Welcome to Wrestling Gamers United Newsletter #291
1) Take a deep breath and relax 2) Link of the Week 3) Question of the Week
1) Take a deep breath and relax
************************************ Four years later and here we are. Newsletter #291 and getting ready to finally release something to the public. Ready to prove you guys were right to believe in us. Ready to prove faith and determination trumps lack of experience. Ready to put our balls out there on the table and take whatever criticism comes our way.
And there will be criticism. Tons.
I was a typical message board punk when I started Wrestling Gamers United. You know the type. Taking part in the prerequisite Yuke's bashing, espousing the virtues of Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 and Fire Pro like they were beyond reproach, towing the party line of "Everything Japanese is better" and all American wrestling game developers are evil idiots who hate wrestling and deliberately try to rip us off. If only we 'real' wrestling gamers could make a wrestling game we would do it better. We knew better. And most of us had our fat notebooks fully detailing the design for The Greatest Wrestling Game Ever. So by some miracle we got that chance that every wrestling gamer dreams of. We got the chance to try making that damn game.
And we got spanked.
Having now experienced the reality of game development from the perspective of an actual developer as well as a fan I can say this; That fat notebook of awesome ideas we have? That's great and you need that but it's honestly less than 1% of what it takes to make a game, probably even less. Ideas are the relatively easy part. Executing those ideas and making them happen is an unpredictably massive monster. And the business end of things? Raising the money, running a studio, managing a crew? I could not have underestimated that responsibility any more than I did. Having that fat book of ideas and a lot of money in the bank guarantees you nothing in terms of getting a game made and I've learned that the most flammable substance in the universe is indeed money. At the beginning of production I remember writing over $20,000 in cheques for leasing studio space, equipment, etc. in one day. That's a scary damn feeling. And a lot of times I would hand over pay cheques and think to myself, "the money I'm giving this person bought me absolutely nothing of any value." And on and on it went. We had our highs and we had our lows but we never gave up and we kept pushing forward. This spring we learned we would have to throw out all of our hard work because of legal problems with the engine we licensed. It was a bad scene. I'm telling you now for the first time that our major financial backer threatened to pull the plug on the project. They were ready to pull all funding and cut their losses. Our doors were to have been closed that morning. But I begged and pleaded. We could pull it out of the nose dive. We had learned a lot up until that point and even if we had to start over with a new engine we could progress faster than we did the first time. And fan support was still growing strong. There was still a market ready for what we had to offer if we just had one more chance. We got our reprieve.
We also accepted the reality that you can't build innovative ideas on top of a non-existent foundation. Before you can have fun with advanced physics, AI, counters, reversals, chain wrestling, etc. you have to nail the basics. You have to make two characters simply hit each other and fall down first! As gamers we take the basics for granted. There is a reason very few developers specialize in hand-to-hand combat. It's incredibly intricate and you can't ignore the basics. As much as it crushed my ego to admit it, you have to make Power Move before you make a No Mercy Killer. You can't skip that step. And a new crew with no experience on previous shipped titles cannot defy the laws of time and space and create something in a few years with thousands of dollars that it took AKI, Spike, or Yukes ten years of experience and millions of dollars to create.
So here we are. Down to the wire. Down to our last penny. We've got it to the point where you can have a match that doesn't suck and we pulled it off in just under seven months since we had to start over from scratch. No other crew of guys could have pulled it off. So if we haven't yet reached the lofty goals we started with four years ago we must be depressed and defeated right?
Are you kidding me?! We are sitting here with a working wrestling game engine that we created independently ourselves. We own the content of the game and we answer ONLY to the fans who support us. Yes it's basic and yes we need to work harder to get that elusive No Mercy killer in our hands but dammit WE'RE STILL HERE! Once we ship this first title we will officially be the ONLY North American developer that specializes in wrestling games and we will STILL be 100% indepdently funded and fan supported. That's huge!
How many other North American developers specialize in wrestling games only? None!
How many other wrestling game developers are financially viable and self funded by fan support? None!
How many other wrestling game developers own 100% of their intellectual property? None!
What we will all have accomplished here is unheard of. Pat yourselves on the back.
From this point forward we have the opportunity to grow faster than ever before. With a playable game in everyone's hands and with digital distribution we can now get real hands on feedback and respond to it with updates and improvements almost daily! Wrestling gamers will finally have direct control over the evolution and progress of a wrestling franchise for the first time in gaming history. And we never have to stop! You're going to have control over something at the perfect stage to affect its evolution. It's raw and basic now. Strike, grapple, submission, weapon, aerial, etc. get your hands on it and help steer it forward when it's at the prime state to make tweaks, changes, and additions and before it's so big and bloated that simple changes are impossible to make. I no longer feel the need to impress people with features and depth right away. What we can offer now is something much more groundbreaking, the opportunity to make a difference from the beginning. It just makes so much sense to me now. Why try to complete each and every feature before asking for your help and hope we get it right? Why not trust our supporters to help us from the ground up?
