Alright then, looks like we are playing nice (or nicer).
I will just leave this here -
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... ivate-jets
So this doesn't get twisted into an EA thing - This article talks about how in the 'olden' days a dev only got 20% of a game until the dev costs were covered and then $7 per copy if the game continued to sell for $60. Nowadays that same dev can avoid the publisher and sell a game for $9.99 and still pocket $7 per copy. Does Introversion really need to make $30 per copy of a game to stay in business and turn a profit? That is a great price for a AAA game with hundreds of people on the payroll and $$ millions in dev costs.
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My concern is not for myself but for the gamers out there that cannot have a taste of this game legally and how crappy some people here want to treat gamers that cannot afford $30 for an alpha of a game. It could very well be the dad with 2 kids and a wife who saves up for something nice once a month and has to choose between this game or a finished game on steam (or a nice dinner for his wife). It could be another country where their wages do not match the UK, Australia, or the US.
We have plenty of examples of very, very successful games at much lower price points (Minecraft, Terraria, The Binding of Isaac, and on and on). Even devs like the guy that made Binding of Isaac said something along the lines of he wants everyone to play his game no matter how they obtain it (or it could have been the dev from Super Meat Boy). I think (just giving feedback) that the devs have overpriced their product. Maybe not 4-5 years ago when you just paid the price of entry, but now that the market is so saturated with games and the pricing of the majority of games compared to this one.
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As far as Dwarf Fortress and the length of development. Dwarf Fortress is 1000x deeper than even the mighty Minecraft let alone Prison Architect or Terraria. I've read that it may be one of the most advanced pieces of software on the planet - not for it's ascii graphics of course but for the multitude of systems running under the hood.
Toady - "Tarn applied to 17 Ph.D. programs, got into 15 and, wavering briefly between M.I.T. and Stanford, chose the latter. He earned his doctorate in 2005 with a dissertation called “Flat Chains in Banach Spaces,” -
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magaz ... d=all&_r=0
So lets not compare Prison Architect to Dwarf Fortress because there is zero comparison to make as far as game vs game. The only comparison I made was the pricing. I don't expect Introversion to live off of donations, but I think they are pricing a whole bunch of people out of their game and in fact may end up with less money overall than if they offered it at a lower price point. The only reasoning behind the $30 price that I could find was to limit the alpha to more involved people willing to report bugs and work with the devs, but again that falls on deaf ears when thousands of people have bought the alpha and there is no limit that I can see to keep the number of people in the alpha to a manageable size.
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Finally, I really like the game so far. If the full product is something I think is worth the price and something I really enjoy, I will buy multiple copies to share with friends and family. I am the devs best friend where it counts - in the wallet. Just price it so millions of people can enjoy this game and build a huge fanbase for Introversion's future games instead of a few thousand people with more disposable income.