Tim shafer kickstart project, adventure games are dead.

[Caine]

I've never understood "if we get enough support we'll port it to Linux/MacOS/Android" or similar. There is no end to cross platform libraries to choose from.

Even with cross-platform libraries, each platform is bound to have its own peculiarities and constraints. That means that each platform will require its own platform specific extensions, test setup and effort spent on testing and maintenance.


Also, input devices and optimal resolutions are not equal when comparing a desktop PC with an Android phone or Android tablet. You can make a "quick port", but you can tell in advance that users will complain about that as well.


Don't get me wrong, I don't see why including Linux should triple the price either.

 

[WizardStan]

I'm specifically talking about companies that say "we'd like to see our game on Linux or Mac at some time" and then proceed to use DirectX, or similar.

 

[ManlyStump]

I'm specifically talking about companies that say "we'd like to see our game on Linux or Mac at some time" and then proceed to use DirectX, or similar.

Well, if their primary concern at the time is getting a windows version out, and their team is comprised of DirectX experts, why waste time teaching them OpenGL from the get-go?

 

[WizardStan]

Why did you hire a team of DirectX experts with no OpenGL knowledge if you want it to be portable to Linux at some point in the future?

 

[Caine]

Why did you hire a team of DirectX experts with no OpenGL knowledge if you want it to be portable to Linux at some point in the future?

Well,...it is not impossible to port DirectX based code to OpenGL, but for a project aimed at Windows/MAC/Linux/Android is makes very little sense to use DirectX.

 

[Bosbeetle]

They are over 2 mil. that quite something for a kickstarter project.

 

[craigix]

They are over 2 mil. that quite something for a kickstarter project.

Kickstarter has that total which helps to drive the total higher.


It's a good way to make something which might have been small, very very big as people get carried away with the potential and get involved.


It's why I think more and more that a Pandora2, with the back story of the Pandora1 explained in video, could really get a lot more people on board for the open idea behind it.


Once we have sorted out the Pandora1 of course!

 

[Bosbeetle]

They are over 2 mil. that quite something for a kickstarter project.

Kickstarter has that total which helps to drive the total higher.


It's a good way to make something which might have been small, very very big as people get carried away with the potential and get involved.


It's why I think more and more that a Pandora2, with the back story of the Pandora1 explained in video, could really get a lot more people on board for the open idea behind it.


Once we have sorted out the Pandora1 of course!

Come to think of it, you guys were already doing some sort of a kickstarter (but by your own means) I do think these type of ventures do have a future, although there is one thing that I think it doesn't work for and that is, new players in a field.


Ive seen the kickstarter, pledgemusic thing for a lot of well to reasonable well known bands, and that works because they have fans, for the pandora it will also work because you guys have fans, same for Tim Shafer. But for a new band/game developer/product developer I think it would be very hard to gain this amount of confidence. That said not all kickstarters get started because they don't reach the goal.


So what do i think of kickstarter, its cool for known ventures that have proven themselves in the past, and are known to be consistent.

 

[WizardStan]

Keep very much in mind that if you'd used kickstarter for the P1 you'd be in some serious trouble right now, whether or not most of the problems were beyond your control.

 

[Masterofclay]

Sorry for the shameless plug, but our adventure game "The Book of Unwritten Tales" is currently on sale. We are really happy about the huge success of Tim Schafer's Kickstarter campaign and hope it will revive the adventure genre. Go Tim!

 

[WizardStan]

Sorry for the shameless plug, but our adventure game "The Book of Unwritten Tales" is currently on sale. We are really happy about the huge success of Tim Schafer's Kickstarter campaign and hope it will revive the adventure genre. Go Tim!

It looks really good, but I'm not sure the price is right. You look at Tim's proposal, it starts the game at $15. I have lot of adventure games purchased through Steam which go for $10 and $15, a few of the more popular IP for $25. I've got a some indie productions on physical disks which cost $25, only $10 for the digital download. And then you've got "Unwritten Tales" at $30 for the digital download. I'm sure it's a wonderful game, but you've priced it uncompetitively. Despite what people think, the adventure game market isn't actually dead or even stagnant: the supply meets demand, they aren't such a rare commodity that you don't need to compete on price. Or maybe I'm wrong, maybe you're selling them by the digital boatload, in which case that's great! But if you aren't, I'd definitely reconsider your pricing model if I were you.

