Well, it’s day two of our campaign and the support has been amazing! We’ve had so much great feedback and are super excited to be working with everybody.
We have a couple of new announcements to share:
New reward
We’ve heard a lot of feedback about the $30 reward tier, and it’s clear that the fans are looking for more. So we’re excited to introduce a new $29 reward tier with additional rewards that will automatically become available to all of our $30 backers.
As a $29 backer you will receive a digital copy of Precinct with exclusive “VIP Backer Status”. As a VIP Backer, you will be sent a unique passkey which grants you access to all “VIP Backer Only” areas of www.precinctgame.com (the website will launch after the Kickstarter). VIP Backers will also receive exclusive content in the final release of Precinct.
“VIP Backer Only” Website Areas Include:
– Sneak peeks of the game (screenshots and video clips)
– Private VIP Backer Message Board
– Exclusive webcasts and chats with Jim and his team during development
– Help develop Precinct by voting on critical design and production decisions
This tier is meant to replace the $30 tier, and all $30 tier backers (and above) will receive everything in this $29 tier.
We are listening to backers and will continue to evaluate the tiers/rewards. Thanks again for all the feedback! Daily Videos
Another exciting thing that’s happening is starting today, you can check out our daily videos. These are short videos of Jim (and sometimes me) talking about all things Precinct and Sierra-related.
The first video (released today) is: “Why Kickstarter?”
Wait no longer, we are releasing the demo to the public! You can download the demo by logging on to http://svrewards.com and clicking the rewards tab. Currently we are in the process of uploading the demo for download so please keep refreshing the page and eventually it will be there 😉
But consider the following before playing:
The demo is still in beta stage as we haven’t got all the bugs worked out just yet.
You must be a registered backer at http://svrewards.com to download and play the demo
Currently the demo has no Voice Over. That is still in the works.
Not every icon you see is usable yet as some of the icons are meant for the actual game and not the demo.
To Save/Load, don’t use the icons, Hold Shift + S to Save or Shift + L to Load
Precinct is a new police adventure video game from Jim Walls, creator of the classic Sierra series “Police Quest”.
JIM WALLS PRESENTS
ABOUT THE GAME Precinct takes players on a police adventure as officer Maxwell Jones in the corrupt town of Fraser Canyon, CA. Starting out as a rookie and then moving up the ranks, players face adrenaline charged scenarios and conduct real police procedures while solving crimes and arresting perpetrators.
Gameplay Concept Sketch – Bar Fight
Gameplay Concept Sketch – Non-Lethal Force Being Used
In-Game Screenshot – On Patrol
Written by Jim Walls and some of today’s brightest Hollywood talent, Precinct features a gripping crime story based on true accounts of real police cases. As players clean up the crime ridden streets, the plot thickens with corrupt cops, greedy public officials, and a deadly struggle for control of Fraser Canyon’s criminal underground.
Gameplay Concept Sketch – Alley Confrontation
Gameplay Concept Sketch – Weapon Drawn
Playing in the first person perspective, Precinct’s real-time 3D environments and gameplay deliver significant realism to the classic police adventure style Jim is famous for creating. Along with staple elements such as adventure and puzzles, players also encounter intense fast action gameplay sequences that include shootouts, high speed car chases, investigations, foot pursuits, hand-to-hand combat, and more.
In-Game Screenshot – Arriving at Scene
Jim is leading an effort to successfully combine original Sierra-style adventure with modern video game technology. The Precinct team is poised to redefine the cop-game genre by making a game that both classic and modern gamers can enjoy.
In-Game Screenshot – Approaching Crime Scene
Precinct is planned to be an episodic series released as digital download for PC and Mac with distribution across platforms such as Steam and our own website. If our stretch goals are met, we will be able to release Precinct on additional platforms (more about stretch goals below).
OUR CAMPAIGN Every Kickstarter dollar you give goes directly towards developing Precinct. We want to skip the traditional publishing model to make the best game possible for the fans of the original adventure Police Quest series.
We put considerable effort into creating an exclusive suite of rewards for our backers (see the right of this page) including a high quality Precinct badge, a visit with Jim, police whistle, Special Operating Procedures Manual, a visit to the game studio, and more. These rewards are completely unique to Precinct and can’t be found anywhere else. We hope you like them!
We can’t make this game without you. Please pledge whatever you can to make this game a reality. We GREATLY appreciate all that have backed us so far. Thank you so very much!
Throughout this Kickstarter campaign we will be posting lots of new content; we will publish new videos that detail the Sierra days as well as show you some behind-the-scenes footage of the making of Precinct. We will also give you an in-depth look at Jim Walls, Police Quest and Sierra.
