5 ms·

A great piece, an ethical decision, and I hope the start of something bigger. I agree that free to play is often horribly exploitative, not to mention horrible

by sago 9y ago

A great piece, an ethical decision, and I hope the start of something bigger. I agree that free to play is often horribly exploitative, not to mention horrible game design. But that price point. That makes me worried. Browse around Steam to see the company they are trying to keep at $30. In the reddit thread the dev said they've chosen this price point based on $2m production budget. Fair enough they've done their homework and run the models. I'm sure they've done a competitive analysis. But it feels too expensive to me. I really really hope I am proved wrong. As spectacularly as possible.

romanovcode 9y ago
If it has no in-game shop the price is perfectly valid IMO, and I wish every mobile game was like this.
- wccrawford 9y ago
  The problem isn't the price point, but what you get for that price. From the video, it looks just the same as the original, and I definitely wouldn't pay $30 for that.
  - sago 9y ago
    One of the problems with game development is that consumers aren't always very good at judging what they're getting (in terms of quantity, I'm not suggesting consumers can't be trusted to decide whether they like something). A game with one repeating background, versus a game with a whole range of varied backgrounds, can be order of magnitude cheaper to make. But typically this will be reviewed as "crappy graphics" or "boring art", and the more expensive version will be panned for being too expensive. Sometimes crappy graphics won't matter, sometimes it will. From the video, there is no comparison in terms of development resource. There is much much more art, many more frames of animation, much less smoke and mirrors in the engine. I can understand why the development budget is $2m. But I have a horrible feeling that most consumers will be like you, and not see that, and not think that all that effort is worth it, or that they've put much effort into the new game at all. And a good chunk of them (not you) will be very entitled about it, about not getting it for free. The reality of game development, unfortunately.
    - wccrawford 9y ago
      I only looked at the gameplay. The graphics would only have entered into my decision if they were horrible. I'm a long-time incremental game fan and I've played a ton of them. Most of them have pretty bad graphics, and that's okay. The incremental portion, especially the choices you make (what to upgrade, when, etc) are the interesting parts. So yeah, I expect a lot of incremental gamers will view it the same way. And gamers that aren't fans of incrementals are going to be even harsher on the gameplay.
vanderZwan 9y ago
I suspect it's all about whether your game is mainstream or niche. The latter probably will earn more with a slightly higher price point. It won't achieve mainstream success anyway, and you also do not have to worry about scaring the dedicated core audience away. Cogmind is a good example of this[0]. Traditional roguelikes are typically in the "completely free" category. But that core audience that loves the genre is a lot more likely to pay twenty dollars for such an extremely polished and well-crafted game in this genre. EDIT: Of course, whether or not clicker games are niche games with a hard core audience is highly questionable. If anything they are surprise addictions for casual players browsing the web. [0] http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/ http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/

by sago 9y ago

romanovcode 9y ago

If it has no in-game shop the price is perfectly valid IMO, and I wish every mobile game was like this.

wccrawford 9y ago
The problem isn't the price point, but what you get for that price. From the video, it looks just the same as the original, and I definitely wouldn't pay $30 for that.
- sago 9y ago
  One of the problems with game development is that consumers aren't always very good at judging what they're getting (in terms of quantity, I'm not suggesting consumers can't be trusted to decide whether they like something). A game with one repeating background, versus a game with a whole range of varied backgrounds, can be order of magnitude cheaper to make. But typically this will be reviewed as "crappy graphics" or "boring art", and the more expensive version will be panned for being too expensive. Sometimes crappy graphics won't matter, sometimes it will. From the video, there is no comparison in terms of development resource. There is much much more art, many more frames of animation, much less smoke and mirrors in the engine. I can understand why the development budget is $2m. But I have a horrible feeling that most consumers will be like you, and not see that, and not think that all that effort is worth it, or that they've put much effort into the new game at all. And a good chunk of them (not you) will be very entitled about it, about not getting it for free. The reality of game development, unfortunately.
  - wccrawford 9y ago
    I only looked at the gameplay. The graphics would only have entered into my decision if they were horrible. I'm a long-time incremental game fan and I've played a ton of them. Most of them have pretty bad graphics, and that's okay. The incremental portion, especially the choices you make (what to upgrade, when, etc) are the interesting parts. So yeah, I expect a lot of incremental gamers will view it the same way. And gamers that aren't fans of incrementals are going to be even harsher on the gameplay.

vanderZwan 9y ago

I suspect it's all about whether your game is mainstream or niche. The latter probably will earn more with a slightly higher price point. It won't achieve mainstream success anyway, and you also do not have to worry about scaring the dedicated core audience away. Cogmind is a good example of this[0]. Traditional roguelikes are typically in the "completely free" category. But that core audience that loves the genre is a lot more likely to pay twenty dollars for such an extremely polished and well-crafted game in this genre. EDIT: Of course, whether or not clicker games are niche games with a hard core audience is highly questionable. If anything they are surprise addictions for casual players browsing the web. [0] http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/ http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/