jsonedecker

They are not open to US developers due to how the service works. It's considered an investment.

Hey guys.... In our effort to make good decisions moving forward we put together a quick survey that I would appreciate people taking. It's only 6 questions and shouldn't take more than a minute or two. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8JWQGPP Thanks for your support! -John

Well, we didn't make it this time but thanks to all those that supported us on the Kickstarter. Time to regroup and figure out the best way to charge ahead!

Just thought I'd let everyone know that we are going to include SP/Co-op of Ground Branch FREE to all KS backers. Here is the official update: We have heard the message loud and clear and are happy to announce that we are going to offer ALL of our Kickstarter backers that pledged from the minimum $15 reward up, the Singleplayer/Co-Op portion (with advanced AI) of GROUND BRANCH for FREE. Every copy of the game gets this; So for example, if you get a FIRETEAM EDITION then all 4 copies will be eligible for the additional release. This will be available some time after the initial release that will include full multiplayer (objective-based TvT, PvP) and core single player/co-operation gameplay (e.g. terrorist hunt against bots) from the start. Let the world know so that we can all enjoy GROUND BRANCH!

Yeah Defunkt, you more or less hit the nail on the head so to speak as to why things aren't going better for the KS. Though, my "rant" above was aimed more at why we specifically get attacked or questioned for doing either the same things as others or for trying to justify why we do certain things by providing concrete examples and legitimate answers. I'm not not necessarily trying to argue the "why isn't Ground Branch being received better" point.

I have tried to stay out of this but I always find id frustrating that people try to compare mod teams to what we are doing. For some reason they think using UE3 includes some sort of gamemaking magic bullet that requires less work or something. Mod teams that make full games are great and I love seeing them, but in all honesty they are far and few between. They are building a "game" on top of another game and have at least 50% of the work done and usable already. Making "realistic" weapons usually consists of a new model, animations and tweaking the built in weapon system. And how many have a fully working full body awareness system? For Ground Branch, we have have a working game engine but the entire character/movement and weapons systems are designed and built from scratch. Getting that full body awareness system built so that is actually works is no small trivial task. Our weapon system is 100% new and does not use anything that you find in UT. So there is a LOT of foundational work that has been done that mods don't need to worry about. The other thing that bothers me is that we asked for a very reasonable $425k. You people must have no idea what so ever what it costs to make a game that people would pay for. Mods are great. Free games are great. But very very few carry the level of quality and features that most people would actually pay money for. They are super as mods or freebies, but once you slap a $30 price tag on them people bitch and moan about how buggy or "dated" the graphics are. It happens all the time. Also, why is it that no one seems to complain that more well known developers ask for the same amount of money. Why is it not 'absurd' and 'ridiculous' that Harebrained Schemes asked for $400k to do Shadowrun? Or that InXile asked for the ungodly amount of $900k for Wasteland 2? I mean really..... professionals have to make a living. And for the love of all that is holy... why do people not understand that Serellan asked for $200k to get an office and make a demo to show investors? They promised a full retail PC version PLUS 360/PS3 console versions! That money will barely cover the making of the demo when hiring of actual professionals is involved. If there is no, or not enough, investor money then that is going to be one huge !@#$% sandwich. How is that approach any more logical or "trustworthy" than my upfront 'tell you exactly what our plan and budget calls for to deliver exactly what we are offering' approach? It dumbfounds me.

We will be randomly drawing a name from all backers for a free BFS T-Shirt once we hit 500 backers. If you believe at all in the project we need any and all help getting the word out. We still have a long way to go but need to get people to show their support!

Thank you... much appreciated. :)

Thank you... And same to you with Arma3! A big fan of both ArmA and the VBS side of things. Have used it quite a bit on some government work.

Understood. My intent wasn't to "advertise" in a infomercial sort of way, but I see how it did go against that rule. Apologies.

No worries. An eye of skepticism in today's world is a good thing. It's good to question what's presented to you so you can make accurate decisions. It's not just me, sorry I wasn't clear. There are 3 of us plus a very dedicated group on the web side of things. We have had others come and go as well. I actually have a group of programmers ready to go to finish this thing off once the Kickstarter succeeds... Digital Confectioners. That team is led by James Tan, an experienced UE3 programmer and one of the guys that writes UDK docs for EPIC. We have worked together a few times in the past and will spearhead the programming side of things. Anyway, we are truly an "indie" group working hard to make this happen. I have worked on many teams in my career and some of the most mobile and productive were the smaller focused ones. Sure, I will be doing plenty of project management, but will most certainly still be doing plenty of design and production work as well. High speed, low drag is the motto and you must wear different hats to succeed. Please keep an eye on things and I would appreciate your support once you feel comfortable with what we are presenting. :ok:

Hi everyone, I thought I would pop in here to explain a few things about Ground Branch, NORG and it's history so there are no misconceptions. BFS was founded to be a contract for hire group in 2004 and have consistently done work for hire projects ever since. Sometimes it was just myself and other times there were others on board. Both games and military simulations. The last one being a 1.5 year stint with Tripwire on the latest Red Orchestra as well as some training stuff with the JFK Special Warfare Center and School at Ft. Bragg. I started Ground Branch in 2007 as an idea, a few renders and a set of design documents and set out to get it funded. I spent over a year and countless dollars trying to convince publishers to fund it with no success. I then spent another year trying to find a private investor with the same outcome. We started the forums and "announced" the game because we wanted to be a little different and provide insights to the community. This kind of worked against us a bit with some publishers actually. But that is how I wanted things to go. During this time a small group of us were developing prototypes of features and making some art. We would share things that we could along the way. At all times though, everyone involved had other paying commitments whether they be jobs or contracts. So actual work on GB would go in spurts. We had times where 2 months would go by with no real work being done. Then have 2 solid weeks. This makes development very tough. To shorten the story, people had to leave the project and take on full time jobs to pay the bills or could no longer commit. I would be able to pay for help when I could and found a programmer that ended up taking those prototypes and building them into solid feature foundations. That was sporadic as well as I had to refill my savings to pay for the work. Along the way I learned UnrealScript so I to could help out on some basic things so that the project would not die. So here we are today. We have a very solid foundation to work from, some good looking in game art and a working demonstrable game framework to build from. A lot of content needs to be made and features need to be finished and/or polished. A few secondary design ideas need to be implemented, but all pre-production is completed. Was the journey long? Hell yes, but it was also very non-typical with many starts and stop along the way. Self funding for an average guy like me is extremely tough. As for NORG, people make it too complicated. It isn't to simulate reality like air density, how dew is formed in the cool morning or things like that. It doesn't mean you simulate cleaning your weapon either. It's simply stating that you do not make artificial changes to try to "balance" something or remove a realistic feature to compensate for something else. So you know, the quoted Hatchetforce is the one who developed NORG with me. He is a 20+ Army SF Vet that is an avid gamer and we worked this doctrine. It has it's limits and we have stated that. So it's not the ideal of simulating every aspect of reality. I respect opinions, but want to make sure people have all the facts as well. Cheers! John