Vault Dweller: Age of Decadence needs to sell 45,000 copies to be successful

[Athelas]

Have you thought about emphasizing the Fallout-y/post-apocalyptic aspect (more) when promoting the game?

 

[tuluse]

VD is Canadian though. AFAIK the US has no sales tax on online items (though some states might) and there's no reason for them to tax VD's income seeing how he does not live in the US. Valve takes their cut, pays income tax, then pays VD what it owes him out of what it sold. Styg is American so of course he has to pay income tax but VD has no business in the US himself.

I'm pretty sure Styg is Serbian and that Valve is only paying taxes on their own cut, not the full sale price.

 

[Mastermind]

I thought Styg was in California.

 

[Mustawd]

I should be working on the SITS review...

Spoiler

 

[MRY]

I think there's a real possibility of Age of Decadence selling quite well, but over a much longer cycle than is typical. It's the kind of game that will spread best by word of mouth, probably even on an almost one-on-one basis ("Let me tell you about this game you might like."). Hopefully that kind of slow burn will not thwart Iron Tower's efforts to make another game.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

I thought Styg was in California.

https://rs.linkedin.com/pub/dejan-radisic/82/8b4/b73

 

[Mastermind]

I guess that makes sense, California is no place to make software for a living.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

With revenue like that it will take them another 10 years to make the next game... with real jobs on the side. They can downscale to 20-30h modules on the same engine over and over again but they still would need assets for new settings, i.e. sub contractor artists.
Double Bear made the right choice, you either do it professionally (make money) or it's just a passionate hobby.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I don't think that indie RPGs (I mean proper RPGs) is something you can make a lot of money on. It IS a passionate hobby and as long as it pays the bills (i.e. covers the basic living expenses), we're ok with it.

 

[Mustawd]

I don't think that indie RPGs (I mean proper RPGs) is something you can make a lot of money on. It IS a passionate hobby and as long as it pays the bills (i.e. covers the basic living expenses), we're ok with it.

Curious...is that a long term solution though? Not trying to pry, but I imagine things like healthcare, children, all around consumer niceties start to beck and call after a while...is "good enough"...well, good enough for a while?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Not trying to pry, but I imagine things like healthcare, children, all around consumer niceties start to beck and call after a while

Trivial considerations compared to old-school RPGs with unprecedented C&C

 

[Vault Dweller]

Curious...is that a long term solution though? Not trying to pry, but I imagine things like healthcare, children, all around consumer niceties start to beck and call after a while...is "good enough"...well, good enough for a while?

For me it is because I did it the other way around. I always wanted to make RPGs but I had to provide for my family and climb the corporate ladder. It wasn't easy to give it up but I was afraid of sitting in that comfortable chair for the rest of my life a lot more than I was afraid of quitting and doing what I love on minimum pay. I thought I'd miss it all but I never did. Not even once. Plus I get to keep what's left of my soul.

 

[Mustawd]

For me it is because I did it the other way around. I always wanted to make RPGs but I had to provide for my family and climb the corporate ladder. It wasn't easy to give it up but I was afraid of sitting in that comfortable chair for the rest of my life a lot more than I was afraid of quitting and doing what I love on minimum pay. I thought I'd miss it all but I never did. Not even once. Plus I get to keep what's left of my soul.

Well shit...that's why one of us enjoys reading about RPGs in a corporate cube and the other enjoys making them.

Regardless, I like my corporate job...but still Your passion is quite admirable.

 

[tuluse]

With revenue like that it will take them another 10 years to make the next game... with real jobs on the side. They can downscale to 20-30h modules on the same engine over and over again but they still would need assets for new settings, i.e. sub contractor artists.
Double Bear made the right choice, you either do it professionally (make money) or it's just a passionate hobby.

DoubleBear is giving up on RPGs because it's so hard to make money.

 

[Mastermind]

You COULD make a lot more money by having decent combat in future games. Party + lots of gore alone would probably double the sales.

 

[Mustawd]

You COULD make a lot more money by having decent combat in future games. Party + lots of gore alone would probably double the sales.

Plus romances...

 

[Goral]

(...) I already preorder AOD by BMT three years ago, but I plan to buy another copy on GOG on the release date. Can't bring the incline without doing some sacrifice

Same here. I'll probably buy a 3rd copy for my friend (in truth, for me but what will I do with all these copies myself). Pretty sure he won't like the game though because he won't have the patience to learn and because of graphics. I won't buy it through BMT though this time because of shitty EU and its shitty policy (34.88 euro instead of Steam's 28 euro).

