Colony Ship update #50: the first chapter is playable

[Cpt. Dallas]

The name is fine. See also 'Depression Quest'. You clearly haven't blown the right reviewers. Yet.

 

[PhantasmaNL]

But the game doesn't have to be marred by limited ressources or budget, which is why I hope everybody chimes in with the EA. You guys deserve a heavy cash influx to juice up the project.

I have a feeling we'll be lucky to stay afloat.

Realistic.

In an alternate universe your development studio could get noticed by Microsoft. They have been on a buying spree.

I'll do my bit and will get the EA of course.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Colony Ship hurts it too, it's pretty generic

Yeah like Predator, Alien, The thing, Terminator, Star Wars, Fallout, Might and Magic, Dungeons and Dragons, etcetc. lol.

Vault Dweller

All these names felt great.

The problem with Colony ship is there is no catchy word.
Colony: nobody cares.
Ship: meh...

The name of the ship would have worked way better, if it's a good one anyway.

Like Babylon 3022 (for the date, i'm not sure when it's set) or Babylon 9 (well, if it doesn't bring copyright issues with, you know but even then, could be good advertising) for the number of the ship.

Or even HMS Explorer...
I don't think the names i just threw are amazing, i just thought 30 seconds about it so you could probably do better from now up until the release if you feel like changing.

Or whatever catchy name you can find for the ship.
It's not everything but a catchy and cool name will help and the twitttards would even promote the game themselves if they feel like it's cool enough.

And maybe paying or partnering with a good youtuber like Sseth or someone relevant, i admit i'm out of my depth in this department.

 

[Agesilaus]

What you think is the cause of there being less interest?

No idea. Could be the effect of 'indiepocalypse', could be that the game is just not exciting enough (no magic, no mystery, no over the top wacky stuff wasteland style), could be that people looked at the screens and thought it takes place in a warehouse. Anyway, we'll know soon enough.

Surely there is some mystery. Hydroponics deck has bizarre abominations, right? And maybe there is a void dwelling star-creature that notices our heroic colony ship? A super-AI in the computer systems, quietly pulling the strings until it is time to reveal itself?

No need to answer, we will discover it all upon release. But I wonder if System Shock and its sequel had interesting ideas for marketing, and I know there was an Enhanced Edition of System Shock that came out recently and must have done something right to get on my radar.

 

[Shadenuat]

I think name is neat, but it would be neat if any screenshot showed that game is about Colony Ship, and not Rumble in the Dark Crates.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Age of decadence was a great name, did it bring more sales because of it? I don't think it did... At the end of the day, it's a niche indie game with a limited market reach.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Doubt that the name has anything to do with the lack of media exposure. Just order a few pizzas and articles will start coming out.

 

[Gahbreeil]

Whatever the case may be, I think the name Colony Ship hurts it too, it's pretty generic. If I was more creative I'd come up with some ideas for another name Maybe something on the theme of humanity's last hope, rather than just "a ship" type of name.

Last Hope?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I remember the Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie Space Mutiny. Any correlation?

 

[Ismaul]

We already had the naming debate and suggestions. VD and his team decided.

 

[mediocrepoet]

How about "I have no colony and i must ship" as a new name?

I have no ship and I must colonize your loins simulator: An eroge VR adventure.

 

[Fenix]

$24.99 on release, $29.99 when we add chapter 2, $34.99 when we add chapter 3, $39.99 when it's done.

I realized one thing now, looking at prices (I think AoD was like 10 dollaridoos right?) - about influence of macroeconomic on game development.
Inflation constantly goes up (x10 in Russia for last 20 years, based on a ruble to dollar cost rised x10 since 90% of trades is from outside of Russia and the rest are affected by dollar cost anyway), but sacred cost of 60$ per game is stays no matter what - this makes perspective for indie look grim actually.
I can bet 1$ could buy more on AoD release. Life becomes more expensive.
But that's probably differet topic.

'indiepocalypse'

What's this?

Could be the effect of 'indiepocalypse', could be that the game is just not exciting enough (no magic, no mystery, no over the top wacky stuff wasteland style), could be that people looked at the screens and thought it takes place in a warehouse. Anyway, we'll know soon enough.

