Sentinels of Freedom KS is live

I gotta say, as interested as I am in the game, this Kickstarter is seriously underwhelming.

First of all, no mention of other platforms, not even as stretch goals.  Nintendo Switch at least is an easy port and in huge demand.

Second, the video quality is really poor.  I know the game is early in development, but it's severely choppy.  If you can't even get it running smoothly in a controlled development environment, it doesn't inspire confidence in the final product.  And it's not exactly high-end graphics.

Third, the dialogue.  It's not only stilted, the grammar is bad.  Comic books always use punctuation, usually with lots of exclamation marks but always with at least periods and never with run-on sentences.  These aren't instant messages.  This is really unprofessional, and if it represents 70% complete story, I'm worried.

Fourth, the music.  The video uses Jean-Marc's fantastic soundtrack for the SotM video game, which won't be used in Sentinels of Freedom (unless I'm missing something).  That's misleading.  I can't even tell who Underbite's composer is, if they even have one.  In fact, there aren't any team names on the whole Underbite webpage.

Fifth, the Kickstarter suggests that only Episode 1 is on the table right now.  No mention at all of what it will take to create additional episodes, what they'll cost, etc.  Episode 1 may be self-contained, but using numbered episodes implies that it's not the full story.  Other episodic video games these days usually charge you once and then release each episode for free as they're completed, and that's what people will assume.

And finally, the price point.  $20 is a "reduced cost" price for one episode of a low-end game by a studio with one nominally successful game under their belts?  Good luck with that.

(Sidenote: I see from the whiteboard the mysterious Perestroika is related to Ermine and Fright Train somehow... unless this is an intentional misdirection.)

It seems fine to me, TBH.

It seems no different to me from the sort of dialogue we see in the Handelabra game's cutscenes, which is... well... TBH... kind of stilted and awkward in places.

It's kind of like how people complained about the art when it looks to me literally like Adam's art turned into 3D designs.

I guess it's the kind of thing where it's like... it's not that these are things you aren't allowed to find awkward, it's that the Sentinels card game and Tactics has the exact same stuff but nobody ever complained before so I assumed people were therefore fine with it.

I noticed that.

I may throw $20 at it, myself.

Put me down as a tepid 'eh?' to this KS. I'll watch how it progresses, and I hope Underbite does well, but without a huge shift in direction (such as being able to pledge for a console version), I'm seeing too many red flags. MindWanderer pretty much summed up my concerns, and putting a Sentinels coat of paint on something I probably wouldn't otherwise buy isn't going to make me throw money down like it would've a couple years back.

Can't interact with Kickstarter from work, so once I'm home I'll pledge for the hero level probably.

I do admitedly share some of MW's concerns. Especially the part about this being an 'episodic' game. I personally have no problem with that, but if that's the case then I'd like to get confirmation that those who pledge at the appropriate levels will get the full game as part of it. From what I've read there's no word of that.

I could be blind and not have noticed it though, feel free to correct me if I am infact wrong.

I'm still kind of legitimately confused that people are "concerned" about some things that have always existed in Sentinels products and never been a problem before.

Also with their "Episode and Chapters" commentary where they say the "Episode" has 4 "Chapters", it feels more like the episode is a full game and the chapters are analogous to what other games would call "episodes", with one "chapter" already being pre-funded and the rest being funded if the KS succeeds. Which is confusing, but still makes a certain amount of sense, insofar that if you break the $20/30 down by 4 you get close to what other companies like Telltale charge for each "episode" of their games.

If that's not the case, then I admit to also being thoroughly puzzled.

I'm guessing that it's the quantity of similar dialogue that's the sticking point, then?

Weeeeeeeeell... it's more varied, certainly. I'm skirting into not wanting to be discouraging territory, but a lot of the existing dialogue in Sentinels is, shall we say, steeped in Silver Age era styling.

And there's a few characters like Nightmist and Argent Adept who are definitely stilted in what they say.

I always winked at it because the entire game is clearly meant to invoke a Silver Age pastiche feel, and assumed other people equally winked. Now people are saying "egads it's awful" and my mind's like, "But... I don't get the difference between this and what you were fine with before?"

(I do agree the punctuation is off, but I'm used to alpha testing having all sorts of quirks so I don't feel het up yet.)

I'm also confused at the "unproven developer" thing I've seen some folks mention when Handelabra was not exactly big time when they did Sentinels (instead near as I can tell it was Sentinels that made them big time).