Not too long ago an original supporter of the project emailed me to express his concern that we were becoming just another game developer. We were retreating into our little hole and keeping the fans in the dark more and more. He was right (spunky little guy) and now is the perfect time to change all that. After this first release we are going to completely open up the way we do things. We will collect and publish a public list of bugs, glitches (hopefully there won't be any!), and wishes for new features and game mechanics. Everyone who purchased a copy of the first release will be able to vote on what tasks are addressed next. You will decide what gets done next, what's important, and what isn't. This is finally going be the interactive development environment it was always meant to be. Why did it take me so long to realize that?!
So here's what we're going to offer, a basic working game featuring at least eight wrestlers, the Hammerlock venue, and 1 on 1 exhibition matches. Everything you'll need to test the gameplay and start helping with hands-on feedback. There will be a free version and a full paid version and they will be available via digital download. It will break down like this:
FREE VERSION:
2 characters
No balcony interaction
1p vs. CPU
PAID FULL VERSION:
8 characters (at least)
Full balcony interaction
1p vs. CPU
1p vs. 2p
Access to the 'development zone' and development voting power
More to be announced
How much will the full version cost? Cheap, cheap, cheap. While the vast majority of people told us they would pay over $20 to help support PWX development we've decided to make it even easier by asking only $14.99 for the paid version. And to thank everyone who has supported us over the years we are offering an even lower price if you pre order now, only $10.99 for the full paid version. Now, even though we are offering the discount for pre orders we know there are still many of you who want to support the project by donating a few extra dollars to the cause. Thank you, that's amazing, and we could sure use it! So in addition to the $10.99 pre order option we will also do something no other game company has ever done, give you the option to pay whatever you think supporting PWX is worth if you'd like to give more. All those people who wanted to pay around $20 can still do so and as our way of thanking you we will put your name in the credits of this first release as a special supporter. Want to pledge more than $50 to the PWX cause? Not only will we put your name in the credits we'll literally hang your picture on the Hammerlock Wall in the game as our way of saying thank you forever!
So I guess this is it. In the next few weeks we will have stopped adding new content to the first release and begin polishing it up for release. Wow. I'm excited and I hope you are too. We not only survived this long we might actually prosper. Thank you for your support!! Stay tuned for a special edition newsletter in teh next few days that will announce the opening of the pre order mini-site for what we have decided to call (with your input!) Pro Wrestling X: Uprising
Thank you for Believing.
2) Link of the Week
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Fire Pro Returns isn't the only PS2 import you can get these days!
One question: What about the people who have already pre-ordered from a couple years ago? Does that order count towards Uprising? (I'm beginning to like that name) Or do you have to now pre-order again?
I'm not sure how many people are going to want to get their orders now, or be willing to pre-order just this demo/early model if they already paid before.
Some of us will have no problem ordering again, but the information on options would be nice to have.
I am sure you really need those people who ordered before (either a partial payment or a full payment) to order again, but you may not be able to count on everyone doing so.
Damn,I only wish you could do it in ??????...then I'd buy it right out,I'd even pay for a picture... Please oh please ship this game in Bulgaria.I really want to play it :( By the way I see this as the ECW of wrestling games.Here we are,the hardcore fans of PWX just supporting what we want and love.Dave (starring as Paul Hayman) is just the messiah.The man behind PWX.Just doing what comes naturally and taking a hard situation and making something pretty nice out of it.It's something the mainstream looks down on,it's something...it's Dave's baby.It's not gonna fold,with such hardcore supporters,it never will... So let me ask you this - can we even expect something like a date for the demo and the first version?When?! And where will you ship it?And how?My question is - are you going to ship it to countries like mine so I can buy it?20 bucks in Bulgaria are somwhere under 30 levas (26 levas to be precise).Please,I really want to get a hold of this game,could you do something about us (me and valdik,we really are passionate about this game) I know that the Bulgarian fans are just as hardcore believers as we are.And they have been waiting for such a game for a long long time.Please,Dave,could you?Is it at all possible in your situation?
Great to hear!! I can't wait. I don't have a credit card though so I'll have to send you guys a registered money order to Vancouver. Gimme an address and you guys should have the money by Tuesday. Well, it should be be Tuesday, I'm not sure though because I don't know the procedure for sending money orders cross country. Is there any short of tax I'd have to aware when sending from Toronto to Vancouver? First thing I'm going to do. is play every combination of characters, and see what the flow is like. Then I write a huge review/improvement/wishlist.
