Game News Age of Decadence June Update

[Melcar]

So 1 more year?

 

[Vault Dweller]

If you mean why the demo is exclusive for pre-orders, it's because VD must think that was a cool idea to take from kickstarter and other indie scam games.

No, not because I think it's a cool idea, which is why we didn't announce it when we started taking pre-orders. But once we did and the requests started pouring in, there wasn't really a good reason to say no. It's not about the money, it's about support. It's about 800 people playing the demo and wanting to support us, to risk 25 bucks because they think it's worth it. It means a lot to us.

So, we didn't do it to push people to give us more money, we did it to reward those who did.

 

[Goral]

(...) If you mean why the demo is exclusive for pre-orders, it's because VD must think that was a cool idea to take from kickstarter and other indie scam games.

And I think it's because a demo will suddenly become almost half of the whole game which could lessen the motivation to buy a game that suddenly became half the size (in a sense). Fallout 1 had a unique demo for a reason, if they would release one with 4-5 locations it could influence sales.

 

[commie]

Oh nothing. Just that the game has taken FOREVER and these monthly "updates" seem like the latest scheme from VD to keep interest on the game. I dare to say that by the time AoD comes out I will have ran out of whores to fuck and will probably be married.

VD now has all manner of superior competition on KS. He needs to drum up interest desperately. In the past AoD was the only thing in town for half a decade, now there are 'deep' TB RPG's being announced every other week, not just by indie fodder either.

Oh and since you've already shown yourself to be a jelly balled eunuch, mentioning all the whores you 'fuck' is a bit risible.

 

[potatojohn]

AoD's setting makes all the KS RPGs look childish though.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Oh nothing. Just that the game has taken FOREVER and these monthly "updates" seem like the latest scheme from VD to keep interest on the game. I dare to say that by the time AoD comes out I will have ran out of whores to fuck and will probably be married.

VD now has all manner of superior competition on KS. He needs to drum up interest desperately. In the past AoD was the only thing in town for half a decade, now there are 'deep' TB RPG's being announced every other week, not just by indie fodder either.

Like I said before, we aren't competing with other RPGs. People don't play only one RPG a year and many people here backed way more than one KS. If anything, more high-profile isometric turn-based RPGs will generate more interests toward similar games.

We do monthly updates for people who pre-ordered. We post them on our forums and don't send "press-releases" to other sites.

 

[Dickie]

Like I said before, we aren't competing with other RPGs. People don't play only one RPG a year and many people here backed way more than one KS.

Yeah, I think that competition thing mostly applies to console games that rely solely on sales in the first week before everybody is selling their copy they beat in three days.

 

[Infinitron]

Like I said before, we aren't competing with other RPGs. People don't play only one RPG a year and many people here backed way more than one KS.

Yeah, I think that competition thing mostly applies to console games that rely solely on sales in the first week before everybody is selling their copy they beat in three days.

Well...there's "competition", and then there's "Why the fuck should I even know this game exists when I have Wasteland 2/Shadowrun Returns/Divinity: Original Sin?"

I still think Vault Dweller should try to get his game included in some kind of bundle with the other RPGs that are going to be released later this year. Awareness, that's the key. Get Steam buyers to realize that Age of Decadence is part of a collection of similar games. Gotta catch em all!

 

[Vault Dweller]

The 'why the fuck should I even know/care" angle is always there, regardless of other games.

 

[Infinitron]

The 'why the fuck should I even know/care" angle is always there, regardless of other games.

Yes, but the other games are an exacerberating factor. There's "I've never heard of this game", and then there's "I've never heard of this game because I'm too busy with these other, similar games so I never had to seek it out"

 

[evdk]

The 'why the fuck should I even know/care" angle is always there, regardless of other games.

Yes, but the other games are an exasperating factor. There's "I've never heard of this game", and then there's "I've never heard of this game because I'm too busy with these other, similar games so I never had to seek it out"

From the demo that I remember playing neither of those games are that similar to AoD.

 

[Melcar]

Oh nothing. Just that the game has taken FOREVER and these monthly "updates" seem like the latest scheme from VD to keep interest on the game. I dare to say that by the time AoD comes out I will have ran out of whores to fuck and will probably be married.

VD now has all manner of superior competition on KS. He needs to drum up interest desperately. In the past AoD was the only thing in town for half a decade, now there are 'deep' TB RPG's being announced every other week, not just by indie fodder either.

Oh and since you've already shown yourself to be a jelly balled eunuch, mentioning all the whores you 'fuck' is a bit risible.

