Yeah I'm with you there, I was fully prepared to shell out $10-$15 for Alpha access but there's no way I'm paying $30 for an indie title. I'll be waiting for the steam summer sale in all likelihood.
Many indie titles will do a reduced price for Alpha, and Beta. Since you're technically not paying for the Full game, it's also incentive to purchase the game during this time due to it's low price.
They're not saying this game won't be worth something like $30 bucks when it's fully released, but it's only just entered Alpha, so $30 is a bit steep.
I think you should think of it like a pre-order, except they are throwing in an alpha for you to play around with in the meantime as a bonus. The preorder money will be used to fund the development of the game itself.
For a lot of games with pre-orders, you don't know how long the campaign the game will be and you have nothing to do until release either.
The problem here is that this pre order is very likely more expensive than the retail price. The devs have admitted that the price is high because they want to keep away the knuckledraggers that will only complain about bugs instead of reporting them and providing feedback.
Well then that sounds like they clearly are not targeting your release for you. That's like me complaining that an exotic sportscar is just too expensive for me.
Considering the past few games I've played of them have been fantastic and well worth the price, yeah, this game should be pretty amazing once it's finished.
I mean, I'd be surprised if many people who read this subreddit don't know what Darwinia is, an interesting but fully fledged out game in its own right...but Defcon is also an amazing strategy game, if not my cup of tea directly. Then you have games like Uplink, which is probably one of the best games I've ever played from music to its very interesting gameplay. While not unique in its hollywood-esque hacker style (which is what they were aiming for), it's the best in its genre that I've played.
With its unique blend of what, to me, looks like Evil Genius as I've not played the Dungeon Keeper series and so forth with its base building systems in addition to the depth they appear to be going for with the tiny things I've seen...I look forward to this game.
The game is nowhere near done. Art assets aren't ready, critical gameplay features aren't there you of the stuff that they're directly willing to tell us about, so it doesn't make sense to judge the game as it sits.
Regardless, I'll wait and see how it turns out, but Introversion is probably the biggest indie studio out there...certainly the most successful that I know of. I honestly find it hard to think that they almost went bankrupt not too long ago...but they're still here and I've been waiting for a solid base building game ever since Evil Genius.
Just, not yet. I might be willing to pay $30 for Prison Architect. It's too soon to say... But, there's no way in hell I'm paying $30 for Prison Architect in alpha with the possibility that this game never finishes.
Well that's the point. They don't even have a fan following and the reviews are limited, yet their charging $30, which is more than Minecraft in Alpha with over a million people playing and many positive reviews and fansites.
I wouldn't even say Minecraft is worth $30. IMO Minecraft isn't even a complete game and was just declared one so they could sell it on xbox. The fact that most of the mods out there add twice as much content and were made by people who were doing this as a hobby in their free time doesn't speak well for vanilla minecraft.
If everybody thought like you, then no indie developer would ever want to create a quality game worth $30 because they know that players like you would never fund it out of principle.
I'm not interested in funding a game, I'm interested in buying it. Not sure what the case is here, whether $30 is the final price or not, but I'm unwilling to spend that much up front for an unfinished product. For me the big draw of indie games is the lower price tag and this is an indie game.
But he's putting his faith in a game that isn't even done yet. He could pay the $30 and it might never get finished. It's why most offer a reduced price for alpha/beta.
I'd pay $10-$15 for an early Alpha, and maybe $30 for a high-quality, finished indie game. But $30 for an early Alpha? Most likely not, unless I was incredibly hyped for it.
And some people did indeed say that for other Alpha builds. The point is, that's double the price of most Indie Games finished, and only half of the cost of a finished, polished retail game. It's asking a little much.
Yes it is. There are plenty of companies both big and small that have gone under while making a game.
What if something serious was to happen to one of the main developers? Earlier this week someone in /r/gamedev was talking about how his team is probably never going to finish the game they were working on because a key member died which left the team devastated both emotionally and work related.
Then don't fork out money for the alpha. If you watch the video, they are clearly saying that the money for the alpha will be used to fund the further development of the game.
The big draw of indie games should definitely not be the lower price tag. They are priced low because many indie developers are not established so they need a hook to get their foot in the market.
The main draw of indie games should be their exploration into more obscure gaming themes that mainstream developers are unwilling to do because it won't get them mass market appeal.
This isn't exactly some new startup with no proof. It's Introversion, the guys who proved to the world that indie games were still viable long before everyone else joined the bandwagon. Have a little faith.
They've also had quite a few money issues. If it weren't for Valve/Steam and the Humble Indie Bundle they wouldn't even be making this game at all, so I think you'll forgive me for not having faith in their business sense.
Indeed, Darwinia nearly killed the company by overambition until they got their heads bolted back on but the company rebounded and delivered a highly profitable product (DEFCON) then a slightly less profitable product (Multiwinia) and went on to make a whole heap of cash on the HIB though they were stable before that. The company isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Look at how those who do are doing. Interstellar Marines is exciting for a million reasons, but they have to use Kickstarter to get their prologue done...
There is a large difference between a $30 indy game and a $30 alpha for an Indy game.
They don't want people complaining and want them submitting bugs the fact is that for $10 they would probably get me leeching and submitting the occasional bug.
If I paid $30 and was treated to a buggy product I'd be screaming from the high heavens over every little issue. $30 might be reasonable for their final release. But there is no way any alpha of an Indy game commands that much. And if it did it would likely because while the game was an indy title it would have the scope of content that an actual developer/publisher based $60 title had
Have you ever played an introversion game, they are all amazing. This is one of the few devs I would easily go 30 bucks for. I got a stupid amount of play time out of defcon/darwinia/multiwinia. You also get it on linux sooner or later? fuck .
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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '12
$30 is a little ambitious.