When's it coming?

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Hmm, dupe.

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Having funds to pay someone else to take care of platform specific considerations would help speed things and free you to create. I guess that is the what I would like for you to take away.

Plenty of projects have been supported based purely on the reputations of their creators from prior works, or by those who really want a project to succeed. I have supported several projects based on previous works, like wasteland2, Torment RPG for example. Torment won't release for another two years and I am happy to wait and happy to support the people who have made great games.

You have definitely shown your mettle in making tactical RPGs and I think you would find a lot of support there. People will pony up funds up front to help make KoTC2 better than you could without the funds. Having a playable base is immaterial I think; many supported KS projects have greater than two year life cycles and start with not much more than a concept or idea.

On another front, I think people would feel better about giving money that they know will directly benefit the creation of KoTC. Actually that is what makes Kickstarter so successful -- people pay to help get what they want. In many cases, people pay much more than they would otherwise. Paying for BotS or buying another copy of KotC is not the same thing!

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I don't mean to come off as pushy. I just happen to think that given the chance (through KS), you would get the support you deserve, which is likely more than you might think.

If you haven't done so, find a project on Kickstarter you want to get behind and become a donor. When you do that and look into the community and energy that spins up around a project that you care about and is successfully funded. For donor and project team alike it is quite special. KoTC2 needs some of that love.

[Tiavals]

Here's a small, albeit two years old, article about Steam with an interview of some indie developer. Pretty vague on the details, though.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/07/volume-vs-price-one-indie-dev-describes-steam-sales/

[BlueSalamander]

At this point, I would guess that almost everyone who will buy KOTC on your site has already done so and your sales have declined heavily since release.

Sales have declined heavily, but not everyone who will buy KotC on the site has already done so. Far from it I think. Sales depend on advertising and price. Before using GOG, I will lower prices. Then at some point I'll try using them, I think.

Having a playable base is immaterial I think; many supported KS projects have greater than two year life cycles and start with not much more than a concept or idea.

Sure, the project will get some support without a playable base, but I'm not comfortable launching a game project without a playable base. Because then I would have really no idea how long the project is going to take. I am curious about the big RPG projects on KS: will the games be released on time or will development drag on.

[Doctor Sbaitso]

At this point, I would guess that almost everyone who will buy KOTC on your site has already done so and your sales have declined heavily since release.

Sales have declined heavily, but not everyone who will buy KotC on the site has already done so. Far from it I think. Sales depend on advertising and price. Before using GOG, I will lower prices. Then at some point I'll try using them, I think.

Having a playable base is immaterial I think; many supported KS projects have greater than two year life cycles and start with not much more than a concept or idea.

Sure, the project will get some support without a playable base, but I'm not comfortable launching a game project without a playable base. Because then I would have really no idea how long the project is going to take. I am curious about the big RPG projects on KS: will the games be released on time or will development drag on.

Brian Fargo heads up Inexile games, who are producing Wasteland 2 and Torment from kickstarter projects. I imagine he would have the best insight to give you. He has twitter @BrianFargo, or you could contact him through inexile.

[Tiavals]

At this point, I would guess that almost everyone who will buy KOTC on your site has already done so and your sales have declined heavily since release.

Sales have declined heavily, but not everyone who will buy KotC on the site has already done so. Far from it I think. Sales depend on advertising and price. Before using GOG, I will lower prices. Then at some point I'll try using them, I think.

That's what I meant by it. I don't think lowering the price will affect many people who would buy the game through your site, and investing in advertising at this point is unlikely to pay off, as the adverts probably won't reach the people who don't already have the game. KOTC is very well regarded and known in the "scene", so to say, but very poorly known outside of it. Therefore, any advertisement should probably be targeted outside the hardcore-old-school players and I would guess that would cost a very large amount. But with GOG, it becomes much easier(with Steam it'd be extremely easy), since advertisement combined to a lower price will make more casual players buy it on an impulse basis. Then again, I don't have any official business or marketing related studies so I'm quite possibly wrong in all of this. I just hope you'll succeed financially, since that would probably mean a better KOTC2 when it comes out someday.

[BlueSalamander]

I don't think lowering the price will affect many people who would buy the game through your site

Okay but I'll have to try anyway. When both KotC and BotS are priced $6 and sales are very low, I will know it's time to apply for GOG and Steam. Because it's much better to get $6 sales from my site than from third-party sites

[Doctor Sbaitso]

You need to consider the multiplier!

I think one deciding factor is whether you feel the sales volume gains you would get from a site with a million users justifies a decision to adopt a lower price per unit. There is a tipping point there I think.

Other considerations include exposure for the series, for Heroic as a producer and whatever value you attach to future sales based on happy GOG KoTC customers.

Whatever your path is, I wish you success.

[screeg]

"Untapped market" is pretty much the single answer to the questions Why Steam? Why GoG? and even partly Why Kickstarter?