Iron Tower Studios

[Western]

Vault Dweller This is continuing from the Oriiginal Sin thread, but I didn't want to derail it with this question/discussion.

Let's say AOD and subsquent titles are quite successful. Would you want to grow Iron Tower and become a mid-size developer, say haviing a team or production values say, just below an InXIle or somewhere in between that and where you are now?

Do you think there's much to be gained by becomming this big or is the trade off/risk for whatever the perceived benefits may be, simply too great?

 

[Vault Dweller]

I'm quite happy with the production values and wouldn't want to waste time increasing them further. We'd want to look at another engine though because Torque is a bitch to work with. Ideally, I would want to add a couple of people to the existing team or add another small team.

I don't have any desire to grow the business and become a big company or a mid-size developer. All I care is about making RPGs without being constrained by the market realities and being a small shop suits me just fine.

 

[HobGoblin42]

Again, my question: what number of total sold copies (full priced) would you call a success for AoD?

Obviously, I am asking this because we have a similar situation with our game.

 

[Western]

I'm quite happy with the production values and wouldn't want to waste time increasing them further. We'd want to look at another engine though because Torque is a bitch to work with. Ideally, I would want to add a couple of people to the existing team or add another small team.

I don't have any desire to grow the business and become a big company or a mid-size developer. All I care is about making RPGs without being constrained by the market realities and being a small shop suits me just fine.

I suppose financial success would accelerate the switch to Unity or similar engine (with greater ease of use) in that case, and give the advantage of easier porting to Mac and Linux. It does sound like you'd be better off staying smaller as well, especially if growing larger is potentially going to kill your enthusiasm.

Also HobGoblin42 are we nearing pre-order time yet?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Again, my question: what number of total sold copies (full priced) would you call a success for AoD?

Obviously, I am asking this because we have a similar situation with our game.

Anything that would allow us to "stay in business", no matter how low, would be a success. As for the exact number, it's very hard to draw a line that would kill your dream and send you back to the corporate world.

It's probably harder for you guys, because you're a proper company and we're just hobos, so we can survive on less.

 

[Western]

Also HobGoblin42 if you still feel uncertain of VD's answer be aware expectations have changed, in the past there was a hope for a certain amount of sales but Vince likely wouldn't call it a going out of business line.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2584.msg84175.html#msg84175

VD has some more detailed and general thoughts on things that touch on the topic here.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2916.0.html

Edit; Reading through the 'break even point thead VD', never change, you're one straight up hombre

Edit 2; Hope you end up making use of the combat arena demo assets as a stand alone adventure in the end (think you were talking about that).

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

If all people who voted for the game on Steam Greenlight would actually buy the game at some point (even when cheaply on sale) that would suffice I'd presume.

 

[J_C]

Since you are on Steam, I think you will pleasantly surprised by the sales number. I'm not saying that you will immediately sell hundreds of thousands, but you will have a nice steady income.

 

[hiver]

Yeah, definitely.
And the best thing is that when you go about it that way, it actually fits you better if you have continuous long term sales, rather then aiming or going for "first weeks" or first month.


how does this Unity look to all there?
nifty or - not?
- theoretically switching to it for the next game?

(mac, linux, ps4 market opening, lots other useful stuff)

 

[curry]

Do other developers get any profit from sales or does all the money go to the Jew Vince?

 

[Vault Dweller]

What do you think, curry?

 

[Gakkone]

He doesn't think. That's his thing.

 

[Dickie]

I hope to raise $10-15,000 in pre-orders. It's not an unreasonable amount. I doubt we'll raise more.

By my estimation, it's closer to $20k now, so I guess you're pretty surprised.

 

[Vault Dweller]

720 preorders, $22,014. Yes, I didn't expect that much but I prefer to keep my expectations low.

 

[kaizoku]

Vault Dweller

If you could send a message to the Vince of 2003(?), when you were first starting AoD, what would you say?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Start small.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I'm not thinking in terms of improvements as we took out sweet time with AoD and improved everything we wanted already. Not saying the game is perfect, of course, but after we roll out R4 there won't be anything left that bothers me. I'm aware, of course, that some people don't like the design, but I can't do anything about it. Can't please everyone and all that.

I want the next game to be different. Different setting, different design (within the already established framework), different systems, different themes to explore, etc. The colony ship RPG seems to be a good fit. Party based, probably class-based (fits the caste idea), turn-based (naturally).

 

[Vault Dweller]

No, I mean proper classes (hence the word 'different'). I believe that skill-based systems work best with a single-character setup, whereas class-based systems work best with party-based. And I'd like to experiment and see what happens.

I'm sure that something interesting can be done with classes that goes beyond only thieves can sneak or only fighters can wear heavy armor. If the classes are integrated into the setting, it can work very well. So, again, a colony ship with different environments, different groups/functions that would evolve into a caste system, different knowledge pools is a perfect background for such a system.

 

[almondblight]

Do you think you'll leave Torque when you do the colony ship game?

 

[curry]

What do you think, curry?

Actually I have no idea whether you're paying them salary or promised a cut for taking a risk and working free on a project that might never make money. I've seen indie developers do both.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Equal shares, plus I paid what I could to support them/buy hardware before the pre-order money kicked in.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Do you think you'll leave Torque when you do the colony ship game?

I really don't know. Torque's a pain but it's a familiar pain and by the time AoD is out all the issues will be ironed out. Still, you can only get so far on WWII technology. Unity *looks* much better, but it is an unknown engine with unknown issues.

 

[Volourn]

"I want the next game to be different. Different setting, different design (within the already established framework), different systems, different themes to explore, etc. The colony ship RPG seems to be a good fit. Party based, probably class-based (fits the caste idea), turn-based (naturally)."

3rd games should have dwarves. No elves or humans though. They are scumbag.

 

[Gozma]

Is this gonna come out in time to be an element of my descent into madness when I play like 20 new RPGs over the next two years

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

the age of dwarven transcendence