Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:15 pm**

tgb wrote:My offer to be a beta tester still stands.

The $50 tier gives entry to the beta.

Posted: **Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:59 pm**

Holman wrote:
tgb wrote:My offer to be a beta tester still stands.
The $50 tier gives entry to the beta.

I was thinking in the more traditional sense.

Posted: **Wed Oct 22, 2014 9:08 pm**

tgb wrote:
Holman wrote:
tgb wrote:My offer to be a beta tester still stands.
The $50 tier gives entry to the beta.
I was thinking in the more traditional sense.

They said they wanted committed testers that are more willing to provide feedback and be involved which is why they went with the $50 beta tester tier. They posted some info about what's coming up in one of their updates:

Beta Tester Schedule
We are setting the expectation that Beta Testers will be fully integrated into the testing process and have access to builds Two Months after the Kickstarter ends. However, we also want the Beta Testers to have access to builds earlier than that so we will be giving informal access to the Beta Testers after the Kickstarter to the Scenario Viewer build.

The Scenario Viewer enables a user load up a scenario, check all of the POIs, Champions, Nations, Guilds, Leaders, and Gods as well as make use of unlimited Ancient Powers. We use this build to test sound effects, special effects, and check for consistency in descriptions and we think it's a good way for Testers to ensure that the build runs on their machine and they can get their hands a little dirty if they'd like to do some early testing. We won't have the tester program fully setup at that point so we will have to decide how to handle feedback at this stage.

We will also be getting Beta Testers involved with map style selection, more info on this to follow.

Reward Clarification
A few people asked me if the Beta Access Tier included the rewards in the the Heroic Tier. The answer is a resounding "yes" - not only do you get to submit names for inclusion but you'll collaborate with us to help create flavor appropriate names and themes for several different aspects of the game. So don't worry about missing out, we definitely want input from our Beta Testers.

They're apparently setting up a dedicated backer forum for all the backers to provide feedback and vote on art assets and there will be a subforum there just for the beta testers. Sounds like they have it planned out pretty well.

Posted: **Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:04 pm**

Found you guys again - thanks for all the support. Should have forums set up on our site soon, will be moving most of the discussion there.

Posted: **Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:42 am**

Welp, they sent out invites to the backer forums over the weekend and all the backers are supposed to have gotten them but I still haven't gotten mine. I checked the junk mail folder just in case but nothing. I sent them an email so hopefully it gets sorted out. Did anyone else not get their backer forum invite?

Posted: **Mon Nov 03, 2014 1:40 pm**

Did you see the notice posted in the KS comments this morning? It has instructions for what to do if you haven't received a password.

I hadn't received one, and the instructions worked for me.

Posted: **Mon Nov 03, 2014 2:25 pm**

I got the email today that said there were backer forums, but nothing about how to actually log in. Seemed pretty silly to me.

I don't really care because I won't be following development at all, so as long as I get an email about redeeming the final product, I'm happy. I don't pay attention to games that aren't finished yet because I've got enough in the pile, and I already know how the sausage is made.

Posted: **Mon Nov 03, 2014 3:01 pm**

Holman wrote:Did you see the notice posted in the KS comments this morning? It has instructions for what to do if you haven't received a password.

I hadn't received one, and the instructions worked for me.

Yes, I did see that after I posted here and was able to follow the instructions and get in just fine. Thanks.

Chaz wrote:I got the email today that said there were backer forums, but nothing about how to actually log in. Seemed pretty silly to me.

I got that email too but it was the one from kickstarter announcing the KS update and not the one from King Dinosaur containing your account/login information.

Posted: **Wed Nov 05, 2014 12:25 pm**

Oops sorry - just drop me a note or email if you WANT to access the forums and can't. I just noticed how eerily similar ColdSteel's avatar is to mine on the Gemstone 4 Player's corner - practically the same pic.