Add more negroes, someone with sexual self-identification disorder, and...
Use creative workaround for this, like in PST - this person is't human! it's android or robot. Laugh at narrative and turn it upside down - you wil get attention and fool them in same time, breaking their lovely narrative.

From my perspective, traditional gaming journalism is dead as a doornail. There's a bunch of streamers knocking at the door begging for keys, but the larger written outlets are a vacuous cloud of cynical apathy towards content. They only care about political angles, which is probably a sign of a sector in decline.

Yeah, looks like that case.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Age of decadence was a great name, did it bring more sales because of it? I don't think it did... At the end of the day, it's a niche indie game with a limited market reach.

It sold quite well overall if i'm not mistaking though.

 

[Johannes]

Age of Decadence had a bit weird marketing I thought. All the promo material I saw never mentioned the gods / magi / qantari etc. So it didn't really quite accurately describe the setting of the game. Which you can say makes for a nice surprise when you get into the game and discover that gradually, but then that stuff never really helped to sell the game (or maybe people were looking forward to a more mundane game, and that shit would've turned them off, who knows). The name is a bit misleading too, as it's not really a decadent setting, mostly just really (comically?) ruthless.

Though who knows how that affected the visibility of the game.

 

[lukaszek]

forums are dead. Now one is supposed to spread word of mouth over tik tok

 

[Marat]

forums are dead. Now one is supposed to spread word of mouth over tik tok

Here is a brilliant marketing idea: get a girl with a big butt to wiggle it in front of a camera, slightly off rythm, to some popular tune then fade to black: presenting Colony Ship RPG.

 

[Ismaul]

forums are dead. Now one is supposed to spread word of mouth over tik tok

Here is a brilliant marketing idea: get a girl with a big butt to wiggle it in front of a camera, slightly off rythm, to some popular tune then fade to black: presenting Colony Ship RPG.

Did you know we live in current year?

 

[lukaszek]

i know that VD is supposed to be marketing guy but... do you think he is aware that sex sells?

 

[CappenVarra]

the game's page lacks a candid testimonial from Militiades, that always sells

step right up: 40 imperials buys you a copy of Colony Ship; if that's too expensive my armed friends over there will gift you a Colonoscopy Ship ride with all charges waived

 

[Binky]

Meh. Vince oughta do a proper interview or two again, like he did back in 2008 on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and call out the local bedwetters and thumbsuckers.

And no, I don't really care who'd think what and how my comments would affect sales. I'm making this game on a bold assumption that there are some people out there who are interested in complex games that aren't made for retards.

How's that for marketing.

 

[Ismaul]

i know that VD is supposed to be marketing guy but... do you think he is aware that sex sells?

It's not too late to rename the game Colon-y Ship.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Here is a brilliant marketing idea: get a girl with a big butt to wiggle it in front of a camera, slightly off rythm, to some popular tune then fade to black: presenting Colony Ship RPG.

She would have to dangle her goods Turn-based in front of the camera while a mutant is chasing her.
Then, she calls out for help: "Help me fight-off the mutants or they're going to ..."
Image scrambled.

It would sell by millions on day 1.

 

[lukaszek]

i know that VD is supposed to be marketing guy but... do you think he is aware that sex sells?

It's not too late to rename the game Colon-y Ship.

finally a proper codex title

 

[Tigranes]

Wait. I thought we had scientifisticamally proven that 90% of AOD's sales were due to the THIS IS THE NEW SHIT trailer

 

[Marat]

Here is a brilliant marketing idea: get a girl with a big butt to wiggle it in front of a camera, slightly off rythm, to some popular tune then fade to black: presenting Colony Ship RPG.

She would have to dangle her goods Turn-based in front of the camera while a mutant is chasing her.
Then, she calls out for help: "Help me fight-off the mutant or they're going to ..."
Image scrambled.

It would sell by millions on day 1.

And a blonde bombshell in a jumpsuit with the zipper open to the belly button on the cover. You and I could totally be marketing experts.