In Marty's cost breakdown, he didn't even bring in voice acting and sound effects. That's just for his efforts making the game so he feels propperly compensated. To create an rpg takes a whole lot of careful thought. Writing a scifi, fantasy or mystery story capable of branching and changing based on the player's actions is hard work and takes time. Add to that programming and then balancing the system. Very few individuals would have all the necessary skills to pull this off well That's why most high-quality rpgs are made by companies employing many people.
I'd cheerfully fork over $10 for something with the replayability of King of Dragon Pass even without fancy sound and music. Even that game had an artist, a music composer, and others involved in its creation. It was based on an already fully developed world and rpg system. However, at the level Marty is asking, $40 or $50, my expectations are very high. The game had better be fully accessible, have music, acting and sound, offer tremendous replay value. It had better be the holy grail of games. I'd want extras like a "making of" documentary. After I paid that much, don't even think about charging a subscription or microtransactions. It had all better be included. That would be the second most expensive app I've ever bought. The only thing more expensive that I'm aware of is KNFB Reader. That app has literally life-changing possibility and is something I used almost daily to read my mail. I can look at it as a long-term investment making it unnecessary to ever update Kurzweil 1000 or buy an OCR scanner. As long as I have an iPHONE, I'm covered. If I'm going to spend that much on entertainment, it had better be very polished and very captivating. The most expensive games I find in the sighted world top out at around $25 or so. I don't think I've ever come across a game priced higher. Some games offer the ability to buy expansions and other extra content in order to help support their production cost. That model certainly seems to work for companies. Those companies can expect far more people to purchase what they produce. Especially the ones with good track records. On 4/14/16, Devin Prater <r.d.t.pra...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why would you need soundscapes and voice acting? A dark room is text, and > does just fine. Touchmint’s games are mostly text, and do mostly fine as > well. Nano empire is wonderful, and is text also. I’m saying that you don’t > need expensive acting and sound do make a good game. > Sent from my Mac. > > Devin Prater > r.d.t.pra...@gmail.com > > > >> On Apr 13, 2016, at 3:29 PM, Darren Harris >> <darren_g_har...@btinternet.com> wrote: >> >> Hi, >> >> I have 1 thing to say about replayable games, >> >> Swamp. That's a 1 man band doing all that, look at how good a game that >> is? >> Now have something like that on the iPhone and that would be awesome. >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Gamers [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Jeremy >> Brown >> Sent: 13 April 2016 18:36 >> To: gamers >> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] why i build the games the way I do >> >> In response to Marty's post, I know that this is exactly the sort of >> situation we have with Valiant Galaxy Associates. Our company >> consists of two people. We began with a large project that took 3 >> years to get to commercial release and which is due to have an update >> relatively soon in our schedule. Our next two games were much simpler >> and rolled out quickly, but only because we could reuse and centralize >> a lot of the code. We're still in the process of making a centralized >> platform so we can roll out more of the smaller games as well as work >> on more ambitious games. >> >> Our hope is to eventually have more games in play, let the smaller >> ones carry the load while we develop long term bigger games. >> >> I disagree with you about the RPG as being simple to convert Dark: >> >> You can convert the mechanics relatively easily, but then you have to >> have the mechanics integrate with a group of player actions and >> possible results. Essentially you write an Choose Your Own Adventure >> novel on top of the mechanics, get it all to integrate, and then have >> to still work out why it's not working over 60,000-250,000 words of >> text and god only knows how much mechanical issues. This doesn't take >> into account sound scape or voice acting. >> >> It's not undoable, and I think we should see more of those types of >> games myself, but the question is how much complexity can you build >> from a small production standpoint and still stay sane, productive, >> and on top of customer service. It's not like you release a game and >> it's a never go back to proposition. Further, if you want to keep the >> costs reasonable, you have to make choices. You can't release a >> professionally produced sound scape, voice acting, music background, >> story, proofreading, and fully tested and stable code and charge only >> 10 dollars for it. A lot of the sorts of games that people cite when >> they mention this genre are games that originally retaled for well >> over $35 or 40 U.S. or, have monthly subscription charges that come to >> the same thing. While Marty's assessment that most blind people don't >> like RPG's might be skewed, he is right that most blind people will >> not pay for the kind of quality that most would like to demand. Not >> in my experience in any case. That said, I know all the developers on >> list attempt to put out as professional and interesting a game as they >> can. Remember too, that by moving his company to an IOS focus, Marty >> is not breaking new ground in terms of style of game perhaps, but by >> moving into the mobile app market he has broken ground for blind >> people and audio games in terms of providing well received simple >> games that are inexpensive. That is a huge step from the any audio >> game is either cheap and developed as a labor of love by one >> programmer or $40 and developed to be profitable, or at least, >> hopefully profitable. >> >> As usual, my two cents. I'll expect change from that please :) >> >> Take care, >> >> Jeremy >> >> >> >> >> -- >> In the fight between you and the world--back the world! Frank Zapa >> >> --- >> 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. >> >> >> --- >> 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. > > --- > 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. > -- Michael Feir Creator and presenter of Journeys of the Mind: Play is Where Community Begins http://www.michaelfeir.blogspot.ca/2015/01/journeys-of-mind-play-is-where.html Volunteer at New Horizons Peel Multicultural Centre www.peelmc.ca 2014--2015 Disability advocate Meadowvale Community Christian Reformed Church www.meadowvalecrc.ca 2013--2014 Volunteer at The Dam http://www.thedam.org 2011-2013 Twitter: mfeir Skype: michael-feir Author of Personal Power: How Accessible Computers Can Enhance Personal Life For Blind People 2006-2008 http://michaelfeir.blogspot.ca/2009/01/personal-power.html A Life of Word and Sound 2003-2007 http://michaelfeir.blogspot.ca/2009/01/life-of-word-and-sound.html Creator and former editor of Audyssey Magazine 1996-2004 Check out my blog at: http://www.michaelfeir.blogspot.ca --- 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.