Posted: **Wed Sep 30, 2015 7:14 pm**

For those that may have somewhat lost track of this game's development, it's had some delays due to integrating all of the stretch goals that were met and also all of the new art assets. They're getting close to beta now finally and have released the first in an upcoming series of new vids showing game play. Here is part one and I could not be happier about how it looks now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j8MoAKqvJM

Posted: **Wed Sep 30, 2015 7:31 pm**

I'm still very interested in this game. I pretty much double all announced wait times anyway.

Posted: **Wed Sep 30, 2015 8:35 pm**

This is my most anticipated game of 2016.

Posted: **Wed Sep 30, 2015 8:50 pm**

looks great...cant wait

Posted: **Wed Sep 30, 2015 10:04 pm**

tgb wrote:This is my most anticipated game of 2016.

Ditto

Posted: **Wed Oct 28, 2015 8:55 am**

The first gameplay video just went up. It focuses on explaining the map and runs through the first few turns. Looks pretty great to me. Can't wait to try the beta when it comes out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb2uub1wn0s

Posted: **Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:50 pm**

love it, love it, love it.

I especially like the thought process the developer talks about when discussing changes, like "After the kickstarter, we added so much more information that we decided we needed a way to make more information available to the player without it becoming overwhelming" Thus the need for "laptop screen" mode so that the most important stuff is visible.

I also am looking forward to the beta...

Posted: **Wed Oct 28, 2015 4:20 pm**

Malacheye wrote:Thus the need for "laptop screen" mode so that the most important stuff is visible.

I believe he said that the laptop mode or the "classical map" was without all the fancy dynamic map graphics and what he was showing off was the "reactive map" that had all the nice dynamic stuff for those devices that can handle it. It makes sense to have a separate mode for systems with low specs and it's really nice that they're doing that.

Posted: **Sat Feb 13, 2016 4:11 pm**

Any news on TWS? I'd actually forgotten about it, then I looked again at the Kickstarter and got all excited.

Is there a release date?

Posted: **Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:19 pm**

I also keep looking and hoping... but they are not even in beta yet.

Posted: **Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:56 pm**

I'm starting to wonder if this will ever see the light of day.

Posted: **Mon Feb 15, 2016 11:14 am**

tgb wrote:I'm starting to wonder if this will ever see the light of day.

Please don't say that! It's such a promising idea for a game.

Posted: **Mon Feb 15, 2016 12:20 pm**

If it saw the light of day, it would wake up.

Posted: **Sat Jul 02, 2016 11:06 am**

Ruh-roh.

I've been trying to keep hope alive by periodically checking in on their website and forums for some positive news about a release, but it's been futile. I just checked again, and all the sub-forums have been removed, replaced by a notice that says "this game has no forums".

I also checked their Greenlight page and the latest entry is from last September.

One more reason to be careful of what you give money to on Kickstarter.

[edit]Turns out that if you log in, the beta forums are still up (I don't have permission to enter them), so I don't know if the disappearance of the public forum is a good or bad sign.

I'm guessing not good.

Posted: **Sat Jul 02, 2016 12:40 pm**

Does not look good at all.

The Kickstarter discussion summarizes recent activity as the two designers feuding.

Posted: **Sat Jul 02, 2016 4:07 pm**

The programmer seems to need a paying job and cannot finish the game. Such a shame. Although, the KS terms require some sort of restitution plan.

Posted: **Sat Jul 02, 2016 7:09 pm**

Josh (the developer) just moved back to Boston (from Texas) last week, which is where Joe (the financer) lives. After Joe tried to meet with Josh several times last week only to have him cancel out, Joe was getting pretty frustrated since Josh has been keeping him and everyone else in the dark as to the status of the game. Joe finally met with him yesterday for several hours and said he was shown character creation, UI and a bunch of other stuff but there is no working game or AI at this point as Josh has been ripping pieces out trying to get it to work. He summed the meeting up like this:

I think the important takeaways are he's still very committed and only working on this project and nothing else and that we're going to try to take a more modular or piecemeal approach just so we can show something that runs.

