AVWW 1.0 On April 16th, Confirmed On Steam -- Also Price Drop For Final Game

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/03/avww-10-on-april-16th-confirmed-on.html

It was just two days ago that we gave you some general updates about A Valley Without Wind's launch coming the "week of April 16th," but there were a lot of specifics we couldn't give you at the time.  Welp... now have the rest of the details for you!

Release Date -- And Steam!
The actual release date will be, specifically, Monday April 16th itself.  The game will be going live on Steam on that day as 1.0, along with having its version updated to 1.0 with Impulse, GamersGate, MacGameStore, and our own site.  All of the latter already carry the game at a preorder discount.

Steam Keys For Existing Preorders?
Any keys you buy from other sources should be able to have their CD keys imported into Steam for Steam keys.  The final call on that is always up to Valve rather than us, so we can't make promises on their behalf.  But all five of our existing games/expansions that are on Steam allow for CD key imports, so we don't have any reason to believe that this sixth title will suddenly be any different.

Final Pricing For 1.0
The preorder price has been $9.99, and will remain thus until April 16th.  At launch, we'll be moving to a final price of $14.99 for the game instead of the previously-planned $19.99, however.

Insight Into The Pricing Thought Process, If You're Curious
This pricing change is something that we decided upon in consultation with our distributors, who strongly recommended it.  Looking at the market for games vaguely similar to AVWW, we had to conclude that they were correct, and honestly we'd been getting antsy about the $20 price point for a game of this genre, anyhow.

Crazy, right?  There's dozens of hours of content in here, hundreds if you really get into the game heavily, and that beats out a lot of AAA titles in terms of how much bang for your buck you get -- at $15, $20, or even $60.  But that's not how the market works, and the market is always changing.

If you think about this as your game, and you're trying to figure out a fair price, that makes $20 seem like the right choice -- after all, AI War was $20 up until this past month, and it's done very well for us.  So that's what we originally went with as our goal for the launch price.  The thing is, if I step back and think about this as a consumer (which I am -- I still buy plenty of games myself), then $20 for most small-studio indie games seems a bit steep.

The exception are those that are in niche genres: strategy titles, visual novels, wargames, hardcore simulations, and so forth.  I think that my friend Cliff has it right with his pricing for Gratuitous Tank Battles, for instance.  And I think that $20 was the right price point for AI War for most of its life (though I always had people telling me it should be $30 like some other wargames, and others telling me it should be $10 like some other indie games).

For A Valley Without Wind, looking at anything that could be lumped into its general sort of genre, the pricing is more typically between $10-$15.  Given the massive amount of playtime this game has, and the ongoing work we do post-release with titles like this, being at the higher end of that range -- but no higher -- seemed like the pragmatic move.

What's Left To Do?
Today we should have the first two mysteries released for you, which will mark the last of the overall "broad game mechanics" for the game.  Then it's a focus on:

- Polish
- Bugfixes
- Player-requested tweaks and additions
- More enemies, including enemy elites and boss modifiers
- More spells
- More guardian power scrolls
- More mission activities
- Possibly a few more enchants, although there are already hundreds of thousands of permutations of these.

If you're curious how things are likely to go over the next month between now and 1.0, just take a look at what we've been up to lately.  That's pretty representative.

And Now, Some Shameless Plugging Of Social Media
Be sure to like the game on facebook if you're into that sort of thing, follow the game on twitter if that's your bag, etc.  This game is really important to us both personally and as a company, and word of mouth has been absolutely instrumental in the past success of AI War for us.  If you like what we do and want to see more of it, be sure to tell your friends!

Thanks, as always, for your support! We really wouldn't be here without you all.  Nor would AVWW be the same without all the extensive beta involvement it's seen.  I mean, seriously.

[freykin]

I'll make some posts and links on my various social media accounts once this goes live, as that's the best chance I'll have for convincing people that I haven't already shown the game in person to.

Very much looking forward to this launching, I really like how much customization is possible. It's fun to come up with my own "classes" and such, usually based off of two elements or an idea of how to combine spells. I beat my first overlord a couple weeks back using only melee range spells (death touch/fire touch), and while it was crazy hectic, it was very rewarding knowing that it's possible to do things like that

[x4000]

It's fun to come up with my own "classes" and such, usually based off of two elements or an idea of how to combine spells. I beat my first overlord a couple weeks back using only melee range spells (death touch/fire touch), and while it was crazy hectic, it was very rewarding knowing that it's possible to do things like that

Wow, that's awesome!  What a cool way to customize your character, I wouldn't have thought that would be survivable -- basically you made a melee fighter.  Nice job.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Sounds good to me! 

King

[chemical_art]

After playing many wargames, I was flabbergasted to learn just how many games paradox interactive have made. For that person wanting history / war simulation, as well as the one of the greatest games of a noble going from individual to a lieutenant to a ruler, that company is great.

[x4000]

After playing many wargames, I was flabbergasted to learn just how many games paradox interactive have made. For that person wanting history / war simulation, as well as the one of the greatest games of a noble going from individual to a lieutenant to a ruler, that company is great.

