Game Date?

Click here and disable ads!

I don't know why I deleted my account and my FAQ. :? I don't even know why I hate you so much Vault Dweller. What is going on?

Edit: And this was just before I went for professional help.

You need a father figure.

VD can't be yours, though. That path would only lead to destruction.

I hope you find peace... in this life, or the next.

You didn't, I didn't approve deletion.

I am a freak. I hate myself, I guess that's why I've been cutting myself of late. Maybe I should step away from my computer for a few weeks, and get some help? I've been crying for the last few minutes and I don't know why. Perhaps I should get a job and stop hiding in my bedroom on my parents expense for the last year, it can get very lonely at times. I'm sorry everyone, I shouldn't be doing this. After posting this I'll unplug my computer and try to get help.

I wish you all the best. I'm sorry. Goodbye for now.

watch out for the furries out there!

Somehow, I can't shake the feeling that he indeed suffers from some emotional problems which could require medical attention...

Maybe he's a psychology major and we're his dissertation project?

You ought to try and get banned by posting NSFW pictures openly, Jedi.

The wheel of time turns...

True, he is a breath of fresh air in a sea of predictability.

*snicker*

I hope we someday discover Jedi is a 40-year-old housewife who's never so much as looked at an RPG, and is just fucking with us.

@jedilearner you should remember to take your meds. even if they make you feel strange. or one day you'll end up an hero

A sexual fantasy of yours? Tell me your home address, and I'll come down and rape your virgin arsehole.

Maybe he can't afford them anymore. Did you think of that, you meanie?

All this discussion on team management just reminded me of how Epic Megagames started. Before Unreal release in 1998 it was basically a 3-persons team which developed action arcade games, and technically an indie company. After Unreal release, its success and also the success of its Engine led it to became a major game company. Of course only few which brought great ideas or technologies had success on progressing from 3-persons teams to large companies. It won't matter if Age of Decadence is released on Thursday or Friday, what matters is if it manages to hit the "indie spotlight" and draw millions of Fallout/Planescape/Arcanum fans. One of the latest indie devs to do that was Introversion Software with its Darwinia, which despite Retro "last-gen" graphics, had managed to conquer a sizeable fanbase and even got critically acclaimed by some mainstream publications.

I think it's another sad example of how the American Health system is failing.

I'm sure Blackheart would be happy to give you this information.

Haven't been keeping up as much lately, but listen to obediah, seriously. When you start redoing city layouts, you're hitting diminishing returns on your work and it's time to let it go. Redo the city layouts for the next game. What's the great fear about releasing a possibly flawed gem anyway? Seriously, will you be able to count the number of people on one hand who'll get pissy over illogical town layouts? Your target audience gets mushy over remembrances of Ultima games.

And there's no second chances in gaming? Come on. Even in the professional arena, the name on the label might change but the people stay the same. Given that everyone's working for free, you should worry more about burnout, and I know I'd really get more tired of doing low-level yeoman's work like redoing city layouts for months than starting a new game. I imagine what killed Zero Sum was more everyone saying "fuck it, I'm tired of this shit and can probably get a real job somewhere else now that this is on my resume" rather than fan criticism.

It's not about changing the layout from illogical to logical. Originally, I was going to use the Geneforge engine, thus the towns were never designed properly and looked like Spiderweb towns in 3D, which looked kinda strange and horrible. That's what we are changing now.

No second chances in indie gaming. I'm well aware that Obsidian survived incomplete and gutted KOTOR 2, but things are different for indies. We have no budgets, no financial backing. If AoD sells next to nothing, my team will be gone and I won't be able to recruit anyone else.

They had real jobs. Two were professional developers.

There was also another fact: I´m redoing all the textures of the game, including those of the towns. The process requires us to re-export the models to the game, replacing the old ones. Since we already had to replace them, why not take it a step further and re-arrange the layout? Judging from the reactions to the Gate District in the ITF, I think the result is well worth it.

Hmm, I'd join Snails if it wasn't for the fact that I believe the changes are of the major kind. No "This one sentence needs more beauty and roses to it... oh fuck, now all sentences needs more beauty and roses to them" and "if I turn this house one degree southeast it's shadow will look really cool in the sunset." It's more like "Let's tear this crap hella down, down town, and rebuild it like it should've been built in the first place."

The former is more than a flirt with insanity while the latter often leads to good things since the same mistakes won't be repeated.

I have some questions to the team of my own:

1. What would be the minimum amount of sold copies for you, VD, to begin considering doing a second game (never say never and all that shit aside)?

2. What number of sold copies would you, VD, consider a success?

3. How many copies do you, VD, think you will sell?

4. What's your conditions, Elhoim, to work on a second game?

5. Is Nick interested in doing a second game? And what's his conditions?

Fixed.

No idea. It's not about me as I'm employed very gainfully. It's about my team. If after getting their cut they won't see making indie games as a worthwhile occupation, that's it for them and that's it for me. For the record, I never asked them how much is enough and how much isn't enough. In my experience, each person will decide it for himself when the time comes. Obviously, it can't be approached from a "I worked for 4 years and I got 15k? I'd have made more money flipping burgers!"point of view, so some adjustments would have to be made. Each person would have his own arguments and adjustments.

Depends on different factors. I'd say selling 5,000 copies won't be bad for the first game. Mount & Blade sold more than 10k, but that's an action game. If we are talking about the money, depends on the distribution costs. If we go through portals, that would cost us 30-40%. We'd also advertise, that would cost us too. Etc.

No fucking idea. That's a new area for me so I have no way of guessing it correctly. Could be anything from 500 copies to 15,000 copies. Hardly more.

They are interested and they have no conditions. They are very passionate guys and they don't look at it as an opportunity to make money. Take Nick, for example. He works on the game each day until 2am. His university exams start this Friday and he didn't have time to study properly. That's some serious dedication and I doubt that he would want - be able to - do it all over again for a symbolic fee of 1,000 dollars for each year spent.

Like you all know, I started doing this just because I love this game, not as a way to get rich. Now I have the opportunity to make a living out of this, but my conditions are simple: To get enough money to live until the next project comes out. The good thing is that the exchange rate benefits me.