Root Double- Before Crime * After Days - Kickstarter launched!

[Marcus]

I wish we could be told why the $50 Vita-only tier is now feasible. The fact that they had originally said it basically "needed" to be in the $225 tier certainly ticked people off, but the explanation made sense. Then we kept seeing it creep down little by little, and now we're finally at a price which most deem acceptable. It would be interesting to listen in on a SP business meeting :P. I'm glad that fans finally got what they want, at least!

Here were their original comments on Vita price for reference:

 

Spoiler

 

First, we want to guarantee this reward completely, since we worked very hard to get it added to the campaign. Therefore, it has been placed at tiers $225 and up to ensure that the additional development funds are gathered rather than teasing a stretch goal only for it to potentially not get met, leaving no one happy. Other campaigns that offer PSVita versions as a pledge have often required an amount near 500k or so to help fund development.

However, as faith to our backers we have decided either we have to omit developing the PSVita version entirely or place it at an amount where it can be guaranteed regardless of stretch goals met. We know we are taking a risk with this, but we want to offer what you guys are asking from us.

Secondly, as stated, the game is too big for the PSVita's physical medium, so we are not comfortable adding PSVita to a tier in which there are simply no rewards beyond a digital download considering the limited availability of the physical goods that are exclusive to this Kickstarter and cost of development that comes with this development. Therefore, for your backing of the PSVita, you will receive the assorted rewards that are included with the PSVita tiers that will only be produced for this Kickstarter campaign along with a copy of the game for the PC, all of which you can enjoy while development on the PSVita version is ongoing.

 

PS: Also curious as to when Sekai Project will finally release any game on Vita -- and which one will end up being first.

[Maxel]

24 minutes ago, Marcus said:

I wish we could be told why the $50 Vita-only tier is now feasible. The fact that they had originally said it basically "needed" to be in the $225 tier certainly ticked people off, but the explanation made sense. Then we kept seeing it creep down little by little, and now we're finally at a price which most deem acceptable. It would be interesting to listen in on a SP business meeting :P. I'm glad that fans finally got what they want, at least!

Well, someone is above Sekai Project, it's Regista who decide what to do and when to do, SP can just give them ideas, propositions and state their opinions. Regista have final say on everything... They decided to allow lower tiers, so they're now available.

[Silvz]

I think the 225 tier was because of the other rewards. The 50 one is only for the vita version, so they tecnically didn't really changed their minds

[LightBladeNova]

Aaand officially funded  

[kingdomcome]

Just nice to see it funded.

[Tyr]

The saddest thing about this Kickstarter is that the over 1000$ guys don't even get their Fanbook.

[Maxel]

14 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

The saddest thing about this Kickstarter is that the over 1000$ guys don't even get their Fanbook.

Well if PP pledges will reach 30k, or if SP will include Backerkit into stretch goals, then maybe? Otherwise 700$+ sign.

[littleshogun]

Since my Root Double thread was better for the game discussion itself, I decided to bump this thread. I think as of now March 2016 release chance was very slim or nearing none, especially today it's already March 30th, and yet the Steam Store still not updated the date other than March. At kickstarter there's still not much update, so I think it's better to prepare the worst. I'd already edited release date for Root Double at VNDB, and hopefully Sekai managed to release it around 2016.

Oh, even if Root Double delayed, at least we'll got Tokyo Babel tomorrow. As for Root Double delay, my speculation probably because Regista still didn't finished the preparation from their side. For kickstarter, I think since they started to closely approximately 2 months before supposed release, I was kind of doubt that if Sekai will release it at March (For comparison successful Libra promised for translated release at November, and their kickstarter finished at January), other than they probably still didn't gather didn't enough necessary money from kickstarter (In this case it should be them that they announced it instead of the fans that try to justify the delay).

And one last thing, I'm still hopeful for Root Double release at 2016.

[Funyarinpa]

1 minute ago, littleshogun said:

Oh, even if Root Double delayed, at least we'll got Tokyo Babel tomorrow. As for Root Double delay, my speculation probably because Regista still didn't finished the preparation from their side.

