What is Dota IMBA?
If you have played Dota for a long time, you might remember that it was not the only warcraft 3 map lying around during its heyday. Plenty of other, some times very fun, maps existed and were played. One of those was
Mimiya's Dota IMBA!
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IMBA was a variation of Dota where
everything was absolutely overpowered - so powerful, it was broken. And, as Mimiya brilliantly put it, the intent of the map was to have
"Imbalance in balance" - create a Dota game where all heroes are super powerful, and super fun to play, but the game is still playable and
enjoyable, without any hero being truly impossible to play against.
This project consists in bringing IMBA to Dota 2 - using the Workshop's custom games system, currently in alpha, and soon to be released by Valve. We will not do a direct conversion of IMBA - rather, we'll use its ideas and spirit, and go on a new direction. Our purpose is to have you be able to play any of Dota's regular heroes, and feel like you're playing the same thing, but with new and exciting quirks on your old abilities.
Pudge will still throw hooks, and be a constant fear whenever he's missing, but no longer will he only do that. Night Stalker will still be a fat, rich creep during the day, but at night, he will be fearsome. Lina will still be a fragile nuker with incredible burst, but now she will devastate whole landscapes with her spells.
We will attempt to lovely craft every hero's skills in a way that makes them more interesting and brutal. Remember the feeling you had when you played Dota for the first time, and everything was new and unexpected and surprising - a whole new world? This is what we want to revive!
Who are we?
A brazilian beer-seller turned programmer - Felipe Calife
A netherlands teen studying hard to join the workforce - Hewdraw
A small community of modders who work together to help each other and bring their ideas to life - the
Dota 2 modding community.
We are the team that wants to bring IMBA to Dota 2. Myself (Felipe) and Hewdraw are amateur programmers, and as such, we needed all the help we could get from the more experienced modders to bring this project to fruition.
They responded beautifully, answering our every question and doubt, providing a plethora of resources and tutorials, and holding our hand every step of the way. With all that help, we managed to get together
IMBA's Workshop version, which is now working, and available for anyone to play! Rocking over 12 thousand subscribers and a 92% positive user rating, we are very happy about its launch! :)
However, IMBA, at the moment, is not what we want it to be. It is merely a seed of something better - a seed which we need your help to make grow!
What We Need & What You Get
As project leader, I have been developing IMBA for Dota 2 for over six months. It went through various versions and evolutions, as I learned more about Dota modding - from simple ability file editing, increasing dota's regular skills' impact, to something a bit more complex, to its current iteration.
IMBA was always doable as a hobby, a side project - something I could use to relax while doing on the weekends. However, not anymore.
Implementing each IMBA hero is a somewhat lengthy process, taking anywhere from 4 to 10 hours (including all the testing and bug-fixing that has to be done). Implementing 2-3 heroes per week, plus new items, fixing newly-reported bugs, and writing news posts, patch notes, blog entries, takes me about 30 hours per week. I cannot reasonably work at that rate any more - I have to devote myself to a task which will allow me to have a roof to live in, and eat, after all :)
So, this is where the community comes in - if there is enough interest in IMBA after all, you can help me keep working on this at a decent rate!
What do we get if we're funded? I will devote all the time necessary to keep pushing updates for IMBA at the promised rate:
- At least 3 heroes per week;
-
New items, and reimaginings of existing items;
- Additional content, in the form of extra game modes and customization options.
I also promise to keep development going at least until all dota heroes are in IMBA. No compromises, we only stop when everyone is ported in.
If we do not get funded, then I am sorry to say that I will have to go slow with this project, and keep it as a hobby - we might be able to push one hero per week consistently, but no promises beyond that :(
Stretch Goals
I do not expect this project to go much beyond its initial funding goal; however, if it goes - we have a LOT of ideas for new game modes and extra things which could implement in IMBA - both things that Mimiya originally put in, and brand new ideas. We'll gauge the community's interest, and release the stretch goals if it seems feasible they might be reached. Stay tuned!
Campaign funds distribution
In the interest of being entirely transparent, this will be the destination of any funds raised by this project:
- 60% will go to the main developer and project leader (Felipe);
- 20% will go to my biggest helper, Hewdraw;
- 20% will go to all the contributors of SpellLibrary, a modding resource which helped our development incredibly: Pizzalol, Noya, Kritth, Rook, Ractidous, and Chrislotix.
When this campaign ends, rest assured that we will never start another campaign for Dota IMBA, ever. If we don't reach the goal, that's it, and we won't annoy any of you again!
Whenever Dota 2's workshop tools come out of beta, it is believed that Valve will allow custom game modes to be monetized - i.e. you'll have to pay to use some specific game modes.
If, and when, this is implemented, we of Dota IMBA will accept donations, but never ask for your money beforehand. We guarantee you: IMBA is, and always will be, completely free, and devoid of any kind of game-impacting microtransactions.
Risks & Challenges
Let's be honest: contributing to crowdfunding campaigns is always risky. There's always the possibility that the campaigner will run away with the money and disappear from the internet. There's no contract being signed here, and no legal document binding me to finish any of the things that are promised in this page.
However - and this is, I honestly believe, the best guarantee I can offer you - I am passionate about this project. I played hours upon hours of warcraft 3 IMBA. Hundreds upon hundreds of games, some times solo, against bots.I have been developing this for over half a year for no reason other than my love for the game. I want to see this project completed, and won't quit before I'm done. All I'm asking the community is support for the chance to do it quicker - and probably better!
Let us live the dream together - the dream of bringing IMBA to Dota 2, in all its glory, and the dream of being able to work on modding full-time (at least for a while)!
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't help directly by pledging to this campaign, there are other ways you can help!
- Translate this campaign (or just its main points) to another language. Translations to Russian, Chinese, Spanish or Filipino are especially useful!
- Show Dota IMBA to your friends! As simple as that is, word of mouth is still the best way to spread news.
- Show this campaign to people you think can help - anyone you know that could enjoy this mod!
- Keep playing, and having fun! Your feedback messages, telling us how much you are enjoying playing, are the best motivation we could ask for! :)
Legal Stuff
Dota IMBA will never use any copyrighted material beyond the base game, provided by Valve.
Mimiya, the original IMBA creator, was contacted before this project was even started, and approves of it.