 

[Caine]

Sorry for the shameless plug, but our adventure game "The Book of Unwritten Tales" is currently on sale. We are really happy about the huge success of Tim Schafer's Kickstarter campaign and hope it will revive the adventure genre. Go Tim!

Looks interesting. I'll have to give the demo a try. Any chance for a Linux port?

 

[Masterofclay]

@WizardStan: By the time most adventure games are available on Steam, they've already been available elsewhere for quite some time, so the price dropped over time. Also "The Book of Unwritten Tales" is one of the longest adventure games of the last years, with about 20 hours of playtime, while most current adventure games only take 5-8 hours to complete. If you buy a whole season of TellTale adventure games, they are usually more than 30 bucks too.


We are trying to get our game on Steam and there will also be a Mac port soon. We currently have no plans for a Linux port though.

 

[milkshake]

you should consider a linux port I reckon you will get a good amount of sales from the linux guys (look at humble indie bundle sales figures for evidance).

 

[WizardStan]

Also "The Book of Unwritten Tales" is one of the longest adventure games of the last years, with about 20 hours of playtime, while most current adventure games only take 5-8 hours to complete. If you buy a whole season of TellTale adventure games, they are usually more than 30 bucks too.

Irrelevant. I'll spend $15 for a 30 minute video I know to be good and I'll get rewatch value out of but balk at $5 for a 2 hour movie just to kill an evening.


Also look at Back To The Future from TellTale games: All 5 episodes for $25, that's the price it has always been from the start, both on Steam and direct from TellTale. That's about 15 hours of gameplay from an established IP and well known company with a positive history: you are competing directly with them, as well as the countless Indie devs producing adventure games every month. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it is an absolutely awesome game, the reviews I've read are extremely positive and I wish you all the best luck, but you aren't exactly selling perrier in the desert here: the well isn't so dry that I can't pass up your game for the $1.99 (and frequently even free) indie game that'll get me through an afternoon of boredom.


But as I said, I'm no marketing expert, I just love adventure games and as such know what I personally would pay in the current ecosystem. I honestly hope you are selling product and I'm the odd man out.

We are trying to get our game on Steam and there will also be a Mac port soon. We currently have no plans for a Linux port though.

Which is a pity. A native Linux port is something I would very much pay $30 for, there's no competition there. Especially if done using lgpl libraries such that ports to other devices are little more than a recompile away.

 

[Caine]

Hmmm... even though the wine appdb reports platinum compatibility, the demo fails to run for me. I'm not even sure it is worth the hassle of trying to discovery why.


So, no sale for me. Good luck trying to revive the genre, I really hope you succeed.


[edit]Works perfectly in wine, if you actually have a working install of wine [/edit]

 

[WizardStan]

Hold up Masterofclay, you have some explaining to do. Unwritten Tales is available on Amazon.com as a retail box for $20. That includes all kinds of extra goodies. The edition on Amazon.co.uk is only £10, or $15 for the same box of goodies. So why is the digital download $30? This is completely opposite to what I'd expect, a $30 physical copy and a $15-20 digital download. This only further emphasizes my confusion at your pricing model.


There's actually two seemingly different versions available. Or rather, they appear to be the same except for the box art. If I can figure out if there's actually any difference, I might pick up the (in my opinion) much more reasonably priced box edition.


edit: also Caine, the demo worked perfectly for me. You may want to investigate your setup at least a little.

 

[Caine]

edit: also Caine, the demo worked perfectly for me. You may want to investigate your setup at least a little.

Hmmm... recently did a fresh system install and had just compiled wine for the demo.


Sounds like I missed something, I'll have to investigate. I was using the latest release candidate (1.4-rc5). Just to rule out a regression, which version did you check?

 

[WizardStan]

1.3.37, default install on Ubuntu 10.04. I've been trying to build from source for a while now but it complains it can't find a bunch of 32bit dev libraries that I absolutely know are there. I may have to install a 32bit virtual machine just to compile.

 

[Caine]

Yeah, you were right. It works fine. Just recompiled it and fixed some missing dependencies. You don't really need those 32bit dev libraries. At least not for this game.


Seems like a nice game. So add me to the list of people wanting to see an answer to the above pricing and version questions.