Topic: The first sign rises with the full moon.

[affinity]

fact of the matter is that Iga was basically manipulated by his bosses into churning out Castlevanias year after year regardless of how burnt out the team was. He tried to mitigate it for consumers by also doing titles like LoI and CoD, but there's only so much that can do which of course led to his superiors short-sightedly taking resources away from him which led to lesser performance. Judgment was a game Iga didn't really want to do anyway and Harmony of Despair was again something that was out of his control due to his bosses screwing him over on team and budget. Heck, Konami's marginalization of him seems to have come at around the time their President's brain calcified and their gaming output plummeted.

And then LoS, which was really only made because Kojima was in an awkward self-xenophobic phase as well as being desperate to prove he wasn't just the Metal Gear guy. LoS had exactly two things over the Igavanias: pretentiousness and flash. It had pomp regardless of its lack of substance. That's the only real reason MercurySteam (a dev with zero pedigree and a mediocre track record) got to have Castlevania slapped on their middling God of War clone. And predictably the undeserved praise they got went to their heads and they churned out two titles that were hated by the fanbase and critics.

At the end of the day, Iga has the last laugh. Konami is a terribly managed company that is plagued by money trouble and is struggling to maintain status quo let alone grow or expand which goes against their president's idea for the company. MercurySteam has been exposed as a hack developer that had one success before fumbling big time and costing themselves their little-earned pedigree. The Igavanias are lauded to this day as classic of the genre and will be remembered for years to come while Lords of Shadow will be remembered as lazy, exploitative games that had no identity and had no business using the Castlevania name when it had nothing in common with the series. Meanwhile Iga just had $5 million fired at him from a cannon and shows that there will always be a significant market for games like this if that wasn't obvious enough due to the legion of titles that lift directly from the Igavania template.

Yup, any true Castlevania fan knows mercurysteam are just money hungry opportunists, just like ninja theory are
just leeches that exploited and abused and messed up DMC for a quick profit, they didn't care about the fanbase, and they don't have respect for the franchise's style and formula.


Though I will say despite Konami not funding Castlevania Harmony of Despair as much as they should have,
it is still a masterpiece of IGA and the most brilliant hybrid of classic, IGAvania and multiplayer innovation for the series
that makes it one of the greatest videogames ever designed.  Even with the mere 11 Chapters it's developed,
Castlevania HD went on to be played by fans for years, across Xbox 360 and PS3, and the greatest selection of
playable characters outside of Serio's Castlevania Fighter game (Serio's game including the perfect version of Sonia Belmont, even Stella!)           

but yes, IGA's 6 players co-op masterpiece, Castlevania Harmony of Despair deserves more praise, and it is a shame
this site still doesn't dedicate a section for it (and yet the disgraceful and unworthy Judgment fighter get a section).


That being said.  Bloodstained Ritual of the Night could be in decent hands. IGA just has to make sure to trust the
right people and stay in control over all decisions and have the final say in the development and design.  Insiders
confirm if IGA has solid contracts in place so people making Bloodstained don't try to weasel some kind of scheme
and try to get away with it?

All the funded money is going directly to IGA, right?   because Bloodstained ROTN really is IGA's project.
the one that controls the money, controls the decisions and influence in the project.

[Maedhros]

Yes they can, greatly. If anything more on the technical end of things, since the engine has to support all the factors those modes implement. But think about it simply; randomized level layouts effect the design structure limitations, especially if they fancy reusing main game rooms in the mix. Or maybe they have to for budget and time limits. 3D work takes a long time to do, and MANY people. Level design, is a core component of the game. It effects both main game and randomized mode.

That is just one of many factors, and a really simplified explanation of it. It could be as specific as "Well he randomized mode needs level data to now have this, and remove this, now we have to rewrite this segment of the code, change this, figure out how to accomplish this without what we removed, and reformat all the files." What if a feature from the main game just cant be fixed to work now as a result? It happens all too often in game development.

I think they have good intentions, but are getting too starry eyed. They're spreading their core concept in directions that could cause some big issues. This is the kind of behavior that leads to development hell, or big cuts in content.

I don't know how else to say it. You have to look at it through the design and production lens to really understand.

Nah. I don't agree with you.

And the way you tackle your argument sounds pretty arrogant. (Not saying you are arrogant, btw)

What if they have people there who already understands the difficults of creating such type of games? Even if they don't have one, they can contract someone or a team to work on a separate mode. How they'll make the mode is their problem, really.

