Colony Ship Early Access Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Diggfinger]

Yay, more good reviews incoming!

But isnt he just stating that in general they need good reviews (like all indie-artists do). Dont see him saying they are out of business in any way?

 

[Infinitron]

This is marketing malpractice. I repeat:

I think Vault Dweller needs to try to aggressively upsell Colony Ship to Age of Decadence owners. That's your surest bet - people who you know have already paid money for that sort of game. Find a way to remind them you exist.

 

[Maxie]

Vince has served as chief whatever officer at some company for a few years, I'm sure he's competent enough to handle his own marketing affairs

 

[xuerebx]

Things aren't going well financially, really? Dammit, I wish I could leave a review (I already bought the game) but with no hours on record (as I'm waiting for the final release) my review won't be worth shit, and I have qualms with posting a review without playtime. Anything else one can do for Vince & co to get more exposure?

 

[Butter]

Playing it now so I can leave a review. Looks and feels like a more refined Age of Decadence. I wasn't really a fan of all the exposition before you even play the game. It's cool that you're establishing the philosophical outlook of your character, but it's too much too quickly.

 

[Vault Dweller]

This is marketing malpractice. I repeat:

I think Vault Dweller needs to try to aggressively upsell Colony Ship to Age of Decadence owners. That's your surest bet - people who you know have already paid money for that sort of game. Find a way to remind them you exist.

To market anything you need a budget and an outlet (media willing to cover the game). We have neither.

 

[cb.spike]

You can write review even if you have zero hours in game. It is important because it is still counted to general score of game on store page, which is how people are deciding if they buy the game. Just check the number and if it is under 80% it is no buy. It is great if you can write perfect review that points out all strenghts of game, but it is just a bonus, what matters is just that one thumb up.

And the bad finance situation is just asumtion of that guy. It is true that Iron Tower is going through rough time, dead of the team member, general chagne of market war that is also affecting team members, but I don´t remeber anything where Vibce would confirm they are running out of money.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yay, more good reviews incoming!

But isnt he just stating that in general they need good reviews (like all indie-artists do). Dont see him saying they are out of business in any way?

The situation isn't dire, we have more than enough to finish the game without cutting any corners. The quote was part of a larger on-going conversation about our future. If Colony Ship fails to sell enough to pay for the sequel, we're out of business. Right now it's 50/50, meaning sales aren't strong enough (which could be attributed to EA), but there's still hope.

 

[cb.spike]

This is marketing malpractice. I repeat:

I think Vault Dweller needs to try to aggressively upsell Colony Ship to Age of Decadence owners. That's your surest bet - people who you know have already paid money for that sort of game. Find a way to remind them you exist.

To market anything you need a budget and an outlet (media willing to cover the game). We have neither.

As someone has mentione before, once version 1.0 is out, just mail some 10% off cupon via steam to all owners of your game. That is the leaset you can do to promote it to people who already have tried your games but maybe are not following development of the next one but might be interested.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Already planned as that's the only thing we can do.

 

[xuerebx]

You can write review even if you have zero hours in game. It is important because it is still counted to general score of game on store page, which is how people are deciding if they buy the game. Just check the number and if it is under 80% it is no buy. It is great if you can write perfect review that points out all strenghts of game, but it is just a bonus, what matters is just that one thumb up.

And the bad finance situation is just asumtion of that guy. It is true that Iron Tower is going through rough time, dead of the team member, general chagne of market war that is also affecting team members, but I don´t remeber anything where Vibce would confirm they are running out of money.

Fuck it, I'm writing one.

EDIT: apparently it needs to be installed though. So later when I'm at home.

 

[just]

make some fucking animations and open a patreon

 

[conan_edw]

I don't use discord so it's a good thing I saw this tweet:

Did my part and left a positive review. Fingers crossed somebody like Mandalore or Sseth will do an AoD video this year and give the ITS gang some much deserved recognition.

Not as big but he gets decent views:

 

[tommy heavenly6]

If Colony Ship fails to sell enough to pay for the sequel, we're out of business

Isn't downscaling a posibility? back to more humble ends, older looking graphics, smaller team... AoD's allure wasn't the visual aspect exactly.

