AI War: The Zenith Remnant Expansion Pricing

[x4000]

Do I feel like AI War is an unusually, ridiculously good value for the money when it comes to players who will play it a lot?  Absolutely -- and in many respects I like that, I think games in general are a bit too expensive in the main (I understand the costs of developing AAA titles, of course, but if I ran a AAA studio I would handle the finances, asset reuse, and team management vastly differently from the industry norm).

This is why I rarely buy Single Player games anymore. I'm sick of dropping $50 on a game that lasts 10 hours and then you can't do anything with it.

For me, it depends on the game.  A number of FPS games are worth it to me, as are games that I know I will come back to in the future.  But I'm certainly buying a lot more indie games, or other smaller/cheaper games through PSN, Impulse, Steam, the iPhone App store, etc.  It's an interesting new world out there, to be sure.

[x4000]

I'm with Keith on the $19.99 tipping point.  If I'm on the fence about a game or only casually interested in a title seeing a price tag of $24.99 takes it off my list for consideration.  If it is a title that I played in demo for a significant period of time and really enjoyed it, that $24.99 price tag still puts some reservation in my buying consideration.

Yep, I'm the same way as you.  Not sure why that $20 tipping point exists, but as the As Seen On TV people have shown us for years, it definitely does.

I have the discretionary income to purchase games at much higher price points, but my expectations with indie titles is that you're not supposed to get the big-ticket high-budget experience you might get when you buy a mainstream title.  To be quite honest, the first version of AI War lined up with those expectations.  It's a much different, and better (in every way) game than when I first purchased it.  That's why I would spend a little more on the expansion, knowing that I'm getting top-notch support, an active forum community, and patches/enhancements like crazy.  But for the gamer new to the title, I'm afraid that the $19.99 barrier is still in place.

For me, it's important that each game I produce stand on its own, in that light.  Do I plan to keep providing great support, updates, etc?  Of course.  But what if I can't, for whatever reason?  And what about the players who have no idea that these sort of secondary benefits even exist for the game?  My goal is always for every game to be an exceptional value even before you discover the updates and forums, since that's the state most players will come to the game in.

[Kjara]

Semi off topic(but expansion related).  Do you plan on making it easy for people with different version(say one with the exp and one without) to play together?  Aka some easy way for the person with the exp to choose to play without it (rather than having to keep more than one version installed on the computer at once).

[x4000]

Semi off topic(but expansion related).  Do you plan on making it easy for people with different version(say one with the exp and one without) to play together?  Aka some easy way for the person with the exp to choose to play without it (rather than having to keep more than one version installed on the computer at once).

Yep!  This should be easier than in any other game that I can think of, ever, actually.  Basically, there will only be one version of the actual exectuable, and the expansion will work as kind of an extra content pack along with a second license key.  If you have the content pack but no license key, you can play the expansion features in trial mode, or if you want to disable the features for any given expansion at any time, you can do so easily. 

That way, as more expansions come out over the years, you don't have quite the usual roughness in multiplayer when you are trying to find a match.  No matter who you find, you can just use the combination of expansions(s) that everyone has, ignoring any that aren't had.  So much more flexible than most games, I think it will work really well and be really easy for people to use.

[Admiral]

That way, as more expansions come out over the years, you don't have quite the usual roughness in multiplayer when you are trying to find a match.  No matter who you find, you can just use the combination of expansions(s) that everyone has, ignoring any that aren't had.  So much more flexible than most games, I think it will work really well and be really easy for people to use.

Sometimes players really do make the best programmers.

[x4000]

[Ktoff]

To the pricing issue:
At least over here in Germany, nobody (as in no major gaming site/magazine) has heard of ai wars, i stumbled on it via Steam. I now recognize the full extent of your genius, but i probably wouldn't have spent more than 20€ on the game out of a (apparently) misplaced mistrust in games i have not heard of (i.e. from developers who didn't spent a couple of millions on advertising :-) ).

So your pricing policy basically hooked me and i will most definitely buy the expansion as well, no matter how you'll price it (well in the range under discussion), but in the interest of hooking more players you might want to keep the pricing.

Finally, i love the game! I have yet to explore the real hard levels, but this will come... Thank you for this great game!

[Revenantus]

Welcome, Ktoff.

Thanks very much for your support of the game. Hopefully with the Steam release AI War and Arcen Games will manage to establish a more widespread reputation. Thanks for the feedback, and feel free to post any suggestions you have for the game in our suggestions forum.

Enjoy playing AI War!

[RCIX]

Not to pester or anything, but when do you think the preorder will be available? i'm really itching to try the new stuff!

[Haagenti]

I second this request, but wish to add that it *is* done to pester you

[x4000]

Ah... most likely within a week.  I have been absolutely swamped just with business stuff in the wake of the Steam release (hundreds of emails and forum posts a day, here and elsewhere, etc), and am just now getting back around to active development.  The art has been coming well along, and the first couple of Golems are done for instance, and they are pretty amazing-looking.  I'm itching to try this stuff out myself, and I expect to be working on it today.  It's possible that, if nothing major comes up in the meantime, I'll be ready to put this up for preorder very soon, today or tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes.  But it's definitely coming along soon, and the art is pleasantly ahead of schedule, which means the programming will catch up before long.

[Mavvvy]

Good Stuff X.

Looking forward to this bigtime.

[x4000]

Thanks, Mav!

[x4000]

Okay -- I'm de-stickying this topic now, because the expansion is now available for preorder!  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,2021.0.html