Exodus Of The Machine Teaser 1

[x4000]

Well, I can think of a few VNs that have an interface kind of like this, but most of those are half-RPG or more.  It's certainly not the super common route, anyhow.

And technically the storyboard cutscenes are are not that different from the ones in Shattered Haven, except the art style is more VN-like because of the anime characters.  And the fact that you're doing some layering and slight quasi-animations in the storyboards, whereas SH just flips between them.

But unlike a VN, the majority of this is not cutscenes in the first place, so it's not like that has to be over-represented at all in the screenshots or video.  Show a bit of that, and then mostly show the main gameplay GUI and stuff happening there, for instance.

[chemical_art]

Actually I don't think the main gameplay GUI looks VN at all, at least no VN I've played (and that's a number of them).  It's the storyboard cutscenes with dialogue that make me think VN.

While I haven't seen the game, anything involving GUI aside from cutscenes is not very VA, so you might not want to give up on gameplay just yet.

[x4000]

After Tidalis we are mainly very, very paranoid.

Also, some people (reviewers included) somehow saw the grid in Shattered Haven and thought it was a turn-based tactics game.  Despite the guys running around in realtime in all the videos.  Umm... what?

Hence our paranoia.

[Panopticon]

As for my silence, part of it is that I was out of the house at dinner.

But yes, VN is what we were concerned about.

I went with this idea for a new project, knowing that the approach to the graphics (going for beautiful handdrawn backdrops and anime characters) was VN-ish, though the gameplay was totally different. About 3-4 weeks after that was informed that VNs basically don't sell at all.  I might have chosen differently had I known that   But here we are, and the game idea itself is quite compelling to many people.

As long as you can get across that this is a strategic game with a rich storytelling presentation you can probably ditch a lot of any perceived stigma. And while that genre may be maligned, it's more for the questionable subject matter that's often in them. Stuff like Analogue: A Hate Story seems like it's slowly turning this perception around too. There's certainly quite a few people on my Steam friends list who own it and have played it anyway. So it seems to me that there is a developing audience for this kind of presentation, people who enjoy a game that tells a story, especially if there's branches and multiple outcomes possible. If there's compelling gameplay even better, like The King of Dragon Pass.

[LaughingThesaurus]

After Tidalis we are mainly very, very paranoid.

Also, some people (reviewers included) somehow saw the grid in Shattered Haven and thought it was a turn-based tactics game.  Despite the guys running around in realtime in all the videos.  Umm... what?

Hence our paranoia.

They might be trying to pin down that arcen style and just haven't figured it out yet.

[x4000]

That's true.  I recall hearing that the sales numbers for Analogue: A Hate Story were really good, but I don't know specifically what they were.  I'm not sure if that was just an outlier, or if that's the example of what a particular kind of subject matter gets you, or what.

[keith.lamothe]

Actually I thought A:AHS sold very poorly, but who knows?

[keith.lamothe]

Ok, it got panned in the reviews (that I'm aware of) : http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/analogue-a-hate-story

But that doesn't necessarily equate to low sales.

[Echo35]

Actually I thought A:AHS sold very poorly, but who knows?

Comparatively to other games perhaps, but for a visual novel, it was, I think, one of the top selling ones ever.

[x4000]

Actually I thought A:AHS sold very poorly, but who knows?

Comparatively to other games perhaps, but for a visual novel, it was, I think, one of the top selling ones ever.

That's what I heard, also.

And since when is 62 being panned for an indie game?  That's on the lower end of good.  Most indie games that aren't rockstar titles top out in the low 80s from what I've seen.  Hitting the 50s (like Valley 1) is getting panned.  Anyway, even Metacritic calls a 62 "mixed reception," which looks right to me.

[keith.lamothe]

Just going on the reactions I'm used to seeing for scores < 70, really.

[x4000]

Okie dokie.

I can't really argue with that, but what I've seen is not a correlation to "this game is so bad" at that level of review aggregate, and thus not a depression of sales from that alone.  Still, maybe it's considered more of a bargain buy or a guilty pleasure or whatever, heh.

Interesting fact: remember, in 2009 with a metascore of 82, AI War was the 40th-best reviewed PC game of that year, including AAA and indie games.  I know I've said that like a million times, but look at it from the opposite way this time: there were only I think about 5 indie games that scored higher than AI War that year on the PC, all of them smash hits.  So every other game that was on metacritic was either 81 or lower.  The density of indie games getting big reviews has changed a lot since 2009, but still.  There's a pretty low ceiling here for most indie games, because they don't have AAA visuals.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I actually looked at Metacritic seriously once in my life, and was so shocked to see that score-- not as if AI War didn't deserve to be on the top 100, just that it was to begin with. I'm generally used to seeing indie games kind of get dismissed, or just "Well it was cool and interesting, I'm going back to Saints Row," you know?

[Echo35]

I actually looked at Metacritic seriously once in my life

Metacritic is terrible and harms the industry imo. I'd be happy if no reviewers ever gave scores to game ever.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, I think metacritic is awful too.  But it has immense influence.