I am only an amateur photographer but I’ll never forget what I heard a pro tog say once. “Nobody cares how hard it was to get the shot”.
I think the parallels to media creation should be obvious. It doesn’t matter how much blood sweat and tears it went into creating something, all that matters is how much the experience moves someone for how long. When triple A titles can provide 400 hours of enjoyment for $60, discounted to $48 and less on day one, your value proposition has to compete with the mindset that is snapping that up. Indies don’t exist in a vacuum. There are opportunities to establish that your content is worth a premium but not every indie is going to be afforded that luxury. You never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression, and like it or not the price is the first thing everyone sees after the title.
It does frustrate me when fabulous games don’t sell well because people think it’s too expensive (Trails SC being a huge example of this)
That said, the game market is so oversaturated it has driven down prices unless it’s something people really, really want. With the high number of bad games out there, it does drive down the prices of unknown good ones. DD also has hurt- because you’re now competing with so many more titles than you used to, and people have less time due to their other games.
If it makes things too hard for indie devs- it’s due to the free market and supply and demand.
Well complete games that are released and polished in someway are competing against unfinished games with a lot of promises that will never be met too. I’m still a fan of buying the real deal today and actually being able to play said features today… but there are dozens of 20 dollar great experiences out there that will get there… someday if you fork out the cash right now.
I would not pay 20 for Bigador, but that’s not a value judgment so much as a complete lack of interest. If I was interested, I wouldn’t pay 20 because it’s EA. I’ve paid around that much for Indie’s before though.
The labor theory of value is invalid, so the developers’ toil shouldn’t affect the optimal price.
But I still wish videogame consumers had a little more empathy. You don’t have to buy the game, but don’t be all self-righteous about it either. It’s bizarre how these Steam kids want to lecture developers about how much their game is worth or about design decisions.
I think it’s all related to the idea that reviews are objective.
[EDIT] I completely forgot this is that kinda-cool looking isometric mech game. The name probably doesn’t help. :(
No doubt Tim, and I should have mentioned that. I am very empathetic to all these creators. The one common thread is that they have tremendous passion for what they are doing. The sad reality and the heart of my message is that the marketplace does not run on passion. Passion does not drive perceived value. And at the end of the day if you want what you create to generate value you have to be a business first with a business’s mentality not an artist’s or hobbyist’s. Your best customers will be the ones that recognize and evangelize your passion, but it is very likely there won’t be enough of them to pay the bills so you need to be aware of and play to the wide market’s realities. Just my perspective as a dumbass with no dog in this fight or skin in the game.
You’d think as videogame consumers got older (like I believe is happening) that more people would realize that time is more valuable than money. Though I suppose kids with lots of free time are the ones who are more likely to discover indie games like this in the flooded marketplace.
Anyway, the best thing about this ongoing fight is that every now and then you’ll hear a story about some cranky videogame consumer who decides to make a game and realizes how difficult it is. That’s always amusing.
Agreed. I’m not big on schadenfreude, but being a software developer myself (and knowing how hard it can be), seeing something like that happening is always amusing. ;)
Ugh. Too many people making art, huh. But if they didn’t, there’d be even more people working as barristas and burger flippers, and the world would be a sadder place. I’m so happy to see Kickstarter and Patreon and paypal donations helping out the arts in some small way, but it really is a sad place when people are led to not value art without an accompanying marketing campaign.
While this is true, this also has little bearing on entitled prats generally acting like entitled prats. It is very easy for a small (in absolute terms) number of dedicated fools to make a large stink. I think it is probably no more than this. The people with the income or inclination to buy the game at $20 are very unlikely to say something to that effect, it’s only these little pricks who feel the need.
I think all of us here are empathetic with the developers. Though sometimes we forget that this is a luxury/entertainment industry and an oversaturated one at that. If you look outside of the games industry I don’t know how well the argument holds up when you compare against underpaid (and critical) professions like teachers, social workers, garbage disposal, and public defenders. Then the flustered forum posts of game developers look, well, a little silly.
And now they’ve guaranteed that their game will ever be associated with Nickelback, good job Devs! I can understand their frustration, but reacting like this isn’t doing them any favors.
