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[Graknorke]

2) I've followed the instructions and decided to get weapons to Costa Rica. Bought them in Russia, convinced a flight to take them via Portugal to Honduras - but when the plane arrives in Honduras, I can't find my weapons anywhere. Not in the warehouse in Honduras, or Portugal and aren't visible when trying to plan another journey (in the inventory). Am I doing something wrong? -EDIT- Further investigation in my Transactions tab showed that they were shipped to Honduras, who bought all 50 AKSU units for $1...not each...just $1...was that something *I* did wrong?

I can confirm that this happens when you try to store a transport of weapons in the warehouse. So something definitely up there.

Other than that, have you considered changing the travel times to show in-game time rather than or as well as real time. Because I can't tell if the game just runs slow on my computer, the timings are wrong, or a second is a lot longer than it used to be.

[hemmingjay]

Probably a corrupted download. That's one of the problems with using DropBox. It's not quite a perfect solution for game distribution. BTW, Sorry bt I can't release the full soundtrack with the alpha or beta builds because some people will spread it or steal it. I owe it to the composer to keep control of it. On a related note,


Does anybody ever buy the "collectors edition" or Deluxe edition with the soundtrack and concept art? I was thinking of selling it for $2.50 more, giving a dollar to the composer and a dollar to charity and $0.50 to the costs. If people don't really buy them, then I don't want to waste the time or look stupid for putting it out there and getting no sales for it. BTW, the game will not be in a bundle for at least 3 months, if ever. I think it's a cash grab for developers to devalue their work like that. Am I telling my fans who just paid full price for it that it was only worth $0.75? I think I would rather make the game free when sales dry up. At least it's good advertising and build good will.

[hemmingjay]

2) I've followed the instructions and decided to get weapons to Costa Rica. Bought them in Russia, convinced a flight to take them via Portugal to Honduras - but when the plane arrives in Honduras, I can't find my weapons anywhere. Not in the warehouse in Honduras, or Portugal and aren't visible when trying to plan another journey (in the inventory). Am I doing something wrong? -EDIT- Further investigation in my Transactions tab showed that they were shipped to Honduras, who bought all 50 AKSU units for $1...not each...just $1...was that something *I* did wrong?

I can confirm that this happens when you try to store a transport of weapons in the warehouse. So something definitely up there.

Other than that, have you considered changing the travel times to show in-game time rather than or as well as real time. Because I can't tell if the game just runs slow on my computer, the timings are wrong, or a second is a lot longer than it used to be.

We have fixed that bug and it will be in the new version later tonight. Time is paused when you are in menus. Also, it's entirely possible that the time is off right now. I will check into it.

[lordcooper]

Probably a corrupted download. That's one of the problems with using DropBox. It's not quite a perfect solution for game distribution. BTW, Sorry bt I can't release the full soundtrack with the alpha or beta builds because some people will spread it or steal it. I owe it to the composer to keep control of it. On a related note,


Does anybody ever buy the "collectors edition" or Deluxe edition with the soundtrack and concept art? I was thinking of selling it for $2.50 more, giving a dollar to the composer and a dollar to charity and $0.50 to the costs. If people don't really buy them, then I don't want to waste the time or look stupid for putting it out there and getting no sales for it. BTW, the game will not be in a bundle for at least 3 months, if ever. I think it's a cash grab for developers to devalue their work like that. Am I telling my fans who just paid full price for it that it was only worth $0.75? I think I would rather make the game free when sales dry up. At least it's good advertising and build good will.

I buy soundtracks if they're particularly good.  We're talking Bastion tier here though.

[Isdar]

Probably a corrupted download. That's one of the problems with using DropBox. It's not quite a perfect solution for game distribution. BTW, Sorry bt I can't release the full soundtrack with the alpha or beta builds because some people will spread it or steal it. I owe it to the composer to keep control of it. On a related note,


Does anybody ever buy the "collectors edition" or Deluxe edition with the soundtrack and concept art? I was thinking of selling it for $2.50 more, giving a dollar to the composer and a dollar to charity and $0.50 to the costs. If people don't really buy them, then I don't want to waste the time or look stupid for putting it out there and getting no sales for it. BTW, the game will not be in a bundle for at least 3 months, if ever. I think it's a cash grab for developers to devalue their work like that. Am I telling my fans who just paid full price for it that it was only worth $0.75? I think I would rather make the game free when sales dry up. At least it's good advertising and build good will.

I only buy soundtracks if they are particulary good, like Hotline Miami good. So, you might want to upload a few snippets of various tracks and see the reception they get.

