When's it coming?

[Alberto]

I'm sure there's an answer to this somewhere on the forum,but I'm not well at the moment and don't have the energy to search.

I'm enjoying KoTC immensely and I'm really looking forward to KoTC2.

[BlueSalamander]

Hi Alberto! With Battle of the Sands coming up, I can't focus on KotC 2 yet. But I've done some work on character creation and I can also say that Roman Hodek, the artist for Battle of the Sands, will do some graphical work for KotC 2. As for the rest of the KotC 2 programming, it's probably going to take another two years.

[Alberto]

Ok,thanks for replying BS,I can wait,I hope but you can never be sure at my age!

Hadn't realised you were author of KoTC so thanks for a great game that's taken an oldie back to the days of Champions of Krynn.

[Grimlorn]

I was just checking the kickstarter create project page. It seems like you can create a kickstarter if you're located in the UK now. So whenever you're done with your current project, it appears you can start a kickstarter to get the funding needed for KotC 2 if you want.

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creator+questions?ref=footer

[screeg]

Really hope you'll consider KS, BS. So many great games, some asking as little as $5K, have been funded. And these are from people without your rabid fanbase.

Of course, you'd have to have someplace to spend the money, ie. time off work, artists, sound, another programmer.

[BlueSalamander]

I know, Kickstarter is pretty exciting and I'd like to use it. The question is when.
I have to get Battle of the Sands sorted out. This won't take much longer at least for the Windows version.
Then it would be good to get KotC 2 in a sufficiently advanced state where the party can fight enemies and you can create characters and edit maps.

[deathknight1728]

Its funny that while Temple of Elemental Evil is out with excellent graphics and I own it and even though you can choose how many characters you want-I always think of what will happen your sequel comes out.

I'm not sure any of you know this but KOTC 2 (your sequel) is listed under top 100 games that HAVE TO BE MADE in this lifetime or the next. That might not seem like much but I think it is, you should be proud. Sorry I don't have link for that, I saw it listed on a website and was glad.

Im going to go back to trying to get your original game on good old games. Eschalon's there, Old Avernum's there, Avadons there-next is The Quest, Avernum Escape from the Pit. Its almost more fun trying to get rpgs on good old games than it is playing them

[Doctor Sbaitso]

GOG would be perfect for KOTC.

Everywhere I look Pierre, people are trying to help you make money and encouraging you to get KOTC2 on Kickstart.

So what is it? You don't like money and so no GOG? You aren't prepared right now for the burden of transparency that comes with KS? Are you perhaps a little fearful of overwhelming support leading to a change of the way you like to things?

Take the plunge on Kickstarter, people want to support your good work and what comes of a Kickstarter campaign may surpass your wildest dreams. It's time to groooow!

[BlueSalamander]

GOG would be perfect for KOTC.

Maybe, but I've never used Steam or GOG so I have trouble seeing value in them. If it's just a matter of adopting lower prices, I can do that on my own site first.

So what is it? You don't like money and so no GOG? You aren't prepared right now for the burden of transparency that comes with KS? Are you perhaps a little fearful of overwhelming support leading to a change of the way you like to things?

I'm just not ready yet. No point launching KS without a playable foundation. I do thank you guys for your support.

For now, I have to get BotS released in Linux and Mac OS versions. It's not easy but it will help me in the future.

[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. Meaning, those who cared enough to search for games like yours, or frequent the places where such games are mentioned, have already come upon it at some point. Thus, the value of GOG is that it shows your game to thousands of more people who have never heard of it, because their interest in games like this are casual. They may have played the gold box games like Dark Sun in the past, and are on GOG to live their nostalgic youth. An untapped market, I would assume, as they are not active in their search for games, but on GOG they will passively find them. Therefore, you would gain sales that you would otherwise probably never get. Certainly, you will lose some revenue from people who will buy it on GOG instead of on your own site, but I would imagine that the amount of "casuals" who get to know that KOTC exists through GOG would more than compensate for the lost sales. I see this as a situation where there's a lot of potential buyers you'll never reach unless you sell your games through something like GOG, because the visibility of your games is extremely low among more casual buyers, but most of the hardcore buyers have already bought what they wanted, so the amount of revenue you might lose from lowered profits per game would be compensated by greater volume of customers.

If your sales haven't declined, and have been more or less the same each month since release, then indeed it'd probably be a bad idea to sell it on GOG or Steam. But if, say, your sales have halved every half a year, then I would strongly suggest trying to make a deal with GOG or Steam(the greenlighting feature might be of use on Steam).

I guess it ultimately depends on if you can afford to take the risk. If you are dependent on the sales you make on your own site, it's a bad idea to risk losing that revenue by gambling on it. But if it's merely a bonus that you don't really need to survive, I think the potential benefits of a large amount of extra sales would be worth the gamble. There's also the fact that the more people buy KOTC, the more people will know of KOTC2 and thus you'd probably get more revenue from it when it is released. With that in mind, perhaps you might want to try GOG or Steam on the same year you intend to release KOTC2, since if it's fresh in their mind, they're more likely to make a purchase, than if it's years in the future.

Worth thinking about, I believe.