Unofficial Tex Murphy

On looking at other projects, a lot seem to include the earlier rewards within the higher ones, so for example $X gets a download copy of the game, $Y gets that plus a PDF manual etc.

Also, some higher tier rewards are limited to a certain number of them only. For example a limited number of Fedoras to go with the game.

David, I wonder though if those higher limits are self imposed. To add to the mystic and urgency of get them.

To anyone donating over 10 k.

1st, I love you.

2nd, make 2 amazon accounts. And 2 Kickstarter accounts. Evidently (or it was during doublefine) that the MAX kickstarter would take is 10k. The over 10k had to be processed another way which DIDN'T count towards the Kickstarter goal. (sadness)

But if we blow the total away in the first few days (oh please oh please) they can set up Paypal or some other way to take any Mr. Richie Rich pledges.

My $.02

Jen

joliet_jane wrote:If you don't remember, Spoony's "FMV Hell" series can explain the depths of this foul sewer... shark.

By the way, speaking of SpoonyOne, I don't know if people know but he's actually played Tex Murphy Pandora Directive, back in 2010. Except it was on his JTV (now Twitch.tv) account by live streaming just as a normal playthrough rather than something for his website where I think he edits things down and prepares more. Sadly the sound quality is very poor, as in its very low, he is playing with friends in the background watching, at least at first, but you can barely hear them. Also I think the video jutters sometimes when he's moving through environments, maybe its just me though (or it could also be something with how the game was run since I think he mentions the walking is slow or something). I haven't watched it all the way through yet, as I am kind of holding off on replaying the game and didn't want to be spoiled on parts I had forgotten. You can see it here (as of this post anyway, later on it may be further down the archive) the first one being the Aug 23rd :
http://www.twitch.tv/spoonyone/videos?page=11

Would be cool if there was a higher quality playthrough and it was mentioned on his website (as a Lets Play but not FMV Hell) with the upcoming Kickstarter and all But as I haven't watched the playthrough to the end I don't know their overall opinion of the game itself.

Jen wrote:
2nd, make 2 amazon accounts. And 2 Kickstarter accounts. Evidently (or it was during doublefine) that the MAX kickstarter would take is 10k. The over 10k had to be processed another way which DIDN'T count towards the Kickstarter goal. (sadness)

I just realized I have no idea how to even MAKE a donation to Kickstarter! Yeah, probably something I should learn, huh?

take it easy

p.s.: what about "ripper", Sai?

I do have a amazon account but it costs me more due to overseas conversion on the credit card,
I hope they setup a paypal option as that comes out of my savings account & don't get charged any other fees.

my voice just wrote:p.s.: what about "ripper", Sai?

Never had the game myself but yeah I watched the Spoony playthrough. As well as the other FMV Hell episodes (Johnny Mnemonic, Sewer Shark etc.). But I guess I find the Phantamagoria 2 the most memorable I heard that, Curtis.

Pretty sure Paypal won't be an option initially because they are not set up to do delayed billing like Amazon is. But I think after they reach their goal, BFG can set up such an option.

PayPal's OK for small donations and transactions, but if you have a donation drive and raise too much $ too fast, they'll kick you in the shins and not even apologize for it. It's disgusting how often this happens.

Yeah I'm not sure how different this Amazon checkout is on Kickstarter is but if its like the Amazon stores then at the moment I'm happier with their level of service being pretty reliable. I use PayPal because I have to but I have had hiccups with them and not gotten very good customer support when a payment goes wrong or is "held" for whatever reason. I also dislike how PayPal tries to force certain defaults (because its cheaper for them to process payments in certain ways). I once did a auto-checkout donation online expecting it to come out of my credit card but instead it pulled it out of a bank account leading to a bank fee on my side.

PayPal is convenient though, in that a lot of people use it, so it might be good to have it as a future option. However it can be dodgy to do donation drives through them for goods that don't exist yet depending on what they decide the current policy is such as with these people. On the other hand it seems that the Shadowrun staff offered PayPal as an option after they reached their goal and didn't have a problem as you can see by this google cache of their PayPal page (the page is no longer up since they've closed donations). Perhaps by only starting the PayPal drive *after* they met their goal they avoided the catch that PayPal sometimes pulls regarding "no donations for an unconfirmed product"? On the other other hand the LSL Kickstarter had a PayPal donations page running during the Kickstarter process which states they got an extra $19,416 via that route they may otherwise not have gotten. Of course they could of just got lucky PayPal didn't decide to review the account suddenly. There was also some talk about ulule.com which apparently is a crowdfunding service which uses PayPal (I assume then there'd be no issues with PayPal reviewing the account) but no idea about that site and it would require another "meet a goal" thing.

For those who don't have a credit card there might be some other ways of paying through the Amazon payments system. I was reading on other sites about using debit cards, pre-paid cards (such as pre-paid visa), or services which create virtual valid credit card vouchers (but it'd have to be researched to see if its accepted by Kickstarter's system). At least for pre-paid cards it seems it is confirmed, from a DoubleFine thread:

Amazon has suggested that using prepaid credit cards will work, as long as you pledge $1 extra on top of the rewards tier you desire.