[hemmingjay]

LordCooper and Isdar will be the critics. I have given them both the soundtrack to decide if it's worth $2.50 with some concept art or some special art/versions of vehicles for your game.

[Kaje]

Hopefully they seem it worthy, I'd totally pay $2.50 more (that's less than half a pint of beer here...)

[Isdar]

Well, its going to take me atleast 20-30 mins to listen to them all. So, see ya in that time.

[Neonivek]

LordCooper and Isdar will be the critics. I have given them both the soundtrack to decide if it's worth $2.50 with some concept art or some special art/versions of vehicles for your game.

I guess it depends if you have nothing but ambiatics or not.

[EuchreJack]

Does anybody ever buy the "collectors edition" or Deluxe edition with the soundtrack and concept art? I was thinking of selling it for $2.50 more, giving a dollar to the composer and a dollar to charity and $0.50 to the costs. If people don't really buy them, then I don't want to waste the time or look stupid for putting it out there and getting no sales for it. BTW, the game will not be in a bundle for at least 3 months, if ever. I think it's a cash grab for developers to devalue their work like that. Am I telling my fans who just paid full price for it that it was only worth $0.75? I think I would rather make the game free when sales dry up. At least it's good advertising and build good will.

Even though I'm a cheap b@stard that never pays more than I have to, $2.50 more for a deluxe or collector's edition seems like the right price, especially if you make it abundantly clear that $1 goes to the composer, $1 goes to charity, $0.50 goes to the costs, and presumably $0 goes to you (or practically zero, maybe you get a penny or two from billing the costs, but it sounds like essentially zero).
People are a naturally charitable bunch, so they'll support your "Charity" edition enough to at least look innovative rather than stupid or wasteful.
*DISCLAIMER!  EJ has absolutely NO experience with marketing, pricing, or anything practical that he'd admit to.  END DISCLAIMER!*

Additionally, while it certainly makes sense to make the game free when sales dry up, you'll want to wait at least two years, and TELL NOBODY.  You don't want to lose sales because people expect to get the game for free if they wait.

[Isdar]

Well, I liked all of the songs except one, that one was mostly due to it being so damn loud. And one of them reminded me of TA's soundtrack, which brought back some god memories. Its definitely worth selling for 2.50$.

[hemmingjay]

Well, I liked all of the songs except one, that one was mostly due to it being so damn loud. And one of them reminded me of TA's soundtrack, which brought back some god memories. Its definitely worth selling for 2.50$.

I know the one, asked the artist to change it several times. It's fine for a while and then suddenly just blasts this crescendo out of nowhere! I am going to have my audio engineer tweak it.

[lordcooper]

I haven't had chance to mess with the game yet (will do today though) so this is all out of context and everything is being judged without the associations that the game would give (which can make a huge difference).

Spoiler: Early morning opinions of each track after listening through twice (click to show/hide)

A classic - Generic but pleasant.  Cigar outside a ballroom vibe
Absolute - Real cool buildup, love the discordant bits and wish it had more of them, suspenseful, sense of loss towards the end, outro is kinda nice but too long
Alarm - Hell yes, A++, had a massive grin on my face, prime chilling out with a joint music, sinister, wish it was at least twice as long, the standout track imo
Coming home - Epic, bridge goes on a bit too long but worth the wait, loads going on but somehow doesn't devolve into a mess, joy mixed with apprehension, reminds me of landing in dollet in FF VIII for some reason
Coronation - Awesome powerful intro, grand, name fits perfectly, 2:38 onwards is bliss.  Kinda wish you skipped all/most of the middle section 1:10-1:32.
Depths - I adore this, plain and simple
Destiny - Does very little for me, but I've never liked this style much anyway.  Inoffensive ambient fluff.
Faster - Very reminiscent of jrpg battle music, good stuff
Hidden - Not much to say baout this one, but I do rather like it
In sight - Sweet floaty tune, I dig it, final section is cool but way too loud
Paying Respects - See Destiny, but I do vaguely like this one
The start of something - heh fitting title, feels like it's building up to something and then ends, i like it but it's very short
The struggle - Brilliant, although I'd suggest making the snare a little more prominent
Until the end - Echoes of Donnie Darko and Immortal Technique (never thought I'd compare those two things), it's beautiful
Visions of mine - One of the weaker tracks imo, pleasant enough but it seems as though it's mainly there to provide middle ground between some of the more contrasting tracks

A few filler tracks, a few absolutely excellent tracks, mostly pretty good.  I'll buy it (please make it AAC rather than mp3, lossless formats would be even better).

