I recently tried to inform a potential audience about the current 50% discount on steam but ended up having some sort of .. experience .. with some angry individuals on a popular platform and some drama developed - they started putting words in my mouth (I thought only clowns do so) so I eventually just went away. Anyway - there still were some questions raised which I would like to address but I will rather do it here, because it actually does not belong to where the drama started (and may just result in more drama). So here we go, I will basically copy/quote some of the things raised and try my best to answer - I pick them in no distinct order.
"Using the early access program to fund development is the biggest problem with this game."
Ok. But it's not doing that. I worked on Exipelago multiple years without any funding - or to be more explizit - fully self-funded. I never asked for funding and choosing Early Access was not because of funding but for Community-Integration and getting people interested in the game. This is clearly written on multiple places, so I wonder why someone comes up with such a generalisation. At the point of "release" - I released a bit in a hurry to catch a steam festival - the game was basically in a very playable state already. I went full focus to make it happen and I would only release it when it would already reassemble the game it was meant even tho with lack of content and UI - which was all added later. I've also stated from the start, that if you decide to get the EA version, you should do so because of what it currently IS and not what it may become, so it's simply wrong when people come here and try to tell that the EA was used to fund development. Untrue. And here I told you why.
It started out as a Village Builder / Simulation - a sandbox basically - it became more options, more content, a basic gameplay loop, a ton of mechanics and that's what it is. There is so many things that could still be added - but I wont do it without community, support and enough people to actually care about it, get enthusiastic about it. Didn't happen. I was hoping for it, but it didn't - and so the game stays what it is. Nothing to do with funding.
True is, that I use sales as well as wishlist entries and general community interaction as a metric to gauge how many people would actually be interested in adding more features to the game. This as well is mentioned on multiple places and there is a plentitude of options for people to request things or ask questions.
I simply find no enjoyment in adding a game noone is interested in and rather spend my time with making other games for which people actually show interest.
"brings nothing unique to the table"
I actually never claimed to bring something unique to the table. The person showed how other games had this or that feature also implemented .. all different games having one of those features .. so .. not sure how that compares .. would this person argue that every First Person Shooter is meaningless because Doom already had weapons and a First-Person View? I doubt it. Makes no sense. It's about expressions of ideas .. I could argue against everything the person mentioned .. but why? He is not interested anyway and that's ok.
What Exipelago is and do is clearly written in the Roadmap on this website. Everyone can make their own opinion about it. There is systems in there that were important for me but may not be important for others and that may be why persons like above tend to just ignore those things. It's not intended to please everyone. It never was.
I provide (and maintain) a Demo for everyone to play before making a decision - not sure if there is anything else I could do.
"Abandonware"
It's always a bit funny, when people use this term, especially on a project that was going on for years even after it was very clear that the actual followship is not what it would need to justify the amount of time that went into it. The game itself can even be considered to be finished in a way it was initially intended to be. I did my best to express it wherever possible and had a lot of things added post-release even without a big followship.
I could also just make it v1.0 and end Early Access - it wouldn't make a difference .. but why? Only for some persons to feel better who are not even interested in the games concept? Makes no sense. I rather listen to actuall players, so let me know what you think.
So, the question is, what do such people expect from a game developer? To dedicate their remaining life to a game because this single person had paid the equivalent of a pizza for it? That's not how things work. You're not getting a one-time-salary either from your employer and be expected to work for the rest of your life, do you? So why do expect it from others?
"Unfortunate that the developer didn’t use this discount opportunity to add some new features"
Well, I already did, it is even documented on this website. I just did not this time. But I made sure that everything is up to date and free of bugs. Readers of this website and especially the Project Recaps may know why.
"Even $10 seems steep for a game like this."
Everyone is free to decide this on their own. It's a complex game, it does a lot and if it's your cup of tea you will enjoy it. Let them decide. If it's not for you, it's not for you and "every" price would be too steep. For example, for me 10$ seems steep for a Hot Dog .. and yet .. some people are totally fine with it because they just like that Hot Dog. So I think we can agree that people all over the world value things differently
"the dev has said theres not enough purchases to continue developing"
I never said that. Maybe there is issues with reading, I don't know. It's clearly written on multiple places what's needed to continue adding features and why I am currently not adding new features.
