Conquest of Elysium 3 dev log

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

Even if it were $5 instead of $50 (and we pretended that was profit), do you think there would actually be 10x sales? And, would there be ten times as many content Dom players? I doubt it.

Fair enough, from replies it seems concensus [Edit: apparently "consensus", sigh] is that it would increase sales tenfold.

But the other bit of my post was that IMHO you would not get ten times as many happy Dom3 players. I just don't believe there are ten times as many people out there who would think Dom3 was great, or even playable. It's such niche audience.

[nordlys]

Originally Posted by JonBrave

But the other bit of my post was that IMHO you would not get ten times as many happy Dom3 players. I just don't believe there are ten times as many people out there who would think Dom3 was great, or even playable. It's such niche audience.

Keep in mind COE (judging by COE2) is much easier-to-get-into and more "casual" than Dominions. In fact, I have no problems imagining COE2 as a flash or a mobile game (actually, I think Illwinter could benefit a lot by considering the ios/android ports for some additional untapped market for COE3 - and no, before you ask, I don't have either platform and don't plan to get one ). So it does have a much wider potential market in my opinion than the ultra-hardcore and, dare I say, elitist Dominions.

[Gandalf Parker]

Im sure they will be asking. But Im not sure it will be taken. Even a few concessions just for profit would probably shoot it.

And there are pros and cons to building your player base off of small price sales. Dont you use those forums?

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

And there are pros and cons to building your player base off of small price sales. Dont you use those forums?

If you somehow are implying that people on the other forums are evil people who are bad for the community, well, I have to disagree, but even if they were, how on earth is that connected to low price sales? By me using the forums and arguing that low price is probably better solution financially?

I would like to point out that, for example, majority of the quality mods used by people are developed by people who do write to the other forums too. What you seem to be implying is that it's somehow a problem if the game has community very interested in developing quality content that probably desireability of the product and a community that also is very experienced and loves the game.

In any case to be on topic, more players means a more thriving community. More players means higher probability of getting talented people making content for the game. More players means more players for multiplayer. Though since CoE3 seems to be more single player orientated and if I don't recall wrong might not even have modding capability on release, a community matters considerably less.

Regardless, I do still stand behind my argument that lower price than that of Dominions 3 is probably financially better for Illwinter. I would also guess that it's probably better for the players too.

[Edi]

CoE3 is more SP oriented than Dom3 in that it can be played in SP against the AI and be a challenge, but it has MP also and I expect that would be where a lot of the action would be when it comes to communities.

[Gandalf Parker]

@elmokki What? Im also one of those other forum peoples. And yes most of the most popular mods come from other forums.

NO I was referring to the forums for some of those $5 and $10 games!
I feel there is a definite difference between Dom3 players and people who will only try a game because its cheap.

As far as those other forum communities (and the one you are apparently referring to) they are going to be very necessary since so far CoE3 is fleshing out to be primarily either solo play, or IRC blitz, much more than Dom3 is.

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

NO I was referring to the forums for some of those $5 and $10 games!
I feel there is a definite difference between Dom3 players and people who will only try a game because its cheap.

Well, regardless, price of the game doesn't correlate with the community alone. The type of the game does too. Dungeons of Dredmor for example has a very civilized and nicecommunity and the game costs like 5 euros.

Like I said, the more passionate players a game gets, the better it is for other players due to extra content and more multiplayer opponents (provided those things are possible).

[Admiral_Aorta]

Im sure they will be asking. But Im not sure it will be taken. Even a few concessions just for profit would probably shoot it.

Uh, Steam don't ask developers to alter their games and as long as your game works you can pretty much get it on steam. If Illwinter really want to get their game out to a wider audience then Steam is the best option.

Sales figures for Steam have not been released by Valve. However, Stardock, the previous owner of competing platform Impulse, estimated that, as of 2009, Steam had a 70% share of the digital distribution market for video games.[6] In early 2011, Forbes reported that Steam sales constituted 50 to 70% of the $4 billion market for downloaded PC games and that Steam offered game producers gross margins of 70% of purchase price, compared with 30% at retail.[68]

That's an exposure that you simply aren't going to get putting it for sale on 1 or 2 websites.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well the discussions of Steam wont happen here. Of course players who use steam would want it. More interesting are the discussions by developers. Particularly those on the Stardock forums after Stardock decided to start using Steam considering the background with Brad.

As for exposure, the distribute/publicity business model is pretty good for indie developers as it involves no debt of funds.

Personally I wouldnt be too bothered if it was off Shrapnel. That would mean that I can market it as I could not Dom3. I will be making my own recommendations to Illwinter. And I promise any suggestions made here will be brought to their attention also.

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

As for exposure, the distribute/publicity business model is pretty good for indie developers as it involves no debt of funds.

Well, recently there have been more successful models for indie development. They way minecraft did it for example. Or the way a lot of other indie developers do it, by interacting with all your fans. (Examples to numerous to count). Dungeons of dredmor for example had regular blog posts what they where doing.