ALIEN FLUX 1.4c released

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#21

I have to say that language in this space evolves rapidly - a “demo” is not just a “demonstration”. It’s a usuable thing that allows you to get the feel of a game. I’m not sure people would like to pay money for an indie game when they can’t even try out the controls. And I’m pretty sure you’ll get a lot of people miffed at downloading an 11MB “demo” and finding they can’t actually play it. Noone calls things “playable demos” any more, as noone produces unplayable ones.

If you want to stop the freeloaders, have you thought about generating free reg keys that function for a limited time? Provide a form people can fill in to get a key emailed to them, and don’t let people apply if you’ve already sent one to that address. Or allow a maximum of three keys or something.

Don’t worry about people with multiple email addresses - they’ll run out eventually, and they’re obviously very keen on playing so leave them to it. You need to take care of people who own domains though. Maybe you need a summary of all domains who’ve had ten key requests in the last week, which you can then visually scan for any abuse every week or so.

Just a few thoughts.

#22

I think you have the right idea in that some people when they get to level 10 will be happy to move on to the next game. It can take several attempts to get that far when you are new to the game.

What if you limited the game to five levels and made it cheaper? While the price of alien flux is only half that of the latest warcraftIII expansion the you don’t quite have the same publicity department as Blizzard nor is the game as large. Part of that is because in Australia, the currency isn’t as good - so to us it’s $30 bucks which feels high in my opinion for this type of game.

Take my brother (15 years old) for example - he really loved the demo and wanted the full version - but $30 was too much for him. I offered to subsidise his copy and let him only pay $10 for it. He practically gave me the cash that moment and wanted me to put the order through ASAP (literally - he was hassling me about it!). This is a guy who plays (a lot of) Diablo, Warcraft and BF1942.

Will.

#23

Well, the game already stops total freeloaders. You get to play for 25 minutes, and then it counts how many games you’ve played and gives you only 5 goes after that. Even so this seems to give you about an hour and a half of playing.

The problem is not freeloading as such, it’s that it is attracting people who want free games, rather than people who want to buy games. I don’t want to write free games; I want to sell ames. Blizzard don’t write free games; they sell millions of games instead. Marketing dept. aside one of the reasons they sell so many of their games is that they’re simply not available for free. Even if I had a tiny weeny fraction of their budget I’d still be looking at a vast number of sales relatively.

Which brings me to William’s point about the price. I too think that $20 is a little salty for an indie game but it’s practically impossible to charge much less and still make a profit. In fact, running at $20 we’re actually still making a loss selling AF. But if I sold 100x as many copies for half the price we’d be doing it right. $10 is bugger all in terms of value for money entertainment. Even if you only play it up to level 10 for an hour and a half it’s still as cheap as the cinema and you’re very likely not the only one to be playing.

Interestingly you’re the second Aussie who’s moaned about the price :-/ What do retail games go for down under?

Cas :slight_smile:

#24

[quote]I have to say that language in this space evolves rapidly - a “demo” is not just a “demonstration”. It’s a usuable thing that allows you to get the feel of a game. I’m not sure people would like to pay money for an indie game when they can’t even try out the controls. And I’m pretty sure you’ll get a lot of people miffed at downloading an 11MB “demo” and finding they can’t actually play it. Noone calls things “playable demos” any more, as noone produces unplayable ones.
[…]
[/quote]
Actually there are “demos” like that… even the big publishers use that kind.

But they don’t use the term “demo”. They are called “autoplay demos”. If that term is used no one will have a reason to moan, because the term is common and not misleading at all.

However… I would be carefull with that. People tend to get motion sickness much easier by watching “demos” (term used in the quake-sense of “replay” here). Because the brain can’t know wich direction the movement will take.

Also it won’t be “try before you buy” anymore.

I think 3 playable levels (like it is right now) plus demonstration of what you will get would be a better approach.

After watching a “replay” I won’t know if I like that game or not. I might work well with game concepts wich are known like first person shooters (neat graphics! I buy it) or real time strategy (net interface’n’graphics! I buy it) but most people won’t have enough information (wich are needed for decision making) if the game mechanics are unknown to them.

#25

IIRC “discovering the natural price for your game” (in all it’s different guises) was one of the most-frequently cited difficulties of shareware dev on the appropriate discussion boards. I’m not going to try and defend $10 as opposed to $20 or vice versa, but I thought you were a devotee of “if that’s what it takes to get exponential increase in sales…”.

[quote]The problem is not freeloading as such, it’s that it is attracting people who want free games, rather than people who want to buy games.
[/quote]
IIRC the war stories from successful shareware authors usually end up “…and then we found how to reach our target market, and everything really took off”.

