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[TCM]

If you sold it for, say, 11.99 or something, wouldn't that make it more appealing to the consumers if you advertised it as, "A $15 dollar game, but with a 20% discount"? I believe there was a study in which the same DVDs were priced as either "$5" or "$7", the latter was purchased more because it was perceived as a unique, discounted price. Of course, it's your product, I just hope that if the price was lower, more people would buy it to the point where your profit would be larger in the end.

What sort of components will your computer require to smoothly run the game?

[Lightningfalcon]

Looks like a good game.  I'll be looking forward to its release. 

[Morrigi]

0/10, doesn't include Antarctica as a gun smuggling area.

I suppose it'd be a pretty good storage area if you could get there and back in one piece. Big if, though.

[hemmingjay]

Thank you for the feedback and suggestions everyone. I will most likely price it at $14.95 and discount it around 20% at launch, eventually drop it below $10 for a while and of course sell it at full price between sales.

I have really enjoyed the research phase of the game and would love to write a book with my notes someday. I spoke to several people from the industry, a handful of former government employees in the US, import/export lawyers, a judge who tried a arms dealing case in the 1990s and half a dozen Interpol personnel. It's a fascinating world and I hope I can bring some fun and light to it.

[Farce]

Looks pretty baller, will anticipate excitedly but be too poor to actually buy at present.

Also,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140530101655/jormungand/images/3/33/Wikia-Visualization-Main%2Cjormungand.png

[hemmingjay]

too poor to actually buy at present.

I wouldn't worry about it. I can't have my reputation changing just because I am making games now.

Also, I am shocked and humbled by the reaction the game is getting on FB in particular. 2500 likes in 10 days with a $10 a day budget. I had 5x that on most games that I worked on in the past 3 years and it took 2 months or much longer to get that. I just need to sell 40k copies at $12 to afford to finish the next game, which will be much bigger in scope although related. I am trying to curb my expectations but it's getting hard to. It will be effectively(although doubtfully titled) Arms Dealer Tycoon and is the game I have been waiting to make for years. Copyrights have been filed and pre-production has begun. That game will have the player running an arms manufacturing company. The player will R&D individual components as well as new types of weapon systems and then receive notices of government contracts. Different countries and large corporations will request certain types of weapons with minimum performance requirements and the player will then design a weapon of that class from researched parts and then send them into the contest along with their proposed price to be tested in and out of combat by the requesting entity. The player's weapon will be tested in a visual manner(possibly mini-games) and compared to other AI entries. It will be out by summer or fall of 2015.

[Kaje]

That sounds like an awesome follow-up, hemmingjay!

I can't see you failing to sell 40,000 copies at $12, keep the players involved and produce regular blog-style updates and your fanbase will continue to grow rapidly.

[Brons]

I will pay $15 for this although I think (based only on gut feeling) that the price is a little high for a game like this.

I also found this game online: http://www.freeonlinegames.com/game/arms-dealer is that yours too? I hope this doesn't lead to problems with the name.

[Neonivek]

Plus people should know how hypocritical arms dealing is most of the time.

The US isn't above selling weapons to dictators to quell uprisings, for example... or selling weapons to rebels to aid in their uprisings. It all just depends on the flavor of the month.
-Not aware of them doing this recently mind you... The last I heard of them doing this was in the 90s.

It is a very much a "We just don't want you in our business" sort of deal... or at least a "it is ok if we do it".

Which essentially makes your competition interesting as well.

[Retropunch]

I spoke to several people from the industry, a handful of former government employees in the US, import/export lawyers, a judge who tried a arms dealing case in the 1990s and half a dozen Interpol personnel.

Not to sound petty, but I find that pretty hard to believe, and even harder to believe that they'd provide you of anything of real/any use. Anyone who's worked in that kinda work has signed metric tons of NDAs and certainly wouldn't be willing to risk saying anything compromising for a game (no matter how awesome it looks!).

Interpol do not lead investigations - at the very most they offer support and may move around some investigators from other national agencies. If you don't believe me (and why should you believe an internet stranger) it even says it on their site:
Does INTERPOL send agents around the world to arrest people?
No, the INTERPOL General Secretariat does not send officers into countries to arrest individuals. All investigations and arrests in each INTERPOL member country are carried out by the national police in accordance with national laws. Each member country has an INTERPOL National Central Bureau(NCB) which is staffed by highly-trained law enforcement officers and acts as a designated contact point for the General Secretariat and other member countries.
Any arrests are made by national law enforcement in accordance with national laws.