Well, I admit it would literally make no sense at all to me if they're really going for a Telltale-type episode, on several levels. I backed a Telltale-episode-like game from another company a while back and the cheapest option was $10. I feel like the assumption I made here tracks more logically as a result.

But I also admit I just like assuming things and people are logical. And that granted this is not always the best assumption for me to make.

The one concern I share right now is the bit about the music.

Edit: Well, I said "screw it" and just went ahead and asked about the episode thing straight up. Now I'm curious enough to want this clarified.

Here's the answer I got, FWIW:

Sure, so episode 1 will be a full self contained game. Further episodes will be new stories and additional characters plus the ones you have.

I don't think it looks like something that I would enjoy playing, and i want to save money to give all that I can to the roleplaying game, so I think I will opt out.

When Christopher said FF tactics I am sold. Sadly with the RPG and Spirit island kickstarter later this year I can't afford it.

I also told my self I will not kick start too many things at once. It takes time form raw concept to finished product I also hate having all my money ties up in KS. I think I will just get it when it releases or on Kickbacker (If they have that option)

Yeah I admit I'm also a teensy bit biased in that I really love squad-based turn-based tactics/tactics RPGs in general, so adding "Sentinels" on top is extremely hard to resist.

These guys need a proofreader, bad. <.< (My rates are cheap...)

I have to admit, I'm excited, but even without reading the doom and gloom in this thread, I'm hesitant. Granted, I might just go whole-hog if I were in a better place financially, so there's that. I just can't get over the "Episode 1" thing, even from what they said. (Thank you Jeysie for the inside scoop!) $20 might be a worthwhile cost for 4 stages of in-depth, replayable gameplay, it's hard to say right now.

I think I'll track it and see where it goes. Hoping that dialogue is just placeholder, wishing they'd polished things up front a little more. >.> But with more than a month to go, they're nearly half-funded, so I expect it will at least happen.

Tactics combat games are my favorite as well, so I'm really hoping they nail this.  If it comes out on Switch I'll probably still get it even if the writing is terrible.  I'll always value gameplay over everything else.  But an unprofessional approach to the Kickstarter just doesn't bode well for their ability to make good decisions in general.  I just have very little time to play games at home these days, and when I do I usually choose a good spectator game (my wife likes to watch), which tactics games are not, so it's Switch or bust for me.

They better be cheap; you mean "badly." :)

Nearly all their comments on the Kickstarter page are written badly as well.  Just, again, unprofessional.  Every successful Kickstarter I've ever backed has gotten at least that right.  Use Grammarly or something, at least, when you're writing something forward-facing.

Edit: Since I'm not a backer, I asked my questions privately via the FAQ section.  I did learn:

• Jean-Marc Giffin is in fact doing the music!  It probably won't be the same music as the SotM video game (since Handelabra has the rights to that), but it should be aesthetically consistent, so that's pretty awesome.
• The dialogue shown in the Kickstarter is in fact placeholder.  (I still disagree that they should have shown it at all, or at least should have had it proofread, but at least it's not final.)
• They are of course authorized developers for all three current consoles but haven't figured out a way to work that into the Kickstarter.  They're "looking into it."

I have terrible luck with video game KSes, Handelabra being the notable exception, so I should probably stay away to avoid cursing it. :P

The FF Tactics comparison is a very, very dangerous invocation, and one that has baited me before, as it is my favorite video game. I don't see it in this case - it looks a lot more like an XCOM Enemy Unknown type of system, which didn't click with me. I do enjoy Sentinels, and I do enjoy tactical games, but I'm going to have to wait for more information before jumping in on this one.

I guess basically, I apologize if I came off as hostile to MindWanderer in any way.

But my mind has it where if someone makes extraordinary, strongly-toned assessments, I am intrinsically inclined to expect equally extraordinary proof/logic of them. And to me saying it's "unprofessional" or "bad" or similar is an extraordinarily strongly-toned assessment so I was more inclined to scrutinize the arguments with an equal level of depth.

1. Out of the 11 video games I've backed on KS, the vast majority are PC only, PC and Android/iOS, or they only decided to add console support long long after the KS delivered. So saying a KS game isn't coming out on your favorite console is a valid lament, but it's not proof that the company is being in any way unusual or unprofessional.

2. I honestly don't know how to approach the "choppy video" argument because it sincerely looks smooth as glass to me.

3. The claim that the dialogue is "awful" when it seems totally on par to me with existing Sentinels dialogue that people here have never expressed any upset with before now, and complaints that it's lacking punctuation in a way that seems totally on par with how alpha versions of things usually look. And apparently my hunch was right and yes, it's a placeholder, and yes it's alpha-level production.

