Continued Development

[jgtor73]

Totally hypothetically how is it in Introversion's interest to bother continuing developing the game? They have sold the majority of copy's already, and not that likely to reach substantially more sales after the main release. So why bother? They have got your money, you will have a hard time getting it back, just run off, continuing development takes time and costs money. If they run away with your money now, you've you little change of catching them. And next week they could be doing the same thing all over again with Architect X by Entroversion software.

Just my thoughts, don't know that these guys would do this or not, but there is nothing stopping them. Heck even if they don't intend to rip you off, they could get hit by a bus tomorrow, you've got little change of a refund and stuck with a 1/2 finished game.

[horia0310]

Same is with http://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/star-citizen/ well you decided to buy an alpha game not them.

[MAdMaN]

If they did run off with the money the bad press they'd receive would ensure they'd never work in the games industry again.

Besides, on the two occasions I've met Chris and/or Mark they've been genuinely nice people so I doubt they'd do that.

[Great Magical Hat]

It would make them unable to continue using the same name. This might have been not that much of a problem if they were a start-up nobody has heard about (though you would have to be careful that they can't just identify you by your name), but for a company that has ffour games out and a loyal following, that is a rather big deal.

Of course, it's also just that Chris just wants to make a good game and while Mark is the guy that is more about the money, he still would never do his.

[paktsardines]

For some people there's a fundamental pleasure in programming that money can't buy. I think of good programmers as craftsmen (some as master craftsmen). The satisfaction lies in taking something from nothing through to completion to the best of their ability. Rest assured that if the revenue stream was cut off tomorrow, development of Prison Architect would continue. The desire for payment is secondary to the need for creation and completion of the process.

[Jackdapantyrip]

If Chris did this would he start work on defcon 2? Personally I think they've just scratched the surface of prison architect sales.. depending on marketing.. Amazing to prove the theory of relativity wrong.. Information does travel faster then light.

[paktsardines]

Information does travel faster then light

... except it doesn't.

[jgtor73]

Personally I think they've just scratched the surface of prison architect sales.. depending on marketing.. Amazing to prove the theory of relativity wrong.. Information does travel faster then light.

Um, Wikipedia recons they have already made $3Mil in sales, and that "in the games industry, you make 75% of your total revenue for the product in the first 6 months"

[paktsardines]

in the games industry, you make 75% of your total revenue for the product in the first 6 months

While that's likely true for traditional games development, the path Prison Architect has taken is relatively novel. I think the answer is that nobody really knows how sales will fare after version 1.0 I do know there's a lot of people who think the current price is too steep for an alpha, but will gladly part with the cash once it's finished. In that sense, perhaps charging a high price for the alpha is a very wise move as you get a double-peak sales history.

[MAdMaN]

Um, Wikipedia recons they have already made $3Mil in sales

It's not just Wikipedia that thinks that.

[Check Six]

Still, "half-finished" or not, I'm having an absolute BALL with this sim/game, and have got my money's worth already (even though I bought a "physical pleasures" version of the sim/game).

The new graphics shown in another thread makes me really excited, a campaign mode, with advisors and new "toys" to play with.

Love it!

Steve