# on to azimuth by bracket garmes summary: mild sci fi apathy - "to azimuth" by bracket garmes has a seriously cool art style but whether it's seductively strange enough for kickstarters to bite seems doubtful (vimeo 111902746 w=755) it's easy to get the sales pitch entirely wrong / not fully commit to teh garme's aesthetic premises; if you're selling an action filled garme to kickstarter you'd pitch it entirely differently to "an alien abduction mystery adventure garme following two siblings as they search for ir brother in the humid haze of 1970's alabama" the "to azimuth" kickstarter however feels as flat and underwhelming as a humid and uneventful day in 1970's alabama; there doesn't seem enough conceptual meat on its bones for backers to (psychologically) justify laying down the $20,000 bracket garmes is asking given ir track record of three twine garmes perhaps its too early for them to start a kickstarter not that one shouldn't reach for bigger projects but consider the disconnect for potential backers between a dev's vision and ir perceived ability there's a lot to be said about those who treat crowd funding like a military campaign but when the devs themselves shrug in earnest half-assedness it's little wonder everyone else might also do the same not good. combine this with a 'server not found' error at the time of posting and your kickstarter is in trouble alien abduction narratives in the time of kentucky route zero man if you're going to come to the garming picnic with a massively overdone (and hardly ever done well) tale of alien abduction you'd better display something devastatingly fresh in the telling (playing) an in age where the mighty kentucky route zero is already way ahead of the pack in forging inroads to distant lands of low-poly mystery with its (surprisingly down to earth) mastery of tone and atmosphere anyone else who comes alone with a similar art style had better be prepared to up teh garme / fork off drastically with another approach not only that ir kickstarter seemed a no-brainer bargain; they only asked for $6,500 and got pledged $8,583 idea: the painfully slow speed of the characters in "to azimuth" could be (for example) replaced with a first person view which might complement teh garme's neat ability to 'fold away backdrops' (as someone on youtube said "i hope some interesting garme play element comes out of it") // video here as for displaying narrative in garmes it's unsure whether voice acting in garmes is really working; there's something about it which seems incredibly static - not that voice can't be used well but that it seems players / backers only care about such (secondary) things as a proficient storytelling voice if the core of teh garme is interesting or stimulating enough the core question potential developers need to ask: "what do we have to say that's important or new about 'the human condition' that we could tell through (say) an alien abduction mystery adventure garme following two siblings as they search for ir brother in the humid haze of 1970's alabama?" quick story suggestion: only suggest the possibility of real aliens; the mystery is.. there is no mystery - your brother is being bullied at school and has retreated into a private science fiction universe - something which players can actually explore **update patch** while ir initial kickstarter funding drive was unsuccessful bracket garmes has substantially fleshed out ir garme's story and garmeplay. however the descriptions of each ir front page seem far too long and do not yet explain to potential players what they can immediately get out of such an experience. one or two sentences at most would be better indeed the features page on ir press kit explains things quicker and better features of to azimuth **+** an alien abduction storyline set in the 1970's **+** a character-driven narrative written both from a place of love for the genre and as a way of tackling personal experiences with addiction and mental illness **+** meaningful decisions that shape susannah and nate into a unique version of them that can be imported into other garmes **+** open explorable environments **+** environmental puzzles based in real-world logic **+** a unique art style featuring dynamic surrealist environments **+** original soundtrack by neutrino effect the key phrase for this entire project is "slow creepy seduction." at the moment however the overall feeling of the project presentation as a whole is "looks nice but seems boring" // republic of bob