Trials of Ascension, Shady Practices and the Big Crowdfunding Debate

[Parthuin]

Hey all, I’m Parthuin and the current owner of the Trials of Ascension IP and Trials of Ascension: Exile that is currently on the Steam store.

I want to clear up a few things the best I can, but I don’t have all the answers to what happened prior to my becoming the owner of Trials of Ascension. Some may think I'm a longtime fan that got the rights for free or some meager sum of money from Forged Chaos, but this is utterly untrue. I'd only been following the development of Exile for under a year. After I played the alpha it was only developed for about 6 months, give or take, when Forged Chaos stopped working on it. I was in the midst of a small project myself with a few others and saw an opportunity to help bring this game back that had so much passion from the fans. After some discussion with Forged Chaos, looking into their background and their projects, Forged Chaos sold the rights to me. This wasn't a lightly-thought decision, a lot went into purchasing the rights and what that would mean for both Trials of ascension and my own future. As soon as I got the rights and all the content, I began working on both Exile and Trials of Ascension immediately and seeing what I could do to bring them back to life.

Forged Chaos, by what I could surmise with what as given to me, never began anything near a tangible product for the MMO, they only ever made Exile and originally their plan was to create the MMO through Exile’s success. That didn't happen and originally, I was going to try making Trials of Ascension using Exile. After looking through the project for a few days I realized that that couldn’t happen, not with the current state of Exile. I began working on ToA but I was also starting to get quite a few messages about what would happen to Exile and originally, I was going to keep it dead since I couldn't get it working properly at the time. After some requests by folks in the Discord (and after I was able to get it working), I put a version of Exile on the Steam store that could be bought and played.

As for ToA itself, Trials of Ascension has been in development for 5+ months, which I started from the ground up, and development has been going very well with some of the assets from Exile, some custom made assets made by a very talented artist as well as assets from the Unity asset store (some temporary, some not). You can check social media and the site for progress we've made.

I don’t intend my response to change anyone’s mind about the past, or even the future, but I wanted to at least clear up some of the controversies and hear it from me directly instead of second hand. I plan to start public testing in the near future, but I’m not going to set unreasonable goals or dates, as I’d rather under-promise and over-deliver. It’s also true that yes, I intend to put the project on Kickstarter eventually for a multitude of reasons. Some might see it as a cash grab and honestly, there’s nothing I can say that will change that reasoning until months down the line when ToA is released. So all I can say is, look at everything we release, whether it’s tangible or intangible, and see for yourself that it's not a scam.

I encourage anyone to come to the Trials of Ascension Discord, talk with everyone, DM me, and discuss the games. I welcome criticism and feedback, as even the most negative of feedback can be good if looked at in the right light.

I hope to meet some, if not all, of you soon!

[Edge-]

argh... raid... youtube's new plague.

... but honestly, that sort of shit isn't really much a surprise in mobile games, and sadly, for whatever reason, is accepted by most.

Meh, it's a typical mobile game with aggressive monetization. IMO not really appropriate for the thread since it's not really unique like ToA was in its situation. They're just doing a big user acquisition spend so we're seeing tons of ads/sponsored videos from them, which isn't uncommon when there's major updates or planned pushes for new players.

[Kyanion]

After some discussion with Forged Chaos, looking into their background and their projects, Forged Chaos sold the rights to me. This wasn't a lightly-thought decision, a lot went into purchasing the rights and what that would mean for both Trials of ascension and my own future.

Man I hope you didn't pay that much for it, like buying an IP to a much maligned terrible project that the clueless "devs" at FC were making can't be worth a damn.

- - - Updated - - -

It’s also true that yes, I intend to put the project on Kickstarter eventually for a multitude of reasons. Some might see it as a cash grab

Also good freaking luck ever getting funded on KS with that brand name already having two failed KS and the drama surrounding the name. And yes, many will see it as a cash grab. Look around at other projects of similar nature we're talking about.

[Taojnhy]

I want to clear up a few things the best I can, but I don’t have all the answers to what happened prior to my becoming the owner of Trials of Ascension. Some may think I'm a longtime fan that got the rights for free or some meager sum of money from Forged Chaos, but this is utterly untrue. I'd only been following the development of Exile for under a year. After I played the alpha it was only developed for about 6 months, give or take, when Forged Chaos stopped working on it. I was in the midst of a small project myself with a few others and saw an opportunity to help bring this game back that had so much passion from the fans. After some discussion with Forged Chaos, looking into their background and their projects, Forged Chaos sold the rights to me. This wasn't a lightly-thought decision, a lot went into purchasing the rights and what that would mean for both Trials of ascension and my own future. As soon as I got the rights and all the content, I began working on both Exile and Trials of Ascension immediately and seeing what I could do to bring them back to life.