Man, why does everyone here wants me to fuck my aunt? The Codex is a bad influence.
If AoD would have been out half a decade ago VD would not have to hype the game .

 

[Vault Dweller]

It would have sold like Eschalon?

 

[Logic_error]

From the demo that I remember playing neither of those games are that similar to AoD.

AoD seems way more focused on 'smart' combat when compared to W2 or PE or Torment. Also it is not party based, although I heard Vince is going for a Party based 'Expansion'. I would like to know more about the story than what information is available to date. The premise is rather nice and the tone of the demo was great (small town/city squabbles and a lot of intertwining politics). But whether the scope in the full game delivers or not will only be clear with time. Honestly, AoD has the most mature of the storylines as of now even compared to T2.

 

[commie]

Oh nothing. Just that the game has taken FOREVER and these monthly "updates" seem like the latest scheme from VD to keep interest on the game. I dare to say that by the time AoD comes out I will have ran out of whores to fuck and will probably be married.

VD now has all manner of superior competition on KS. He needs to drum up interest desperately. In the past AoD was the only thing in town for half a decade, now there are 'deep' TB RPG's being announced every other week, not just by indie fodder either.

Like I said before, we aren't competing with other RPGs. People don't play only one RPG a year and many people here backed way more than one KS. If anything, more high-profile isometric turn-based RPGs will generate more interests toward similar games.

We do monthly updates for people who pre-ordered. We post them on our forums and don't send "press-releases" to other sites.

I dunno VD. It seems that you might be missing the boat somewhat. Taking your time with this has overshadowed it even on the Codex. I may be a critic of AoD based on what it seemed to be intended to be compared to what it is but I'd still like it to do well as one can never have enough variety in RPG's. Maybe going with the siege mentality is the 'honorable' thing to do, but then again, perhaps you should whore yourself and your game out a bit. I doubt IT spent a decade on this thing just for the yuks of doing it and selling it to 100 people. Clearly you think it's better than this and I daresay I agree, so why not be more pro active? You're starting to sound like the KotC guy with the same pretentious air that his product is so superior that the elites will be lining up for it and he need not price it sensibly or even advertise. Then of course the same guy rages at all the people who refuse to buy his game.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Oh nothing. Just that the game has taken FOREVER and these monthly "updates" seem like the latest scheme from VD to keep interest on the game. I dare to say that by the time AoD comes out I will have ran out of whores to fuck and will probably be married.

VD now has all manner of superior competition on KS. He needs to drum up interest desperately. In the past AoD was the only thing in town for half a decade, now there are 'deep' TB RPG's being announced every other week, not just by indie fodder either.

Like I said before, we aren't competing with other RPGs. People don't play only one RPG a year and many people here backed way more than one KS. If anything, more high-profile isometric turn-based RPGs will generate more interests toward similar games.

We do monthly updates for people who pre-ordered. We post them on our forums and don't send "press-releases" to other sites.

I dunno VD. It seems that you might be missing the boat somewhat. Taking your time with this has overshadowed it even on the Codex. I may be a critic of AoD based on what it seemed to be intended to be compared to what it is but I'd still like it to do well as one can never have enough variety in RPG's. Maybe going with the siege mentality is the 'honorable' thing to do, but then again, perhaps you should whore yourself and your game out a bit. I doubt IT spent a decade on this thing just for the yuks of doing it and selling it to 100 people. Clearly you think it's better than this and I daresay I agree, so why not be more pro active? You're starting to sound like the KotC guy with the same pretentious air that his product is so superior that the elites will be lining up for it and he need not price it sensibly or even advertise. Then of course the same guy rages at all the people who refuse to buy his game.

I wish we could have done it in 3-4 years, but the reality is that the game was overly ambitious (7 different, branching questlines, over 120 hand-crafted, heavily scripted quests, etc) and required skills we didn't have when we started and a lot of time. There were only 3 outcomes: abandon, simplify, stick with it for as long as it takes. We decided to stick with it. It was probably a stupid decision and I wouldn't recommend following in our footsteps to anyone ("start small" is the best advice there is), but what's done is done.

Clearly, I want the game to do well because I'd love to do it for a living and we'll do our best to generate awareness, advertise, and such, but now isn't the time. Same goes with the price. It's not sacred, but neither GoG nor Steam have a problem with it.

Last, I honestly don't think that AoD is superior to anything and I do understand that the game isn't for everyone simply because it's too different and cuts too many RPG conventions.