STRETCH GOALS If we are successful with our Kickstarter we are going to be able to make a great game. However, the more money we get, the better the game will be. Every dime we receive goes directly towards building Precinct!
$600,000(Awesomer) – At this level, we will be able to provide a more immersive gameplay experience. We will be able to produce hours of additional content and achieve a higher level of detail and beauty throughout the game.
$700,000 (Mega Awesome) – If we get to this level, we will be able to include more locations, more characters, a deeper story, and deliver a very high level of polish. We expect to release a Linux version at this level as well.
$800,000 (Badonk) – This level allows us to pretty much do everything we want to do for Precinct. In addition to more gameplay, more characters, more story, more polish, we expect to bring Precinct to iOS, Android, XBLA and PSN as well. You can also expect subtitled versions for the French, Italian, German and Spanish markets at this level too.
HISTORY
ABOUT SIERRA Located in the small mountain town of Oakhurst, CA, Sierra On-line was founded in 1979 by husband and wife team Ken and Roberta Williams. Through Ken and Roberta’s hard work, vision, and talent, Sierra became a pioneering force that was instrumental in shaping the video game industry and bringing home computer games to mainstream culture. Since the 1990’s, several mergers, acquisitions, layoffs, liquidations, and the departure of Ken and Roberta effectively rendered Sierra defunct. The company’s brand and remaining assets were last owned by Activision.
“There are few more storied franchises in adventure gaming than Sierra’s Police Quest series.” – Kotaku
Police Quest is a trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
CREATING POLICE QUEST Jim is a retired California Highway Patrol officer who left the force in 1984 after being traumatized in a violent shootout. During his recovery from the incident, Jim serendipitously met video game pioneer Ken Williams who was in the early days of growing Sierra On-line with his wife and company co-founder Roberta Williams. Ken asked Jim to design gameplay and write a story for a realistic police adventure series Ken wanted to make. Police Quest was born.
Jim Walls (second from right) with the early Sierra On-line design team. Company co-founder Roberta Williams in front.
Upon its release, Police Quest was an instant hit, wowing early gamers with a unique point-and-click adventure style and unprecedented realism for the time. Police Quest went on to have five sequels, selling millions of copies.
Most games fade to black in the game industry but the interest in Police Quest still burns brightly almost thirty years later. Possibly because of its deep storyline and the dedication it takes to play Police Quest successfully, the series has amassed a legion of fans from all over the world.
PRINCIPAL TEAM
Jim with wife Kristy
JIM WALLS Jim has been in the video game business for almost 20 years and is considered one of the original pioneers of the adventure game genre. His game titles include Police Quest 1, 2 and 3, Codename Iceman, Blue Force, Blade Runner, Pirates – Legend of Black Kat, and Earth and Beyond.
Precinct Executive Producer, Robert Lindsley
ROBERT LINDSLEY Robert began working at Sierra On-line at just fifteen years old. Although already precociously well versed in programming, Ken and Roberta Williams brought Robert into the company to help box games and copy floppy discs. Robert was eventually given a shot at programming and it wasn’t wasted on him. Robert soon began coding professionally and eventually began producing. At Sierra, Robert worked on several classic Sierra titles including King’s Quest V & VI, Laura Bow 2, Mixed Up Mother Goose, and Phantasmagoria 2. After Sierra, Robert worked for Microsoft Games where he wound up on Microsoft’s Xbox launch team. Robert has also led development at Atari and Harmonix, shipping over 80 games in his career. Most recently, Robert’s credits include Rock Band, Ghostbusters, and Dance Central. Robert is currently Jim’s partner for this project.
Precinct Art Director, Scott Butler
SCOTT BUTLER An early employee of the pioneering game studio Argonaut Software, Scott has worked in the video games business for over 24 years. 11 of those years were spent at Sony Computer Entertainment as a senior artist and art director. Scott has shipped over 50 games in his career, including Kingsley’s Adventure (PS1), Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (PS1 & Sega Saturn), Neopets: The Wand of Wishing (PSP), Eyetoy: Play (PS2), and Ren & Stimpy (SNES). At just 17 years old in 1989, Scott began his career making games for the Amiga and Timex Sinclair computers. Over the years, as game technology, tools, and business models have evolved, so has Scott. He has worked on virtually every game platform possible, Scott holds a US patent for a game engine technology he invented in 2009.