Forged Chaos, by what I could surmise with what as given to me, never began anything near a tangible product for the MMO, they only ever made Exile and originally their plan was to create the MMO through Exile’s success. That didn't happen and originally, I was going to try making Trials of Ascension using Exile. After looking through the project for a few days I realized that that couldn’t happen, not with the current state of Exile. I began working on ToA but I was also starting to get quite a few messages about what would happen to Exile and originally, I was going to keep it dead since I couldn't get it working properly at the time. After some requests by folks in the Discord (and after I was able to get it working), I put a version of Exile on the Steam store that could be bought and played.

As for ToA itself, Trials of Ascension has been in development for 5+ months, which I started from the ground up, and development has been going very well with some of the assets from Exile, some custom made assets made by a very talented artist as well as assets from the Unity asset store (some temporary, some not). You can check social media and the site for progress we've made.

I don’t intend my response to change anyone’s mind about the past, or even the future, but I wanted to at least clear up some of the controversies and hear it from me directly instead of second hand. I plan to start public testing in the near future, but I’m not going to set unreasonable goals or dates, as I’d rather under-promise and over-deliver. It’s also true that yes, I intend to put the project on Kickstarter eventually for a multitude of reasons. Some might see it as a cash grab and honestly, there’s nothing I can say that will change that reasoning until months down the line when ToA is released. So all I can say is, look at everything we release, whether it’s tangible or intangible, and see for yourself that it's not a scam.

I encourage anyone to come to the Trials of Ascension Discord, talk with everyone, DM me, and discuss the games. I welcome criticism and feedback, as even the most negative of feedback can be good if looked at in the right light.

I hope to meet some, if not all, of you soon!

I'm honestly amazed that anyone would want to buy an IP with such a sordid history, and flabbergasted at the suggestion that you didn't get it for a meager sum. Just, why? The work done on it can't be worth all that much and the brand is indelibly tainted; as Kyanion pointed out, you simply aren't going to get this through a third KS. Having a solid demo isn't going to cut it; the brand has been pumped and dumped three times already. You're going to have to present something extraordinary at this point; not because of anything you did, but because of all this shit Forged Chaos did and more importantly, didn't do.

I find it kind of poetic that you're using Exile assets for ToA, given that assets for ToA went into making Exile. Incidentally: their original plan was to create the MMO, but when most of their pretensions were exposed and they were revealed to be incompetent frauds, then they pivoted to making Exile which was more or less the demo they paid to have made in order to sell the second KS as a MMO.

I hold no rancor towards you, and I sincerely wish you the best of luck. I'm afraid you're going to need it, no matter the skillsets you can bring to bear.

[Rackiera]

Yeah the Day of Dragons nonsense is pretty insane. I've been in the thick of it from watching it from afar, having backed the game due to overhype (though on a low level), and arguing with people in a different dragon game Discord. It's one hell of a dumpster fire. Their latest news is that their animator had a sudden extended contract into April and they decided to wait an entire month during a dev Q&A to address that instead of, you know, telling their customers in January when they said they'd have an animator...

[Kyanion]

welp, third time's a charm, right?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...of%20Ascension

This was way to soon for anything remotely close to 10,000$, especially considering the baggage this project is carrying around.

Haha holy shit, it just feels like they got the assets, aimed for a low number to cash grab and just release nothing and walk with the money. Even worse they are already earmarking 28% of this money for themselves. Fucking lol. They are more than happy to talk about just going to the Unity Asset Store and wasting money there too.

I fucking LOVE that they use the "Trials of Ascension has been in and out of development for nearly 20 years with the previous developers." line as if that is a positive thing. Yeah except it wasn't in development that long at all, just a concept. A shitty concept.

[Osoroshii]

welp, third time's a charm, right?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...of%20Ascension

This was way to soon for anything remotely close to 10,000$, especially considering the baggage this project is carrying around.

It's the dumpster fire that never runs out of fuel!

[Kelimbror]

Can I just point out the user named *snip*? Definitely a Trap thot because that is so on the nose. Lol.

Don't call out others. -Edge

[Kyanion]

From what I know they are not unity store assets, they are being made by "MSilver", that seems to have a pretty charming attitude from what was shown to me

Dunno what's up with a lot of the people in these projects and their massive egos.

Well I'm going from what they wrote on the Kickstarter page that they're going to use money to buy up things on the Unity store.

[MSilverS]

Aww, I've been noticed! Just here to clear things up despite my "massive ego"

Brocker is a known troll in the entirety of the DoD server, he has claimed he wants to make his own game despite not having the experience in it and has even tried arguing with me about me "not doing things right" and how "performance is only affected by different styles" despite none of these being true, performance is affected by the resolution, topology count and animation type which is something any game asset dev should know.

The second point is that literally none of them have actual experience in the industry, they don't know how game assets actually should be made and what should be restricted, their concepts add a plethora of 3D details that would require added topology which would result in a very dense game model which would obviously lag the game, if you actually used context in your pictures you would see all of my comments on that and how they reject the criticism despite not even knowing its needed in even a basic game. Vatalia has been said she would do 3D animation for the AI despite not even showing she can 3D animate and avoiding the question, Parrot claims she is doing concepts but they are so barebones that they change them most of the time, and Jao claims he can code despite literally every BP being found on the Marketplace Asset store and when he changes them he breaks them every time, really up to you on if it would actually work out or not.

