I've spent the past couple of weeks talking with our designers about Dead and trying to find some cohesive angles to the game development and design and where we should go next. So it's not that we're dead in the water with no postings, we've just been busy.
It's my impression that finding proper investment for a game requires the designers to make a list of items that describe in which ways the game will be Exactly The Same as the handful of successfull CCG's around. Read again, it has to be Exactly the Same. Every developer seems to complain about the same thing. The budget for producing Dead is no small amount of money so anything we present to potential investors has to be tight. Exactly the Same - business models are viewed as 'tight' if i'm not badly mistaken.
We took a close look into a CCG that one of our designers plays almost every day. That game is available on Kongregate, written in flash, has severe crashing bugs and looks like the graphics were drawn by a retarded child on Corel Draw 1.0. It certainly looks and behaves like a complete piece of turd, if you'd compare it with say the Vidiot Game, vidiot game would come on top for innovation and staggering graphics.
I've been watching Kongregate over the past four years as a platform to host my games. Sure enough the platform has lots of users and a few popular games. Is it just me that thinks most if all of the stuff on Kongregate is of very low production value. And people seem to be ok with that. Why?
Thinking of something I produced sitting on a page that's full of these ugly widgets with 256 different font types and sizes makes me shudder. It looks so bad but still people are ok with that. Why?
Maybe it's the band analogy thats gnawing away inside me. If my band had the best shit but no recognition, would I do a tour with two other bands who have recognition but that are rubbish? The answer is always no. Why would I like my band to be associated with rubbish? No effing way.
We went thru a lot of monetization models and things in our research and the staggering fact is that you have to do all those dirty powercreep-inducing manouvers to keep people playing and buying. Never lose sight of your begging bowl seems to be the rule. It can look like crap but still you can beg. And the most astonishing fact is that people actually spend money on a game item that basically is a piece of steaming dog's excrement done in corel draw 1.0 and that gives you +3 mana for the next 3 minutes for your pay-to-win kicks. What absolute rubbish. Am I the only one who's pissed off about this kind of tactic?
As our mission is to give good production quality and good value, we've decided to produce a physical version of Dead. Yup, real cards. Maybe you remember those, things that look cool on the store shelf, you pay for them, take home and open the packaging, feel the new card smell, shuffle your cards in awe and focus on the instructions on How to play. Call up a couple of mates, grab a few beers and have fun. Magic moments. And that's what we want to give to you guys, magic moments with your friends, memories for life.
The 'real' version of Dead doesn't mean there won't be any online fun ever, oh no. The online development is alive and well and we'll keep on building. But it's completion is still ways ahead so we're doing the paper version first. No powercreep, no begging bowls. Just buy the deck and the game will be as much fun as day one even 20 years after you bought it.
That's what i call value. Exciting things ahead, we'll keep you posted!
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