Thanks for joining the discussion. I have some questions/comments, but keep in mind that I own and shoot actual guns, am ex-military, have been playing lightgun games for as long as they have been a thing and own a dedicated 37" RGB CRT setup for Guncon games on PS2. My bar is admittedly high.
1) Accuracy: The accuracy is perfect, if you truly understand the concept then you should understand the accuracy is perfect.
I understand that accuracy
could be as perfect as the hardware and methodology allows, but the demonstrations of your device are weak in the "typical use scenario" department. Also, "perfect" as in perfect, or perfect in relation to a GunCon? Wiimote? ?? What is your reference for quality? Do you, or have you owned and used an actual good CRT-based lightgun? Do you know, and can you accurately express the limitations of your product against other products? I.e. typical marketing due diligence.
2) Lag: In normal usage you don't need the crosshair (because it's super accurate without calibration).
Small lag, while important, isn't a showstopper, as long as the gun reliably fires in the location at which it is being aimed. There are a lot of coarse human motor functions going on, which should give the hardware time to "get there" before the trigger is pulled. As for calibration, how would you be able to deal with varying resolutions and possible image cropping without calibration of some sort? I'm sure it's possible, but the question is specifically if you have taken this into consideration and accounted for it? I understand that the on-screen frame can mitigate this, but what about cases where it cannot be used?
3) Original Vagueness: Yes this was a mistake, I thought the internet would enjoy debating how it worked but in fact it meant people said it was fake or too good to be true!
This is to be expected with any new product. The difference is that you are soliciting funds for something which does not exist currently for sale. There can be no "early adopters" which can generate positive "word of mouth" about the product. At this point, it exists only as a prototype and a promise. Skepticism with such things is the order of the day. This means that
you need to do all of the things a typical consumer might do with your product, and prove to investors (that is what they are) that what you are doing is real and effective in those cases.
4) General performance: The gun just works, it doesn't get confused, it's accurate and fast.
It's a good sign that you have confidence in your invention. It's of paramount importance that this be the case. So my question to you is: if you are
really confident in your claim that this device is a game changer (and it very well could be) why do you not believe in it strongly enough to finance it's development on your own? Have you sought any IP protection? Looked into a business loan? Approached any videogame peripheral companies? If I had a game-changing, mass-marketable technology which blows everything else "out of the water", crowd-funding wouldn't be my first move, at least before filing a provisional patent and exploring it's mass marketability through established players in those markets. Sans those actions, through KickStarter, you have given those same companies, with vastly more resources, a roadmap to to bring your product to market well before you can.
5) Cost of product / Kickstarter target: The device needs good quality components to work and therefore the margin on the gun is not huge. Therefore I need a high target to pay for all the bits that need paying for. Not sure what alternative I have, I've tried to be as honest as possible.
This is understandable. You need molds, and they alone have significant costs. On the flip side, it may be unreasonable to expect investors to bear the entire risk of the project, without a demonstration by you that you personally have something significant to lose if it fails. I don't know if it does, but if that figure includes a "paycheck" to you for the next year while you continue development, you might have a tough road ahead.
6) My hypothesis is that Lightgun games have disappeared because the current technology does not give the same user experience and therefore is not as fun. The key is missing the line of sight functionality (Wii) or having to calibrate (PS3 Move, Aimtrak etc) which seems to be widely accepted is not 100% effective.
Your hypothesis is not incorrect. If you need a cursor on the screen, it's not what it used to be. My concern with this statement is your comparison to PS3 Move, rather than the true lightgun solution that is the GunCon II. That is the bar against which you should be basing your performance comparisons, if your goal is to correct for the case in your hypothesis. I have no doubt that it won't stack up, as it really can't, given the difference in the technology. But "as good" under the conditions allowed by the different technology, would be an excellent start. I.e. your method makes it impossible to hold the gun 6" from the display, like the GunCon can, and track accurately, so that would be expected. But in cases where the methodology you use
can track as well, it should.
7) Distance to the TV: However if this is key functionality the software can identify the width of the tv frame when you have the whole tv in the frame and therefore when it gets chopped off still base it's calculations off of the larger size and therefore give accuracy.
There's a bit of a fly in that ointment. If the user changes proximity to the display while the image is incomplete, the reference size changes as well. How much a step in either direction would affect accuracy is something you would need to test for.
CRT: It should work on CRT, I never really thought of the demand for this because I thought original lightguns would have this covered but I guess the PC solutions are not as perfect as the more advanced console lightguns.
It's not that console guns are necessarily more advanced, it's that higher frequency displays, multiple resolutions, etc, are harder to deal with with, and honestly, the market really isn't that large for CRT lightguns. You'll find much more interest here for a CRT solution than in the general gaming marketplace.
If nothing else, hopefully I have given you some food for thought. But if you are looking for that
thing which would be the most effective in turning the tide in your direction, some raw, unedited footage of you "kicking ass" for several rounds in TimeCrisis, Point Blank, etc.,
without on-screen cursors, would be it. It would also be helpful if you honestly divulged the conditions and/or restrictions under which you operated to achieve this. Also note that "I suck at lightgun games" wouldn't be a valid excuse for not doing this. If this is the case, you probably wouldn't know what constitutes a good lightgun.