And finally, DoD has only shown High Res sculpts without ever commenting on if they would actually get Retopologized (retopology- remaking the topology in a lower poly count for games and animation), so therefore they aren't really impressive because there is no guarantee that they would actually get added in since they can't function in the Engine in the first place unlike our stuff which can actually fit in the engine we are using.

I always welcome criticism, I am only commenting to say that I welcome your criticisms and am fine with your opinions, if you have any questions I am in the ToA Discord server and my user is SilverSword#0647, I would love to hear your comments on things

[Kyanion]

I meant the dragons, I don't think the Dragons are from the store, but yeah.

The kickstarter says " For example, keen eyes will notice our main adult dragon is from the Unity Asset Store as a placeholder, however, this dragon will not be in the final release (unless the community decides otherwise)." if that is the dragon we're talking about, either way they are more than willing to blow through what small money there would even be on the asset store.

[StrangeJellybeans]

Can I just point out the user named "e-girl" with a pokemon avatar? Definitely a Trap thot because that is so on the nose. Lol.

hello that is my friend please do not call her slurs

[Kyanion]

hello that is my friend please do not call her slurs

Are we serious? You're going to create an account to this site to white knight for some random person on a discord? Get real.

[StrangeJellybeans]

Are we serious? You're going to create an account to this site to white knight for some random person on a discord? Get real.

yes i am good sir do you have a problem with this bc by all means call me slurs too

[MSilverS]

Hey all, just to clear things up the quick way, none of the pics shown actually have context to them and none of you know me so its hard to tell what are jokes so I will post context now.

1: Brocker is a known troll in the DOD discord, he claims to know things then spreads misinformation about it while claiming he is right regardless, the "I have custom assets" point was a joke because Brocker came at me before with his claims of not knowing what I am doing despite it being the opposite and my assets actually working in engine, regardless he always insists he is right and has experience in literally every field you discuss because he wants to seem better.

2: The Devs of DoD have no experience in the gaming industry whatsoever, their supposed "game models" aren't even models, they are high res sculpts. They have nobody retopologizing (retopology-remake topology for games) the assets and no Animator yet at all. Vatalia is supposedly gonna do the animations for AI but outright refuses to show examples of her animation so its likely false she knows how to, Parrot is their Concept Artist but due to no experience she makes concepts that would end up being too dense for the games Spec Requirement due to way too much 3D detail. Honestly really up to you if you want to believe in them.

and 3: I was in no way affiliated with ToA at all prior to this, I originally was going to make assets for Parthuin before he bought the rights to ToA, I had never played the game and barely heard of the issues around it, I merely make the sculpts, models, animations and textures for whatever he hires me to do with future payment plans, if you have any concerns then by all means contact me on Discord, I am SilverSword#0647 if you have any questions or concerns

[Kyanion]

yes i am good sir do you have a problem with this bc by all means call me slurs too

*eyeroll* I'm not here to call anyone "slurs". Settle down and learn that you're on the internet and shit happens. Get over it.

- - - Updated - - -

This project is the gift that keeps on giving with new accounts posting about it all.

[Socialhealer]

yes ahahhaha the fucking 1 account new posters are here, this thread is almost as legendary as the useless sacks of £$%^$ at ToA.

[Kyanion]

yes ahahhaha the fucking 1 account new posters are here, this thread is almost as legendary as the useless sacks of £$%^$ at ToA.

Almost. At least these jokers are only trying to ask for 10k instead of the ludicrous amounts the old ToA went after. No one in their right mind should give these fools a single penny though.They seem just as clueless as the old fools from Forged Chaos.

[MSilverS]

Eh, it really depends on how you look at it, Brocker the supposed high ranking Microsoft worker with 20 years in IT, supposed game dev experience, supposed zoologist, supposed astrologist, supposed animal tester was arguing about me doing something wrong even though my stuff actually works and is made in a very optimized way, "you don't need to retopologize your 10 million+ Poly asset! Only *Style* causes lag!" yeah, that's who I am dealing with and who I have to correct when people ask me the legitimate questions around game assets because he greatly misled them. Honestly you have to actually talk to him and see the stuff he pulls while dodging requests of proof around the subject in order to actually see where I am coming from. Vatalia's convo was completely out of context since I said why I thought it was mediocre after that convo, was mostly shading and weird color placements but I won't get into it since some find it boring.

[Kelimbror]

Are we serious? You're going to create an account to this site to white knight for some random person on a discord? Get real.

Don't worry, Edge who I used to be cool with slapped me with the white knight infraction. It's been years since I've had one and to get one for a joke that's not even about someone on this forum is fucking ridiculous. Go fuck yourself bro.