Author Topic: Aquaria FAQ (Read 391039 times)

Guert · « **Reply #105 on:** September 28, 2007, 03:17:03 pm »

I presume the interest in steam comes from the fact that you have to install it to play half-life games (and other titles). So people are thinking: "If I can get a big game like Half-Life 2 off steam, why can't I get a game like Aquaria from there too? It's there, it's installed and all I would need to do in order to possess it would be to click on its logo!"

Well, it's a theory...

Stalfos · « **Reply #106 on:** September 28, 2007, 03:47:36 pm »

Haha

Though this theory DOES seems to apply in most cases, I asked because of the wider distribution it would cause.

I do work and play... and play at work (during dinner time only! I swear!) so having a single software where I can download from anywhere on the planet is useful. That way I can have my game at home and at the office.
There are pros and cons to Steam as well... A post in the Steam topic pointed out a few (Internet REQUIRED, Steam must be running, Wider audience, lower prices, copy protection? etc).

Of course... if you do provide a accounting thingy to download a full version from your website (as stated in the topic), I'll be happy.

As a matter of facts, I just downloaded a game (Starscape) from website that do provide accounting on its webpage, updates, few extra hidden galleries... so I'll live with or without implentation into Steam.

In any case, whatever decision is taking, I WILL support the game and pay for it. Thanks for the answers!

Alec · « **Reply #107 on:** September 28, 2007, 04:41:46 pm »

We'd be using a system similar to Moonpod/Starscape on our own site.

Another big difference for developers is that while Steam lets you reach a wider audience, Valve also takes a sizable cut of the profits. If you buy direct from an indie developer's website, you know that ~97% of your money is going to support the developer.

Stalfos · « **Reply #108 on:** September 28, 2007, 04:48:03 pm »

Quote from: Alec on September 28, 2007, 04:41:46 pm

We'd be using a system similar to Moonpod/Starscape on our own site.

Another big difference for developers is that while Steam lets you reach a wider audience, Valve also takes a sizable cut of the profits. If you buy direct from an indie developer's website, you know that ~97% of your money is going to support the developer.

Neat and clear.

Why not provide a "Donate" link for additionnal support?

Windburn · « **Reply #109 on:** September 29, 2007, 02:18:12 am »

Quote from: Alec on September 28, 2007, 04:41:46 pm

We'd be using a system similar to Moonpod/Starscape on our own site.

Another big difference for developers is that while Steam lets you reach a wider audience, Valve also takes a sizable cut of the profits. If you buy direct from an indie developer's website, you know that ~97% of your money is going to support the developer.

Thought I'd chime in my first post on something worthwhile

In response to your earlier message, as someone who reluctantly used steam at first (due to Half Life 2), I now find I'm purchasing more and more titles on the online content delivery medium. It hasn't been for any reason other than convenience- convenient distribution, convenient access and convenient portability (I can switch steam to offline mode when I head off to uni and still play single player games on my laptop during classes, yipee!). Then when I get home I can login to steam on my desktop, and my games are there waiting for me too.

As a developer, I'd imagine you would have to weigh out the opportunity cost of losing a percentage of profits to valve against the sheer mass-exposure that a highly popular distribution system as Steam offers. Would you be better off marketing from the website, or have Steam market for you? This is something that only you can really answer/decide on- but there's no real reason you couldn't do both, right? At least that way your website sales would all end up in your pocket still, whilst exposing Aquaria to those that may not stumble across the website either.

I'd really love to see Aquaria make it on Steam, as I believe it acts as a viable alternative to costly retailing/packaging distribution. At the end of the day though, I don't know how Valve's internal developer-model works, and if the cuts are hefty it may not be appealing to you at all. Either way, I've been tracking Aquaria ever since I first saw it on igf, and it looks remarkable! Can't wait to get these grubby paws on it, whichever way you decide to release!

Alec · « **Reply #110 on:** September 29, 2007, 03:45:49 am »

We're looking into it, but we plan to release it ourselves first to see how that goes.

A lot of people know about the game already and it would be fun to market the game ourselves to see what we can do.

And again, if you're interested in supporting indie developers, you'd be better off buying a game from their website than from Steam.

Like mentioned above, developers like Moonpod do alright on their own.