 

[Shadenuat]

I don't use discord so it's a good thing I saw this tweet:

Did my part and left a positive review. Fingers crossed somebody like Mandalore or Sseth will do an AoD video this year and give the ITS gang some much deserved recognition.

Not as big but he gets decent views:

Isnt that one who died to spiderswarms and couldt calculate his bab?

 

[Technomancer]

Isn't downscaling a posibility? back to more humble ends, older looking graphics, smaller team... AoD's allure wasn't the visual aspect exactly.

Not for the next game at least. It wouldn't work for sequel to be completely different when Colony Ship is a party RPG. And they can't do any other game next because they need assets from CS to be cost-efficient and save costs on developing it all from scratch (animations, models, ruleset, world building etc). And the team is a skeleton crew already, you just can't go much slimmer than that.

After "CS2" however, there is a high chance that Iron Tower will return to solo only adventures due to massive strain scripting for companion deaths and permutations put upon developers. Because immortal companions is the sort of decline they don't want to deal with, even if it would radically solve the issue.

 

[lukaszek]

After "CS2" however, there is a high chance that Iron Tower will return to solo only adventures due to massive strain scripting for companion deaths and permutations put upon developers. Because immortal companions is the sort of decline they don't want to deal with, even if it would radically solve the issue.

squad based was always a mistake, especially in skillz heavy game

 

[Technomancer]

After "CS2" however, there is a high chance that Iron Tower will return to solo only adventures due to massive strain scripting for companion deaths and permutations put upon developers. Because immortal companions is the sort of decline they don't want to deal with, even if it would radically solve the issue.

squad based was always a mistake, especially in skillz heavy game

I prefer solo due to how much it accentuates accomplishments of main character and because of stacked odds in combat. But I can't blame them for going bigger and more complex. And their eternal inspiration - Fallout - had companions too. Add perks and traits but not companions? Didn't seem quite right.

 

[tommy heavenly6]

And their eternal inspiration - Fallout - had companions too

In Fallout you don't control them directly though. Haven't played CS yet because it's against my religion to play unfinished early access titles but I suppose it works like it did in Dungeon Rats and most squad based RPGs.

 

[lukaszek]

arcanum did it best - have your companions kill everything in sight and steal your xp. Ultimate trolling

 

[Technomancer]

And their eternal inspiration - Fallout - had companions too

In Fallout you don't control them directly though. Haven't played CS yet because it's again my religion to play unfinished early access titles but I suppose it works like it did in Dungeon Rats and most squad based RPGs.

Indeed, but Fallout is not a sacred gospel that should be followed blindly, while it did many things right, it had flaws. One of them being undercooked char system and useless borked perks, skills or abilities. Party members that you can control was definitely the right call for this game. And besides, it wouldn't work any other way. It was clear that Dungeon Rats was a testing ground for developers to better understand party system and implement it in their next game in more complex form.

 

[Vault Dweller]

If Colony Ship fails to sell enough to pay for the sequel, we're out of business

Isn't downscaling a posibility? back to more humble ends, older looking graphics, smaller team... AoD's allure wasn't the visual aspect exactly.

The team is the same, no bloat there. We aren't spending more time on the visuals than we did on AoD (we're simply better at it now).

 

[Shadenuat]

We aren't spending more time on the visuals than we did on AoD (we're simply better at it now).

(Raises hand to say somethin, then retracts it back and sighs)

 

[HeatEXTEND]

(which could be attributed to EA)

Don't know the stats but for me EA is usually an instant ignore-untill-release. Then again I did already get CS because of services rendered and I'm sure a lot of people did, possibly skewing the uptick after leaving EA. Anyway good luck.

 

[Infinitron]

Broadcasting an update and a coupon to Age of Decadence owners on the game's launch day is good, but it might not be enough. Building word of mouth before release seems important. So I think another thing you could do is offer Dungeon Rats free to all Age of Decadence owners who also buy Colony Ship - and do this while it's still in Early Access.

In this way you get people to buy into Early Access who normally wouldn't, because they're getting a finished game as well.