Community?

[Steven_]

w00t!

[Remco]

Now for another two months of complete silence.

[Robert]

Now for another two months of complete silence.

Last time I checked in the Steam Greenlight rankings we were standing #8! A few hours later my phone vibrated, checked my mail and saw that we have been Greenlit by Valve! Exciting stuff!

Now that we have been Greenlit we can move all the files to Steam and start working on some additional features. We need to add Steam achievements, trading cards, fix some stuff and make sure everything is ready for the launch! (Create the store page, community hub, pricing, marketing planning etc.)

We will also have a few blog posts planned (our old intern, Bram is going to make one!) and a few other things (like a developer video) before the game releases in September! Of course we will also continue to talk to you guys on the forums!

[USSGreatePier]

Now for another two months of complete silence.

Whaha, don't you dare

I'm heading back to Fryslân this weekend for a birthday, don't make me detour to Ljouwert to kick your arse

We will also have a few blog posts planned (our old intern, Bram is going to make one!) and a few other things (like a developer video) before the game releases in September! Of course we will also continue to talk to you guys on the forums!

That's better, you're making friends

[Remco]

We're thinking about doing a developer video where we take footage from mission 3 (the night-scene in the demo) and use it to explain more about the gameplay and what you do in CotD.

Couple of questions for you:

#1 - Did you feel that the information we put on the Greenlight page properly reflected what you saw in the demo?
#2 - Do you think people might interpret the video and screenshots of the game for something it isn't based on the demo?
#3 - Based on what you've played so far, what do you think is a fair price for the game (without any extras)?

[USSGreatePier]

#1 - Sure. The description of what instigated the whole thing is kinda short, but it covers the basics, sort of what was shown in the demo. Just depends on how much you want to 'spoil' about what's to come in your descriptions.

#2 - Nope.

#3 - I honestly have no idea of pricing on Steam, but I saw these non-definitive prices mentioned on the Steam discussion:
Standard - $8.99 (~€8,10) / Deluxe Edition -$10.99 (~€9,91)

I was kind of stunned by the low prices. Not that I want to push the prices up or anything, but for some reason I expected a higher price. Also, it seems that the difference between Standard and Deluxe is very little; just $2 (~€1,80). Me being useless as ever, I wouldn't know what kind of a price to suggest due to a lack of Steam-knowledge and me, well... usually getting games for ehm, 'less than usual'

[Remco]

Thanks for your answers, in case any one else reads: please reply as well!

As for the price, keep in mind that USD translates directly to EUR (so $8.99 becomes €9.99). In the end, we get paid in USD, which we have to transfer back to euroland again. Sigh.

So we're not set on the price yet, but there are a couple of things that we're keeping in mind:

#1 - The game is between 4 - 6 hours long on a first play through.
#2 - There is gold to collect and upgrades to unlock, but there isn't a completely different way to play the game.
#3 - We really need to appeal to the largest possible audience.
#4 - Similar games are prices between $6.99 and $9.99.

Our current thought is; We should offer a base version at a great price. Anybody who just wants the game can pick that up and have a great time. Then we want to have a Deluxe version that has a bunch of extras at not too high of a premium. This is for players who like the backstory to a game and a project and are willing to spend just a bit extra for that. For us it's making use of all the information and material we've gathered and built over the years, so it's also a great way to show off the project.

We're considering the following content for the Deluxe package:

#1 - Soundtrack (pretty obvious, but Stefan's work is great so no-brainer for us).
#2 - Art book (tons of designs, sketches, models, anything worth looking at).
#3 - Papercraft Pier (you've seen it, just a bit of fun).
#4 - Visual Timeline (to show what the project went through, think kind of line an infographic of the entire thing).

And then we have some "maybe" additions that we're not sure of at this stage.

#1 - Prototypes (Initial prototype, Kickstarter, Protocannon, GDC '13, Game Academy - Worth looking at only for enthousiasts).
#2 - Book (We would love to include an English version of the book in PDF, might not work out cost-wise).

Feel free to respond to the contents of the Deluxe edition as well. Worth it?

[Steven_]

#1 - Yes.
#2 - Nope
#3 - 'The game is between 4 - 6 hours long on a first play through'. Hmm that is not very long for an action adventure game. I would say around 8-9 dollars max then. Or maybe you should consider episodic content :p
I don't know if you have any plans/thoughts for CotD in the future (considering the enthusiasm that the game has received on Steam), but if you do, your current thought of 'offering a base version at a great price' would be a good one because you can get a bigger 'fan base' that are potential customers for future releases. Or am I being the mean marketing guy here?

[USSGreatePier]

Or maybe you should consider episodic content :p

Funny, I thought of that yesterday and planned on mentioning that on the forum... At one point, if I'm not much mistaking, there were some plans (or whisps of fleeting ideas) to release the game chopped up into several different episodes. Is this still the case or is the complete story crammed into this one 4 to 6 hour game? There was also mention of stuff happening on boats; has that been budgeted out of the game or would the answer spoil too much?

Just some random questions to keep the forum going

[Remco]

This release could be considered as Act 1 of 3. We would love to make part 2 and 3 as well, but that will depend on how well the game does financially. Would have loved to tell the entire story of Pier in one game, but I'm still satisfied with what we've put in this game in terms of content.

[USSGreatePier]

We would love to make part 2 and 3 as well, but that will depend on how well the game does financially.

Personally I was amazed at the response on Steam... So, let's hope it's the same when the game is released

[USSGreatePier]

Pretty sweet store page on Steam

But, I wouldn't be my pedantic self if I didn't point out some typo's on the achievement page

Unless some clever pun was intended, "Oant moan" is missing one letter.
And "we might change a numbers" has one too many

[Remco]

Paging Robert. Thanks for spellchecking

Next week we'll have a guest making a blogpost for us, something to look forward to!

[Robert]

Pretty sweet store page on Steam

But, I wouldn't be my pedantic self if I didn't point out some typo's on the achievement page

Unless some clever pun was intended, "Oant moan" is missing one letter.
And "we might change a numbers" has one too many

Thanks! I have adjusted everything on the page.