Wadjet Eye Primordia - A Point and Click Adventure - Now Available

[ironyuri]

To what extent are the relatively low sales attributable to a lack of sufficient mainstream and niche coverage of Primordia by comparison to the coverage (previews, reviews, retrospectives) received by WEG titles?

Have you ever sat down with Dave Gilbert to compare figures and discuss whether or not Primordia was a "success" relative to other WEG titles?

 

[MRY]

To what extent are the relatively low sales attributable to a lack of sufficient mainstream and niche coverage of Primordia by comparison to the coverage (previews, reviews, retrospectives) received by WEG titles?

Have you ever sat down with Dave Gilbert to compare figures and discuss whether or not Primordia was a "success" relative to other WEG titles?

Well, I think these are actually "relatively high sales" depending on what your benchmark is. In my mind, the sales are quite a nice sum for a niche product. I think we would've sold a lot better had Rock Paper Shotgun, GameSpy, or PC Gamer given us a non-horrendous review. But the coverage of the game (in terms of quantity) was actually pretty decent from mainstream sites.

If I had to attribute our success to any one thing, it would be Vic's art. But after that, I think it has been the support of our fanbase, which has been reciprocal (I think). Good community outreach (and having some niches of vigorous support, like here on the Codex) matters a ton. But, of course, if I hadn't spent a bazillion hours on community outreach, maybe I'd have another game done by now.

[edited upon reflection that at least some of this speculation is probably not fair to other developers]

 

[Jaesun]

If I had to attribute our success to any one thing, it would be Vic's art.

I do have to admit, when I saw the art for this game I was: WHERE CAN I BUY THIS?

 

[Crooked Bee]

For some reason I thought Blackwell was more popular. Good to hear Primordia did better than most of WEG's catalogue, despite the low Metacritic ranking.

 

[MicoSelva]

Thanks for the information MRY.
It seems that putting your game into a bundle is more or less equivalent to giving it away for free.

I wonder whether 60K copies (I am not counting bundle sales) is the maximum Primordia could have sold in this time (i.e. the market for old-school point&clicks is that large) or if you could have done better with better marketing and more far-reaching word of mouth. It does not seem that many in the grand scheme of things - I would think there are more people willing to pay for a game like this in the world.

 

[MRY]

I think we could've sold a lot more. But I'm very happy with where we are!

 

[Blackthorne]

Thanks for the info, sir! As always, you are right on the money and super helpful!


Bt

 

[MRY]

On reflection about the fact that this information isn't necessarily personal to me (such that my openness is the only thing to consider), I removed some of the specifics. MicoSelva and oasis789 -- do you guys mind pulling the the calculations from your posts? Sorry for the bait and switch.

 

[MicoSelva]

No problem, MRY.

EDIT: The information I used in my calculations is still in your post, though. ;-)

 

[Gragt]

Looks like the update finally hit GOG. I might as well take the opportunity to play it now.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

What graphics filter do people recommend?

I tried the 4x anti-aliasing which makes the game run at 1280x800, but it looks extremely blurry... I am guessing it really was made for lower resolutions than that.

 

[Jaesun]

Just play it at the normal resolution. Any filter will look like fucking shit and ruin the beautiful hand drawn art.

 

[MRY]

Yeah. 4x nearest neighbor windowed or full screen with no filters is best.

 

[VioletShadow]

Just play it at the normal resolution. Any filter will look like fucking shit and ruin the beautiful hand drawn art.

Have to agree. The art is so gorgeous, 'tis a pity to ruin it with 4x.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Finished the game today, loved it. Actually sad it ended already - these days I can't wait for games to be over and I loose interest, but this was something else.

Spoiler

I am a bit butthurt now - I know destroying my own decryption module was a bad move, didn't even have to do it.. damn. And no save game from before that - so I guess I'll be doing a replay soon.

 

[MRY]

Thanks! Once you've worn out the game, there's also Fallen, a spin-off "sequel" story that we did as an illustrated novella and sort of animated audiobook.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Thanks, Jaesun. It was my favorite puzzle and feature as well. Unfortunately, by having a Steam achievement tied to finding all the entries, we kind of messed the whole thing up because, actually, 99% of people playing did care about it, but for entirely the wrong reasons, so what was meant as an optional easter-egg lore hunt turned into a de facto mandatory easter-egg achievement hunt (which incidentally turned out to be glitched and unachievable for the first six months after the game was released). Rookie mistakes, I hope.

I would like to add, regarding the achievements - you could still have them in, but change the descriptions into things cryptic enough or leave them out altogether, so it's not as obvious as to how to actually achieve them.

Spoiler

I was wondering another thing though, there is an achievement for reuniting Surly company - did I mess that up by destroying the decoder and/or using Primer to put council code in order ? Because 187th is not dead (used bomb on Scraper) and Primer had his medal back.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Spoiler

did I mess that up by using Primer to put council code in order ?

Yeah

 

[DwarvenFood]

I'm going for a playthrought with commentary next, but I'm dying to find out if the time on the clock in central station is any kind of reference to anything..

 

[MRY]

Clock is not a reference to anything.