This may be an unpopular suggestion, but you should increase the price.  Going off Steam, the Bastion soundtrack is half the price of the game, whereas Hotline Miami's is the full price again.  I'm not suggesting you go to those lengths, but maybe $5 ($1.50 to the composer, $1 to the concept artist, $0.50 for costs, $2 for charity) if the game's still going for $15.  Maybe include high resolution concept art that people could print out for posters if they wanted.  State explicitly where the money is going and it'll sell more.  "I'm not paying $5, I'm paying $3 and giving $2 to charity."  I'd also suggest making it possible to upgrade to the 'deluxe edition' at a later date for the same price difference.  Also, if you were to post the soundtrack to youtube yourself (obviously at a lower quality) (it'll end up on there anyway) it'll garner goodwill and likely drive sales a bit.  It worked wonders for the bastion folk and Austin Wintory.

As for the charity, why not make it thematic?  To be cynical, it'll likely garner a little press and appease those who (like me, to be honest) find the game's concept a little troubling.  I'd go a step further and suggest that choosing a group like Doctors Without Borders or War Child might be less problematic (for instance, less likely to bring accusations of jingoism from the Kotaku crowd and my more rabid liberal brethren) and do more good than one focusing on veterans.  No offence intended, it's just a thought

some special art/versions of vehicles for your game.

Please don't!  Making the game art itself any different for those who buy this would be verging on horse armour territory.  Mechanics would be positively EA-like.  Besides, what if I buy the special edition and actually prefer the standard art?

[hemmingjay]

Lord Cooper, Thank you for the thorough feedback. The composer appreciated that, and that is saying a lot. He is very sensitive, very stubborn and simply refuses to change anything for anyone. However, I worked with him because he was the best composer for the job. I doubt I will use him again, because the industry is huge and compatible personalities are so very important, especially since I almost exclusively prefer developing by telecommute. I must like and trust the people I hire and the feeling must be mutual. The general theory is that productivity is half of a conventional office space, which I would argue as way over stated, but the costs are roughly 25-35% of an office space and insurance and utilities and HR issues. I will take your suggestion about the charity, I already am including a bit at the end about understanding the positive and negative aspects of the weapon trade. The game also includes many opportunities for the player to take a moral stance in business, in fact you can be entirely successful without supplying any terrorists, any warlike countries, anything immoral really. Overall, in the initial story panels that will accompany the game, we will show some of the human side of the job, the personal cost. Generally we never glorify any of the actions, keep things agnostic. It wouldn't break my heart to be protested though, since that would provide some media attention. I'd rather be banned in every country than not have anyone know about the game. Which is a real possibility with the flood of old games being re-released along with piss poor mobile ports. Sites like Rock Paper Shotgun ignore developers unless they make a tongue-in-cheek title. They generally cover games suggested by fans, but a dev can't ask their fans to do that and most fans are too busy to be bothered. I'll break even somewhere around 3k copies, so as long as I can manage that this game will get made. At 30-35k copies I can afford to finish Weapon Factory Tycoon, which should fund my more artistic ventures, like a game that is similar to Hack and Slash and DLC Quest where the game is broken and the player must fix the "code" by using a very simplified language in the game with later stage puzzles being solved with cheats and mods, and secrets being found by introducing bugs. The Fourth game(all trademarks have been filed but not approved yet) is a Dungeon Crawl Inventory Manager. You play as a sentient magic bag being carried by an adventurer in a series of quests. You control what stays in the limited slots, what gets combined, what get's "lost" and you solve puzzles by "jumping" items out of the yourself, the bag, to be used. It's a sentient storage container simulator    My games are niche, but each one should serve a decent sized niche.  Hopefully it will keep me afloat and I didn't make a huge mistake giving up a very lucrative consulting business.

[lordcooper]

I generally send suggestions to RPS once or twice a month.  Let me know when you feel the game's 'good enough' for that.

You play as a sentient magic bag being carried by an adventurer in a series of quests. You control what stays in the limited slots, what gets combined, what get's "lost" and you solve puzzles by "jumping" items out of the yourself, the bag, to be used. It's a sentient storage container simulator

Hehehe, you're sounding a little like Molyneux here, and I mean that in the best possible way.  You've piqued my interest for sure.  Bit of a long shot, but it might be worth getting in touch with Pratchett's folk and seeing if you can get the license (he's surprising fond of videogames for his age).  Playing as The Luggage would make it much less of a niche product, us Discworld fans are obsessive.