Indivisible (2D RPG from Lab Zero)

Indivisible is a 2D RPG that will be made (if the crowdfunding campaign is successful) by Lab Zero, who also worked on Skullgirls. I’m not familiar with the latter game, outside from a bit of controversy regarding the design of the characters. But I tried the prototype of Indivisible and found it to be of a very high quality. The art design is great and the gameplay challenging and (for an RPG) very skill-based. Despite how good the prototype is, it doesn’t seem like they’ll make their goal at this point, which would apparently result in Lab Zero closing down. They’re asking for $1.5 million, which (if reached) will be complemented by another $2 million from 505 games. However, 505 games will only provide that funding if Lab Zero gathers $1.5 million first.

It’s interesting to see that the $1.5 million is perceived by many as them asking too much. But the reality is that games like Shenmue 3 and Bloodstained had already secured funding before starting their Kickstarter, and in the case of Shenmue 3 it’s unknown how much money they’ve actually obtained. This article on Eurogamer offers an interesting view on the actual development costs for a game.

Here’s the link to the project on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/indivisible-a-2d-rpg-for-ps4-xb1-win-mac-linux

Has anyone else tried the prototype?

The prototype is now available for PS4 on the US PlayStation Network, with the EU to follow sometime next week. It’s not looking good for the game’s chances though, as it’s only 39% funded at the moment with only 11 days to go.

The animation is very fluid. As a professional software developer myself, I know just how much work goes into seemingly simple software. The claim that developers should be able to achieve more with less resource is a very common misunderstanding from non-technical folks because much development work is “invisible” to the end user. I agree that, in this case, the costs are realistic.

The campaign page says that they’re aiming for 20-30 hours of gameplay. I wonder how much they could reduce the costs by lowering the playtime to 5-10 hours.

Things were looking bad initially, but the campaign got extended by two weeks (apparently that’s possible on Indiegogo). They’ve now made the goal, there’s about 12 hours left in the campaign.