3. A claim about the content amount of the game being too tiny that seemed to me to be totally at odds with the details they gave about content structure and price point, versus the assumption that they just used the nomenclature differently than the norm. And my hunch turned out to be correct that it was the latter.

4. Complaints about the developer being "untested" when Handelabra was mostly untested when they took on Sentinels. (They had completed games and software, but Jeremy himself has openly admitted they weren't exactly huge financial successes, certainly nowhere close to the level that Sentinels has been for them.)

5. The repeated statements that the KS is "unprofessional" when I honestly don't see anything that isn't on par with the vast majority of video game KSes I've seen. And yes that includes the grammar in the responses. No it doesn't have the polish that the gigantic huge-draw companies-full-of-industry-legends-who-joined-together KSes have, but I hope nobody really expected it to.

The one thing I did think was a criticism with evidence that matched the tone was that even though they promised a soundtrack they made no mention of who their composer was. But that's been cleared up and with an answer I feel nobody's likely to feel upset about, so, *shrugs a bit*

***

Addendum: I do however empathize fully with the people who are just like "this game just isn't my bag" because I recognize I'm really lucky in that this game is exactly my bag and everybody likes different stuff.

I went with the 'Hero' pledge level, so here's hoping this works out well. The other levels above that are a bit much, and I only want one copy of the game.

I guess I'm gonna try my best to explain my previous statement where I shared my worries. Initially, I have no problem with episodic games. TellTale's Sam & Max games and SBCG4AT(Strong Bad's cool Game for Attractive People(Hooray for gaming acronyms!)) were massivly enjoyable to me. Being Episodic is not the problem.

It's more the fact that when I pledge to a kickstarter, I want to get all of the things included in said project. If I back a video game, I'll get the level that gets me the whole game. Gimme all the things(with an adequate pricepoint so neither the developer nor I are jyped).

Yeah, that's fair enough; Underbite was only able to get partial outside funding.

I guess my take on this would be "An issue, just not for me the extreme massive dealbreaking issue it is for MW".

I'm definitely disappointed that it wasn't a big name company or a company who'd made one of my fave games.

On the other hand, I've backed or bought games from first-timers or second-timers without any particular issues, and Underbite has a completed game that doesn't look like it's Big Rigs levels of bad, so I just feel disappointed rather than alarmed.

...

*actually looks at SoEP for the first time in over a year*

...  Holy crap, you're right... 

(I only backed for the M&M PDfs, so I've been off for a long time)

Underbite's said in their first update that they're going to be showing an early build at PAX East and then using that to do a "narrated walkthrough" for the folks at home afterwards, so we can hopefully get some first-hand info about what they've been up to, to work from.

Only just watched the Kickstarter video this morning, so one comment based on earlier discussion

My take from the video is anything that appears choppy looks more like the game running in Unity/whatever game development studio they're using, rather than running the game from a standalone build. Most of the stuff through the video looked pretty smooth to me. (Only specific example I saw that might be contrary was the Character Builder around the 40 second mark, which could be either-or)

I backed at the Hero level, but I wish there was something that gave a bit more than that without jumping all the way to $250.

I noticed there were several grammar mistakes in the blog updates about the game even before the Kickstarter came out.  Clearly it's not the strongsuit of whoever does Underbite's writing, but as other people have pointed out, there are resources that can help with that.  When you're asking people for money, you should do your best to look professional.

As far as the dialogue goes, I don't think it's inconsistent to say that the dialogue in this game should be better, but be okay with bad dialogue in SotM.  Much of the dialogue from SotM sounds like it's from the Silver Age because it's written to be like it came from the Silver Age!  On the other hand, this game takes place post-Oblivaeon, which means it's from the modern age of comics.  Modern comics are generally much better with dialogue, so the dialogue in this game should better match the modern esthetic.

I just have a real thing against double standards and prefer to not apply them myself.

Plus... even in the relatively short time I've been a fan I've seen the fandom consistently nitpick to little pieces literally everything about every single Sentinels thing that isn't the existing card game. So seeing said double standards doesn't do much to dispel that filter I need to use--that I have to evaluate every complaint through of the lens of the fandom tendency to treat every flaw as being equally the end of the world just because it's in a new product--before I can evaluate any flaw's actual severity.

