Nenjin

I think this is less of an issue of "Valve's ebil monopoly" and more of the fact that the publishers finally take DD seriously now. 4 or 5 years ago, Valve didn't have to worry about these issues and I think Steamworks was developed with that in mind. When Steam turned out to be a money maker for everyone, the publishers dove in to get their share, and did so happily, for several years. But now that their own million-dollar networks are coming online, they want to re-negotiate

RPS didn't trash it, but they spend a bit of time talking about what the game isn't doing. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07/27/from-dust-review/ What's impressive about it was what was impressive from the videos; the fluid dynamics and the terrain modeling/deformation. At its core though its "a puzzle game with a fairly narrow set of solutions." Sure you can sculpt stuff for f

[quote]The art of not choking oneself to death whilst deepthroating your own foot and at the same time licking your Party's collective arse.[/quote] Also known as political porn.

Part of me has always wondered: under which method they'd more money on Dom 3? Perpetually keeping it at $50 and only offering it from their mainsite, or finally, FINALLY, putting it on Steam for around $25 and letting it be subject to sales. I suppose because they've never stopped updating it, there's a good reason to keep the premium price on it....but I'm certain there are 1000's of people out there that would enjoy Dom 3 but are gun shy about paying that much for a gam

I'm beyond stoked for BF3. What I'm not stoked for is all the BS and drama that comes with it courtesy of EA. The whole Origin thing, all the confusion and silliness of pre-order DLC, exclusive DLC, map packs, yadda yadda yadda....they're putting out the full court press on this one. I want to play BF3, but there's already enough extra noise coming with the game that, with almost any other title, I would have said fuck it because of it by now. I mean, Origin? Yes, that

I always enjoy listening to his take on the market. In his mind, we're reaching the limits of what humans can really appreciate with regards to performance, latency, and the overall quality of graphics. There are things still to be done, but in his mind it's all about turning his work (and i hope by extension he means the industry's work) toward helping designers produce content faster and pump more creativity into games. When the father of the 3d graphics engine is saying stuff l

Er, it's been out on Steam for 2+ weeks now?

[quote]EA, eh? Those guys smell money. I can picture their management thinking: "Hey, why spend badzillions of cash for development modern, gfx-intensive dumbed down games, when it seems there is a consumer segment that actually prefers the older, non-dumbed down variety? No risk, no investments, just sweet profit. Get it going!"[/quote] I'm guessing the conversation went more like this: Exec 1: So we're launching Origin soon. We should get on that retro gaming acti

From my end, you guys were damn close to finding the right core balance for the game, that would have allowed you to move on to making the [i]content[/i] it lacked and to develop the features that the game play had clearly set up. And then you guys announced Fallen Enchantress and I was like "Really? After you guys bled and got flamed and sweated so much, through so many re-writes, when you're on the eve of real stability....you shift focus?" I'm glad you guys still

[quote]Funny...wasn't the major reason to sell off impulse to avoid that?[/quote] What on Earth ever gave you that idea? The sell off of Impulse signaled to me something big had shifted in Stardock's outlook. And definitely not away from corporatism.

Epic feedback time. This is a fantastic co-op game, and a "good" single player game. TLDR: If you don't like this game on some level, you have no soul. :P For me it's the kind of game I can easily put 50 hours into single player and have a lot of fun. MP accelerates how fast you get through the game, but it makes up for it by being more fun with company. (And throwing a ton more enemies at you.) Terraria does several things very well: -The World

For those that will buy it on Steam, the release has been bumped up to.....tomorrow! April 16th. I'd expect delays in getting it though. The game may be tiny in size, but there's no store page up for it, there's no pre-order or pre-loading and demand is going to be high. You can expedite the process for yourself by installing Microsoft XNA Framework 4.0, which is a vital part of the game's operation. It's funny, that software will end up be several times larger tha

ID wins by a furlong.

On MC, it's just wired for a different audience, whatever label you want to put on them. Terraria does have more goal oriented stuff, but it's pretty tween material IMO, even if it looks fun and engrossing. It's really the abundance of visible content that's got people so excited for Terraria. We can already see gameplay many, many hours in with specific things to do....and that does put it a leg above MC. [quote] Certainly they can make a quick buck through

The people that don't like [the developer's pick] are always going to be the most vocal. Using IRC as a benchmark of how many people they lost probably also isn't wise. [quote]The other two significant games of the genre* are doing quite well with nothing like Steam. Dwarf Fortress is hosted on the developer's site, Minecraft has its own servers. In fact, considering that fans of this genre are used to being able to get their games independently of Steam, thi

I agree that Skype's popularity is in direct relation to its quality. To me, I was waiting for Skype to turn to some paid model years ago, because it had its niche so in check. I just don't see MS leaving a good thing alone. Especially considering how much traffic Skype handles (I'm told 25% of all international calls.) Even with small adjustments to the business model, what really threatens Skype? Ventrillo? Voice chat that comes bundled with other software? A startup? I&

http://xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/116/1167072p1.html I'm not happy about this news. While Skype can sometimes be incredibly stupid even across the last 4 versions, it has some of the best call quality for VOIP that I've found. And it's about to be hi-jacked by MS so they can use it to support 360 gamers and Kinnect. Nothing could really change, but somehow, I have a feeling that's not the ca

[quote]Rabid disagreement[/quote] Really? So all this talk of bonuses for sponsors, profit sharing, all that's directed at secretive millionaire investors? I think you're reading a different topic than I am, because this one most definitely talks about turning players into potential investors, and most post besides your's talk about that. [quote]This is targeted at people who will put up larger sums of money before the project gets into the public eye and before th

I don't doubt the game will be available elsewhere, after release. Remember, this game has only been on the market for about a month. (Two to three weeks if you're looking at when PC gamers found out about it.) They're not opposed to offering it anywhere else, but they may be contractually obligated or just too damn busy to arrange it at the moment. While I feel for you guys on Impulse....I honestly have to be happy about this one, personally. Steam is my platform of choice, and i

Oh, lookie here: http://twitter.com/#!/search/terraria_blue Valve wins again. :P

[quote]My question, right now, would be "What start should a project be in before you make your pitch?" 1%? 10%? 90%?[/quote] If a game is your baby, then whenever you sit down to play a build that you go "man, I had fun/worked my imagination/proved I can code what I envision." If a game is more of a profit engine, I guess it'd be at the point some of your testers say "You know, I think I'd pay for this." I stress testers because, if you don't have a gut feel

Just popping in to say, the game is dated now: June 2011 . So, not too long of a wait. The two, million-dollar questions now are: how much, and who is going to be offering the game for DL? On #1: $5 - $20, as they've stated previously, and nothing firmer. My guess is it will be $20 or MORE (although probably not more than $25) because interest in Terraria is through the roof. I expect them at the very least to max out their o

[quote]I would also argue that a project that fizzes out and isn't started at all is an infinitely better outcome for the developers than one that is started, has a lot of money spent on it, and then fails to finish.[/quote] Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what they did with their own personal capital. Either way, for true believers, it's devastating, trashes their opinion of anything those devs might try in the future and might undermine their confidence in trusting other devs w

Which we're all familiar with that in game development and game purchasing, for sure. But when you've set up those expectations by asking for people's money, it takes on an entirely different tone and meaning. And then you have the eccentric millionaire problem: Let's say you're making an RTS or TBS, a very standard one. People pay in, they want their units and what not....but then some guy comes in, dumps some serious cash into your project and says "I wan

And if you want a tangible of example of what this looks like from the developer's end... Project Zomboid: Managing Expectations It's a very fine line devs walk when they try, or are forced, to work this way.