DCS WWII: Europe 1944: Kickstarter Primer

Hello everyone,

We’ll be launching our kickstarter in about 24 hours, or, in the worst case, about 30 hours.

If you’re not sure about what DCS WWII: Europe 1944 is, please read the official announcement or join the discussion here.

There are a few very important points we’d like to make:

1. The project is at a very early stage.

Normally, video game development goes something like this. You go through some initial planning and discussion. You agree on budget and schedule, then begin the development. After some months, or maybe even years, you arrive at a playable mock-up or maybe a pre-alpha version. You announce the project, show what you have to the fans, and move forward.

With DCS WWII, we’re doing something different. We are in the very early initial design stage. If things were done the normal way, we’d be about six months away from an official announcement.

Why then are we doing this? Because we are not working with a publisher. When we looked at our budget and our schedule, we realized we’d be cutting it very close and we’d really need a bit more money and a bit more time to really do things comfortably. So we decided to go the kickstarter route. It should give us the freedom to really perfect our game; and perhaps even allow us to make a larger product if we manage to hit our stretch goals.

And so, we’re back to the main point. The project is very, very early. Normally we would not show it to the public at this stage.

We could wait six months and go kickstarter then – but then we’d lose the stretch goal option. If we don’t start on, say, a flyable B-17 today, if we wait six months to begin, then we delay its release by six months as well.

So, we know how the community lives to scrutinize every pixel and every word. So please keep in mind that things are not just WIP. They’re so far away from final, they’re all the way back at the other end. They’re “initial”.

Kickstarter changes a lot of things on our end, so please accept it as a change on yours. We’re showing you the project six months before we normally would. Please keep that in mind in all future discussion.

2. Kickstarter can fail.

Here’s how it works.

We are asking for a relatively minor initial sum on kickstarter which is needed to put in a few extra features and really polish and perfect the product.

We obviously need a large number of people to back the project to even hit the initial sum.

If you back the project, but over the course of the kickstarter campaign we fail to reach the initial goal, then the campaign fails and all the money is returned to backers. We the developers receive nothing.

However if we do manage to excite enough fans to back the project in the next 30 days, and we hit our initial goal, then this opens the road to the real meat of the campaign: stretch goals. All money raised will go towards development. If we manage to hit additional stretch goals, we will add a lot more exciting stuff to the project, most importantly new aircraft and new gameplay maps.

However that will require a significant community effort. Larger stretch goals will require thousands and thousands of backers; it’d require the equivalent of everyone who ever bought DCS: P-51 to come in with the purchase price they paid in the next 30 days and back our kickstarter to hit some of the larger stretch goals.

Possible? We hope so. But we’ll need help.

3. We need your help!

What we really need for our project to succeed is exposure.

If you back our project, please tell your friends about it.

Even if you cannot back our project, but are excited about it, tell your friends.

DCS WWII: Europe 1944 requires a large concentrated community effort to become successful.

If you are a journalist, please get in touch.

If you are a member of a flight sim community, please mention our kickstarter on your forums. If your friends have questions, send them here, or send us to them.

We only speak English and Russian. If you are a member of an international flight sim community, help us spread the word in your language!

Please help us get there. We cannot do it on our own!

Thank you very much. We, everyone, myself personally, are unbelievably excited about tomorrow. See you then!

Yes show us what you got! :P

We will back you for sure. Even if we comment :P .

You will succeed, just don't go inactive after one week, and use every available opportunity to promote the campaign. :thumbup:

i will back, and link the kickstarter vid on my youtube channel, some people even watched my channel.

i also informed my former squadmates...unfortunately i cant do more...

^

Is that emoticon composed of millions of tiny emoticons?:D

Thanks for the info, appreciate the heads up and am looking forward to seeing where you have got to.

Although sure as night follows day, you are still going to be dealing with the 'comprehension impaired' who will moan that it doesn't look like {insert title of generic graphics heavy shooter here}...

I curse you for seven generations Luthier.

I have a job interview tomorrow and it WILL be difficult to say the least to concentrate on the interview while in the meantime all the Internet will be drooling on the terrain screenshots and all the exciting announcements you kept in your bag.

I will back this project day 1 nevertheless and I am really excited about what could come out of it :thumbup:

Already promoting it on our squad's website!!!

I told both of the people that I know! :)

That's three extra customers between us then ;)

Can't wait!

But one question though:

Why all the secrecy up until the announcement. And then have the announcement just 5 days before the kickstarter launch?

Reaching all those thousands and thousands of backers would have been a lot easier if we knew what the plan was a couple of months ago. Just a general idea, look guys, we've gathered a team and it's happening. DCS WWII, maps, planes, the works. But we'll need a lot of help kickstarting this, so spread the word.

Me personally, as I said in the other thread, would gladly pledge up to 200$ no questions asked. And double that if things got tight towards the end of the campaign.

But it will be hard, and maybe just impossible with only a 30+5 day notice. Since that's a whole month's worth of entertainment money.

And this goes for every level pledge. People who can afford only 10$ monthly, could've pledged more if they new about the incoming kicstarter some months ago.

Might just be some part of development management I'm missing here...

Anyway, let's make some noise so we get this campaign as far as possible!

Wondering If they will show something, cause If I only see the Mustang and the Dora over Georgia will be very hard to decide If back or not.

.... it gives me lots of time to break it to the wife that I spent more money :)

Glad I'm not the only one that suffers this particular malady every so often........:D

Wondering If they will show something, cause If I only see the Mustang and the Dora over Georgia will be very hard to decide If back or not.

Crowdfunding is in essence a leap of faith :)

Most kickstarters have a certain time limit anyways, so its not like your money will be taken tomorrow.... it gives me lots of time to break it to the wife that I spent more money :)

Glad I'm not the only one that suffers this particular malady every so often........:D

You guys better start washing those dishes :D

Yes I know about the time limit, and that most successful campaigns are the 30 day ones, and the failures are usually the longer ones.

Make the campaign 300 days, but let the community know months in advance, that would make more sense to me. I could be wrong though.

We were talking about puter updates last night, she said, and I quote, "I know you are about due to spend some money" so I am pretty sure than means I can do this and buy a new system... I mean she didnt use the word no at any point :)

What are you an amateur ?? :D Don't fall for that trap!

1) "YES" always means "NO"!

2) No "NO" always means "YES"

3) See number 1

What are you an amateur ?? :D Don't fall for that trap!

 

1) "YES" always means "NO"!

 

2) No "NO" always means "YES"

 

3) See number 1

That's why you ALWAYS let her hit the 'Submit order' tab. After you have attended to the requisite amount of spadework, that is. Her reluctance/desire to hit said tab of course depends on how well you wielded the spade prior to finding yourself wondering whether or not she's going to hit the tab, or settle for option #2.........:P

I personally won't be backing this project unless they decide to keep it within DCS: World.

I see so many more annoying things to deal with on top of the outdated system we already have now. People have problems downloading/installing modules now, can you imagine this with two different branches/version numbers and what modules will work with what branch.. ugh.

Just a question,

so you would rather not have it at all, then for it to be a separate install? Where is the gain in that?