IAMA With Thomas and the Jagged Alliance Flashback team

Generally - hi everyone. Beers are out, champagne is in the fridge. Looking forward to that oil baron!

Just an idea: Maybe you could edit this comment or the main text (or both) to include a link to the Kickstarter page. Even if you just reach one new pledge that way it's worth it.

Thanks! Done

what is the total number of playable sectors you'll be aiming for? (assuming the game gets funded with a final value somewhere in the $350,000-$400,000 range)

The final number comes down to not only budget, but also how many community created sectors we can put in as well as the final detailed story.

With that said, We definitely want to have something like 80-100 levels. Else the world is small

Any chance to see Ivan Dolvich??? We ara all backers from Russia, we want him back to game!!1

Ivan is my favorite! So lets get him back.

so answer yes? we will see Ivan in JA:FB?

From what I read in the Kickstarter campaign Ivan is a major part of the story.

Answer is yes - him and shadow are so iconic, we need them. Period

I'm still undecided about pledging, so here's your chance to take away one of my doubts:

I loved the fact that despite being an older game, the original JA2 made every attempt to have as 'realistic/gritty' a look to it as possible, not shunning from rotting enemy corpses and bullet decapitations.

Your art style seems to walk the line between realistic and stylized, which is a sensible choice for the kind of studio you are and the resources at your disposal, but does this mean that you're moving away from the more 'gory' character of the original Jagged Alliance games?

I'd really love to know this, since there was nothing more satisfying than literally perforating a guy with bullets in JA2. Thanks!

If you check out the diorama, we have headshots and want to do blood, gore and gun porn.

But we at the same time do not want to run into an art pipeline that takes too long to make - and that essentially will end up looking generic like any "modern FPS". No style, all brown and grey. Thats not what we want to do.

So yeah - we will walk a fine line - and have it gore and bloody.

Okay, I'll start with a softball: Will we be able to hurt civilians (with all the penalties that brings)? I ask this because I played JA when I was 9 at a friend's (We had no PC back then :/) who barred me from playing it after I throw several mustard gas grenades at civilians ;)

And a harder pretty harsh one, please do not be offended ;)
Your only PC game so far seems to be "Frontline Tactics" which seems to have got pretty bad reviews (granted, a big part of that was thanks to the pay-to-win singleplayer, but still). Why should we expect JA Flashback to be a great game?

Still on the fence for backing.

Civilians are a faction in the game like any other. So yes - but if you do there is a new faction system where your choices matter, so you might piss them off enough that you are missing out on love from the locals.

Not offended by any question.

Frontline was not pay-to-win. If was "non-evil" freemium, where everyone can play to the same level without paying. We definitely saw it as an experiment, but I think in hindsight it was a mistake. The core mechanics though are pretty hardcore for a iPad game that was also put on PC. Actually we also did Monster Ball for PC many years ago. And a ton of PC work-for-hire projects.

Making bigger PC games costs a lot of money - and we have funded ourselves until now. Its simply down to $$$ and wanting to explore different aspects of TBS.

If you want to back or not is totally up to you. I cant and wont force you

Hey Guys! I just want to say, I am very happy that it looks like you're gonna hit your mark.

I liked BiA and Crossfire enough, but I crave some back to roots JA action!

Thank you for including I.M.P. That was the biggest disappointment from the recent games in my opinion.

My question is: if you guys get it on steam will the $25 backers (and up) get a steam key for the game?

Yeah - we are super excited to see this come to a success. Not just for us, but also for Jagged Alliance.

To your question - you will get the choice of Steam and/or DRM free. Yeah! Personally I like the easiness of Steam, so thats what I prefer myself

It's really great to see a renewed interest in these types of TBS games. I can't wait for this and Wasteland 2 to come out. Once again, thank you so much. My childhood will be relived!

Ours as well, ours as well!

I am very curious to know your plan or ideas , if any, for multiplayer in flashback expansion(s).

Our core tech HAS multiplayer. But we want to make the best single player possible and then who knows. It requires some setting, some meaningful way to do multiplayer. Else it will just be some slapped on deathmatch stuff that no ones really likes. Coop?

Coop.

Coop!

Coop is a must imho

We do coop in Space Hulk :-)

Is that a green heineken beer can i see thomas? :P

Its a tuborg :-)

the game's current expected release date is Nov 2014. Could you give us some guesses for approximately when could we expect to see the distributions of the Alpha and Beta builds (and also the "early access" release)? I know this is hard to guess, but even an indication like 6 months prior to final for Alpha and 3 month for Beta, is already informative.

TOOOOOTAL guess. But we want a vertical slice aka Alpha out somewhere around xmas 2013 I would say. Beta would not be until 2-3 monthn prior to launch. So there is a huge difference between the 2

Please guys, I beg you to take a slightly different art direction. Something a little more realistic and true to JA2.

I don't mind it a little cartoony, but overall the diorama felt like Team Fortress 2 (and it's not a good sign, for me at least).

I pledged myself and got few of my friends pledge for this kickstarter, I'm excited about the project, but what I'm seeing graphically bugs me a little. Anyways, I'm happy the series continue and I wish all the best guys! I'm really excited because it seems like we're gonna hit the mark!

