Original:
http://arcengames.com/release-raptor-is-now-free-and-freely-refund-available/
Okay, wow. It's been a busy couple of days figuring some things out. Thanks for your patience during this time. Things are slightly different than I had expected, but the current setup should let people get the exact result they want.
You
will need to request the refund yourself, though, which is different from what I originally said -- I do apologize about that, but see below for the skinny on why that is.
Quick History
- First up we had the announcement that In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor was being pulled from Early Access and everyone would be refunded.
- To clarify some points, I explained further why it was not crazy for us to pull it so early.
- Then we had a snafu based on the fact that I did this late on a Friday, so the game was able to remain up and available for several days.
- Suddenly a bunch of people wanted the game, either for free (aka paying for it and then getting a refund) or with us actually getting the money for it. And other people asking not to be refunded.
- We had a bajillion questions, and I answered those in one central thread that people could easily peruse.
- I was mean and showed people what might have been with regard to some of the robots.
- Finally today I was able to have full conversations with Valve and Humble, we got things taken down, and I finally have some concrete answers for you on exactly what is planned next. Valve had some great suggestions based around the multitude of various requests that people have had during this period. I wasn't sure exactly what to do, so I was very glad for the guidance there.
The Plan: Short-Term
- In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor has been taken out of Early Access and out of paid status and is now a simple free 2 play game on Steam. This is provided AS-IS, with no support, simply because folks wanted it.
- Unlike most F2P games, this has no form of monetization at all. Various people wanted to play the game, and we spent a lot of time making it, so this was better than just taking it off the face of the earth. This was a really good suggestion from Valve, I thought.
- Since there are such varying degrees of desire from folks on whether or not they want a refund, we're making this a process you can control. If you want a refund, just go through the normal refund process and it will accept your request for a refund regardless of playtime or purchase date.
A Point Of Clarification
If you take the refund option, the game
will be removed from your account. However, given that the game is now Free 2 Play, you can just install it again directly. If you ever uninstall it again it will again disappear from your account when it is in F2P status, though.
If you have the game and did not refund it, it stays in your account and will count toward your total number of games. If you have it via the F2P form, it won't count toward your number of games.
This is... unintended on my part. However, it's how F2P games work on Steam, and this is definitely better than nobody having access to it. We're not ever going to take this game out of free status, so there's no real worry if you don't have access to the game in your account while it is not installed. It will still be there when you get back.
Also, protip: this game is not linked to Steam in any way, so you can just copy the contents of the game folder onto a thumb drive if you're worried about losing it. Burn it to a DVD if you like. Easy peasy!
The Plan: Long Term
- I hope that in some future year that this game becomes viable. If that's the case, then we will likely start working on this again under the banner of In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor 2.
- In other words, that new project would not affect this one, and this one would stay free and untouched. Essentially I guess you could consider this one a demo for the theoretical sequel that we would potentially do a year, two, or three from now.
- A sequel is in no way being announced, and I have no immediate plans to work on one. It's something I would like to do, but that's about it.
Should You Request A Refund?
If you want one, then absolutely: yes! I don't want to take your money if you don't want to give it to us. If you like the game and want us to keep the $4.50 or so you spent on it, then we're obviously grateful. But please in no way feel guilted into it or anything like that.
If you get the F2P version of the game and want to throw some change our way, we do have a
tip jar, but we'd be just as happy to see you try out one of our other titles.
Possible Monetization?
I created some trading cards for the game, and they look really cool I think, but games with absolutely no monetization cannot have them. Some folks have suggested that they
want a hat or something anyhow, so I guess we could do something like provide one or two of those at the minimum possible price. Then the trading cards could come out, and so on.
I'm a little wary of doing that, though, because then I feel like that creates some degree of obligation for support. For now, I've included the images for some of the cards in this post.
What's Next?
We're going to be putting all our efforts into AI War 2: Rise from Ashes, which will be a kickstarter project that then comes over to Steam. If you want to be emailed about that when the time comes, then feel free to email us at arcengames at gmail dot com noting that you'd like to get a notice when that project goes live.
Thank you very much to everyone for your support (of so many kinds) during this trying time. It means a lot to myself and the rest of the team.
Best,
Chris