Precinct Production Director, Jason Crawford
JASON CRAWFORD Jason has spent nearly two decades as an entrepreneur and creative professional in technology. The last 12 years of his career have been in the video game industry. Jason has launched multiple companies, including a game development studio in 2001 with Precinct’s Executive Producer, Robert Lindsley. Jason has played influential roles in shaping the vision and logistics for several games and interactive initiatives with clients such as Acclaim, Hasbro, IAC, Atari, Sony, Samsung, Sesame Workshop, and Walt Disney Imagineering. Jason is currently the founder and studio director of Tiny Castle Studios, a new Unity3D focused game development studio located in Glendale, CA. Jason and his team were instrumental in creating this Kickstarter campaign.
T-Shirt Design Contest
We are looking for YOUR help with the T-Shirt design. We will choose one backer’s design for our Kickstarter T-Shirt. If you would like to participate, send your design (in vector format) to tshirt@precinctgame.com. Your design will be considered and if it’s chosen it will be used for the Kickstarter reward T-Shirt!
Daily Videos
Each day of the Kickstarter campaign will feature a brand new exclusive video in this section! Check back daily for a new bit of history you’ve never heard before, including; visits to the old Sierra buildings in Oakhurst, a visit Ken and Roberta’s old house, and several fascinating stories from Robert and Jim as they reminisce about the old days at Sierra.
GAME DEVELOPMENT
The biggest issue in development is keeping the game within scope and making sure the project never goes over-budget. Our entire team is intensely aware of this issue and know we must be vigilant in managing it responsibly. Leading this effort is Precinct’s Executive Producer, Robert Lindsley, who has over 20 years experience producing video games. Working on small games up to hundred-million dollar AAA titles, Robert has a proven and unbeatable track record for shipping products on-time and on-budget. As with any game development project, Precinct will undoubtedly throw out its own unique challenges but those challenges will be met by a team of seasoned video game industry veterans that know how to solve problems effectively and responsibly.
TECH & PRODUCTION DESIGN
It’s going to be an enormous undertaking building a lot of our own tech and tools above the already robust Unity3D platform. We created a game prototype of the world that not only shows off the art style, it was as an exercise to vet if Unity3D and our proprietary game editor will be possible given our minimum budget range.
GAMEPLAY
Although upgraded to modern gameplay standards, we believe audiences will enjoy the fun of a realistic police adventure because of Jim’s past success with Police Quest. “If you’ve played Police Quest, you know exactly what Jim Walls is like, because that game is Jim Walls.” – Al Lowe, creator of Leisure Suit Larry and programmer on Police Quest.
In case you didn’t read the earlier emails we’ve sent you, you should know: WE SHIPPED!!
Maybe not every platform (although we sure tried) but people have been playing the PC, Mac and Linux games for a week. You should be too!
That said, Apple has been sitting on our game for two weeks now and without telling us anything. We have no idea when it will appear in the Apple Store. But when it does, we promise to let you know immediately!
The Android version is suffering from the typical “way too many different versions of Android” syndrome, but is making progress. Here, too, we’ll tell you right away.
Update? Already?
Yes, we plan to release an updated version of the game very soon with several improvements:
Language selection option in the control panel. The game currently uses your operating system’s language setting. We’re going to let you decide what language you prefer.
Two new languages: Polish and Russian.
Scoring: We’re implementing scoring because so many of you miss it – and because you need to know just how much of the game you did NOT see!
Facebook and Twitter updates: But only if you want to!
If you have any problems, please check here first. Probably someone else has already figured out a fix for it.
Linux Support
If you are a Linux or Mac guru, we need your help! Could you please jump on the new forum (above) and help your Linux and Mac friends? We’re a bunch of Windows people here at Replay Games and neither Linux nor Mac is our strong suit.
Tell Us How We Did
We’ve created a Customer Service form at http://bit.ly/LSL_Survey so you can tell us how much fun you’re having, and/or if you’re having troubles with the game. As you can imagine, we’re swamped, but we’re trying our best to help everyone. We’d appreciate it if you’d help us by pointing others to the form, too. It’s all about helping Larry have a great release!
Reddit AMA
Al Lowe will do another Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Saturday, July 6th, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Join us as we discuss making Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded and the whole Kickstarter experience. Our AMA is at http://www.reddit.com/r/iama
Thanks everyone! It’s been a crazy week around here
Al and Britton
Thanks, Greg! But now I need everyone who reads this to go to www.metacritic.com/game/pc/leisure-suit-larry-reloaded , register, and leave a short review. We don’t have the money to advertise the way we should. Please help us by spreading the word on social media!
