
Balance and the Horizontal Leveling System These games are being made with passion, dedication, and dreams that they hope will become reality, along with thousands of other players who are cheering them along. I'm sure there is an infinite number of other sacrifices the team makes, but it's important to always remember the Human element. Everyone thinking that she just finished some major milestone, instead, she found a coupon for the posters that they had brought with them for the Camelot Unchained panel at Dragon Con.
#Camelot unchained system requirements plus
Having raised 3.5 million dollars to date, plus the considerable sum Mark Jacobs has put into the game himself, it’s obvious that they do have funds to work with so there's no fears on that end, but they’re very, very serious with making sure that the funds they receive and have on hand are sufficient to get a finished successful product out the door.Ĭommitment that goes so far as to one point, one of the employees got up and screamed with glee. It’s not that you have to take this or else you can’t work on the game, it’s that this is what we have to work with and in exchange I’m giving you a big piece of the company and sharing the profits like I did at old Mythic.” ~ Mark Jacobs On the open market, Andrew could make a heck of a lot more than at our studio, same for everyone else. “This team, starting with Andrew, could make more money elsewhere. Not only is the studio running on a lean budget, much like other crowdfunded ventures, the staff are taking pay on the lower end of the scale to make the dream a reality. One of our concept artists are also an animator.” ~ Mark Jacobs We just know we have to focus doing what we need to do for this game. “If you look at how the team is constructed, we’re heavy on engineering talent. It's something that someone in a role like him normally wouldn’t do. Mark Jacobs doesn’t have an assistant, he books his own travel, and he does everything himself. They also use the team intelligently, no one has just a single role. Their focus with their money is bringing in the talent to build the systems necessary for the game to be what the backers want it to be. “We’re here because I come to Dragon Con every year.” ~ Andrew Meggs “If you look at how our studio has traveled, well this would be the first time.” ~ Mark Jacobs As a matter of a fact, Dragon Con was the first show they’ve collectively been to. Much like many crowdfunded studios, they will not spend their backer’s money on trade shows – you won’t find Camelot Unchained at most shows.


Their office doesn’t have the standard amenities of super nice furniture, they all collectively built everything out of IKEA themselves, what they didn’t get from IKEA they brought in from their house, including spare sofas. Mark Jacobs does not take a salary, instead the only thing the company provides him is benefits, even though he’s put a considerable amount of his savings into the game. Once the original Kickstarter is funded, it then becomes a race against time with limited funds and a time frame that is literally only as long as the contributors / backers / donators are willing to give for.Īt CSE, they take their burn rate seriously.

Crowdfunded games literally have only have the war chest provided to them by the original investors (Mark Jacobs in this example) in addition to the funds donated generously by fans who want these ideas to become reality.

City State Entertainment’s Burn RateĪt Dragon Con 2015 I had the chance to speak at length with Richard Garriott in regards to cost cutting measures his studio makes in order to produce their game and the story is literally almost interchangable. We talked about a whole host of things, but the three major points I want to bring up from the discussion are their burn rate, past and present experiences, and Realm vs. As someone who played Dark Age of Camelot furiously for many years, it’s a subject matter I’m somewhat acquainted to, and I feel like the team at City State Entertainment are probably one of the few teams out there that understand what true Realm vs. At Dragon Con 2015 I had the opportunity to join Mark Jacobs CityStateGames) and Andrew Meggs founders of City State Entertainment, two industry veterans on a conversation about their upcoming game, Camelot Unchained.