Steam would open the game up to a wider market, and that's desirable, but I don't see the need to launch with it right away.

In any case, its something Derek and I will talk about and decide on at some point. I'm going to stop posting about it, because I'd rather be working on the game right now than thinking about this stuff.

xander · « **Reply #111 on:** September 29, 2007, 04:14:55 am »

Quote from: Windburn on September 29, 2007, 02:18:12 am

As a developer, I'd imagine you would have to weigh out the opportunity cost of losing a percentage of profits to valve against the sheer mass-exposure that a highly popular distribution system as Steam offers.

The thing is, if a Steam user never comes across Bit-Blot's website, and Aquaria is not on Steam, then they won't buy it, period. Not for any price. Thus, assuming that Aquaria sells for, say, $25, that is $25 that Bit-Blot didn't make. If the game is sold on Steam, but Valve takes half of what the game is sold for, that is $12.50 that Bit-Blot wouldn't have made otherwise. So, it is important to also compare several groups of people: (1) those that will buy the game direct from Bit-Blot, no matter what (probably only a very small number of the total potential customers); (2) those that will buy Aquaria from Steam (probably the majority of potential customers); (3) those that will buy the game from Steam, even though they know about Bit-Blot separate from Steam (this is probably a very, very small group); (4) and those that will see Aquaria on Steam, and buy it from Bit-Blot (again, a tiny demographic).

Group one is irrelevant from the analysis, as they are going to buy from Bit-Blot no matter what. Group three hurts Bit-Blot, but is tiny. Group four is good for Bit-Blot, but is probably also tiny. The contributions of groups three and four combined are probably negligible. Group two is the important group. If it is big enough, Steam is worthwhile from an economic standpoint.

As an example of what Steam can do for Indy developers, Introversion launched Darwinia in March of 2005. In December of 2005, Darwinia came to Steam. In the first week of sales on Steam, IV made more money off of Darwinia than they had in the first 6 months of sales self-publishing. To me, that is a powerful argument.

I should make it clear that I really don't care if Bit-Blot goes through Steam or not, and am in no way trying to persuade them, one way or the other. I am just trying to point out that the portion that Valve takes is, in the long run, probably irrelevant, thanks to the large volume of sales through Steam. In any case, it doesn't matter to me, as I am a Mac user, and will be buying from Ambrosia.

xander

Alec · « **Reply #112 on:** September 29, 2007, 04:18:33 am »

Ugh. I knew someone would misinterpret what I was saying.

I'm not saying we're not going to go on Steam because they take a cut. I'm saying if I saw an indie game on Steam that I wanted to buy, I'd go buy it from the developer's site instead. That's just a personal thing, and I think its worth pointing out. I feel that the indies probably need the money more than Valve does.

Obviously Steam would be a huge audience. I know that already. I think it would be good to have Aquaria on Steam at some point. I'm just saying that I'd like to see how far we can go on our own first.

And actually, in any of these threads, you guys can assume we're not idiots.

xander · « **Reply #113 on:** September 29, 2007, 04:47:49 pm »

Quote from: Alec on September 29, 2007, 04:18:33 am

Ugh. I knew someone would misinterpret what I was saying.

Actually, I wasn't responding to you at all. I was responding to Windburn. That is why I wrote this:

Quote

I should make it clear that I really don't care if Bit-Blot goes through Steam or not, and am in no way trying to persuade them, one way or the other. I am just trying to point out that the portion that Valve takes is, in the long run, probably irrelevant, thanks to the large volume of sales through Steam. In any case, it doesn't matter to me, as I am a Mac user, and will be buying from Ambrosia.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear.

xander

Alec · « **Reply #114 on:** September 29, 2007, 04:59:58 pm »

Oops!

Windburn · « **Reply #115 on:** September 29, 2007, 05:20:57 pm »

Spot on xander, that was implied throughout my OP. It's the market exposure that you wouldn't otherwise have access to that is Steam's greatest boon.
Great that you have some empirical evidence too, didn't know that about Darwinia. But yah, out of respect for Alec's request, let's curb the Steam talk so he can concentrate on releasing!

Sfiera · « **Reply #116 on:** September 29, 2007, 05:26:04 pm »

Here's a proposal for an edit to the first post. I substituted { for [ to disable bbcode so you'd need to replace them back to get the markup.

