of the way, new indie people, the old guard need money too!
21/11/2012 at 18:46 Lobotomist says:
Ok Peter, you can have my money :)
21/11/2012 at 18:49 Colej_uk says:
Not that I’m against this game idea, but don’t they have enough money to fund this their selves after the game they made about exploiting microtransactions?
Molyneux is a millionaire, can’t we just leave kickstarter to the folks who genuinely need the money to get their projects realised? If only…
22/11/2012 at 08:03 Mctittles says:
I dunno if this is worse or Double Fine begging for money twice, before they even finished the first game.
21/11/2012 at 18:52 Merlkir says:
I hate this asshole so friggin much. -_-
21/11/2012 at 18:53 Trithne says:
Kickstarter jumped the shark a while back. It’s become the de facto standard for people trying to make games now, and I think we’re worse off for it. Sure, I pledged my fair share, including 250$ to Obsidian’s, but as someone starting out on the making videogames wagon, I’ve decided to NOT try and pimp my game on Kickstarter, because I’d rather it continue to be a labour of love.
22/11/2012 at 08:06 Mctittles says:
I really think that’s best. Even if you are “poor”. Desperation breeds innovation. Look at how much Notch’s updates drained off from Minecraft after he started seeing big money from it in alpha. You need the fear of failure to keep from giving up early.
21/11/2012 at 18:55 mehteh says:
Going console focus for a number of games has turned his brain into mush. He has become more annoying than anything these days. For me at least, it seems a bit odd that hes had to create a kickstarter for a game having come from, what id assume, a high paying job at Lionhead
21/11/2012 at 18:55 Yachmenev says:
Great kickstarter. I thought he lost his way with Black&White 2, Fable 2, Fable 3 and Curiosity, but other than that he has probably brought more favorite games to me then any other developer. This is the kind of game I want him to make, so he has my backing. Then other people can bitch and moan about being hurt by his PR as much as they want. :P
21/11/2012 at 18:57 Low Life says:
The development webcam seems to be just about the only thing that’s exciting about this project. But only if it includes voice.
21/11/2012 at 18:58 Bladderfish says:
Wait a cotton-pickin minute!
Surely Peter Molyneux, after all his success at Bullfrog and Microsoft, after having sold his shares in two
companies, can fork up 450k to fund his own game?? This reeks of asking others to bear the brunt.
Fuck him.
21/11/2012 at 19:00 gschmidl says:
Not one cent, Molyneux. Not. One. Cent.
21/11/2012 at 19:00 hello_mr.Trout says:
‘let’s bring back the glory days’
you can never go back
21/11/2012 at 19:00 kwyjibo says:
This is one of the 22 experiments is it? I’m guessing it’s not his one big final game.
21/11/2012 at 19:39 Kaffka says:
I fear he is really serious about this, yes this is his final game… *sceptical*
21/11/2012 at 19:01 pupsikaso says:
I ain’t giving this guy a penny. Who in their right minds would?
21/11/2012 at 19:03 Scouter says:
50% of the reason I player populous was because your builders jumped on the ground to build stuff. The other half were the cool powers and the really hard mission where you had to rescue your tribe leader(at least it was hard for me when I was 6 years old or so.). Please have them all.
21/11/2012 at 19:19 cluddles says:
Scouter: That doesn’t sound like the Populous I remember, which didn’t really have “building”… or missions beyond “kill those other guys”. Unless you’re thinking of Populous: The Beginning, which as far as I’m aware Mr Molyneux had nothing to do with
21/11/2012 at 20:27 Hoaxfish says:
bit fuzzy since I played Pop1&2 ages ago, but your guys would stomp flat some bumps on the ground if it meant they could put up a house, or was that just Pop3…
though yes, the game did basic turn into “kill everyone else” for most missions
21/11/2012 at 19:07 Rinox says:
As good as it sounds, I haven’t enjoyed a (newly released) Molyneux game in a looong time so I doubt I’ll be backing this. :-(
21/11/2012 at 19:07 caddyB says:
You are not the man you used to be.
No.
21/11/2012 at 19:10 wodin says:
Loved populous and Powermonger..wasn’t that bothered with Populous 2..however if I’m going to buy a god game then i’d be happy if he was the developer..even though alot of what he says is hard to grasp..
EDIT: watched video..then heard multiplayer with Peter getting excited..now a not buy.
21/11/2012 at 19:18 Salt says:
I was wishing that it told us something about the game beyond “kind of like Populous.” But then I noticed that if you pledge at least £15 you get sent the design document.
It’s all a continuation of the Curiosity experiment. The clever devil.