EDIT: Discounting even that they could do exclusive resources for this mode only, outside the main mode.

I'm not convinced and you probably won't convince anyone with this. There are many ways to solve problems that we, common/indie developers, don't have access.

[Charlotte-nyo:3]

Start the randomization-based room design pessimism train, guys, because including paypal they got 5mil 

[Sir Nicko]

WWHHHHOOOOOHHHHOOOOO!!!! Congrats everybody!! We DID IT!!!

It's with my most humble appreciation and sincerest thanks to you all for your support, praise, and discussion!

I'm finally willing to take Castlevania off the high pedestal and ready to accept Bloodstained, the next chapter!

Can't wait for the stream tonight!

Just a quick question: Do I have to pick a PC version to get access to the Beta?? I am really leaning towards getting PS4, Wii U, and PS Vita vita versions... But then I really want to get a taste of the Beta... Would I have to change one of those to PC to do so?

Also, is that Miriam pixel-art I see at the top header already?!??! Soo Awesome! Who did that wonderful work??

Cheers,

Sir Nicko

[affinity]

the random generated room dungeon is just an extra mode, just extra icing on the whole thing.
Bloodstained is already going to launch with modes, features and content that even the DXC and Saturn versions
of SOTN combined can't match.

No IGAvania has been this fully featured and content packed. 

the "biggest castle ever" goal in itself is already exceeding expectations.

So even if the random room mode thing isn't so hot, the rest of Bloodstained and core content and standard playthrough is going to be phenomenol.   


they just gotta make sure to design the castle well and not cut corners, and not use gimmicks like PoR which used
paintings for extra locations that weren't even castle based. 

 Bloodstained castle should be 100% pure castle like SOTN and others. 

Yes it can have gardens and some underground, but the castle itself should be a complete castle.   

[Maedhros]

WWHHHHOOOOOHHHHOOOOO!!!! Congrats everybody!! We DID IT!!!

It's with my most humble appreciation and sincerest thanks to you all for your support, praise, and discussion!

I'm finally willing to take Castlevania off the high pedestal and ready to accept Bloodstained, the next chapter!

Can't wait for the stream tonight!

Just a quick question: Do I have to pick a PC version to get access to the Beta?? I am really leaning towards getting PS4, Wii U, and PS Vita vita versions... But then I really want to get a taste of the Beta... Would I have to change one of those to PC to do so?

Also, is that Miriam pixel-art I see at the top header already?!??! Soo Awesome! Who did that wonderful work??

Cheers,

Sir Nicko

Saw your post on Neogaf but I'm banned there so I'll answer here:

Beta is PC only... so yeah, you'll have to choose the PC version (at $60+ only).

[TatteredSeraph]

Wow, just a few thousand at most from 5 million now!  Congrats guys, and a massive thank you and congrats to Iga! 

Edit:  We've made it!  Hooooray!

[Oniros]

*group hug*

[CastleDan]

Told you we'd hit 5 million

Now we are onto 5.5 million ...and guys, you want to keep pushing this till the end. There will be a final update sometime today and a stream. I heard new stretch goal(s) were added potentially

[Charlie Walden]

Yep, I think by now that the 5m goal is ours! 

About the topic on the assets for the rogue-like affecting the core system, I think they could make some ad hoc for both Classic Mode e Rogue-like Mode.

[LoneChild]

Yep, 5 million confirmed. I'm pleasantly surprised, now excuse me while I proceed to eat my hat.

Congratulations to everybody, quite an intense month we had.

[beingthehero]

I'm going to be sad if we don't get Boss Revenge mode. Very very sad.

[TatteredSeraph]

Gebel as a playable character!

[Neobelmont]

I'm going to be sad if we don't get Boss Revenge mode. Very very sad.

With the stretch goals we've just made can one really be sad? Also with all these talk about modes and this and that bloodstained is coming off to more as portrait of ruin than SotN. Come on three playable characters that's nothing, boss rush that was expected. Co-op mode portrait had that in it's boss rush mode. Simply put the IGA knows how to tackle multiple mode so I don't even understand sweat it's silly.

Also hey we all did it, coming together as a team we made a message and that's pretty darn swell. 

Gebel as a playable character!

called it kind of I was think prequel.

[TheCruelAngel]

It's almost surreal how quickly we smashed through 5 mil. The pure Miriam outfit looks interesting, though I think I prefer her standard outfit still. But hey, it's got some Absolute Territory going for it and I'm always a fan of that.