Yes, this is exactly my point.  Running a Kickstarter is like writing a resume and going to a job interview.  Everything should be presented to the very best of your ability.  When you go to a job interview, you dress more nicely and groom yourself more carefully than you would for the actual job.  You don't swear or use slang.  You shake hands, smile, and make eye contact even if you're an introvert and these things don't come easily.  You spell-check and grammar-check your resume (heck, resume-writing is Grammarly's main ad campaign).  No one is ever going to argue that these things aren't both expected and necessary.

If you're interviewing someone for a job, and they're dressed like a slob but tell you, "Don't worry, I'll dress more nicely when I'm working with partners or clients," will you believe them?  I would (with hesitation).  But what does it say about them that they think this is OK for a job interview?  It raises concerns about their judgement at best.  What else would they think is acceptable that you'd never even think to ask them about?

Also, these guys are programmers.  Attention to detail is really, really important when it comes to programming.  Small typos can result in huge bugs, and the more complex the game, the more of this sort of thing can sneak by.  If you can't be bothered to hit the Shift or period key when typing something that's part of your big sales pitch to the world, how likely is it you'll substitute an & for an && and never catch it?  One of my favorite bugs like this is Nuclear Maniac Gandhi in an old Civilization game (Civ II IIRC)--he starts off with minimum aggressiveness, so when his aggressiveness gets lowered, it wraps around to the maximum and he tries to blow up the world.  Tiny thing, easily corrected but hard to catch, made it to the final version of the game.

This Kickstarter is possibly the most important thing the folks at Underbite have ever done.  This will be only their second game, but it's the first one tied into a major IP, with lots of publicity, and the first one where they designed the game mechanics themselves (their first game was a board game adaptation).  This will make their careers, much the same way SotM made Handelabra's.  It needs to be as successful as humanly possible.  And if they can't take the time to polish it in obvious, simple ways, I don't think they know how to prioritize and I'm not confident they're taking the whole project seriously enough.

So much this.  

I've been sitting in on a number of interviews recently at my job--we're filling some additional positions in my department--and I'll readily admit:  I lambasted a candidate recently for her inattention to detail.  In addition to  numerous spelling and grammatical errors--including a sentence fragment, right in the middle of her cover letter--she spelled her email wrong.  As in, she spelled what was obviously the same email address differently in two different places on the same resume document.  There's no room for that.

Similarly, a Kickstarter--especially for a company with only a product or two under their belt--serves as a combination resume, audition tape, and proof of concept.  If you're not willing/able to put your absolute best foot forward in that?  Then maybe you need to question whether you're ready to take your project public.

Sigh.

MindWanderer, it's just...

I don't want to discount your opinion entirely, you know? I literally have done proofreading and copyediting for a living. I feel the pain. I agree that typos jump out at me and can be annoying. It's entirely valid to notice and point out when you see grammar goofs.

But like... you've just sat here spending an entire lengthy essay about how a missed period and a few run-on sentences means they're the most god-awful unprofessional company you've ever met fielding the most disgustingly presented KS ever and of course they're going to screw up all of their code because that also proves they have all the most incompetent programmers ever and doom and gloom and horror and worst company ever. It's a little bit... overdone.

And then there's stuff like "A major IP with tons of publicity!" and like...

OblivAeon is I'm guessing the most successful Sentinels thing ever done, and it had 10,000 backers and made gobs of money. That's pretty awesome. I'm not going to downplay that at all on its own merits.

But some other stuff I've KSed or know of as a comparison:

Harebrained Schemes: 42,000 backers for Battletech, 32,000 for Shadowrun Hong Kong

Pillars of Eternity: 74,000 backers.

The revival of the Tex Murphy series which is probably not known at all outside the adventure gaming community got 7,000 backers.

I mean this probably will make Underbite's careers if they pull it off because Sentinels IS that high level, but if Sentinels was a "major IP" it would be going to a company that was already made. :>

Like... again, you have valid concerns that should be thought about! I don't really want to invalidate that.

But if we could maybe dial it back from "5000 WORD ESSAY ABOUT HOW THE UNIVERSE IS ENDING BECAUSE THERE WAS A PERIOD OUT OF PLACE" levels of things to... "I hope they hire a few proofreaders for the beta" levels of things I think it would maybe be a little easier to digest.

Plus it's also a bit weird seeing random non-video-game-creators on the internet trying to treat a company that already has a completed, profitable game under their belts as if they need to have it explained how to make a video game.

Sigh.

I agree with MindWanderer.  I'm not paying you money if you can't be arsed to write like a grown up.  The resume comparison is spot on.