From the same thread someone mentioned using a VISA voucher code service that worked:

I used a 3v vista voucher. Didn’t even need to get a card. Just registered, used ideal to pay for the v3 voucher. After that i used the creditcardnumber v3 sent me by e-mail and amazon-doublefine accepted my donation! https://www.3v.ie/

There might be other options too that people discovered during past Kickstarters. Perhaps Big Finish can make a list of possible ways to donate somewhere for those who don't have a credit card.

Sai wrote:I haven't watched it all the way through yet, as I am kind of holding off on replaying the game and didn't want to be spoiled on parts I had forgotten. You can see it here (as of this post anyway, later on it may be further down the archive) the first one being the Aug 23rd :
http://www.twitch.tv/spoonyone/videos?page=11

Thanks a lot! I had no idea he did these!

joliet_jane wrote:Thanks a lot! I had no idea he did these!

No problem, I was surprised too. I didn't even know he had a Twitch.tv account either even though I watch others on there. Just a shame the recording quality was low, probably easier with headphones on turned up.

Sai
i mean, you listed "black dahlia" as one of the "fmv gems", but no "ripper", also from "take two"
i never played it either, but is it all that bad, that you place it along "johnny mnemonic", "sewer shark" and "phantasmagoria 2" (hey, "phanta" was brilliant!)?
i thought it was pretty decent fmv game, according to some old press reviews

my voice just wrote:Sai
i mean, you listed "black dahlia" as one of the "fmv gems", but no "ripper", also from "take two"

Sorry for the misunderstanding, it was just a list of "FMV games I've played" rather than in general or all gems (I did put X-Files in that list which was kind of meh for me). I'm sure there are some gems I never played. Plus it's all a matter of opinion of course, some may dislike Black Dahlia, something I felt let Black Dahlia down was [spoiler]the WTF ending which some reviewers say almost made them throw the discs at a wall[/spoiler] but up until that point it was engrossing for me so I personally like it.

i never played it either, but is it all that bad, that you place it along "johnny mnemonic", "sewer shark" and "phantasmagoria 2" (hey, "phanta" was brilliant!)?
i thought it was pretty decent fmv game, according to some old press reviews

Oh I thought you were just asking if I'd seen the other playthroughs than Phantasmagoria 2, so it wasn't a personal list or anything, just saying that I had watched the funny Spoony playthrough of it as well as his others. But it's been a long time since I last saw the Ripper one.

Just going by press reviews I think Phantamagoria 1 would be the one that was considered well-received, it was an FMV game too. I've watched playthroughs but not played it personally. Phantasmagoria 2 seemed to take a different more over the top direction and received mostly negative reviews in the press etc. But again different people will have different perspectives on it, some will love it and others find it dissapointing as a sequel.

For Ripper I think it was more well-received in the press etc. just some split views on some of the performances. People seem split on Christopher Walken e.g. some can't take it seriously whilst others say he was doing what he does best and very entertaining for it. A similar thing could be said for some of Overseer's acting that can be considered over the top, I thought Delores Lightbody fit the role that I'm sure was written that way purposefully but peoples reactions to the performance in reviews and discussions has the same split of opinion. Gabriel Knight 2 had the over-the-top tourists scene which some find entertainingly fits as being done on purpose whilst others might just cringe at its inclusion and get a poorer view of the game. So everyone will have a different view on things. I'm sure each game has their fans who actually loved the game, including Sewer Shark

But yeah I never personally played them myself prior to watching the Spoony playthroughs so I can't really put them on a "list" or have that much of an opinion either way but if I had played them back in the day it'd maybe be different.

I loved FMV games in the early 90's because video on computers was simply amazing all by itself.

Our first computer was a Packard Bell 486SX25 and when it turned on the first time, it played a video of some guy (probably the CEO or something) welcoming you to your new computer. It was only a tiny window, but it blew my mind. At the time, most computers didn't even have sound cards, let alone CD-ROM drives. There were also a couple of 30 second AVI clips that you could play. I would show them to my friends and they were amazed.

I also loved my SegaCD and I loved Sewer Shark, it was actually enjoyable and funny. Obviously when UAKM finally came out, it was the pinnacle of greatness. Full motion video cut scenes mixed with great, intelligent and fun 3D gameplay.

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That being said, FMV games had a MASSIVE backlash in the late 90's and most people associate FMV games with garbage. Mostly because they never played games like UAKM & Pandora Directive. Just games like Johnny Mnemonic, Psychic Detective and A Fork in the Tale (trust me, I've played them all).

I would suggest we don't push Project Fedora as some sort of FMV revival or FMV game. Many successful modern games have FMV or very realistic CGI cut scenes. The later Tex Murphy games are fun, intelligent 3D first person adventure games with entertaining FMV cut scenes. It's not a FMV game (in that the game play is FMV).

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Also, I agree we should try and get as much money pledged on the first day as we can to get some exposure. It could backfire it if tappers off to nothing after a few days, but it's probably our best best.

TrueG