ChaunceyK: 17 years on Grimoire...isn't that about how long Axl Rose took to release Chinese Democracy? And even then, only because Dr. Pepper essentially triple-dog-dared him to release it? Maybe we could get Mello Yello to personally insult Cleve so we can finally get a finished product. ;-) But seriously Cleve, have you considered that maybe you're just a perfectionist like Axl? That the biggest reason its taking you so long to release this game is because you keep thinking "I can make it better"?
That is not going on any more. Believe me, I would not have even considered the campaign if I was not so close I was eliminating the last couple of issues in BugZilla. Unlike a lot of people who begin Kickstarter campaigns I wanted to be certain I was on the verge of completion before I even put a pitch video together.
Grimoire will come out in May 2013 and you can expect in future you will see more of the same from me, plenty of demonstrable gameplay and all the major problems solved before I start a campaign. I would not feel good about it any other way. You will never see a pitch from me consisting of "Hi, I'm Cleve Blakemore and I'd like to make a game. Here is a sketch on a table napkin of what the game will look like." Never.
I have raised the bar for crowdfunding and in future you can expect if somebody wants to get funded they will have to present some decent gameplay or at least an alpha/beta version before people will contribute. That's the way crowdfunding should really work.