Yeah, a SP member on NeoGAF said that they were waiting for Regista.

[kingdomcome]

4 minutes ago, Funyarinpa said:

Yeah, a SP member on NeoGAF said that they were waiting for Regista.

Do you know what specific things they're waiting for?

[littleshogun]

@Funyarinpa Thanks for the info. I think it's obviously very vital information and I think DavidB should tell us here, although he might too busy to announce it here here.

@kingdomcome I think I'll quote the latest announcement from Root Double kickstarter below. It was at March 10.

Quote

Super quick/short update, the programming for Root Double is going smoothly, recently Regista has gotten achievements to work with Steamworks and are currently testing cloud saves and the overlay. 

I think that's all the info we could got about Regista activity here (I didn't checked NeoGAF), and maybe Regista was quite busy (I didn't know about technical term like cloud save and overlay for gaming programming). And in the same announcement Sekai said that they still hardworking to bring translated Root Double release here.

[VirginSmasher]

I won't blame them for this one. It's obviously like how Himawari was for a while. I do hope this VN is released soon though. I'd love to play it.

[Funyarinpa]

31 minutes ago, kingdomcome said:

Do you know what specific things they're waiting for?

Quote

I am reading, but I am also traveling (on a convention tour through the US.) to do panels and presentations for the company. I can't cater to all fan demand at once unfortunately. 

Root, all I know is that Japan are doing their last part for launch and I am just waiting for news. It's not even so much NDA as it is them working and being a bit dark on details. The steam page went up very recently which should tell you it's pretty close.

BTW people, I'm sitting here at the office with a Ps4 devkit and some paper to sign. Hmm. Guess I'll have to spill some beans and have some proper release dates for you guys in April and May.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=199465180&postcount=7041

 

Doesn't seem to be willing to disclose what it actually is.

@DavidB, is the Vita port still on track for March '17?

[littleshogun]

So, our new speculation around April or May, eh. And apparently the post was quite new at March 28th. Well, let's see at 62 days later at very late (May 31st).

[Marcus]

4 hours ago, littleshogun said:

So, our new speculation around April or May, eh. And apparently the post was quite new at March 28th. Well, let's see at 62 days later at very late (May 31st).

Yupyup, they have confirmed shifting the release date from March to April.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sekaiproject/root-double-before-crime-after-days-xtend-edition/posts/1533369

[Deep Blue]

delayed.... yay, the translation was ready since the campaign was lunched... everything is ready, the campaign finished almost 2 months ago... why are they delaying it and why they are announcing it right now is beyond me...yay kudos for Sekai  

[Maxel]

34 minutes ago, Deep Blue said:

delayed.... yay, the translation was ready since the campaign was lunched... everything is ready, the campaign finished almost 2 months ago... why are they delaying it and why they are announcing it right now is beyond me...yay kudos for Sekai  

Root Double will have Steam Card support at launch.

Steam. 

[Zenophilious]

@DavidB, any relevant comments?  Some sort of explanation?  I get that you guys can't always give good descriptions as to why delays happen, but it'd be nice if there was some sort of elaboration past "various circumstances", which is incredibly vague.  When I said that you guys had very poor interactions with your customers and and give semi-meaningless updates, this is exactly the type of thing I'm talking about.  JAST is infamous for delays, but at least they tend to give a reason, which makes the waiting process a bit more bearable.  Saying that there's delays essentially because reasons doesn't exactly make people happy to wait.  That's not even mentioning the fact that you guys could have mentioned that it was gonna be late a lot sooner than now, when there's just two days (including today) left in the month.  Admittedly that's a lot better than G-senjou, when quite a lot of time passed since the previously mentioned release date with literally no response at all, but that's still not good.

Kinda figured that was going to happen, a la G-senjou.  If they don't say anything when the release date gets closer and closer, assume that delays are inbound.

[Deep Blue]

3 minutes ago, Maxel said:

Root Double will have Steam Card support at launch.

