Illwinter's next project

[Stagger Lee]

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

I am sure a lot of effort went into the price, marketing and distribution of Dominions, but the business guy in me thinks the price was too high, the marketing not enough (not in money spent, but avenue), and the distribution dated.

I think it could have made more money on Steam/Impulse/GOG by cutting out Shrapnel, charging $19.99 and including the owner's manual in PDF. As far as marketing goes, the game is niche and most of the sites have built in marketing via "search for games like this one" or being able to list by genre. Once game started getting 5 stars or the equivalent, it could have been a huge indy money maker.

P.S. I know they have said in the past that they did the numbers and they felt it would have been less profitable; I still disagree.

+1

I have looked for turn based strategy games since the glory days of MOO & MOM. I haven't played them all, but I generally find the good ones (HOMM up to 3, Disciples up to 2, GalCiv, Alpha Centauri & the Civs, a few others), and the bad (all too many). I found this game because an old genesis game that I loved, Master of Monsters (my other MOM), had been through a truly epic fail of a sequel, and every now and then I look for news about that game to see if a decent remake will ever be made. In all of my gaming experience, that was the only place I had ever seen the word "Firbolg". I always assumed it was a misspelling of some obscure legend (there were plenty in that game), so about two years ago I googled firbolg and found the celtic mythologies connected to the word. And something curious. A turn based strategy game with firbolgs! I lurked, dl'd the demo, and am now an upstanding member of the community.

What I'm saying is, I have no idea how I would have found this game otherwise.

[Gandalf Parker]

There is no marketing. Marketing involves money laid out ahead of the game. That has to be paid back before the devs see any profit. Same with shelfware, or other distribs. That is not the Shrapnel way (started by a dev for devs). There is no major contract, development pay, marketing, shelfware to have to pay back. Here its publicity and distro, not the marketing and shelfware model.

The publicity does pretty good. There isnt a game site that doesnt list Dom3 and the press releases show up instantly on the net. Pretty good for free. And people do hear about it that way. Standard marketing would be laughed at unless (like is forced in other game companies) it went 3D and major sound bytes. Sure more money could be made if the big-buis game was played but no one is interested in it

And the download is regretted enough without going steam too. Too expensive to maintain

[Deathblob]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

There is no marketing.

Well what are all those "I want my Dominions 3" ads, then?

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Deathblob

Well what are all those "I want my Dominions 3" ads, then?

Customer testimonies.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Deathblob

Well what are all those "I want my Dominions 3" ads, then?

You will see those in other places also. (anywhere that they are free)

[JonBrave]

Originally Posted by Deathblob

Well what are all those "I want my Dominions 3" ads, then?

Where's the one gone with the babe? Was she a genuine potential purchaser? Trade Descriptions Act, you know...

[JepSan]

I'm really thrilled to hear about this. I've been playing a lot of Dom3 until about a year ago. Best game I ever layed my hands on. Now I just dropped by to check if anything new and exiting was coming up from the IW team. And behold... CoE III!

I'd love to pre-order, pre-purchase, download a beta version or whatever - anything really. So - when can we pursuade you guys to accept our money?

[brxbrx]

A Steam sale can do wonders for a game's popularity.

People think "Why not? Sounds somewhat interesting, and it's very affordable. Why miss the opportunity?"
That's certainly influenced some of my purchases, the only such one I regret being Settlers 7.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes it could.
But its too much overhead to maintain steam. Its almost too much overhead to maintain direct download. Thats why most places only choose one form or another

[Finalgenesis]

I've always assume that low game exposure is intentional, maybe in the vein of staying off the beaten path and the like. The game really is HARD to find out about, I can guarantee that the exposure of dom 3 to it's potential customer base is very low.