tl;dr version - Why should I contribute to Richard & Alice?
Richard & Alice is a story-driven adventure game for Windows PC. It's being made by a pair of games journalists, Lewis Denby and Ashton Raze. That would be us. Hello! We love adventure games, but we were frustrated by the rubbish puzzles and mediocre storytelling that plagues much of the genre. So we thought we'd have a go ourselves.
Much of the game is done, but we know we can make it even better with a bit of money to add some more impressive art, expand on the original soundtrack, and ensure we package it up nice and professionally.
We've poured countless hours of our spare time into this already, so we're determined to make Richard & Alice as good as it can be. Your help would be so enormously appreciated it's unbelievable.
"[Richard & Alice is] one of very few games to have ever attempted to have a meaningful, realistic, and non-magical relationship between a parent and child. Which, to use the word correctly for once, makes it something particularly mature. I’m very excited to see more of this." - John Walker, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
"The sinister nature of this wintered future is expressive, the pleasingly few characters properly fleshed out, and the puzzles logical and straight-forward... Really looking forward to this one, oh yes." - The Reticule
"A tense, harrowing tale." - Adventure Gamers
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The full version - Why should I contribute to Richard & Alice?
You're reading the full version? Wow. You're brave. You don't know what you're letting yourself in for...
What is Richard & Alice?
Richard & Alice is:
- A mystery story
- A point-and-click adventure game
- A game for Windows PC
- A game with a strong focus on narrative
- An adventure game with sensible puzzles
- Something we've spent pretty much every spare hour in the last 12 months working on
If you want the marketing blurb, well, it goes something like this:
Richard and Alice are prisoners. Both their cells have a leather sofa and a state-of-the-art computer. But only Richard’s has a TV.
Outside, the snow falls. It has done for some time. Elsewhere, they say, parts of the world have been rendered an inhospitable desert, the earth parched and cracked. People live in the zones now. The lucky ones, anyway.
Richard and Alice have secrets.
During the course of the game, perhaps you'll find answers to the following questions:
- What did both Richard and Alice do to end up in prison?
- Why are prisons in this world basically like luxury apartments?
- What was the course of events that led to this horrible world?
- What is it to be a good person anyway, maaan?
Who's behind Richard & Alice?
We - Lewis Denby and Ashton Raze - are games journalists. We've both written extensively for the Telegraph. Lewis has also written for Eurogamer, PC Gamer, Rock Paper Shotgun and Gamasutra. He's now the editor of BeefJack. Ashton has also written for Gamespot, plus he has a novel out. (Well, we say "novel". It's actually a collection if iccle short stories, like teacher used to make you write at school.)
When we decided to make a game, we didn't really think of the logistics of it. It's something we wanted to do in our spare time, mainly for the love. We're now a registered partnership called Denby / Raze and have tax to think about. Man! Game development is hard.
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What do you want, then?
Okay, okay. You're right. This is all pre-amble, a softner, a way of lulling you into a false sense of security before slamming a big fat financial request in your face. Fair enough. Let's talk business.
We want $2,000. Or, more specifically, we want about £1,000 - and, after commission and fees other such nonsense, that equates to about the same.
We could finish the game without this money. But it wouldn't be as good as we know it can be. We like to think the game we're making is shaping up really well, and we want to make sure we do it justice. Which is why we're now begging, licking your feet.
What are you going to do with my coins?
Spend them in a fit of hedonistic passion, we imagine. If not, we'll probably invest them sensibly into the product, for the following reasons:
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We want more awesome art. We're not going to pretend Richard & Alice is going to be the most beautiful game in the world, but we think we can build upon what's already there for that extra flair.
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We want more awesome music. We have a few original pieces of music in the game, but it currently sounds a bit sparse. In order to ensure the atmosphere of the game is in tip-top shape, we want to commission even more music to create a full original score.
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We want to release it in a professional manner. Have you ever tried to ship a game? Man, there's loads of stuff to do. We don't want to skimp on this - we want to make sure our launch is really good and everything's in order, so things don't just fall apart catastrophically the minute the game comes out.
What if I chip in, but you don't reach your target?
Thanks to the delights of IndieGoGo's flexible funding campaigns, we keep your money anyway. Muahaha! However, rest assured we'll invest it sensibly. The top priority is probably the music, but certainly that and the art will take precedence over anything like PR, marketing and business nonsense.
And you'll get your promised perks either way. Just look at those perks! Phwoaaaar!
I haven't got any money. Can I still help?
Totally! Maybe you could do one of the following:
- Talk about the game and this campaign on Twitter
- Link your Facebook friends to this page
- Head over to Steam Greenlight and upvote the game on there
- Write to your favourite games publication and demand that they cover Richard & Alice
- Send us love letters
- Do a silly dance, film yourself doing it, and email us the result (it'll help on those dark bug-fixing days)
So... is that it?
Yep, that's it! We hope we've brought you to a place where you can decide for yourself if you'd like to chip in. And, of course, we hope you will. Because we're really proud of what we've achieved so far, and we just want to make the game as awesome as we can. So go on. Dig deep. Help us out. You'll be loved for all eternity.
And maybe if we put this screenshot here, of a child's drawing, it'll make you go "awwwwh!" and want to donate more. It's worth a try, right?
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