Hi Michael. I think the answer to meany of your points comes down to 2 related things, money and scale. Most of the mainstream games you listed are sold in there hundreds of thousands of copies. This level of sales enables money to be spent on infrastructure like data centres, support staff and teams of developers and designers. Those of us who develop audio only games tend to work on our own and with very little budget. As an example the game I have released, Park Boss, took about 300 hours to get it to a release point. That's about 2 man months. It's been downloaded 1300 times. It's free but let's make up some numbers. If I had charged about £15.00 for it and let's say 500 people baught it that makes £7500. The mainstream game companies have development budgets in the millions which gives the sort of flexibility to develop these huge game worlds. Just some thoughts. Nick.
> On 16 Dec 2014, at 12:35, Michael Gauler <michael.gau...@gmx.de> wrote: > > Hi Thomas, > I agree with you that a lot of mobile games are either accessible or can be > made accessible in a short amound of time, once the basic apps are nearly > completed on such platforms. > > However, what I didn't get was why many of the long time developers of PC > audio games had to leave. > I mean, it is one thing to actively develop new games and release them. > But if you have an automated online shop and an automated system to handle > sending out registration keys, then I don't get why Liam stopped selling the > two older titles or why BSC Games stopped selling their old titles. > And if they thought that they really would want to go, they could surely have > handled that exit better, since not everyone bought their final package which > contained all their games plus the official key generator. > But I think that people who already owned one or more of their games wouldn't > want to buy them again and thus were unable to get new keys the moment they > had to switch computers or reinstall. > I can tell you how I approached that situation. > I bought that final package with the unlock tool but only because I had > enough money at that time and because I had not bought any of their games > before. > I knew of them and I played the demos and their free games before. > But I didn't waste my money because I have the entire package now and I > didn't buy anything before that. > If I had, I wouldn't have bought that package because that would have been > paying for some games twice. > > And I don't want to attack the developers we currently have for PC games. > But many of them are permanently in a "simple" game sector like making > accessible board or card games. > Others make browser and thus online games. > And some more are not yet experienced enough to do some complex games. > And sadly, when I look at what is out there in mainstream games right now, I > really think that it is a bit sad that so many of our games are so extremely > small compared to mainstream titles. > I don't know how large the world of Paladin of the Sky or Entombed might be > as a whole but I am sure that any major RPG title like Elder Scrolls 5, Final > Fantasy 13 or even World of Warcraft have a game world the sice of a bigger > country of the real earth at least. > > I also don't get why many audio games don't offer expansions or DLC packages > (free or paid downloadable content) once it is released. > And many games allow you to make your own extensions. > I had hoped that Draconis for example would have released more addons to ESP > Pinball Extreme, but up to this point, there is no information for that game. > I also wondered why there was not an option to make your own Pinball tables > for example. > And if the Entombed Dungeon Creator would have been released, then we might > have seen some user created addons for that game... > > And finally, many current mainstream games either include the soundtrack or > you can buy it optionally as a regular CD like with movie soundtracks. > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. To --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
