Comments - aztechrome

Finally. I get the full version, and my conscience will leave me alone. Money well spent.

Hmm. Gave it a playthrough. Thought it was pretty well put together. Nice little story for a free game.
But I had a little trouble understanding the mechanics... I mean i get that if you spend more time wth Shiro then you get more of Shiro's story, etc. But what are Rui's stat's good for? I spent my whole game getting Intelligence up over 100 points, and then didn't really see any apparent benefit to doing so... Can anyone shed some light on the character stats and how they work?

Was just checking for sales, and was gratified to see that SinisterDesign had commented upon my post. I feel like I have conveyed my thoughts in such a way that they are under active consideration by the developer, and I appreciate the feedback that there may be a limited-time opportunity to get what I want.
I think this is a good example of how to communicate your wishes to a developer. If anyone watches TB's reviews, you've heard him advocate a similar approach. Express your views in fully formed ideas, and intelligently point out the strengths of your idea. Maybe even go over any weaknesses or trade-offs that your idea would bring. Gamers as a whole have a bad reputation with many publishers and developers as being foul-mouthed hoi peloi. However, when we show them that they are wrong about us, and that something we want is reasonable or necessary for items A, B, & C, we have a good record of getting what we want recently. I think the Darkness II and the demand for FOV sliders in FPS games is a good example of this. Even large developers listen to you if you voice the opinion of much of it's customer base. Being more insulting gets one nowhere. Being more expressive does. I won't drive this point into the ground, but try organizing other players who have the same concern or worry that you do. Direct a well-written communique to an avenue where you know someone is listening. Usually your idea will be considered, and if it is not enacted, then as an organized group of rational people, developers tend to feel obliged to respond and tell you why not, again even larger companies. Will there be exception, absolutely. Can everyone rise to this level of conduct, sadly no. But we can make more of a difference if take some of the emotion out of our discussion. Even if we're heavily invested. That part I need to work on too.
I won't keep preaching here, but judge for yourself what has been a more effective communication tactic.
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Lastly, regarding the slightly adjusted attitude that "the developer's pains entitle them to charge what they feel appropriate" should be addressed. Without getting into facts and figures, as much as I'd like this to be true, it simply isn't. While indie developers probably _deserve_ 50 dollars on each one I spend on their games, it doesn't change the fact that I only have so much to spend. We're talking about a free market here where the developer, or anyone really, can charge whatever they want for any service or product. I don't think I need to point out what happens at the extremes of free and a billion dollars. But the rough truth is that cheaper indie games sell better. Because there's simply a greater market for more inexpensive goods. It doesn't make me a bad person that I won't pay that much. It doesn't make the developer bad, because he doesn't want to sell so low, at least as regular practice. It has nothing to do with effort, or perserverance, or creativity.
These are market forces, and don't possess ethical or moral virtues. The developer is taking a studied calculation at profit, and certainly wants the greatest (legitimate) circulation possible. So there's a stratagem in play here that is always going to attempt to be profit-maximizing. Hopefully that gamble goes well, and selling less units at a middle-high price point works out. When it drops by slightly less that 50%, then I and a bunch of other people will buy. But, vastly less profit is made. This is pretty basic economics, but it's why the "ethos" of the game, developer, or publisher has never previously and never subsequently mattered. I'll support this game, but I feel my demographic cant place that much money in the casual entertainment budget. That's it. That's all I'm trying to say.

Posted this in response to Darksoul71, but really it's for everyone in the "If you don't like the price, you don't have to buy it" school of thought. I feel like there's some people who are providing rather thoughtless jibes here, and that is unfortunate. However, I think price point remains a valid point of concern here. I feel that the developer understands my point, and after exchanging views, I felt that even negative feedback can be a positive contribution.
I still find the price to be high, but am somewhat mollified by the mention of a sale of about the magnitude I'd need to bang in the old Visa. So, if you're in a position to pay $25 for an indie RPG, good for you. Really. Glad you're doing well. I can't afford that. Not reasonably. The point here is that for every person able to know the price and pay it gladly, there are probably at least two like me that have some coin to spend, but stretch that same $25 to cover food, and supplies, and LASTLY a daily entertainment budget. So, much as those Steam cut-rates are killer for profits, the numbers more than make up for it, given decent exposure through the application. I feel that Desura's return on a big sale (50% off or more), would be relatively modest, considering the userbase, but probably still worthwhile to increase circulation and secure memorandum in the teleology of videogaming. I will concede however that most low-price purchasers will not meaningfully contribute to a thread like this, or monitor their follows carefully. So I'm trying to speak for them.

I'm quite tired now, but i do see how the placement of the word "CON" in my initial commnets was unfortunate. It was used as opposed to "PRO", for anyone who had not thus far gathered that. A 40% off sale would make a big difference to me. Mabye it would be a good week, for that maybe not, but you'd get a lot of people like me. Lastly, since this is an _extremely_ recent release, I am inclined to pay just a little bit more. I don't know why that's the case as an indie buyer that doesn't necessarily gain a great deal in graphics by purchasing a brand-new game at release. But i know it's a fairly common tendency. So as long as a good strong effort has been made in exposure prior to that discount opportunity, I think business could pick up very greatly for the duration of the offer. Good luck!

