What makes this game worth $40 more than any other roguelike?

[garion333]

There's an interesting question here (and forgive me for playing devil's advocate a bit):

Why are commercial roguelikes so cheap, comparatively?

There are plenty of rogue-like-likes (or procedural death labyrinths) and they're all around the $10-$20 range. Why is that?

That's an incredibly complex question and one that probably has no answer. Steam and bundles are clearly a huge part of that discussion, as is the fact that roguelikes have been free for the most part. Why?

That said, the question Daka had is: Why is Approaching Infinity $40 while something like Tome is $7?

And I don't think you answered that directly, Bob. Or at least your answers weren't quite what he wanted to hear.

Does any other genre of pc game have a built in price limit? RTS, FPS, 4X ?
Why then should roguelikes, the genre that we love so much, whose core principles are argued over heatedly from fierce believers on every side?
Why a built in price limit?

Because the market shows that people generally aren't willing to pay $40 when they can play many other roguelikes for nothing or next to nothing.

One key design principle is "ease of use". That does not mean it's an easy game, it means that you can learn to play it in 10 minutes. There are not 75 different esoteric commands.

And I'm more than happy to pay for that. Believe me. But I backed on KS and got a $40 game for a lot less than that, so I don't know how I would feel about forking over $40.

Shrapnel plays the long tail game. They expect a modest amount of sales that continue over the long term. I can see that happening here, but I can also see the flip side of the coin. You went and made a roguelike and priced it at $40. This topic is something I fully expected to come up and I'm sure you did too, especially after effectively pricing the game at $10 on the Kickstarter.

It's super interesting to me because Matrix has finally begun to give in and put their games on Steam, joining in on the merry little holiday sales extravaganzas. Has that worked for them? Has it brought on the support nightmares they were trying to avoid? Don't know.