Author Topic: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?  (Read 2414 times)

Offline x4000

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Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« on: September 25, 2009, 05:35:33 pm »
If so, can you check in the November issue, page 90?  I want to make sure what is there.
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Offline Hyfrydle

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2009, 06:43:40 pm »
I get the PC Gamer most months will check and let you know.

Offline x4000

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2009, 07:29:44 pm »
Thanks!
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Offline Hyfrydle

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2009, 10:10:39 am »
Just got it and on page 90 there's a very good review of AI War. Quote by the reviewer "Indie space strategy AI War breaks most of the genre's rules. Which is precisely why it's incredible."

Scored a very respectable 86% which is very good Sins only scored 84% and the final verdict is "Excellent space strategy. This out-of-the-blue one-man passion project is one of this years finest strategy games."

Hope this review pulls in more sales I for one keep telling everyone about AI War.

Offline x4000

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2009, 11:02:24 am »
Great! I was hoping the review would be out this month. Thais for the confirmation!
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Offline Tankor Smash

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2009, 12:23:27 pm »
Oh wow, PC Gamer! Congrats on the great review!
Testin Tidalis.

Offline Echo35

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2009, 04:37:47 pm »
Dang, I want to read it now, but PC gamer doesn't seem to post their reviews online.

EDIT: Course as soon as I say that I find the Archive, but its only previous issue stuff. Guess I'll have to wait.

Offline x4000

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2009, 09:37:33 am »
Thanks guys!  The review was not in the US version of PC Gamer, but hopefully next month.  I suppose we shall see.

An 86 from them is more than a respectable score, it's pretty incredible.  That outscores both Sins and GalCiv II (84 and 82, respectively, if I recall), although I think one of the GalCiv II expansions got 89 or thereabouts.  Looking at the US PC Gamer November issue, the only game with a score more than 86 was Resident Evil 5, which got a 93.  The next-closest was BookWorm Adventures II, with an 84, and everything else was 82 or lower.  In a lot of magazines, an 86 would be just kind of middling, but in PC Gamer that makes it one of their top-rated games, especially for this genre.  I'm pretty happy! :)
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2009, 08:40:35 pm »
Beating SoaSE (in a sense) is a significant achievement in anyone's book; I hope you get sales like that one did ;)
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Offline x4000

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2009, 08:50:16 pm »
Beating SoaSE (in a sense) is a significant achievement in anyone's book; I hope you get sales like that one did ;)

Here's hoping!  We seem to be on the cusp of finally reaching a wider audience, which would be nice.  I'm not greedy -- 50k or 100k units sold would be enough to sustain Arcen for a number of years, though of course more would provide even more security.  Right now sales have been steady for five months, which in itself is fairly notable, but we're still in the four-digit territory, and that's just not enough to cover operating costs if Pablo and I were fulltime. 

I have backup plans within backup plans, though -- there's AI War 2.0 coming out on these new platforms, there's the first expansion which should not only drive some new sales to existing players, but also should raise more interest on our existing platforms and through other reviews, and then there's our other two titles -- Feedback and an unnamed Tower Defense game -- that I aim to complete by the middle of next year.

Hopefully Steam and our other new partners will create a situation where we are financially secure enough to actually be able to make this a fulltime thing for me (out of all the staff who currently take royalties from the game, or who get paid hourly or otherwise, I'm actually the only one who has yet to take any cash for my own income, aside to pay back a few thousand in expenses I had incurred in launching the game).  But if that doesn't happen, then surely with four titles that are hopefully all as solid as AI War, we'll be in the right position. 

Most of the bigger indie game studios start with seed money, or otherwise go about this whole business in a completely different way.  In some respects I envy that, because it certainly would make things easier.  On the other hand, if my way works for Arcen, we'll have a degree of creative and business freedom that is not exceeded anywhere else.

This sure turned into a tangent!  Anyway, I'm excited about the future, but a lot of stuff sure hangs in the balance right now.  It's going to be an interesting couple of months!
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2009, 09:21:57 pm »
It's hard to start out-of-pocket, but it's a very, very good thing to retain control, particularly when the games you want to make would be hard sells to marketing folk.
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Offline x4000

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Re: Any UK players here read PC Gamer (UK version)?
« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2009, 09:35:33 pm »
It's hard to start out-of-pocket, but it's a very, very good thing to retain control, particularly when the games you want to make would be hard sells to marketing folk.

You betcha.  AI War never would have gotten the green light.
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