Kickstarter exploit - not a game, not a story, nothing but a money sink.

[Cego em Tiroteio]

I love indie games, the freedom to risk inovative concepts, to be morally bold... I often appreciate it even if the game ends up very buggy, with no story, terrible art, short length or any other constrain...

I mean that as long as it gives me something to appreciate. This game claims it has a story, but it barely does. One could only consider it relative to the average mainstream game with mindless grunts. But by itself, the story is very poor and the little that there is, runs on the simple minded horny guy bearing a weapon. Make no mistake: I'm not complaining about it's length, I felt it trully empty. Most comic strips are more substantial for that matter.

It's even more enraging to read the developer commentaries, stating every now and then how he put this game togheter scraping failed tests just to barely excuse an arguably kickstarter fraud.

The game did accomplish a few warm scenes and the educational epilogue is nice too. But overall, I would consider this game a fraud and I hope it didn't do too much damage to public opinion about indie development and crowdfunding. Steam "curators" messed up with this one.

[dnru]

I honestly enjoyed this game for one reason: I find trying to piece it together into one linear explanation a very enjoyable task. This reason has made the $5 purchase worth it for me.

If it weren't for that, I wouldn't think it to be a good deal, so I can understand your point. Even still, what were you looking for in this game? Did you play Gravity Bone or anything else by Blendo Games before you made this purchase?

[Devec]

When I was playing it I was really enjoying it, the atmosphere, trying to put the pieces of the story togheter. But it stopped abruptly, resulting in a very weak ending. I left the game with a feeling of dissapointment, maybe having been made too excited by the reports I read about the game beforehand. I felt that the story was weak, even though scrambeled it was nothing really special. And that is a real shame because the potential was there, especially looking at Gravity Bone, which I gave a go immediately after, in comparison 30 Flights just felt uninispired and unfinished.

Same as OP, I love indie games, I love indie devs that try to carve out their own piece. Even if it isn't a game in the sense how most of us see it. I do have to compliment the potential but in the end it lacked in execution. If the story was somewhat longer, say an average run time of thirty minutes, and was more in depth I feel that it could easily have left a far bigger impression.

What the game does show is that it doesn't need dialogue to tell a story, which is great, but Blendo Games already pulled this off in Gravity Bone, in a far superior way.

[tansqu]

I have to disagree here. What I found nice in TFOL as a game is how it changed from scene to scene rapidly, movie-likely. It creates an atmosphere alike to an action movie, and the way the story pulled through the game from beginning to end this way was simply mystifying for me. It has really inspired me; I've got sligth plans on a sort of alike way to tell a story in a game - which is all new to games.

The story itself was excellent too, if you ask me. The way it leaves you only tiny hints of what might be going on behind the scenes and, in the same time, tells you the "main" story very straight, it was a very pleasent experience. You know right away, that these three friends are having the wedding of their friends, and that they're planning a robbery at the airport, and that something went terribly wrong down there. But the game never ever tells what happened back in that locked airport room, where Anita was lying at the corner, trying to shoot you with her emptied weapon, and the bearded guy whose name I never recall laid shot in front of the door. That's what you'll have to figure out yourself, and this is what makes TFOL so inspiring, fresh, new and exciting.

But of course, it wasn't much of a "game" but more of a short interactive novel motion picture. I can clearly see why some love it and some hate it.

[abort_user]

as much as i loved Gravity Bone, i kind of have to agree. not only is this game incredibly brief, but in order acquire the game through Kickstarter, you had to donate $30 (as opposed to the current $5 asking price)

[Sire]

you can figure out the story if you have played gravity bone really. i only think the major issue with the game is length. it definitely should have been longer considering the price tag. also the kickstarter is irrelavent because that was a kickstarter for Idle Thumbs podcast, and this game was just a treat.

[Zanuda]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Cego em Tiroteio:

The game did accomplish a few warm scenes and the educational epilogue is nice too. But overall, I would consider this game a fraud and I hope it didn't do too much damage to public opinion about indie development and crowdfunding. Steam "curators" messed up with this one.