21/11/2012 at 19:23 jatan says:
what does kickstarter take 5%? so as long as these multimillionaires raise that much they can make the rest up themselves – its just seems a bit of a win win for them really ..bit of pr test the market, make the game, do not make the game, get someone else to make the game…
21/11/2012 at 19:51 The First Door says:
I thought it was 10%, but seeing as I can’t remember why I think that, perhaps take that with a pinch of salt!
21/11/2012 at 19:25 hypercrisis says:
“the old days” “games the way they used to be” “{cult titles on resume namedropped repeatedly}”
kickstarter by numbers. Yawn.
21/11/2012 at 19:32 Inigo says:
So you’re saying we’ll be fighting in the streets, with our children at our feet, and the morals that they worship will be gone?
21/11/2012 at 19:36 Kaffka says:
How typical Mr. Molyneux, no Screenshots, no/wage concept art, no prototype and pitched by the “God of all unfulfilled promises” in person …
I’m not impressed, not impressed at all
21/11/2012 at 19:45 Gothnak says:
Good luck to 22 cans, hope they can fulfill some of Peter’s promises without a publisher in the way.
But seeing who is in that video (e.g. the three original directors from Lionhead), they really really really don’t need the money! Not what Kickstarter is for imo… :(
21/11/2012 at 19:56 Zeewolf says:
Promise a decent, offline singleplayer campaign, and we’ll talk.
21/11/2012 at 20:01 Cryptoshrimp says:
Go fund Maia instead.
21/11/2012 at 20:02 Dances to Podcasts says:
Damn you, shrimp! One minute!
21/11/2012 at 20:25 Cryptoshrimp says:
Sorry! On the bright side: now people can’t miss the message.
21/11/2012 at 20:37 Belsameth says:
Ha! Winning! \o/
I also agree with the original message.
21/11/2012 at 21:24 Spoon Of Doom says:
I fully support that statement. Maia looks awesome and shouldn’t have to be struggling as hard as it is.
22/11/2012 at 02:11 Mollusc Infestation says:
If this gets funded and Maia doesn’t, there’s something very wrong with the world. Also, idle comments section perusers, it’s this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1438429768/maia
21/11/2012 at 20:02 Dances to Podcasts says:
If you want new bulfroggy games, go kickstart Maia already.
21/11/2012 at 20:02 BRM845 says:
I have and will always believe that Peter Molyneux is our generations PT Barnum. The man could make Eskimos think snow is something they have never seen or had and should buy it.
I have really wanted to like his stuff, but he has yet to deliver on the full scope of his projects. The promised menu of porterhouse steaks gets real old after so many 99c hamburgers.
21/11/2012 at 20:09 Lenty says:
Firstly the positives:
I like God games and there haven’t been enough lately, the art direction looks nice and there is genuine enthusiasm behind the project.
However, I not only don’t trust the lead visionary but I’m not sure about the developers. Curiosity failed at first in the one technical area which was demanding with that project and I can’t imagine the cube took the entire 22Cans team to make.
As seems to be typical of kickstarter pitches at the moment. It’s promising off a little light in detail. The vision for this seems to be God game with 8 player (or more?) multiplayer. Which isn’t that exciting to me tbh.
Maybe more details will emerge later but until then I’ll see what the completed version of this looks like.
22/11/2012 at 00:34 Brise Bonbons says:
I think that’s what sticks with me the most: The only specific detail I could discern regarding what this game will do (other than be Populous, sorta) is that there will be “20 person multiplayer with god powers going off everywhere”. Oh and that it will be instantly accessible, I guess?
Dunno about everyone else, but huge format multiplayer chaos is really not the first thing on my mind when it comes to strategy/management games.
I want this to be a cool game, if nothing else just because I really dig the art, and it would warm my icy heart to see Molyneux actually turn his shit around and pull off a great game. But I have zero confidence that he is the right person to make this game at this time, and this pitch video does nothing but reinforce the narrative that his dreams are all talk and no substance.
In short, if I decide to fund a management game right now, it will be Maia. Good luck to you, Molyneux, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble meeting your goal, regardless.
21/11/2012 at 20:13 ts061282 says:
Maybe he should kick start patches to all his old failures first.
B&W 2 and The Movies, I’m looking at you.
Lionbeheaded.
21/11/2012 at 20:26 vandinz says:
Fable 3 B&W 1 and 2 … the list goes on. He creates a game then fucks off to let it rot once he has your money. Won’t get another bean out of me.
EDIT oh, you said B&W – but still, the point stands.
21/11/2012 at 20:14 Hoaxfish says:
my train of thoughts is:
1. Still haven’t gotten over my mental block on £ prices (£15 is a bit much on my current budget constraints)
2. Steam sales is on right now.
3. Reprisal came out a while back, and was pretty good as a Populous experience.
4. Curiosity (the cube, not the Mars rover) is still pretty interesting as an experiment, ignoring the horrible server issues.