I share your concerns.

We will not make it comic. We are not into cell shaders and comic style. But we want to have a more bright colorful visual style. NOT photo realistic and NOT comic

So thrilled it seems like this will get funded.

Will you have enemies like Bloodcats from the ol' days? The whole genetic mutation thing always seemed a bit too much to me. What's wrong with a plain ol' bad guy? :)

Oh - not decided yet. But now with the special sectors I think we have lots of fun things that could be exploited - or is even enough. Lets see!

Will the beta also be playable under linux? And is the graphic setting really that "comic" like, as seen in the 3d scene?

Linux beta - yep! The 3d scene is some kind of guideline for us, yeah. Its not "final" in any way - but it gives a direction for us

great, then i'm glad i increased my pledge, thanks :)

We thank you!

regarding modding (and sorry if this has been answered somewhere else already): will it be possible to script new interactions/dialogues between the mercs and NPCS? or put another way: will modding be limited to creating new settings for the fights to take place in, and new weapons, or will it also be possible to create new stories/quests within the game?

We had it partly covered in an update. Try to check it out in the Kickstarter changelog! But we will essentially work with our modder advisors to define what we can externalize. Dialogs and story are definitely high on the list there

Another idea for the slacker backer phase: Your 1 week vacation is for sure. But later on, will you host (like obsidian, inxile) a "Let's play JA2" on twitch.tv with some of your staff that are involved in the early phase of development? That would really be fun and this could bring in some late backers - and we want you to see the sector inventory screen :p

Yes - and we want to do developer videos and such as well. One of the backer rewards is a documentary that we will record at the same time

You mentioned "some funny anecdotes" in the recent update.

Would you mind sharing another one aside that story about "Flugente"?

Another anecdote - hmmm. There are a few - some we even have thinking about making a postmortem post about.

Little known to everyone we almost totally got fucked on launching the Kickstarter. One of the big sites broke the interview embargo with the Kickstarter project not approved, and we were forced to delay our launch by a week. Trying to make it look like it was all planned. DUH!!

where you close to throw in the towel at one point during this campaign or have you always been assured of your success?

Uhhh - I had the thought a few times I must say. Especially after the first week where we simply hit wall after wall after wall. But then we took it as a challenge and said "if we quit, there wont be any JA for many years" and also how would it look that we simply quit after some resistance!

thanks for the persistence :)

We are super happy now too!

Will be money from PP added to stretch goals? for example mines and mountains?

Yes! All the PP and slacker backer will go towards stretch goals!

you will anounce how much PP was backed?

Last time I checked (2-3 hours ago) it was at $9k

Hi, can we have support fire, aircraft air/cover or bombing, artillery fire from 2-3 square away, maybe just to slow down the enemy on the world map or in action, or off-map action in general, like planing 2 group entering a territory, with 30min between them, from 2 sides of the map, like in JA2

We want to get several of these in. Especially the 2 squads into same sector from different direction

Hey guys, I just realized, with pay pal being at around 8k, havent you already made it? KS is at 344,749 right now.

KS won't release the funds until the limit is reached on their site.

Yeh - if we dont make it, all goes back and we get 0

Suppose it does stay at $345,000, could you not pledge the last $5000 yourselves, and then reimburse yourselves with the Paypal money, to make sure your Paypal funds do count towards reaching the limit and being 'officially' funded?

We could yes - its within reach now for our own funds. But also maybe slight be against the spirit of kickstarter.

Hey guys, I just realized, with pay pal being at around 8k, havent you already made it? KS is at 344,749 right now.

Theoretically yes. But we cannot quickly move the funds. And the Paypal doesnt count into the unlocking/reaching of goals

Ready your beer, guys! And also some sausages or something, you made it!

MOAR BEER!!!

will there be ghillie suits?

Yep!

I'd like to add a boxed copy to my tier ... but what's the difference between the regular copy ($40) and the collectors edition ($100)?

Will adding a boxed copy to the pledge actually help you or does that amount only cover the cost of production and shipment?

(of course I'm watching you live -- enjoy your beer!)

Collectors box is on the frontpage. It also has a text description of the other stuff in the box!

Hey, nice to see you all here. Did you have any discussions about the UI? Ian said, in his interview, it really took a lot of time to find the right style and make it smooth and usable. I think that will then be defined later than sooner, right?

Not yet no! Its something we take ultra serious as well. We definitely want to make it modern, accessible, easy to use and still very informative

Hi! I've supported the project from day two and are especially thrilled to see JA series resurrected. However, seeing as whole campain was a gamblers wet dream (always balancing on edge of not being funded) - is there a contingency plan (in case we are short few hundred $) ? :D

And question 2: In one of the updates you've shown M16 "evolving" from lvl1 to 3. Is it the whole concept behind upgrading guns or will there be some proper gun porn (maybe not the 1.13 level, but at least ja2)?

Yes - if we are a few hundred $ short, I will call my wife to put in the rest on her account!

Upgrade - was more thought as a concept. But Jesper might be the one to answer what he thought on while doing the concept