Ambitious, Tales of Shadowland starts crowdfunding

–

With a game the size of Tales of Shadowland, Uzmi wants to open up opportunities for the games industry in Brazil, which already has several studios and independent producers with well-made and internationally awarded games, but has not yet produced a production of this scale.

Still, the studio intends to compete in the MMORPG market. For that, you will need to compete for the public with millionaire productions like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV Online. Amazon spent millions of dollars and took years to enter this dispute with New World. On its side, Uzmi is asking for R$500,000 in Catarse, just over US$100,000 at the current price.

André is aware that it’s a tough market and says Uzmi’s initial goal is to make Tales of Shadowland a game the community will enjoy.

“We want to raise a flag saying that Brazil is a good place to develop games“, Douglas said. The idea is that the funding will serve as a thermometer of community engagement to increase the project’s visibility with potential international publishers.

“TWe wanted to launch the game in China, with a big publisher there“, revealed Andrew. “We are proving that we are capable of doing it. We produce a functional alpha, with players. It’s not funding to start development, it’s to upgrade the game with the community, before looking for international partners“.

“Funding is not being done to fund the game but to improve it. We are all passionate about gamers, but we are all professionals, with a lot of time in the market“, highlighted Guilherme, about the feasibility of the launch. “The adventure is up to the characters, we’re not on an adventure, it was all well planned. We don’t have the capital of a Blizzard or EA, but we have our strengths, a super competent staff that doesn’t owe anything to other markets“.

Crowdfunding

Speaking about Jambô’s experience with very successful crowdfunding campaigns, such as the game Tormenta20, Guilherme pointed out some lessons learned that the publisher brought to the Uzmi project.

“Storm’s first campaign was delayed in 2019 and we only delivered the product in 2020. We started developing the game after the campaign, together with the community. The project grew too big and we had to choose: Either we delivered on the agreed date or we delivered the product that people wanted“, recalls the editor. “What we learned was to start developing the product before crowdfunding. And that’s what Tales was already doing. If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t participate in the campaign“.

The golden age of MMOs is back in TALES OF SHADOWLAND!

Inspired by the classics of the genre, but with modern graphics, #ToSMMO is an open world medieval adventure! Participate in crowdfunding to play and receive unique benefits!
https://t.co/xr0Y1IyjS5 pic.twitter.com/JZxIzz1tED

— Tales Of Shadowland (@tosmmorpg) March 30, 2022

With full focus on the funding campaign, Uzmi will not be taking the game to fairs or festivals this year. “We would like to be at the BIG Festival, but there was no time to prepare”, explains André. “We talked to BGS, but we can’t put the game in the indie corridor.“, commented Douglas.

The youtuber’s concern is that his presence, that of the voice actor Guilherme Briggs and other internet celebrities could cause turmoil in the area. “I love the indie aisle, I always record there when I’m at the fair, but we know what BGS is like and that could cause a lot of confusion“, he explained.

Free online RPG and sem ‘pay to win’

Developed for PC, Tales of Shadowland will be free to play, with monetization through the sale of cosmetic items. The producers guarantee that the game will not have ‘pay to win’ items, those equipment that give many advantages to the player, but can only be purchased with real money.

“We are all gamers, we would never accept that in our game“, explained Douglas, stating that the game will have amazing cosmetic items to encourage monetization.

The funding campaign for the Brazilian MMORPG Tales of Shadowland is now open in Catharsis.

–