"trying to shill sales for a product that will never be finished"
It's finished in the way it is. It's written on the steam page in the big dropout about Early Access Game. It's all there. So I guess again this is a reading issue. Not sure how I can make it even more prominent ..
"Contemplating buying it just to drop a negative review and refund it at this point"
Telling. 2 people actually bought the game and refunded it without ever opening it .. imagine being like this .. it's also the main reason I answer questions here, because I don't want to interact with people showing such an attitude or people who support or tolerate such toxic behaviour.
"The dev won't finish the game without donations"
The game is finished in the way it is - a Village Builder with Simulation Mechanic, Editors, Total Freedom, Workshop and Creative Mode. Stretch Goals where clearly anounced on this page. For those those to happen, general Interests is what counts, measured by wishlists, interaction or sales. No donations needed. Again. Reading Issue I suppose, it's everywhere.
"Are you suggesting people buy your game because you spent time making it?"
No, I am suggesting people buy the game because they are interested in its current state - as stated in multiple places, one wouldn't even need to guess.
"He thinks steam early access is some kind of Kickstarter where people buy the game hoping theres a chance it gets finished."
What I think is stated in multiple places .. .. you see, I would just repeat myself over and over.
Hopefully I was able to answer some of the questions or correct some of the false accusations and maybe it's also interesting for some to read what we solo developers have to go through sometimes. They think we are all rich but in reality most of us - especially with such niche projects - work for only cents per hour .. especially Exipelago because it was developed from ground up with multiple systems in mind - there is even a series about how the engine progressed years ago. What a ride tho.
Sometimes it makes you feel like you are the bad guy because you dare to make a game .. or anounce a discount .. on the other side, all this drama made the algorithm push the post up a lot so it gave a lot more traffic than expected, so more people have found interest in the game and hopefully enjoy it.
By the way - as you already read to the bottom of this text, why not also check out Robo Miner: Remastered? Lot's of great people over there, many nice reviews and as this is basically a remaster from a game I made in 2013 I received a lot of nice words from people who had this game as part of their childhood. That's the moment, where it's worth again, where you enjoy it making such things.
"Using the early access program to fund development is the biggest problem with this game."
Ok. But it's not doing that. I worked on Exipelago multiple years without any funding - or to be more explizit - fully self-funded. I never asked for funding and choosing Early Access was not because of funding but for Community-Integration and getting people interested in the game. This is clearly written on multiple places, so I wonder why someone comes up with such a generalisation. At the point of "release" - I released a bit in a hurry to catch a steam festival - the game was basically in a very playable state already. I went full focus to make it happen and I would only release it when it would already reassemble the game it was meant even tho with lack of content and UI - which was all added later. I've also stated from the start, that if you decide to get the EA version, you should do so because of what it currently IS and not what it may become, so it's simply wrong when people come here and try to tell that the EA was used to fund development. Untrue. And here I told you why.
It started out as a Village Builder / Simulation - a sandbox basically - it became more options, more content, a basic gameplay loop, a ton of mechanics and that's what it is. There is so many things that could still be added - but I wont do it without community, support and enough people to actually care about it, get enthusiastic about it. Didn't happen. I was hoping for it, but it didn't - and so the game stays what it is. Nothing to do with funding.
True is, that I use sales as well as wishlist entries and general community interaction as a metric to gauge how many people would actually be interested in adding more features to the game. This as well is mentioned on multiple places and there is a plentitude of options for people to request things or ask questions.
I simply find no enjoyment in adding a game noone is interested in and rather spend my time with making other games for which people actually show interest.
"brings nothing unique to the table"
I actually never claimed to bring something unique to the table. The person showed how other games had this or that feature also implemented .. all different games having one of those features .. so .. not sure how that compares .. would this person argue that every First Person Shooter is meaningless because Doom already had weapons and a First-Person View? I doubt it. Makes no sense. It's about expressions of ideas .. I could argue against everything the person mentioned .. but why? He is not interested anyway and that's ok.