5. I still like Molyneux, especially when directly compare to a lot of other “big name” devs, even if his recent track record has been a bit bumpy.
6. I don’t like multiplayer games because once the community is gone… there’s no game left.
21/11/2012 at 20:25 vandinz says:
All I saw in that video was a lot of out of work hipster twats begging for money. If he’s such a “god” of the gaming world, why is he reduced to Kickstarter? Get to fuck.
21/11/2012 at 20:26 Brilhasti says:
There’s an old saying in Tennessee – I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee…that says, fool me once, Molyneux, shame on…shame on you. Fool me…you can’t get fooled again.
21/11/2012 at 20:27 vandinz says:
That actually did make me lol.
21/11/2012 at 20:31 vandinz says:
He jizzed his pants about this “great idea” from one of the team that the longer your settlement is around the more it gets built up. Anno 1404 has done this for a long while. Over time the town becomes a city etc, all without your help (apart from the base buildings).
21/11/2012 at 20:50 Uglycat says:
Now do Magic Carpet 3.
21/11/2012 at 20:50 rustybroomhandle says:
In the interest of further propagating the Maia spam that this thread deserves a lot more of, I present (again) a link to Maia for your consideration. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1438429768/maia
Perhaps I should have waited till page 3, but heck there’s always tomorrow!
21/11/2012 at 21:30 Voronwer says:
It’s okay, it’s on page 3 now.
21/11/2012 at 20:51 Spoon Of Doom says:
A god game? Now?
I swear, if this gets funded and Maia doesn’t, or even if it doesn’t and it still looks as if it’s even partly responsible for Maia not getting funded, I’m gonna make it my new lifegoal to kick Peter Molyneux in the balls.
22/11/2012 at 19:50 pyrrhocorax says:
Start a Kickstarter to make your dream a reality.
21/11/2012 at 21:12 Pathetic Phallacy says:
What bullshit! Maybe Microsoft will use Kickstarter to help fun its next operating system.
21/11/2012 at 21:27 luukdeman111 says:
This name is sillier then GODFACE!
21/11/2012 at 22:02 Ed says:
Just wondering if anyone’s mentioned Maia yet. They have, you say?
So yeah, if you want a Bullfrog-spirited game by people who still have some passion and hunger, please do back Maia
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1438429768/maia
(I did, probably going to up my bid too)
Echoing what someone said waaay above, Molyneux and Kickstarter seems like an especially problematic combination. Add this one to the pile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_%28video_game%29
21/11/2012 at 22:05 MOKKA says:
As much as I like the Idea of the game itself, I have to say I’m a bit dissapointed that Mr. Molyneux and his new Studio couldn’t come up with something more creative.
21/11/2012 at 22:55 Arcanon says:
I never played Populous or Black & White, but I loved Populous: The Beginning on the PS1….the one every Populous fan hates xD
Anyway, gameplay video or gtfo Molyneux!
21/11/2012 at 23:06 buzzmong says:
£450k? That’s rather cheap considering it states on the KS page they have a team of 22 people. At an assumed average salary of £20k pa that’s £440k right there, and if you’ve ever looked at costs, salary is only part of the cost of an employee.
Methinks he’s doing something similar to what Chris Roberts has done with Star Citizen, and has a deal with private investors that’ll only go ahead if the KS campaign is successful.
Still, I’ll probably put some money on this. Maybe without publisher pressure he and his team might be able to make a rather interesting game.
22/11/2012 at 02:15 Dances to Podcasts says:
Or maybe not the entire studio will be working on it.
22/11/2012 at 00:23 Hulk Handsome says:
Speaking of God games, how is From Dust? I liked the demo but never bought it. Did they get rid of all the DRM? Is that DLC they talked about ever going to come about?
I wonder if it’s on sale on steam…
22/11/2012 at 12:03 Spoon Of Doom says:
I liked the game, playing with the terrain and altering the flow of lava and water is fun. It has some issues (control is not the always the best), but if you can get it on a sale, it’s definitely worth it.
22/11/2012 at 00:39 SkittleDiddler says:
Mr. Molyneux needs to eat a bit of humble pie. I hope this kickstarter fails and he is forced to go through traditional channels to make his next shitty game.
22/11/2012 at 00:46 terry says:
Co-op? If I’m going to play god, I dont want no stinking pantheon ruining my castles :P
22/11/2012 at 01:17 nickylee says:
At first I was like “WHAT?!” because Molyneux was saying he wanted to do 22 experiments and then cap it off with the game that would define his career and when I read the story above I thought we’d skipped several steps. After reading the Kickstarter pitch, though, I realize that this is basically experiment 2. It certainly could have been clearer.
