Unhealthy interest in sales figures

[t]

He did Blackguards and Banner Saga this year IIRC.

EDIT: Oh Infinitron, you sneaky bastard.

 

[tuluse]

He told me in a private conversation. If you have access to my PM, take a look, otherwise it's not my info to share.

Sorry to be pushy, but can you ask him if you can share the info, or ask him to post in this thread?

I'm very curious about how various turn based RPGs sell.

 

[Bubbles]

Why not just post in his thread and ask him there?

 

[Vault Dweller]

I will. In general, gaming sales depend on two factors - hype and exposure. You can have a great game (like Wiz 8, for example) but if it has limited hype and exposure (if you recall, they couldn't make a deal and EB games agreed to sell it for a month and that's it), it won't sell well.

Being on Steam all but guarantees you a certain level of sales corresponding to your game's hype level. Being Featured will easily triple your daily sales. The Front Page banner is a goldmine. Same goes for the media sites. Every time RPS mentions us, we have a spike in sales. You'd think that by now the RPS readers have heard about the game but apparently not and every article pushes more people to give it a try and buy.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Why not just post in his thread and ask him there?

I wasn't talking about Underrail, if that's what you meant. My guess is that Styg is in the same boat as us unless Desura is even half as good as Steam.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Recommended it to ten friends and six of which bought it. You're welcome.

 

[Dickie]

In fact, there’s a good chance that Vince is angry with you, specifically

Is this true?

Did you purchase AoD?

I sure did.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I surely hope so. We'll start working on it after we finish AoD, unless something goes horribly wrong.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Hopefully nothing goes horribly wrong.

 

[bat_boro]

I surely hope so. We'll start working on it after we finish AoD, unless something goes horribly wrong.

So the sci-fi rpg project would (hopefully) come after the dungeon crawler? I don't know why I thought it would be the other way around

 

[Vault Dweller]

The sci-fi RPG will be a full-scale RPG and will take 3 years or so. We'll be starting from scratch and will have to develop new character, combat (the emphasis on ranged combat), crafting, and stealth systems. Plus, we'll need to come up with a proper look for the ship's environments and rely on concept art a lot more. So, the way I see the first 6 months will be pre-production.

The dungeon crawler game won't take much time as it would use the existing systems and assets. So, basically, while we throw ideas around and play with concepts, we'll put together a quick and inexpensive (under 10 bucks) party-based combat game for those who liked our combat system.

 

[Infinitron]

The sci-fi RPG will be a full-scale RPG and will take 3 years or so. We'll be starting from scratch and will have to develop new character, combat (the emphasis on ranged combat), crafting, and stealth systems. Plus, we'll need to come up with a proper look for the ship's environments and rely on concept art a lot more. So, the way I see the first 6 months will be pre-production.

Is it going to be "AoD in space" or are you gonna try for a more, er, traditionally FULL-SCALE experience ala Underrail?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Too early to say. All I can say now is that I'm not stuck on the AoD design and don't think that it's the only way to make RPGs so maybe we'll approach it differently.

 

[AbounI]

Do you still want to offer this Age of Dungeon Crawler for all of those who have preordered, or will we have to buy it? Is it doable for those who had preoder via Steam?In the same way, people got to keep their BMT link?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Do you still want to offer this Age of Dungeon Crawler for all of those who have preordered, or will we have to buy it?

We've never planned to offer it as a reward. You're confusing it with the idea suggested by someone else - to expand the combat demo, update it to the new engine and systems, and release it as a $3-5 game, free to anyone who pre-ordered AoD. We thought about it but decided against it because I wasn't comfortable with the idea of selling something that was free before, even if we expand and improve it.

The dungeon crawler was our plan B. What if AoD sells next to nothing, do we call it quits or try something else - people seem to like the combat system, so why not make a combat game without all that other stuff and see if it sells enough to keep us in business.

 

[Abelian]

Do you still want to offer this Age of Dungeon Crawler for all of those who have preordered, or will we have to buy it? Is it doable for those who had preoder via Steam?In the same way, people got to keep their BMT link?

It would be unreasonable to ask for a free game for all AoD pre-orders, especially since the AoD fans will be the core audience. It's only going to cost you $10, but could really eat up the sales.

Edit: ninja'd by VD

I surely hope so. We'll start working on it after we finish AoD

Updated notes: AoD Dungeon Crawler starts development on Friday.

 

[AbounI]

Thanks for the explanations, I was wrong.And after all, I can live with the idea to give ITS more money for more fun in the AoD world and see you staying in the biz

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Go VD Go!!!

 

[mindx2]

The sci-fi RPG will be a full-scale RPG and will take 3 years or so.

Only?

Spoiler

Just teasing my friend. You know I'll pre-order the moment you announce it...

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, I hope that we did learn something and it won't take us another 10 years. Then again, leading experts agree that man is not a learning animal, so everything is possible, I suppose.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Jesus, 10 years?
Holy crap I remember.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

The sci-fi RPG will be a full-scale RPG and will take 3 years or so. We'll be starting from scratch and will have to develop new character, combat (the emphasis on ranged combat), crafting, and stealth systems. Plus, we'll need to come up with a proper look for the ship's environments and rely on concept art a lot more.

My ultimate dream game would have you guys teaming up with Pyke to make this full-scale sci-fi RPG.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Did I write Allah? Really?
I thought I wrote aah.

 

[anus_pounder]

No worries, we're all closet muslims here.

 

[Perkel]

Seriously imo AoD is good place with its sales.
Early Access sales are good for games that are not plot driven so people treat it as finished version and play as developers update it vide minecraft, rust and shit like that.

AoD is RPG and it is proper RPG there is ton of people who wait for release version including me because i don't want to spoil myself (played only demo and loved it !). Same with Let's players, review sites, youtube personalities and so on.

For example if Pillars of Eternity would be on EA i wouldn't buy it same as AoD. I wouldn't be able to live with steam library listing Pillars of Eternity and thought i could look into it. Same with AoD

Be brave, your team is joining RPG annals with its first game and i can't seems to see anything that could go wrong with it if it will be released.