I also hope that no one will gift this game on the Codex, just buy it yourself. As you can see every copy counts, the same goes for Steam reviews. Once the game will be released I expect many negative reviews from faggots who won't be able to get through the first fight, who will rage about not getting anything for talking to an NPC (besides super interesting wall of text which they won't read), who will trash the game for not having a quest compass, romances, for being too expensive, etc.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

DoubleBear is giving up on RPGs because it's so hard to make money.

That's what i said. Can't make money, so do something else. Either that, or do it like Vince - as a hobby.

 

[tuluse]

That's what i said. Can't make money, so do something else. Either that, or do it like Vince - as a hobby.

I thought you meant they did it right because of having a kickstarter and staffing up.

 

[Andhaira]

Vault Dweller Assuming you meet your sales desires in 1 year, i.e. 30,000+ copies sold (and for your sake I hope you do) how can you afford to pay even a staff of 5 full time people, plus yourself, for 3-4 years on even half a million dorra of income/profit?

I know nothing about Canadian wages, but assuming you pay each person $20,000/year (USD) for 4 years, and 20 grand per year without 401K and health insurance/bonuses etc is peanuts in the US, you would need $4.8M to cover their salary.

Are you hoping that continued sales of AoD over continuing years, after the first, will pay that? Or if I am missing something what is it?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It's pretty shitty that hard work on monocleness in this world is punished with poverty-line wages.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

I'll purchase multiple copies of the game when it releases, and more if you release it on GoG too.

 

[hivemind]

For me it is because I did it the other way around. I always wanted to make RPGs but I had to provide for my family and climb the corporate ladder. It wasn't easy to give it up but I was afraid of sitting in that comfortable chair for the rest of my life a lot more than I was afraid of quitting and doing what I love on minimum pay. I thought I'd miss it all but I never did. Not even once. Plus I get to keep what's left of my soul.

This is something that I was quite curious about ever since learning your 'story', but I guess it might be a bit personal so feel free not to answer.

How did your family react to your decision ?
Because I guess moving from a high level corporate executive to a minimum wage RPG designer had to have some impact on the living standard of your family, right ?

 

[ZagorTeNej]

just need to tap that Game of Thrones audience. 'Murder. Lust. Betrayal. Few will survive - the Age of Decadence.'

Except that particular audience will watch 5 minutes of AoD gameplay on youtube, shrug their shoulders and go back to playing Twitcher which offers all of that (plus tits and ass) in a package with very high production values and streamlined gameplay.

AoD targets a niche within a niche, a small subset of RPG players that have a boner for C&C, challenging combat, great writing, interesting setting (in this case a very well realized one that is closely tied to the gameplay), very high replayability value etc. and people who have a fondness for quirky indie games (as long as it seems different and stands out from the crowd they'll try it).

I sincerely hope that turns out to be enough in the end as I've really enjoyed what I played of AoD's early access and find Colony Ship RPG to be a very interesting concept/idea.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Vault Dweller Assuming you meet your sales desires in 1 year, i.e. 30,000+ copies sold (and for your sake I hope you do) how can you afford to pay even a staff of 5 full time people, plus yourself, for 3-4 years on even half a million dorra of income/profit?

I know nothing about Canadian wages, but assuming you pay each person $20,000/year (USD) for 4 years, and 20 grand per year without 401K and health insurance/bonuses etc is peanuts in the US, you would need $4.8M to cover their salary.

Going with your numbers, 20k/year x 6 x 4 = 480k not 4.8 mil.

Are you hoping that continued sales of AoD over continuing years, after the first, will pay that? Or if I am missing something what is it?

You're missing the dungeon crawler which is meant to be a sales booster to help us last til the next game is ready to hit early access.

This is something that I was quite curious about ever since learning your 'story', but I guess it might be a bit personal so feel free not to answer.

How did your family react to your decision ?
Because I guess moving from a high level corporate executive to a minimum wage RPG designer had to have some impact on the living standard of your family, right ?

It did. My family is supportive because they know how much it means to me. It sounds simple but it's not. It didn't happen overnight. I thought about it for a year and struggled with the decision. At some point the side hobby became a demanding second job and I knew that I had to pick one thing and focus on it.

It probably sounds cliche-ish, but when you have to pick between something that truly matters to you (aka your dream) and a paycheck, trading your dream for money is a very shitty deal that you're bound to regret later on.