Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen: Demo Prototype Video Shows Off Game Features

SBFord

The latest update from the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen team reveals the first-ever demo prototype video. Brad McQuaid adds a bit of a caveat by acknowledging that it is a very early build and that texture errors are to be expected. Even with that, it's a pretty neat look at a game that many hope to see fully funded in the near future.

Very rough first draft of longer video, using latest build (4/11/14). Has some texture errors (purple stuff) in one section. Needs work, but is better than nothing and shows how far we got on the prototype/demo. I plan on making a demo #2, more thought out, polished, ambient music, etc., but this needed to go out ASAP for a variety of reasons.

Check out the video on the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Facebook page.

brihtwulf

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this game wasn't continuing development because of their funding drying up?  Maybe I just misunderstood the recent goings on.

SBFord

The actual wording was that it was "slowing down dramatically" as the team sought other sources of revenue. The initial funding dried up but that isn't stopping development completely.

ITPalg

Originally posted by brihtwulf
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this game wasn't continuing development because of their funding drying up?  Maybe I just misunderstood the recent goings on.

https://www.pantheonrotf.com/blogs/355/91/pantheon-s-financial-situation

Tygranir

The demo actually looks pretty good.

Utinni

The only thing that gives me hope this game may exist is that Brad has mentioned that they would be happy with 30k concurrent subs when its finished. The market for this game is so far gone it's sad. I picked wow again the other day, someone aggro'd a ton of extra stuff one pull and the entire group just left, even though we respawned without penalty 30 feet away. People are even complaining that it takes too long to level in ESO(Yes, too much stuff to do in an elder scrolls game).

 

Best of luck, will continue to support the project when I can.

kevjards

looking good.Really hope that this game gets made.I make my little contribution each month in the hope that it will.God knows we need something like this that's for sure.

fantasyfreak112

I'm shocked at how good the character model and animation looks at this point. The world looks like an upgraded EQ1 also. Maybe it deserves funding afterall.

 

Nirrtix

The demo was amazing... I donated during the kickstarter and am proud to say I have stuck with Pantheon through thick and thin. This game has potential, I think this game will be epic once it gets backing. 

Nirrtix

Originally posted by brihtwulf
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this game wasn't continuing development because of their funding drying up?  Maybe I just misunderstood the recent goings on.

No... they were continuing making a demo with a limited staff until they get funding.... This was always necessary.

Nirrtix

Originally posted by Utinni

The only thing that gives me hope this game may exist is that Brad has mentioned that they would be happy with 30k concurrent subs when its finished. The market for this game is so far gone it's sad. I picked wow again the other day, someone aggro'd a ton of extra stuff one pull and the entire group just left, even though we respawned without penalty 30 feet away. People are even complaining that it takes too long to level in ESO(Yes, too much stuff to do in an elder scrolls game).

 

Best of luck, will continue to support the project when I can.

Utinni most games are not World of Warcraft. Eve Online does not have much more than that. Fact of the matter is a smaller MMO can be as profitable as a large one. Look at SWTOR the $300 million behemoth that is now free to play. I think Pantheon would be more successful made with much less and pay to play for many many years. The market for this game is fine... it is catering to people who want to level slow. ESO was catering to Elder Scrolls players.

All help will be appreciated! If you ever want to chat I am also Nirrtix on the Pantheon site!

Nirrtix

Originally posted by ITPalg

Originally posted by brihtwulf
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this game wasn't continuing development because of their funding drying up?  Maybe I just misunderstood the recent goings on.

https://www.pantheonrotf.com/blogs/355/91/pantheon-s-financial-situation

Hon that problem will be no more when we get a investor.... The crowdfunding was always to get the demo made... we did fall a little short early, but we are getting it ready. Brad just wanted to let you know up front the situation for now. 

I believe he even said in that thread you posted that once we get that investor we will be in full development mode.

syriinx

worst case scenario:  when SoE is done with EQN then they bring Brad back (again) and his team to finish Pantheon.

 

Pantheon will happen, but even though I like SoE I would rather see it remain independent so they arent tempted to try to give it a broader appeal.