I don't want to sound confrontational and it's obviously a work of fiction, I just hate when things try to be realistic and get it wrong. Sure, it could be a 'Black ops unit within Interpol' or something, but Interpol as it is now is basically a big database and coordination agency.

Really, I'm only saying this because if you want to make it as realistic as possible then these inaccuracies won't help.

[Neonivek]

Well being caught by Interpol can make sense from the viewpoint of the game anyway... Since as soon as Interpol has you in its sights it can pretty much get any agency in the area to make the arrest (and as Retropunch has said... Black ops)

[ndkid]

Plus people should know how hypocritical arms dealing is most of the time.

The US isn't above selling weapons to dictators to quell uprisings, for example... or selling weapons to rebels to aid in their uprisings. It all just depends on the flavor of the month.
-Not aware of them doing this recently mind you... The last I heard of them doing this was in the 90s.

http://www.globalissues.org/article/74/the-arms-trade-is-big-business#GlobalArmsSalesBySupplierNations

It all depends on how you want to slice it, of course... when Lockheed Martin sells F-15s and F-16s to Israel or Japan, are those arms deals, or do they not count because they're being sold to "legitimate" and "first-world" governments? Which country's laws determine whether an arms deal is legal or not? Or do you go with what the UN says?

[Retropunch]

Well being caught by Interpol can make sense from the viewpoint of the game anyway... Since as soon as Interpol has you in its sights it can pretty much get any agency in the area to make the arrest (and as Retropunch has said... Black ops)

Yeah it can definitely be worked in, it just doesn't work in the way of 'Interpol agents are after you'. Why not make up your own task force behind it? Government agencies often create national task forces to go after serious criminal organisations and that would leave you open to have them work whatever way you want and still seem realistic.

It's a fictional work so it's fine however hummingbird wants to play it, I just pointed it out because he seemed to want to have realism at the front of things.

[hemmingjay]

I spoke to several people from the industry, a handful of former government employees in the US, import/export lawyers, a judge who tried a arms dealing case in the 1990s and half a dozen Interpol personnel.

Not to sound petty, but I find that pretty hard to believe, and even harder to believe that they'd provide you of anything of real/any use. Anyone who's worked in that kinda work has signed metric tons of NDAs and certainly wouldn't be willing to risk saying anything compromising for a game (no matter how awesome it looks!).

Interpol do not lead investigations - at the very most they offer support and may move around some investigators from other national agencies. If you don't believe me (and why should you believe an internet stranger) it even says it on their site:
Does INTERPOL send agents around the world to arrest people?
No, the INTERPOL General Secretariat does not send officers into countries to arrest individuals. All investigations and arrests in each INTERPOL member country are carried out by the national police in accordance with national laws. Each member country has an INTERPOL National Central Bureau(NCB) which is staffed by highly-trained law enforcement officers and acts as a designated contact point for the General Secretariat and other member countries.
Any arrests are made by national law enforcement in accordance with national laws.

I don't want to sound confrontational and it's obviously a work of fiction, I just hate when things try to be realistic and get it wrong. Sure, it could be a 'Black ops unit within Interpol' or something, but Interpol as it is now is basically a big database and coordination agency.

Really, I'm only saying this because if you want to make it as realistic as possible then these inaccuracies won't help.

I'm sorry if it wasn't more clear to you when I said Interpol agents lead local law enforcement teams to make arrests. You can also see by the quote that you yourself shared, just how contradictory the information is. Interpol doesn't send agents, however, member nations have their own teams of Interpol agents(NCB) that work with local law enforcement to make arrests. The Interpol representative leads the investigation but due to jurisdiction, it is the local law enforcement that makes the arrest. Most of the information from law enforcement is a matter of public record, even more so for Interpol, an agency that believes strongly in transparency. In fact, if you would like to find out just how cooperative they are, I suggest you send a letter requesting information on a specific topic and enjoy the massive amount of material they send back to you. Also, they don't use NDA's to constrict the flow of information. I think you might be thinking of information that is related to ongoing investigations? I would like to keep the rest of the discussion on topic please.

*edit: I have no intention of recreating a perfectly realistic simulation of the arms trade or geopolitics. That's rather tedious and boring. In fact, I set the whole game universe a few years into the future to allow for maneuvering around perfect realism without breaking immersion. Also, it's generally considered polite to use the correct spelling of someone's name especially when engaging in a passive aggressive multi post effort. Thanks.

[Knave]

I swear a week before you posted this game I was looking for the article about the 2 young guys in their 20's becoming huge arms dealers, but couldn't remember what it was called. Lo and behold you post it on your FB page.