Trust me when I say, nothing more would make me happier than to be giving you link info to download the SpaceVenture playable demo today, but unfortunately we’ll need a little more time. How much time you ask?
Good news on that, the next update should have it! We are projecting to have it done for you by the July 16th update! 🙂
THE HEAT IS ON TO GET THIS THING OUT!
VOTING ON CONCEPT ART AND DEATH SEQUENCES
This is gonna be happening in one of the upcoming updates as well, be on the look out!
GOG CREDITS
($50 and above backers only)
Emails have already been sent out. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY EMAILED US ABOUT THIS, WE ARE WORKING ON IT! NO NEED TO EMAIL AGAIN, THANKS!
PLEASE NOTE: The email was in regards to filling out a form. The form allowed you to make a choice involving your GoG credits. If you didn’t receive that email, please check your spam folder first, if it’s not there, then message us here on Kickstarter so we can verify you are at the $50 or above level. Please do not message in the comments of Kickstarter. It is best to message us directly on Kickstarter so we can verify your backer level. If you have already contacted us about this, please be patient and we’ll get back to you soon. Most of you who have filled out the form have received your credits, however If you have already filled out the form and are still waiting, please continue to be patient, it’s on the way!
FAQ
When will our rewards be shipped?
Answer: As soon as the game is complete, we’ll be shipping rewards out.
My address has changed and I need to update it with you guys. How do I do that? Answer: Don’t worry about giving us your updated address right now. When we get ready to ship the items, we are gonna request you all to give us your updated address so we will all be in sync. No point in getting that as of now, because some of you may move between now and then.
Which conventions will you guys be at?
Answer: The Two guys Mark Crowe, Scott Murphy, and the SpacePope Chris Pope will all three be at SDCC 2013(San Diego) and possibly GMX 2013(Nashville). We were all hoping to be at PAX Seattle as well, but that may not happen.
You guys sure have been going to a lot of conventions. Shouldn’t you be making a game?
Answer: Actually Chris Pope is the one that has been going to conventions, and that has been on his own dime, not the company’s. Mark and Scott have only been to one convention so far and that was GMX 2012. GMX paid for the entire thing.
Do you love us backers?
Answer: We love you more than Orats love chasing Sarien Spider Droids! We love you more than Labion Terror Beasts love Cubix Rubes! We love you more than Fester Blatz loves ear wax! We love you more than Sequel Police love dressing in black! We love you more than… oh you get the picture!
SAN DIEGO COMICON 2013
Anyone and everyone that will be at San Diego Comicon, please come by and meet up with us to get a live demonstration of the SpaceVenture playable demo. Mark Crowe, Scott Murphy, and Chris Pope will all be there showing off a taste of what to expect in SpaceVenture. We’ll let everyone know what table number we’ll be at as soon as we have that from Comicon.
LEISURE SUIT LARRY: RELOADED
In case you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t realize it, Al Lowe / Replay Games just released their Kickstarter funded remake of Leisure Suit Larry. You gotta check it out! 🙂
It’s not just the funniest game you’ve ever played…
…it’s also the most infamous video game of all time!
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards was first released by Sierra On-Line in 1987 and became an international phenomenon. The lovable loser Larry Laffer — a 40-year-old virgin in pursuit of losing his vir….um, finding true love — and risqué humor were unlike anything anyone had ever seen or played.
Now Larry’s original creator, the world-famous game designer Al Lowe, has teamed up with Replay Games to bring this amazing, perverted game back to life – updated and expanded in every way imaginable! All we kept from the original game is the plot. EVERYTHING else is fresh and new including:
Incredibly lush new high-res graphics! Explore all the seedy sights and sounds of Lost Wages, where fortunes and reputations go to die!
A brand new musical score by Grammy-nominated and BAFTA Award-winning composer Austin Wintory! Fresh from completing the musical score to Journey, Austin composed the best music Leisure Suit Larry has ever heard!
Everything in the game was rebuilt from the ground up, including all hand-painted backgrounds, characters, and state-of-the-art 2D animation!
Thousands of hilarious new lines, gags, jokes, and dialogues, written by Al’s old Sierra partner, Josh Mandel (aka the voice of King Graham from King’s Quest)!
New characters, new locations, new puzzles, and a major new love interest for Larry!
What’s more, Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded is the first major game to be released with funding by Kickstarter! Over 14,000 fans chipped in to bring Larry back to life!
Will Larry find true love? Will Lost Wages ever be the same? And will YOU want to play any other comedy adventure once you’ve played Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded?