I agree, "fraud" is the right word for this "game". I didn't expect this from Blendo Games.

[dnru]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Zanuda:

I agree, "fraud" is the right word for this "game". I didn't expect this from Blendo Games.

Okay, so what did you expect from Blendo Games?

[Zanuda]

Well, I've played Flotilla and Atom Zombie Smasher and they were fun in a much less questionable/experimental way than TFoL. I understand that TFoL is a "different genre", perhaps it even started a new "cool" genre ("interactive trailer for a game that could have been made if we had more time and money"), but I cannot help suspecting that what TFoL really is, is a "let's promote our digital leftovers as a revolutionary game and people would be too embarassed to admit that they have bought crap and cannot get a refund, so they will promote the game not to think bad of themselves" project.

[dnru]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Zanuda:

I cannot help suspecting that what TFoL really is, is a "let's promote our digital leftovers as a revolutionary game and people would be too embarassed to admit that they have bought crap and cannot get a refund, so they will promote the game not to think bad of themselves" project.

I honestly did not think that the game was revolutionary nor would I ever reccomend anyone buy it without having played Gravity Bone. If you go in as one of the latter, then yeah, you're almost definitely getting gypped.

The game was only fun for me because I like piecing convoluted stories together. I would call it an game that can provide some enjoyment, but I wouldn't say that it's good or bad.

[Luftmensch]

I had a pretty jolly good time. I didn't feel bad about paying $30 in the kickstarted because I wasn't buying a game, that's not what kickstarter is for, I was supporting something I believed in and cared about.

As someone who was introduced to Brendon's work through Gravity Bone, few of your comments seem relevant to me. I have no idea what it's like to go from Atom Zombie Smasher to this. It's totally different. But I know from the feeling of awe I felt when I first played GB and the sense of wonder and rush of emotions I felt when I played TFoL, that this was a game for me.

I played the hell out of this fifteen minute game. I played the game several times through, climbed the maps as high as I could go, exploited all the bugs I could find, played Puffin Mode and Developer Commentary mode, catalogued all the appearances of the woman with the red swash, and reconstructed the story out of the broken narrative. If you like doing that, maybe this game's for you. I know I do. Maybe this game's not for you. With that in mind, you can still look forward to his next game, Quadrilateral Cowboy, which is about hacking and espionage.

Also, money sink? If Brendon produces shovelware of this polish and quality between each of his major releases, I'd gladly pay $5 for each knowing good and well the money goes straight to him, allowing him to continue making his bigger projects.

[gasgarage]

This is not a traditional game, more like an interactive short film. Great ambientation and music, yes, but not too much gameplaying at all. Dev commentary mode made me feel worse about my (his) $5.

Steam needs to make a better description for this product. If you expect a 3d shooter with guns, I wouldn't recommend it to you.

(?) I wrote this comment for free about this weird game because I didn't like it at all.

[Herbwise]

If we describe a game as "An activity providing entertainment or amusement" then we can say this product fell far from the mark. It had as much entertainment value as like people have said reading a comic book, it may have been interactive but any hint of free choice was completely an illusion.

[amblerise]

Free choice is overrated. The illusion of choice is good enough for a good game. At least for the first playthrough.

[Wolfred Bromley]

I don't think the arguments against it on the basis of "no free choice" are really valid. C'mon, look at your average shooter, with its excuse for a campaign, the only choices are to shoot people and continue the mission, die or stand still. At least TFoL is honest about the lack of choice, and makes you think about what is going on in this world.

I personally liked this game not so much as a game, but more as a good Tarantino movie that you move through. I payed fifty dollars for Skyrim, and spent a couple hours wandering around killing things before getting a crushing feeling of pointlessness, while this game, even completed, keeps me searching for answers.

[koholos]

I feel the need to point out that the game was never ON Kickstarter as a game. It was initially created as one of the reward tiers of the Idle Thumbs Podcast Kickstarter. In other words, people paid to get a podcast we loved back on the air, and one of the rewards was an entire video game.