December 2012 Update

[abisso]

We're already in the middle of January, but I think it's still worth making a report on last months' progress.

Most of the time has been dedicated to a private testing of the upcoming Chapter One, with some fine-tuning and bug-fixing in order to begin the private beta-testing with a cleaner product. The rest of the time has been mostly occupied by some extras though: as you should know by now, the game features easter eggs and rewards and I'm confident at least some of them will be a pleasant surprise for those of you who will be so clever and attentive to discover them.

Even if this topic will be considered more thoroughly in the next month's report, the most important news is that beta-testing will begin in no more than a couple of days. We're already entered the beta-stage but we're still waiting for some of the candidates to fulfil some requirements.
In any case we already have a soccer team of betatesters (eleven courageous guys) at the moment and 17th of January is closing in.

Although the testing will be private, I'll keep you informed on the results and something tells me the next month's update post will include an official release date for the fully playable, long awaited, Forge Chapter One.

Till then, keep care,
-G

[Ruffa-Duffa]

This looking great! I really believe that you can manage at least chapter one! Questions: Are you still planning on only making chapter one, and then seeing if you can get someone else is to take over depending on the popularity of chapter one? If so what is your popularity goal and do you think you will achieve it?

[abisso]

Hello, Ruffa-Duffa.

Thanks for signing in and for the encouragement. As per you question, I don't have a definitive answer. The decision to continue working on Forge or not depends more or less on two factors:

• 1. Managing to find a dedicated pixel-artist (which means having enough money to pay him / her or finding one that joins for free).
• 2. Seeing people's interest. I can't quantify this interest into numbers but it will surely depend on both downloads and feedback.

Working on Forge has been very rewarding in terms of experience and personal satisfaction, but has had an huge impact in terms of time and money. I still believe in it (maybe more than I used to when I had just joined the team) but I have to be realistic as well.

[Ruffa-Duffa]

Hello, Ruffa-Duffa.

Thanks for signing in and for the encouragement. As per you question, I don't have a definitive answer. The decision to continue working on Forge or not depends more or less on two factors:

• 1. Managing to find a dedicated pixel-artist (which means having enough money to pay him / her or finding one that joins for free).
• 2. Seeing people's interest. I can't quantify this interest into numbers but it will surely depend on both downloads and feedback.

Working on Forge has been very rewarding in terms of experience and personal satisfaction, but has had an huge impact in terms of time and money. I still believe in it (maybe more than I used to when I had just joined the team) but I have to be realistic as well.

Okay. Thanks for the answers. After patiently following this project for something along the lines of one and a half years just chapter one will be satisfying enough! Still, I'll see if I can get any of my boring friends interested. I doubt it though. Since one of my friends is the self-proclaimed worst gamer in the world and all of them will probably have the question "is it comedic?" on their mind I don't think they'll be too interested in Loom, let alone it's indie fan-made sequel. Still, worth a shot, for the projects sake!

[abisso]

Thanks for that, pal. As I always say, anyone has his means of helping the project, if he truly wants:

You're skilled in some of the required fields? Join the team.
You've got some spare change in your pocket? Do a small donation.
You don't qualify for any of the above? Spread the word and keep the community alive and growing.

As a fan, it's the least one can do.

I appreciate your feedback and understand your concerns. I'm emotionally bound to this project and, should I be honest, I consider releasing only Chapter One a failure. For this reason I'll do all that's in my power to bring you the full game as long as there's just a slight chance of success, and for as much time as it may take.

[always adventure]

I really hope this project works out.  Loom is probably my favorite adventure game ever made, and I have played many.

Have you thought of using Kickstarter to raise money and awareness for the project?  Some recent successes come to mind.  For example, Tim Schafer, who designed the hit adventure game Grim Fandango, raised over 3 million dollars for a new adventure game project.  I think that Loom has almost as much of a cult following as Grim Fandango.  I would seriously consider trying to raise awareness in this manner.  Perhaps with the release of Chapter 1 you would have an impressive enough product to showcase for potential backers.

[abisso]

Thanks for the feeback, mate.

Although I've already answered your question privately, since a lot of people has wondered why I haven't used a crowd-funding platform, I've added an answer to our FAQs. Here it is:

Why don't you rely on a crowd-funding platform?
Since the game uses some copyrighted material from Lucas, using a crowd-funding platform is more likely to attract unwanted attention, which could result in a cease&desist order. Moreover, according to the laws of my country, crowd-funding qualifies as commerce, whenever you pay knowing you will receive some "product" in return. Commerce requires a special license and the payment of taxes.
The current system is quite humble instead and doesn't offer products in exchange, so can be safely considered as a tax-free donation system. Due to its nature is also less likely to bother the owners of the copyrights.
Things might change in the future though, and if the project is on the verge of dying for lack of funds, any reasonable method of keeping it alive will be taken into consideration.