Looks Like a Kickstarter Scam Project

[deplorable gollompus]

The two trailers that are out are in partial or complete darkness 90% of the time, almost certainly meant to hide how hideous the game is-- I would respect it much more if they took ownership of it and sold it to me on the basis that it will be great because they're sacrificing looks for gameplay, I could be into that.

What media we've seen, there's been ~3 enemies: a spider, an undead-type-thing, and an orc-type-thing, all of which are incredibly cliche and deeply uninspired.

The promise of unprecedented scale has been made dozens and dozens of times by now. If it weren't for the fact that there's Elder Scrolls veteran devs on this game, everyone would think it looked like a joke and brush it off. Not even to mention the painfully vague title "The Wayward Realms". I will be incredibly skeptical of this title moving forward, I think best case scenario it ends up like No Man's Sky in failing to deliver on promises until a year after release.

[Sangghis Khaan]

For what it is worth, the game is still very early on in the development. We will not be expecting a release for years at this point, so it is not entirely fair to pass judgement for now on looks.
As for media, there's been plenty of stories and concept art pieces shown on the development team's Twitter, Reddit and Discord. If you want more content, peek in one of those, especially the Discord. A good chunk of the development team is active there on the regular, happy to answer questions! :D

[lizrdfishr]

The devs post most of the art and coolness elsewhere, but we have convinced them to post some of it in the artwork section here on Steam.

The devs respond and continue to respond and that is the most encouraging thing so far.

[Dallas S]

Except the devs want no part of Kickstarter or crowd funding. They were asked in another thread about it and are not crowd funding, they are instead in talks with investors. But in the meantime it's just them doing it in their free time.

[oncelostgames]

We are very early in development, so we were limited on what to show in the trailers. We make no effort to hide that. Every big studio gets their fancy CG announcement trailer, and while we can't afford the fancy prom dress, we wanted to go to the prom too.
But we will be showing some actual gameplay stuff when it is ready to showcase and you can make a better assessment then. We will not do a kickstarter or any kind of crowdfunding, so no worries about us trying to con you out of any cash.
The promise of scale is really just based of the fact that such a scale was achieved by our founders back in 1996 with the technology of the time. Of course we want to use the advancements in tech since then to create a more interesting world. We are not creating a theme park though, our aim is an actual realistically scaled world. So it might not be for everyone, especially those that need to fight a random enemy ever five minutes.
We are open to all criticisms and concerns though, so feel free to question or comment about whatever we put out.

[Gray Fox]

I am really looking forward to seeing this game in my lifetime. Take your time!

[lizrdfishr]

Originally posted by Treeman:

I am really looking forward to seeing this game in my lifetime. Take your time!

Been waiting for this since <> '79 when I cracked open D&D for the first time.

Make it great but please don't take forever. I haven't got forever. :)

[Garrett]

Absolutely no need for such bitter and crass scepticism.

"What media we've seen, there's been ~3 enemies: a spider, an undead-type-thing, and an orc-type-thing, all of which are incredibly cliche and deeply uninspired "

Shall we just be negative about all games with orcs and spiders?

I would call these 'staples' of the fantasy genre. But you choose to call them cliches.

"I think best case scenario it ends up like No Man's Sky in failing to deliver on promises until a year after release".

-- You have no basis for this statement AT ALL. Why automatically assume the absolute worst and then have the audacity and arrogance to call that a "best case scenario" ?

The developers are making this game voluntarily. Until now they are doing everything 100% unpaid.

It's clearly a 'labour of love' and this project doesn't deserve this kind of deplorable and aggressive attitude. The developers personally reply to almost every single thread made on this forum. I think that on its own says a lot.

Goodbye , don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[Serious Secare]

oh wow man good thinking i better go drop a few hundred bucks on a star citizen spaceship....

[GridLost]

Ya, the Devs have been rather honest about the state of the game. Personally, I am glad that They are not crowd funding. Often times, Crowd funded games miss the mark and take forever to release. Star Citizen anyone? So much promise, yet the pick the pockets of the hopeful and give them garbage in return, and further push Micro transactions to play the beta..... ya. CS is a bad model.

