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Anime Panic at Multiverse High! - a new visual novel by DoubleBear

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,660
Was there even an attempt to hype it, even in the lowly circles where people might be interested in this thing?

Or did they just dump it on Steam?

A PC Gamer article and a stream yesterday, but as you can see, it was literally that one person playing http://steamcharts.com/app/515000.

And of course twitter announcements from Double Bear and Annie's personal account. Learning the hard way that they don't qualify for regressive leftist indie dev welfare. On the plus side, there'll be no begging for notch's attention this time around.

Another lesson learned:
Annie said:
I hope you enjoy it - visual novels weren't really my bag before, but as a designer it's been fun experimenting with them and seeing how they tick.
Probably not a good idea to make something in a genre you don't particularly care for.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
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Messages
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Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah. Some VN can be an enjoyable ride. If they have taken it more seriously, instead of this half-assed looking cruel joke, i might even try it.
 

Viata

Arcane
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Messages
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Location
Water Play Catarinense
I enjoy and love VN(although I only go for good ones[going by reviews] and/or hentai scenes included), but even if I tried those indie VN(the list is way too big for me to try indie VN right now), I'd go for those that have good art or interesting plot. This game lack both of them. The art is ugly even for indie VN standards(look all those VN Roguey posted, each of them is superior to Panic in art), I can't understand how they decided it was a good idea to contract this artist if you can find better easily(either by DA or contact any artist for any indie VN on steam). It seems like they tried for a quick cash. Which went downhill, since only one person bought it.
They should drop their JRPG, it's ugly as fuck and, if this game is any indication, I don't expect anything from the story too. While at that, Brian should drop Annie too, things will get better if he just focus on CRPG, maybe re-playing VtM: Bloodlines can help him remember what he used to do and who he used to be.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
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Messages
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Two weeks worth of sales finally in http://steamspy.com/app/515000

Owners: 534 ± 738
Players in the last 2 weeks: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Players total: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Peak concurrent players yesterday: 2
Playtime in the last 2 weeks: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)
Playtime total: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)

I'm skeptical of those player numbers. Going by Steam charts it's around 30 players at best.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Two weeks worth of sales finally in http://steamspy.com/app/515000

Owners: 534 ± 738
Players in the last 2 weeks: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Players total: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Peak concurrent players yesterday: 2
Playtime in the last 2 weeks: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)
Playtime total: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)

I'm skeptical of those player numbers. Going by Steam charts it's around 30 players at best.

Less than 1000 owners = statistically near-zero. I mean, look at this: http://steamspy.com/app/362960
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,176
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Two weeks worth of sales finally in http://steamspy.com/app/515000

Owners: 534 ± 738
Players in the last 2 weeks: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Players total: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Peak concurrent players yesterday: 2
Playtime in the last 2 weeks: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)
Playtime total: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)

I'm skeptical of those player numbers. Going by Steam charts it's around 30 players at best.

Less than 1000 owners = statistically near-zero. I mean, look at this: http://steamspy.com/app/362960
so there are probably less than 100 people have/played it, but because of how steamspy calculate things, the numbers appear to be 1000+?

i mean it is impossible that 1500 people played tyranny, but maybe there are dozens or so who play alpha/beta previews and palytest
 

Heretic

Cipher
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
844
- Yesterday two people played the game
- Steamspy is confused from such small numbers. 543 ± 1,062 players? -519 to 1.605 players is another way of throwing up your hands and giving up on any estimate
- DoubleBear's tweets about the game have 1-4 retweets, at least one of which is always Murderblonde
- No reviews whatsoever - in any language. Literally no one cares about the game
- No screenshots
- Dead Steam forum

This is the biggest flop I have ever seen.

So who here will take pity on Annie and play the game?
 

Zombra

An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
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Black Goat Woods !@#*%&^
Make the Codex Great Again! RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
So, when can we read the RPG Codex review?
222682d1299017038-balloons-frozen-hell.jpg
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,152
Two weeks worth of sales finally in http://steamspy.com/app/515000

Owners: 534 ± 738
Players in the last 2 weeks: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Players total: 543 ± 1,062 (101.73%)
Peak concurrent players yesterday: 2
Playtime in the last 2 weeks: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)
Playtime total: 01:24 (average) 01:24 (median)

I'm skeptical of those player numbers. Going by Steam charts it's around 30 players at best.

