TheKingofAverage
patreon
This can't happen again.
🕑 Added 2019-12-02 17:01:01 +0000 UTCI'm in quite the pickle. It's no one's fault really, but I need to guard against it happening again.
My Dawn of Madness review is going to be difficult. Not because I'm conflicted or anything like that, you guys know me, I tend to have a pretty definite opinion about most things. Instead it'll be difficult to word.
Again, not because I'm afraid of saying anything negative, but instead because I want to ensure I communicate things properly. So often even if I say something, viewers will latch onto only part of what I say and disregard or forget the rest.
See, I "played" Dawn of Madness but I didn't really "play" it. The prototype, as it is right now, is half baked. There's so much missing it ended up being a convoluted mess with every system gimped from the full experience.
This is my most requested review so far both by vote and by comment. And yet here I am uncomfortable in how to express the mechanics because I don't feel confident in them. Not that their bad, but because my experience with them is not an accurate representation of the game.
I'll figure it out, at least I'll try to by being as clear as I can with in the video, but it's made me decide to always ensure the game is mostly complete and playable before I accept a preview copy. I'm sure many reviewers wouldn't mind but I like to be pretty confident in my stance before turning on the camera and telling you guys about it.
Of course that's not all that's going on. I've also started to plan my next miniature painting video! I got Fade from Kingdom Death: Monster for my wife as a Christmas present last year since her name on Discord is named after her. Sadly she has remained unpainted a year later but I'm about to change that.
Along with painting her I'll be using a new set of brushes and a wet palette and will definitely let you guys know what I think of them afterward.
Other than that it's just been boring stuff like emailing a lot of companies to get more info for my big Upcoming 2020 Kickstarters video.
Oh! I'm doing a Dawn of Madness giveaway. Be sure to watch my new December KS video for more info on that :) Also expect an upcoming vote here on Patreon for use in a video later this month!
As the weather gets colder be sure to travel safe guys!
Comments
The King of Average
85-90% of the mechanics were there, but only partially implemented. Like inner strength was there, but only for one character. The Malformation stories were there, but only 1 per type and they were mixed up. When you see the video I think you'll be happy about how I handled it. At least I hope so :P There's certainly enough for me to form some basic opinions on, but I don't not give it a fake rating and am not calling it a Review either. It's more of a "here's my thoughts based on what I could experience." But yeah, not kidding about how people often are just searching to reinforce their own bias.
KOA...Is the game developer asking you to provide a review of the game, or is it just Patreon folks asking you to do it? You're correct that folks will latch on to whatever you say that confirms their expectations. if they want it to be awesome, your review will confirm it is indeed an incredible game. If they hate the developer and have some negative bias, it will confirm in their minds that the developer should jump off a cliff. I'd rather see you stick to your core values and only review a game that is complete and available to the masses. If you want to review something that is still in the draft stages, then maybe just provide a sneak peak of the game components, initial story, types of tactics used, format, etc without going into detail about the rules or actual gameplay since that's just speculation at this point it sounds like.
The King of Average
Yeah I made a YouTube Community post about it :) Stayed up until 3am last night trying to get it all edited but ended up going to bed. It'll be up tomorrow!
Any news on when you decisive video on Dawn of Madness will go up?
The King of Average
That's a really good point!
The King of Average
Actually they did ask for feedback on how to make the game better and I do plan on giving them some :P
The King of Average
Hah! Well you know me :D
The King of Average
Yeah what to call it is even weird. I always put the "Preview" before Review, and think I still might title it that to not be confusing, and then explain the situation in my intro.
The King of Average
Yeah the game is all there rules wise I feel, but I was missing quite a few cards and written portions which as you know is a bit part of the game. Whether that just wasn't sent or wasn't ready I don't know.
The King of Average
It was mostly playable. I cannot tell what part they just didn't send and what parts aren't actually done. I'll have to explain more in the video.
Agree with the others. Why should you put to much work in those rules, when diemensions did not? Of course thatΒ΄s not the way to tell it, but comment on what you can by now. I mean, what did they expect when they sent you an totally unfinished game? Praise? Ideas how to make the rules/game work?
Agree with Fred. Don't call it a review or preview. Call it a sneak peek or taster of pre-prototype rules, and don't dwell on the rules too much since it's pre-prototype.
Thanks for this, your honesty is again much appreciated. Please just do what you usually do, don't hold back, we want the whole truth warts and all.
I guess it will be a new kind of video...not a review, not a preview, but an alpha-stage of questions or whatever you want to call it. Report what they gave you and that is on them not you.
I agree. If my project was seriously under-baked then the last reviewer I would send it to would be KoA.
That is really disappointing and reinforces my concerns of an incomplete convoluted mess after watching some videos on it. I was hoping the two years was for, polishing, writing and extra breathing space but instead much of it will be for finishing the core mechanics. You definitely have a difficult task in honestly reviewing an obviously unfinished project. Good luck!
Thats really a downer here... It explains why they delayed the game so much why would they send a game still in its Alpha phase... Especially to a reviewer like you that could be very direct with the broken mechanics. Maybe they pulled a CMON move making and showing beautiful (its a way to.describe well sculpted horror minis) miniatures and having an incomplete game behind... Very disappointed in Diemensions here. On the positive side, real excited for a KDM painting video! And even if DoM is incomplete, really look forward to the giveaway! At least the minis are awesome π
So, you're saying that Dawn of Madness is close to unplayable and more of an in development project? That's a big ask