Yes, you lost the achievement (Three Musketeers). Primer is persnickety about puzzle solving.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Played some more, redoing with commentary. Some thoughts for those that care:

Spoiler

About being butthurt that I'm missing endings because of destroying Decryption Module - I should have known - my butthurt was not warranted. Goliath makes it quite clear that the decoder will unlock my own past so I should have known to keep it. Quite sneaky to have Primer ask you to destroy the module though.

About the clock - it's explained in the commentary - the note system works as if a player was taking notes, writing down everything that might be important, but not always is.

Personally, I love the ending where you destroy the city by burning the crystal - it seems kind of fitting. Towards the end, Metropol felt to me personally as an anomaly, a city that should have been populated by man, now inhabited and run by robots. And it was not prospering, but in decline.

The two puzzles that I needed a walkthrough, were stuffing the nose of Goliath (could have known that, if I looked more carefully because you can actually see the robot "breathing" ie. filtering air in the animation graphics.) Other one was the "redlien" entry, did not see "ART", I'm not too good with those kind of puzzles, and the redline -> redlien intentional "typo" set me off course, me trying different misspelled variations of certain words. Oh yeah, the copper wires / have Crispin practice I also didn't get on my own (but it is mandatory, you cannot return the broken engine to the singing robot "I should probably fix that first")

Overall, lovely game with coherent writing and elimination of shitty mechanics (walking long distances without any meaning but extending play time), and I loved the in-game notes system. Like others, I do feel the end came a bit sudden - after the information you are given as a player, I really did expect to visit the Cathedral before final confrontation with MetroMind. While I realise that you wanted to keep the momentum between Crispin disabling the MetroMind core at the station, and entering the tower - there could have been an other way of doing it while including a bit with the Cathedral (where for example the virus code could be found)

 

[MRY]

Some thoughts:

Thanks so much! A couple quick responses.

Spoiler

The two puzzles that I needed a walkthrough, were stuffing the nose of Goliath (could have known that, if I looked more carefully because you can actually see the robot "breathing" ie. filtering air in the animation graphics.)

Also, Crispin doesn't behave wholly logically here; there's no real way he could move that stuff into position. I feel like that puzzle, which isn't bad, is nevertheless a legacy of the game's originally somewhat lighter tone.

Other one was the "redlien" entry, did not see "ART", I'm not too good with those kind of puzzles, and the redline -> redlien intentional "typo" set me off course, me trying different misspelled variations of certain words.

Yeah, this one trips up everyone. I wish I could've done it slightly better because I think that the overall puzzle is really cool, but ART is just slightly too hard.

Oh yeah, the copper wires / have Crispin practice I also didn't get on my own (but it is mandatory, you cannot return the broken engine to the singing robot "I should probably fix that first")

Not mandatory. Crispin warns you off the first time, but you can give it to Gimbal if you try again. Probably could've been cued better; I realize the adventure game standard is no once means no always.

Like others, I do feel the end came a bit sudden - after the information you are given as a player, I really did expect to visit the Cathedral before final confrontation with MetroMind.

Yeah, I've written somewhere else that in hindsight, the escape from the tower should've been done via a cable car that dumped you in the Cathedral. Thematically it would've worked pretty well, too. Oh well. :/

 

[MRY]

Primordia is 70% off on Steam; lots of other adventure games on sale too.

http://af.gog.com/game/primordia?as=1649904300

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Finally bought this and finished this one on Sunday afternoon.

Spoiler

My first play-through took pretty much all afternoon + night. Started about 1 pm finished it before I went to bed about 11 pm or so. On my first run-through I:
- Killed Gamma. Plasma welded the monitor he was in, thinking I could go back to the brain or something but when they started saying "RUINED" I went into puzzle adventure mode and went "pfft, must be the only way to solve that puzzle. I did note Crispin's "Wait, there must be another way" line...
- Judged the case myself. Got the old coin. Tried multiple options with save load which was pretty cool but ultimately went with Factorbuiltbuilt because it sounded the coolest.
- Gave Gymbal the broken motor (didn't figure out how to get the copper-wire). Again, "there must be another way..." line, only this time it actually triggered me into thinking "Hang on, maybe these things actually do have multiple solutions that mean something"... Especially after the Rex legal issue.
- 187 shot Scraper. I didn't notice the bomblet the first time (realised it on my second play-through when the Leobuilt guy says "gave him something from the shrine" and immediately kept a look-out for an option to use the remote on Scraper).
- Got Primer to decode the council code, even though I had figured it out myself by that time.
- Saved / Reloaded and got a bunch of different endings. Eventually went with the threaten, and rebuilt Crispy and What's-her-face.

Either way, made me play it again (which I'm still doing) just to fix some things. Fixing Goliath this time for example, trying to work out how to fix the sad robot at the moment, how to stop Oswald drinking and looking for some other way to clean gears... Came online really to look for the train door, sheet metal in the ship and what to trade with Leo for the Plug board thinking it might be useful. A bit disappointed there's aren't options. As I really like the idea of multiple solutions and different choices you have to make.

EG: It kinda sucked that you either get a Top Hat or old Coin from Cornelius and both of them are traded for the same thing. There's no other purpose to either of them?

Really fell in love with the world and story though and definitely want to get to the end to find out more about my history this time, now I have the decoder from Goliath.

 

[MicoSelva]

DarkUnderlord
Good. Maybe now you can force your underlings to include this game on The Codex steam curator list, because they will not listen to reason.