Nirrtix

Originally posted by syriinx

worst case scenario:  when SoE is done with EQN then they bring Brad back (again) and his team to finish Pantheon.

 

Pantheon will happen, but even though I like SoE I would rather see it remain independent so they arent tempted to try to give it a broader appeal.

I agree, this is why Brad has been looking for an Angel Investor who would let him keep Creative Control and was avoiding big Publishers. I doubt Everquest Next will disappear, but Everquest 1 and Everquest 2 players I know do not think it looks appealing. Of course it was the same scenario with Everquest 2 and Everquest 1. Regardless Brad will find an investor once he gets the video made. In the end Brad will turn to a big publisher, as it is still better than no Pantheon.

To those who say there is no demand for this game... there is old-school MMOs are being made all over now. Camelot Unchained and Shroud of the Avatar are both old-school and remakes of Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online. Everquest is what most see Pantheon as a remake of in gameplay. I am invested in all three games myself. I also loved all three originals.

Some critisize Bard on how much they think he invested... Brad sold his Porche and Ferarri to make this game. HE probably has more invested in it than anyone else

DamonVile

Originally posted by Tygranir
The demo actually looks pretty good.

So does water on the horizon when you're standing in a desert.

Nirrtix

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by Nirrtix

Originally posted by Utinni

The only thing that gives me hope this game may exist is that Brad has mentioned that they would be happy with 30k concurrent subs when its finished. The market for this game is so far gone it's sad. I picked wow again the other day, someone aggro'd a ton of extra stuff one pull and the entire group just left, even though we respawned without penalty 30 feet away. People are even complaining that it takes too long to level in ESO(Yes, too much stuff to do in an elder scrolls game).

Best of luck, will continue to support the project when I can.

Utinni most games are not World of Warcraft. Eve Online does not have much more than that. Fact of the matter is a smaller MMO can be as profitable as a large one. Look at SWTOR the $300 million behemoth that is now free to play. I think Pantheon would be more successful made with much less and pay to play for many many years. The market for this game is fine... it is catering to people who want to level slow. ESO was catering to Elder Scrolls players.

All help will be appreciated! If you ever want to chat I am also Nirrtix on the Pantheon site!

GW2 makes half again as much as EVE and SWTOR makes half again as much or so than GW2. Smaller games aren't as profitable as larger games. Smaller games with less overhead might be as sustainable as larger games, but they won't be as profitable. TOR isn't less successful now that it dropped the sub requirement, it is more successful financially.

GW2 is not a monthly subscription based game.... Neither is SWTOR. That would be why... You are right smaller games would have less overhead. In the end I think it more depends on the business model. I do not think the intent is to be ultra profitable. SWTOR is not profitable as it cost 300mil to make and went FTP in a year as well. IT has not made that up on FTP I guarantee you.

DamonVile

Originally posted by Nirrtix

 

GW2 is not a monthly subscription based game.... Neither is SWTOR. That would be why... You are right smaller games would have less overhead. In the end I think it more depends on the business model. I do not think the intent is to be ultra profitable. SWTOR is not profitable as it cost 300mil to make and went FTP in a year as well. IT has not made that up on FTP I guarantee you.

You might want to check some facts first before you make that guarantee. EA is a public company and their numbers have been posted here hundreds of times. The only people who still believe what you just said are people who want to believe it regardless of facts.

Nirrtix

Originally posted by DamonVile

Originally posted by Nirrtix

 

GW2 is not a monthly subscription based game.... Neither is SWTOR. That would be why... You are right smaller games would have less overhead. In the end I think it more depends on the business model. I do not think the intent is to be ultra profitable. SWTOR is not profitable as it cost 300mil to make and went FTP in a year as well. IT has not made that up on FTP I guarantee you.

You might want to check some facts first before you make that guarantee. EA is a public company and their numbers have been posted here hundreds of times. The only people who still believe what you just said are people who want to believe it regardless of facts.

EA makes many games... juut because the company is profitable does not mean that SWTOR is hon... they can claim they made up that 300 mil, but that does not mean that is true. That is like saying a politician saying something is true makes it true. you are getting off topic though. Comparing two FTP games to a subscription based game made for a small community is apples and oranges. Both can be profitable... Both can be very profitable depending on the business model.

