Colony Ship Early Access Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[LostHisMarbles]

Steam refund and steam user ratings are probably the best thing to happens to video game consumers in the last two decades.

Two sides to everything, surely that's simple enough a concept even for Codex standards?
That you're a consoomer in this need not necessarily remove your ability to see it a bit more objectively; be it or be it not to your liking/approval.

 

[Jaedar]

Steam refund and steam user ratings are probably the best thing to happens to video game consumers in the last two decades.

Two sides to everything, surely that's simple enough a concept even for Codex standards?
That you're a consoomer in this need not necessarily remove your ability to see it a bit more objectively; be it or be it not to your liking/approval.

Nope, refund is also good for devs. If your game is good people won't refund it, and if it's bad you'll go out of business and leave more oxygen for the good stuff. Plus it might make people less wary of trying stuff outside their comfort zone, because they can always refund it so easier to reach new audiences.

I guess it's bad for bad devs and scam artists but well... that's like saying there's two sides to police because police are bad for criminals.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Vault Dweller Have you considered a more catchy name?

 

[razvedchiki]

age of lazors: the return of rng.

 

[agris]

Decadence of Colonies: An Age of Ships RPG Game

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

I have no colony and i have to ship

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I think @Vault Dweller needs to try to aggressively upsell Colony Ship to Age of Decadence owners. That's your surest bet - people who you know have already paid money for that sort of game. Find a way to remind them you exist.

The usual banner in the main menu that many games do would be something which would be relatively easy to implement. Doing a The World of Iron Tower Studios Bundle with all three games. But I doubt these would increase the sales by more than 1-2% to be realistic. I'm certainly part of the I wait until the Early Access is over crowd. tbf, in 2022 there's nothing exciting about playing an Early Access title and I think it works best for Simulation and Roguelike games. Looking forward to play Colony Ship when it's finished!

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Ditto. This is on my radar, but I'm not interested in early access. I'll buy it when it's done.

 

[CoronerZg]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/648410/discussions/0/3601219829869953326/
This could help... so go forth and do your codexian duty, for God and Incline

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Vault Dweller Have you considered a more catchy name?

For several years, I've been proposing Age of Incandescence or Age of Luminescence.

 

[Sòren]

Elden Ship - A SOULSLIKE RPG game in space

 

[Infinitron]

I think @Vault Dweller needs to try to aggressively upsell Colony Ship to Age of Decadence owners. That's your surest bet - people who you know have already paid money for that sort of game. Find a way to remind them you exist.

The usual banner in the main menu that many games do would be something which would be relatively easy to implement. Doing a The World of Iron Tower Studios Bundle with all three games. But I doubt these would increase the sales by more than 1-2% to be realistic. I'm certainly part of the I wait until the Early Access is over crowd. tbf, in 2022 there's nothing exciting about playing an Early Access title and I think it works best for Simulation and Roguelike games. Looking forward to play Colony Ship when it's finished!

I'm not talking about Early Access.

Vault Dweller 15% discount coupon for Colony Ship to all Age of Decadence owners on launch day. They get a Steam inventory pop-up telling them the game exists.

 

[lukaszek]

or go after movies, not games.
Interstellar colony ship. Or something

 

[Tsubutai]

There's a new beta with additional content including the return to the Pit after the Habitat, new courthouse fights, and faction companions to play with: https://steamcommunity.com/app/648410/discussions/0/3601219829881127786/

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/648410/discussions/0/3601219829869953326/
This could help... so go forth and do your codexian duty, for God and Incline

I did it

 

[Üstad]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/648410/discussions/0/3601219829869953326/
This could help... so go forth and do your codexian duty, for God and Incline

I did it

Same

 

[Darth Canoli]

You missed my point. Yes, Atom did very well, much better than AoD, but it's a modest hit. Battle Brothers has 16k reviews and Wartales already has 7.3k reviews while still in Early Access. There's nothing to suggest that Encased, backed by a big publisher eager to show what the new RPG division can do, couldn't hit the same numbers. THAT is what marketing is supposed to be about after all, making sure that everyone interested in such RPGs would know about it. Yet they failed despite presumably their best effort.

You're right about publishers, I don't think a typical low effort publisher would do you any good.
A good one could or you could do it yourself if you dedicate someone to marketing at some point.

In my opinion, players are ready for hardcore RPG, hardcore tacticools and roguelikes are already selling well.
Still, so far, most players like hardcore games but with simple enough mechanics or at least they think they do.

They have to be educated, hardcore RPG with great mechanisms is an acquired taste.
I think your marketing should reflect that, hardcore RPG with deep mechanisms, simple to play, hard to master. Also, a well made optional tutorial would probably help a lot, I know I hate tutorials but people seems to respond well to games with one.

 

[deama]

Any ETA on the planned release date? Or at least how far the game is done % wise?

 

[Alphons]

Any ETA on the planned release date? Or at least how far the game is done % wise?

Currently you have the entire Chapter 1 and huge chunk of Chapter 2.

From Steam page:

“We're looking at July 2023 right now. Here's what's left to do:

End of Jan - Heart (the mutant town)
End of Mar - Hydroponics (the Yellow and Red Zones), Mission Control (the lower levels)
End of May - The Armory (level 3), Bridge and the end of chapter 3
End of Jul - Endgame (chapter 4)”

 

[deama]

Any ETA on the planned release date? Or at least how far the game is done % wise?

Currently you have the entire Chapter 1 and huge chunk of Chapter 2.

From Steam page:

“We're looking at July 2023 right now. Here's what's left to do:

End of Jan - Heart (the mutant town)
End of Mar - Hydroponics (the Yellow and Red Zones), Mission Control (the lower levels)
End of May - The Armory (level 3), Bridge and the end of chapter 3
End of Jul - Endgame (chapter 4)”

Oh nice, sooner than I thought.
I was expecting end of 2023.

 

[agris]

I think 23Q4 is the reasonable expectation

 

[Jaedar]

Tried a little bit of the new chapter 3 content on the regular release (it seems very unfinished, so I'm going to wait some more).
Jonas is kind of an ass huh? No matter who you pick for new enforcer, he goes with the other one.

As for system update: the new perception capstone seems great, and +1 follower for a perk point seems strong as well. Haven't done any combat so I can't comment on that.

 

[Twiglard]

Is there meant to be any content once you kill one of the competitors for the position of Jonas' second in command? No new quest starts after returning to Jonas and the demo doesn't end either.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Is there meant to be any content once you kill one of the competitors for the position of Jonas' second in command? No new quest starts after returning to Jonas and the demo doesn't end either.

Not at this stage.

 

[Technomancer]

Vault Dweller Have you considered a more catchy name?

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,7610.0.html

I was among those who voted for current generic name, there were worse alternatives