I wasn't criticizing at all.  Like I said, I think their pricing is right for their main type of games.  Note that they are the publisher, not the developer, for most of their titles.  We almost did a publishing deal with them at one point, but it just didn't work out at that time.  Good folks, though, and they really do right by the wargaming market, in my opinion.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I always find it funny that people want Indie devs to price at $10 or less for their games which have tons of content, but they'll pay $60 for a game that has maybe 10 hours of content....

I find I want it to go the other way around. 

King

[x4000]

Just goes to show either:

a) How much people value AAA-level presentation (a definite possibility), or
b) How much people buy into marketing hype (also quite possible, given some indie games have AAA-level presentation but still get low price expectations).

And I'm sure there are other factors at play, too.  In a perfect world, the consumer wants everything for as cheap as possible, but with a giant monolith of a company you can't ask for price cuts so you don't bother.  If you want what they have, you pay what they ask, period (pirating aside).  With the little guys, you can market pressure them into certain things; they are collectively already fighting just to have your attention at all, really.

I'm not really sure what to make of all that, except that it's just basically a model of certain kinds of human social interactions and group dynamics, I'm sure.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Just goes to show either:

a) How much people value AAA-level presentation (a definite possibility), or
b) How much people buy into marketing hype (also quite possible, given some indie games have AAA-level presentation but still get low price expectations).

And I'm sure there are other factors at play, too.  In a perfect world, the consumer wants everything for as cheap as possible, but with a giant monolith of a company you can't ask for price cuts so you don't bother.  If you want what they have, you pay what they ask, period (pirating aside).  With the little guys, you can market pressure them into certain things; they are collectively already fighting just to have your attention at all, really.

I'm not really sure what to make of all that, except that it's just basically a model of certain kinds of human social interactions and group dynamics, I'm sure.

Oh hype definitely fits in there.  Just look at ME3 or MW3, when those games came out I tripped over so many ads I broke both my legs.  Figuratively.    And it was all over the gamers minds too.  Not sure what you can do about it either....except change social behavior.  (Pffft...) 

Personally, I think your pricing the game cheap, but I'm slightly biased too. 

King

[x4000]

I think it's better to have your game thought of as a must-have steal of a deal that everyone should get, rather than a borderline-expensive luxury that you have to weigh more carefully.  My favorite example:

Economist magazine opened up a new website that had a bunch of new stuff, and basically was a big value-add for their customers.  Their price for the base subscription was $120.  Their price for the base subscription plus the new website content that added so much?  $120.

Yeah, they knew what they were doing.  This was back in the earlier days of the Internet, not that early but right after the bubble burst and before "new media" was a big thing.  And well before web 2.0.  They wanted people to use their online stuff, but they also wanted to sell more copies of their stuff in general because it made their second deal more attractive than it would have been if they'd dropped the price of the magazine-only subscription but kept the price of the mag + website the same, etc.

Ah, economics -- I always loved those classes, but only took three of them in the course of my degree, so I'm a novice still.  But I do know that you want people instinctively reaching for the "yes I'll obviously buy this!" button rather than putting a lot of thought into whether or not it's really worth it.

[tigersfan]

Good folks, though, and they really do right by the wargaming market, in my opinion.

As a sometime member of that market, I agree.

[keith.lamothe]

In general, if it is possible in a given industry to continue producing satisfying quality while reducing the price-per-unit, this is a good thing.  In the case of indie games the lack of retail costs, much-reduced distribution costs (in most cases if a distributor sells a copy we don't pay a single penny in "flat costs", simply a % cut), lower management overhead, lower staff investment (compared to 20-strong art teams, etc), and so on... it becomes possible to recoup costs and fund expansion at a $3 price-per-unit (looking at some promotional sales).  Or lower, depending on the situation/genre/etc.

I have mixed feelings about all that, but I think it's clearly an improvement for the consumer, and since customer service matters that's a good thing

[freykin]

It's fun to come up with my own "classes" and such, usually based off of two elements or an idea of how to combine spells. I beat my first overlord a couple weeks back using only melee range spells (death touch/fire touch), and while it was crazy hectic, it was very rewarding knowing that it's possible to do things like that

Wow, that's awesome!  What a cool way to customize your character, I wouldn't have thought that would be survivable -- basically you made a melee fighter.  Nice job.

It's pretty awesome how much damage Death Touch 5 does when you land a head shot . The hardest part was the dragon's fire, which funnily enough, wouldn't be as much an issue now, as this overlord spawned underwater.

[mrhanman]

That's awesome news, guys!  But I'm moving on the 12th, so I probably won't be around on the 16th.  Can you push the date back a few weeks?  Thanks! 

[tigersfan]

That's awesome news, guys!  But I'm moving on the 12th, so I probably won't be around on the 16th.  Can you push the date back a few weeks?  Thanks! 

No, I don't think we can do that, but, I can assure you that it will remain on sale for the few weeks you need, plus many many more.