I am happily waiting for the Devs to release more info. I do hope it does not take years to release. But I understand if it does. Long time fan of DaggerFall and Arena. Those were ground breaking RPG's for their time. And yet, even games today do not replicate the features that they brought to the table. Namely random gen Procedural Dungeons. Please Please use Procedural Dungeons, I love the replay factor it creates.

[oncelostgames]

That has always been the plan. This time around though we are aiming for dungeons that make a little more sense and are not just cobbled together from different modules.
So, that should add a lot more replayability to them as the layouts could vary greatly.

[felixpoop]

I think I love this game.

[Sparky]

Imagine thinking a game where the devs aren't asking for any crowdfunding money is a scam. Not every "Too good to be true" game is Star Citizen.

[oncelostgames]

We are honestly a fairly modest game, our core pillars are the same as Daggerfall, which was made in 1996. We simply aim to improve on them and have a better detailed and fleshed out world.
The only major unknown is the Virtual Game Master, which news outlets will hype up, but we have been honest in saying that it will be a late development system and we can't say for certain yet if it will fully work as intended.
It is Julian's baby and we do trust in his programming abilities to be able to realize it. There are similar systems in other games, we just aim to bring it to the next level.
Aside from that, we are really only promising Daggerfall but improved with today's technology. It is telling of the industry when a 25 year old game's mechanics can be considered revolutionary.

[RorytheRomulan]

Whatever. Your username is painfully vague.

[Haruspex]

Can't blame you for being wary. Plenty of projects have jumped into kickstarter/indie gogo, early access, etc, only to fail to materialize, or fail to meet expectations. Even with big names attached... LeFay and Peterson were instrumental in making the Elder Scrolls what it is. Along with Vijay Lakshman, they created Tamriel by suggesting they use their ongoing DnD world as a setting for a video game. Ted Peterson is Sheogorath, in fact. His namesake was twisted around to create the name of the Daedric prince.

Still, names aren't everything. I loved Space Quest as a kid, and the actual, original, Two Guys from Andromeda kickstarted a Space Quest like adventure game, Spaceventure. It's been in limbo forever now, apparently pretty much done, but they ran into a snag with the game's save system. Last update was almost a year ago, and it's already way overdue.

Basically, here's the thing. Making games is hard, and without a ton of capital up front or the backing of a publisher willing to fund a project from the get-go, you've got to look towards the players.

That doesn't seem to be the case with Wayward Realms though. They're not crowdfunding the thing[www.pcgamesn.com]. Or at least the plan is not to. Like a crowdfunded game though, the only thing is we know about it. Most games stay in "stealth mode" for a long time before they are deemed ready to show the unwashed masses. This allows expectant gamers like yourself to start to imagine what it could be. You can start to form expectations in your mind, and the longer it goes and more hype it gets, those expectations can get a little unreasonable. If the game is released and it doesn't meet those lofty expectations, angry words sometimes get thrown around. "Scam" is one of them, as unfair as that can be.

"Promise", is another word that gets thrown around. Mind you, zero promises have been made here. Once Lost have stated their intent is to make an amazing RPG. That's not a promise. If you form expectations based on this declaration of intent, and those expectations aren't met, they didn't break a promise, they just failed to meet the goal. They didn't hit the target they were aiming for. There's nothing malicious about that.

Here's the thing, ignoring the time frames, the game will either happen, or it won't. If it happens, it will either be good, or it won't be. I'm running on faith here, but I feel confident that these guys have every intention to make the greatest RPG ever created in the history of mankind. Maybe they won't quite hit that extremely lofty goal, but I'm sure they're aiming for it, and if they do hit it, well. We're in for an experience.

You, as the end-user. The customer. You can either buy it, or not, and that's assuming the game even materializes. Things can happen, in spite of even the best intentions. I think you, me, and Once Lost games all want this project to be a reality. Let's just send them the good vibes.