They are going to meet once a week from now on to discuss status and approach and to try to get it to a rough alpha point that can be shared with KS backers. So, a lot of work remains. Not what anyone wanted to hear but at least it's not quite dead yet.

Posted: **Sat Jul 02, 2016 9:26 pm**

Too bad it sounds like this is further behind than they let on. I've only been keeping up with the backer emails they send out, and it looked like it was making progress.

Posted: **Sat Jul 02, 2016 11:27 pm**

At this point I'd be wary of any release, since the odds of something incomplete being rushed out the door are pretty good.

Posted: **Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:40 am**

Yeah, when I read about it initially, it reminded me a little of Master of Orion 3, offering a bewildering array of neat things that didn't seem like a focused game, exactly, but very interesting. I was optimistic, though, because most efforts a overly complex games fall apart when trying to write opponent AI... but opponents did not seem to be central to this game, at least as I understood it. Or, at the very least, your opponents were not playing anything like the same game you were, so the complexities facing you as protagonist wouldn't have needed to be handled by an AI.

I'm very sad to hear that it isn't coming together. Not because of the KS money -- kind of like the horse races, I never put in a dollar that I'm not totally willing to lose -- but because it sounded like such an interesting game.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:38 am**

ColdSteel wrote:They are going to meet once a week from now on to discuss status and approach and to try to get it to a rough alpha point that can be shared with KS backers. So, a lot of work remains. Not what anyone wanted to hear but at least it's not quite dead yet.

Had some time so I did some digging based on the January update that suggested we'd have this game "in a few months" and found this, posted in early March:

The Kickstarter for vapourware indie PC game “That Which Sleeps” allegedly to be published by King Dinosaur Games (KDG), is infamous for the large amount of money taken and the absence of delivery. As I reported in my article, “Those Who Wait”, the project is years overdue. In “King Dinosaur Games Partners Split” I recounted how the partnership had split, with many of their statements (by which they had obtained monies) exposed as flat out lies. Now it appears that KDG’s sole remaining partner Joshua Perry is connected to another, very similar overdue Kickstarter – “Stay Out of My Dungeon” by 2 Handsome Games.

...

It is now undeniable however, that the Kickstarter for “That Which Sleeps”, was founded on lies. There was no game, yet the developers said it was almost finished. They spoke of alpha testers and full play-throughs. All wild invention! Even Joseph Vivolo never played it and never saw it in a working state.

Ugh

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:44 am**

Yes, at least the Mandate died from development work on its outrageous feature list.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:53 am**

Don't back anything with 'That Which' in the title. I have That Which Sleeps and Unwritten: That Which Happens as unfulfilled.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2017 1:59 pm**

Smoove_B wrote:Had some time so I did some digging based on the January update that suggested we'd have this game "in a few months" and found this, posted in early March:

Yeah, except that guy is a total nut job. He was kicked off the game forums long ago for being an asshole and has an real axe to grind with the devs. The game may or may not be dead but I wouldn't put a lot of stock in anything this particular guy says about it.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:08 pm**

I didn't know that, so I guess that's something to consider as well. All I know is that this KS is late.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:12 pm**

Last KS update was January, so that's something.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2017 7:55 pm**

An update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ki ... ect_update

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:06 am**

His video of gameplay makes the game look pretty complete. It looks great. I wonder what the remaining issues are?

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:19 am**

ColdSteel wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:06 am His video of gameplay makes the game look pretty complete. It looks great. I wonder what the remaining issues are?

I watched that video and while I agree it makes the game looks almost ready for prime-time, I just wish the guy would talk slower. I couldn't follow what he was doing, or more importantly, why he was doing it. The game looks very deep, so I sure hope it ships with a decent manual and/or tutorial.

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:33 am**

I just hope it ships. It will decrease my failed Kickstarter count to one.

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:38 am**

Be careful what you wish for. I've been part of a few KS projects that would have been better off not shipping anything. Half-assed and unsupported is not enjoyable.

I was surprised to see this update; hope springs eternal.

Octopus Overlords

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