So, and this is important, I'm not disparaging the game. It's quite capable and fairly amusing. I'm also not accusing anyone of fraud. I really don't know where that's coming from. Where I have trouble is price. If you know your market, and you know that I'm an outlier, then you can go ahead and ignore this point. Essentially if I'm in a metaphorical game store, You've got me all the way up to the register with the box before I spot the price tag. Essentially I'm going to buy, but I put it back either for a sale AAA title, or a new B grade title, or a modestly priced indie title and a sandwich. If I'm crazy, and this isn't an issue for people, then I'll be happy to see the developer succeed at that price point. I'm taking the time to write this because it seemed a worthwhile point to make. I encourage everyone to download the free demo and try it out. It's a pretty good time if you like this kind of game. So, indeed, I do not want to pay what it costs... today. But I will find out what it costs tomorrow and when cost falls to my personal estimation of worth, I'll happily pay. I suppose it all depends how much lower my comfort zone is than your average POTENTIAL customer. (we can't easily measure the ones that decided "maybe later", except maybe by views.

It's probably not a fair comparison, but there's going to be a lot of people in my exact demographic who are going to take a pass on this title until it goes down by half. And people can't help making the comparison. Maybe I'm worse off than many people in the admittedly slightly older and better educated indie gaming market, but if they borrowed like I did to get life started, they're watching their expenses. You are dealing with people who don't have a lot of money, but choose to pay rather than steal. We're all here to buy and support, so I'm telling you where i'd personally draw the line. Say $12.50. While there's always a generous donation from a person of fortune at the big kickstarters and bundles, That's always nice to see, but you make your cash off of volume . If you re-examine my remarks, and I could have rephrased some things, the point is that I am clearly interested, and in fact waiting for a price point I consider more reasonable. As a game I can't agree that it's worth $25 in a market that's bringing me Orcs Must Die, SPAZ, Killing Floor, PvZ, etc. at the $~10 / 15 normal, $5 sale price. None of these are Match-3 games by any stretch of the imagination either. A match 3 game is worth $1-$2 to me and more would be scandalous. Economic class does affect perception of monetary value to be certain.

Hey, it's not that it's a bad game. I went back to the demo and was pleased that different stat builds DO have significant impact on combat narration tree and ergo replayability. (Sounds trivial, but stats in many major studio releases are just non-important window garbage these days.)I'm just being honest as a consumer about why I am not at this time opening my wallet..The game has reasonable merit and displays time and effort, particularly in the narrative . There's some that see Flash as a weakness, but it doesn't matter to me with solid gameplay. Which it demonstrates in the SF-like combat. With all that being said, I would still assert that price point is going to be by far the most pressing item on a potential customer's mind. And it happens to be about twice what I'm willing or able to pay. And yes, I'm just a poor young drone, and 15 dollars DOES have a big impact on my living. I gave $7.89 to the Humble Indie Bundle the other day, knowing that was my dinner, and so ate 1 peanut butter sandwich and a glass of tap water that night. I know small developers as a group hate Steam, but consider what I can get there for my $10? Or even 5?

Regarding the price point... there's nothing but a big CON there. That's the sole reason I'm not picking this game up in the forseeable future. It's currently at $25, and i understand that's after an initial reduction. It does not matter how well crafted the game, that is a preposterous price point for an indie product. Even if you're planning to set the bar high, and trying to not sell very many copies at launch (never a good idea in my book, but it is done) and to compensate for that by designing your profit model around an "always on deep discount" model, it's still just staggeringly costly for what it is. I understand the predicament of the indie developer, and how much of their costs must be borne by the company/design lead. But you have to make your money in volume, not by an insane launch price that will pay for the game if it sells less than a thousand copies. Which could happen. Very easily. And this is how you insure that it won't sell while it's new. This game should launch at half the price it's currently at... $12 would be at least comprehensible, maybe $15, but that's pushing it. $10 would move units.

I gave the demo a whirl. It's got a fairly decent introduction. The gameplay is pretty entertaining. While introducing nothing really new, it manages to avoid being clunky, mostly by being simple. Which is a good thing. More gauges and bars really doesn't do a lot for the games these days that pollute the screen with an irritating UI. That being said, I can see the protracted battles that are sure to come after the intro/demo period is over becoming very tedious. There's enough distinction between character classes and styles that it might be worth the time. I am reminded very much of the Shining Force series on the Genesis. Although, Shining Force kind of has this game beat in virtually every category. As the product of a major studio, maybe that's not a surprise. It should be said that the Middle Eastern setting for the game goes a long way to redeem it and make it somewhat unusual for the hardended tactical combat gamer. It has shades of "The Magic of Scheherezade" on the old NES platform. So there's a few pros and cons all mashed together there.