In theory, I’d personally lean towards lowering the price if it looked like it might provide a better-than-linear increase in sales. OTOH IMHO it would be insane to lower the price right now. This isn’t advice to Cas (I’m sure he knows the ins and outs much better than I), but just an opinion. You lower the price 9-12 months after release, no earlier…AFAICS the main reason for waiting is that marketing efforts (e.g. getting the demo distributed in a linux distro or similar) take 6-12 months to take effect anyway, so you have to give them time to get going. My rule of thumb is that marketing etc for a standalone mass-market business (as opposed to selling one-off custom products) is 50-50 with development - so if you spent 6 months from first design to final gold copy, you assume your marketing hasn’t even started until you’ve put about as much effort in again.

It’s also a bit rude to early customers if you keep dropping the price :slight_smile:

#26

It’s also a bit rude to early customers if you keep dropping the price

very true.

In AUD, I got warcraftIII for $100, the expansion for $60. IMHO $60 for an expansion is a rip off, most come out at $30-40. Games (ie. new ones) vary from $70 to $100. Your game clocks in at $30 (and the exchange rate is better of late - half a year ago it would have been $40).

$30 get’s you 3-5 movie tickets at a cinema, or 5 new release movies/game hire, or two takeaway pizza’s and a six pack.

I really have no idea how a decrease in price would affect your sales, but my survey of one aussie school kid (who loved the demo) returned the result that $30 was too much for this type of game.

Not telling you what to do Cas, but just giving you some free market research.

Good luck,

Will.

#27

No, it’s very valuable insight in to the target market. Two pizzas and a sixpack is what I call “an evening’s entertainment” and indeed most people can get a weeks’ worth of evening entertainment out of Alien Flux so on that front it represents good value for money.

However, a schoolkid has completely different priorities. What other cool things can kids get for AUD$30? Or more to the point - how much effort does it take a kid to get AUD$30? I bet that’s a week of washing the car and doing miserable chores, on top of a paper round.

So here’s the dilemma: who’m I going to market AF to?

Originally I thought AF would appeal to 30something professional males with decreasingly small amounts of free time to play games who grew up in the arcades of the 80s. Like me.

But if it’s much more appealing to kids then I ought to be marketing it to kids instead.

A dilemma.

So much to bloody learn.

Cas :slight_smile:

#28

Maybe you could add a little optional questionaire when you submit a high score. Asks, age/sex/occupation, etc. That would give you a chance to see who has already purchased it, if you see a pattern there, then perhaps that is your target (If enough people fill out the questionaire).

#29

You can get both for about 20¤ (each) in Germany currently. The Warcraft Expansion is worth it’s price, because it’s definitely one of the best games of the present and included some major changes in gameplay. Large new games cost about 40¤. Alien Flux costs 21¤ and surely can’t compete with these games. That’s why I don’t think it’s cheap (not only for kids).

#30

That’s much too simple. It’s like saying that South Park can’t compete with Sinbad or that your girlfriend can’t compete with Miss World.

#31

I can’t test the current version here on Linux, because the webstart version doesn’t start (doesn’t do anything except displaying “AlienFlux 1.4h …” and then exits without downloading), but I played the demo a while (about a month) ago. I think it’s a nice and funny game with good graphics, but I don’t think it’s on the same level like the top selling games. It’s intention is more to have some fun if you’ve got some free minutes. At least that’s what I remember.

The main question coming up, is if you should actually compare this game with other games (Warcraft III) or other entertainment (“some pizza and a sixpack”). Personally I compare it with other games, because this is easier. If I can buy games which provide “more entertainment” for the same money then I don’t buy AlienFlux. I’m a student and don’t have much money, so I’m probably not in the group the commercial offer is aiming at.

I want to stress that this is just my personal opinion.

@java: I hope this explains my thoughts a bit better.

#32

Cas, have you submitted for flipcode’s IOTD yet? It’s the kind of thing I’m sure you’d already have done, but I don’t remember seeing one for AF.

I have no idea what the demographics for FC are, but sometimes it seems everyone on the planet looks at their IOTD :). There’s a very diverse (and influential) range of people who do view it, including lots who - if I guess aright - do so because they are only tangentially interested in the games industry, and looking at pictures once a week is very little effort compared to actually reading news, articles, etc.

I would be suprised if there weren’t quite a lot of people, including opinion-formers, from your target market amongst the viewership. I’ve even known people who used the images as a source of free, funky, eye candy - e.g. a daily changing wallpaper for their desktop :).