-------------------------

{b]Q. When will the game be released?{/b]

When it's done

{b]Q. What platform(s) will Aquaria be on?{/b]

PC: Yes

Mac: Yes
Details: The Mac version will be published by Ambrosia. Bit Blot is doing the work of porting the Mac version, with Ambrosia providing advice and beta testing. Currently the Mac version already runs well! We'll be making more Mac specific changes after the PC version is complete.

Linux: Yes
Details: The Linux version will be released after the PC version and will probably be a separate purchase. There's {url=http://www.bit-blot.com/?p=19]a video of Aquaria running on Ubuntu{/url] on the blog.

XBox360: Maybe!

Wii/PS3: Maybe?

NintendoDS: Maybe?

{b]Q. How is the game controlled?{/b]

On PC, you can use either just the mouse, the XBox360 controller or keyboard+mouse. You can switch to a control method by just starting to use it. Support for other game pads will probably not be added for the first release. You'll also be able to customize the controls somewhat. The main goal with the mouse and X360 methods is fluidity.

The in-game menu can be brought up with a button by the mini-map or the "escape" key; the spell menu is accessed with the right mouse button. For Mac-users lacking a two-button mouse, there will be some key equivalent, such as ctrl-click or cmd-click.

{b]Q. How long is the game?{/b]

We haven't done a lot of testing on this yet. Until we have, we can say it will depend a lot on how the player wants to experience the game. Those who want to push to the next objective will have a different experience from those who get caught up in exploring, finding secrets or feeling like they're living in the different areas. The world is really big.

{b]Q. What inspired Aquaria?{/b]

The ocean itself is a huge inspiration! There are so many {url=http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=4.0]strange things{/url] to be found in it. In terms of the gameplay; Metroid1, Zelda1 and Castlevania: SotN are the most fitting inspirations.

{b]Q. Are there going to be any deliberate references to other games in Aquaria?{/b]

We're not going to put explicit references to other games in Aquaria because we feel it would take away from the legitimacy of the experience.

{b]Q. Can I get a review copy for my site?{/b]

The game isn't finished yet. Until its done, we can't really answer this question!

{b]Q. How much will Aquaria cost?{/b]

Still thinking about this.

{b]Q. Will Aquaria be distributed via Valve's Steam?{/b]

It's a definite possibility. However, we intend to release the game on our own website before we look at alternate distribution methods. ({url=http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=141.0]discussion topic{/url])

{b]Q. How big will the download size for the full version be?{/b]

Likely over 100MB. There's a lot of content in Aquaria!

{b]Q. Do you have any plans for a Demo?{/b]

Why, yes we do! It's uncertain right now whether the demo will contain its own storyline, or be the opening chapter of the full game. ({url=http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=143.0]discussion topic{/url])

{b]Q. What about a level editor for user generated content?{/b]

The game will include a level editor, animation editor; all the creatures/events are scripted and the particles effects are editable files. ({url=http://www.bit-blot.com/forum/index.php?topic=131.msg1451#msg1451]discussion topic{/url])

{b]Q. Do you have any plans for the next games you would like to develop?{/b]

Yeah, we have a pretty clear idea of what we want to work on next. Its exciting, but we can't spend much time on it until we've finished the PC version of Aquaria.

{b]Q. I want to work with you guys. Is emailing you up and acting like a dick a good idea?{/b]

{img]http://static.firedoglake.com/2006/07/tstevensmain.jpg{/img]

"NO!"

ArcticSwan360 · « **Reply #117 on:** September 30, 2007, 06:23:55 am »

On the topic of Indie developers and Steam, what's your thoughts on Gamecock's approach to publishing video games?

Alec · « **Reply #118 on:** October 01, 2007, 10:02:25 am »

What is GameCock's approach?

Stalfos · « **Reply #119 on:** October 01, 2007, 03:02:41 pm »

Quote from: Alec on September 29, 2007, 04:18:33 am

I'm saying if I saw an indie game on Steam that I wanted to buy, I'd go buy it from the developer's site instead.

That is what I'll do from now on, but before Aquaria and before I came here, I didn't even know what "Indie" standed for, nor that Steam would take parts of the price.

Maybe it sounds funny, but I do not think casual gamers/users are aware of that.