Hopefully it won't end up harming the kickstarter too much in the end, because I think we all want it to succeed even if they're not putting their very best foot forward at the moment.

I do agree about copyediting: there's a big difference between bad dialogue and poor grammar in dialogue. One is, "The polarizing power of electricity can produce many interesting effects." The other is, "Nice too meat you Whats you're name?" which is both wrong from an English language standpoint and also just not how people talk naturally. We've seen some of the latter in the early build Sentinels of Freedom screenshots, but not so much on Sentinels of the Multiverse materials.

I am sure that, with Christopher and Adam directing the story, we can count on the story beats to accurately characterize the heroes and villains we love. We also know that Christopher himself delayed the Spirit Island rulebook to do an editing overhaul, so I doubt he'd let dialogue slip through unedited.

Basically, while grammatical errors in a public presentation product are a bit innately off-putting to me, I'm going to try to look past that to the idea of an XCOM-genre PC game set in the Sentinels RPG universe, which is something I would love to support. (Especially since I don't play tabletop RPGs!) I, too, am looking forward to seeing a narrated walkthrough. Some of this game's mechanics seem really cool - and I don't just mean Mr. Fixer!

I feel reasonably sure that a project which is 78% funded in 24 hours hasn't been harmed too much by a few minor typos, so I wouldn't be too concerned on that call.

Yeah, this basically for me. Especially since that's a good point I hadn't thought of with the comparison of the reaction to typos here to the reaction to the typos in the Starter Kit.

I can't speak for everyone, but when I point out flaws in something it's not to say "look how terrible this thing is," but rather to try to make it better, because it's something I like and want it to be the best it can be.  I'm guessing most other people are the same way.

Same for me. I'm not trying to stop people from making constructive criticisms.

It's that MindWanderer specifically literally IS saying "look how terrible this thing is". And in general treating every single perceived flaw as meaning the project is the Worst Thing Ever (as well as sometimes moments of erroneously assuming bad faith) isn't really productive; it's overwhelming. It's hard to find the wolves when everything regardless of species is being treated as a dire wolf.

Still, in the end the numbers show that for the time being this is clearly a tempest in a teapot on all sides including my own. So I just kinda wish that in general the criticisms on this forum could be a little more... base level in tone? We already bit ourselves in the butt with the OVER 9000 CRITICAL CONCERN thing getting ourselves way too overhyped over on the Letters Page episodes.

I did complain about those as well, but there are also only a handful of errors in a hundred pages of text.  Not great, considering the Starter Kit is also a sort of sales pitch for the main product, but an order of magnitude more understandable.

Normally I would agree with you, but Paul said in the State of GTG thread that Christopher helped polish this Kickstarter.

...because this.  I want the Kickstarter to be better not just because I want to have confidence the final product will be something I want to buy, but because a strong Kickstarter means more support for this thing I want to love.  I want Underbite to make a good game that makes a ton of money and lets them make more content.  If I like the game but it gets slammed in reviews because it just isn't polished when it releases, then that's bad for me because it means those additional episodes and whatnot won't happen.  If it funds 200% vs. 1000%, that makes a big difference.

Well, basically... you've got people here talking about how obviously horrifically unprofessionally written the KS is and that they're so concerned it'll fail hard if they don't fix what is clearly a massive issue everyone's doing to be up in arms about because it's just so massively obviously unprofessional...

And then over at the KS it's funding pretty well and nobody in the comments has actually mentioned the issue.

So it's like, "It's OK guys, I think the patient will live."

The Starter Kit was not Kickstarted. Most people just bought it after trying a Demo or because of the IP.

I have many words about the Starter Kit. I am making a huge fuss about having the RPG Corebook proofread by other people. I do not want my Core Book with contradicting Ideas and simple rules that were overlooked (and not written down) by the creators. 

I think we all said our piece, well all want GTG and people they work with to succeed and just trying our best to ensure that. Can we move on to another topic?

I agree, I'm always up for constructive discussion.

My #1 reason for not backing this game right now ... I simply don't play games on my computer anymore.

But I want this game on the Switch. This feels like a perfect Switch game! I want to play some Sentinels stuff with my own custom hero on the TV? Done! Want to lie down and play? Done! Take it on a trip? Done!

I understand from previous Kickstarters that providing a pledge level for a console version can be nigh impossible (come on, console makers, get with the times and find a way to help crowdfunding videogame makers!), but if Underbite was able to do a Switch level, I'd be there in a heartbeat. And, if it does release on Switch, I'll buy it day one (provided I know about it).