Also if you could please ask the team about these specs:
Intel Celeron D 2.93Ghz 512MB RAM (May be bumping to 1GB or higher soon) 38+/160GB HD DVD Drive (writer, etc.) 256MB NVidia GeForce FX 5500 OC
It's about 2 years old but the Video card I put in a just before Christmas last year. Can that run PWX?
Dave, you have finally quelled all of my fears and hesitations about releasing a paid demo. Offering a very limited free version and a more in-depth paid version is a very good idea. If you had said $14.99 three weeks ago when this was first announced I would have been fairly angry and unoptimistic about ever getting a full version of PWX. However now that you've laid out all the details I am completely fine with that price for one reason and one reason only.
That reason being the development zone and development voting. The way you've explained this release in the newsletter has me pretty damned excited. This is indeed truly how PWX should be developed and will really make the moniker "for the fans, by the fans" actually hold a lot more weight than it has seemed to be holding in recent months.
My confidence in PWX is higher right now than it has been since the Telefilm funding. As long as this first demo version shows some strong signs of an incredibly solid framework with enjoyable gameplay I think it will be a success. On the pre-order page I still think that future planned content for the game should be detailed. Things like match types, CAW features, touring mode, custom fed and roster creation etc.... Offering these dangling carrots and the ability to actually have a say in the development of the game and what is included as development progresses in real time would entice quite a few sales I would imagine.
Also to reiterate Moniter's concerns what about those of us that pre-ordered a final version a couple years back? I made a suggestion in an earlier thread that perhaps those pre-orders could still be honoured when (and if) a final boxed version comes out, or perhaps a special edition of the final edition could be released for those people with some extra content. At the very least I think you should offer the paid version of the PWX:Uprising to those that have pre-ordered for free or at least at a deeply discounted price. I for one would still pay the full $14.99 in order to help out, but at least having the option would be a nice gesture to those that supported PWX with $40+ dollars for a pre-order nearly two years ago.
In the same jam as Blueguy, is there anyway to buy this demo with cash Dave?
BTW spudz... Paul Heyman may have been a wrestling mastermind, but as for finances... total 180, which is why ECW went under. But I'm sure Dave is everything Heyman wanted to be! =P
Also, I'd like to add that even though your engine is more 360 friendly, I'd urge that if you guys ever got a chance to go console, that you should go PS3. Now hear me out. I don't hate the 360. I plan on getting both. The reason I say this has more to with fan support than anything else. Now from what I've heard, the PSN doesn't have the restrictive limits of Xbox Live as far as DLC limits. Making updates for fans less cumbersome. Also, with the inclusion of Home it makes it much easier to interact with fans. Wanna get live feedback from fans right away as they're playing? Hold a "conference" and invite everyone to "Your Studio" via Home. And I'm not going to go on about technical specs because that would be fanboyism. Anyway, enough of that for now.
My question really is how will the Development Zone and Voting differ from having our input shared here and holding a poll? Other than we'd be paying for it of course...
I posted a reply about the older pre orders on another thread but I'll repeat it here just in case you missed it:
"Sorry for the confusion! The pre orders we accepted a while back were for the full boxed version of PWX complete with CAW, story mode, etc. and we will absolutely still honor those pre orders when the boxed full version ships. This first release is a different thing and that's why it's so dang cheap to pre order. No worries, you haven't lost your pre orer for the full featured boxed version and it hasn't been replaced by this first little downloadable game were offering."
Spudz, I like your enthusiasm! Damn! This first release will be available via digital download so it will be available to anyone on the planet!We will have a print form people without access to PayPal can use to pre order through the mail. It should be ready next weekend. There is no tax we need to charge just yet. The law says we don't collect GST until we generate at least $30,000 in revenue. I hope we need to register for GST soon!
System specs will change the closer we get to release and more optimization is done. I can tell you that it runs blazing fast on all the workstations here even my 3 year old pig which is an AMD with 1gig ram. However, it doesn't run very well on a Vista laptop we tried but it didn't have a 3D acceleration card in it either. We'll keep you posted as we learn more about minimum specs.
We'll be putting up a secret pre order page and letting everyone know via email this weekend when it's ready. We aren't going to make any formal announcements to the public until we have an Uprising mini-site ready to show.
Thanks again guys!!!
As for a release date, we plan on finishing up the content (new characters, game mechanics, etc.) in a few weeks. After that we go into bug testing mode and depending on how much polish it needs it will be shipped shortly after that.
Sorry guys, seems a few posts were made while I was in the process of writing my last one...