#33

[quote]No, it’s very valuable insight in to the target market. Two pizzas and a sixpack is what I call “an evening’s entertainment” and indeed most people can get a weeks’ worth of evening entertainment out of Alien Flux so on that front it represents good value for money.

However, a schoolkid has completely different priorities. What other cool things can kids get for AUD$30? Or more to the point - how much effort does it take a kid to get AUD$30? I bet that’s a week of washing the car and doing miserable chores, on top of a paper round.

So here’s the dilemma: who’m I going to market AF to?

Originally I thought AF would appeal to 30something professional males with decreasingly small amounts of free time to play games who grew up in the arcades of the 80s. Like me.

But if it’s much more appealing to kids then I ought to be marketing it to kids instead.

A dilemma.

So much to bloody learn.

Cas :slight_smile:
[/quote]
Well he gets $10/week pocket money maybe sometimes some extra if he is doing somthing that needs it. Most games and game related stuff he would get as a gift for chirstmas or birthdays I guess, but AF doesn’t come in a pretty box and giving someone a serial key like that doesn’t really work.

I think the going rate for a car wash is about $5 to give you some idea, so $30 would be a bit of effort. $15 would get you a day in the city with a movie and lunch. As I said he was happy to pay $10 infact he gave me the cash and demanded that I purchase it practically that instant. So he liked the game just didn’t want to spend $30 or even $20 on it. Don’t forget a kid has the added step of bugging someone with a credit card to buy it for them - so it’s maybe a hard market to crack online or not worth your effort I really don’t know.

Feedback is what you really need and from eveyone, not just those who buy the game.

Will.

#34

Another version of AF is out, 1.4i. This one works with Webstart now :slight_smile:

Usual download: http://www.puppygames.net/downloads/alienflux-full.jnlp

This one’s got a new eye centered viewpoint where your ship basically remains in the centre of the screen! (You can make it like it was in the Controls screen). This should stop anyone getting motion sickness finally. You can’t see as far or shoot as far but it’s better than barfing on the keyboard.

Extreme mode is a lot less mental now, and is the extreme mode it always should have been but I was too lazy to do right in the first place.

Cas :slight_smile:

#35

[quote]Another version of AF is out, 1.4i. This one works with Webstart now :slight_smile:
[/quote]
Quick question re: registration. What’s the policy on multiple users of the same computer? It seems (due to registry stuff) it only counts as registered when logged in as the user where I originally installed, but not as other users. All users are admins (this is on XP). Is this deliberate? Obviously, it’s a little annoying if you’re logged in as one person and need to “switch user”. Where some users are password protected, it’s even more annoying :(.

#36

Sounds good

Boring! :P. I haven’t tried the new version yet (so forgive and ignore me if this comment is not relevant), but I liked it being mental :). Didn’t like the apparently semi-random choice of enemies, so some games you got that evil homing red cube and died within seconds, and other times you were fine.

#37

Extreme mode was crazy!

On blahblahblahh’s registration point - maybe that explains why my copy “deregistered” itself mysteriously (I would have installed it as a different user that that I was using when it happened). I hope it’s no problem, I just entered the rego details again for the other user - seemed to work :slight_smile:

Will.

#38

My copy de-registered itself several times… sort of irritating really … I think it had to do with the startup folder changing depending on how it was launched. (I always used the WebStart version… but sometimes I launched from the shortcut it made, sometimes from the WebStart app, etc.

On Linux it has a few problems…

1 - if you leave it paused for too long you can’t un-pause and have to kill the task
2 - sounds cut out sometimes … first I lost the shooting sound - then most sounds seemed to go.
3 - my last game the screen just went black in the middle of playing - I hit Esc and it asked me if I wanted to quit (that dialog drew). After that all I could see was the yellow arrow cursor.

Maybe it’s just Linux… I’ve never found it to be very robust.

#39

[quote] 2 - sounds cut out sometimes … first I lost the shooting sound - then most sounds seemed to go.
[/quote]
Sounds like a case of ALSources not being reclaimed… as for the others - I have no clue

#40

hmm, if you are trying to sell AF as a value-for-money sale, you will have your work cut out :-/

You are being seriously undercut by the budget title ranges like Sold out, Best of, Xplosiv and Take Advantage.

In the UK, these generally retail between £3.33 and £10 for each title.

The games arn’t even that old either ???
Unreal, UT, Serious Sam 2, Giants, Severance:BoD, SoF:SE, Discworld Noir, McRae rally2, Risk2, ST:EliteForce, IL-2, KingPin, Xwing:Alliance, HL, HomeWorld, TA, Deus Ex, Civ3, the list goes on. :o