I've already favorited the Kickstarter so I can keep an eye on it, and I may throw in a dollar or so, so I can comment. But don't think I can justify $20 or so for a version of the game that I likely wouldn't play.
But I do hope Underbite does well and this game is a success!

Seems like you both want the same thing, right? Jeysie wants the kickstarter to succeed and is trying not to let criticisms (no matter how valid or invalid) get to people's heads and make them not back. MindWanderer wants the kickstarter to succeed, but is using critiques to conceive a more polished product. Win-win?

I can say that I'm not backing because I'm simply not a computer gamer. Give me the game on Switch and you've got my money, no problem. But to be fair, they'd only be getting my money because it is a Sentinels products and I enjoy the IP. The game itself doesn't wow me (yet).

It's more that I just want criticisms to be talked about in a proportional way, and people making a choice to back or not back based on a proportional weight of an issue.

I haven't argued with, like, people saying this isn't their type of game or they only like playing on a Switch because that's entirely fair and I don't like to argue matters of taste as a rule. If this had turned out to be a platformer like some folks had wondered last year, I'd be in the same boat of it not being my type of game.

But to me, stuff like minor typos are a thing to just bring to the company's attention. Not a sign of how deal-breakingly unprofessional they're being.

And I mean, if someone wrote to me multiple essays about how they took issue with every single major aspect of my creation and several minor ones and how incredibly unprofessional I was being and how I was obviously going to screw up making it and how not ready for prime time I was, I wouldn't take that as nice, friendly advice intended to help me polish my creation, I would take that as a sign to cringe and then throw what I was doing in the trash bin and not bother at all.

As someone who's spent a couple decades in both fandom and office work doing everything from fanfic beta-ing to actual professional proofreading, and who in turn has both done writing and other creative things like singing and gotten taught and critiqued on it, the stuff MW and Warlock wrote is not how you do constructive criticism.

I'm honestly dismayed that multiple people are saying engaging in verbal evisceration is just a nice little friendly way to ensure something succeeds and is more polished, because the style of someone like Ramsay might make for entertaining TV but it's not actually a good way to critique someone.

And also... I just don't enjoy opening a thread about a new product to try to discuss it and instead seeing walls of text condescendingly explaining how every detail of the thing in question is terrible somehow. It happens now and then with OblivAeon, it happened with the Starter Kit, it happened with the Earth Prime KS, and now it's happening again with this KS. I'm almost not looking forward to the SCRPG KS as a result because I'm worried there will be even more of it there too.

I honestly don't see why people are so resistant to the idea of switching from savage verbal eviscerations to something calmer in tone. It's pretty frustrating that the only reason this has gone on so long is because everyone keeps telling me how they just don't want to phrase their criticism in a constructive way. I mean if you really want to keep being unconstructive I'll stop requesting otherwise but it's still pretty disappointing and I wasn't in the wrong for asking.

I don't even know where to begin with this mess.

I'll readily admit, the forum of a secondarily related company is not the appropriate or professional venue in which to offer genuine developmental feedback. Thats why I'm not offering it, nor did I claim to do so earlier. I voiced a concern; nothing more, nothing less. If Underbite wants my services as a professional copy editor or content developer, I'll gladly provide them my rate sheet and a list of the companies I've worked for.

However, I think people--myself included-- have a legitimate concern over a new company's ability to deliver on a product when that company can't demonstrate basic grammar in a significant IP-based release. First impressions matter, whether you like that fact or not.

That's entirely fair.  And, like what I'd assume to be pretty much everyone, I've changed my mind at times, both to the positive and negative.  But the point stands that every one of us form an opinion based upon the information available and in front of us, and sometimes never revisit that opinion.  In Kickstarter terms, that's someone who will watch 10 seconds of a choppily-edited video and then move to a different page, or scan through some stilted dialogue and never read it again.  Unfortunately, that's also backed up by KS data metrics--I think you'd be shocked at how few people actually watch the entirety of a KS video, or how low the amount of time an individual spends on a given page is.

Right now, for me, that opinion is currently, "These guys are going to have a hard time delivering; they're missing some of the basic elements of 'polish' that most modern Kickstarters have and they seem to be in over their heads."  While I'm highly interested in the game and would like to see it succeed, my reservations currently outweigh my interest.  As such, I'll be waiting until it hits retail.

I had no idea this many people were Switch exclusive.  I've always viewed an xbox or playstation as the "necessary" console to have, with Nintendo's consoles being a bonus if you're really into Nintendo games or whatever their latest gimmick is.