The idea of a Development Zone should go to one of our long time supporters, Dr. Stephen Dann, and crew member Eric for pushing for it as well. We get a lot of people offering input and direction on PWX and it just seems more fair to me to offer that kind of input to those who care enough to order the first release (and boxed version of course!). The idea is to set up a secure access forum where we can all work together a little more privately. Ultimately I envision splitting the Development Zone into different areas for hardcore expansions, story mode writing, CAW testing, etc. but that is a long way off yet and to be honest we don't have the resources to handle anything too big just yet. What do you guys think? Is giving voting power only to those who own the game a snobby thing to do or is it a fair offer?
As for PS3 it will take HUGE support for PWX on the PC platform to be offered that opportunity. We'd need a major publisher to back us and even get us started with PS3 developer status. No small feat. But hey, stranger things have happened!!
Hey Thanks Monitor! Please feel free to ask me anything else if it's still unclear to anyone. Also, anyone who pre ordered the boxed version will also have their name in the credits and get access to the Developer Zone when it opens whether they order Uprising or not. We're cool that way :-)
While I don't see it as a snobby thing to do, I can understand why you're doing it that way. This way we'll be able to concentrate focus onto key areas of development with serious fans who have an intimacy of the game because they know it, they own it. I mean if it was up to me, (if you'd ever hire me...) I'd be done game design school and moving to Vancouver ASAP. As it stands there are many, many dedicated people to the project and this is a way to get them to be apart of something. Not to say, you didn't buy it, piss off... But as I said to have serious people, have serious discussions about the development of the franchise.
And it also helps weed out those who would otherwise show and say, "I want a red ladder instead of teh blak 1!!!" etc.
I mean I'd still love to see:
From my post in the gmmick match topic -- This is what I feel the demo should aspire to be to get to a boxed version. Obviously CAW, A Career Mode, Touring Mode, etc. Could be on top of this:
I say the best thing to do, is just give the fans what they want to the fullest extent. By that I mean, do the standard Ladder (Tables and Chairs can simply be "turned on/off") match, Tables match, Battle Royale and a Cage match (no HIAC -- It's honestly a crappy match and is famous for one spot that was long revealed to be an accident). Polish those up with full functionality (ladder/table/chair/cage-specific grapples the whole deal) for eight players and I guarantee PWX will sell. That's all people really want. And then different types of deathmatches and more hardcore weapons can be added for an expansion pack.
Hey maybe even a bring your own weapons match could be a downloadable expansion. We the fans could vote random crazy ass weapons and you guys could put them up for download on the site, and in matches you could pull them from the crowd, but the standard weapons would stay under the ring.
I'm pretty sure with:
Ladders (Table/Chair option) Tables match Cage match Battle Royal
and the ability to customize the match as we want (40-Man Table match Battle Royale(8 on-screen at a time)), I'm sure we'd be fine until an expansion came out. Hehehe... 40-Man Barbed-Wire/Landmine Deathmatch Battle Royale!!
Would I still be able to pre-order a boxed final version in addition to Uprising? I realize I'm doing it in reverse I guess, but I figure I may as well do it now, while I have a steady income, and some cash to burn.
I'm not overly keen on the idea of the Development Zone, but that is probably due to me being so poor at the moment i know i wont be able to order anything for a wee while (I currently have £50 left of my £2100 overdraft to last me to my next pay check - last weekday of October). Basically I'd love the idea if I was going to be involved.
[quote][cite] PWX_Dave:[/cite] As for a release date, we plan on finishing up the content (new characters, game mechanics, etc.) in a few weeks. After that we go into bug testing mode and depending on how much polish it needs it will be shipped shortly after that.[/quote]
They can't really give a firm date yet, as they don't know how much polish it is going to require. 8)
It certainly SOUNDS as if they are planning for it to be released prior to 08 though.
That's ok!Life is good this year,I won some award called "High Start 2007" sponsored by Postbank.Since I'm such a nerd,I actually got an excellent mark in English and so I get 450 levas.This will be no problem,I just have to sort money troubles with my mom and will turn it into dollars and swear to GOD I will buy it!
Regarding the development zone. I would give voting access to pre-paids as you planned. But I would suggest allowing everyone to post in those forums, and throw in their two cents worth.
I figure that way you get input from many sources but only those that have commited financially to the project will have the right to vote on anything you put up in voting.
and Dave email me if you want to hear a couple good horror stories of giving too much power to the general masses. I got a doozy or two lol
Oh my godness you guys are so evil. First give as a super-small version of PWX and then squeezing us out like fruits with donations and an a bit bigger demo version. Wrestling games are like crack. But the role of the heel was always the best role in the business, right? You still have my support and you always will.