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The Blade Symphony Mod Needs Your Help

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Blade Symphony, a cyberpunk sword-fighting multiplayer Source mod made by the same folks who brought you the stunning Dystopia back in 2007, has gotten a lot of praise in the modding community. As a result, it’s aiming a bit higher up the food chain now.

The Blade Symphony Mod Needs Your Help

Puny Human is aiming to release Blade Symphony as a commercial multiplayer Source title. Evidently, this is no easy task, particularly since a commercial Source license costs quite a bit of money. It also means Puny Human’s work will be judged according to commercial standards, and as such, they’re going to have to put more work and money into the game’s development.

So, they’ve asked for your help, in the form of a donation pledge on Kickstarter. Pledging will ensure the team can secure a commercial Source license, can continue development, marketing, and maintain their servers. All of your donated money will go straight to Blade Symphony’s development and Puny Human. The pledge ends on the 28th of August, 8:55 PM EDT. Its target is $15,000, with only $11,063 having been pledged by the 223 backers so far. If the target is not hit by the time it ends, all the money will be given back, and Blade Symphony’s future will become uncertain.

But obviously, Puny Human won’t let a good deed go unrewarded. Every donation amount is backed by an incentive.

  • $1 or more gets you a digital “Thank You” letter from the Puny Human developers.
  • $5 or more gets you the previous incentive, plus a special badge on the Puny Human forums and Blade Symphony in-game statistics system, and a special Kickstarter in-game icon.
  • $10 or more gets you all previous incentives, plus a spot for your name and optionally, nickname, as a “Kickstarter Pledger in the in-game credits”.
  • $15 or more gets you all previous incentives, plus a high-quality (OGG variable, FLAC or MP3 320kbps) digital download version of the Blade Symphony soundtrack, by Tom Stoffel.
  • $20 or more gets you all previous incentives, plus a copy of the game upon release, and access to the closed Blade Symphony release candidate build testing.
  • $30 or more gets you all previous incentives, plus an exclusive Kickstarter in-game character skin, and an exclusive Kickstarter in-game rank.
  • $50 or more gets you all previous incentives, plus an exclusive Kickstarter in-game sword.

Moving on to the limited pledges:

  • $100 or more gets you all previous incentives, plus your “logo or advertisement”, on a small 128×128 sized texture,  in-game within the map District. 7 slots remaining.
  • $150 or more gets you all previous incentives from the $50 level, plus your “logo or advertisement”, on a large 256×256 sized texture,  in-game within the map District. 7 slots remaining.
  • $250 or more gets you all previous incentives, plus an achievement named in your honor. Sold out. No idea why they didn’t provide more slots. Maybe they’re not good at thinking achievements up.
  • $1,000 or more gets you every single previous incentive, plus a spot in the credits, with your name as an Executive Producer. Sold out. Again, no idea why they’d only give this one a single slot.

Puny Human have created a very informative news post on their official site, clearing up any concerns or misconceptions about the pledge and Blade Symphony’s venture in the commercial world, so be sure to check it out. If you want to donate, just hit up the Blade Symphony pledge at Kickstarter right here. For more information on Blade Symphony itself, check out their official site here.

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6 Comments

  1. Here we go again…. Hype up the MOD on ModDB and all over the place, then slap the gamers in the face with a commercial release…. Wonderful.

    • Lots of people feel the same way on ModDB:
      http://www.moddb.com/mods/bladesymphony/news/blade-symphony-on-kickstarter
      I don’t care if the is a high quality mod, there was never a price set before, and it was classified as a MOD and people donated for the production of a MOD.
      Definitively untracking, and it goes on my to download games of TPB.
      Money, money, money, money, money…………

      • “and it goes on my to download games of TPB”

        We do not condone or support piracy or piracy talk, so I’d advise you to avoid making any statements of that kind in the future.

        • Why the hell do people always complain whenever a mod becomes a commercial game? Do they not realize that many of Valve’s multiplayer games started off as mods?

          Like David said, having a commercial game allows the developers to use more advanced tools, making it the game higher quality than the mod ever would be.

          “Oh, but why on earth would I pay money for what is really just a simple mod?”
          Guess what, a game is a game. Paying for a mod-turned-game is no different than paying for a game that was developed by a big-name studio. Same goes for pirating it. Indie or not, you’re still taking profits from the developers, who may I remind you are people trying to make a living like everyone else.

          If you aren’t interested in buying the game, that’s fine, suit yourself. But keep in mind that when you to go and pirate the game, you run the risk of putting innocent people out of their jobs. And if that happens, they can’t support themselves OR their family, and there’s a good chance they’ll end up on the streets… all because YOU decided their product was nothing but a “high quality mod”.

    • At the time it was introduced on ModDB, it was a mod, and as of now I assume it is still a mod.
      They are planning on purchasing a Source Engine commercial license which will allow them to sell the game and increase their budget.
      One of the advantages of a commercial product over a mod is that the developer(s) have a constant budget for the game and can obtain the tools and equipment required for the development, so that a quality product and quality updates are guaranteed.

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