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First off, how are the colonists building these structures and mining out rock without tools? So we have to accept that they possess tools like cutters, welders and the like, but can't be used as weapons? And this is stuff they crash landed in an escape pod with? And they know how to work this stuff?

Maybe there is FTL but the stresses/radiation etc. require passengers to be put in cryo? The crews/traders etc. might have specialised equipment/medical/genetic support to survive in FTL?

Possibly, but that doesn't explain how they are able to trade.

Exactly. There must be a reason for the initial crash survivors to stay, or a reason that they can't leave.

If the former, the storyline has to be adjusted, possibly towards a DF-esque story.

If the latter, it has to be consistent with the existence of frequent interplanetary/interstellar trade (whether FTL or sublight).

My tentative answer to some of those questions is that Ty should change the storyline slightly. The passenger ship isn't passing through to some other destination when some accident occurs and jettisons the crew. Instead, its a colony ship that is supposed to land at this particular frontier planet (because it can support human life), that has an accident on atmospheric re-entry or is shot down by pirates when it comes into orbit.

Thus, the colonists are supposed to be here, and they are still a motley crew since most of the other passengers would have already died.

But this storyline would also mean changing the planned endgame.

One of the commenters makes an excellent point:

"Well if there are traders coming from other planets then what is the point of the game? Logic says to hitch a ride with the traders and get back to where you came from instead of starting anew on a totally barren unpopulated planet..."

"Well at the start you have money and you could give the traders the money after they drop you off on the planet you cam from. Simples."

This is a Revelation Space type of universe, there is no FTL interstellar travel. Humans have to enter cryonic stasis, space navigation is automated. Who exactly are we trading with? The ship AI? The ship captain, who is woken up? How exactly do the traders receive colony goods? Do they land and pick it up? Does the colony launch something up? If so, should that be costless? If traders land or the colony can send personnel to the traders, is there some sort of restriction on leaving, like trade ships not having extra cryonic facilities? But what about slavers then? How does interstellar trade work in this kind of universe?

excellent video, you did a great job introducing the game highlights

can multi-z be a module?

for biomes, how about vacuums and toxic atmospheres and >1 and <1 G environments? or are we always landing on a earth-equivalent planet? this is analogous to embarking on a desert or glacier or evil biome in DF.

Huh, reddit has a lot of referrals, the subreddit seems to be working.

not necessarily. referrer means clickthroughs, and i think that everyone or most who subscribed to the dedicated subreddit would've clicked through from the email update. more likely the clickthroughs came from the posts on other subreddits.

this also means the referrer stats miss out on posters who link the RPS article etc since the clickthrough goes from there. whatever "reddit effect" is always an underestimate.

your comments are... quirky, which might not make the best showcase for the prealpha. and its the only LP out there in english, I think.

i can do a english lets play with a funny dutch accent d-;

accents are fine, its taking the game and its mechanics seriously and playing well, that i think make a showcase effective

your comments are... quirky, which might not make the best showcase for the prealpha. and its the only LP out there in english, I think.

do you get more detailed info about referrers? i'd like to know which subreddits were the most successful at bringing in backers.

Re: game length, I think this question is misguided for a procedural type game and only makes sense in the context of RPGs or other script-heavy games. 

One of the best features of DF is that it has no ending. Yes there is an "endgame" (clowns) that few players ever reach, but generally players decide on their own endgame. Similarly with Terraria. FTL is the opposite with its rigidly predefined game duration (only so many moves). Don't Starve is kind of in between.

wanna help upvote relevant posts for visibility? http://www.reddit.com/search?q=rimworld&sort=new

Would you like feedback on the pitch before it goes live? Not everything can be modified after it launches.

The Kickstarter is upcoming. Do you guys have any ideas for interesting rewards that you think would do well amongst backers? I've got the basics covered, but the more exotic stuff is tough to decide on. What kind of thing would interest you?

Names in the game, weapons designed or described by a backer placed into the game, thank you cards, and for the big money backers perhaps they could have a beer with you or something, idk but there's my two cents.

Names in the game are definitely in - weapons is an interesting idea too. Thanks.

How would backer names work with the procedural generation? Is it like having a 0.1% of seeing your name pop up in a settler or raider?

If so, Bear's Pit did something similar for the JA Flashback kickstarter. http://www.ja-galaxy-forum.com/board/ubbthreads.php/topics/319379.html

Where backers got to specify stuff like appearance, skills etc. You could reserve the right to reject names that were dirty or absurd, like MuthaFakker or xOxJohnShepardxOx would be not ok.

Thing is, the most successful example of this kind of game IMO is Prison Architect, which is past $7.6 million on their self-selling pre-alpha alone not counting Steam sales or anything else. They priced the base game at $30, but I won't be pricing it that high.

I saw an interview with the IV guys about why they set that price point. They basically said that they would like people to think about the game before they get it. They think the game is best experienced when you've thought about it a little bit and decided it's something for you. I basically agree with that notion. I don't really want to position RimWorld as an impulse buy like an iPhone app - at least not at release.

To pick up the $5-level players, I suspect the game will end up in some bundle or Steam sale in a few years. That's pretty much how game pricing seems to go these days.

The other close analogue is minecraft, which charged 10 and 15 pounds for alpha/beta respectively, and minecraft has made several orders of magnitude more than prison architect by now.

Yes, but a large part of that success was because of letsplayers and youtube reviews.

Not saying yours isn't a good idea, just playing devil's advocate a little bit.

true but where did all these LPers and youtubers come from? how did the hype train get started? surely it was those folks who bought in at the alpha price