Some more good news about the game: we have now sold over 20000 copies on the iOS App Store. When we released the game almost a year ago, we really didn’t know what to expect in terms of sales. King of Dragon Pass is a unique title from an indie developer, which are usually two strikes against it. But I think this counts as success. Most copies were sold when the game was fairly new, but it has continued to sell.
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| Worldwide Sales |
To celebrate this achievement, as well as the game’s upcoming anniversary (the iPhone version came out on 7 September 2011), the game is on sale in the App Store for $2 off, for two days only.
Congratulations David, and everyone else who made the iOS version a reality!
ReplyDeleteNice! Cool to see a game like this selling, i hope it motivates someone to creat something more in this direction of interactive unlinear storytelling.
ReplyDeleteI actually always had an idea for a game like this, even as a child many many years ago. This is one of the reasons i am so happy i found this.
ReplyDeleteI always imagined how cool it would be to have a superhero game just like this. Just instead of a "land" it would just be a city and instead of clans you would have people and sometimes their secret/public identities. Lot´s of random event storylines in personal and hero/villan life based on skill levels. We actualy somewhat came up with a card game back than.
I just bought it yesterday and started my first game. I don't mind having paid a little more as I'm really enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteHey, I guess that must be us there on the map in the UAE! Cheers MOB
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, David, although I had expected a much larger number of downloads. But what do I know about app store statistics, right.
ReplyDeleteThe uniqueness of the game is actually one of its strong points. The game is not part of some overcrowded genre like endless runners or hidden object games. And as for being an indie developer, well, that too can count as a plus. Being an indie developer of just one major title means that you've poured your heart and soul into the game, polishing it to perfection. From a "consumer" point of view it's kind of hard to "love" a game by, let's say, Gameloft, knowing that it's just one of the many soulless projects that they're involved in. It's like the difference between true handicraft and a 9 to 5 office job.
Only downside of its uniqueness is that after having completed both the Short and Long Story Mode, I'm now showing severe withdrawal symptoms (I'm not even kidding), with no alternative game like this to fulfill my needs. A part of me of wishes that David turned a bit "Kairosoft"(that is repeating the same formula over and over again) and churned out more Storydriven Strategy.
Damnit, why can't this be an overcrowded genre ; ))
I think your surprise only confirms that unique indie games do not usually sell well.
ReplyDeleteAs for statistics, see http://www.streamingcolour.com/blog/2011/09/28/results-ios-game-revenue-survey/
We designed the game to offer 40 hours of play, and a large number of factors support replay. It’s possible to play an entire long game without seeing one of the major story lines, for example.
Interesting graphs there, David. Shocking to see that the top 20% sellers take 97% of the money. Because of that there's this huge gap between the median (only 3000 dollars) and the mean (a whopping 165.121 dollars) lifetime (!) revenue. This can be quite discouraging for starting developers (which I'm not, to keep that clear), but on the other hand, if you can make it big, you can make it REALLY big.
DeleteStill, 20.000 downloads, for about 10 dollars each, you did pretty well according to these statistics, David. Again, my congratulations.
Don’t forget that Apple gets 30% of everything. And, many copies were sold at a lower price (this is our 4th sale). But yes, KoDP did far better than the majority of games, which we’re proud of. (Even if it is below average in income.)
DeleteI may be rocking the boat here, but have you ever considered getting the support of a major publisher? Phosphor games got support from Zynga in creating Horn. This decision got a lot of bad rep, because Zynga is infamous amongst gamers, but it got a quality title published, in a relatively short time. I'm sure there must be a lot of interested developers in the unique selling point that you have to offer. How about the likes of Crescent Moon?
DeleteIve defined 6 very unique clan archetypes that make for incredibly varied experiences each playthrough, although each has very stringent lists of things the clan must, can or won't do. Between the 6 I doubt I will ever tire of playing KoDP, but I also have to admit I'd love to see David and A-Sharp make a sequel
ReplyDeleteThe archetypes might make a good guest blog post?
DeleteWe would love to do a sequel too.
As in "we would love to, but we just can't", or as in "we would love to, and someday we're going to"? Obviously I'm hoping for the latter.
DeleteI'd like to read more about the archetypes as well. Clearly you're not just talking about Elmal-worshipping warmongers vs Ernalda-worshipping agricultural goody two-shoes. I've always just played as "myself", very pragmatically.
The app store has it at $8.49 in Australian dollars. Is the sale for North America only?
ReplyDeleteThe App Store is worldwide. Normal price is AU$10.49 (Apple makes these up, so I guess it’s not exactly 20% off everywhere).
DeleteAh, of course. Brain seizure on my part.
DeleteRight.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to get that feeling back that you get while attempting a certain heroquest for the very first time, that feeling that you have to be very careful what to choose, trying to reproduce what you've just studied, with extreme consequences in case of failure. Like taking a driver's test.
I dare to say King of Dragon Pass is the best video game I've played in my entire life. Certainly the one I've enjoyed the most. But I hope to get that sense of exploration back, because that's what the game is really about.
It would be awesome to use the same mechanics to explore another part of Glorantha, different myths, different deities, meaning different heroquests. After all, there is a lot more in Glorantha to tell stories about.
The "Right" remark was in response to LostInBlue, not in response to Brian, by the way
DeleteHow do guest blog posts work David?
ReplyDeleteHaven’t done one before, but send me the text, I will edit and post it (with whatever credit you want).
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