A Go for an IndieGoGo: Indivisible

After finishing work on Skullgirls, the big question that crossed the minds of everyone who enjoyed Lab Zero Games’ first big project concerned what they’d work on next. But no one expected them to respond (in so many words) with a game inspired by Valkyrie Profile and a few Metroidvania titles. Indivisible was revealed around Anime Expo time in early July, and Lab Zero has been in the process of marketing it to dedicated fans who could help fund the project when its crowdfunding campaign started.

Titles like this require a plethora of work from a small team, thanks to frames for each character being lovingly hand-drawn by their artists, helmed by art director Mariel Kinuko Cartwright. Skullgirls proved this team could make it happen, but those working on it deserve to be paid well for their work. Prior to the campaign, they had to give fans and potential backers a good reason to pledge to make the project happen. Unlike some larger organizations, small teams which haven’t been around for long don’t have the luxury of cruising through a campaign with nothing but nice concept artwork and descriptions.

But compared what campaign managers usually present, Indivisible’s sticks out due to Lab Zero going above and beyond what they ostensibly needed. They posted extensive gameplay footage of the prototype they worked on, and artwork showing how character art and animations will be as detailed as Skullgirls’ on the game’s official website and blog. Heck, they even let people download the prototype, whose link is included on the main page for Windows users (click “Donwload”).

Indivisible’s protagonist is a girl named Ajna, a tomboy raised and taught various skills by her father, whose quest begins when her village is attacked by mysterious warlords. She subsequently ventures out to confront them to learn the truth about why this incident occurred, though she’ll pick up a bunch of friends (called “Incarnations” here) along the way. Its world is inspired by Southeast Asian mythology, with environments and various elements derived from many cultures. Lab Zero called it a “globetrotting adventure,” which gives a good impression of how big the final product will be.

Hiroki Kikuta is composing the soundtrack, a man mostly known for providing work for the second and third Mana games, and Soukaigi. This will mark the first full soundtrack he’s composed outside of eroge titles (i.e. hentai games); and with this and his contribution to the also-crowdfunded Pixel Noir (covered last week), this marks the return to westerners hearing more of his music in games, beyond SoulCalibur V.

Lab Zero explained that the total budget for the title will be $3.5 million on the campaign’s page. Of that, $2 million will be provided by publisher 505 Games when (if?) the game is funded, while the $1.5 million (and potentially more) from crowdfunding will cover the remaining costs. But that still means they’re asking for a grandiose $1.5 million for an initial goal, incredibly high for a project that isn’t a direct spiritual successor to an older title. I’ve been nervous about the goal since first reading of it on the official blog, and given its current funding pace, my fears were sadly vindicated.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s campaign showed that organizations in the past have underestimated how much backers are willing to pay. But here, I’ve seen potential pledgers who are finding $30 for a digital copy of Indivisible too much to swallow — despite it also including a digital soundtrack. That’s a shame, because games should ideally be priced what they’re worth, but we’re in a world where gaming types try to get deals for everything. That’s OK in theory, but it also has the unintended side effect of lowering the worth of games. It hurts more when these are usually the same types of people who aren’t hesitant to drop $60 on a big-budget AAA game, and see a game like this worth less because it uses 2D hand-drawn artwork. Gamers are great, huh?

But that’s not the only concern. It’s also a question of whether people trust IndieGoGo over Kickstarter. Unfortunately, the former has been sullied through seedy organizations that have run flexible funding campaigns, which involve the creator taking the money raised for projects regardless of whether the campaign was successful. Keep in mind this one’s a fixed funding one, similar to a Kickstarter campaign. There’s also the issue of IndieGoGo charging people immediately after pledging and refunding them if the campaign isn’t successful, unlike Kickstarter’s policy to charge everyone after a campaign’s completion.

Perhaps the largest impediment to Indivsible’s success lies in the kind of game it is. The Valkyrie Profile titles are known as some of the best games tri-Ace has ever developed, but they’re far from easy to pick up and play. Since this game is heavily inspired by those, it also inherits some of that abstractness. It’s not to the same extent, but players will have to experiment to find the best combinations and juggles to topple enemies easily in its battles, since each character has three different normal attacks with different properties. And that’s not getting into their special attacks.

I obtained a good understanding of how things work after playing the prototype, which took me 39 minutes to complete, and appreciate its depth. Those aforementioned combo possibilities will increase tenfold in the main game, since the trailer teased an extensive cast. But similar to Skullgirls in terms of fighters, this game isn’t the easiest to pick up and play, and the prototype’s boss is a serious test which determines whether players have been paying attention. Not everyone playing will take the time to learn its mechanics and hit properties, which alone made this project a huge risk to crowdfund. Sadly, this is also showing in its funding rate.

Should Indivisible’s campaign succeed, it will be by far the first gaming-related campaign to reach such a height through IndieGoGo. As of right now, the most successful gaming campaign on the service was, incidentally, Lab Zero’s Keep Skullgirls Growing one, which raised $828,768 despite its far more modest initial goal of $150,000. Comparatively around 19 campaigns reached the $1.5 million level or higher on Kickstarter, with the recently covered BattleTech being the newest. I’d like to hope this campaign will maintain its current funding rate for its remaining 38 days, but it’s not looking good.

If it’s not successful and Lab Zero can’t find any phantom investors, hopefully they can start again on Kickstarter, even though they demand a bigger cut of the crowdfunded money compared to IndieGoGo. If that can’t happen, hopefully they find another investor to give them the $1.5 million. This game really should get made, and damn would it be a crying shame if it didn’t. If it succeeds, it’s tentatively planned for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in January 2018.