The best he's going to be able to do is put out some prototype/tech demo. Then he has to hope that drums up more interest. My opinion is there is zero chance this is completely crowdfunded. I'd be shocked if it was even 50% crowdfunded. I understand that EQ cost only 3 million to make, but that was also 1998-1999 costs.
Well if cost 3 million dollars in 1999 but it was made with no real tools and a team that had no idea as to what they were doing. Tool advancement alone would allow for a massive increase in efficiency over 1999.
So in 2014 dollars we are looking at 4.2 million dollars. Given the increased efficiency I think a comparable game could probably be made for close to the same price.
Problem is developers know too much now and the genre has expanded so much. In 1999 as they tripped over their dicks they were trying to do as much as possible. In 2014 you would have to actively leave out or ignore 80% of what you know. That is why it can jig really happen.
I think a similar scale game in 2014 could be made for 8-10 million if they had an amazing money producer who kept them on point and deadline.
The problem is will a project where devs are told to ignore their knowledge, experience and ideas just become a soulless mess, even if it hits its budget?
This is one of the issues I have been pondering between the pantheon and eqn crews and experience is touted left and right. Perhaps inexperience in making mmogs is what is needed at this point to get it right. The experienced developers know all the pitfalls so they drive way around them. This leads to everything being too safe and too sterile.
We talk about the great experience of eq but that was a group of relatively clueless people. What if the dev team for the original eq was a group of veterans with 5-15 years experience? Is there any chance that eq is not horrible?
Unfortunately business never goes backwards, even creative ones. It will literally take six dumb fucks with no experience in a basement to make the next big thing. As they will the only ones making the mistakes that turn into magic.
My favorite thing about eq was parts of it made zero sense and you could feel parts where the devs were fucking around or not sure where they were going. Since then it has been money money money where every development dime must be accounted for. No games have that feeling like "damn the devs must have just been trying shit out here".
With the budget constraints for pantheon I hear too many things that I know are going to add up to a lot. Every backer has the one little thing that is going to cost another 50k in development.
To me the game needs to be SUPER BARE BONES but highly polished. That might not lead to a successful outcome but it still feels like the only viable route. Mounts, auction houses, crafting , my beloved pvp all of it should be out for launch.
The game should solely focus on pve group adventuring for launch. That means the classes are extremely well done. It means combat is top notch. High quality hunting areas and dungeons, great itemization.
Honestly every update/article/answer I see I tell myself half of that stuff should not be a focus for release. To me all stretch goals should 100% post release. I just feel like the game needs to be laser focused and limited to deliver in a handful of areas.
If you can launch that then everything else can be added on after launch. Otherwise even if it gets made we will just have an example of a 5 million dollar mmog that tries to do everything. Anyone care to guess what that looks like?
Literally the only goals for a player at launch should be, where am I going to kill and what am I going to kill?