EndoRoboto

SWTOR, a thriving financial success? [mod edit]

Pantheon, I haven't lost faith. [mod edit]

DamonVile

Originally posted by Nirrtix

Originally posted by DamonVile

Originally posted by Nirrtix

 

GW2 is not a monthly subscription based game.... Neither is SWTOR. That would be why... You are right smaller games would have less overhead. In the end I think it more depends on the business model. I do not think the intent is to be ultra profitable. SWTOR is not profitable as it cost 300mil to make and went FTP in a year as well. IT has not made that up on FTP I guarantee you.

You might want to check some facts first before you make that guarantee. EA is a public company and their numbers have been posted here hundreds of times. The only people who still believe what you just said are people who want to believe it regardless of facts.

EA makes many games... jsut becuase the company is profitable does not mean that SWTOR is hon... you are getting off topic though. Comparing two FTP games to a subscription based game made for a small community is apples and oranges. Both can be profitable... Both can be very profitable depending on the business model.

I wasn't arguing that. Any business no matter how small can make money and lots of it, if it finds the right market and is run well. Only an idiot would argue against that. I was disagreeing with your made up "statistic" You should actually go look at one of the reports rather than make a reply like you just did. If you want to sound informed you should try being informed. It's irritating having to read that opinion over and over when the information has been available for a long time....and posted more times than I can count.

Sorry to sound harsh but it's a subject that SWTOR haters just can't seem to let go...and it bugs me This game I actually want to see published just to see if a game like it can actually do well. I'm not big on forum predictions of massive success. I like to see reports of massive amounts of money being made or massive numbers of happy fans actually playing before I make up my mind....I have 0 interest in playing atm.

Seelinnikoi

1 - Funds dry up and development is stopped.

2 - Devs have the brilliant idea of showcasing some old game features in order to secure more buffoons for money.

Repeat the 1-2 loop until the game is finished or ditched for good.

 

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on you and me.

AIMonster

It's worth mentioning to people interested in funding a number of shady things here before they part with their money.

1.  The Kickstarter funds were intended to be used to backpay employees at "industry standard" and create a studio / startup the business side of things.  Both of these are clearly against Kickstarter rules.

2.  During the Kickstarter (with about 2 weeks remaining on the Kickstarter) they used the Kickstarter page to move people to their website for funding - again this was against Kickstarter regulations.

3.  You have to pay a large amount of funding OR a subscription fee of $15 to gain access to the official Pantheon forums as an "Apprentice Developer" otherwise you can't view threads; however you can view so (worthless IMO) subforums on the site.  You can actually still view posts through a security loophole on the site. 

4.  Many people were posting asking questions like where has the money been going and why hasn't very much been shown on the official forums.  There was issues with moderation on this, which in the game's defense were resolved, although one could argue poorly.  It's hard to say if the forums are heavily moderated to remove negative posts or not as it costs a significant amount of money to view them.

5.  After several months of the Kickstarter there was an announcement that development is slowing down (almost stopping).  When this came to light, apparently at the surprise of many of the team members, there were many questions posed about the funding.

6.  A team member was disgruntled enough to go on KTam radio (a podcast type site that supported Pantheon) and complain about Brad, including how he pocketed most of the funding for himself and while he did pay people working on the game he paid them very little compared to himself.  Keep in mind that once you use crowd funding as option you are generally expected to pay living costs out of your own pocket and use the crowd funding only to help produce your game.

7.  Brad very recently made a post threatening to sue people for libel/slander if anyone tries to convince any of his team members to back out of the project, convince a team member to "break NDA", or tries to discourage people from funding the project.  He's been ridiculously critical and defensive of any criticism he's received over management of this.

Now, to be fair it's a great prototype for something that was put together in 2 months with only one actual programmer and a couple of artists working on the project and I do think Brad intends to have this game made and possibly may even see it through, but I'd really encourage people to not give them anymore crowd source funding till some sort of accountability is in place and we know exactly where the money is going. 

