A note in response to the recent posting on steam sales

gaius214 · 2014-01-17 11:27:05

I found this game after reading a news blurb on Kotaku this morning.

After some thought and a bit of a look at The Castle Doctrine & forums here I came to two conclusions:

1) The developer in question is mostly right. I'm one of those people that almost always waits until a game reaches one of two "tipping points" before I buy it on steam. Under $10 bucks or 50%+ percent off. I've come to realize that I'm missing out on some great opportunities to build a connection with a game and its fellow players. By waiting in some cases years before playing the game means that invariably the player base has thinned to low level and that the experience I get by waiting nearly that of other players who purchased at or near release is different and often poorer. With the multiplayer aspects of the game having the most pronounced differences on gameplay.

2) The pricing model proposed and implemented should be utilized more often with a couple of caveats.
A) That as customers we need to weigh the product in question against the chances of uncompleted/poorly produced end product. This issue is non-existent with steam games on "super sale" as there is almost always a wealth of reviews/consumer data on games that are sale (and thus as consumers we know what we are getting into).

B) Getting information out on the game early and in wide release is critical to both consumers and the developers. Without information the consumer won't be able to become an early adopter and take advantage of the early low pricing this pricing model offers

C) Access to a pricing "roadmap" on any particular offering. As illustrated with this product the developer has stated exactly how much the product will cost at each step along the way. So, we as consumers can make an informed choice on where we want to purchase the product in it's cycle (In the Castle doctrine's case waiting until beta and paying $4 more, waiting until post release for another $8). Developers who don't clearly communicate when and how the price will chance will more or less eliminate any value to this pricing model.

In conclusion a couple things: I purchased the game a few minutes ago and I'm not sure it's my kind of game. However, I came to the conclusion that buying this game for $8 is a reasonable risk especially as I get to support a developer taking chances and in the end makes this purchase a good bargain.

I hope the game is entertaining and we see more developers try the pricing model.

DethBringa · 2014-01-17 13:37:52

I have to put my 2 cents worth in here as I am a under $10 or 75% off buyer. If a game is more than that then generally I grab a pirate copy and play it and see if it really is worth that extra cash. However with The Castle Doctrine being under that threshold it made the choice for me of buy and see. No need to find a pirate copy to test it out. When you think about it if games were $10ea and you sold say 1 million copies of the game that's 10 million. How is that NOT enough?

As for new game designers starting off on their first game with no real rep the dollars do roll in slow to start with. If the game is good it snowballs. By having a cheaper early access they can get the ball rolling a bit faster.
I can see that snowballing happening here. Sales will start slow but as more and more people hear about it the sales will start coming faster and faster.

I agree with your conclusion completely. However I have been burned badly with awesome alpha games being ruined when hitting beta or beta games being ruined by final release. Its a real shame to see that happen and with so many games taking that path it makes myself and my friends a lot more hesitant when buying early access games. This leads back to the safe option of piracy until release but then if the price will be higher at release than early access its a gamble. Once bitten twice shy. It really is unfair that so many of these games affect other dev's but it cant be helped. Too many dev's cave in and destroy their own creation in the name of popularity. Make the masses happy and cash in big time seems to win more often than a game dev sticking to their guns and saying ...well this is what I originally designed and I'm sticking to it.

*As an after note*
If there was a pirate version I would still have brought this game. If anyone thinking about buying this game reads this... GIVE IT A SHOT! Its only cheap and WELL worth the $.

Last edited by DethBringa (2014-01-17 17:20:59)

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-17 18:22:36

The game is open source and in the public domain! The full source code is out there on SourceForge, in plain public view.

So... the notion of a "pirate copy" is a strange one, because the game is free for everyone to "get" if they want to.

HOWEVER....

What you are paying for is a lifetime account on my server. There's no way to "pirate" that. Yes, you can run your own server with your friends (and several people have). But you can't partake in the main game without paying.

It's kinda like trying to "pirate" World of Warcraft or something. Granted, I'm using a different model (you don't pay monthly), but it's still a service that I'm selling here.

gaius214 · 2014-01-17 19:28:40

In any case looks to be worth 16 bucks...and 8 for sure.....course you can never go wrong with Pirates...YARRRRR!

I look forward to playing your game.

As a non-tech guy...what you said was surprising....However you have to have your reason and it still must be worthwhile.

DethBringa · 2014-01-17 20:12:27

Didn't know that it was open source. Well I understand that completely now and I could have got the free version and played with friends only, but with the play value on this game and the work you are putting in, I feel you are definitely entitled to my $.
I think a better game analogy would have been diablo3 instead of WoW tho. Priv servers are available if you get a pirate version.
I may have to look up the open source for my mates that dont have spare $. I can host a server and chomp them with my house that will BRING DETH!

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-20 09:12:47

The other cool thing about running your own server is you can tweak all the parameters, like prices and chill timers and bounties. Oh, and starting money! You could make a "pauper's server" where everyone starts with $100. Or you could make a server where everyone starts with $100,000 and goes nuts.

You can also mod stuff if you're running your own server. It's pretty easy to re-define how the objects and tools work without coding (see the gameElements folder). You'll need to rebuild the signatures for all of that stuff after you change it (which requires switching something in the code and recompiling).

Also, please don't share your download link with friends, because that chews my bandwidth (and if you did that, they'd have your DL code and be able to log in as you on the main server). I'm tracking how many downloads happen for each account, and I turn off any that seem to have "escaped" in to the wild.

You can pass them the binaries or source bundle directly, though, or post/host it yourself somewhere.

Heck, you can even make your own PAID server (the ticketServer code is included, which would let you set up your own FastSpring to sell accounts). Or bill monthly or whatever. If you get a really cool server going with an interesting mod, I might buy an account myself to check it out! :-)

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-01-17 11:27:05

A note in response to the recent posting on steam sales

#2 2014-01-17 13:37:52

Re: A note in response to the recent posting on steam sales

#3 2014-01-17 18:22:36

Re: A note in response to the recent posting on steam sales

#4 2014-01-17 19:28:40

Re: A note in response to the recent posting on steam sales

#5 2014-01-17 20:12:27

Re: A note in response to the recent posting on steam sales

#6 2014-01-20 09:12:47

Re: A note in response to the recent posting on steam sales

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