Posts by zaphod

  • More TF2 griefing

    I think it's creative and funny and entertaining. Running into these guys in a sever would be hilarious and if I really wanted to play a serious game, there are plenty of other servers to jump on. It's the responsibility of game designers, server admins and the players utilizing the votekick feature to keep out unwanted behavior, not the Steam admins. Part of what I really like about TF2, (and all multiplayer games in general) is all the different game mechanics and how players find ways to create their own gameplay.

  • Interesting article about pitching games

    important to keep in mind: (and reminds me of this thread viewtopic.php?f=23&t=10153 )

    Quote

    "When you're internal, you definitely have to pick your battles," Jaffe said, "and ask, 'Is this something I want to give over to [my publisher]?' Because if they do shoot it down and you don't get to make it, the contracts that you sign when you become an employee of a publisher say that even though they don't make it, they own it. There are probably four or five ideas I pitched to Sony over my 13-year career that I'd love to have back and make on my own now that we're independent, but it doesn't work that way. Those are Sony properties now."

    and the last part:

    Quote

    "It's important not to paint this story like there are these gatekeepers to your idea and if these eight guys or women say no, you're f*****," Jaffe said. "The great thing about video games is that there are all of these great success stories of independent games and developers going off and doing it on their own as a mod, or doing a demo and getting funding. While this is certainly the easiest way to get your game made, it's not the only game in town. And with a lot of independent financing that's beginning to crop up in games, I don't see that as being as important as it once was. It's not easy, but options to get your game made are getting easier."

  • go-kart model

    Some other cool news, I just got some initial character concepts from Edwin Rhemrev who is going to be helping us out with some concept work. He is very excited about the project and we are excited to be working with him, I'm sure his work will help focus and evolve the flavor of the game.

  • go-kart model

    eventually you will be inside your "garage" doing all this and there will be a lot more polish. I'm not handing it in for grading yet This is just the most basic first implementation of it being able to swap out models / change colors.

  • go-kart model

    I'm doing it all for the benjamins. Or hopefully enough income to keep working on this game / other indie games full time.

    We were crunching late last night to try and get one last little element of that menu fixed so we could post a video of it working in game. We almost have the menu swapping out and tweaking the colors of all the assets we have made so far. Hopefully we can fix it otherwise we will probably post a video of it slightly broken. Part of the problem is that for some reason my partner is trying to get me to learn and write and hack all the javascript for the menus which usually just results in him having to figure out where I broke stuff. Him: "you forgot to put and ending parenthesis here". Me: "you mean one of those bendy things?"

  • Aquaria: best indie game ever????evr.

    good point taylor

    so far the elements I have seen mentioned in conjunction with percieved value are:


    • [*:2a98r6vj]screen size
      [*:2a98r6vj]level of technology (state of the art)
      [*:2a98r6vj]complexity (# of features)
      [*:2a98r6vj]hours of gameplay
      [*:2a98r6vj]art style
      [*:2a98r6vj]similar games in the same price bracket
      [*:2a98r6vj]story elements
      [*:2a98r6vj]amount of content

  • Aquaria: best indie game ever????evr.

    then do you think that perceived value tends to vary more between hardcore and non-hardcore gamers? I would assume that popcap picks a 20 dollar pricing because either more people will pay that, or enough people pay it that it makes more money than if even more people bought it at 10 dollars.

    I do think that pricing your game too low can be very harmful in the fact of saying "this is how valuable my game is." If you price it about the same as the cost of a lunch, does that give off the impression that you are going to enjoy it about as much as one good meal and for as long? There is a lot of psychology involved in product pricing wherein many times LESS people will buy your game if it is very cheap, because it lowers their expectations before they even buy it.

  • Aquaria: best indie game ever????evr.

    what other features / elements would justify a $30 price in your opinion?

    games like Zuma, Chuzzle and Peggle normally sell at $20. Do you think Aquaria is less, more, or about the same value than any of those 3 games ?

    not saying you should think one way or the other, I am honestly curious what you (or others) think. What elements make a game valuable to you?

  • Aquaria: best indie game ever????evr.

    Interestingly, hours of entertainment provided has little to do with perceived value for many people. I know many people that buy many full price games and only get about 4-6 hours of play out of them before they go on the shelf. But they perceive more value in that small amount of time. I suspect it has a lot to do with the notion of consuming things that are popular and prominent in the marketplace. For example, my roomate has a giant collection of games, 90% of which he has only played once or twice. The value he gets out of it is in having "his collection" of games. He will also constantly crawl gamespot and buy many of the popular games when they come out. He seems to get a lot of value out of simply buying and consuming these releases even if it is only for a short period of time.