 

[tuluse]

Call me naive, but I think if you have a good good, and you're on Steam, it will sell an appropriate amount. I don't think you have anything to worry about on those counts Mr Weller.

The one stumbling block I can see is less motivated gamers not realizing how good the game is. The new character system will improve that a lot I think. I would say you still need some way to communicate that you really need to play multiple paths to get the whole picture. Playing through Teron as a merchant, assassin and thief blew my mind as I got different puzzle pieces that put together a whole story. However, right after finishing the first playthrough (as a thief), I was actually thinking the story was kind of barebones. You have to do 3 different paths to get the experience that many other games give you in 1. If you can communicate this to new players, it should help a lot.

 

[Zeriel]

I think that's why Vince is skeptical of financial success. Even with some of the changes that have been made, this is a game made for people who are a little sadistic, who expect a challenge. I don't think we have to say anything more about how that can be a recipe for failure in this era of not just "there have to be quest markers" but "sometimes, the quest markers weren't obvious enough, 0/10, terrible game". How do those people cope with a game that outright lies to you?

I think the best outcome we can hope for is some sort of Grimdark situation where lots of people buy it without ever playing it, because that's what people do on Steam.

 

[tuluse]

He doesn't need a million people to buy the game though. There is definitely still "hard core" gamers out there. Look at the run away success of Minecraft, even Dwarf Fortress has a sizable community and that game seemingly tries to make itself hard to play. I think AoD can find a niche where 20-50 thousand people buy it.

To elucidate on my previous post, I don't think the difficulty will be the stumbling block with people interested in a turn based "classic" style RPG, but rather how different the experience is. Gamers are used to being able to grasp the situation of the world in a single playthrough, while you need multiple in AoD.

 

[Zeriel]

That's sort of a design issue Vince was touching on, though. Age of Decadence doesn't just try to be an old school game for old school gamers, it also tries to reinvent the wheel and do something different, which is what a lot of old school gamers hate. Personally I love what it does, but I'm able to realize how it could really push a lot of people away, and some of the things that make it so brilliant are not revealed until you've put a few hours into it. No amount of disclaimer warnings will get most people to play a game past the first few minutes if it doesn't immediately grab them, sadly.

 

[sea]

He doesn't need a million people to buy the game though. There is definitely still "hard core" gamers out there. Look at the run away success of Minecraft, even Dwarf Fortress has a sizable community and that game seemingly tries to make itself hard to play. I think AoD can find a niche where 20-50 thousand people buy it.

To elucidate on my previous post, I don't think the difficulty will be the stumbling block with people interested in a turn based "classic" style RPG, but rather how different the experience is. Gamers are used to being able to grasp the situation of the world in a single playthrough, while you need multiple in AoD.

The stumbling block is more a matter of challenge. Age of Decadence is a pretty hard game that requires true understanding of its mechanics and smart character leveling. It is also totally possible to screw things up, possibly to the point of needing to restart the game. Seasoned RPG fans have to re-learn a lot to be able to enjoy Age of Decadence fully; even something like "successful skill check doesn't always lead to a positive outcome" will repel a lot of people.

 

[tuluse]

The stumbling block is more a matter of challenge. Age of Decadence is a pretty hard game that requires true understanding of its mechanics and smart character leveling. It is also totally possible to screw things up, possibly to the point of needing to restart the game. Seasoned RPG fans have to re-learn a lot to be able to enjoy Age of Decadence fully; even something like "successful skill check doesn't always lead to a positive outcome" will repel a lot of people.

Maybe. For the most part if you just pick 2-3 non-combat skills (depending on how much combat you want do), and level them, you're fine. The new character system going from 1-10 should help a lot with clarity of feedback.

 

[evdk]

Maybe. For the most part if you just pick 2-3 non-combat skills (depending on how much combat you want do), and level them, you're fine. The new character system going from 1-10 should help a lot with clarity of feedback.

You have to realize how many "seasoned RPG fans" just want repackage / update Baldur's Gate - even that many decisions as picking 2 dialogue skills (especially considering that diplomacy is not the instawin button it is in other games and even success can have unintended negative consequences down the line) will confuse and anger people.

 

[tuluse]

For the record, I don't think AoD is going to be a multimillion copy seller, I just think it could find it's niche and be successful there. Most strategy fans are happy playing Civ and Total War, but Paradox games and Dwarf Fortress are successful. AoD is not nearly as hard to play as Dwarf Fortress.

 

[evdk]

Dwarf Fortress is free. And an aspie magnet.