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Spiderweb game crossovers or collaborations


GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman

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Any cool ideas for a collaboration between spiderweb and some other company or IP? Things like that Shin Megami Tensei X fire emblem game or Pokemon x Nobunaga's ambition; but with spider web games instead.

 

Personally I think Lego Geneforge would funny to see :p

 

that's all I've got for now sadly

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Lego seems to prefer large well known companies so there is a large fan base of buyers. Even then look how long it took before The Simpsons episode.

 

With another game company you have the problem of rewriting the Spiderweb game in the other company's game engine and graphics.

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Maybe pillars of eternity and geneforge? or the upcoming tides of numera and geneforge might be a better fit. Personally, I think he should use kickstarter to his advantage. It would be a huge step, Using a different game engine and all and hiring people for things like voice work, but it would be really interesting to see what kind of game he would make with a bigger budget (that is, if he went into the millions like the other iso rpgs did)

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The other RPGs have largely had the advantages of being made by entire teams, not just one guy, and those teams (or the key members of them) being well known and beloved for mainstream successes in the past. Jeff doesn't have the inclination to run a team nor does he have any experience with one. I don't think wonders would spring forth; there's a learning curve.

 

—Alorael, who does think Jeff could easily drink from the Kickstarter trough. Not that he seems particularly desperate for cash, but he really does have enough reputation and exposure that he could get piles of money in advance of actually doing any work.

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People are even more inclined to pay extra for the shirt.

 

—Alorael, who could also see Jeff Kickstarting a "get these games running on iOS" and a stretch goal of "Android too, why not?" to let the alleged clamoring hordes put their money where their mouth is. Enough demand pays for someone to make it happen.

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People are even more inclined to pay extra for the shirt.

 

that's actually kind of a risky tactic. when kickstarters for primarily digital products promise to make and ship a physical item to backers that adds a lot of new things that can go wrong, especially when it's not a product the creator has experience making and/or they have to get a third party involved to get it made and shipped out. lots of otherwise successful kickstarters have ended up stumbling on physical rewards

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I wasn't expecting well thought out answers, just what you would like to see mixed with what. For my example (Lego x Geneforge) the Idea of having to find Lego bricks to build your creatures sounded both fun and silly.

"Only Shapers know the art of bringing the bricks to life. There are rumors of a machine called the Geneforge that could change the size,shape and colour of any brick; it was declared heresy by the Shaper council."

No need for any likely hood of the game actually happening.

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Along with physical rewards, stretch goals have seemed to lead to disaster. Backers get carried away with enthusiasm for more, but so do creators. The best products, games or otherwise, are perfect as they are and don't get better with more stuff. And okay, maybe there's room for more, but more stuff is hard and it's easy to end up promising the moon just to keep the money rolling in.

 

—Alorael, who suspects Jeff, if he bothered at all, would go with one of those really boring Kickstarters that promises to make X if Y dollars are pledged, no bells and whistles. Jeff's that kind of ornery. But he might use extra money for outsourceable stuff. Extra graphics are someone else's work and always nice, and he is always complaining about the cost of the pretty things.

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One Brooch for the Spiders under the ground,

One for the Wizard in tomb of stone,

Two for Dogged Dragons waid with wound,

One for the Dark Lich on his dark throne

In the pits of Scree where the Quickghasts lie.

Four Brooches to send them all, Four Brooches to find him,

One Brooch to bring them back and in the caverns bind them

In the Land of Exile where the cavenewts lie.

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The other RPGs have largely had the advantages of being made by entire teams, not just one guy, and those teams (or the key members of them) being well known and beloved for mainstream successes in the past. Jeff doesn't have the inclination to run a team nor does he have any experience with one. I don't think wonders would spring forth; there's a learning curve.

 

—Alorael, who does think Jeff could easily drink from the Kickstarter trough. Not that he seems particularly desperate for cash, but he really does have enough reputation and exposure that he could get piles of money in advance of actually doing any work.

 

Well sure. He would have to hire a team of people and they would have to learn to work together. Not only that, but he may have to hire a project lead, to keep the stress off himself a bit; but that is if the kickstarter project promised a bunch of stuff to be along the lines of Divinity or Pillars. He could start off with a narrow scope. Hire 2 full time people and use a brand new engine if stretch goals are met. And then he could keep the gameplay and writing the same, without re-inventing the wheel. then if that project is a success he could do another kickstarter, trying more new things. It would take a rush of new-found ambition he may not currently have. But he could do it.

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I am not sure that Jeff is all that comfortable having employees. I think Alorael is right that he would be comfortable with outsourcing graphics. I do not think that he would be comfortable outsourcing the engine based on what he has said about his programming skills. The only way that I could see a major change would be for Jeff to license some of his work to a team to execute where Jeff would be removed from the day to day operations.

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Yeah, and we've seen THAT backfire... *Glances over at Richard Garriott and the late Gary Gygax* In fact, I can't remember, but didn't they actually get cheated out via the exact same loophole? I know Gygax was in space at the time, but I can't remember for certain if Garriott was or not (seems like he was)

Just remember that these companies are or include publishers/distributors-- working with their ilk always runs serious risks of having your IP stolen by them, or they will at least try to coerce you into signing your IP rights away to them (thus, if you ever want to leave and go with a different company, you can't use any of the franchises you developed in YOUR studios that you had them redistribute) a hostile takeover, punitive measures against your development team, and more. As you can tell, I don't have a high opinion of publishers or distributors. Not the least of which due to how Electronic Arts and Ubisoft have destroyed so many good development companies. Then there's the whole Bratz fiasco which is beyond disgusting. And don't even get me started on the RIAA (and I'm just talking about how they treat their musicians!)

 

These kinds of deals are the second best way to strip the soul from your franchise/titles/songs/etc-- a distant second only to handing the reins to someone else.

 

Sorry for the rant. Bit of a sore point for me. Anyone who is a big Origin or Westwood fan knows exactly why.

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I would not advocate Jeff turn over his IP, but that is the only way that I see a development team happening.

 

Gygax's issues included the fact that he never truly owned TSR, but had to bring in outsiders to get enough capital to publish the first set of rules. TSR then expanded beyond his and the other founders ability to manage it and produced a lot of products that did not make a profit. He then was forced off to Hollywood leaving TSR to further flounder.

 

By never expanding his business, Jeff has avoided a lot of pitfalls.

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Nevermind not expanding, he actually shrunk it. He doesn't distribute others' work anymore, and I'm not sure Linda Strout is still working for Spidweb. She still has an About page but it's not linked to from the main site anymore.

 

Jeff is happy with his job because he doesn't have to bother with anyone but his wife and a few graphics and sound artists while he's making his products (of course there's marketing, but he does that his way too). Any success or failure for his company is his own doing and he can own it. This is the satisfaction of 100% owning a small business. If he wants, he can turn Spiderweb Software into Spiderweb Potato Distributors and only Mariann can have any say in the matter. If the structure of the company changes, so does his freedom, and Jeff is a proud libertarian.

 

I'm working on a small business myself, actually. My work, my products, my schedule, my rules. It's a dream, anyway.

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