Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log

[Edi]

I see a lot of praise for Steam. Personally, I detest that particular model of distribution for one simple reason: If I buy a game, I should be able to run it without needing a massive system resource hog third party application on my machine, which additionally requires registration and all that sort of thing.

There are other distribution channels even online which don't have such onerous handicaps associated with them, the most famous probably being Good Old Games. Sure, they require registration, but you don't need a massive software infrastructure associated with it.

However, as Gandalf said, the publishing discussion won't be happening here.

[Thilock_Dominus]

That's one of the reason I suggest Desura (the other reason is it's also available for Linux). With Desura you don't need Desura client to run the game you purchased.

[elmokki]

Steam DOES NOT require you to have your game use it in any way for non-Steam distribution. Steamworks API is rather simple and you should very easily be able to make the Steam version for Steam and a non-Steam version for whatever other ways you distribute it with. Of course it is extra work, but seeing Steam's market share it's financially probably easily worth it in nearly all cases.

There are many games that can be bought from Steam or can be bought from elsewhere and played without Steam.

[Soyweiser]

I think steam even supports different pricing schemes. So you can put a game on steam for 5 bucks, and sell it at your personal website for 10.

[Corinthian]

Well, If we look at other indy game makers like say, Fractal Games; They probably had immense benefit from selling their games on steam.

The first games they made were the Penumbra series witch was sold as boxed copies and (probably) as digital copies from their homepage. (They are now) It was published by Paradox Games.

There are no numbers what I can find of how many copies they sold of Penumbra + expansions, but when they were making their new game, Amnesia, they expected to sell some 20-40k copies.

Amnesia was a similar game and should have sold a similar number of units. But they did things different this time around. They put Amnesia up for sale on Steam. And well, in the first year Amnesia sold 400K copies!

Although probably not all of those extra sales are due to steam. Well, it still paint a pretty convincing picture.

Amnesia was priced to 15 euros/dollars but 75% of the copies were sold during sales so the price was marked down. It was still worth it in their opinion because the sales generated 50% of their revenue.

Eh, you people can read more about it here: http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/...l#comment-form

[Gandalf Parker]

Bringing up the same information over and over isnt likely to change anything.
The fact that Steam (or something like it) could sell more games to more casual users has been mentioned many times already.
Its recorded and acknowledged. Lets move on

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Bringing up the same information over and over isnt likely to change anything.
The fact that Steam (or something like it) could sell more games to more casual users has been mentioned many times already.
Its recorded and acknowledged. Lets move on

I'm not trying to change anything. Past experiences have made it pretty clear that it is futile trying to argue here. Just pointing out misinformation. Like Elmokki did.

[Jack_Trowell]

I'm just posting to signal a small error in the progress page: the dates goes from 30th December 2011 to 1st December 2011, looks like the month and year have not been updated in the changelog.

Oh, and happy new year eveyone ! ^_^

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Jack_Trowell

I'm just posting to signal a small error in the progress page: the dates goes from 30th December 2011 to 1st December 2011, looks like the month and year have not been updated in the changelog.

Oh, and happy new year eveyone ! ^_^

Reported and Repaired.
Good catch.

Or if I had editing powers I could do it like they do in the beta forum. Turn your original post to green text (meaning its fixed). Or purple text (meaning WAD Working As Designed)

[Edi]

What misinformation?

Distribution channels were discussed and the Steam vs Shrapnel model has been discussed many times with regard to Dominions 3 and it is absolutely irrelevant to this discussion.

Of the online options I've tried, Steam is the one I detest the most due to the extra requirements (other software), so I would not personally prefer that, but that's basically the extent of what has been said against it. Availability also on channels outside Steam at the same time is a different issue. Given such options, I would choose a non-Steam option while someone else could go for the Steam version.

Steam or other such online distribution mechanisms are possible for CoE3 or it could be something more traditional, but the point of fact is that that decision is going to be made by Illwinter and nobody else and they have as yet said NOTHING.

The pricing of CoE3 has not been discussed at all, except by the non-beta testers who brought it up. And that's another issue where there is NO information whatsoever to be had, since it is another thing which is going to be up to Illwinter and whichever distributor they ultimately choose.

Now can we please bury this particular tangent, or would someone else like to flog that particular equine corpse some more?