22/11/2012 at 08:31 Mctittles says:
At this rate there is a good chance he will die of old age before they make it through all of their experiments.
22/11/2012 at 01:39 Hematite says:
Article should be titled Waiting for Godus. I gift this pun to you, RPS, use it wisely.
22/11/2012 at 01:59 mwoody says:
I’ve yet to see mention of the weirdest part of this kikcstarter: unless I’m misreading this, there’s a limit to the number of people who can support the simple “buy the game” tier. Very weird decision.
Oh, and supportr Maia. And From Dust was very good, if a little linear.
22/11/2012 at 08:33 Mctittles says:
In my opinion anyone who donates any amount of money to a kickstarter project should get a copy of the game. If I borrowed money from my friends to make a game, I’d at least give them a free copy when I was done.
22/11/2012 at 02:21 BruceFnLee says:
Only a fool would believe a word out of Peter Molyneux’s mouth. The man consistently lies about his products.
22/11/2012 at 02:54 Ratchet says:
Was I the only one looking for 22 cans of something while watching the video?
22/11/2012 at 03:48 MiloticMaster says:
…There’s nothing here.
He didnt explain the game or anything- no protoype- no ‘this is what we want to achieve-’
He just talked about Populous and dreams and stuff.
How the heck does he expect me to kickstart something so vague?
(The kickstarter itself as more info though, but still…)
22/11/2012 at 08:34 Mctittles says:
Yea, but imagine up to 20….err 8? multiplayer game? Playing with friends at the same time! This is groundbreaking stuff (for 1985).
22/11/2012 at 05:39 Frank says:
If Peter Molyneux, armed with only nostalgia and his usual penchant for hype, cannot destroy KS (as Walker and others have been predicting all year), nothing can.
This is pure nostalgia, right? They’re going to go back to Molyneux’s old ideas and reimagine them, trying to get to the core of the enigma that is his genius, eh? Why couldn’t his original teams succeed in doing that?
22/11/2012 at 08:09 b0rsuk says:
His “Why Kickstarter” paragraph is actually self-contradicting. It mentions being more open about the development and having some freedom, yet is so vague it reads almost like marketingspeak. He doesn’t really mention why this time it would be different.
I almost hope that his Kickstarter fails. He certainly deserves it if he fails to come up with more information and working prototypes.
22/11/2012 at 08:05 b0rsuk says:
This thread doesn’t mention Maia enough. It’s a god game in hard SF setting. Inspired by games like Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, Theme Hospital.
Their Kickstarter page shows actual in-game footage and a lot more concept art than Godus.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1438429768/maia/
22/11/2012 at 08:25 c-Row says:
I would rather kickstart this than read yet another comment about Maia. YES, WE GOT YOUR FUCKING POINT!
22/11/2012 at 17:41 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Except that doing one won’t save you from the other and in fact you can (attempt to) do neither.
I’m not that big on this genre, but with Molyneux.. regardless of genre I’m going to be interested in seeing what will come of it, but I’m certainly not going to pledge towards it.
23/11/2012 at 07:40 c-Row says:
The problem is that being constantly bombarded with it first creates apathy, then antipathy.
22/11/2012 at 09:07 hamburger_cheesedoodle says:
Can’t help but notice that this is a backwards-looking kickstarter too. “Let’s go back to the glory days! It’ll be brand new and exciting!”
I’m also touched by the graph at the end that essentially says 1. Form a team 2. Make games 3. ???? 4. Change gaming as we know it.
22/11/2012 at 10:48 MadMatty says:
Im hoping for a original populous style game, NOT “populous the beginning” which was very dissapointing for me.
Or a Black & White-ish game without the giant retarded schizophrenic monkey.
22/11/2012 at 12:08 Suits says:
“we learned from Curiosity” Yeah, I’m sure you have it all analyzed already.
22/11/2012 at 12:30 Lemming says:
At first I was all ‘Yay!’
but then… “Wait..wasn’t Black and White supposed to be his interpretation of a modern Populous? And doesn’t he stand by that game as being good, when it is, in fact, a pile of overreaching shit?”
And now “Good luck Molyneux! ” while waving from the sidelines
EDIT: But I just backed Maia. That shit looks brilliant.
22/11/2012 at 13:00 jamal says:
Fk molyneux, back Spud’s Quest
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409406442/spuds-quest/
22/11/2012 at 14:30 lamontagne says:
Congrats on making the BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20444159. Ding!
22/11/2012 at 20:36 Charles de Goal says:
I hope this will be innovative enough to have a Linux version.