Dominions II - Low Budget and Overpriced? I think not.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by olaf73:
I'd wager that if the game was $10-15 cheaper, had good comprehensive docs and in game tutorial it would sell twice as many copies.

olaf

Honestly, I don't think so. At $35, it would still be more expensive than some new games, so wouldn't be perceived as "not a big deal"; and the target audience (people who like complex, rich games with more emphasis on content than state-of-the-art look) probably isn't so much looking at the price tag.

It might sell a few more copies, but I'm confident the total sales volume would be less; since producing copies isn't free, that would mean even less profit (or even a loss) for Shrapnel.

[UNIVAC]

I agree with Darkstar

[Gandalf Parker]

Well it was cheaper (at least Dom1 was). I dont think UI and tutorial would be enough difference to reflect the sales differences.

Dom2 went with a publisher, which means it goes with publisher pricing.

Maybe if Dom2 sells enough we will see the things you want with Dom3. Hmmm no that one may go to shelf-ware which means it will go with shelf-ware pricing.

[onomastikon]

Well I just ordered the game, but it took a while to make the decision because of the price, but mostly because of the price *for what you are getting*. I know nothing of its budget, but one can certainly tell that it is a "cheap" game (or appears to be so) in at least this sense: (it appears that) all design work went into game balance, none went into sound, graphics, interface, support or manual. The designers get credos for intelligence and creativity, but nothing for investment, or "dedication" (in a sense I will mention in a moment).
Balance can be done by smart gamers testing, the rest requires artists, programmers, voice editors, speakers, modelers, etc.

The graphics are abominable. Together with the sound (which I must turn off, especially if I ever "view battle" (I cannot stand the Commodore 64 squeak of serpents in battle)), this makes the excellent gameplay much less enjoyable. This also gives the impression that the team had little "dedication" to its target group. By dedication, consider games where (it appears that) a lot of "love" has gone into the game. Think of Deus Ex I (the attention to detail) or Warcraft III (the cute voices, excellent graphics, extreme customer support (battle.net).) The designers obviously love the concept, but it appears they did not want to invest in a finished product for a larger target group. And that is why the price seems so high.

So for the price, Dominions II *appears* to be either very low-budgeted or shoddy.

Don't get me wrong: it is a good game and well thought-out, but I would not have released it for this price. I purchased it because I am an idealist, but I bet most people arent.

[ January 09, 2004, 06:59: Message edited by: onomastikon ]

[PvK]

Deus Ex? Warcraft? Those games had art budgets measured in hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars! The people who did the art were professional game artists. None of the folks at Illwinter are professional game artists, nor did they have a megacorporate (or perhaps any) budget.

PvK

[liga]

I think taht the problem is that for making good the details (graphics, sounds, interface, ...) yuou really need a team of programmer ... Blizzard has a huge team of people working on each game (they are looking for sculptist to realize the models of the units in the game! ... understand what it means?) ...

Little company needs to focus on the main things of a game (idea, mechanics, AI) and obviusly they lack in graphics and sounds aand similar ...

I think that to reduce the price is possible if you change not the nubber of copies you sold but the order of magnitude of the copy sold ...

So what I pretend by a game of little company is just that is funny, work good, playable and have a minum level of graphics (that was the reason why I never been able to play dom1) ... about the price I want is it not more than othe games ... of course in the moment the game start to sell well probably the designer could start to have enough money to conider making game a job and could try to hire someone to have a better graphic and music in the next realese ...

good play
Liga

[Leif_-]

I'd just like to point out that in other areas of the entertainment industry, there's no correlation between budget and the final price of a product. You pay as much for a DVD of Evil Dead or El Mariachi as for Waterworld or ID4. Why should computer games be any different?