What Exipelago is and do is clearly written in the Roadmap on this website. Everyone can make their own opinion about it. There is systems in there that were important for me but may not be important for others and that may be why persons like above tend to just ignore those things. It's not intended to please everyone. It never was.
I provide (and maintain) a Demo for everyone to play before making a decision - not sure if there is anything else I could do.
"Abandonware"
It's always a bit funny, when people use this term, especially on a project that was going on for years even after it was very clear that the actual followship is not what it would need to justify the amount of time that went into it. The game itself can even be considered to be finished in a way it was initially intended to be. I did my best to express it wherever possible and had a lot of things added post-release even without a big followship.
I could also just make it v1.0 and end Early Access - it wouldn't make a difference .. but why? Only for some persons to feel better who are not even interested in the games concept? Makes no sense. I rather listen to actuall players, so let me know what you think.
So, the question is, what do such people expect from a game developer? To dedicate their remaining life to a game because this single person had paid the equivalent of a pizza for it? That's not how things work. You're not getting a one-time-salary either from your employer and be expected to work for the rest of your life, do you? So why do expect it from others?
"Unfortunate that the developer didn’t use this discount opportunity to add some new features"
Well, I already did, it is even documented on this website. I just did not this time. But I made sure that everything is up to date and free of bugs. Readers of this website and especially the Project Recaps may know why.
"Even $10 seems steep for a game like this."
Everyone is free to decide this on their own. It's a complex game, it does a lot and if it's your cup of tea you will enjoy it. Let them decide. If it's not for you, it's not for you and "every" price would be too steep. For example, for me 10$ seems steep for a Hot Dog .. and yet .. some people are totally fine with it because they just like that Hot Dog. So I think we can agree that people all over the world value things differently
"the dev has said theres not enough purchases to continue developing"
I never said that. Maybe there is issues with reading, I don't know. It's clearly written on multiple places what's needed to continue adding features and why I am currently not adding new features.
"trying to shill sales for a product that will never be finished"
It's finished in the way it is. It's written on the steam page in the big dropout about Early Access Game. It's all there. So I guess again this is a reading issue. Not sure how I can make it even more prominent ..
"Contemplating buying it just to drop a negative review and refund it at this point"
Telling. 2 people actually bought the game and refunded it without ever opening it .. imagine being like this .. it's also the main reason I answer questions here, because I don't want to interact with people showing such an attitude or people who support or tolerate such toxic behaviour.
"The dev won't finish the game without donations"
The game is finished in the way it is - a Village Builder with Simulation Mechanic, Editors, Total Freedom, Workshop and Creative Mode. Stretch Goals where clearly anounced on this page. For those those to happen, general Interests is what counts, measured by wishlists, interaction or sales. No donations needed. Again. Reading Issue I suppose, it's everywhere.
"Are you suggesting people buy your game because you spent time making it?"
No, I am suggesting people buy the game because they are interested in its current state - as stated in multiple places, one wouldn't even need to guess.
"He thinks steam early access is some kind of Kickstarter where people buy the game hoping theres a chance it gets finished."
What I think is stated in multiple places .. .. you see, I would just repeat myself over and over.
Hopefully I was able to answer some of the questions or correct some of the false accusations and maybe it's also interesting for some to read what we solo developers have to go through sometimes. They think we are all rich but in reality most of us - especially with such niche projects - work for only cents per hour .. especially Exipelago because it was developed from ground up with multiple systems in mind - there is even a series about how the engine progressed years ago. What a ride tho.
Sometimes it makes you feel like you are the bad guy because you dare to make a game .. or anounce a discount .. on the other side, all this drama made the algorithm push the post up a lot so it gave a lot more traffic than expected, so more people have found interest in the game and hopefully enjoy it.
By the way - as you already read to the bottom of this text, why not also check out Robo Miner: Remastered? Lot's of great people over there, many nice reviews and as this is basically a remaster from a game I made in 2013 I received a lot of nice words from people who had this game as part of their childhood. That's the moment, where it's worth again, where you enjoy it making such things.
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