Cramit845

I've been excited about this game for awhile, but I have to agree with some of the above posters that the management has me very worried.  For full disclosure, I've been an active member on PJPantheon.com from the beginning, I'm part of the leadership of Pantheon Rising, a P99 guild that came from that site with other supporters of the game, and I follow KTAM Radio as much as I can since they seem to be home to some of the core believers in this game.  So I've been balls deep in this for awhile now, however I am definitely a bit cautious of everything right now.

I'm so happy they got a demo out, although I feel it took WAY to long.  Something they shoulda had before they started kickstarter but now that's neither he nor there.  The end all of this is really the project has been mismanaged right from the beginning.  Which has caused a lot of the issues that they have been having since starting the kickstarter.  I'm so happy that Brad has continued to be committed to the project and doing what he can however I think he needs to rethink his role.

He is a great Lead Designer IMO, cause I love his design decisions typically.  However as a manager, he is piss poor.  I feel so bad for the other devs who from what I heard last have started looking else where for work so they can pay the bills, and ya can't blame them what so ever.  When money comes into it with Brad I feel like the whole project, no matter what project, goes straight to hell.

If he stays as CEO of the studio and the main manager, then I am definitely worried, I would hope he could find someone to fill this role for him so that he can do what he's best at, which is designing the game.  However I also understand that when you find someone else to "Manage", that's when the game can change drastically and not necessarily in the direction he would want.  It's very much a catch 22, but with his past in other games, as well as how this has gone so far I think he needs to change his role to lead designer and let someone else manage the company/investors/publishers.

I don't want the games idea to be watered down AT ALL but I also don't want the project to fail cause of more of the same mistakes that have already happened.

Keep it up Brad, just realize what your good at and what your not, No hard feelings at all.  Lets keep Pantheon Alive!

KTAMRadio

Originally posted by Nirrtix

Originally posted by ITPalg

Originally posted by brihtwulf
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this game wasn't continuing development because of their funding drying up?  Maybe I just misunderstood the recent goings on.

https://www.pantheonrotf.com/blogs/355/91/pantheon-s-financial-situation

Hon that problem will be no more when we get a investor.... The crowdfunding was always to get the demo made... we did fall a little short early, but we are getting it ready. Brad just wanted to let you know up front the situation for now. 

I believe he even said in that thread you posted that once we get that investor we will be in full development mode.

Have to correct you here. The Crowd funding was to make the game, not a demo. The Demo was not brought up until Brad came on K-TAM when he broke the news about the funding and the "halting of development" Look it up, it means Stop/pause/not moving. There was no mention anywhere about a demo at any time in relation to the funding. You are a mod on that site now. Time to start telling the truth or you become an even bigger problem to the success. If the community can't trust a moderator to be honest as a representative of Brad then you make Brad look like a liar too.

Also, you say the crowd funding was only for the demo, who makes other people pay for their business start up? Where is the risk to Brad in this? None. But the community paid for it and so did the dev team that got soundly screwed. Was Pantheon intended to be Crowd funded or investor funded? Can it be both? Questions asked.

K-TAM is looking for honesty with the community.

Nirrtix

Originally posted by EndoRoboto
SWTOR, a thriving financial success? [mod edit]

Pantheon, I haven't lost faith. [mod edit]

I agree 100% I have played many MMOs while waiting for a true old-school MMO and they all burn me out SWTOR is blah. I love the theme of Star Wars, but it is like a 1 player game. Elder Scrolls is no different. Tons of money spent on a game is nota good game, when it goes free to play, that is worse. 300 mil and free to play in 1 year, there is no way they paid that off. EA is probably keeping it running knowing eventually they will cut their losses.

To expect every MMO to be the mega game World of Warcraft is is rediculous. Before World of Warcraft most games had about 100k players, Everquest had 400k at peak. P1999 has a decent population for how hard it is to get on the game.

itchmon

ai yi yi, the premise of the game is so appealing to me, but the "pay to forum" is sooooo friggin distasteful it makes me not want to give them money.

 

brad wise, i know the guy has a good head for games, though he needs a support team around him to keep him focused.  I appreciate his desire to keep away from big-brand publishers but there are plenty of middle-brand ones that would be able to help fund a game who arent afraid of niche.  I hear CCP has just cut a project loose; i cant think of a company who has made solid gold from a niche game more than ccp.