Steam. 

oh yeah I forgot about steam card....steam cards to shove them right up my...sleeve 

[Darklord Rooke]

1 hour ago, Zenophilious said:

JAST is infamous for delays, but at least they tend to give a reason, which makes the waiting process a bit more bearable. 

Oh? Let's talk Seinarukana then - is that why for years, Moogy and co. were going around saying 'the translation's been complete for ages, who know why the game hasn't been released or what they're doing'? It's only recently we found out they wanted a Steam release.

Then there was that game which was stuck at 99% progress, it's "being inserted" for about a year. Was it Yumina? I can't remember. And who knows what's going on with half their Nitro+ stuff, like Sumaga.

The delay for Root Double is less than a month, which is pretty small considering most delays in the game dev world, and miniscule compared with JAST. Communication could be better, but the wait is small enough that it should be bearable either way. If it gets pushed back to December, then again to next March then ...

[bigfatround0]

25 minutes ago, Rooke said:

Oh? Let's talk Seinarukana then - is that why for years, Moogy and co. were going around saying 'the translation's been complete for ages, who know why the game hasn't been released or what they're doing'? It's only recently we found out they wanted a Steam release.

Then there was that game which was stuck at 99% progress, it's "being inserted" for about a year. Was it Yumina? I can't remember. And who knows what's going on with half their Nitro+ stuff, like Sumaga.

The delay for Root Double is less than a month, which is pretty small considering most delays in the game dev world, and miniscule compared with JAST. Communication could be better, but the wait is small enough that it should be bearable either way. If it gets pushed back to December, then again to next March then ...

Big difference is that JAST doesn't take people's money beforehand. If they used KS then I'd agree with you but they self fund their localizations. 

[solidbatman]

3 minutes ago, bigfatround0 said:

Big difference is that JAST doesn't take people's money beforehand. If they used KS then I'd agree with you but they self fund their localizations. 

You dont have to pay via kickstarter to get the VN. I didnt and I still fully intend to purchase it when it comes out. Or did dovac come out of his little bedroom, put a gun to your head, and force you to help with the KS?

[bigfatround0]

1 minute ago, solidbatman said:

You dont have to pay via kickstarter to get the VN. I didnt and I still fully intend to purchase it when it comes out. Or did dovac come out of his little bedroom, put a gun to your head, and force you to help with the KS?

I just assumed the people that are pissed off are backers.

[Chuee]

Why are you talking about JAST? If someone honestly expects them to release a game reasonably-timed they only have themselves to blame. 

In the same respect I don't know why people are mad about this. The fact that the month went on without them announcing a set release date should've been a pretty big indicator that it wouldn't release on time. 

[Fred the Barber]

For those not getting or reading the updates, the reason for the delay is quite readily apparent. You can put that "the translation has been done for months" gun down, now, because it's pretty clear from past updates that the work for Steam integration was the last thing they were working on, and it's probably what took more time than they projected, leading to the delay. Regista probably significantly underestimated the amount of time needed for the various aspects of their Steam integration dev and testing, since they haven't done it before - this is an extremely common occurrence in any flavor of software engineering.

I do find it annoying that Sekai Project stated a March release and then didn't communicate a delay until the end of the month - maximum transparency in communication and somewhat-cushioned estimates are the best way to avoid getting into trouble with delays. Generally, people don't actually mind these kinds of small delays very much, as long as you give advance warning of the delay, can clearly explain why the project was delayed, and can give a confident projection for when it can be expected. I actually don't even mind the "lots of things happened" kind of explanation, since I can read between the lines of the other updates, but they should work on improving the other two aspects (because delays will continue to happen; that's just how software is).

Also, from the sounds of the Kickstarter update email, Regista went kind of dark on them for the last few weeks, but I think that's an unfair dodge on their part - I still hold SP responsible for not communicating better. As the publisher, they're responsible for polling status from Regista, minding the release timeline, and keeping people updated, and I do think they dropped the ball. But that said, it's far from a big deal, and like others have pointed out, they're still doing a vastly better job than a particular competitor of theirs (though, honestly, JAST USA is more of a joke than a competitor, at this point).