Less than 1000 owners = statistically near-zero. I mean, look at this: http://steamspy.com/app/362960

Peak concurrent numbers says it all really. My guess is that the owners value is less transparent and there is a lot of assumptions made (like how supposedly 80% or something of steam games purchased aren't actually played or w/e). When you have such a small base number and add a bunch of guesswork designed to take into account random factors you're left not being able to find any real data. You can see that it estimates the number of players higher than the number of owners. Makes no sense.

Is that 1:24 playtime total hours or minutes? :lol:
 

FeelTheRads

Arcane
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
13,716
With the way it looks? Jesus christ. There's hipster crap that's still good technically, then there's bad graphics and then there's the raptor-lady and... this.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
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Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,660
http://steamcommunity.com/games/515000/announcements/detail/582476161071859618

PANIC High Newsletter #2: First Patch is go!
August 31 - Murderblonde
Hello again, current students (and possibly future interested attendees)!

Today we celebrate not only the two-week-a-versary (I tried looking up if this had a proper Latin name, but the Goobluz search engine was NO HELP) of the beginning of school here at Multiverse High! We’ve been very pleased to see your happy faces in the halls (although every day we seem to see less and less Kevins – are you cutting class, young men?) and hope to see more promising young folks join our ranks.

We’re pleased to also offer up our very first “Patch”! I have been told this is a fascinating bit of technology that presents fixes to issues large and small. How lovely! Our excellent technology officer has given me a list of some things that have been dealt with:

+ A number of typos have been fixed, thanks to the diligence of multiple students in pointing them out! Thank you for your conscientiousness!

+ “Self-voicing” mechanic will now not repeatedly read the date. Although it is always prudent to be mindful of one’s scheduling, constant reminders bordering on nagging are never any fun!

+ Minor visual errors have been fixed (likely thanks to Art Club!)

A quick apology to students from the Mac and Linux departments that we do not yet have versions ready for you, but rest assured that our whole faculty is working very hard on the problem, and are being assisted by some truly kind and hardworking individuals. Your help today makes a better tomorrow!

That’s it for me for now, but I do hope you check back in with us for future exciting updates. Be sure to tell everyone about the fun you have at Multiverse High – we always welcome new enrollees!

They're spending time and effort on a patch and Linux/Mac ports for a visual novel no one is playing. I guess love is letting your spouse continue to throw away money on an irrevocably failed venture.
 

Turjan

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
5,047
That game simply looks ugly, and not very interesting.

I get the impression that since Dead State was Brian's brainchild, it's now Annie's turn. They get to one-up Avellone by doing the high school RPG he wanted to do until he played Bully, and slather it with her womanchild aesthetics.

So is this DoubleBear's new direction? Have they abandoned any thoughts of more ambitious games (and indeed games in general). Does anyone know how bad the Dead State sales were?

http://steamspy.com/app/239840 Owners: 111,466 ± 8,308

Even with Steam cuts and deep discounts to consider, that's somewhere in the range of half a million to a million.
Does anyone know how much of this number is due to the Humble Weekly Bundle Orbit Play? I know I got the game from that bundle, but my google-fu fails me to find out how many copies of that bundle were sold. I bought the bundle because of Grim Fandango Remastered, and it was dirt cheap.
 
Last edited:

Heretic

Cipher
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
844
The game has a first review, from someone who plays a lot of VNs. He enjoyed it.

This is absolutely a tongue-in-cheek parody of both a visual novel and science-fantasy superhero caper. I personally loved it. A playthrough took roughly two hours and with a handful of saves to go back and choose other paths.

There are three stats to choose from - Cool, Tough and Nice and associated activities and people to befriend and pratice with. Everyone is a stereotype and they work really well in a multiverse setting. I enjoyed the handful of NPC's I ran into in my first playthrough and now really the question that remains is... save scum and do everyone else from the clubs I unlocked or a fresh start and different trait/club combination?

Great game. Adorable and charming, the low fi art style really fits with the theme and I actually do hope for a real sequel. Now to get back to the PANIC!


10/10 Would hit jerkface bully in the eye with mints any day of the week.
 

Heretic

Cipher
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
844
The game has a second review, by Lauren Stone. She praises the game, but forgot to disclose that she is at the very least Twitter friends with Annie and that they worked on a book together.

Oh well, this friendly review won't save the game.

It was a nice distraction from all the shooters I've been playing lately, and if you are looking for a game where murder and violence aren't the only way to solve problems, you might enjoy PANIC at Multiverse High!

Her Steam account has just three games.
 

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